Winter living in the RV

[NSRV]

My better half and I will be spending this winter living in our RV. It will stay parked in West Virginia over this winter.

Anyone have any tips or tricks? Mostly wondering about insulation and what to do to the outside of the RV to help it from getting too cold, and to protect the vitals, as well as maintenance.

Been doing some reading and gathering information and tips, wanting some first hand opinions and information from you all here. The RV has tank heaters and such, but I've found that they can still freeze in extreme cold. We're going to use some kind of siding to put around the RV to help prevent things from freezing and busting underneath (Thinking about some kind of insulation board cut to fit all the way around the bottom of the rig). We'll also be getting a heated and insulated water hose for shore water and will be hooked to shore power as well. We have the grey water tank constantly open, hooked up to the sewer drain (which will also need a heated hose), and the black water tank we leave closed until its time to empty, which we have a macerator pump and hose hooked up to the sewer drain in the basement of the house on the property, that we pull out and hook up to the RV to drain the black tank.

P.S. We have a larger propane tank (not the little refillable tanks from the store), but also being a 2018 Jayco Redhawk it also has electric and gas heaters for everything, so not too worried about running out of propane, and some some space heaters as well.

 

[memtiger]

Are you going to be in one place all winter or moving from campground to campground?

 

[donn]

Instead of an expensive heated water hose I made my own. Go buy several lengths of pipe wrap, a length of heat tape and wrap your own. With the extra piece of heat tape wrap the faucet..
We spend one winter in our fiver in the Columbia river gorge. Bought a drop light some incendesdant bulbs, a 5 gallon bucket. Wrapped the faucet, hung the drop light on the faucet handle, placed the bucket over everything. That kept the faucet from freezing down to 14 degrees with no problem. If your going to place foam board around the edges, go buy a space heater to place under the RV.
BTW we burned about 25 gallons of propane a week all winter. That was with running 2 space heaters 24/7.
Also if you have slide toppers remember to tie them down. For that I bought several 3 inch wide tow straps, placed over the toppers and secured then with ratchet straps.

 

[NSRV]

Are you going to be in one place all winter or moving from campground to campground?

One place. We're parked on some family property. We're already parked here and set up, but need to winterize. We're close enough to the house that we can reach shore water, shore power and sewer. We'll be getting heated and insulated hoses for shore water and grey water draining. Black tank will be shut until it needs to be emptied.

 

[NSRV]

Instead of an expensive heated water hose I made my own. Go buy several lengths of pipe wrap, a length of heat tape and wrap your own. With the extra piece of heat tape wrap the faucet..
We spend one winter in our fiver in the Columbia river gorge. Bought a drop light some incendesdant bulbs, a 5 gallon bucket. Wrapped the faucet, hung the drop light on the faucet handle, placed the bucket over everything. That kept the faucet from freezing down to 14 degrees with no problem. If your going to place foam board around the edges, go buy a space heater to place under the RV.
BTW we burned about 25 gallons of propane a week all winter. That was with running 2 space heaters 24/7.
Also if you have slide toppers remember to tie them down. For that I bought several 3 inch wide tow straps, placed over the toppers and secured then with ratchet straps.

Good information. As for propane, we're hooked into shore power and shore water and our RV has the option to switch between electric or LP for fridge, hot water tank and grey/black tanks have a electric heater. As for space heaters and such we'll either run off the shore power or run an extension cord from the basement to the RV to power space heaters.

I'll look into this method for making the heated water hose (was hoping that it would be possible to make one), and what kind of space heater would you recommend is the safest? Don't want to catch anything on fire.

 

[donn]

The only time I had dump valve problems was for a few days when it got really cold.
Remember each electric heater if 1500 watts, or about 12 amps. So if you se 3 of those little buggers thats 36 amps. If you have 50A service that doea not leave much left over for things like DWs hair dryer, water heater, refer, etc. Also remember the typical RV outlet is only 15A. So running a heater and making toast could be a problem. To make it simply, carefully select where you connect elect heaters. Plan to have your propane tank filled weekly. Nothing worse than running out of gas at 10 oclock on Sarurday night.

 

[Rene T]

Also remember that many basements in rv’s depend on running the RV furnace and the heat generated through the duct hose, keeps pipes in the basement from freezing.

 

[darsben]

Where in WV and how cold does it get?

 

[NSRV]

The only time I had dump valve problems was for a few days when it got really cold.
Remember each electric heater if 1500 watts, or about 12 amps. So if you se 3 of those little buggers thats 36 amps. If you have 50A service that doea not leave much left over for things like DWs hair dryer, water heater, refer, etc. Also remember the typical RV outlet is only 15A. So running a heater and making toast could be a problem. To make it simply, carefully select where you connect elect heaters. Plan to have your propane tank filled weekly. Nothing worse than running out of gas at 10 oclock on Sarurday night.

This I am aware of, I am thinking maybe running an extension cord out to the RV to run some things. We'll definitely have to be power-wise this winter, regardless, as for dump valves, I just hope that I can insulate well enough underneath the RV that things won't freeze solid. I definitely don't want to be buying a new tank or plumbing because it froze and burst.

Also remember that many basements in rv’s depend on running the RV furnace and the heat generated through the duct hose, keeps pipes in the basement from freezing.

I may be misreading your comment, but the RV doesn't have the basement. The house on the property we are parked on has the basement, which we have the grey water hooked to the sewer in the house, and we drain the black tank into it as well, when it's full.

Where in WV and how cold does it get?

The western, central edge of WV along the Ohio River, Mason County area. Down into the teens and 20s in the winter. (This is my first WV winter, so those temperatures are from Google.) There is snow but not usually until end of December, beginning of January.

 

[Rene T]

is the bottom of your RV closed in? If it is that’s what I mean as far as a basement. Your furnace ductwork run all through there and keeps the pipes from freezing hopefully.

 

[donn]

I am aware of, I am thinking maybe running an extension cord out to the RV to run some things. We'll definitely have to be power-wise this winter, regardless, as for dump valves, I just hope that I can insulate well enough underneath the RV that things won't freeze solid. I definitely don't want to be buying a new tank or plumbing because it froze and burst.

Never fear. Tanks will not break unless they are completely full. I kind of remember putting a drop light with a 100W bulb hanging on the black water dump valve too. If possible you might be able to run a seperate extension cord to power the drop lights, freeze tape, and maybe one small portable heater. Even at that thats a lot of amps for one outlet to handle. Just do all your calculations before hand and be sure to leave a margin for safety.

 

[darsben]

Please have an escape plan and everything needed to winterize just in case something happens. While it's still fairly warm out figure out exactly how you will winterize so you don't have to figure it out at 20 degrees

 

[NSRV]

is the bottom of your RV closed in? If it is that’s what I mean as far as a basement. Your furnace ductwork run all through there and keeps the pipes from freezing hopefully.

Aah I understand now, and no its not set up that way, as far as I can tell. There is some ducting in the roof and under/behind the cabinets in the kitchen area from what I can tell, I'll have to crawl under there and inspect to see, as I am not quite sure if it has the ducting underneath or not.

Never fear. Tanks will not break unless they are completely full. I kind of remember putting a drop light with a 100W bulb hanging on the black water dump valve too. If possible you might be able to run a seperate extension cord to power the drop lights, freeze tape, and maybe one small portable heater. Even at that thats a lot of amps for one outlet to handle. Just do all your calculations before hand and be sure to leave a margin for safety.

I figure that's probably a sound speculation, I just know that liquids expand when they freeze, but that is correct, as long as is doesn't get completely full and left that way, should be okay. I also know not to put too much strain on one outlet especially with an extension cord, which as you have advised, calculations are being made. Going to have to be smart with the power for sure. I have a high respect for electricity.

Please have an escape plan and everything needed to winterize just in case something happens. While it's still fairly warm out figure out exactly how you will winterize so you don't have to figure it out at 20 degrees

Thanks for the information! Definitely working all that out, hoping to get things winterized within the next month two. Definitely by the end of October is the final point. We're already making plans and calculating cost for things we will need to winterize, and will be starting on the project soon

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Never fear. Tanks will not break unless they are completely full.

True in theory but not always in practice. The exception is the presence of any fitting protruding into the tank at or near the water level. As the water freezes it pushes upward/outward and may break the fitting where it protrudes into the tank. Not something that happens readily, but occasionally it damages something.

 

[Tom]

The only time we camped in our son's driveway in the MidWest in winter, our propane ran out in a week, and I kept blowing fuses in his basement on a circuit that fed the extension cord. With icicles hanging from the bottom of the coach, we eventually left and said "come see us in California".

 

[UTTransplant]

The only time we camped in our son's driveway in the MidWest in winter, our propane ran out in a week, and I kept blowing fuses in his basement on a circuit that fed the extension cord. With icicles hanging from the bottom of the coach, we eventually left and said "come see us in California".

After spending a week in my DD‘s Iowa driveway and another week in a campground with electricity only, I told my daughter her next kids needed to be born sometime other than winter! She happily obliged thank goodness LOL! We were in a 4 season Outdoors RV TT that luckily had removable propane tanks. Kevin filled them up every couple of days! Days with highs below freezing and lows in the single digits. Ugh. There is a reason we go south for the winter.

 

[darsben]

By winterize I meant learning how to dump the water and drain the plumbing so the lines do not freeze up in case your plan fails and you decide to get out

 

[Tom]

I told my daughter her next kids needed to be born sometime other than winter!

The reason we were in the MidWest that winter was that we had a grandson about to be born. When we left, we actually said "bring him to California", which they eventually did

 

[Rene T]

There is some ducting in the roof and under/behind the cabinets in the kitchen area from what I can tell, I'll have to crawl under there and inspect to see, as I am not quite sure if it has the ducting underneath or not.

The vents in the ceiling will be for air conditioning the ones on the floor are for heat

 

[TheBar]

I kind of remember putting a drop light with a 100W bulb hanging on the black water dump valve too.

Since incandescent light bulbs are being phased out they are hard to find. Halogen bulbs run hot but not like incandescent. Be careful because bare bulbs can be a fire hazard if they touch anything flammable.