If things are set up as you described no need to let anything drip.

 

I also have the entire hose bib wrapped and heated, if you have any possible freeze points fill your fresh water tank, disconnect your hose, and run off your tank for the night......

-- Edited by GENECOP on Saturday 7th of December 2013 01:15:07 PM

Heated hose is wrapped in a pipe insulation that lowe's salesman said was the best they sold.

Horror story I read about on another forum once. They were to be gone overnight, temps were low, so the drip method was used. Problem was, the stinky slinky froze up. See what is coming? Yep, they returned to a ruined camper. Floor was covered in an ich of ice, and when melted, the floor was destroyed. Total wreck.
I think the stinky slinky ridges give ice a place to grow, like anchor ice in the nrthern rivers. Attached to the bottom and everything adds from that point.
If faced with cold, fill the fresh tank, disconnect the outside shower, stuff the hole with insulation, put the supply water hose in the storage bay and hope for the best. Hopefully the campground has its water hose bibs protected.

Most RV Furnace systems will use some of the utility area in the basement as the return plenum.  This puts some heat into the basement area by default and, as Mike indicated, some that have enclosed fresh, gray and black water tanks have smaller ducts from the furnace piped into their under belly area.  So if you don’t run the furnace they will not get any heat to speak of.  Naturally the hot water heater takes care of itself.  But what doesn’t is the little outside “shower” head some RV's provide for cleaning your hands.  Although it should drain, some don’t in the water value manifold and you can get a freeze up in the hot and cold water values for this little fixture.  Depending on the physical arrangement, (space) an old fashion 60 - 100 watt light bulb (a real bulb, not a CFL) in this area will usually produce enough heat to keep water from freezing.  A little heat goes a long way.

One additional comment – If you’re staying put for sometime then putting some kind of skirting around the bottom of the trailer to keep the wind from blowing under the rig and what heat there is “in” will go a long way to keeping the tanks above freezing.

-- Edited by Bill and Linda on Sunday 8th of December 2013 04:36:36 PM

I prefer using a real heater instead of a 100 watt bulb, it doesn't burn out.   This one is 200 watts - http://www.amazon.com/Lasko-100-MyHeat-Personal-Ceramic/dp/B003XDTWN2.

Plug it into a temperature controlled outlet like this one, http://www.amazon.com/Farm-Innovators-TC-3-Thermostatically-Controlled/dp/B0006U2HD2/ref=pd_sim_lg_1, it turns on when it gets to 35 degrees and off when at 45.  Add a wireless thermometer and you know it is working.

I met someone who used four 200 watt heaters and outlets spread across his RV basement, on a 15AMP circuit you could use up to 7.  

Grams wrote:
Is there anything out there like an alarm that sounds when the inside temperature drops below a certain temp?

---

Usually my wife announces this event - high or low temp.  Subtle and very kind, but extremely reliable.  Came with the package.

Bill