Camping in cold weather. Issues?

[travelingjw]

We are taking a trip to Bryce and Zion National Parks in early November. I am watching the overnight temperatures and they are below freezing. We are going to be connected to shore power so heat will be on. Do we need to be concerned about either water lines or tanks freezing. We have the bottom of the TT covered with the Polar Package black plastic (I think it might be polypro). In addition, any issues with the propane tanks. Thanks!

[ALJO]

You would have no issues with propane. Do you have a heating duct towards the underbelly, if so you don't have to worry even when you travel. If it is just a mild frost it takes a long time for a water mass to freeze, it also has to be constant during the day.

[spoon059]

How far below freezing will it get and for how long? If it just drops to 30 degrees for a couple hours overnight you should be fine doing nothing. If its gonna get a lot colder for a lot longer, run propane heat to keep the underbelly warm. If its gonna be bitter cold the entire time, don't use your water supply.

When we used to go winter camping (before toddlers) we would just bring bottles of water and not use our plumbing at all.

[travelingjw]

Thanks, great question about the heating duct. I will have to find out.

[travelingjw]

Thanks, that is great information. I will share that with my DW.

[NewBlackDak]

Your black/grey tanks will be fine even if not heated. You are constantly adding warm water(shower and sink in the gray and body temp in the black). There could possibly be an issue with city water freezing if you’re hooked up, but they make heated hoses for that. I live in Utah, and have been to both place in late October/November. It’s very do-able.


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[GrumpyDad]

That's a beautiful area in the winter, I visited there in February many years ago and it was very quiet. Everyone above looks to have answered your question well, so I'll just wish you a fun trip.

[blderman]

I have spent many nights dry camping in temps below 20 degrees and haven’t had any issues. I don’t even run my heat at night either.



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[Jagiven]

How cold? We have camped with overnight low's in the low 20's over night. With day time highs above freezing.

We do not have an enclosed underbelly and have no issues with the tanks. I do keep the cabinets that have piping in them ajar at night to ensure those areas a bit warmer, to keep the pipes from freezing.

We also tend to use an electric heater and only use the propane furnace in the morning to add a bit more heat.

[McGintys924]

We had a keystone TT with the "enclosed and heated underbelly" which I assure you is a total marketing gimmick for that brand prior to getting our Jayco. The LP furnace is the only thing putting any worthwhile heat down there, so when it's below freezing you really need to run the LP furnace exclusively. We found that if the temp was below 20 degrees the water lines would freeze in one night regardless of using the furnace; above 20 and using furnace we never had an issue. Tanks are more resilient due to the volume of water (fresh), and salinity of grey and black (salt water is recalcitrant to freezing).

If you are above freezing, we used an electric heater as it was more efficient and gave a warmer feel to the camper.

We did fill the fresh tank and then disconnect and drain that water hose for the entire winter.

Last resort would be to ask pump to suck up antifreeze and push to all outlets for the night if you knew it was going to be bitter (below 20 degrees) and then flush out in the AM. This only cost us 1.5 gall antifreeze and was easy to do.

As it is very exposed, be sure to leave your hot water heater on.

Good luck and have fun!

[wanderlust]

Originally Posted by blderman

I have spent many nights dry camping in temps below 20 degrees and haven’t had any issues. I don’t even run my heat at night either.

You must be talking Celsius.

[blderman]

Originally Posted by wanderlust

You must be talking Celsius.

Nope, just spent 12 nights elk hunting and it routinely got down to 17 degrees. Ran my furnace for 30 min in the morning and at night just to warm up otherwise it was off.


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[travelingjw]

Originally Posted by travelingjw

We are taking a trip to Bryce and Zion National Parks in early November. I am watching the overnight temperatures and they are below freezing. We are going to be connected to shore power so heat will be on. Do we need to be concerned about either water lines or tanks freezing. We have the bottom of the TT covered with the Polar Package black plastic (I think it might be polypro). In addition, any issues with the propane tanks. Thanks!

Thought I'd report, good for a few laughs.
1. If it gets below freezing, the water supply hose and filter will freeze. (Glad we has fresh water tank).
2. Be aware the any water in the sewer hose will freeze. Not a good time ro drain tanks. Thankfully I kicked it first to test it.
3. When you get educated and take off the hose at night it helps if you empty all the water.
4. The furnace out let is good for defrosting filters and regulators.

Thank again in for the help. The only problem we have is there appears to be a leak in the grey water system. Found water in bathroom cabinet, but no source. Then found water outside that stopped while grey tank was emptying. Maybe a leak under the floor from a fitting. As long as it just is a minor drip will fix when I get home. Zion and Bryce are amazing. FYI, if you are a dog lover stay at Kodachrome, some great hikes and still veery close to Bryce.

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[cekkk]

Our experience in overnighting in the mid to Upper twenties is the only problem we had was if we left the city water hose connected. The hose itself would freeze up but not the lines in the trailer.

[curver900]

20 degrees 20 hours till frozen.. 30 degrees 30 hours... and so on...

[mkallevant]

Having just spent a week in Wisconsin in the teens, lots of bad info in this thread.


Your lines can and will freeze.


Your gray/black water dump valves will freeze (unless you have custom heat tracing + enclosed bottom). The standard tank heaters are not enough.


I spent a few days at my sisters house and ran a trickle all night through both faucets (mid teens weather) and left the gray valve open all night. Worked fine, except I ran out of propane really quickly (13 gallons every 2-3 days with t-stat set at 72 (we have an infant), plus hot water heater).


When I drove from her house to my mom's (about 30 minutes) and spent a few hours there before setting up the drip method, the valves froze. So I had no way to drain my gray water.


Just don't want people getting the wrong idea after reading this and thinking everything will be fine, when it actually can get pretty bad. Luckily I was visiting a relative, but I can't imagine what I would have done if I were on the road.

[pconroy]

Whelp - as luck would have we just arrived a few hours ago from our winter camping adventure. High's in the low 30's and lows in the single digits - it was 5*F.


Winter camping in a Jayco that's not equipped for it can be done.


It's just a b*ttload of work.


FWIW - Moab, in Winter, is stunning.

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by pconroy

Winter camping in a Jayco that's not equipped for it can be done.

It's just a b*ttload of work.

FWIW - Moab, in Winter, is stunning.

Yes it is... I have gone Wheeling in Moab for New Years at least eight times in the last 15 years. It is beautiful in a totally different way than the city slickers who come in the summer will ever see....

It used to be an annual event for us to run the Kane Creek trail on New Years day... Lots of fun... some years are darn cold.

All before we got the Seneca...

[pconroy]

Originally Posted by SloPoke

Yes it is... I have gone Wheeling in Moab for New Years at least eight times in the last 15 years. It is beautiful in a totally different way than the city slickers who come in the summer will ever see....

Agreed!


Probably because of Winter and Covid - the campgrounds were all empty or about 25% capacity.


We had that spot in the picture all to ourselves. That was off UT-128.



Our last day, we tried Arches but got turned around as they wanted 4WD or chains. We'll hit Arches again in the Spring.

[mkallevant]

Another thing to add is that propane regulators tend to freeze and leak with extended time in low temps.


Mine did on my last day of a week in the teens temperature. I could hear the hiss of propane at the regulator and the smell.


We left that day heading south and the leak (hiss and smell) disappeared when we got to somewhere with above freezing temps.