Camping at 25 degrees

[bellacamps]

We will be in southern Utah end of October in a 2021 Imagine xls 22mle. Lows should be no lower than 25 degrees. Should we worry about pipes freezing?
What do you do in those temps ?
Thanks!

 

[FT4NOW]

Welcome to the forum. I'm not familiar with Imagines too much. If they have an enclosed underbelly, they are usually heated. They only get heat if you run the furnace.

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[tfgd21bhe]

We've camped with our 21bhe down to 25 deg temps and had no problem. We like it cool for sleeping so set the furnace to 50 deg. Also left the water heater on overnight which we normally turn off when we don't need hot water and I placed a trouble light with a 75w incandescent bulb in the pass thru by the docking station which was enough to keep that area above freezing.

 

[SolarPoweredRV]

We will be in southern Utah end of October in a 2021 Imagine xls 22mle. Lows should be no lower than 25 degrees. Should we worry about pipes freezing?
What do you do in those temps ?
Thanks!

All the above are good hints.

We experienced cold temps (upper 20's) last Christmas while camping in Northern Florida. The night before the cold weather hit, we filled our fresh water tank and drained our hose and put it away. The next morning our neighbors were outside trying to figure out how to get water through a frozen water hose.

Sometimes the best tool you have when camping in cold weather is to just have a little bit of common sense.

 

[Raife1]

We have stayed in our 21BHE a couple times in below freezing without issue. The underbelly is enclosed and we ran the furnace. Only real difference is we had a heated water hose...

 

[Ynot4me2]

We often do it with our 22mle. The key is to keep the furnace on and the hot water tank. The furnace is what heats the underbelly where all the plumbing is. If it goes below freezing, disconnect the water hose going to get tt if it's not heated. We always keep about 1/3 water in the fresh tank for this. You'll want to get a small dehumidifier for inside the tt to help with the condensation that you get.

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[Ynot4me2]

Oh and expect the furnace to come on often so plan for lp. It's not that hard on lp but you don't wantbto run out.

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[fmartinmn]

Oh and expect the furnace to come on often so plan for lp. It's not that hard on lp but you don't wantbto run out.

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We were caught in the Texas winter storm/blackout earlier this year. We were in our Imagine 2970RL. With temps in the mid 20s, our 30,000BTU furnace was running at a 39% duty cycle at 62 degrees in the trailer. With temps in the single digits, the duty cycle became 79%. I kept calculations so I could estimate when to change out tanks. I didn't want run out in the middle of the night. Also keep an eye on your battery, below a certain level the furnace will not fire. With a cheap dealer provided lead acid battery, I had to charge it from the truck every couple of hours. Best of luck. Frank.

 

[Ynot4me2]

We were caught in the Texas winter storm/blackout earlier this year. We were in our Imagine 2970RL. With temps in the mid 20s, our 30,000BTU furnace was running at a 39% duty cycle at 62 degrees in the trailer. With temps in the single digits, the duty cycle became 79%. I kept calculations so I could estimate when to change out tanks. I didn't want run out in the middle of the night. Also keep an eye on your battery, below a certain level the furnace will not fire. With a cheap dealer provided lead acid battery, I had to charge it from the truck every couple of hours. Best of luck. Frank.

I got the Mopeka tank sensors and really like them.

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[Overtaxed]

I got the Mopeka tank sensors and really like them.

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2nd that, they work well.

To the OP, 25 degrees is no problem. Yes, water will freeze at 32, but 25 overnight, except for external hoses, you're probably not going to freeze anything in the RV with the furnace not on at all. Now, I wouldn't bet my water lines or pump on it, but I'd be kind of surprised if 25 as an overnight low broke a pipe (when the daytime temps are 40-50's, you'll get a lot of latent heat build up).

We've had our 351M down to about 10 or so degrees. It's comfortable, but I wish we'd gotten double pane windows in that type of weather. We do a lot of winter camping (unlike most, we don't use our RV very much/at all in the summer, we camp fall/winter/spring and then put it up for the hot weather), and honestly, for normal "cold" (not Montana cold!), just run the heat to a temp that's comfortable and make sure you protect the outdoor water hose.

 

[Riverbug]

Here's another tip for the MLE in cold weather... You may have noticed the bath heat vent blows so much air compared to the others (at least ours does) so it makes the little bathroom almost unbearable when the door is closed for any length of time. If you remove the plastic panel below the shower pan, you will see it's pretty open to the underbelly and tanks. You can disconnect the heat vent and point it down that hole to add more heat below. I intent to put a Y connector there, but have not done that yet.

 

[marktedder]

Camping at 25°

We will be in southern Utah end of October in a 2021 Imagine xls 22mle. Lows should be no lower than 25 degrees. Should we worry about pipes freezing?
What do you do in those temps ?
Thanks!

Last year we were in our 2020, momentum 25G toy hauler and our pipes froze at 20° and had to wait till the temperature the next day approached 33 to 34° before we were able to flush so be warned. ?

 

[BAP911]

We often do it with our 22mle. The key is to keep the furnace on and the hot water tank. The furnace is what heats the underbelly where all the plumbing is. If it goes below freezing, disconnect the water hose going to get tt if it's not heated. We always keep about 1/3 water in the fresh tank for this. You'll want to get a small dehumidifier for inside the tt to help with the condensation that you get.

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Humidity in Utah at 25 degrees is going to be between 5% and 20%. We have to have a whole house humidifier to add humidity to our home. If I'm camping at that temp I sometimes boil water to add humidity to the RV.

 

[LIBBY123]

I have used our 22mle alot last winter when I was working out of town. It is very comfortable at temps down to 20 25. A space heater and using fresh tank. Of course highs got into the 30s and 40s during the day. One night it got down to 13, and I would say that's below my limit. Nothing froze, but the inside just had a very cold feeling, air was still 70 inside, but walls and windows were letting alot of cold air through.

 

[dpisano]

We will be in southern Utah end of October in a 2021 Imagine xls 22mle. Lows should be no lower than 25 degrees. Should we worry about pipes freezing?
What do you do in those temps ?
Thanks!

We have a 2018 Imagine 2950RL and camped in the mountains of North Carolina in April when the temperatures got down to 8 degrees overnight. The campground advised us they would be shutting down the water after 7 PM and to fill up our fresh tanks if we needed water. Some of the spickets froze each night a bit for some, but no problems in the camper at all. It was only 2 nights, but went well.

Ran the furnace and the fireplace and didn't run into any problems for the two nights. No frozen water lines.

 

[BackCountry-MGRV]

Living in the coldest location in the lower 48 I have had plenty of experience with cold and 5th Wheels. Our Momentum 328G is not winterized from March thru early November. Temps here are already getting into the lower 20's overnight and will be in the teens by October. 5th Wheel and plumbing stay well above freezing currently just from the solar heat built up over the day. Once the days get into the 50's for highs and the nights into the teens (any day now) I will hook up a 100 lb propane tank and set the thermostat inside to 48* which keeps things from freezing up until I winterize for the year in November.

We use our 5th Wheel a lot in cold temps and have had no problem with anything freezing up even when it has gotten into the negative temps. We like to sleep cold so I set the thermostat to 62* over night and raise it to 68* when we get up - typically by the time we get up on cold mornings the sun is already warming up the camper. Spring and fall we pick locations to set up with the curb side facing east and the porch facing south in the open without trees to take advantage of solar gain for both passive solar heat and to optimize our solar panels charging capabilities. I have two Lead Acid batteries which are fully charged each evening through the solar panels and sometimes with the help of the on board generator when the days are real short or cloudy and have never had an issue running out of power to run the furnace - when parked at home on a 100 lb cylinder we are always plugged into 50 Amp service.

I would say as long you have enough battery power and propane and keep the furnace set to at least 50* and the hot water heater on you should be fine. Out west with our low humidity we have never experienced a problem with moisture in the trailer even on the coldest nights - a smaller camper may encounter moisture build up. If you use a hose for city water hook up, disconnect and drain it when it is cold or wrap with heat tape.

 

[IBEW Sparky]

Ditto to all of the above. Since owning my GD I haven't camped in below freezing temps but have done it many times in my previous Keystone TT and only ever had a few issues. One being that because my shower/tub was in the very rear of the RV the trap below it froze in temps that were in the low 20's overnight. After that I would simply put about 1/2 cup of RV antifreeze in it after using it. Also I always kept the door open on my bathroom sink cabinet because part of those pipes were also combined with the outside shower. If you have an outside shower also disconnect and drain that line too. If you're gonna have full shore power then also have a couple of 1500W ceramic disk heaters to use.... when paying for electric I always use them and save some propane. Just beware tho because you're furnace needs to run to ensure some heat in the underbelly.

 

[gfl123]

20 ish seems to be where the low point drain will freeze upwards and block any water flow downstream of that. heat tape on that and a heated water line would keep you in water if needed. some would say keep a trickle of water running if you have the gray tank valve open to help avoid freezing if heat tapes aren't an option

 

[SolarPoweredRV]

20 ish seems to be where the low point drain will freeze upwards and block any water flow downstream of that. heat tape on that and a heated water line would keep you in water if needed. some would say keep a trickle of water running if you have the gray tank valve open to help avoid freezing if heat tapes aren't an option

I would be cautious of keeping a trickle running in the camper because the drain can also freeze and you don't want that line plugged up.

 

[Pacific Fisher]

Curious what brand of ceramic heaters do folks recommend to run off campground power?

Thanks