Use Your
Winter!
RV During the
By Gary Bunzer
Greetings fellow travelers! I certainly hope you were among the throngs of RV enthusiasts to gather at the 2017 version of America’ s Largest RV Show this past September! Wow! Another recordbreaking show was on display in beautiful Hershey, PA; over 64,000 people attended this year!
While many RVers get ready to winterize the RV during the fall months, there are those brave souls who still do go RVing even during wintry conditions.
If you’ re the audacious type, winter RVing is not only doable but also encouraged! Take the necessary precautions, such as staying tuned to a reliable weather forecasting source, and make sure all your safety devices have been tested and verified, and you should be able to enjoy your RV in even the chilliest winter weather.
Like those who store their units when the weather turns frigid, RVers who decide to“ winter” IN their coach must make preparations to assure the vehicle is capable of operating effectively in harsh conditions. What follows is some useful information to help make that wintry trek comfortable.
Protecting The Water Systems
If you will be using the RV throughout the winter months, there are a couple schools of thought about how to protect the fresh water system. If your coach is wellinsulated and the plumbing lines are run through heated sections of the RV, then it may simply be a matter of ensuring the tank, the water pump, and all associated plumbing remain in temperatures above freezing.
Photo Courtesy of GO RVing
14. EXPLORE PA 2018
Some RVers still drain all the fresh water and simply use bottled water for cooking, doing the dishes, flushing the toilet, etc., and rely on the campground accommodations for showers. But with certain precautions, it is entirely possible to continue to use your onboard fresh water system throughout the winter, though it’ s wise to have a few gallons of bottled water on hand just in case.
Begin by performing a detailed inspection to determine where and how the fresh water tubing is routed throughout the RV. It’ s not uncommon to find the tubing run inside cabinets, above the floor, to all the fixtures. But oftentimes, manufacturers route the tubing inside storage compartments or perhaps underneath the RV for short distances. Try to visually locate every inch of the hot and cold lines. Split foam insulation tubes can be purchased at home improvement stores and easily slipped over exposed tubing. Extra insulation also can be placed around the water pump if it is located in an unheated compartment. Just be careful to allow air space around the motor portion of the pump to keep it from overheating during use.
If your RV’ s plumbing bay is not heated it may be possible to modify the compartment so that heated air from inside the RV can be directed into that compartment. In some cases, the hot air distribution box of the furnace may be equipped with an unused duct outlet that can be tapped into and routed to the plumbing compartment. At the very least, a droplight with a 60-watt bulb should sufficiently warm the fresh water plumbing bay. If you can still find those old incandescent bulbs!
If necessary, aftermarket heating blankets and heat tape also can be used to keep the water tank and other sections of fresh water tubing warm. Not every RV will be identical, so the inspection and method of protection will vary from coach to coach. Leaving cabinet doors open or utilizing small circulating fans will help distribute the heated interior air into and around the majority of fresh water components.
Prolonged periods of temperatures below freezing may hamper the use of a city water connection, but if the temperatures allow it, heat tape and split foam insulation can be employed to some degree of success. I recommend thermostatically controlled heat tape, just to be safely protected.
Continue to use the water heater in the same manner as always. Using the electric heating element instead of the propane gas flame, if so equipped, will help conserve the supply of propane, but keeping the heater“ on” all the time will eliminate any freezing concerns. You still may have to add foam insulation to the hot water tubing inside the RV, but the water heater itself will be safely protected.
If you plan to utilize the waste system( black and gray tanks) as you travel in colder climates, the aforementioned tank blankets and heat tape are available to protect your waste plumbing in freezing weather. This will probably be necessary if your holding tanks are exposed underneath the RV. For tanks mounted in compartment bays, typically they will have access to heated air anyway. If not, just like the fresh water tank, a 60-watt droplight should do the trick.
Keep all holding tank termination valves completely closed and periodically add a half-gallon of RV antifreeze as you continue to use the holding tank. Evacuate the tanks often if possible to prohibit the contents from freezing. Carefully warming the holding tank valves with a hair dryer will unfreeze stubborn valves in really cold weather. Avoid keeping the sewer hose connected all the time. Wait until it’ s time to evacuate the tanks and then use the sewer hose. Keeping the hose clean and dry will help prevent residual water and waste from freezing and causing a possible blockage. During an extended campground stay in subzero weather, you may consider using a section of rigid Schedule 40 ABS drain pipe with the necessary adapter fittings and forego the flexible sewer hose altogether.
Insulating And Sealing
Consider yourself fortunate if your RV was constructed to cold-weather standards using higher R-rated insulation and dualpane windows. If your coach maker did