Handling Winter In Our Motor Home

Winter of 2021. NOT fun!

OK, so the first rule of thumb in handling winter in your motor home is to move to warmer weather! After all, it's a MOTOR home!

But sometimes, family obligations get in the way of chasing 70 degrees or more, as it just did recently where we had to be in Massachusetts for more than a couple of days to take care of my Dad's transition to another level of elderly care. And as it does every year over the holidays when spending time with kids and grandkids is important. Now, North Georgia in winter (our usual haunt in Nov. and Dec.) isn't New England by any stretch of the imagination, but in December and January their weather is remarkably similar. Usually just less snow, but temperatures are within a few degrees of each other on average.

As we've written about before, most campgrounds in MA, NH, VT and ME close for the season no later than Columbus Day, sometimes due to state regulations, other times due to owners who want to spend their winters in Florida or Arizona, and sometimes just because of the hassle of keeping campgrounds open in sub-freezing temperatures.

But a rare few stay open all year 'round, mostly to take care of their permanent residents who live in RV's that frankly can no longer move from place to place, as they've sat for so long in ONE place. Or in the case of Field and Stream RV Park in Brookline, NH and Circle CG Farm in Bellingham, MA, to accommodate the occasional traveler like us when emergencies arrive.

So first off, providing water is a problem up north. Unlike homes, campground infrastructure is shallow, plus the water supply doesn't come into a nice heated basement, but to an outdoor spigot exposed to the cold. Now, in North Georgia, some campgrounds will wrap heating elements around their water supply, while others just cover their spigots in insulation for the rare sub-freezing events. Not so up north. If the temperatures get much below freezing for more than a day, the campground shuts off their water, and depending on the size of the campground, keeps it off until nightly temperatures remain above freezing for a while.

So how do residents and visitors get water when the temperatures go low up north? Deliveries! Both campgrounds mentioned above have trucks on-site with tanks that are filled from the main water supply (with heated infrastructure), and they go from site to site every other day and fill everyone's fresh water tank. In our case, our Tiffin comes with a gravity fill that can be unlocked as needed, then a hose from their water truck is inserted, and we're good to go with normal operations for the next two days using our onboard water pump. Our 70 gallon fresh water capacity is more than enough to handle a couple of days.

So that covers water, but what about keeping the interior warm? The easy answer would be propane, as our Open Road 36LA comes with two propane-fed heaters, But propane is expensive, and unless you want to move every week or so to a propane filling station on-site (packing up and disconnecting everything each time you need propane), it's also inconvenient. Field and Stream RV in NH can set you up with a “buddy tank” that can be filled by the local provider, and if you have an external connector as we do, the need to move goes away. But it's still expensive. We end up setting our propane furnaces to kick on if internal temps get below 63 degrees.

So we rely on propane in extreme low temperature conditions (for an RV anyway), usually below 23 degrees or so, but employ a variety of resources whenever possible, and let the campground pay to keep us warm.

I'll mention our heat pump only in passing, as it ceases to be effective below 40 degrees, so most nights up north it's useless in keeping us warm.

So, what remains are both Tiffin-supplied and other purchased heaters. The first is the fireplace that came with our 36LA. Made by Furrion, is has the capacity to heat up to 500 sq. ft. of an area. Technically, it could heat the entire living area of our home, but it doesn't handle the extreme ends of the motor home very efficiently. It IS very effective at warming up the main galley / living area, but should only be run for up to 5 hours at a time according to manufacturer specs. We never leave this on at night when we're sleeping, but do use it during the day.

We have a 1 1/5 foot-tall Lasko oscillating tower heater we plug into the front passenger area, as that plug is more robust than the plugs in other areas of the RV. This keeps the plug from heating up and potentially damaging the electronics of the heater and reduces any fire risk. We can run this heater pretty much all day or night. This heater handles the front of the coach closest to the main door, and also provides heat to the “thermister” thermostat right below it. This keeps the propane from kicking on too many times at night, as the front appears to be warmer to the Spyder control panel than the rest of the main cabin.

In our bedroom we employ the most efficient heat source known to mankind – a lemon-beagle named Grover. If there is a must-have heater for your RV, it's a beagle! The only trouble you can get into is that beagles are not UL listed . . .

 

He's not UL listed, but he's more efficient than any heater on the market!

For especially cold nights, we turn on a small oscillating cube heater in the bedroom that sits easily on our dresser's shelf. With Grover and the cube heater, we can maintain temperatures in the low 70's all night long.

Now, a point of caution: the inverter that comes with our Tiffin (and many other RV's) can only handle so many heat-producing devices being on at one time. That means heaters, microwaves, hair dryers, toasters, etc. We've found 3 to be the maximum before the inverter's circuit breaker kicks off. Your mileage may vary, but not by much.

Final point to surviving in cold weather is to make sure you take care of your wet bay. Use a heated hose if you are able to attach to outside water. Make sure that there are no plastic filters attached to your water hose that cannot conduct heat – make sure it's metal from spigot to internal water hookup! If no attachment is possible because of water being shut off, coil your heated hose up in your wet bay, but keep it plugged in – preferably to the campground's power pole via a standard 120V outlet. This will keep your wet bay warm, and prevent your water pump from freezing up overnight. Plugging it outside to the power pole removes one heat-producing source plugged into your motor home and protects your inverter.

Bottom-line, while it isn't preferable to spend time in colder weather in an RV, it can be done with just a little bit of thought and planning. And unless you have to go outside, it can be tolerable. Having a beagle just makes it easier and more enjoyable!

If you have your own hints and tips on surviving colder weather in an RV, or have any questions or want more detail about this post, feel free to use the comments section below, or drop us an email using the Contact section on our blog page.