Cold weather camping - Escape Trailer Owners Community
Journey with Confidence RV GPS App RV Trip Planner RV LIFE Campground Reviews RV Maintenance Take a Speed Test Free 7 Day Trial ×

Go Back   Escape Trailer Owners Community > Escape Tech > Escape Systems | Water, Waste, Charging & Propane
Click Here to Login
Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
 
Old 09-11-2014, 02:04 PM   #1
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Southwick, Massachusetts
Trailer: None, sold my 2014 5.0TA
Posts: 7,124
Cold weather camping

Unexpected weather brings up this question.

Weather in the 20's at night, 40-50 during the day. Have underside foam, no heat pads, extra insulation, and thermal windows. No city water, just the holding tank.

Keeping the inside of the trailer in the 60's at what point do I need to be concerned with draining the on board water?

If needed the best I can come up with for in the campground prep is drain the fresh tank, open the faucets and let gravity do it's thing, dump the tanks. Any other ideas?
__________________
Happy Motoring
Bob
padlin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 02:34 PM   #2
Senior Member
 
alanmalk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Arvada, Colorado
Trailer: 2015 E'21 - 'Velocity'. Tow: Toyota Tacoma V6, 4X4, manual.
Posts: 1,682
Quote:
Originally Posted by padlin View Post
Unexpected weather brings up this question.

Weather in the 20's at night, 40-50 during the day. ... dump the tanks. Any other ideas?
My plan - as yet unproven - is to add a bit of RV antifreeze to the Gray and Black holding tanks. I figure that would prevent a solid freeze up, and that frozen slush, should it get really cold, isn't a problem.

--
Alan
alanmalk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 02:35 PM   #3
Senior Member
 
cpaharley2008's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Central, Pennsylvania
Trailer: Escape#5 2022 E19
Posts: 26,268
You will be fine as long as it gets above freezing during the day and you keep heat on and do as Alan says. All your lines are inside and the tanks are foamed over. Your back up plan of action is a good to use if you decide to turn off your heat until you get home and drop some antifreeze in the p traps.
__________________
Jim
Sometime life gets in the way of living.......
cpaharley2008 is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 02:38 PM   #4
Senior Member
 
alanmalk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Arvada, Colorado
Trailer: 2015 E'21 - 'Velocity'. Tow: Toyota Tacoma V6, 4X4, manual.
Posts: 1,682
And on a lighter note - a little Jack Daniels to the fresh water tank. Just drink the gray water to recover your investment.
alanmalk is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 03:23 PM   #5
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Southwick, Massachusetts
Trailer: None, sold my 2014 5.0TA
Posts: 7,124
Tough guys in Colorado.
__________________
Happy Motoring
Bob
padlin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 03:29 PM   #6
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Trailer: 2014 17b/ 2012 Chevy Colorado
Posts: 736
When we had the Chinook in the winter we used to add some pink stuff to the black and gray tanks before using again on the theory it would remain in the dump valve mechanism. Never had worse than slushies even at 0 degrees C. With your set up i think that is the only vulnerable area on the waste side of your rig.
yardsale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-11-2014, 05:04 PM   #7
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Southwick, Massachusetts
Trailer: None, sold my 2014 5.0TA
Posts: 7,124
Thanks, I've got a gallon here, will add some to the close to empty tanks. Can't hurt.
__________________
Happy Motoring
Bob
padlin is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2014, 12:32 PM   #8
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Burlington, Vermont
Trailer: 2014 17b/ 2012 Chevy Colorado
Posts: 736
reflector panels for flat solar panel

So some folks are using reflector panels to increase the efficiency of vertical panels on houses. Why wouldn't that work for the horizontally mounted (Escape wouldn't mount the adapters to elevate our 160w panel). You could position the panel basically over the flat panel tilted down towards it (I'll do the math eventually). Would seem to be an improvement in angle from what we will get in the PNW this winter.

Thoughts?
yardsale is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2014, 04:20 PM   #9
Senior Member
 
alanmalk's Avatar
 
Join Date: Apr 2014
Location: Arvada, Colorado
Trailer: 2015 E'21 - 'Velocity'. Tow: Toyota Tacoma V6, 4X4, manual.
Posts: 1,682
Quote:
Originally Posted by yardsale View Post
Would seem to be an improvement in angle from what we will get in the PNW this winter.

Thoughts?
I just started a project where I will be measuring the output of a couple of homemade solar panels. The first (and only completed) test today was measuring the output based on angle.

Output in this case is short-circuit amperage. That's not "power" but I only had a few minutes and amperage is easy to measure. The results: Any angle over horizontal will give a significant increase. The measurements were made at 10am in Denver. Sun angle is rather low and I will have to look it up if I want to be more precise*. With the panel pointed directly at the sun I measured an increase of almost 100% over horizontal. From there, up to 90 degrees vertical, the output improvement was 80% or better. Conclusion: Get that horizontal panel up 30 degrees if at all possible this time of year. Side conclusion: Reflection from the table seemed to add 10% when the panel was vertical. Perhaps another test in the future will be to see how much is gained from having white paper in front of the panel vs. grass.

*This is a hobby project to keep me occupied while waiting for our '21. So precision may not be high up on my priority list.

--
Alan
alanmalk is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are Off
Pingbacks are Off
Refbacks are Off




» Featured Campgrounds

Reviews provided by

Disclaimer:

This website is not affiliated with or endorsed by Escape Trailer Industries or any of its affiliates. This is an independent, unofficial site.


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 05:36 AM.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.8 Beta 4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright 2023 Social Knowledge, LLC All Rights Reserved.