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Full Timing Winter Prep

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Jim
 Jim
(@j_a_wolfe)
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Posted : October 19, 2016 9:08 PM
Danny_and_Linda
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We have stayed in cold weather a couple winters, not by choice, & NEVER had an issue with the sewer hose, if it has enough drop to keep empty it shouldn't be a problem. The only issue we had was the park faucet or the water hose, but once I heat traced the hose it was ok, the faucet was still an occasional problem.

Travelin' Texans
Former '13 FB owner
Currently rvless!!

 
Posted : October 19, 2016 10:18 PM
Jim
 Jim
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For full-timers...

Winter is coming. What are your winter time procedures for the sewer line?

Are you using anything "special" or are you using your regular flex hose? Are there freezing concerns?

What about domestic water? The obvious is to insulate and/or heat trace. But does anyone just fill the water tank and pull from there instead? Pro's or con's?

Have you had big concerns with humidity? What have you done (if anything)?

Are there any other "issues" that full-timers need to be concerned with for moderate winter weather (lows averaging no lower than 20 degrees or so). We're stationed in N.E. Texas...

When we travel 'up north' to visit family, there are a few campgrounds that stay open year round. The campground has several people that are contract workers and need to be there for extended periods of time. (You might know in particular - the Nuclear Power Plants in the area)

Many of those campers have hard PVC piped for their drainage, have 100-150 gallon Propane tanks, and have 'skirted' the units with insulated panels. Yes, the panels are ugly, but they keep the units' insulated from the ground up. Didn't get to see how they worked the water... (summertime when we seen it, you know).

I would think you could get a 'dome' type insulation package, or even find some kind of wrap that you could use to help with the faucet so it is not exposed to the cold.

 
Posted : October 19, 2016 10:44 PM
(@Anonymous)
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I'll give you some ideas of what we do in cooler weather.

We transit the US in November each year, starting in southern Ontario heading south and we transit Texas (Texarkana through DFW over to Monahans) then up into New Mexico on our way to southern California. I don't know Texas well enough to call our transit south, central or north Texas, but we have seen cooler weather and a couple of years age a couple of inches of "heart attack" snow in Monahans. We see cooler weather up north with overnight temps in the mid 20's and sometimes lower, daytime temps generally get above freezing.

What I do is look at the overnight forecast and the local temperature (we have an indoor/outdoor thermometer) and if it looks windy with anticipated below freezing temps I fill the FW tank with enough water to look after our needs for as long as we plan to stay at that campground and I remove the water hose and stow it in the basement. For sewage I leave the sewer hose attached but with the valves closed. On departure I dump the tanks and stow the sewer hose. I wouldn't want to have any "stuff" frozen inside that hose!

I don't trust "heated" water taps at the pedestal, I've had these freeze up and it's not good for your reputation to disconnect and leave with the tap left open, flooding the campsite after your departure! It's also no fun to wrap up frozen water hoses.

When encountering low overnight temps I run the furnace (not the heat strip on the A/C) to ensure that the heat gets into the basement and some gets to the tanks.

Monahans state park dump site in January!

 
Posted : October 20, 2016 9:32 AM
Jim
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Posted : October 20, 2016 9:32 PM
Jim
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Does anyone have any concerns or suggestions for the icemaker line. In Alabama where we winter we fill the freshwater tank and use that when it's below freezing

 
Posted : October 21, 2016 8:00 AM
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