Winter Camping

[mike grist]

I plan on staying a couple of weeks in my Columbus 5th. wheel (2018)during this winter. Temps. will drop below freezing during the night. I need to put water in my holding tank and will not be hooked to "city" water. My black water tank is heated. I will be hooked to shore power. What do I need to watch for as far as freezing problems and what can I do to solve them?
Thanks for the help.

[A32Deuce]

Depends if your wet bay is heated or not. My fresh tank is under the bed and the wet areas are fed ducted hot air from the heater. Camped down to 16 degrees one January in ours. There for a week and no problem. But I do use the unit heater overnight and an elec during the day when over 32 degrees.

[mike grist]

Yes, my underbelly is heated. I just have not used the RV during freezing weather before.

[NJKris]

I lean towards using big water jugs (I have 10g containers), that you can use to flush toilet, bath with, etc. Since you have heated black tank, you are good. No need for wet plumbing at all really. water can be heated in a big pot on the stove. I just wouldn't want to risk freezing lines beneath trailer.

[ependydad]

How far below freezing can you expect?

And what are daytime temps?

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by mike grist

Yes, my underbelly is heated. I just have not used the RV during freezing weather before.

The key to making the heated underbelly work properly in keeping pipes and tanks from freezing is to make sure your primary heat is coming from the furnace. Running electric heaters is tempting in order to save propane but that will keep the furnace from running often enough to keep enough heat in the underbelly space.

FWIW, I had an old 1995 Terry 27' TT that I spent a Denver winter in. Furnace did a fine job of keeping water going with temps dropping at night to as low as -15. Burned a lot of Propane though.

I did go to the extra step of wrapping my tank discharge valves with some insulation so I could dump my tanks without having to wait for spring.

[BandJCarm]

Find a 100 watt incandescent bulb, and rig up a connection for it, and hang it in basement.

[TitanMike]

Originally Posted by BandJCarm

Find a 100 watt incandescent bulb, and rig up a connection for it, and hang it in basement.

Back in my boating days we did this to help chase dampness out of the boat which was moored on a marina.

A surface mount ceramic bulb socket screwed to a piece of 2x12, surrounded by a piece of stove pipe with cheap chimney cap.

A couple of pieces of plumbers tape bent into 90 degree brackets held the stovepipe about an inch above the board for circulation.

Stovepipe and cap provided safety, keeping items from coming in contact with hot bulb. Could also be easily stored if necessary.

[mike grist]

It could be in the single digits at night and then usually get above 32 during the day.