Year Round Camping Question (Cold Weather)

Maybe someone from the forum can assist with this. We picked up our 2015 Cyclone 4200 last month. We want to use it for sledding during the winter months. The plan is to travel to the areas where we will be sledding and stay for about two weeks and then return home. There will be shore power only. No dump and no water. We have the Canadian Arctic package, dual pane windows, heated tanks, and yeti.

My question is what would be the best way to fill and empty the tanks? What is the procedure for dumping in these conditions? Do we keep the tank heaters on while traveling to the dump station? I know the fresh water tank heaters are only supposed to be on when the tank has water. Would it be best to keep 1/4 tank in the fresh water when dumping so no damage is done?

Again all these questions are related to cold weather camping conditions.

Hi OEFVET,

We do quite a bit of cold weather camping (currently in Breckenridge, CO since Dec 20th). When we leave one frozen location and head to another, I usually have the gray tanks empty, maybe 5 gallons of water in the black tank, and around 1/3 tank in fresh. I've never traveled with the tank heaters on (which would require running the generator). But of course when we arrive, I put some water in the gray tanks and turn on the tank heaters. Typical travel day in sub-freezing conditions is no more than 6 hours.

When you dump the tanks, make sure to do a good job. You don't want to close the gate valve on TP and end up with a slow leak from the black tank gate valve.

Since there's no water at your campsite, you'll be running off the fresh tank. Hopefully the campground will have showers and bathrooms that you can use. If not, you'll find that your fresh tank doesn't likely have enough capacity to last 2 weeks. Also, it's unlikely that you'll be putting equal amounts of water into the gray 1, gray 2 and black tank. So one will fill up before the others. Of course, if you have no sewer connection, this will become a problem.

Drain the water out of your flexible sewer hose after dumping tanks so you don't end up with ice inside that might cause damage to the hose as you flex it.

You'll also want to take a look at our Water Systems Winter Usage Guide for some tips on keeping the water running. Even though you have the Yeti package, when temps drop, you can still end up with a frozen water pump or other freeze issues. It's a good idea to take some of the preventative measures in that guide.

Thanks Dan! I will have to go and empty the tanks after camping about a week. Then go back. The reason I asked about keeping the tank heaters on while traveling is I assumed they would freeze in cold weather. Especially the fresh water tank. But I guess what your saying is if they aren't full it shouldn't be a problem? My travel day would be a little longer than yours maybe 6-10 hours. I would empty the tanks (grey/black) after traveling about an hour. I read all the manuals that came with the Cyclone and it really doesn't explain how to go about it. I did download, read, and print the Water Systems Winter Usage Guide that you recommended I read. As always any other tips are appreciated.

If you'll be on the road for up to 10 hours, it may be a judgement call based on temperature outside. If it's 25 (F) degrees, that's one thing. The residual heat from inside the coach may be enough to keep the tanks from freezing. If it's 0 (F) degrees, that's another. I think most of the time when we're on the road it's in the 20s, but we have started out at 0 (F).

If temps are really low while traveling to the campground, you might need to be concerned with the fresh water feed line freezing. I'm pretty sure that line runs of 12V DC, so I'd leave the heat tape on.

Dan's the man for winter camping!

We've taken our ElkRidge to go skiing many times.

Typically our favorite campground won't let us leave a hose hooked up if temp is below freezing, so we run off fresh tank. Our fresh tank lasts about 2-2.5 days. Dump every 5.

We have pipe heaters on kitchen lines and between fresh and pump. Heat pad only on fresh. We haven't had any freezing dump valves yet, but I know our underbelly duct is right in the area where the valves are.


Tips: Be sure to bring your water hose inside between tank fills, so water doesn't freeze in it and it stays flexible enough to use.

I believe takes a good 4-5 hours with no heat and temps below 28 to experience freezing in underbelly. We have put a wireless thermometer sensor in two places in our underbelly, so we can know what's happening down there.

Hope this helps!


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Dan which switch keeps the fresh water heat tape on? All information has been very helpful.

OEFVET said:

Dan which switch keeps the fresh water heat tape on? All information has been very helpful.

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My details won't help you because I installed the heat tape myself on all the water lines. It runs off 110V that's switched on in the basement.

Heartland has employed at least 2, and maybe 3 designs for turning on the Yeti components.

Early on there was a switch that turned on the tank heaters, but the heat tape on the water line was thermostatically controlled and came on automatically. That approach could draw down the battery very quickly in cold weather.

On some models, I believe they introduced a separate switch for the heat tape.

It's also possible that a single switch turns on both the tank heaters and heat tape by way of relays.

But I'm afraid I'm not familiar with the switch layout in Cy 4200s or which design is employed on yours. Maybe another 2015 Cy 4200 owner can comment.

The heated tank and heat tape have separate switches. I just don't know which one does which. I guess I need to find out and then label them.

Can you post a picture of the switches

danemayer said:

Can you post a picture of the switches

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Yes Dan but not for a while. My Rig is parked at home in Delaware and I am presently out of town.

OEFVET said:

The heated tank and heat tape have separate switches. I just don't know which one does which. I guess I need to find out and then label them.

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A call to Heartland with your VIN# might get an answer, too.

I guess I will do that because I want to be clear what each switch does. Thanks for the guidance.