Cold Weather Advice/Experience

Gary Harrison

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Apr 19, 2020
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28
Location
Central Wisconsin
Hi all,

Looking for some experience here. We were just leave Saturday (from central WI) for a month’s trip to Gulf Shores when our truck failed literally on the on-ramp to the freeway! We may be able to get it fixed in time to recoup part of our trip. My question is - it’s cold here! For the next few days, the highs will be in the mid- to low-30’s and the overnight will dip to 20. We’d be leaving in three days if we go. I have the heat set to 62, the water heater on, the cabinet doors open, and I’m sleeping in the rig, pulling water through four five times a night. Our rig is a 17MKE with is supposed to have Arctic Insulation (four season?). The question is, do I risk it or do I winterize? What’s your experience?

Thanks!
Gary & Marie
 
Literally takes 5 minutes or less to winterize a unit

5 minutes? Wow! That would be worth a Youtube video. From start (pulling the antifreeze out of the truck) to finish (putting the empty containers back into the truck), I doubt I could do it in less than 30 minutes.
 
5 minutes? Wow! That would be worth a Youtube video. From start (pulling the antifreeze out of the truck) to finish (putting the empty containers back into the truck), I doubt I could do it in less than 30 minutes.
If it all goes smoothly, I'm usually looking at about 20 minutes or so. I don't do any air, just pump in the antifreeze, pour some down the traps/tanks, and call it good. It's worked for over 10 years, and counting. :)
 
I like what Hoppy Frood (great handle) said. I do that but first I blow all the air out. May not need to but it has worked for me for over 30 years. Yes, I am an old guy.
 
All good, but then I need to de-winterize in a day or so. It's just a pain, and wastes 4 gallons of antifreeze fluid if not necessary. However, truck fixed, on my way in 15 minutes. Thanks all!

Gary
 
All good, but then I need to de-winterize in a day or so. It's just a pain, and wastes 4 gallons of antifreeze fluid if not necessary. However, truck fixed, on my way in 15 minutes. Thanks all!

Gary

Glad you got the truck fixed and are on your way. With the temps you describe, you'd probably have been fine with the furnace on and warming the underbelly. I've camped with temps in the low 20s overnight with no problem. One trick I've heard of is to place an incandescent light bulb near the water lines in the belly, it generates just enough heat to keep a freeze away.
 
5 minutes? Wow! That would be worth a Youtube video. From start (pulling the antifreeze out of the truck) to finish (putting the empty containers back into the truck), I doubt I could do it in less than 30 minutes.

You just bring in the jugs , put the hose into the jugs and turn the pump on, run the faucets till the pink comes and that is it. Unsure what you are doing to take 30 minutes
 
For future reference...we leave from MN for FL in December and return in February or March depending on year. In December I will turn the furnace on a couple days ahead of time while we are packing up, and I add water to the fresh tank for first leg of the drive. We make the first day a long drive day so we can get down to northern MO where overnights are high 20's or low 30's that time of year. We do use the water in the camper on the drive down. Sometimes we have slush in the line by the time we get to MO but once the furnace is turned back on it thaws and starts flowing within 30 minutes. While overnighting we have had temps as low as 17 degrees and no problem with water lines. This all hinges on using the furnace and not electric heaters in the unit; you want the heat to blow into the belly. So, going forward I don't think you need to worry about situations like the one you were in.

I did decide to add heat pads to our tanks this fall, and while under there I opened a second duct in the belly for more heat flow under there since we have plenty of heat in the unit. Have a fun trip!
 
I agree with Chad. As long as you run the furnace the trailer can handle a little below freezing for a while. If you turn the hot water tank on it will be like a radiant heat source for the plumbing in the basement as well.
This past April here my non winterized trailer went through a 10 days or so of daytime highs of -2C with night time lows of -6C to -9C. I kept the furnace at 10C and the hot water tank on. I will admit, I was concerned, but once the weather warmed up I had no plumbing issues. I think the pex and soft hose have little problem dealing with freezing. Plastic pex fittings are probably the weakest spot. And I keep taps open so if freezing happens, the ice has somewhere to expand rather than breaking the fixture.

Glad your truck got fixed up fast.

Happy travels Gary and Marie
 
Thanks all! We're in Rockford, IL, heading south (Rock Cut State Park). 28 and snow last night, but all is well. Water flowing, cat is warm, RV-ing is great. Riverbug and Scott 'n' Wendy your posts were particularly reassuring. I now have a baseline of experience I can draw on. Happy Traveling!
 
Greetings from Gulf State Park! Since I posed the question, I thought I'd give my experience. Coming down from Wausau, we had 28 in Rockford, 27 in Mt. Vernon, and 18 in Cornersville, TN. Other than burning through a boatload of gas, the rig was fine, was comfortable and weathered it fine. I should add that every time one of us got up o use the bathroom, we pulled a bit of water through all the faucets to keep things moving. I have a new confidence in the 17MKE!

Thanks all,

Gary & Marie
 
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I agree with Chad. As long as you run the furnace the trailer can handle a little below freezing for a while. If you turn the hot water tank on it will be like a radiant heat source for the plumbing in the basement as well.
This past April here my non winterized trailer went through a 10 days or so of daytime highs of -2C with night time lows of -6C to -9C. I kept the furnace at 10C and the hot water tank on. I will admit, I was concerned, but once the weather warmed up I had no plumbing issues. I think the pex and soft hose have little problem dealing with freezing. Plastic pex fittings are probably the weakest spot. And I keep taps open so if freezing happens, the ice has somewhere to expand rather than breaking the fixture.

Glad your truck got fixed up fast.

Happy travels Gary and Marie

I hadn't thought about turning on the water heater for additional heat in the system. Now that we have enough battery capacity I'll turn it on electric while we're traveling and see if I can notice any difference in anything. Certainly can't hurt. And when we stop for breaks I could also run a bit of hot water through the lines and perhaps avoid the slush situation altogether. Thanks for the idea.
 
Greetings from Gulf State Park! Since I posed the question, I thought I'd give my experience. Coming down from Wausau, we had 28 in Rockford, 27 in Mt. Vernon, and 18 in Cornersville, TN. Other than burning through a boatload of gas, the rig was fine, was comfortable and weathered it fine. I should add that every time one of us got up o use the bathroom, we pulled a bit of water through all the faucets to keep things moving. I have a new confidence in the 17MKE!

Thanks all,

Gary & Marie

That's great news! It's so much better than the old days before they covered the underside of the RV's. You wouldn't think that Coraplast and radiant barrier could make much difference, but it really does. I forgot to mention that at the same time I added tank heat pads this summer, I also added a layer of Reflectix to the entire underbelly as well. Will be interested to see how things work as we travel in winter.
 
Greetings from Gulf State Park! Since I posed the question, I thought I'd give my experience. Coming down from Wausau, we had 28 in Rockford, 27 in Mt. Vernon, and 18 in Cornersville, TN. Other than burning through a boatload of gas, the rig was fine, was comfortable and weathered it fine. I should add that every time one of us got up o use the bathroom, we pulled a bit of water through all the faucets to keep things moving. I have a new confidence in the 17MKE!

Thanks all,

Gary & Marie

Sweet - that's what we have. Good to know it held up!
 
4 gallons of antifreeze = $20
How much is repairing freeze issues? just sayin....
 
4 gallons of antifreeze = $20
How much is repairing freeze issues? just sayin....

This is true and makes sense if you don’t use the rig over winter. But i think the OP wanted to use it, and didn’t want to repeatedly de-winterize/winterize it.


My 17 MKE is currently sitting in 11F here in Texas, and I installed a 400W bilge heater in the underbelly. I have it hooked up to a power supply and it is currently 41F under there. I wanted to avoid winterizing it because these polar temps only last for a handful of days here and we use it in between.
 
This is true and makes sense if you don’t use the rig over winter. But i think the OP wanted to use it, and didn’t want to repeatedly de-winterize/winterize it.


My 17 MKE is currently sitting in 11F here in Texas, and I installed a 400W bilge heater in the underbelly. I have it hooked up to a power supply and it is currently 41F under there. I wanted to avoid winterizing it because these polar temps only last for a handful of days here and we use it in between.

A bilge heater is an excellent way to keep water lines warm enough not to freeze.
 
This is true and makes sense if you don’t use the rig over winter. But i think the OP wanted to use it, and didn’t want to repeatedly de-winterize/winterize it.


My 17 MKE is currently sitting in 11F here in Texas, and I installed a 400W bilge heater in the underbelly. I have it hooked up to a power supply and it is currently 41F under there. I wanted to avoid winterizing it because these polar temps only last for a handful of days here and we use it in between.

Would you mind elaborating on where and how you positioned the bilge heater in the underbelly? Is it permanently mounted? How do you turn it on/off as needed? Etc., etc.,? Sounds like a great idea; interested to know more about how you went about it. Our 23LDE is very similar to the layout regarding water lines run the entire length of the RV and down both sides in the belly. Where did you place the heater to be most effective?
 
I will probably start a new thread to detail the install, but I placed it in the driver-side rear corner. It's tight,but has has a good void around the black tank and under the shower to push the air around. It switches itself on and off (45F I think is the trigger). The bilge heater has a 15 ft power cable which I just threaded between the coroplast underbelly and the frame and plugged into an outlet (you could pass it around and plug it into the RV's exterior 120v outlet as well.)
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