Full time

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Summer3c

Member
Joined
Sep 6, 2019
Posts
7
Let me start of by saying I  Summer and I am new to this site. I am 21 and I picked camper life instead of the basic apartment life for people my age. I  have lived in my camper for about a year and a half now and I am perfectly content with it. I?m wanting to buy my own  land in Missouri somewhat close to St. Louis (Jefferson county ) with either a mobile home that needs remodeling that I can hook up to the water/electric/septic or find land that has those hook ups already in place.

My questions are: is it possible to hook up to a mobile homes existing connections ( 30 amp camper with A/C running), is it possible to just live on land in your rv (if so or if not how to check the restrictions), how to prepare the camper for winter(Missouri can get down to  zero degrees at some points), if the land has a well for a water source is there a way to hookup the camper directly to the well?

Even if it?s just an answer to one of my questions I greatly appreciate it Thank you
 
I agree you will not be able to use water system in sub zero weather even if the RV is winter rated

You want to live in it year round you need to winterize by the S method

Drive S till it don't freeze.
 
Yes you should be able to get a 30A/120v power line from a mobile home hook-up.  The mobile home will have an external power pole with a distribution box and you can add a 30A/120v breaker there if needed.  If the mobile home actually plugs in (most are hard-wired), you can make an adapter that will work.

As to whether it is allowed to do that, it depends totally on local zone and building codes. In most places the answer is no, but there are exceptions in some rural areas.  You will have to check with the municipality where the property is located, either county, town or city.  Sometimes, though, it's a case of "don't ask, don't tell" and no official will bother you if you just do it and stay below their radar.
 
darsben said:
You say you have lived in the camper for a year and a half. Where?
If the temp gets down to zero you cannot live in a camper it is not made for that extreme a temp.







Right now in Louisiana so the temp has only gotten to probably 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and it was fine. I have been thinking of moving up to Missouri where the winters do get a little worse it can get to zero and it does snow up there

What is the S method
 
Summer3c said:
Right now in Louisiana so the temp has only gotten to probably 20-30 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter and it was fine. I have been thinking of moving up to Missouri where the winters do get a little worse it can get to zero and it does snow up there

What is the S method

Head South till it don't freeze
 
I never move my camper I have it stationary and if I moved up north I wouldn?t be able to head south for the winter. I?ve heard of people winterizing their campers up north and figured I would be able to do that
 
I will explain it.
Campers have very poor insulation. So the walls will always be cold. You can put bales of straw around the camper to keep the floor a little warmer or permanently skirt it. The skirting adds little or no insulation value but does stop the wind from cooling the floor so much
You state you have been in 20 degree weather in the camper how was your propane consumption?  You could well be looking at the furnace running almost full time. The furnace in the trailer is not meant or sized for zero degrees. You will always be chilled in the trailer unless you run lots of secondary  heat like space heaters.
Since there is little insulation in the trailer the pipes in or near the walls will most likely freeze up and As you  know the water for your rig comes in through a hose that will freeze or you will take very expensive measures to keep it from freezing.
Dumping your tank will be a problem unless you also take expensive measures to insulate the hose/pipe for dumping.


WINTERIZING THE TRAILER MEANS GETTING IT READY FOR STORAGE IN THE WINTER not making it ready for winter use
 
We've been quite comfortable in our motorhome at temps down to -4 deg. F on a couple of occasions. Granted, it was just for an overnight stop though, and we did go through a bunch of propane. Doing it for any sustained period would require some extra effort such as adding skirting along with insulating windows and water lines. If a permanent power source is available, a couple of electric heaters could help keep the propane usage in hand at the expense of the power bill.

As for the legalities, yes, that's very much location dependent. Our Adirondack cottage for instance, is in a popular recreational area with few zoning restrictions where many seasonal folks have semi-permanently located RV's, usually TT's, that have been in place for years. We have a full hookup site for our motorhome next to our cottage for when we visit and continue living in the RV. The only issue we've ever had was a seasonal neighbor several years ago that served both us and the town code enforcement officer with an official looking "Notice of Violation" citing an ordinance against sleeping in an RV outside of an RV park or campground. Turned out the ordinance was from her home town a couple hundred miles away on Long Island. The officer and I had a good laugh over that one... :)
 
NY_Dutch said:
If a permanent power source is available, a couple of electric heaters could help keep the propane usage in hand at the expense of the power bill.

Keep in mind that if you do use electric heaters, you could be jeopardizing your water lines inside the enclosed belly. Typically, the RV furnace somewhat heats those areas so the pipes do not freeze along with the sewer lines.
 
I have an alternate solution.  As the others have said, very few RVs are suitable for long-term winter living.  Yes, it may be possible, but only with a lot of effort and expense.  Instead, why not go to a mobile home park (or what we used to call a trailer park) and try to find a mobile home already in place?  They are designed to be placed on permanent sites and they are meant for multi-season living.  Our nephew has been living in one while he attends school in Morgantown WV where they have snow and ice.  He says they have been quite comfortable in the winter.  The big advantage is that the "hookups" are permanent, e.g. you don't have to worry about emptying holding tanks and filling fresh water tanks which is a huge issue in the winter.  A mobile home is more like a house in that respect.  They also have better insulation so heating costs a lot less.  You say you never move your "camper" (trailer? motorhome? slide-in camper on a truck?) anyway, so you may as well get something that is not designed for moving from place to place.

ArdraF
 
darsben said:
I will explain it.
Campers have very poor insulation. So the walls will always be cold. You can put bales of straw around the camper to keep the floor a little warmer or permanently skirt it. The skirting adds little or no insulation value but does stop the wind from cooling the floor so much
You state you have been in 20 degree weather in the camper how was your propane consumption?  You could well be looking at the furnace running almost full time. The furnace in the trailer is not meant or sized for zero degrees. You will always be chilled in the trailer unless you run lots of secondary  heat like space heaters.
Since there is little insulation in the trailer the pipes in or near the walls will most likely freeze up and As you  know the water for your rig comes in through a hose that will freeze or you will take very expensive measures to keep it from freezing.
Dumping your tank will be a problem unless you also take expensive measures to insulate the hose/pipe for dumping.


WINTERIZING THE TRAILER MEANS GETTING IT READY FOR STORAGE IN THE WINTER not making it ready for winter use












Yes I have been in my camper while it has been 20 degrees I didn?t use too much propane I also had 1 small electric heater going and I had my kitchen and bathroom faucets dripping like you would do in a house if it were to get very cold.  I was perfectly fine in my camper with that temp outside and I had no problems. Now where I want to move it will be colder for a longer period of time than it was where?s i am now with the 20 degrees but I figured it would still be okay.
 
ArdraF said:
I have an alternate solution.  As the others have said, very few RVs are suitable for long-term winter living.  Yes, it may be possible, but only with a lot of effort and expense.  Instead, why not go to a mobile home park (or what we used to call a trailer park) and try to find a mobile home already in place?  They are designed to be placed on permanent sites and they are meant for multi-season living.  Our nephew has been living in one while he attends school in Morgantown WV where they have snow and ice.  He says they have been quite comfortable in the winter.  The big advantage is that the "hookups" are permanent, e.g. you don't have to worry about emptying holding tanks and filling fresh water tanks which is a huge issue in the winter.  A mobile home is more like a house in that respect.  They also have better insulation so heating costs a lot less.  You say you never move your "camper" (trailer? motorhome? slide-in camper on a truck?) anyway, so you may as well get something that is not designed for moving from place to place.

ArdraF


No I never move my camper as in my pull behind travel trailer. I picked to live in this due to  the price, my age,  and owning it instead of renting. Also where I am wanting to move I want to get land I don?t want to be in a mobile home park next to people. It is hard to find land with multiple acres with a already set in place mobile home where I am looking and I have looked because I?m open to living in one of those instead.i have seen some that need work and I am open to putting my camper beside it and living in that while I work on the mobile home but I haven?t found the right one so I was just looking for solutions for my camper with the winter
 
NY_Dutch said:
We've been quite comfortable in our motorhome at temps down to -4 deg. F on a couple of occasions. Granted, it was just for an overnight stop though, and we did go through a bunch of propane. Doing it for any sustained period would require some extra effort such as adding skirting along with insulating windows and water lines. If a permanent power source is available, a couple of electric heaters could help keep the propane usage in hand at the expense of the power bill.

As for the legalities, yes, that's very much location dependent. Our Adirondack cottage for instance, is in a popular recreational area with few zoning restrictions where many seasonal folks have semi-permanently located RV's, usually TT's, that have been in place for years. We have a full hookup site for our motorhome next to our cottage for when we visit and continue living in the RV. The only issue we've ever had was a seasonal neighbor several years ago that served both us and the town code enforcement officer with an official looking "Notice of Violation" citing an ordinance against sleeping in an RV outside of an RV park or campground. Turned out the ordinance was from her home town a couple hundred miles away on Long Island. The officer and I had a good laugh over that one... :)
haha
 
Back
Top Bottom