Winter living in the RV

[NSRV]

Thank you all for the great advice. I know the winter here will be a cold one, especially compared to winters in Arizona. I think that with some kind of foam insulation board around the bottom of the RV will help keep in some warmth, especially keep the floor from getting too cold and cooling off the inside of the RV.

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.

We do have some fellow RVer's in town that I've also been questioning about winter living, as they will be doing the same here this winter. So far I'm gathering that propane will be an asset. We have a little grill tank and also a large 100 gallon stand up tank. I'll make sure to keep them filled. The little grill tank will be a back up incase we run out in the middle of the night (keep us going till morning when the shops open).

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

Ah yes! We will figure that in as well. Right now it looks like we're going to buckle down here, if it gets too bad we'll probably go into the main house in the basement. I've been reading other winterize threads here and have gathered some useful information on this. Things such as removing ALL water from the pipes etc. Very helpful, thank you!

 

[SeaGal]

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.

Our situation is much like the original poster's. We're wintering for the first time in Northern Virginia, set up next to our son's house, hooked to his sewer and water. I really appreciate the advice about the water hose, etc. but don't understand what you mean about tying down the slide toppers. (which we have)

 

[Rene T]

You could Run a rope around the slide out to prevent the topper from blowing in the wind possibly tearing it apart. I would use a wide ratchet strap instead of just rope.

 

[Trivet]

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.

The OP has a Jayco Redhawk, which is a Class C. I'm pretty sure it has a 30-amp plug.

And even though it's not pertinent for this discussion, I'll point out that 50-amp service is actually a total of 100 amps--50 amps on two different legs. Chances are, the water heater is on a separate leg from the plugs are used for a hair dryer. Same goes for the refrigerator, if it's an absorption one that doesn't go through an inverter.

NSRV, you didn't specify how much shore power you have. Especially if don't have 30-amp service and are on a 15- or 20-amp outlet at the house, if you can run an extension cord from a separately breakered outlet (like in the basement) to into your RV (like through a window), in addition to shore power, do it, and plug a space heater into it. That way you don't have to think about that space heater when deciding if you have enough electricity available to use a hair dryer or whatever. It can just happily chug along.

And be sure to see if there's anything else sharing the breaker of any outlet you plug into that will lessen the number of amps available to your RV.