General Question

[Santanilson]

Should we be concerned about doing any winterizing since we are fulltiming in our rig. We will be in St. Louis for November and December then Biloxi for January and February. I’m thinking that being in the rig Fulltime I should not have to be as concerned.

 

[cookie]

Michael, although we are not full time I do have some thoughts on camping in the winter.
If you are going to be in St Louis during the cold months I would consider getting some 1 inch foam sheeting and use it for skirting around your rig. I would also put a light bulb or small heater under the rig.
I would also be a bit concerned about the water hose going from the park spigot to your rig. There are heated hoses available.
Just a couple thoughts.

Peace
Dave

 

[danemayer]

If your refrigerator is in a slide and has a water feed line for an ice maker or water dispenser, the line will freeze as soon as temps go below freezing. The cutoff valve needs to be shut off and the water evacuated from the line.

 

[olcoon]

Michael,
November & December in MO can be kind of iffy as far as freezing temps. Unless St. Louis gets colder weather than KC. We go to ND. (30 miles S. of the Canadian border) every year for the sugar beet harvest. On our way home now. This year we had more below freezing temps than ever before. What I've always done was to put heat tape on the water hose then some sections of the foam pipe insulation over that. It's kind of a PITA, think I'm going to invest in a heated water hose in the future. When it really gets cold I'll run the furnace so there is a little heat going in the underneath. Also I'll put a small electric heater behind the UDC with the thermostat set so that it just comes on when it's really cold. Don't have any major problems.

This year we were working the night shift and weren't working for 8 days straight because of freezing temps. and stayed up all night to maintain our sleep pattern. We'd turn the hot & cold water on every now & then so the lines wouldn't freeze. One night when we'd turn on the faucet the water would come out slow, but I'd leave it on for awhile & the warmer water from the heat tape heated hose would remove the ice that had built up. During that 8 day stretch the coldest overnight temp was 10 degrees.

 

[Lou_and_Bette]

Michael, we are, and have for the past 7 years, wintering near Biloxi. As Dan mentioned above, I cleared the water line for the ice maker as the temps usually get their coldest during Jan/Feb and that line is fairly exposed. You will have colder temps in St. Louis area but can get some freezing temps here also but they usually don’t last more than a couple of days/nights. We park on our daughter’s property so I am able to enclose the fixed water spout and put a small light in there to prevent freezing. I also enclose the water hose and a heat tape in the foam insulation tubes. I don’t utilize any “insulating skirting” as Dave recommended but I do place a small heat lamp behind the basement wall to help keep the plumbing warm so we don’t have to run the furnace as much. Utilizing this lamp allows us to use our fireplace and a small space heater more and run the furnace less. If it is going to be especially cold, temps in the mid to low 20’s, I do engage the furnace more, usually only needed at night since the day time temps rise out of the freezing range. I would recommend you have some way of wrapping your water pressure regulator to keep it from freezing since it is metal and, if exposed, is subject to faster freezing. I learned this when we were staying near Ft. Worth, Texas and the temps dropped into the teens for several days. I had utilized a heat tape for the hose but my Watts water pressure regulator was exposed to the elements and when we awoke one morning there was no water. Thankfully, it was the regulator and not house plumbing. Was able to thaw the regulator with my heat gun fairly quickly but had to replace the gauge since the freezing destroyed the mechanism. Good luck with weather in St.L but a small amount of prep you should be fine here in MS.

Lou

 

[TravelTiger]

We full time semi-permanent in central west Texas, going on year 4. We occasionally have below freezing temps, snow and ice, and sometimes for a few days in the winter.

When fall starts we switch our hose to our heated hose, and protect our faucet and regulator with a small round styrofoam cooler placed over it (our spigot rise is not very tall.) and I wrap the faucet and regulator loosely in insulation, so we can still get to it easily. I've been known to throw a "hot hands" hand-warming packet under the cooler when we had temps in the teens, just to make sure the faucet stayed above freezing.

We have a 100 watt lightbulb with reflector shade attached to the ceiling behind the basement wall, where a majority of the plumbing is, and we turn it on during the nights when temps are going below freezing. We leave the light on in the UDC, which creates a little heat in that confined space so our Camco water filter doesn't freeze.

We leave our bath grey tank open most of the time, so when it's going to be freezing we shut it, so we won't have ice build up in the sewer line.

We have a wireless remote thermometer, and we placed a sensor deep in the underbelly near the fresh tank, to monitor temps. We make sure our furnace runs enough to keep the belly above freezing.

We have a small tabletop Vornado heater in bedroom, which keeps us warm enough to not run furnace if temps are cold, but not freezing.

We've not skirted before. But I can see this would be helpful. If our temps were colder, I'd do it.


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