Opinion on winterizing this wknd

[si camper]

We're currently staying near Kerrville, TX at a FHU CG. We came South earlier to get a little early Spring . We're not Winter campers and have only camped occasionally when overnight temps dropped into the 20s. At those times the only precaution I took was disconnecting the water hose. I see predictions for this wknd for overnight temps to drop into the teens or even single digits. Should I drain and winterize for a couple of days or in your opinion will the heated RV be sufficient to protect the lines from freezing.

[youroo]

Originally Posted by si camper

We're currently staying near Kerrville, TX at a FHU CG. We came South earlier to get a little early Spring . We're not Winter campers and have only camped occasionally when overnight temps dropped into the 20s. At those times the only precaution I took was disconnecting the water hose. I see predictions for this wknd for overnight temps to drop into the teens or even single digits. Should I drain and winterize for a couple of days or in your opinion will the heated RV be sufficient to protect the lines from freezing.

I Guarantee if you winterize Properly with Pink RV antifreeze you will Not have issues! Any other way will require Gambling! Youroo!!

[timfromma]

If you're even asking the question, you should do it. Is $10 worth of antifreeze and 20 minutes of your time worth it to prevent possible damage to your rig?

[Jim34RL]

Originally Posted by si camper

We're currently staying near Kerrville, TX at a FHU CG. We came South earlier to get a little early Spring . We're not Winter campers and have only camped occasionally when overnight temps dropped into the 20s. At those times the only precaution I took was disconnecting the water hose. I see predictions for this wknd for overnight temps to drop into the teens or even single digits. Should I drain and winterize for a couple of days or in your opinion will the heated RV be sufficient to protect the lines from freezing.

Are you staying in the trailer right now? If so, are you running the furnace and does the trailer have holding tank heaters for the fresh water, gray water and black water?

Now if the answer are yes, than all you need to do is fill up the fresh water tank and disconnect the water hose from the spigot. Turn on the tank heaters and run your furnace. You can also run a electric light bulb turned on, in the wet bay this will keep this area warm too.

I have camped in cold weather with my Cedar Creek with just disconnecting the outside water hose. Using the tank heaters and the furnace set at 55F during the night and nothing froze.

[si camper]

We are staying in the camper now. We have the fresh water tank partially filled and disconnected from the on site source. Tank heaters are on. We're running electric heaters as of now but planned on using the furnace this wknd. I ran it for a while to make sure it worked.
Right now I believe I have up to Sunday afternoon to make a commitment to hopefully avoid making changes in the middle of Sunday or Monday night.
I'll probably go ahead and winterize as suggested by youroo and timfromma. A couple of days of inconvenience won't be as bad as avoidable repairs.

Thanks for the valued opinions of experience.

[PodGeek]

Originally Posted by si camper

... I'll probably go ahead and winterize as suggested by youroo and timfromma. A couple of days of inconvenience won't be as bad as avoidable repairs.

Thanks for the valued opinions of experience.

With low temps predicted to be 5 degrees Sunday and 2 degrees Monday and staying below freezing for what looks to be 72 hours at least I think you've made a wise decision.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by si camper

Right now I believe I have up to Sunday afternoon to make a commitment to hopefully avoid making changes in the middle of Sunday or Monday night. I'll probably go ahead and winterize as suggested by youroo and timfromma. Thanks for the valued opinions of experience.

You probably don't want to wait til Monday night. The current forecast is for it to go down to 25 tonight in your area.... and it's not going to go above freezing until Tuesday.
At the very least, drain the water out of the system NOW. It's 27 degrees in your area this morning.
Get some gallon jugs of water for drinking and flushing and put the RV Antifreeze in your lines.
This could get nasty. We live in Houston where the overnight low was supposed to be 34, but it got down to 31.

[nutdriver]

My weather app is predicting a low of two degrees zero by Tuesday. No question that I would either find a warmer place or do your winter prep.

[BMullins46]

I'm in Lubbock Tx right now with termp at 18 and expected to go lower, supposed to be below 0 over the weekend. have a heated water line, but it's already frozen. emptied my tanks yesterday and the water froze before it got to the sewer hookup, had to run a second sewer line to finish the emptying. My biggest worry is running out of propane, we have a 100lb tank hooked up, I got them to change out on Wednesday and it's already down by 1/3, not sure it will last until Tuesday and I don't count on them running over the weekend.

[sasch]

My plan - activate the tank heaters, open the gray tank dump valve, dribble water out of the faucets

[awellis3]

Extremely cold nights followed by freezing cold days, all in succession, will overwhelm the puny tank heaters and underbelly heating. It will severely tax the furnace's ability to warm the trailer and will eat propane at alarming rates. BMullins' 100 lb. tank went through 30 lbs. in 2½ days. Facing continued temps at or below zero, I'd winterize, dump, head for a motel.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by BMullins46

I'm in Lubbock Tx right now with termp at 18 and expected to go lower, supposed to be below 0 over the weekend. have a heated water line, but it's already frozen. emptied my tanks yesterday and the water froze before it got to the sewer hookup, had to run a second sewer line to finish the emptying. My biggest worry is running out of propane, we have a 100lb tank hooked up, I got them to change out on Wednesday and it's already down by 1/3, not sure it will last until Tuesday and I don't count on them running over the weekend.

If you could get your hands on a space heater, that would help take some of the strain off the propane. Blankets over windows might help a bit.

If you've used 1/3 of the tank in two days, it's definitely not going to last til Tuesday and the roads might be iced over by then. Last time we tried camping in freezing weather, the electricity kept cutting out, the campground waterlines froze and we couldn't get the temp above 50. You might want to consider dipping into your emergency fund and head for a motel as awellis3 suggested and we did.

[si camper]

Originally Posted by nutdriver

My weather app is predicting a low of two degrees zero by Tuesday. No question that I would either find a warmer place or do your winter prep.

Camper is winterized and we can abandon if necessary. I believe I could've waited a little longer but decided not to gamble. With water lines protected we can continue to use electric for heat with the furnace for supplement. If we hadn't winterized we would have had to use more LP. If the CG doesn't lose power now we should be able to ride this out. Weather looks to improve after Wed.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by si camper

Camper is winterized and we can abandon if necessary. I believe I could've waited a little longer but decided not to gamble. With water lines protected we can continue to use electric for heat with the furnace for supplement. If we hadn't winterized we would have had to use more LP. If the CG doesn't lose power now we should be able to ride this out. Weather looks to improve after Wed.

Sounds like a good plan. Stay safe.

[campers302]

Originally Posted by si camper

We're currently staying near Kerrville, TX at a FHU CG. We came South earlier to get a little early Spring . We're not Winter campers and have only camped occasionally when overnight temps dropped into the 20s. At those times the only precaution I took was disconnecting the water hose. I see predictions for this wknd for overnight temps to drop into the teens or even single digits. Should I drain and winterize for a couple of days or in your opinion will the heated RV be sufficient to protect the lines from freezing.

As far as protecting water lines, when in doubt, you cant go wrong with antifreeze in the lines.



On the occasion when we get caught with low temps, I will put a heat tape on our drain lines. Just helps with piece of mind that if needed I can dump and the valves will not get split or cracked in some manner or fashion.

[zipmart]

We live 35 miles south of DFW and our MH is currently parked in our driveway hooked up to 50 amp shore power but not water. My oldest son and his wife are sleeping in it at night til they move into their new house. I have an electric heater inside to augment the furnace and keep the thermostat set at 60 at night. With the electric heater the furnace runs only occasionally. The tanks are heated. I have three 75w flood light bulbs in the 3 bays where pipes/hoses are visible and have refrigerator/freezer thermometers in these bays to monitor temps. Last night it got down to 18 degrees here. When I checked the temps this morning, all 3 thermometers read between 50 and 60 degrees. This works for me.

[jrmartin67]

I'm sure all our Northern friends are laughing at us non-fur-bearing Southerners about now! We live on the Texas Gulf Coast, below Houston, and it is COLD!! Our camper was about 170 miles north of us and we were alerted that the landowners were cutting the well off, draining the pipes, and "gettin' out of Dodge." We hadn't even thought about it. Long story shorter, we just pulled it back into our driveway and will deal with it here, where it will be below freezing but not much, and at least we can take care of it. Whew! Winterizing is great if you can find the antifreeze!

[Nomore9-5]

Originally Posted by si camper

Camper is winterized and we can abandon if necessary. I believe I could've waited a little longer but decided not to gamble. With water lines protected we can continue to use electric for heat with the furnace for supplement. If we hadn't winterized we would have had to use more LP. If the CG doesn't lose power now we should be able to ride this out. Weather looks to improve after Wed.

I join everyone else in saying wise decision. Never advisable to gamble with a hard freeze.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by jrmartin67

Winterizing is great if you can find the antifreeze!

If you can't find RV antifreeze, drain all the water out and open the faucets to allow expansion if there is any water left in the lines.
I'm glad you could get it home. That might not be possible tomorrow.

[Nomore9-5]

Originally Posted by jrmartin67

I'm sure all our Northern friends are laughing at us non-fur-bearing Southerners about now! We live on the Texas Gulf Coast, below Houston, and it is COLD!! Our camper was about 170 miles north of us and we were alerted that the landowners were cutting the well off, draining the pipes, and "gettin' out of Dodge." We hadn't even thought about it. Long story shorter, we just pulled it back into our driveway and will deal with it here, where it will be below freezing but not much, and at least we can take care of it. Whew! Winterizing is great if you can find the antifreeze!

If you can get your hands on a air compressor as well as an adapter for blowing out the water lines you might be able to get most of the water out . That might mitigate damage if you can't find antifreeze I do that before I put in the a/f so it's not dilluted .
Probably a little late for the suggestion for what's happening now but something to keep in mind for the future