cold weather camping

[copper canyon]

In freezing weather what is the best way to keep your fresh water (water hose) from freezing?

[copper canyon]

In freezing weather what is the best way to keep your fresh water (water hose) from freezing?

[hoosier32]

unhook your fresh water hose, fill your water tank and use your on board tank. Drain the hose, store it and wait for the weather to warm.

[copper canyon]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by hoosier32:
unhook your fresh water hose, fill your water tank and use your on board tank. Drain the hose, store it and wait for the weather to warm. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>If you are hooked up on city water is there any way to keep you water hose from freezing? Is a water pipe heat cable something that I could consider using maybe with a pipe insulation on top?

[K-Star]

copper canyon

I see this is your first post. Welcome. We hope you continue to to keep us up to date with your experiences. Additionally, I think you find a lot of information and folks willing to answer your questions.

If you are in cold weather short term I would agree to use the fresh tank and stow the hose. I am in a position where I am stuck in a cold weather area for the winter and living off the fresh water tank for 3 months would not be practical. The campground has heated water hydrants so I needed to come up with a solution too. I have a 10' water hose. I bought a 12' water pipe heater wire cord from Home Depot (or Lowes or your local hardware store). I used electrical tape wound around the hose to keep the wire in place. I then wrapped the hose with that foam pipe insulation and again wound the electrical tape around the entire thing. The wire has a thermostat built in to turn on when the hose gets below 38 degrees. I wrapped the water hose in aluminum foil (helps distribute the heat evenly). Put the thermostat as close as you can to the city water connection as you can (RV end of hose). By using a 12' wire, it is long enough to pass the end of the hose and end on the water hydrant. Works great. Of course if there is a storm eminent I will put water in the fresh tank in case of a power loss.

I won't take credit for this configuration. There are construction workers staying at this CG for the winter. They travel all over the country working in all climates. They used this setup in temperatures as low as -20.

I also had a local LP company install a 420# (100 gal) LP tank. Save on daily trips to get the 30#'ers filled.

[copper canyon]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K-Star:
copper canyon

I see this is your first post. Welcome. We hope you continue to to keep us up to date with your experiences. Additionally, I think you find a lot of information and folks willing to answer your questions.

I am in a position where I am stuck in a cold weather area for the winter and living off the fresh water tank for 3 months would not be practical. The campground has heated water hydrants so I needed to come up with a solution too. I have a 10' water hose. I bought a 12' water pipe heater wire cord from Home Depot (or Lowes or your local hardware store). I used electrical tape wound around the hose to keep the wire in place. I then wrapped the hose with that foam pipe insulation and again wound the electrical tape around the entire thing. The wire has a thermostat built in to turn on when the hose gets below 38 degrees. I wrapped the water hose in aluminum foil (helps distribute the heat evenly). Put the thermostat as close as you can to the city water connection as you can (RV end of hose). By using a 12' wire, it is long enough to pass the end of the hose and end on the water hydrant. Works great. Of course if there is a storm eminent I will put water in the fresh tank in case of a power loss. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>What if the place you are camping does not have heated hydrants would it be ok to place the heated cable onto the hydrant?

[K-Star]

What they did here (you might be able to do the same) is dig down 36" around the pedestal and use the same heater cord I used on the hose. Based on the height of the pedestal, they used a 9' cord to go from the hydrant head down into the ground 36" (thermostat closest to the hose connection). Both their cable and my cable are plugged into the 20A power connection on the pedestal. They then wrapped the entire pedestal with insulation and covered the pedestal with a vinyl cover.

So yes you can heat the hydrant too. The vinyl cover is another story. They ate that cost.

[copper canyon]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by copper canyon:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by K-Star:
copper canyon

I see this is your first post. Welcome. We hope you continue to to keep us up to date with your experiences. Additionally, I think you find a lot of information and folks willing to answer your questions.

I am in a position where I am stuck in a cold weather area for the winter and living off the fresh water tank for 3 months would not be practical. The campground has heated water hydrants so I needed to come up with a solution too. I have a 10' water hose. I bought a 12' water pipe heater wire cord from Home Depot (or Lowes or your local hardware store). I used electrical tape wound around the hose to keep the wire in place. I then wrapped the hose with that foam pipe insulation and again wound the electrical tape around the entire thing. The wire has a thermostat built in to turn on when the hose gets below 38 degrees. I wrapped the water hose in aluminum foil (helps distribute the heat evenly). Put the thermostat as close as you can to the city water connection as you can (RV end of hose). By using a 12' wire, it is long enough to pass the end of the hose and end on the water hydrant. Works great. Of course if there is a storm eminent I will put water in the fresh tank in case of a power loss. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>What if the place you are camping does not have heated hydrants would it be ok to place the heated cable onto the hydrant? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>How funny we are construction workers too and have decided to use our campers instead of hotel rooms. We sure hope this works well for us as we are new to the real camping scene but are really looking forward to the experiences and we appreciate any advise we can get.

[K-Star]

That is toooooo funny. These guys even used that heater wire on their sewer hoses, but that was in 20 below weather. It just ain't that cold around here. Good luck. I can say so far so good. This is my first experience with long term, cold weather camping. If it gets too bad my daughter lives an hour away. We can always winterize the trailer and spend a few weeks with her.

[georgetown350]

We will be in Myrtle beach over Christmas and it seems to occasionaly drop below 32 degrees so I will keep the bathroom tap on to a little more then a drip to keep the water moving through the hose.

[kacknor]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">That is toooooo funny. These guys even used that heater wire on their sewer hoses, but that was in 20 below weather. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The humor would be far less if the hose (Or tank!) froze andone had to face thawing and clearing it out again!! I can think of many, many things I'd rather do.

[K-Star]

When I said Toooo funny I was referencing the fact that he and the folks in my CG were construction workers. That said, I too would rather do most anything else than thaw my black tank.

[jspande]

You might want to look at commercial heated hoses. Here's a web site NoFreezeWaterHose

The prices are pretty steep but that page also gives a list of do's and don't's if you make your own, including a link to info from the National Fire Preventions Agency.

[Frankenstien]

Hmmm Hi tech solutions may not be your best bet... when we were building our house, I found a great low tech solution, IF your at a place that allows it, Bails of straw works best, you'll need to completely surround and cover your spigot, hose and the area up to your TT/5th wheel, as the hay/straw decomposes it creates heat, keeping the hose and attachments thawed.