Camping in overnight lower 20F Temps

[George n Mary]

My question is only for those of you without tank heating pads or insulated tanks!

Camping in a situation where you do not have any hookups and overnight temperatures in the twenties and day time temps 40F or above. How low have you camped? We have camped in overnight temps of 27-28 degrees fahrenheit without issue but wonder how much lower can be safe. My concern is not of the tanks freezing overnight but of the smaller vessel areas such as the fresh water elbow/valve and the dump valve area.

I have thought of buying a couple small animal heating pads to secure over these areas only when the temperature is expected to fall into the lower twenties. Then power these with a portable power station so as not to draw the power from the trailer. With this arrangement I might even add an electric timer so that the heating pads wouldn’t come on till the expected low temps are due to occur.

Again this is not for a winter camping scenario, only for the rare occasions when camped in an area with unexpected low temperatures.

[Viajante]

I've experienced the 20 degree overnight scenario you pose. The temp was back up above freezing the next day. I do not have heater pads for the tanks.

The only problem I had was that I did not disconnect the city water supply hose. The water in the hose froze and the filter attached at the pedestal froze and then split while thawing.

No damage to the supply hose connection to the trailer or the tank valves. I do not know if the valves and elbows froze because I did not try them. If they did there was no damage.

Since that instance I have camped into the high teens overnight without a problem but I do disconnect the supply hose and drain the filter.

[TTMartin]

Originally Posted by George n Mary

My question is only for those of you without tank heating pads or insulated tanks!

Camping in a situation where you do not have any hookups and overnight temperatures in the twenties and day time temps 40F or above. How low have you camped? We have camped in overnight temps of 27-28 degrees fahrenheit without issue but wonder how much lower can be safe. My concern is not of the tanks freezing overnight but of the smaller vessel areas such as the fresh water elbow/valve and the dump valve area.

I have thought of buying a couple small animal heating pads to secure over these areas only when the temperature is expected to fall into the lower twenties. Then power these with a portable power station so as not to draw the power from the trailer. With this arrangement I might even add an electric timer so that the heating pads wouldn’t come on till the expected low temps are due to occur.

Again this is not for a winter camping scenario, only for the rare occasions when camped in an area with unexpected low temperatures.

The heat pads are 12 volt. If you have the available power to run animal heat pads on the dump valve, you might as well just turn on the grey water tank heater. The other thing I would do is keep the thermostat on your propane furnace set as high as you can comfortably sleep.

[Don Flamenco]

I am in this very scenario right now! I'm above 1,000 foot elevation in Oregon, which is experiencing temperatures as low as 6 degrees with lots of snow, freezing rain and ice. My black & grey tanks are nearly frozen (I don't have tank heating pads) though I did manage to dump a gallon of rv antifreeze into each right before the temps plummeted.

To keep the dump valves & connected pipes from completely freezing, I took a Frost King 12' Water Pipe Heat Cable and wrapped it around the black & grey pipes and over and around the dump valves. The heat cable is 120v which I plug in at the pedestal.

I've had it that way for almost a week and it appears to be working well so far.