Deciding whether to tow 5th wheel to Colorado Springs from Georgia

[tomswolfpack]

Originally Posted by larkar

Thanks for the info, NMWildcat -- we will be there up to two weeks, so that's why we were considering towing the camper. Not to mention as much as we love our grandkids, I'm sure my husband and I will need a break from three grandkids 4 months, 7 months, and 2 years...

Run forest run! Grandkids are great but run forest run

[Eidolon]

You really don't want to tow that far and stay in what is going to be a very cold stretch. Today the high is around 20, low of maybe 5. Saturday looks to be above freezing then back in the icebox. I live just north of the SpringsThen there is the risk of your trailer wanting to come up and see what's up ahead.

[larkar]

I appreciate everyone's input and I thought I'd give an update on what we decided regarding towing our 5th wheel to Colorado or not.

Flying was not an option since we were moving my daughter (and her things), so we went ahead and towed the fifth wheel. We watched the weather across all of the states we planned to travel through, came up with six different routes, etc. and finally decided to take the northern route through Kansas even though that's where winter storm Eboni was heading. The worst parts of the trip turned out not to be fear of snow, but of the pot holes on the highways, especially in Tennessee and Kentucky, and the 20-30 mph winds we faced one night in Missouri and then a couple of days once we were in Colorado Springs.


What we learned:

- our camper may not be a strictly four season RV, but it did a *very* good job of handling the weather. It was below zero and in single digits a couple of nights with the high not getting out of the twenties a few days, yet we stayed warm. The main living area was a bit chilly (around 60 degrees one day) even with the gas furnace and the electric fireplace running, but because of the location of the vents in the bathroom and entryway to the bedroom, we had to close the bedroom off because it got too hot


- the tank heaters did a great job of keeping the tanks from freezing, but we kept minimal water in them just in case. We were not able to hook up water to the camper because the pipes at my son's house were frozen underground, but we did hook up at campsites on the way out and on the way home in below freezing weather and it was fine


- it is not a good idea to try to put up a skirting of 4mil plastic in 20 mph winds --- plan to do it ahead of the winds


- the first day in Colorado, we found a 1 inch strip of frost inside the upper edge of all of the cabinets. I dried them out and then we left the cabinets open to let heat in. No problem with condensation the rest of the time there -- partly because of the open doors, but mostly because the climate was so dry.

- when the winds are high, the slide covers make a LOT of noise. One night when the winds were especially brutal, we had to pull in the slide on the windward side.


- the DOT sites of states prone to snow are very helpful. I kept a watch on kandrive.org (Kansas DOT) to watch the conditions on I-70 and watch for road closures


- I learned to make sure the campgrounds we've stayed at in the past, as well as alternatives in case we got stuck in snow and ice on the way, were open year round. We found some of the back up campgrounds were open, but did not have water available.


- it was helpful to keep an indoor/outdoor thermometer in the truck while traveling. We had the outdoor part in the storage compartment of the fifth wheel. When we stopped for gas or restroom breaks, we ran the gas furnace for a little while if it got near or below zero.


Thanks again for everyone's input!

[ependydad]

Awesome update, thanks! Hope your daughter is all settled in.

[5picker]

Yep... thanks so much for sharing your REAL WORLD experiences.

[dnicoll]

Glad to hear everything went ‘well’ for you! I gather, home safe and sound and daughter settled in. I am not sure I would have been up to making that trip! Good job

[Paulie1138]

I also appreciate you taking the time to post up your results. Food for thought for us when planning cold weather trips.

[valleyduo]

Glad it was a safe trip. I love happy endings.

[ProfChuck]

So glad you made it safely. Thought of you folks many times as we watched the weather across the nation, both on our network news and local station news. Now you can relax until the spring trip. Hope your son got his pipes unfrozen! Have a great New Year!

[Ray Deason]

I would not go to Colorado now with snow on the mountains.

[larkar]

Guess it depends on where in Colorado you are going. It turned out really well for us coming in through Kansas to Limon, CO and then down to Colorado Springs. Turns out if we had taken the southern route, it would have been worse x 10. We were very fortunate, we had planned ahead, and we wouldn't have hesitated to camp a few extra days on the way in if the weather had been inclement/unsafe for travel.

[Mr. Dan]

No further suggestions are needed for this OP and his decision-making. Here's the report of his decision and its outcome.

Originally Posted by larkar

I appreciate everyone's input and I thought I'd give an update on what we decided regarding towing our 5th wheel to Colorado or not.

Flying was not an option since we were moving my daughter (and her things), so we went ahead and towed the fifth wheel. We watched the weather across all of the states we planned to travel through, came up with six different routes, etc. and finally decided to take the northern route through Kansas even though that's where winter storm Eboni was heading. The worst parts of the trip turned out not to be fear of snow, but of the pot holes on the highways, especially in Tennessee and Kentucky, and the 20-30 mph winds we faced one night in Missouri and then a couple of days once we were in Colorado Springs.


What we learned:

- our camper may not be a strictly four season RV, but it did a *very* good job of handling the weather. It was below zero and in single digits a couple of nights with the high not getting out of the twenties a few days, yet we stayed warm. The main living area was a bit chilly (around 60 degrees one day) even with the gas furnace and the electric fireplace running, but because of the location of the vents in the bathroom and entryway to the bedroom, we had to close the bedroom off because it got too hot


- the tank heaters did a great job of keeping the tanks from freezing, but we kept minimal water in them just in case. We were not able to hook up water to the camper because the pipes at my son's house were frozen underground, but we did hook up at campsites on the way out and on the way home in below freezing weather and it was fine


- it is not a good idea to try to put up a skirting of 4mil plastic in 20 mph winds --- plan to do it ahead of the winds


- the first day in Colorado, we found a 1 inch strip of frost inside the upper edge of all of the cabinets. I dried them out and then we left the cabinets open to let heat in. No problem with condensation the rest of the time there -- partly because of the open doors, but mostly because the climate was so dry.

- when the winds are high, the slide covers make a LOT of noise. One night when the winds were especially brutal, we had to pull in the slide on the windward side.


- the DOT sites of states prone to snow are very helpful. I kept a watch on kandrive.org (Kansas DOT) to watch the conditions on I-70 and watch for road closures


- I learned to make sure the campgrounds we've stayed at in the past, as well as alternatives in case we got stuck in snow and ice on the way, were open year round. We found some of the back up campgrounds were open, but did not have water available.


- it was helpful to keep an indoor/outdoor thermometer in the truck while traveling. We had the outdoor part in the storage compartment of the fifth wheel. When we stopped for gas or restroom breaks, we ran the gas furnace for a little while if it got near or below zero.


Thanks again for everyone's input!