With years of experience behind me, there are a few things I can tell you. First is that when parking for the night, make sure you turn your heater OFF. Otherwise you leave several nice vents open to the cold air.
The second is to get a set of TIRE SOCKS. These are fabric tire coverings which go on with built-in elastic straps. Chains are a pain in the rear end. You spend a half hour putting them on to cross a mountain pass and as soon as you start down, the road is clear and you have to take the chains off or risk them breaking and destroying a wheel well. And after a few miles comes another pass. The auto socks go on and come off in 5 minutes.
In my experience, the heater in the air conditioner unit is good down to 40 degrees, then my portable electric heater is good down to maybe 5 degrees and below that I have to use the furnace. Your windows may not pass the cold, but the metal frames sure will. Carry several used towels to place along the lower frames. Also its better to warm yourself, as in a sleeping bag, and then run the furnace to make the rig toasty when you get up. The warning about opening all cabinet doors is also a good one.
I love winter camping and do it all the time. You need to let the conditions dictate whether you stop or go. You are driving a large vehicle and it takes a while to slip out in the rear and you have time to correct but if you do not it will take a while ot finish and you will be helpless to prevent it. I have driven many miles in the snow and the secret is to slow way down up and down the hills.
When you are camped you need to crack a window or a vent. The propane will emit water vapor and it will cause your unit to sweat. That is one of the benefits of the aqua hot is no moisture. You need to take the water adn sewer hose in to. the water should just be used to fill the tank and use it and the pump in the night. THe sewer hose will freeze if there is liquid in there and will not want to go back in its holder. I pull it out and dump and then put it away again.
You need to make sure your lower compartments and water lines do not freeze. I also recommend that you drain your outside shower too.
Other than that it is fun and it will not be cold in the day times so that makes it easier too. When you are freezing both day and night it is a bit harder but if it warms up in the day you will be fine in just about any rig.
John
2001 42' Foretravel U320
2007 Bornfree 24 Painted
2001 Jeep Wrangler
2007 Burgman 650 Executive
Susie and Dolly (Cavalier King Charles Spaniels)
Dolly now in our hearts and thoughts 8-27-05
Doodle a Black and Tan Cavalier
Lolly a Ruby Cavalier
garyhaupt wrote: DO NOT even consider chains...if the road is that bad that you think you need chains, you need to be stopped and huddled up. These things don't drive worth a pinch of coon poop in snow or ice. You''d think that they would but they are just plain dangerous in those condtions.
Gary Haupt
Actually Class C's drive great in the snow compared to a pickup or SUV, just don't be in a hurry. The weight is what makes it drive better. Nothing drives good on ice.
We use our motorhome more in the winter than we do in summer, skiing and snowmobiling. And towing a 6,500 lb, trailer with the snowmobiles inside. We have driven thousands of miles in the snow, and have gone on one trip straight through about 500 miles of snow towing the trailer. And no we didn't chain up. That trip was from West Yellowstone to Spokane, and snow all the way.
Now does your motorhome have a heated basement? If it does you will not have any problems. But run your furnace to keep your tanks warm. And since you will have full hookups, you don't have to worry about the batteries running down overnight.
We have camped in -7F temps overnight without hookups and the basement stayed right around 39-40F, and this was for almost a week.
Does your motorhome have dual pane windows? If it does moisture should not be that much of a problem, but do run the fan when cooking and showering. If it is a problem get a dehumidifier for the next trip.
Always top off your propane, fuel and water tanks and empty your holding tanks as close as you can to your destination. Why, for just in case there is no power, water, etc. This way you will have lots of fuel to run the generator, and have propane to have heat. And also for just in case you are stuck somewhere for a few days because of bad snow conditions. We also have a 100 lb propane tank for the heater in the trailer that I can roll out to the motorhome and hook up with a extendastay hose in case we run out of propane in the motorhome.
If it is that cold I would not hook up any of the exterior hoses, sewer and water. And just use the onboard tanks, then you can fill and dump when it is warmer during the day.
We spend months at a time in the winter dry camping, traveling from Washington and Oregon through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming. We will stop at dozens of places for a few days and go snowmobiling and also stop at most of the ski resorts. Last trip we spent 3 months on the road, and 99% of it was dry camping in very cold weather.
And remember have fun, it really won't be that bad. There is nothing better than spending time outside on a cold winter day and knowing you have a nice comfortable place to come back to with all the comforts of home. And another benefit is when people think the weather is going to be bad there will be less people there.
Hello everyone. Well, we survived our first long trip in our RV and can now add Arizona to our travel map as well.
Actually, even though it snowed on us a little bit on our way to the Grand Canyon National Park "GCNP" and it snowed a little on our first day there, it was a lot of fun and an unbelievable experience. Those of you who have been there know exactly what I am talking about. Those who have not, you simply must go at least once. It is truly breathtaking.
Thanks again for all the wonderful advice about camping in the snow. I'll definitely look into the tire socks as it sounds a lot better than hassling with the snow chains.
By luck it seems I followed most of the rest of the advice: My RV has a heated basement, or I guess the furnace heats up the basement as well, but no dual pane window. So we left the furnace on at night with one of the windows cracked to take care of the moisture problem and it all worked out okay.
Also, even though the place was full hookup, they recommended against leaving the sewer connected, not because of the cold, but because the ravens in GCNP like to attack them! So we just hooked up twice as needed to dump and the rest of the time the hose was neatly tucked away. Finally, my water hose was leaking a little at the connection so I just kept filling up the fresh water tank as needed and the rest of time that hose was tucked away as well.
If you ever go to the GCNP definitely try to stay at the Trailer Village. Reservations are hard to come by, I must have called right as someone cancelled because it was not available on line but available when I called, but definitely worth trying. It is right in the park and has full hookup, plus it is on the free shuttle route.
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