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smblack8 · 11-06-2008, 09:16 AM

Need some advise as I have never used a camper in below freezing weather. I have a 2005 Keystone Hornet 28foot, no slide. My dad Brother and I will be using it for hunting for 4 nights here in Michigan. Forcast is 20's at night 30's-40's during day. Originally just planned on not using water system at all but wondering if I possibly could. I was thinking that with the heat on, hot water heater on all the time, using RV antifreeze to manually flush toilet and frequent draining of grey water tank maybe I would be safe. Looking under the camper is a layer of thick plastic across the entire bottom and I'm assuming some insulation above that. What are the opinions that I could do this without freezing a line??? Thanks!

smblack8 · 11-06-2008, 09:16 AM

Need some advise as I have never used a camper in below freezing weather. I have a 2005 Keystone Hornet 28foot, no slide. My dad Brother and I will be using it for hunting for 4 nights here in Michigan. Forcast is 20's at night 30's-40's during day. Originally just planned on not using water system at all but wondering if I possibly could. I was thinking that with the heat on, hot water heater on all the time, using RV antifreeze to manually flush toilet and frequent draining of grey water tank maybe I would be safe. Looking under the camper is a layer of thick plastic across the entire bottom and I'm assuming some insulation above that. What are the opinions that I could do this without freezing a line??? Thanks!

BryanL · 11-06-2008, 09:45 AM

Temperatures into the 20's should not present much of a problem for freezing. Most of your plumbing is inside and it takes a lot colder temperatures than that quite a while to freeze the holding tanks. Even if the holding tanks do freeze, it shouldn't cause harm unless they are more than half full or so.

You will need to make sure you have full propane tanks and perhaps a spare as well as a way to keep your batteries charged.

See Keeping Warm for some other ideas and links.

smblack8 · 11-06-2008, 09:48 AM

Thanks for the quick response, that's about what I was thinking. We have a little Honda 2000 generator. We gave a trial run a couple of weeks ago with weather down into the 30's. It ran 14 hours on one gallon of gas!

Spikester · 11-06-2008, 10:20 AM

If not mentioned somewhere else another easy thing to do is at night open, and/or crack open cupboard doors where piping runs are, thisallows air to flow into these recesses. Most plumping piping on RV's are run in the corner formed by the floor and sidewall. Probably the most vulnerable place for the possibility of freezing, especially on older RV's, is under the shower/bathtub, this area can be a dead air space that only see's heat that is radiated through the shower/bathtub bottom.

Also at night depressurize your water system, leave fixture open so if by a remote chance you experience freezing, there is room for the expansion so pipe won't burst. We turned the furnace down to between 55/60 at night.

We skied out of our Safari Motorhome, which we parked in Ski Area parking lots every weekend of Ski season for years never experienced a freeze up other than on the tank dump piping which was not an issue. Just let it thaw once we came out of the mountains, then dumped.

Spike