Surviving winter

[Lakota Wolf]

Quick notes for surviving a winter blast while Rving. Foam tube wrap and heat tape on the water line, (if connected to city water). Full skirting around the RV, and a fiberglass insulation piece taped or wired to the bottom and sides of the holding tanks. If you have an exterior drain valve, wrap it also.With windows, have that silver reflective cover that's used to keep the sun off your dash of a car, but face the silver inwards. Use small towels also along the bottom of the windows to catch the condensation. On tiled or wood floors, have several throw rugs to help insulate the floor and to retain the heat. And Never ever use your stove or oven to heat the inside. Poisonous gasses will accumilate because they are not vented heat sources. Use a small electric fan to circulate the air inside to distribute the heat. And finally use a heavy blanket to cover the door on the inside.

[Lakota Wolf]

Thats an important tip Rich,,, Bottled water,, thats a MUST have.. and in extreme cold conditions,, Horse bathing is an alternate means of bathing, saves on water and waste water. And Electric heaters are a plus for back up.. Just Never use a kerosene heater inside an RV. Winter camping is actually fun,,, Just prepare a little more, taking into consideration the effects of the cold.

[Rich Thomas]

I have dry camped in the snow twice with the palace. 

When I say dry camp I mean just that. We camped at a State Park as close to facilities as possible and used bottled water no holding tank use. It was easier than you might think but then again I came from tenting to motor home so I'm used to not having all the amenities. Winter camping is fun and I recommend it to anyone who likes winter activity. Use bottled water for drinking and cooking, paper plates and cups along with plastic cutlery will make clean up much easier. Take a back up heat source like an electric heater. My thermostat went bad on our first cold weather camp but we had an electric heater that worked well enough that we didn't cut short our trip. Have fun!

 

[Lakota Wolf]

Anther tip,,,, Put a make shift Y pipe on the genset exhaust and run a flex pipe (from local auto parts store) in the direction of the carb,, keeps it warm and the fuel line wont freeze up,

[Lakota Wolf]

A known secret to keep your holding tanks from freezing,,,, is adding 2 bottles of Rubbing alchohol, and not filling over Half full, If you can keep the WIND off of delicate areas, i.e. water lines, waste pipe. Then roughing it isnt to bad,,,, Not the greatest, but surviverable. I have had to hunker down when caught in a sudden storm and had to hunker down for a few days till the storms passed and the roadways were cleared. Just south of Albuquerque New Mexico I was hunkered down for 6 days and the snow buried everything and the ice was bad on the roads.