09-15-2011, 01:58 AM
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#4 |
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Join Date: May 2011 Location: Washington state Posts: 36
|  Cold weathe and RVs
My group hunts North eastern Washing in the National forest. We hunt , camp, at about 3000ft in early November. The weather can be mild, 40 degrees at night to 28 degrees. We have had freezing rain and heavy snow at times. We all have travel trailers. We usually camp for 10 to 15 days.
we are all hooked up to generators. Most have two batteries. If you aren't hooked to a generator your batteries will last about 3 or 4 days at most. We at times will run the generators for 4 to 6 hours a day to keep the batteries charged and the lights in the trailer are a lot brighter when the generators is running. At knight we usually leave the heaters on and set the Temp on the thermostat at the lowest temp. about 40 degrees. We turn up the heat when we are in the trailers in camp. When we are gone from our trailers we leave the thermostats at the lowest setting. During the day freezing water lines and water has never been a problem. You have to watch your propane levels if you are camping longer than a couple of days. I very cold weather propane goes fast with the heater, cooking and the refrigerator when not using shore power or a generator. I only use the hot water heater at the end of camp when we use the shower. I boil water to do the few dishes we have because it wastes water to get Hot water to the tap. In very cold weather I will turn on the hot water heater occasionally to keep it from
freezing. The only problem with the holding tanks is that the dump valves and covers will freeze at times and have to be thawed to dump the tanks. The problem with freezing is in the winter and the RV is in storage. You need to put RV non toxic Antifreeze, available at wal mart in the system. Drain down the fresh water tank. Check and find out if the trailer has a water filter installed. The filter is usually installed close to the water inlet from the fresh water tank. Mine is hidden under a bunk bed in the back of the trailer. Once you have anti freeze in the system turn off the pump and open all of the facets so any water can expand if it freezes. Make sure anti-freeze comes through the toilet. There is a valve in the back of the unit that could freeze. I have seen two toilets were the valve froze wile in storage. Also do not turn on the water pump if you think it is frozen. If it is frozen it might blow the fuse for the water pump. My fuse is next to the pump under the dinet seat. I have know a couple of owners that store there RVs next to the house keep the unit plugged into the house and use an electric heater to keep the interior above freezing in very cold weather. good luck.
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Alls we do is drain all tanks when we park. Course we do that anyways.
If they predicting a rare freeze, we poor a lil antifreeze down the sinks to keep the goose necks from freezin. What we do hafta do however is "summerize" 
if we parked up and plugged in we gotta put the ac on and set it at 90 so it don't get too hot. If not plugged in ya gotta remove all aerasol cans and food stuff like can goods. Any thing that can't take the heat. 
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