Upper 20s to 30 degrees — First Outing

[Andy+Mo]

I am pulling the 303RLS out this weekend and flushing the water system. We bought it in the fall and want to take it on a local two night trip before doing a longer trip at the end of the month. I saw temps at night will be about 30 where we are going. We only have electric so I am gonna fill the fresh water tank. Any concerns about temps being just below freezing at night? Any recommendations to make sure I don’t damage something?

 

[TucsonJim]

Have a great trip. Overnight lows just below freezing should be no issue at all. Just run your furnace before you go to bed to warm up the underbelly. We used ours this winter when the temps got down to 25 over night and there was no problem with freezing.

Jim

 

[Shannman]

If it has been sitting for a while, make sure you thoroughly check your battery cell levels and have a good charge. 30 degree's won't cause any damage in anyway shape or form to anything, but a battery in poor condition will not be so happy in freezing weather....

 

[Rapid1]

If it has been sitting for a while, make sure you thoroughly check your battery cell levels and have a good charge. 30 degree's won't cause any damage in anyway shape or form to anything, but a battery in poor condition will not be so happy in freezing weather....

Excellent advice...the battery compartment is not heated and a discharged battery could be ruined by freezing temps.

 

[WhittleBurner]

Actually hot weather is harder on a battery than the cold is.

 

[TucsonJim]

I think the point he was trying to make Gary is that when the battery is discharged, it is prone to freezing at higher temperatures than a fully charged battery is. But at 30°F it will be fine even if fully discharged. BTW, here's a good article on batteries vs. temperature.

http://www.dcpower.cc/030416-can-batteries-freeze.php

Jim

 

[WhittleBurner]

Sorry I see that now, skimmed over it to fast I apologize.

 

[Rapid1]

No biggy, I didn't really mean actual freezing anyway...tho that would do it. Mostly if a battery is discharged and it gets cold, it is less able to handle the parasitic loads that discharged it in the first place...as the voltage drops, the amps increase, compounding the discharge rate on an already discharged battery. It doesn't take long to drop below 10v or so and once it is there for very long, there's a good chance it won't come back. Used to see this all the time with RV and boat batteries...especially starting batteries that were not plugged in or otherwise charged in some fashion.

Actually, I just reread the original post and this is not what was being asked anyway. Being plugged in, the battery should stay charged and it doesn't really matter how cold it gets...and even not plugged in, it takes quite a while to discharge a battery with normal parasitic loads. I was originally responding to Shannman's post and thought it was good advice, sorry for the confusion.

 

[Andy+Mo]

Thanks for all the advice — trip went well.