If you find yourself in cold weather, how do you keep pipes from freezing.

In an earlier post I indicated that my wife and I are considering a cross country trek in November or December. Our route would take us through some cold country.  Folks have responded to my post basically saying, it is not ideal to live in a MH in cold weather, although it is doable for short periods.  They cautioned that pipes need to be protected.  So my question is what do you do to keep pipes from freezing?  In my home I know what to do:  insulate, drip the water, turn off the water supply and drain the pipes.

Run furnace at night. If you use space heaters adjust thermostats so the furnace will still kick in. Leave basement lights on in compartments the plumbing passes through, may have to actually place incandescent drop/work lights or even small ceramic space heaters in the basement compartments, the 12v incandescent may not be enough heat. You will have to have shore power available or run your genny all night to provide power and that opens a whole 'nother topic on CO hazards, look into a "genturi" for your generator exhaust. A quick genturi substitute that I use is a 90* exhaust elbow with a household down spout over it that reaches well above my roof.Costs about $20.

Bill

Bill has addressed some of the issues in his post. A lot of folks, us included, spend a lot of time in the cold weather with very little issue. A lot of the problems or lack thereof depend on how your rig is set up, especially at the water bay.

We have successfully dripped water down to 20 degrees without issue, although depending on how the water spigot is insulated, it could freeze first. Inside the coach, we have used auxiliary heaters and done just fine. Propane use is much higher under those circumstances, so it just depends on how easy it is where you are to refuel your propane.

Parking where you have good sun during the day helps immensely, believe it or not, because you can use your windshield to help transfer heat. You might be surprised at how effective that is. At night, that's a whole 'nuther story of electric mattress pads, or blankets, or little heaters, or down comforters. Not having to boondock and use a generator is a better solution to me, personally.

On the road through sub freezing temps, however, is another issue, and we avoid that. You COULD have some problems there with the cold air as you drive, so that might be a limiting factor on where and how you go. We have waited for weather to improve for just that reason if we are moving in the cold season.

If you can stay out of the northern tier of states at that time, generally speaking, I would think you would be fine. January and February, probably not so much.

Just another perspective from our personal experience.  8)

Kim

Thanks for these tips.