Winter Travels

AboutTime2

Member
RV LIFE Pro
Joined
Nov 28, 2022
Messages
15
Hello All,
First time traveling in winter and will be leaving the New England area last week of February for Florida Keys. We have a Rockwood TT 2509S that is currently fully winterized. Questions are: 1. Do I de-winterize fully before leaving for FLA? 2. If I do de-winterize, and place batteries back in the camper battery box is there concern for low temperatures and wind chill while driving? 3. Same wind chill question on carrying water in the tank and in the water lines?
We will have stops on the way down in NJ, VA, NC and GA before getting to our destination. Which hopefully will get progressively warmer as we go.
Thanks,
Tim H.
 
Wind chill doesn't affect inanimate objects. The wind will cool them off faster, but they don't "feel" colder than the ambient air temperature.
 
This far out, I'd check the historical temperature averages for the places and times you'll be there and see if you need to make some sort of plan.

Even if your camper has underbelly heating and or tank heaters, there is the outside shower, low point drains and waste valves. I made insulating covers for mine, that would be fine, sitting but not sure how road worthy they'd be.

The batts should be fine.
 
Geez

You are in charge. Leave home with a bottle of antifreeze in the bathroom. For major deposits.

Put water in the fridge. The DW freezes bottles of water. Also helps to cool the fridge. Some ready to drink.

Batteries are fine in sub zero temps. Put them in. Connect the day you leave.

Fill up the water tank when you are confident it will not freeze. We have heaters on our tanks. So usually our first stop. Water in the lines if you are sure it is no issue. You have to run the furnace to heat water lines in our rv.

Have fun! Watch the weather. We survived the power failure in Houston. No power or water. The family slept like cord wood in our rv. Their house was cold. Only three days.
 
At that ime of year you could have above freezing temps all the way or you could have freezing temps until you get to NC or so. The only thing you can do is check the weather when it gets close to time to depart and see what the weather will be and plan to de winterize when you get to where the temps will be near or above freezing. The battery should be fine. If it is a LiFePo4 and you are worried about charging in the cold just don’t connect the leads until you are in warm enough temps to be safe.
 
As mentioned, there is no way to know what the temps are going to be at this point on the days you travel but unless you're positive they will all be above freezing, DO NOT dewinterize.

Carry a jug or two of antifreeze to flush the toilet and bottled water for drinking/cooking and additional antifreeze to dump in the gray tank or dump at your stop(s).
We've been coming south for a bunch of years in the winter and I never dewinterize until we get far enough south to where I know it isn't going to freeze.
We use campground bath houses to clean up or there are good personal sanitation wipes available at most drug store chains.

As mentioned, wind chill doe not affect inanimate objects. This has been proven many times over at the polar caps.
 
Be ready for anything. This is Gulf Shores right now - 6 in of snow and still coming down.

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Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I will be taking a wait and see approach to the weather conditions at the time we leave. Just not sure how well a campground will take it when we de-winterize and then sanitize the freshwater system on site?
Thanks again for the help!
 
can you leave the furnace ON as you drive in the colder areas?
never tried it cause we tend to stay away from the cold stuff
I did find lots of threads.......... where people run the furnace set at 55, while driving down the road

what batteries have you got?


tow vehicle may or may not provide any decent power via the 7 pin
look at upgrading the 7pin if you want/need decent power from tow vehicle

make reservations at campgrounds each night so you can use 120v which allows a small electric fireplace if you got one ............ or use a personal space heater
+ use converter to fully charge battery overnight
campround use their potty for #2 .............. OK for #1s in the onboard potty
 
Thanks for all the replies. Looks like I will be taking a wait and see approach to the weather conditions at the time we leave. Just not sure how well a campground will take it when we de-winterize and then sanitize the freshwater system on site?
Thanks again for the help!
There's nothing about the winterize/dewinterize/sanitize procedure that would upset any campground I've visited.
And while we've spent some nights during travel south where we did not use the water/sewer part of our stay, the campground happily took our money regardless.
 
Aussieguy,
Thanks for the response. Leaving the furnace on while traveling is not an option for me as I always fully turn off my propane tanks when traveling.
As far as batteries I have 2 100ah LifeP04 batteries and my truck has a HD alternator with 7 pin connector. So that is not an issue.
We are staying at campgrounds all the way down so we can use the electric hook-uos for electric heat at night.
 
Aussieguy,
Thanks for the response. Leaving the furnace on while traveling is not an option for me as I always fully turn off my propane tanks when traveling.
As far as batteries I have 2 100ah LifeP04 batteries and my truck has a HD alternator with 7 pin connector. So that is not an issue.
We are staying at campgrounds all the way down so we can use the electric hook-uos for electric heat at night.
Do your batteries have cold weather charge protection?
 
careful with lifepo4 and cold weather.... they not suppose to get charged when it is too cold

thats why I moved mine into the pass through under the bed
will take forever for them to get cold enough to be a problem

and I have no desire to go anywhere near that white stuff and the associated cold temperatures
too old and stiff in the joints to risk it... I would probably give out faster than the batteries
 
We have built in heaters in the batteries. Good to zero. I am going nowhere in weather that cold.

We had planned to go to Florida two weeks ago. Changed our minds about it!

Planning now for March.
 

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