Living in cold climates in an RV? - RV-Dreams Community Forum

davidh · RV-Dreams Family Member

Living in cold climates in an RV?

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

Not a problem but things are very different. I spent 3 very comfortable months in the Colorado mountains between 0 and minus 20 last winter.

Here's the long writeup I posted over on iRV2.com.

Basically--
You'll need a rig with double windows and good insulation. Boondocking is going to be challenging but in a campground w/ winterized utilities it is no problem. Easiest approach for plumbing is to not connect, just fill/dump as needed (for me alone that's about once/week). I've seen all sort of heated line setups but what a hassle. The connections are right there just connect as needed. Depending on your basement situation you might need to take extra insulation steps and add supplemental heating down there to protect plumbing.You'll want to monitor the basement temps with a remote thermo. My LPG refer had no problem at all. Practice blowing out and winterizing your plumbing in case of heating failure as you'll need to clear them fast to prevent freeze damage. Be very careful about ill-thought out throwing of heat cubes around due to potentially increasing a fire hazard. Practioce and be ever aware is all it takes.

It's quite an experience and really turned out to be no trouble at all and the winter scenery can be spectacular!

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

We've stayed in below freezing conditions many times now, once to -14. The biggest down side is you will really go through propane. No matter how well made an RV is, it's nowhere near as well insulated as a house.

How you handle really cold weather has a great deal to do with how your RV is made. If it has insulated and heated holding tanks you can get by with less protection than if it was built for warm weather recreation.

In below freezing conditions, with heated tanks, it's easiest to fill your water tank and work off internal supply and then dump your holding tanks and then repeat the process. It's the exposed hoses that are most prone to freezing.

When traveling, there's no need to worry about freezing tanks.

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

Luvglass wrote:
When traveling, there's no need to worry about freezing tanks.

Actually, it will depend on how cold it is while travelling and how far you are going. I thought I was prepared for cold rolling and ran into a surprise while travelling in single digits over a period of several days. See long post above.

Luvglass · RV-Dreams Family Member

You're probably right, but the only long traveling I see myself doing when I'm in single digits - is heading SOUTH.

Which is what we're planning on doing just as soon as we finish this family visit in Milwaukee. After a summer in Alaska with 50-60 degree temps the entire time, we are definitely ready for some shorts and sandals weather.

retiredsailor · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jeff,

That was excellent and very informative. I never plan on being
in the cold but really just wanted to say it gave me a lot to
think about whether or not I go into a really cold environment. It's people like you that save people like me a lot of mess ups.
I would rather learn from those like you than learn it on my own.

Thanks,

RVDude · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to H&L for having a decent place for all of us to learn and share ideas!

retiredsailor · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jeff,

I couldn't agree more. There are bigger RV forums out there but I do not believe you will find any more knowledgeable people than right here and what's even better here is that everyone is extremely nice and no moderator is needed. That by itself should say enough about the people on this forum.

Ann and Steve · RV-Dreams Family Member

An excellent thread but I need more. Starting in 2009, the wife and will start full-timing. But I'm not retired and will move from job to job (my profession gives me that flexibility). I won't be able to use the thermometer to tell me when it's time to relocate to warmer climes. My rig will will be double-insulated, including its bottom, with thermopane windows and heated tanks. The tanks, I presume but don't really know, are electrically heated. This removes cold weather boondocking from my list of options. How does extreme cold affect propane tanks and gas delivery systems? How much snow weight can the rubber roof take? Do I need to worry about the rig's tires? Can the slide awnings take snow? Without a ladder (no room to carry it), how do I remove snow accumulation? (One job opportunity is for a full year in Buffalo.) Keep those cards and letters a'comin'.

Judy · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hi Ann & Steve, I know for a fact Buffalo, N.Y. is one of the coldest spots in the U.S. excluding Internationl Falls, Mn. We lived about and hrs drive from there in Bradford, Pa. We got those wonderful lake effect blizzards and it was shear misery! If you like zero below temps for wks on end you can have it there! You can have that part of the country so be prepared.
southwestjudy

gjmiller138 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Ok very interesting and informative information. Great site. Im ready to give my house back to the mortgage company, upside down and too much work. I just purchased a 1989 American Cobra, very clean, roomy and thick carpet. I wont be able to get out of Colorado before the snow falls so I would have to winter it out in the Colorado western slopes near parachute. Ive researched the hoses, water tanks and insulating the windows. Will myself, dog and 2 cats freeze into ice cubes. Its can get below zero for a couple weeks a year. Hope its ok I ask this question in this section.

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Gail,

Just as an FYI, it is usually better to start a new thread, rather than "revive" an old one. Someone reading today may not notice the dates on the different post and think that everything in the post is still relevant. It's not so much of a problem here, but in others where a lot of information is given about products, the information can be out of date, but folks still think it is.

As for wintering in Colorado, I'm not too familiar with Parachute, so I don't know what the elevation is there. We wintered over on the Front Range in an RV park between Colorado Springs and Canon City. In our case, we have a DRV Suites Mobile Suites that is built for full timers and has excellent insulating properties. However, even though my thermometer placed in the underbelly never got below 38 degrees, we still had one water line freeze up. That one was the hot water line from the water manifold going to the kitchen sink. That one is the furthest from the source of heat in the underbelly.

You may need to "skirt" your RV in order to help prevent freezing up in the underbelly. As for the interior of your RV, that will depend on your RV's insulation and structure. Now, that being said, I've known hardy folks to winter over in Colorado in tents. You may need to go to Walmart (or wherever) and buy an additional electric heater. Our Mobile Suites is 38-feet long, so we've purchased one each for our bedroom (a small heater) and another in the living room. With those and the fireplace, we've done well in keeping ourselves comfortable in temperatures between -6 degrees and 115 degrees.

If you are using your gas furnace, you might look into leasing a larger LPG tank so you don't have to keep taking our LPG cylinders and getting them refilled. Some of the LPG suppliers have 100 pound cylinders and 120 gallon tanks for that purpose. Now, if you are in an RV park and they don't allow that, you'll have to continue with the smaller cylinders. With your Cobra, you may have a built in tank, so then you'd have to see if they would come to you to fill it. Otherwise, if they won't your skirting (if you did that) would have to be easily removed and replaced after driving your Cobra to get the tank filled.

Terry