New to below freezing camping...basic question

[Dave Desmarais]

Hi,
We just bought a reflection 280RS and are going to Gatlinburg TN next week. I live in Myrtle Beach, where it is still summer like temps, and while I expected cool weather in the mountains was shocked to see forecasts where at night the lows drop to between 28-30 degrees.
My unit does have tank heaters, and I’ll definitely be running the heat all night. My basic beginner questions are: 1). Fresh water hookup. Should I fill up the fresh water tank and disconnect the hose for night water use, or could I just leave the city water trickle running overnight to keep it from freezing. 2). When I first get there, the black and grey water tanks will be empty, even if I do fill up the fresh water tank. Can I do any damage by turning on the tank heaters if the tanks are empty?
3). Anything else I should consider? It will be mid 40s during the day so it’s basically a few hrs overnight of sub freezing I need to worry about.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dave and Renee
Myrtle Beach, Sc

[llr2800]

With a low in the mid 20s I would fill the tank and disconnect the hose. Leave the tank heaters off. And not worry about anything else.

Much lower or highs not well above freezing things start changing

[Steven@147]

Hi,
We just bought a reflection 280RS and are going to Gatlinburg TN next week. I live in Myrtle Beach, where it is still summer like temps, and while I expected cool weather in the mountains was shocked to see forecasts where at night the lows drop to between 28-30 degrees.
My unit does have tank heaters, and I’ll definitely be running the heat all night. My basic beginner questions are: 1). Fresh water hookup. Should I fill up the fresh water tank and disconnect the hose for night water use, or could I just leave the city water trickle running overnight to keep it from freezing. 2). When I first get there, the black and grey water tanks will be empty, even if I do fill up the fresh water tank. Can I do any damage by turning on the tank heaters if the tanks are empty?
3). Anything else I should consider? It will be mid 40s during the day so it’s basically a few hrs overnight of sub freezing I need to worry about.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Dave and Renee
Myrtle Beach, Sc

We were just there near Knoxville. The scenery should be spectacular now. You could do as suggested or if the camp ground water is still on you could use a heated water hose if you have one, or just fill the fresh water tank as suggested. 28-30* just over night should not freeze the water tank as that kind of volume would take a long while to freeze. The nearer the tanks are to empty the faster the liquid in them will freeze ,but still it would take awhile with well below freezing tamps. Empty black and grey tanks will not be harmed by turning on the tank heaters that I have heard of, but you don't need the tank heaters on unless it is well below freezing for a long extended time., near empty.

We have heated tanks as well but we don't use them unless the temp is in the mid 20s for an extended period of time (days). Of course we run our furnace so the underbelly is heated and the holding tanks are very close to where the heat ducts are in the underbelly so that helps keep them warm. We have a heat sensor near the Nautilus panel with the monitor mounted on the hutch so we know what the temp is down there.

Remember you will have your furnace on to heat the underbelly to keep the pex pipes from freezing so that will help keep the tanks warm. The water lines will freeze long before the tanks will.

For general heating in the RV interior, we use the furnace and supplement with the electric fireplace and an electric coil tower heater fan. Keeping the furnace set to 67-68*, with temps consistently in the 30s or below we use up a 30# tank in @ 4 days. We just keep an eye on the left side regulator, when the indicator turns red we switch tanks manually. You could let the propane system switch tanks automatically. Right now here in Indiana/Ohio, Tractor Supply propane is approx $3.85 per gallon. This summer it cost $16.66 to fill a 30# tank, now its $31.

Winter camping and knowing how your rig handles it is just experience.

[Steven@147]

How long will your fresh tank last with conservative usage?

Water usage - Our plan this year - this year we are staying at a campground in Richmond Indiana, will be here till the end of Dec. They are cutting off the water Nov 1 but will come around with a water tank and refill fresh tanks. Now we have never dry camped that much so, our fresh tank is 80 gallons, how long with it last before needing refilled?
We'll probably use it till the 1/3 light goes off on the monitor, that's about 32 gallons left (rough estimate, 80 gallons /4 indicators lights = 32 gallons each light). Of course it all depends on how frugal one is using fresh water. We have been testing in conservation mode using the fresh tank while camp ground water is still on to see how long we can go before refill.

We will refill the fresh tank just before they cut off the water. We also have a spare water pump just in case.

Another thing to consider is, we wont have the capability to flush the black tank after dumping as we normally would. Camp ground water cut off. So we'll save a couple gallons of water to dump down the toilet after dumping. Then the first chance we get give the black tank a good flushing.

[llr2800]

Everyone's idea about conservative usage is different. We easily do 4 nights with 2 people and daily showers and about 45 gallons. Some people would go much longer, some might not make a day.

As far as black flush there is now reason to do it every time, just be sure to use enough water. I only flush if no one is behind me at the dump. I am on my 5th camper and this is only the 2nd one with a flush.

Sent from my moto g stylus using Tapatalk

[Rabbit]

Camped in the Gatlinburg area many times in Dec and Jan. Disconnect, drain and store all hoses, regulators and filters. Do not leave anything connected to the camp water hydrant. If it freezes, you may be billed. Put enough water in your fresh tank to flush and wash dishes until you can reconnect city water in the AM. With the furnace running, you’ll be okay.

[Steven@147]

I guess I was trying to give the OP some additional information on winter camping and what our plan is using fresh water, kind of mucked it up. And i screwed up my rude estimate on our fresh tank. Each light on the monitor (E, 1/3, 2/3, F) in our case would be @27 gallons for our 80 gallon tank.
Anyway for our initial test dry camping over the last 4 days being a little more conservative, quick type navy showers water on/water off, washing dishes, flushing and such the 2/3 light is just off. So roughly we could go @8 days and still have some fresh water left before refilling. The advantages of having a large fresh tank. So to conserve fresh water a little more before refilling, we'll switch to using paper plates and plastic utensils, only have to wash pots/pans. We would just like to go as long as we can before contacting the camp ground to have them refill our tank.

Propane usage when it gets down in the 20-30s, like i said we use a 30# tank in about 4 days keeping the thermostat 67-68*. We'll refill them at Tractor Supply or the campground has a refilling station.

[FoxyJoe]

This post is right up my alley...

I have my 375RES on a permanent site in a condo-park. The park shuts the water off on October 15 every year and puts it back on April 15. We use our rig every other weekend, all winter long. I am in cottage country Canada, where the temps can (and regularly do) drop down to -18C or 0F in the dead of winter.

Although the water is shut off to the park, our sewer system is still usable.

I have a water bladder that I carry in my truck and I pump only enough water to use for the weekend into my rig. Once the water is used up, and/or when it is time to go home, I dump all of my tanks and do the winterizing ritual.

Throughout the weekend, I keep my tank heaters on.

We can get 4 days out of 2 30lb tanks with the furnace set to 68, the fireplace set to 70 and a small space heater at floor level in the kitchen.

We also do little things (which may or may not work) like draw the blinds down once the sun gets low in the afternoon, and raise them in the morning to cash in on some of that solar loading.

We close the slides every time we are getting ready to leave and then open them when we return.

As I am off on Fridays and my wife works, I get to our site midday and fire everything up. I then build a nice big fire outside and take my dog for a walk. At -15 outside, it takes about 3 hours for the inside temps to break into the 60s. Usually by the time my wife arrives at the site, the trailer is approaching the t-stat setting.

I absolutely hated winter until we started using our trailer in the winter. I actually enjoy the piece and quiet and sitting around the fire with a drink....

[Riveyman]

We are going to be spending the winter in NC. This is some good information. Thanks

[baldwga]

I have the same question about winter camping over the weekends. For every trip when you return do you winterize your camper again? I would assume so and if you do how do you de-winterize it? Would it be necessary to sanitize the unit as well?

Thanks for the help.