Winter Traveling Advice Needed

[2Tall]

This past summer we purchased a 2020 Solitude 5th wheel [373FB] and have taken a few local trips in MI this fall and more recently a 3½ week trip to the Houston area [visit the grand-babies!] in October. We are now back home in MI for the holidays and will be heading back to TX for the winter after Christmas. We have winterized our 5th wheel [blew the lines with air and added antifreeze] and are now finalizing our travel plan to return to TX.

We are currently exploring our options as to exactly when we should de-winterize/sanitize our 5th wheel given we will be in freezing temps for the first day or two of our travels back to TX. On our first trip to TX we reached Effingham IL on Day 1, Forest City AR on Day 2, Carthage TX on Day 3, and Katy TX on Day 4. Not sure yet of what campgrounds will even be open, or what facilities will be available in December.

Being newbies, we are a bit leery of using the plumbing and relying on the tank heaters and furnace to keep the lines from freezing before we leave MI in late December. Traveling without the use water also poses some challenges. I would appreciate any suggestions this group may have regarding when would be the best time to de-winterize. Our Solitude does have tank heaters; Fresh [1, 81 gal tank], Black [2 tanks, 106 gal total], & Grey [2 tanks, 106 gal total].

Thanks all!

[Second Chance]

You'll find parks open in AR and TX - no problem there. If you're concerned in IL, leave the rig winterized and carry extra water to flush that night - or stay in a motel one night. My biggest concern traveling in the winter is hitting snow conditions where the roads have been treated - wreaks havoc (corrosion) on the frame and suspension on the trailer (ask me how I know...).

Rob

[2Tall]

Thanks Rob! We will be keeping a close eye on the weather for a hopefully dry departure day!

[D2Reid]

So what are the temps really going to be? I travel from ski resort to ski resort in the winter. I froze the crap out of my trailer in Amarillo, TX. And froze it a little bit when I forgot to close a bay last year in Utah. So first off, know before you go, exactly what kind of temps are you going to be dealing with. Weather service does a pretty decent job of predicting a week ahead of time, 2 weeks to a month out it's still too iffy to decide. Then decide what you need to do.

Lesson learned, 29f for 4 hours will freeze you water hose if it is not heated nor protected.
20-29f your water hose and sewer hose are likely to freeze if you don't do something, and number of hours at those temps makes a big difference also. If it's 45 in the day and drop to 25 at night, next day back to 45 - it's an entirely different animal than 25-28 for days on end.

10-20F you are in "hard freeze" territory. Likely day time temps will not go above 32f. Now you have to think about heat distribution and retention. Single digit for days at a time is getting pretty serious, more thought processes and mitigation. Sub-zero, you fool what are you doing? Just kidding, I have been there about 4 times. Lasted about a week then went back up to mid-teens. Sub-zero is really not a good place to be in an RV.

So traveling south. It's going to get warmer each day. I am pretty sure that the Solitude has the same tank heater - insulated tank situation that my Momentum has, pretty sure isn't a guarantee. So if you put fresh water in the tank and travel with grey water the 12v tank heaters will help keep that from freezing. You leave the RV park with a heated RV, then as the day progresses the heat dissipates. One tactic is to stop for lunch and turn the propane/12 v heater on and bring the coach back to around 45f. At night when you are stopped you have full heat going in the coach, it will not freeze (with the exception of the external water hose). Between the two I have traveled all through the Rockies in really cold weather without freezing.

Why did I freeze in Amarillo? It was a blue norther, winds in excess of 30mph, temps dropped to single digit for 2 days. Roads closed, I was not prepared at all. Never thought it could get that cold in Texas. Wind the the big kicker, then my tank heaters failed. Totally ruined my sewer hose. A thousand dollars later I found out my tank heaters had failed, luckily I didn't break any water hoses.

Poop cycles. I have a valtera swivel gate on the end of my sewer hose, my black water tank has a very minor seep around the valve, maybe a cup a day, but I traveled several days without dumping and had about 2 cups of poop water up against the external valve that froze, only a few inches, but it was solid ice and took me a couple of hours to thaw and drain it.

So if I was going to do what you are proposing my plan of action would look something like this:
1. Make sure there are no big winter storms coming.
2. Make sure there are no temps below 20, if there are run dry.
3. Put 1/3 tank of fresh water, or enough for 2 days depending on you own usage.
4. Below 40f tank heaters on, even during travel.
5. Refill fresh water in the warm afternoon then drain and put the hose up, run off internal fresh tank.
6. Travel during daylight only, no you will not cover as many miles as you possibly can, but you will also reheat your coach sooner, mitigating the travel temps.
7. Uh oh, having a senior moment and lost my train of thought, gotta go back and see what I already said.
8. Turn the furnace on when you stop for lunch.
9. In some state you are required to carry snow chains, don't ever use them. Sitting in an RV park for an extra day is much easier that trying to deal with snow chains.
10. Try to leave enough leeway in your trip that if you are caught by a storm you can sit it out. Another thousand dollar repair taught me this lesson, destroyed some stuff when the chains (cables) broke.

While winter traveling has it's concerns 90% of the time it is no different than traveling in the summer, just cooler. Nothing in the RV will freeze at 31F, it takes a lot colder. Remember, freezing requires both cold temps and TIME. Reduce the amount of time you are running without heat and you reduce the probability of freezing.

Hopefully I haven't rambled too much tonight. We are plotting out TX to TN to Park City, UT trip, leaving Monday arriving Park City Dec 6th. I am not making any changes to the MO, just managing the outside hoses.

Winter travel and can be fun.

Safe Travels!

[Steven@147]

This past summer we purchased a 2020 Solitude 5th wheel [373FB] and have taken a few local trips in MI this fall and more recently a 3½ week trip to the Houston area [visit the grand-babies!] in October. We are now back home in MI for the holidays and will be heading back to TX for the winter after Christmas. We have winterized our 5th wheel [blew the lines with air and added antifreeze] and are now finalizing our travel plan to return to TX.

We are currently exploring our options as to exactly when we should de-winterize/sanitize our 5th wheel given we will be in freezing temps for the first day or two of our travels back to TX. On our first trip to TX we reached Effingham IL on Day 1, Forest City AR on Day 2, Carthage TX on Day 3, and Katy TX on Day 4. Not sure yet of what campgrounds will even be open, or what facilities will be available in December.

Being newbies, we are a bit leery of using the plumbing and relying on the tank heaters and furnace to keep the lines from freezing before we leave MI in late December. Traveling without the use water also poses some challenges. I would appreciate any suggestions this group may have regarding when would be the best time to de-winterize. Our Solitude does have tank heaters; Fresh [1, 81 gal tank], Black [2 tanks, 106 gal total], & Grey [2 tanks, 106 gal total].

Thanks all!

Really good advice you have gotten.
We just came up from Livingston Texas to Northern Indiana, took three days. We are leaving Dec 28 to head back to Livingston taking the same route back, and once we get back, we will be staying at Lake Livingston for a few days before moving on farther south around Houston to Galveston and Jamaica Beach for the hard winter. Livingston is just right above Houston on highway 59. We used highway 59 from Livingston to Texarkana, its a really good 4 lane divided highway.

Our trip, Highway 59 to Texarkana & I30 then to Little Rock and I40, then to Memphis and I55 to I57 up through Cairo, Marion and Effingham Illinois to I70 to Indianapolis. Our first night stay over from Livingston was in Hazen AR at the Lower White River RV Park just outside Little Rock. Its right beside I40, easy on and off. The second night was in Marion Ill at the Marion RV Park, its right beside I57, easy on and off. We ate at Cracker Barrel rest. Both parks are open year round and plenty of fuel stations at the interchanges. We already have reservations made for our trip back.

As was said when you get close to your departure time, keep checking your weather apps as to the forecast and what kind of temperatures you will be encountering in route. If the forecast will be significantly below freezing, go ahead and winterize the RV for the trip and just use bottled water for your lay overs. the amount of water you may use over night to flush or put down the tank drains will not significantly dilute the RV antifreeze to hurt. That way you wont need the RV water lines and you can keep RV antifreeze in them.

Like Rob I do not want to travel in snow so we are hoping for a mild winter up here and no snow until after we leave. But we are checking the long range forecast, if it looks like a big snow storm is coming we might leave early to avoid it, or just hunker down until after it passes and the roads get better. The farther you get into January up here the colder and more snow you are likely to get.

[orbiker]

I use this Weather Site when traveling. It gives you the big picture and helps you see what is coming.
If you mouse over each section it will show that info. You can pick a section of the map too.

I traveled in the winter in my pickup camper a lot. I traveled with the furnace on and full water tanks. It was sometimes frozen roads for the 200 mile trip to Crater Lake where I was a volunteer ski patroller.
Our 2 fifth wheel rigs have been in the snow, but just barely. We stayed an extra day at the Oregon Coast before going home after the roads cleared out the next day.
Be safe and be ready to wait. KEN

[Andrew SL8]

Thanks so much for your post. ( It's amazing how little "traveling through Cold weather" is discussed on Youtube) We bought a Solitude 3740BH this summer so we can travel without staying in a hotel during Covid. Now we are planning a trip to Washington DC to spend Thanksgiving with family. We live in Omaha and have had the unit Winterized. Our plan is to take a southerly route east through Tennessee and once we out of freezing temps then drain the anti-freeze. However when we head north up 81 towards VA. and DC we'll probably have some sub 32 degree nights.

QUESTIONs:

1. When we have to run through freezing temps after I dewinterized the unit, what about running a Mr. Buddy heater on low in the main bathroom.?Obviously, I'll have to insure that it is stabilized carefully to keep it from falling over during transit. We stop about every 2.5 hours for a bathroom break so this way, we won't be frozen to the toilet seat and it will not take as long to warm up at the end of the day
2. During travel, can you power the tank heaters (fresh, gray, & black) or will it trip the breakers? Would upgrading to some Battleborn Batteries make sense?

3. I saw in another post a big concern with corrosion due to salt etc used on the roads. Any suggestions for treating the stabilizers and other underside parts ahead of time to minimize corrosion?

Thanks so much for your counsel and thank you especially for your Service. (I was a 16B - Air Defense Nike Hercules)

Best regards,
Andrew

[Second Chance]

Thanks so much for your post. ( It's amazing how little "traveling through Cold weather" is discussed on Youtube) We bought a Solitude 3740BH this summer so we can travel without staying in a hotel during Covid. Now we are planning a trip to Washington DC to spend Thanksgiving with family. We live in Omaha and have had the unit Winterized. Our plan is to take a southerly route east through Tennessee and once we out of freezing temps then drain the anti-freeze. However when we head north up 81 towards VA. and DC we'll probably have some sub 32 degree nights.

QUESTIONs:

1. When we have to run through freezing temps after I dewinterized the unit, what about running a Mr. Buddy heater on low in the main bathroom.?Obviously, I'll have to insure that it is stabilized carefully to keep it from falling over during transit. We stop about every 2.5 hours for a bathroom break so this way, we won't be frozen to the toilet seat and it will not take as long to warm up at the end of the day
2. During travel, can you power the tank heaters (fresh, gray, & black) or will it trip the breakers? Would upgrading to some Battleborn Batteries make sense?

3. I saw in another post a big concern with corrosion due to salt etc used on the roads. Any suggestions for treating the stabilizers and other underside parts ahead of time to minimize corrosion?

Thanks so much for your counsel and thank you especially for your Service. (I was a 16B - Air Defense Nike Hercules)

Best regards,
Andrew

Andrew,

I don't know who you're asking (you could use "Reply With Quote" in the future - as I've done here).

1) Personally, I would not use a Mr. Buddy in the trailer while traveling. There are too many associated hazards and, running inside, it won't help protect the plumbing in the underbelly from freezing.

2) The tank heaters are 12VDC, so they run off the batteries (or converter/charger while plugged in) and have nothing to do with the 120VAC circuit breakers. Depending on their size (related to the size of tank), RV tank heaters typically draw between 4 and 12 amps. LiFePO4 batteries like the Battle Born models you suggest yield almost twice as many useable amp hours at a given rating as do their lead-acid counterparts... but the BBs are about $960 each. You would have to call GD and ask about the amp draw on your particular pads (if you don't have a way of measuring it yourself) to know what kind of load they would put on the batteries. It's been my personal experience, though, that tanks - especially when full, take much longer to freeze than do water lines. That's because of the greater mass of fluid in a full tank than in a 1/2" diameter piece of Pex tubing. Fill your fresh water and drain your waste tanks and you should be OK with those during travel.

3) I don't have extensive "up North" experience (at least not since the '70s), but I would think a good automotive undercoating before there's any corrosion and before the rig is exposed to treated roads would go a long way to helping protect from corrosion damage. Our cars and trucks come undercoated - our RVs do not.

Rob

[2Tall]

D2Reid - Thank you for the info - great points to consider. Love the pic!

[2Tall]

Thanks Steven - appreciate the recommendations!