Georgetown Camping in cool (cold) weather

RVCrazy · 10-07-2015, 11:42 AM

We are looking at going on a camping trip in October/November. We are NOT going to be going if there is snow on the ground but the weather can get cool at night. Well maybe I should say below freezing at night. We will be staying in an RV park. Anyone have any suggestions on what we should or should not do during our stay? Should we invest in a heated water hose? What about the sewer hose? I am assuming that since we will be living in the motorhome and will have the heat on the plumbing etc should be fine. We will winterize immediately upon returning home!

oldprof1 · 10-07-2015, 11:59 AM

Does your MH have the "arctic pack"? If it does the water tanks have heaters so no problem there. If not 4 gallons of water will not freeze unless the temperature really drops below freezing. The only thing you could do is disconnect the water (fresh) from the tap at night and drain it, and bring it inside. If the campground you are staying at experiences freezing problems they install self draining water supplies. Where are you going? I'm two hours north of Toronto and the nights are not cool enough to cause problems at least for another month. Enjoy

RVCrazy · 10-07-2015, 12:14 PM

Inland area of the Pacific Northwest. Have had a couple of days with nightime temps in the 30's already but don't stay that low for long. We are talking about 3 -6 weeks from now and the temps will be significantly cooler then. Yes the motorhome has arctic pack!

oldprof1 · 10-07-2015, 12:19 PM

Unless the temperature goes to -4C (20F) for the entire night no problem. If it does bring in the fresh water hose as I suggested.

ChrisAndGarren · 10-07-2015, 02:17 PM

If you are going to be in an RV park, I'd recommend getting an electric space heater vs using the furnace - I found the furnace to be very loud and distracting vs a nice electric heater. And if you have full hookups, you've already paid for the electricity vs the propane for the furnace.

Watertown · 10-07-2015, 07:45 PM

If you are only going to use a space heater also consider getting a small dehumidifier.

Canadiancrew · 10-07-2015, 08:10 PM

If it's only a few degrees below freezing the only thing I would worry about is the fresh water hose. That's the only thing we have had freeze by morning. We will be out this week in the trailer but it should stay above freezing for us.

TARVIDSON · 10-08-2015, 12:19 PM

The furnace keeps your tanks and water pump warm, the space heater does not. If it is getting close to 20F I use the furnace.

glenn56h · 10-08-2015, 02:06 PM

05 gtwn 375 xl ts WITH ARTIC pack tanks do not freeze BUT some pipes did in va in jan ( 6 degrees) not all pipes are protected I turned on engine to warm up underside before I used the water to flush toilet or use a little antifreeze to flush

ChrisAndGarren · 10-08-2015, 06:02 PM

They are camping in the inland PNW - it's not going to be arctic out there - maybe low 30's at night, but much warmer during the day.

SkipnTerri · 10-08-2015, 06:18 PM

We had an '07 Georgetown and camped with temp getting to -6 F. Turned on Arctic Pac, ran furnace, and used electric space heater. Invest in a heated water hose and make sure to disconnect sewer hose. No worries!

cap2015 · 10-09-2015, 08:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RVCrazy

We are looking at going on a camping trip in October/November. We are NOT going to be going if there is snow on the ground but the weather can get cool at night. Well maybe I should say below freezing at night. We will be staying in an RV park. Anyone have any suggestions on what we should or should not do during our stay? Should we invest in a heated water hose? What about the sewer hose? I am assuming that since we will be living in the motorhome and will have the heat on the plumbing etc should be fine. We will winterize immediately upon returning home!

We cover our water hose with a foam water heater insulation pipe.This prevents the water in the hose from freezing and cracking your hose. These are easy to store when not in use and pretty cheap.

jrmartin67 · 10-09-2015, 08:40 AM

Okay, I have a question from south Texas: What is this "freezing" phenomenon you guys are talking about? Please explain "freezing."

PS: it will be 90 deg F this afternoon here.

mark0224 · 10-09-2015, 09:06 AM

Never tried late camping but would take space heater to augment the furnace and make sure you have plenty of propane. You might want to leave some cabinets open over night to get heat to pipes. As to jrmartin67's explain freezing, It's us coming to where you are in January and everyone there is wearing winter coats and we wander around in short sleeve shirts. Or here when you put a cooler outside, when the power goes out, to store food. The real reason I responded was to ask if or how do you use hot water heater and keep it from freezing being that it is exposed to the outside?

SkipnTerri · 10-09-2015, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mark0224

Never tried late camping but would take space heater to augment the furnace and make sure you have plenty of propane. You might want to leave some cabinets open over night to get heat to pipes. As to jrmartin67's explain freezing, It's us coming to where you are in January and everyone there is wearing winter coats and we wander around in short sleeve shirts. Or here when you put a cooler outside, when the power goes out, to store food. The real reason I responded was to ask if or how do you use hot water heater and keep it from freezing being that it is exposed to the outside?

As long as you are running the hot water heater either electric or propane, it maintains 8/10 gallons of hot water. No freeze issues there.

Falcon35 · 10-09-2015, 10:00 AM

The one thing that you need to make sure is protected is the valve on the back of the fridge for the water dispenser/ice maker. The arctic pak has a heater the valve but it must be turned on as that area is not well protected. Do not ask me how I know but have shut the water of to the fridge. We had the valve replaced but they didn't put the arctic pak back properly so I have just shut the water of.

pmsherman · 10-10-2015, 08:49 AM

I made a number of modifications to my 2011 Georgetown 327DS to support cold weather use. The Arctic Pac on my unit, as far as I can tell, does not heat the fresh water tank. There's also no heat in the plumbing compartment other than what bleeds out through the insulation around the hot water tank. The heating ducts that run through the compartment are insulated and provide almost no heat.

I added a 300W gutter heating strip to the compartment, attaching it with zip ties to all of the pipes and putting a few wraps around the filter housing. The electrical outlet I added to the ceiling of the compartment is fed from the Xantrex 1kw inverter I had installed behind the sink when I bought the unit. A remote reading thermometer was added to the compartment to allow monitoring the compartment temperature. The heating strip has its own thermostat and draws no power once it's not needed any more.

I use electric space heaters inside the RV and run from internal water all the time. This limits me to staying in RV parks at night or running the generator. The fresh water tank is filled in the morning once the temperature rises above freezing. Bubble foam covers for the windows make a significant difference in internal temperature because we don't have double pane windows.

I saw the effects of not shutting off the hydrant at an RV park a couple of years ago. The hydrant pipe froze then broke and turned into a sprinkler. The park owner told the RV owner that he's have to pay for the repairs, around $1000 for parts and labor - remember, the ground was frozen and would take a lot of work for a plumber to dig up.

Phil

rampddc · 10-10-2015, 09:50 AM

Good Video that may help you. https://youtu.be/n5RGlcLSrM4

happywhencamping · 10-10-2015, 09:18 PM

We were at 25 deg when we first got our unit, no issues. It was one night. We were told that these units are really 3 season campers, there is no real protection under the unit. The tank heaters will help some.

I do not like to use propane, so we keep a small oil radiant heater for sold times and set the furnace on 50 or so. So far, the furnace has not come on.

Some people put a small light in the water pump and the water compartment to keep things warm.

With our previous camper, we had a wrapped underbelly and the furnace blew air in there to keep stuff warm. We have been down to 20, had the hose freeze, but we have never had a problem with the sewer hose. i guess that if you had a loop of standing water and really cold temps the sewer could freeze.

I made a home made heated hose with a 25 ft hose, heater tape, 1 in pipe insulation and a ton of duct tape. It has worked like a charm down to 20.

We are going out for turkey day, so we will see how we fair.

DRNoes · 10-19-2015, 07:06 PM

Our GT has the heater strips which do real good job in keeping it warm without having to use the furnace and propane. Check and see if your GT came with the Heater strips

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