Weekend camping in the winter

[mowillie]

I have done the search for Winter Camping and read through many threads....what I am looking for is:
How about just pulling out for a two night weekend trip here in Texas during Dec or Jan?
We have been know to have a couple hard freezes at night. I do wrap pipes, and put plants away for a couple months here in the hill country.
So I would imagine that the small TT pipes with water in them would freeze easily. Is it worth it heat, wrap, insulate, and all that for just a weekend with the kiddos, or just pull it to the site and not even hook up to water?

 

[bigmaho]

I've winter camped with my pop-up. This will be my first year doing it with the 181. I've already winterized the unit (removed all the water and filled the system with anti freeze. But, I plan to use the toilet by keeping a jerry can inside with water and using it to flush the potty. If there's a hard freeze I'll just have to wait for a thaw to empty the black water tank.

 

[Ray LeTourneau]

We used to have a seasonal site in WI that was open but had no water except for the Bath Buildings. We carried water in a 5 gal blue jugs and had a 30 cup coffee pot for hot water as needed. We used the kitchen sink but adapted the drain to go outside with a hose into a bucket. For Flushing, we only did #1 in the toilet and used windshield washer solvent for a manual flush. We did many weekends using this method.

 

[hcriddle]

I have a similar question. I was hoping to be able to spend the week of Thanksgiving in our Bighorn out in Sycamore, IL. I was going to winterize after that week when I put the trailer back in storage. My problem is that the temps are expected to get into the mid 20's next week with highs in the mid 30s to mid 40s each day. All my water lines are insulated and the tanks are empty or close to empty. Any thoughts on whether it would be ok to make it through the week or should I go out and winterize it before Thanksgiving week? It has done ok in Texas with temps down low and I did ok this past winter in IL but I was living in it at that time. Lowest it got was about 10 degrees. I don't want to winterize it now if we are going to be staying in it in 10 days.

 

[jayc]

I've lived in Texas all my life, south of Houston but now full time. We spend January and February in the valley (Mission) and it has gotten down into the low 20's a few times. We have never winterized our trailer(s) but always made sure that all water tanks were drained. Now as full timers, we just open the gray water tanks and leave faucets dripping overnight and haven't had a problem. Thats the good thing about Texas weather, we seldom have more than 6-8 hours below freezing, so cold isn't that much of a worry for us.

 

[kb0zke]

When we bought our 181 it was early December, and the unit had already been winterized. We dry-camped in it in January with no problems. Of course, it was 70 degrees out that weekend, but the temperatures dropped on Sunday, and it was quite a bit cooler when we got home that afternoon than it was when we got up in the morning. Monday morning saw the beginning of a blizzard.

I'm going to get our unit winterized next week. We might be able to go for a weekend somewhere during the winter, but that depends more on schedules than anything else. Winterize the unit and dry-camp. Treat your mpg as a much warmer and more comfortable tent. Use the campground facilities just as you would if you were in a tent.

 

[rgwilliams69]

In speaking with our dealer they recommended that it would take an extended period of less than freezing temperatures (24+ hours) to cause any damage due to freeze up. For example might be getting down to 25 degrees at 3am, but back up in the upper 40s and lower 50s by 3pm. Does anyone know if that is truly safe or has camped under such conditions? We are in the same boat as hiriddle, here in Central Illinois camping this week, wanting to camp/fish in Southern Illinois on the Ohio River Thanksgiving weekend, but not wanting to winterize in between. Thoughts?

 

[Owenfamily]

Hello Mowillie,

We go camping at least once a month in the winter and have never had a probelm with anything frezzing. We would not go if the roads were to have ice or snow I am not going to even risk that part. We have never had a problem with anything and we run our setup as we do in the summer. Things might get a little cold at night but the great thing about Texas is it warms up quick.

 

[StarryNight]

We spent 4 nights near the Spanish Peaks here in Colorado the last week of March/first week in April in our Bighorn (we were checking out our new rig). Nights in the mid 20's with day time highs in the low 40's. Snow, rain, clear sky...we had it all. Our water tank was full, we used our water but not the ice maker cuz that line is exposed under the slide & had been winterized). We stayed snug & warm...until propane ran out late one night (we took the word of the dealer that all tanks were full). Filled tanks next day and continued with our first outing in our Bighorn. Didn't have any problems with anything freezing...we had fun checking out the new rig and learned a few lessons

 

[mowillie]

[/QUOTE]. Winterize the unit and dry-camp. Treat your mpg as a much warmer and more comfortable tent. Use the campground facilities just as you would if you were in a tent.[/QUOTE]

Thing is what I was thinking we would do.

 

[Gaffer]

Overnights in the mid 20's is not a problem as long as it gets into the 40's in the daytime. For piece of mind you can disconnect the fresh water supply at night as that may be the first thing to freeze. Keep some water in your fresh tank for the toilet and hand washing at night. Enjoy!

 

[rgwilliams69]

That pretty much matches what the dealer/service guys said and they haven't steered us wrong yet. Actually we hardly ever hook up to city water, typically just use the tank/pump, so no worries about the line freezing up. Another question for anyone who might know, we didn't see the Yeti package on the order form (for Cyclone, anyway) and thus do not have it. So do we still have tank heaters and underbelly heat, or no? Ours is a 2013.

 

[danemayer]

Another question for anyone who might know, we didn't see the Yeti package on the order form (for Cyclone, anyway) and thus do not have it. So do we still have tank heaters and underbelly heat, or no? Ours is a 2013.

Heated underbelly is listed as standard. Tank heaters aren't on the list, so you probably don't have them.


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[kb0zke]

Heated underbelly on an mpg? Or on a Cyclone? Big difference.

 

[rgwilliams69]

Ours is a 2013 Cyclone 4100 HD - picking it up this morning at 8:00am (well, starting the PDI anyway). Very excited! Won't have to worry today at least as it is going to be 72 here in Illinois - excellent! But by Thanksgiving weekend I need to have this all figured out.