It was -9 degrees at 3am this morning in west Michigan, I don't even want to know the wind chill.
When I let my dog outside the air was colder than my freezer. Put your hand in your 0 degree freezer, it was colder than that.
It is just toooo freaking cold.

Lonney

I hope this is the end of the cold season too,
I 'm tired of moving the tomato and pepper plants from the basement to the porch... 

NWescapee wrote:

 Weather has been way too variable here in Dallas, now we're remembering why we were so glad to move away 12 years ago, we've had freezing temps, temps in the 80's, strong winds and now the real fun is beginning with the possibility of freezing rain tomorrow and temps dipping down into the 20's.

So not looking forward to this, not sure we've ever had temps that low in the this rig and we were really hoping that as full timer's we could avoid the winter mess.

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In the freezing rain department:  I don’t know if you have slide toppers, but if you or others do, and you can, when freezing rain comes try to pull in the slides before the frozen stuff starts.  Freezing rain can be worse than snow if you have to pull in the slides before it melts.  Also water (frozen rain) is heavier than snow.  While it won’t hurt anything from the weight just sitting there, pulling in a slide with ice on top of the topper can be “interesting.”  Again, Jack’s line: “Tell me how I know this.”

Temps in the 20’s should be no big deal in any rig these days, IMO.  Never been for us FWIW and Mike does it all the time. (Yep, welcome back.)

Bill

Three or so years ago the east coast where we live was in drought and the west was all rain  Now it just swapped – and it will swap back.  Four or so years ago the east had a very warm winter.  We had zero snow or ice.  Three weeks ago we had 8” of snow.  It changes and will change back again like it always has.

NWescapee wrote:

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So not looking forward to this, not sure we've ever had temps that low in the this rig and we were really hoping that as full timer's we could avoid the winter mess.

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Ruth,

We've had temps down to 8 degrees in our Mobile Suites and have not had any problems.  We are using both electric heaters and the fireplace while we are up, and then I switch to the furnaces when I go to bed.  Even down in low temperatures, I've not seen the underbelly freeze up.  In fact, I've not seen it below 40 degrees there.  The biggest issue you might have is to have a hose from the hydrant freeze up.  Put water in your fresh water tank and then shut off the hydrant and drain the hose.  Then operate off of the fresh water pump instead of outside water.

This year, I bought one of those Pirit heated hoses and put some split foam insulation around the hose.  Even down to 8 degrees, the hose has not frozen.  The hydrant might would have if I didn't have a box over the underground faucets and kept a 110V trouble light in it to keep it warm inside.

Now, Colorado next year will likely be more of a challenge for us.

Terry

NWescapee wrote:

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Watching the 10 PM news here locally in DFW. The lowest temps of the entire winter season?? Really??? OK, I know we are where we needed to be due to family circumstances, but I really, really didn't ever envision these temps as a FT'er, in fact, this is exactly what we wanted to avoid. Guess it's time to set the furnance and crawl under a pile of covers and pray for better weather later this week.

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 I know its kinda late in telling you this, but a heated mattress pad or electric blanket makes everything warmer in the bedroom.  Give it a day or two and it shall be warm again.

Lucky Mike wrote:

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Life is a box of chocolates............


for some reason my order got screwed up again.....mine is full of fudgicle's ...(but its all sweet!)

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 I prefer the frozen pudding pops, but by August all we'll talk about is how hot it is...  

Alie and Jims Carrilite wrote:

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 I know its kinda late in telling you this, but a heated mattress pad or electric blanket makes everything warmer in the bedroom.  Give it a day or two and it shall be warm again.

 

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Oh yea.  The electric mattress pad makes a huge difference. Much better, in our opinion, than a electric blanket. Especially when boondocking it takes very little power, less than the LP furnace actually, and can allow you to lower the furnace temp a bit at night if you like. We wouldn’t be without one.

Terry and Jo wrote:

 

More training for Colorado.  Another front is supposed to come through this coming weekend, but I don't think it will get quite as cold.  Also, I think I need to start researching for cold weather gear for next winter.

Terry

 

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Mountaindale RV @ 6,000 feet in the winter.  Ya think?  It will be a very pretty place to live and a bit nippy me thinks.

OK, I'm ready for Lucky Mike's bug out pack!!! Last night was just too cold, when Tazzy Kat finds her way under the covers (3 times in the 5 years she's been part of our family) you know it's darn chilly. She surprised me this afternoon, wanted to go for a walk, I attached the leash and had to let go as she went running across the ice or I would have ended up in a very undignified position on my bum   Turns out that while she still doesn't like the cold, all the birds our bird feeders were attracting were too much for her to resist, hence the afternoon walk!!

Now we're starting to plan our "bug out" to move first a little north to see our kids/grandkids in OKC and then back to the warmth of California.  Still not sure of the utlimate date / route, will depend on when we feel "ok" about leaving Dale's Dad alone, but at least there is light at the end of the tunnel and the knowledge that we survived one really hard freeze with more ice than we ever anticipated as FT'ers and hoping this was the last really, really cold we're destined to face as FT'ers.

Life brings the unexpected and yes, we can deal with it, but really hoping we won't have to deal with this kind of winter again any time soon.