Cold weather travel

[Paul L]

I have a question for those of you who are used to traveling in cold climates. We are taking our 5.0 from Minnesota to sunny Florida at the end of February. Our plan is to not use the water systems in the trailer until we are far enough south to de-winterize. I am wondering about all of the liquids that we normally carry in our trailer. This includes things like water jugs, sunscreen, olive oil, shampoo, canned goods, etc. Will these items freeze if we’re driving down the road in below 30° temps? We will be using the furnace at night to keep things cozy. Any suggestions?

[cpaharley2008]

You will probably hit warmer weather the first day, so I think you should be fine.....

[HABBERDABBER]

Many things don't care if they're frozen, and some explode with thorough freezing. Olive oil..sun screen...doesn't matter. Soda pop? I've had them explode. Drinking water won't matter; just leave 10% empty space for the ice to expand. I've stayed at a friends, in sub-zero temps on the way to FL and brought the fragile items inside. Marked boxes with the separated items. Anything with a lot of water is problematic. Canned beer freezes well, and I use frozen cans of beer in a cooler to extend ice life. The beer is carbonated and fine after thawing.
You could put cold fragile items in a "cooler" for protection to keep them from freezing. And once you get South past Illinois, you're probably in the clear.

[NEWYORKHILLBILLY]

I don't think you have to worry. you have the heat on the first night you stop. if you concerned get a remote thermometer. now if it happens to be 20 below that could change. but think you be ok to 5 and Above . now the salt on the frame is another story. That why sits in NY all winter.

[rubicon327]

This might be an often overlooked trick but a solution could be to run your propane furnace while traveling when it is really cold. We have done it on occasion. I'm sure this will spark debate similar to traveling with fridge on propane but in the early days Reace actually recommended it. I know for certain the older Atwood 8012-II furnace will work while underway, but someone will need to test if the newer Atwood AFSAD12 and Dometic DFSAD12 can operate while moving. Theoretically they should be fine with forced combustion air, but I know they have a hard enough time working properly while still.

[Ian and Sue]

Originally Posted by Paul L

I have a question for those of you who are used to traveling in cold climates. We are taking our 5.0 from Minnesota to sunny Florida at the end of February. Our plan is to not use the water systems in the trailer until we are far enough south to de-winterize. I am wondering about all of the liquids that we normally carry in our trailer. This includes things like water jugs, sunscreen, olive oil, shampoo, canned goods, etc. Will these items freeze if we’re driving down the road in below 30° temps? We will be using the furnace at night to keep things cozy. Any suggestions?

You should be just fine. Run the heat while packing to get it good and toasty inside, bring the jugs, sunscreen, etc out warm. Leave the heat on till you are ready to leave. Things won't freeze that quickly anyway and most of them won't freeze till a much lower temp anyway. I assume you are staying in the camper your first few nights anyway so just run the furnace...it will be fine...have fun!! Maybe dump a bit of potable antifreeze in the toilet to keep the black tank from freezing a cup or so should be plenty.

[Perry Butler]

We leave southern Minnesota around January 15 every winter. The night before we leave the furnace is turned on to around 50F. The next morning we pack our fridge and pantry with our food items and then take off. The trailer is winterized, but we pee using RV antifreeze to dump. Our stops at Kansas City, and Mead St Park, KS we’re still winterized and usually don’t put water in until north western Texas or Arizona.

Food for thought,

Perry

Writing in Cochise National Monument, 22F and one bar on Terry’s Samsung Flip. My new iPhone 14 is worthless.

[Jill]

We come to the desert every year and it has never been as cold as it has this year. Day time temps are fine but it has dropped to the low 20s many nights. We have had problems with our furnace which has resulted in inside temps as low as mid 40s and still no problems with frozen pipes. Very grateful for that!! Now we have a backup electric and a backup propane heater so hopefully won’t see temps that low inside again!

[cpaharley2008]

Be careful with the backup propane heater inside......

[SageRpod]

Originally Posted by Paul L

I am wondering about all of the liquids that we normally carry in our trailer. This includes things like water jugs, sunscreen, olive oil, shampoo, canned goods, etc. Will these items freeze if we’re driving down the road in below 30° temps? We will be using the furnace at night to keep things cozy. Any suggestions?

We picked up our 5.0 in January and spent 4 days in sub freezing temps on our way back to New Mexico. We camped in parking lots most of the time so the heater would run through the night. During the day while traveling, the trailer got cold, but never cold enough to freeze anything solid so you should be okay. The caveat is we have a composting toilet so we didn't need to have our water lines charged.

We are also 4 season campers and even with our Rpod, which isn't even close to being a four season trailer, we never ran in to any issues camping in temps around 20 degrees but we basically dry camp in situations like that.

[Jill]

Originally Posted by cpaharley2008

Be careful with the backup propane heater inside......

We got a Mr Heater Little Buddy which is rated for indoor use. One won't be sufficient to heat our trailer but if it can take it to 60 inside in the dinette area we will work with that. And by the time we are camping without hookups it won't be so cold. I hope!!

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by Jill

We got a Mr Heater Little Buddy which is rated for indoor use. One won't be sufficient to heat our trailer but if it can take it to 60 inside in the dinette area we will work with that. And by the time we are camping without hookups it won't be so cold. I hope!!

Within the first year of ownership of our 2018 5.0 we purchased a Mr Buddy to heat the trailer up quickly. We tried using it all night one time on low, 4,500 btu’s (where the Little Buddy goes) and within an hour our bed area was over 80 F while it was in the low 40’s outside.

We then purchased a Martin Catalytic Heater because it could go down to 1300 btu’s and that could easily keep our entire 5.0 in the 60’s when in the 40’s outside.

Yes, we cracked the passenger side dinette window 1/4-1/2” and the ceiling vent 1/4-1/2” to give plenty of ventilation. We also have a portable CO detector that we keep at head level when sleeping. It’s never gone off, but went off a couple of times cooking on the stove, on a summer morning when all the windows were closed

Enjoy,

Perry

My iPad sucks for installing a link. The Martin Portable heater link is below.
https://www.amazon.com/Portable-Cata...2-63e904010ad0

[alanmalk]

I understand your plan is not to use water until you hit warm climates. But you might consider dumping some RV antifreeze down the grey tank and black tank - enough to run into the dump pipes. The tanks themselves should be fine but the dump valve and associated pipes will freeze first should there be any liquid remaining from a previous trip.

[Ryanb-72]

Seems like the continuous vibration from traveling down the road would help prevent freezing. Similar to dripping your faucet at night.

[alanmalk]

Originally Posted by Ryanb-72

Seems like the continuous vibration from traveling down the road would help prevent freezing.


Without doing any research into the subject -- I believe there is a phenomena called "super cooled" where the water can be below the freezing point due to movement. But the instant it stops moving it becomes a solid. And you just might stop for gas...


Similar to dripping your faucet at night.


Actually not similar at all. Water dripping at night (and we do a lot of it here in Colorado) is bringing in warmth from the city pipes buried in the warm(er) ground. Or on the coldest nights, directly from our hot water heater.

See thoughts inserted above.

[Ryanb-72]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

See thoughts inserted above.

That is certainly possible but I doubt instantaneous freezing would occur.

The water dripping from my faucet is coming from a storage tank outside in the cold freezing weather then up through the cold freezing attic before reaching the faucet.

[TahoeJoe]

Whenever I'm traveling in super cold weather, I like to turn on the furnace every time I make a pit stop, letting it run while we are stopped and then turning it off again before continuing on...just having that run for a little bit every once in a while seems to keep the freezing at bay.

[HABBERDABBER]

I play with this effect by leaving a filtered water bottle outside in an unheated, enclosed back porch in below freezing weather. The water can remain liquid, until YOU SHAKE the bottle. Then it freezes in a wave of ice going thru the bottle. Cheap, interesting amusement for me. So it is MOTION that starts the freezing of the liquid.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6A2_LOUUCM

[cpaharley2008]

Very interesting, thanks for sharing....

[Jake930]

Originally Posted by NEWYORKHILLBILLY

now the salt on the frame is another story. That why sits in NY all winter.

Mine too. Salt can do a fair amount of damage under there. Mine don’t come out of hibernation until at least the end of April, after a few spring rains to clean of the roads. Neither does my E-bike. Rear hub motors and salt don’t mix.
As far as things freezing, I wouldn’t worry. You’ll be in warmer weather in a day or two. Unless of course you have to drive through 20 below weather. In that case I’d be in by my wood stove anyways , if it was me.