Winter Travel

Could some one tell me how to keep the macerator and it's inlet lines incluxing low point lines from freezing when traveling in below freezing areas?

Good question, are you winterized?  If so, and done according to the Phoenix video there should be anti-freeze in those lines.

If not, then I would dump the tanks and then put anti-freeze down the drains for the gray tank and down the toilet for the black tank.  Then run the macerator briefly until you see pink anti-freeze.  Leave the antifreeze in the lines until you get to warmer weather.

I'm winterized but heading out this week for the coast where it will be above freezing.  So I plan to de-winterize when I get there and the re-winterize before I leave.

Hopefully others will chime in as well.  My coach has heated waste tanks but I have no experience with how well those actually work.  Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has used them in cold weather.

Thanks JaTrax.  Very helpful.

We live in Alaska. We don't camp in the winter, but early on we experienced enough incidents of macerator freezing when we were camping in in chilly fall/spring trips that we decided to bypass the macerator and use the gravity dump when we were filled and had to dump in freezing temps. We also have tank heaters. Since adopting that practice we have not had any problems.

I wonder if 12V heat tape (or heat cable) would prevent the macerator from freezing.  I have no first-hand experience with the product, but I see it is being sold.

Good question, are you winterized?  If so, and done according to the Phoenix video there should be anti-freeze in those lines.

If not, then I would dump the tanks and then put anti-freeze down the drains for the gray tank and down the toilet for the black tank.  Then run the macerator briefly until you see pink anti-freeze.  Leave the antifreeze in the lines until you get to warmer weather.

I'm winterized but heading out this week for the coast where it will be above freezing.  So I plan to de-winterize when I get there and the re-winterize before I leave.

Hopefully others will chime in as well.  My coach has heated waste tanks but I have no experience with how well those actually work.  Would be interesting to hear from anyone who has used them in cold weather.

We've done the above: ran the pink stuff through the macerator and valves, turned on tank heaters and used everything as we normally do. When you dump the tanks, run the pink stuff through again and you're good to go. Remember to turn those tank heaters off when you get back to warmer weather or store the rig. They run off your batteries.

Big problem we had was snow and sleet freezing onto our hitch. We couldn't hook up until we drove to an open blacktop lot, put the tail to the sun, and waited for it to melt off...then we high tailed it south.

Thanks 2Frazzled.  Wife made reservations for New Years on the beach.  Something about "we bought that RV, we are going to use it"   She got a great price on a great spot................

I am a little apprehensive about winter travel and camping in cold weather.  She is the eternal optimist.  As in "what could possibly go wrong, we are just going to the coast".

I'm worried about the hitch and cables, snow on the coach roof (currently there is 6 inches on the roof), getting all the pipes un-winterized and then re-winterized.  Dumping tanks in freezing weather.

One of my bigger concerns with winter travel is road salt spray.  Given the practice of non-sealed electrical connections and use of raw untreated steel, motor homes in general don't do well from it.  I've managed to avoid it, 10 years so far.

Winter is our favorite time in the RV.  No crowds and we often have any place we go to ourselves.  John has done a wonderful job of keeping everything working in the cold temps. We use water in jugs for flushing and add RV antifreeze with every flush. The LTV tanks are heavily insulated but not heated (I think). We keep cabinets open and run a small space heater to help keep temps up around lines and tanks.  Then once we are home he re-winterizes the sewer/macerator.  Thanks to suggestions here, we asked to have the Sanicon system insulated and heated. Ron, you might be able to buy the heating pad from PC and install and insulated it yourself.

Madonna

One of my bigger concerns with winter travel is road salt spray.  Given the practice of non-sealed electrical connections and use of raw untreated steel, motor homes in general don't do well from it.  I've managed to avoid it, 10 years so far.

Since we live in salty Chicagoland, we utilize Blue Beacon Truck Wash to put a shine on Fawkes. http://www.bluebeacon.com/RVMotorCoachWashing/RVMotorcoachWashPrices/default.aspx00  It is worth the relatively small cost to have him hand washed (no robo brushes involved) and tarted up nicely.  Blue Beacon has around 100 locations nationwide. 

If we were in snow again, we would probably bungee a tarp around the hitch. We have a vinyl cover but it would likely freeze and crack.

I didn't think Oregon winter was really severe at the coast. I take extra steps in extreme cold that you can try if needed.

The truck cab is your evil cold air zone. I bought a cheap tension curtain rod at Wal-Mart that reaches across the rig at the ceiling behind the cab seats. I put it up and hang thin silver Mylar emergency blankets like drapes. I fold them over the rod and clip with clothes pins then fold where they meet in the middle and clip. I clip to the privacy curtain tracks on the side angled walls. I then tuck the Mylar against the side walls along the floor and put shower shoes or something on there to hold them in place. We give up the cab space in extreme cold but can open the center of the mylar " curtains" if we need something up there. You can set the rod lower so the tv is visible.

For a quick cold blockade I just hang the Mylar waist high clipping to the privacy curtain tracks (no tension rod). You can lean over it and reach into the cab. There is a huge temperature difference between the house air and the enclosed space behind the Mylar.

We have a small space heater we use with our A.C. heat strip when we have electric connections and we run the propane heater when we don't. We try really hard to not camp below 40 or so without electric but we've done it a few times. We consider 50 good sleeping weather so we may tolerate colder temps than others are happy with.

NOTE - remember to close your truck vents and your house fan vents. The truck has an " off" setting for the vents on the climate control knob. Turn this to off and close each dash vent louver for good measure. Double check the bathroom vent before bed. We often forget it and send wonderful heat up to the sky.

I recommend house shoes or slippers and an extra blanket on the bed. If you are running on electric heaters and it's too nippy to get out of bed, hit the propane heater for a quick warm up then go back to electric if you like. A lot of people avoid using propane since they are already paying for electric at the site but I get cranky when I'm cold so John is more than happy to kick the furnace on if needed. The cost of propane is a small price to pay to avoid being stuck in a small space with a cranky woman.

Enjoy your trip! We can't wait to get back to the Oregon coast. We spent part of one winter there (through January) and plan to be back to winter there in 2018.

Oh, we had moderate but wet weather for a good stretch there and bought a tiny little dehumidifier to help handle the massive amount of wet stuff we had in the rig - rain jackets, rain pants, boots, bath towels, kitchen towels, dishes, etc. Our windows fogged on the inside and we were perpetually damp. The little dehumidifier did the trick.

The truck cab is your evil cold air zone.

Well stated 2 Frazzled.

Addressing the cold coming from the front cab area is most critical for cold weather comfort.  You have some excellent suggestions in addressing that.

We sometimes find ourselves camping at high altitude in the fall where temps can drop into the upper 20's during the night.  Like you suggest, we set the dash climate control to the "Off" position and throw a thick blanket across the two front seats and tuck it into the outer sides.  It does not seal off the cab, but it does block the worst of the low-cold-fog effect.  When shore power is available, we place our little ceramic heater right in front of the cab area facing rearward which cancels out any cold leakage along with supplying decent warmth to-boot.

We have model 2350.  Without shore power, at night we close the privacy curtain.  Though it is not an insulating shield, it does slow down cold penetration into our bedroom.  Between that, our thermal glass, curtains drawn, and our warm breath, the thermostat does not call for furnace heat as much during our sleep.

Could some one tell me how to keep the macerator and it's inlet lines incluxing low point lines from freezing when traveling in below freezing areas?

The macerator itself empties when you run it.  The valves are before the macerator.  You do need to use the tank heaters to keep the lines to the valves liquid once it gets below 20 degrees.

The inside water lines and tank are good as long as you keep the furnace on and keep the bathroom and kitchen cabinets open to allow heat inside them, when parked, we use a ceramic heater to blow warm air into bathroom cabinet.

We've used the above techniques successfully down into the single digits.... BUT once something freezes it takes quite a bit of heat to unfrerze it.   Some peopke put a 40watt light bulb beside the water pump to protect it from freezing.

So in case a watet line does freeze... We've been know to carry a few gallons of water to use for flushing, drinking and sponge baths.

We learned the above techniques the hard way, by having something freeze before we figured out how to handle it.

If you're going to be in below zero temps... I would leave the RV fully winterized and NOT use any of the fixtures.   Pretend you're in a big "car" and use rest stops and campground facilities for your needs.

I didn't think Oregon winter was really severe at the coast.

It isn't.  Though it can be stormy it rarely goes below freezing.  And the weather projection for our stay is now highs in the 50's and sunny.  Extremely unusual for this time of year but I'm happy.  Our problem is we live fairly well up in the cascades, until yesterday we had 6 inches of snow on the roof of the coach.  We need to get out of the cascades, then cross the pass through the coast range.  Likely ice / snow at the pass as well.  Once we get to the coast we will be fine.

Thanks for all the suggestions, I am sure I am just worrying about nothing, but better worried and prepared than not worried and broke down.

I get cranky when I'm cold so John is more than happy to kick the furnace on if needed. The cost of propane is a small price to pay to avoid being stuck in a small space with a cranky woman.

 We need to get you and Carrie together, she is also not a fan of being cold.  To put it mildly.

If you're going to be in below zero temps... I would leave the RV fully winterized and NOT use any of the fixtures.   Pretend you're in a big "car" and use rest stops and campground facilities for your needs.

Good tips @Donc13 thanks!  Not going to be below zero, and according to the last weather report not below freezing anyplace except perhaps the Coast Range pass.  And that for not very long.  

We ended up with a "Pineapple Express" yesterday which has changed everything.  A Pineapple Express picks up warm wet air from around Hawaii and jets it right over us.  Which brings tons of rain, and can melt several feet of snow in hours.  We lost all our snow at our elevation and the river is at flood stage from the melt up higher.