Winter Camping and Plumbing

[JimKE]

Curious as to how many of you Bigfoot owners winter camp? And if you do, do you do so with winterized tanks, or do you use your holding tanks?
What kind of temperatures were you exposed to?

We were camping recently and the temperature dropped to 16 degrees that night. I think we turned the furnace on around 2 a.m. . Upon rising around 7 a.m. , sitting outside with a cup of coffee and enjoying the scenery and the brisk cold air, the camp host came by and asked if my water froze up? I told him no and that I wasn't having any problems. He told me that most everyone else did.

Has me thinking about those who winter camp in Bigfoots? I've seen photos of Bigfoot owners taking their units to ski resorts as a base station while skiing.

What about the rest of you? Comments?

[steve dunham]

I guess it is how one defines winter . Are we talking about Winter in the Florida Keys---Southern Texas or Winter in the UP of Michigan ---Northern Minnesota ? Winter is not the same thing across the whole US nor is the definition of COLD

We live in NW Wisconsin and we do not Winter camp .
It gets 30 below zero here with snow everywhere. I have all I can do to keep our wood stove stocked, so the house doesn't freeze up.
We have used our trailer during Fall deer hunting season but only as a place to get out of the wind and warm up .
As far as the plumbing when hunting , our trailer is fully winterize and our bathroom is a downed log behind a tree..
If I wanted to winter camp I would head south to a place with a moderate climate like Southern Illinois or Iowa

[Tom 72]

Seasonal employees boondock in RVs at ski areas. I suspect most shower and eat in ski area facilities, allowing them to have no water in the RV. It serves as a bunkhouse.

Completely separate, Aspen Ski Corp has bought dozens of wooden tiny homes to rent to employees. They are in a mobile home park. Essentially, they are modern day mobile homes. If they provide affordable employee housing, who cares?

[MAP 56]

In Alberta i was in mine at -20c .the bigfoot was winterized as in tanks and lines are dry less rv antyfreez .I dont use the sink i use a pan and a 5gal jug of water, When it snowed that night 4 inches it looker like an icecube ice cycles 3 inches round to the ground.And the furnace ran full time .last time i did that. So i built a truck camper its good for -40 i use a porta potty with winsheld washer in it at the same -40 value .Like most places in the north over night can be a shocker LOL.

[Gerry]

I use to camp one night a week 52 weeks of the year in the White Mt. of New Hampshire. With temps getting well below freezing and one night down to minus 15 and the wind blowing, we always dry camped. As said the furnace will run almost all night long so one must have a way to recharge battery if staying longer just to keep yourself and food from freezing solid.
Spent many a nights playing cards and cooking supper, with our friends close...Very Close to a roaring big fire then sleeping in our Boler and getting up to have breakfast and leave by 11:00
The National Forest no longer plows the campground we stayed at so we haven't been since 2016. Miss it.

[cpaharley2008]

Originally Posted by JimKE

Curious as to how many of you Bigfoot owners winter camp? And if you do, do you do so with winterized tanks, or do you use your holding tanks?
What kind of temperatures were you exposed to?

We were camping recently and the temperature dropped to 16 degrees that night. I think we turned the furnace on around 2 a.m. . Upon rising around 7 a.m. , sitting outside with a cup of coffee and enjoying the scenery and the brisk cold air, the camp host came by and asked if my water froze up? I told him no and that I wasn't having any problems. He told me that most everyone else did.

Has me thinking about those who winter camp in Bigfoots? I've seen photos of Bigfoot owners taking their units to ski resorts as a base station while skiing.

What about the rest of you? Comments?

Normally when someone asks if our water froze, to me they are asking about the water in the hose feeding the trailer from the cg. Moving water takes lower temperatures before freezing and some cg's have heated spigots. By purchasing a heated water hose you can camp down to really low temperatures. As far as water in the trailer, it takes a lengthy period of below freezing before it freezes, certainly not just overnight.

[trainjunkie]

I've camped at up to -10°F with my 1500 series Bigfoot and with the upgraded 18K BTU furnace and Reflectix-lined windows (the 1500 series do not have thermal pane glass or heated tanks like the 2500s), it was plenty comfortable and the onboard water and tanks worked fine. I did leave a couple cabinet doors open to introduce warm air into the areas with plumbing and I put some anti-freeze in the holding tanks. Other than electricity, most places won't have hook-ups available when temps get this low anyway but if they did you'd probably have to use a heated water hose. If you're camping for more than a day or two though, unheated holding tanks and dump valves will probably cause an issue. Here's my rig in the Blue Cedar RV Park in Prince George, BC in January of 2014 where I camped one night on my way to Alaska (yes, in January). I used on-board water for cooking and washing dishes, hands, etc. but I used the park's shower. That was one cold walk. LOL

[John Linck]

The hangy down drain pipes/valves seem the first to freeze on my Scamp. Sometimes I wish the black tank dump valve was inside the trailer. That would avoid any freeze risk.

Grey water is another matter. Certainly wrapping/spraying the tank with foam of some sort would help a great deal. Water takes a while to freeze.

If you have hook ups adding carefully placed heat tape under the foam would protect for nearly any subzero temp.

We have camped where nighttime temps dropped to the teens with none of these measures and had no issues, but they were single nights with warmer nights before and after.

Our usual times of greatest risk are during snowbird trips to the Southwest in February. We just keep the trailer winterized til we reach warmer temps. By the time we return North Spring has sprung.

John

[JimKE]

Thanks all for the input! Good info!
I think the word "prudent" is in place here?
One could push it, but I would rather not.
I recently had issues with the holding tanks (see other post), and should have added additional insulation at that time. But did not. Still not a big job to do but I'm older and it's harder to crawl under to do repairs, even with a creeper.
Late fall, early winter camping is more in line with our likes. But in our mountainous area temperatures can dip to zero quickly.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Originally Posted by JimKE

Thanks all for the input! Good info!
I think the word "prudent" is in place here?
One could push it, but I would rather not.
I recently had issues with the holding tanks (see other post), and should have added additional insulation at that time. But did not. Still not a big job to do but I'm older and it's harder to crawl under to do repairs, even with a creeper.
Late fall, early winter camping is more in line with our likes. But in our mountainous area temperatures can dip to zero quickly.

Go south for the winter go south. Death Valley is a good start.