Lessons learned for cold weather camping

[Pap and Mimi]

Since the grocery stores were closed on Christmas day, and we were leaving on 12/26, we did the grocery shopping on 12/24 and loaded the camper. With the temps below/near zero, the groceries didn't fare too well, especially the wife's diet Cokes. 5 of 8 bottles froze and exploded coating the inside of the camper with Cokesicles. Baking potatoes and bagged lettuce also do not like to be frozen and turn mushy when thawed.

Lesson 1 - Run the heat in the camper or store groceries in the house and load at departure,

Arrived at Great Smoky Mountains after dark and mid 20 degree, set up campsite, and tried to fill fresh tank. Diverter valve was a little sticky but I turned it anyway...handle came off in my hand. I opened the panel the next day and bypassed the valve with a trip to a local hardware store. see pic.

Lesson 2 - Don't force valves to rotate when it hasn't been above freezing for several days.

 

[Soundsailor]

Since the grocery stores were closed on Christmas day, and we were leaving on 12/26, we did the grocery shopping on 12/24 and loaded the camper. With the temps below/near zero, the groceries didn't fare too well, especially the wife's diet Cokes. 5 of 8 bottles froze and exploded coating the inside of the camper with Cokesicles. Baking potatoes and bagged lettuce also do not like to be frozen and turn mushy when thawed.

Lesson 1 - Run the heat in the camper or store groceries in the house and load at departure,

Arrived at Great Smoky Mountains after dark and mid 20 degree, set up campsite, and tried to fill fresh tank. Diverter valve was a little sticky but I turned it anyway...handle came off in my hand. I opened the panel the next day and bypassed the valve with a trip to a local hardware store. see pic.

Lesson 2 - Don't force valves to rotate when it hasn't been above freezing for several days.

Sometimes lessons hurt. Glad you were able to make the repairs.

 

[traveldawg]

Thanks for passing on the lessons learned. We all learn from others experiences.

 

[Pap and Mimi]

Weather person said no more temps below freezing for Kentucky, so I put the Nautilus panel back together with a new city/tank valve, pressure tested, and flushed the lines. It looks like everything is working correctly and, so far, no leaks.

 

[Russell Riggan]

UGH!
I also learned the lesson if the overnight temps are forecast to be below freezing, to fill the fresh water tank, then disconnect the hose at both ends. I also put a 90 degree brass hose elbow on by water. It stopped all the leaking, and makes hose management much easier for me.

 

[trailrydr]

And for "MY" personal lesson 3....

Dont live a shoe box in a state that winter temps goes below freezing.

 

[Dick Noble]

Education is expensive.

 

[JFF&KRN]

Education is expensive.

Yes education can be expensive.
cold weather is ok i fyou plan ahead and keep things working and on the up and up. For us, we have everything with us as needed to endure hot and cold weather. We have pool noodles for exterior water lines, plenty of propane, as needed bubble foil for windows. We decided to take a little trip to north eastern arizona and left last friday, cold but fine, the first couple nights in the 30's and last night 30* at 3 am and 26* at 5:30 am. the high today I think was about 45*, 6:45 pm and it is 32*. believe it is supposed to be in the teens. So with the fireplace going and the heater set, we should make it another night. coldest we have been at was 15* and made it just fine. so we will see what tonight is going to be and how we make it.
As far as education goes, just think how expensive school is and they don't teach all that we have figured out in our years of experience and are able to share with others at just the cost of the forum $1.00 per month. if i was on the forum from my inception, i would have spent about $750. We have been there in hot up to 118* and cold to 11*. so keep on keeping on.

 

[JFF&KRN]

well a quick update.
first off a correction on above, we have drycamped at as low as 11* and hooked up as low as 15*.
Last night, all was fine, pool noodles on the hose, shut off valve and filter wrapped with cheap harbor freight mooving pad. all fine the night before. Last night, 20* at 2 am, water was still running. this morning at 6 am it was 14* and no water. Went out and turned off the hose spigot, which i believe was frozen and swithed over to the pump. As the basement is heated there wasn't an issue there, then turned on pump, all good had water. as i figured, the valve was frozen so not sure about the hose.
Anyway, my test and observation for this project. i will use pool noodle down to 30 ish over night, and if going to be below, turn things off and use the pump. During dry camping times, we have never had an issue except one time on our 303 where i didn't have hot water at the kitchen island, the water line was laying directly on the underbelly which was taken care of.
have a great day, thanks for letting me babble.

 

[MapleKing]

Just to add to the lessons learned, I had to camp in central Illinois last November/early December. I did a lot of reading and gave a lot of thought before we did but I did walk away with some lessons learned.

For preparations I acquired a small 300 watt heater for the front bay of our 2021 Transcend travel trailer. I knew there was heat going to underbelly but not that area. I also purchased a heated water hose. We were only there for 4 weeks so I couldn't put skirting up. I also kept our fresh water tank full and used that for water. I felt that a large mass of water was harder to freeze than a small one and this would give us a supply of water should the hose freeze for some reason.

First lesson was don't leave your grey tank open. I know that this one is controversial even in summer but when parked for a week or more I'll leave it open because our grey tank fills up in 2-3 days and the black tank fills in 8-9 days. On day 6 I usually close the grey tank and it will be full and ready to flush the hoses after emptying the black tank. In any event, this didn't work so well in the winter, particularly after the night my midwestern wife suggests leaving the faucet open for a trickle when the forecast was for temps in the single digits. This caused the entire tank to fill because the hose was filled with ice. To remedy this, I put a large heating pad on the lower end of the hose and covered it by a moving blanket. I left it on there for about an hour and then moved it up the hose about 24". After 8 hours I had thawed out the whole hose. It helped that it was a sunny day and the hose is dark.

Second lesson - have a backup heating source. Our gas heater failed or stopped working. Still doesn't work and that's why I'm looking on the forward and thought I would add my 2 cents to this thread. I'm glad that we had another heater to augment the main heater.

That's all I can think off. The coldest it got for us was 9.