Community Forums

hfd774853 · 12-23-2020, 04:08 AM

Good morning fellow RV'ers,
Any chance of water line freeze up while driving in temperatures in the 20's. We are driving a 2018 39ft Fleetwood Discovery Class A.
I'm not sure if by just normal running with engine heat, and heat from the front heaters as we drive, does the RV stay warm enough to prevent freeze up.
Have an awesome day !!!

Prof_T · 12-23-2020, 04:44 AM

Doubt it would freeze but how are you going to stay warm? We run the hydronic heat in our Wanderlodge while traveling down the road in cold weather in order to stay comfortable. Not enough heat to keep comfortable with just the front vents pushing out air from a warm engine 44 feet in the rear. I would recommend to turn on your AquaHot.

2cyber71 · 12-23-2020, 05:00 AM

I would leave the house heat on if you aren’t winterize. (Furnace or Aqua Hot)
I’m heading south on Sunday I’m not dewinterizing till I get far enough south, I will winterize in Hilton Head before heading home.

I suggest if you are going to travel in winter, learn how to winterize from your RV tech.
Do it with him when he does. I did that back in 2003 with my gas MH, 2007 when I got my DP with a washe/dryer combo. I just did it again with him this year because I needed to learn how to winterize a dishwasher.
I’m all set, it takes about 1- 2 hours to winterize a Aqua hot MH since all you do is suck pink stuff. The washer, dryer and fridge ice maker has simple instructions. I copy and lamitated the instructions and keep them by each appliance.

scbwr · 12-23-2020, 05:53 AM

Find out if running the furnace sends some hot air into the water bay(s). A call to Fleetwood may help. If so, you shouldn't have a problem.

You can also get a couple of remote temperature sensors which would enable you to monitor the temps in the water bay(s).
https://www.amazon.com/GEMITTO-Digit...727729&sr=8-54

If you purchase one or two personal electric heaters, you can mount them in the water compartment and use them by running your generator.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've done this with our Bay Star, but haven't had to use the heaters because I get enough heat from the furnace to keep the water bays above freezing, and that's when I've traveled when the temps were in the 20's.

MO Fred · 12-23-2020, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hfd774853

Good morning fellow RV'ers,
Any chance of water line freeze up while driving in temperatures in the 20's. We are driving a 2018 39ft Fleetwood Discovery Class A.
I'm not sure if by just normal running with engine heat, and heat from the front heaters as we drive, does the RV stay warm enough to prevent freeze up.
Have an awesome day !!!

Turn on aqua hot and you will be fine. With temperatures in the 20’s your biggest concern should be possibility of snow and ice.

jacwjames · 12-23-2020, 07:43 AM

I was going to travel north in March to the UP of Michigan and stay at a campground for a new job.

My coach had minimal insulation preventing airflow through the two main rails of the chassis so I took some cans of foam spay and blocked off as many of the openings as possible to prevent the cold air from flowing through. This also helped while parked, I ran a small cube heater in the basement set at a low temp to keep it from freezing.

I also mounted a remote temp sensor on the back side of the water wet bay to monitor temps, this was the furthest away from the heat source so if it stayed above freezing I was good.

I survived, during the month of April there was temps down in the low teens and we had 2' of snow. Some mornings it was down close to freezing in the coach before I flipped on the furnace to warm everything up.

Cousin Ed · 12-23-2020, 07:53 AM

Use your house heat whatever it is and you will be fine. We have been traveling south at the end of December for over 20 years. The lowest temps I remember were 9 degrees in a 2001 Adventurer; I bet your Discovery can handle it better.

RELHUB · 12-23-2020, 01:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hfd774853

Good morning fellow RV'ers,
Any chance of water line freeze up while driving in temperatures in the 20's. We are driving a 2018 39ft Fleetwood Discovery Class A.
I'm not sure if by just normal running with engine heat, and heat from the front heaters as we drive, does the RV stay warm enough to prevent freeze up.
Have an awesome day !!!

I don't like to gamble at all.
Our furnace does send heat to our Fresh Water tank.
I have noticed some water lines in areas that are not heated.
I am not willing to chance as replacing lines would be a BIG problem.
We do camp in the winter, so I add about 30 gallons of RV antifreeze to our Fresh tank. I add more as needed depending on how many days we are out.
This way we can use our bathroom and not have to worry about any Tanks or Lines Freezing during the really cold times.

We carry plenty of bottled water for cooking, washing and any other needs.