Camping in cold weather advice needed

[Pezman]

Hello,

I own a 2005 Roo 232 (2 tent ends and a sliding couch). I plan to go to the pacific northwest in January/Feb for a few weeks. I've never taken it into cold weather and have no idea what I'd need to do to prepare for 25 degree nights. (I'll be staying on the coast and saw day temps to be around 46 and night around 28)

What I've done so far:
* Installed a vent cover so I can keep it open in the rain
* Added reflectix to the tent windows
* Added Pop Up Gizmos to the tent ends

I don't know what I should be considering. I have 3 small children and a wife who does not like the cold. I was reading the forums and saw suggestions for...

* Heat Tape for the water line, and insulation to go around the line.
* Adding an electric 1500w heater for nights that we have hook-ups
* Adding reflectix under the matresses

What should I be doing?
* Should I add insulation around the grey/black tanks?
* Should I add a cermaic heater and gas so I can keep it warmer?
* Should I get a dehumidifer so it doesn't get wet inside while it is so cold outside?

My wife likes our house at 72 degrees, so this should be interesting. Thanks in advance!

[Dave_Monica]

Does the 2005 Roo have an enclosed underbelly or did it come with tank heaters? If some of the camping will be without hookups, what do you have for battery(s) or generator. Running the furnace and fan will deplete the battery charge probably overnight particularly with the amount it will need to run with the tent ends on the camper. Humidity will definitely be an issue.

Do you have a prenuptial agreement?

Dave

[VinceU]

Originally Posted by Pezman

Hello,

I own a 2005 Roo 232 (2 tent ends and a sliding couch). I plan to go to the pacific northwest in January/Feb for a few weeks. I've never taken it into cold weather and have no idea what I'd need to do to prepare for 25 degree nights. (I'll be staying on the coast and saw day temps to be around 46 and night around 28)

What I've done so far:
* Installed a vent cover so I can keep it open in the rain
* Added reflectix to the tent windows
* Added Pop Up Gizmos to the tent ends

I don't know what I should be considering. I have 3 small children and a wife who does not like the cold. I was reading the forums and saw suggestions for...

* Heat Tape for the water line, and insulation to go around the line.
* Adding an electric 1500w heater for nights that we have hook-ups
* Adding reflectix under the matresses

What should I be doing?
* Should I add insulation around the grey/black tanks?
* Should I add a cermaic heater and gas so I can keep it warmer?
* Should I get a dehumidifer so it doesn't get wet inside while it is so cold outside?

My wife likes our house at 72 degrees, so this should be interesting. Thanks in advance!

How bout "get a room" Not only dh will hate you da kids will also. Pacific gas will love you though!

[Pezman]

I own a Yamaha 2400ishc. I think I should be able to keep the battery charged but I don't know if I should switch out the default marine battery with 2 deep cycle batteries to have it all last longer.

I don't know how to tell if my underbelly is enclosed. I can clearly see the exposed tanks, and there is no tank heater. Should I put some RV antifreeze in the tanks? Or should I tape a bunch of heat tape to them?

I'm up for modifying the camper to make this enjoyable, I simply don't know where to start.

[handbuilder]

My husband left for his annual road trip to Az last week in oir truck camper. He hit unexpected temps of negative 12 degrees in Buell ID and smartly took a hotel room. When he arrived in Vegas, he again got a room as the temps were unbearbly cold in the camper. Now he is in AZ where the temps are better but cold enough to have frozen his neighbors 5th wheel water lines...he's using propane & runs the Buddy Heater which keeps him snug. I am not sad that I wasnt on this trip...my tolerance for cold weather camping is 30 degrees...anything colder and I want a hotel room...nothing less enjoyable than waking up to potty the dogs in freezing weather - I can do that at home. LOL

Your predicted daytime temps are nice - thats an enjoyable temp, brisk and fresh! At nite, 28 will be cozy under bedding and the warmth of your furnace...

If your wife doesnt like to be cold, then postpone your trip or ensure she and the kids pack warm clothes to layer themselves and throw in some warm sleeping bags and sofa throws for lounging inside...lots of movies, games and books because they may not want to go outside if they are not used to the cold...also dont forget the chapstick, beanies and gloves. I live in eastern WA where we are in the low 20's now...warm compared to the single digits we had last week. Cold is cold at that point and miserable to step outside esp if there is snow to have to shovel...haha

Here is DH's set up this year...he opted to take the camper/trailer combo and the A-frame stayed home...I think I might fly down for a weekend to enjoy the sights with him...but last week I was stuck in airport for 6 hrs due to weather and mechanical probs related to the cold.

Please let us know how your trip goes! As long as you psyche up to be cold and prepare for it, I'll bet it wont be as "bad" as you imagine...

[coupevillefish]

If you are keeping the interior warm and have prepared your freshwater, I think you should be OK. We have camped in below freezing temps without problem. Just do not keep the city water hooked up at night. Our service depertment told me that freezing for less thean 24 hours rarely causes damage. Remeber that freesing does not break lines, thawing (expansion of the ice when it has no where to go) causes the damage.

That said, I don't see where you will need to do much with your waste tanks either.

The weather here can be cool and wet. If you are all cramped up inside, you may have condesation issues. The heat with a fan will help but allow some outside ventalation.

The other thing you don't mention is wind. With a tent camper, that would be a cocern. It can blow pretty hard in some places this time of year. I don't have any recommendations on this other than try to camp in a protected area and stay away from trees that might come down.

Have fun

Dave

[Iggy]

I wouldn't do it in a popup.
You will not survive well at night no matter what you set the heater at.
That heater will be working 24/7 and they sure suck up that propane in cold weather.

Get a room because you will be more comfortable or wait for summer to go.

[Mike001]

I have camped in the cold temps w/ just my son, the wife was not w/ us (thank God).
As miserable as it was, at least I didn't have her yelling at me all night and the next day. Sleeping in full clothes and a winter hat, still being cold, stinks! good luck!

[rockfordroo]

Remeber that freesing does not break lines, thawing (expansion of the ice when it has no where to go) causes the damage.

This person is INCORRECT.

It is the freezing that breaks the lines. When water freezes, it EXPANDS (this is why ice floats). The expanding ice is what breaks the lines. I'm an engineer at a nuclear power plant. When we need to isolate a pipe and there's no handy isolation valve, we purposely create an ice plug using liquid nitrogen in a jacket that wraps around the metal pipe. The expansion of the ice creates a plug 6-12 inches long. The expansion of the ice plug presses against the pipe wall, holding the plug in place and blocking water flow through the pipe so we can open up the end of the pipe and work on it. When we're done, we wait for the plug to thaw (it now CONTRACTS), and we're back in business. What may be causing the confusion is that with unintential freezing situations, the LEAK usually occurs when the ice thaws and now's there's liquid water available to come of of the hole that the ICE created.

[Iggy]

Lay person answer.

rockfordroo is correct that water freezing in RV plastic pipes expand them to a point until they fracture. When it warms up and thaws you find all the leaks.


And I'm not a nuclear engineer.

[Happy Vibe]

I would say a heated mattress pad is a must with hookups. If you think you are going to be able to make the trailer feel like your house at 72 I would get a hotel. I have camped in a popup and a tt in below freezing temps and if your not ready for the cold , and it sounds like DW is not, it can be miserable.
FYI Iggy the op has a hybrid not a popup.

[wlaczo]

I've camped in colder weather than that with our roo 19L. We used a down comforter with the heated beds on all night. If you don't have heated beds it will be chilly!!! I would be concerned with the lines freezing. We have the little heating pads on the tanks and drain valve and never had anything freeze yet.

[HONDAMAN174]

Ok...just did same scenario over thanksgiving at Williams ,AZ. And we have a pop-up so start laughing now!

For two evenings it got to 24. I had purchased heat tape but didn't use it because it said it would melt a rubber hose. Did go with the insulation though. Never unhooked the water line- just had a puddle (frozen) under the water connection in the morning. DW had purchased electric blankets just in case. Went with those along with the heated mattresses and it was wonderful. Kept at 65 inside at night cause we don't like cold toilets and ran a buddy heater. Beer chest was frozen solid each morning but defrosted enough by about 9 am for my "im on vacation drink"! In four days, including cooking thanksgiving dinner and dinner every night, went thru one 20 lb propane canister- second one was full. Oh yea- maybe a pair of thermals?

Don't put anti freeze in your fresh tank- it will take GALLONS of water to flush out that taste.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Iggy

Lay person answer.

rockfordroo is correct that water freezing in RV plastic pipes expand them to a point until they fracture. When it warms up and thaws you find all the leaks.


And I'm not a nuclear engineer.

Ditto. Fill a plastic bottle to the very top and freeze it. The bottle will expand and may very well burst; just like a pipe. Thawing just lets the water run out.

[Dave Lyon]

It sounds like you're off to a good start.

In those temperatures, I would not consider camping without hook ups. Without a hook up you will burn through propane and have major condensation issues.

[biken201]

We just got back from a few days at the Catalina SP near Tucson, AZ. The expected lows were to be in the mid 20s (which was concerning enough in our hybrid), but when we woke yesterday morning it was 13 degrees.

Fortunately we weathered the cold without damage, but we did cut the trip short a day early so we didn't push our luck.

I have the factory installed tank heaters that seemed to work fine. When we first woke up the water wouldn't flow (uh oh), but once I cranked the heat up inside the camper it flowed fine.

We had the heated mattresses set at "4," and the furnace at 65ish. I wouldn't have attempted it without hookups, and we ran an electric spaceheater all night which maintained the inside temps nicely.

I meant to buy and use reflectix, but never got around to it (it would definitely helped). I use the space blankets as PUGS, and they do work as professed. We had little condensation problems, but AZ isn't a very humid place.

We had 4 100lb dogs with the wife and me in the camper, so I assume that added to the heat maintenance.

The only problem I had was that the furnace would intermittently not work. I haven't yet troubleshot the issue, but fortunately the Mr Buddy and space heater picked up the slack.

I hope the info helps. I don't like pushing the envelope with a camper not designed for those type of temps, but at least now I know it can be done. BTW: The temps during the day rose into the 40s. We were able to easily maintain upper 60s during the day and 50s during the night inside the camper.

[CincyED]

When I had my hybrid I camped in sub zero temps with dw who was 9 months pregnant. I had automatic regulator so both tanks ran empty in middle of the night. It was freezing. Next day went to walmart and bought a electric heater seemed to do ok but still not enough. Decided to put 1 bed up and use table for bed for the kids. It was much more tolerable but obviously not as roomy. Moved upto a 3 tent hybrid a few years later and had to put 2 bunks up in order to cool unit in 100+ temps. Sometime just have to improvise in hybrids.
Now have 5th wheel with add on (factory) tank heaters much easier to weather the weather!

[SCOC]

When we had it, we camped in our pop-up in cold weather. Coldest was about 5 degrees F. And stayed warm Didn't use the trailer water system during that trip though.

Another trick is to use two heaters if you're on 30A service, and then you might not need the propane furnance at all. If your trailer only has 15A plug or your breakers/outlets aren't configured for that large of a load, you can run a second 15A plug into the trailer (if you can find an existing hole, through one of the bed ends, or in through a slide seal), so you can run 2 electric heaters. I've seen 3 heaters used before, but I think that's overkill, unless it's -40 or something. You can do this by using 2 heaters on the 30Amp service, and running a seperate cord from the 15A plug on the post to run a 3rd heater. Don't count on the campground post to necessarily handle this though.

If your bed end's don't make a good seal where the canvas meets the structure, I used to use pool noodles shoved in that area on my pop-up to make a better seal and insulate around the perimiter of the bed. Before the pool noodles, I would shove clothes, and towels to stop the drafts.

Heated blankets are nice. I got way too hot using a heated mattress pad, but that's just me. I found with a heated pad, you can't get away from it, whereas with a heated blanket you can always toss it off if you get too hot.

Reflectix is great. Use it everywhere it makes sense. You can even make chair liners out of it to stay warmer by the fire.

Most important though is to stay dry, and have lots of firewood

[jtrader]

Just survived 5 degrees two nights in a row in Cincinnati in a 28' Grey wolf TT. Water line heat tapes and insulation is a MUST. 5+ campers in our park had frozen lines. If it stays in the 20's you should be ok with that. If it drops any further you WILL have problems with frozen tanks and lines. In a hybrid I would not risk it at all unless you have full hookups and a good reliable space heater, maybe two. Make sure you pour RV antifreeze in the black water tank or have it heated and insulated. I leave my grey water tank open and just run hot water through it each night for about 5 min and there is no ice in the line. I did have a minor issue with a water line on the trailer freezing up but that's because the factory didn't insulate the line properly. Took care of that problem with the DW's hair dryer and some insulation tubing. A good tip would be to check EVERY line carefully to make sure there is something keeping them from the elements. Good luck

[FloridaPhil]

The Vornado fan heaters are great. They are a safe alternative to a space heater and really warm up the camper.

Spending on the size of your unit, you might want to get two.