Cold weather camping

[gbb]

We are camping next week at Hungry Mother State Park, Va. The low Wednesday night is supposed to be 27 to 25 degrees. High Wednesday and Thursday is supposed to be in low 50's. We will have power and we carry a small electric heater that keeps the camper warm. We have camped before at 29 to 30 with no problems but forecast of 25 has us concerned.
We normally winterize by draining and blowing out the lines. We could do that before we leave and not use any water in the camper Wednesday night, but we don't want to put any anti-freeze in and have to flush it out while we are camping before we could use water again.
We would appreciate any advice the cold weather campers on the forum have for camping in mid 20's?

[HABBERDABBER]

Blow your lines out very well and use "canned" water for your needs. That works, except for showering, and a solar shower bag with stove heated water can get you by there. Pay particular attention to your inside toilet flush valve for water removal. The PEX plumbing tubing is extremely durable, but other dinky plastic filters and valves are not.

In part, it's not how cold it may get, but how long will it be cold. With heat inside, you'll likely be OK. Keep cabinet doors open to get some heat to plumbing lines.

[rubicon327]

Keep your water system active and enjoy yourself. With the trailer heated you’ll be just fine. Especially with daytime temps well above freezing. Worst case the pickup line from the freshwater tank might freeze and then thaw in the morning. Had that happen once. You’d need it much colder for much longer to have any real problems.

[salmo7000]

I spent 7 days and nights camped in my 19 with lows down to 20 at night with highs in the 50s during the day. I was boondocked and ran my furnace all night, which kept the inside of the trailer in the low 60s. I had 0 problems. You’ll be fine as long as you keep the inside warm.

[alanmalk]

Two tricks to keep the dump valves from freezing:
1. Add a gallon of RV antifreeze to empty tanks before starting out, so the antifreeze settles in the valve area.
2. Wrap the valves area with rags or old blankets to keep some heat in.


Worked for us in upper teens (F) at night.

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

Two tricks to keep the dump valves from freezing:
1. Add a gallon of RV antifreeze to empty tanks before starting out, so the antifreeze settles in the valve area.
2. Wrap the valves area with rags or old blankets to keep some heat in.


Worked for us in upper teens (F) at night.

Our 21C has heat pads on the grey and black tanks. How much juice do those take if you run them all night? Need shore power to keep batteries up?

[Perry Butler]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

Two tricks to keep the dump valves from freezing:
1. Add a gallon of RV antifreeze to empty tanks before starting out, so the antifreeze settles in the valve area.

Worked for us in upper teens (F) at night.

Always add a gallon to the grey and black tanks after dumping when camping in cold weather. We camp to 20F with water in the tanks if the daytime temps get over 35, but drain the grey tank if it's colder than 20F for two or more days. With a gallon of antifreeze in the black tank, and the black tank being inside the camper we've gone as low as 0F with no problems.

Originally Posted by MrLynn

Our 21C has heat pads on the grey and black tanks. How much juice do those take if you run them all night? Need shore power to keep batteries up?

We have ETI tank heaters and have never used them, in spite of our cold weather camping. They were purchased for an emergency that hasn't happened yet.

Enjoy,

Perry

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by MrLynn

Our 21C has heat pads on the grey and black tanks. How much juice do those take if you run them all night? Need shore power to keep batteries up?

The tank heaters are on your fresh and gray tanks that are both below the floor. They are not as useful as one might think. If it is cold enough to need them the dump valve piping on black/gray are unprotected and will still freeze. The heat pads are DC but take quite a bit of power so a shore power hookup is typically recommended.

[alanmalk]

From an ancient memory - 100 watts each. That will flatten a battery by morning.

[rubicon327]

Originally Posted by alanmalk

From an ancient memory - 100 watts each. That will flatten a battery by morning.

I think Reace used to recommend against getting them.

[MrLynn]

Originally Posted by rubicon327

I think Reace used to recommend against getting them.

I think I'll put a sticker by the switches:

DO NOT USE UNLESS ON SHORE POWER!

[skyfree]

My take on the tank heating pads is that they are for the very specific case of being parked a long time in cold temps AVERAGING under 32F with shore power. I have them and have never used them camping in temps that were in the low 20's a couple of times. I also wrapped the dump valves in 12v heat cable and have never used that either.

My intention was to use the trailer as a ski resort parking lot chalet, but after the first trip we never did it again. It's impossible to sleep in a ski resort parking lot with the plows going all night.

We froze up our plumbing one year. It was stored in the SF Bay Area and I didn't do any winterizing (dumb). The plastic supply lines were fine but the domestic faucet in the kitchen sink has long metal supply lines that developed a hairline crack. Still haven't figure out how to fix that so it's always dripping into the under-sink. It has a custom soldered on fitting that will be hard to replace.

[gbb]

Thanks everyone for the advice and suggestions!
Forecast has stabilized at 27 so we are not planning on winterizing but will put some rv antifreeze down the drains before we leave. Won't hookup or use any water Wednesday night, and it will be above 30 the rest of the trip.
We are not leaving until Wednesday am so we would still appreciate any advice/suggestions that anyone may have.
If anyone is interested in camping in the southern Appalachians during fall leaf season Hungry Mother State Park is a good campground with lots to see and do in the area. This will be our 4th year going in late October and the leaves have been beautiful every year. We ride the Va Creeper Trail, (great rails to trails bike path), and do some hiking and sightseeing. Always a good trip.
Thanks again for the great advice!

[nepaweb]

Originally Posted by gbb

If anyone is interested in camping in the southern Appalachians during fall leaf season Hungry Mother State Park is a good campground with lots to see and do in the area.

Great recommendation.
If your planning to stay there till next week you will be in good company as there will be about 30 fiberglass trailers arriving for the Hungry Mother fiberglass rally.
Hope to see you there.

[gbb]

Originally Posted by nepaweb

Great recommendation.
If your planning to stay there till next week you will be in good company as there will be about 30 fiberglass trailers arriving for the Hungry Mother fiberglass rally.
Hope to see you there.

We can’t stay next week🙁. That’s two years in a row we missed it by one week. Is there a site we can find the dates for next years rally?
Thanks

[quidoi]

good luck to you--- not sure if ever mentioned in threads before but last year in bryce canyon--- got below 30 degrees and everything was fine except the water pump needs insulation around it -- even though it is inside-- also if you have fresh water in tank my worry was the drain value underneath-- i had icicles coming from the valve and that could cause huge problem with breaking -- i managed to insulate temporarily but working on more permanent solution--- like the insulators you put on your home outside faucets.... FYI

[splitting_lanes]

We were camping in Iowa city a couple nights ago when it got down to 22 degrees. I wasn’t worried about anything inside the trailer but I did drain some of the water out of the water hose and shut off the supply from the campground.

Yep, the water hose was frozen up in the morning so I wasn’t able to coil it up to put it away. I put it on the floor of the trailer until we stopped for lunch, then was able to put it away.