Camping Lifestyle in an RV: Surviving a Winter in the Northeast

In 1973 having worked on the road for about about 7 years, I decided rather than pay motel and boarding house rent, I would try RV camping. I went to my friendly bank and applied for a loan. I explained that I wanted to buy a camping trailer and was immediately asked how much I was going to put down. I replied "not much, what are you looking for?"

I was told they like to get at least half down. I said "I'm getting a camping trailer to save money, not spend it. I'll put down $500." They hemmed and hawed but finally said ok.

Banks seem to treat you better if they think you don't really need the money, which is kind of strange because if I didn't need it, why would I be there?

My first camping trailer was a 1973 Jayco 21 foot pull behind. It had all the modern appliances, pull out double bed and two bunk beds. I would do my RV camping while on a job and when my wife and two kids could get away they would join me. Back in those days, most vehicles were 8 cylinders and most could pull a camping trailer without a special towing package.

Living in the northeast presented some problems living in a camping trailer during the winter months. Most campgrounds were not set up for winter living,
they had to shut off the water because they didn't bury their water lines deep enough or insulate them where they came out of the ground.

I did find a mobile home park in the Rochester, NY area that had a few spaces too short for regular mobile homes so they made RV camping sites out of them. The pipes were buried deep and insulated at ground level.

I stayed there in my camping trailer for one winter while working in the area. It was very educational. The first thing I found out was the holding tanks would freeze. Back then they were just mounted beneath the floor and exposed to the elements. Today they are enclosed and usually have heating coils that will prevent them from freezing. I had to boil water and pour it in the tanks until they thawed. Not a pleasant experience I might add.

At that time they didn't make, or I was just not aware of, the anti freeze solutions for camping trailers and other RV's. Regular automotive anti freeze wouldn't work in the holding tanks because it would not mix with the liquids without being agitated. I finally thought of windshield washer solvent that was used in the winter months. It was good for below freezing and seemed to mix with the liquids. Problem solved.

For the water input I ran a copper pipe from the faucet coming out of the ground to the camping trailer. I wrapped this with a heat tape and then put foam rubber insulation around it from the ground level to the camping trailer. This worked very well until I returned from a weekend at home to find the water pipes frozen. At around 11pm at night during a light snowfall I had to remove the insulation from the pipe to check the heat tape. The thermostat had failed.

The insulation had been enough to keep it from freezing hard and splitting the pipe so I could thaw the pipe with a hair dryer my wife kept in the camping trailer. It wasn't a below zero night so after re-wrapping the insulation around the pipe it was ok for the rest of the night. The next day I bought two heat tapes and wrapped one around the pipe with a gap between the winding to enable me to wrap the second tape around the pipe also. I then plugged just one heat tape in and left the other for a backup in case of future problems.

For heat I had a propane gas company connect two 100 pound tanks to replace the smaller 30 pound tanks that came with the camping trailer. As a precaution I had them connected so I could switch to my own tanks if I had to. As it happened, I went home for a long weekend during the holidays and returned to find they had let my tanks run out. No gas, no heat. All the pipes froze. I switched over to my own tanks and went to bed. About 3 am in the morning I woke to the sound of running water.

I swung my feet over and stepped on the carpeted floor and splashed in the water. A plastic fitting going to the bathroom sink had split when the water froze and the camping trailer was filling with water. They hadn't put any shut offs in the water lines. I had to go outside and shut off the main supply. The next day I cut the plastic water line and put a cap over it where it had split until I could buy a shut off to splice in. Surprisingly it didn't take me that long to dry the carpet, as I recall.

I had no problem maintaining a 70 degree temperature even on the coldest days. When I ordered the camping trailer I had it double insulated and had storm windows made for it. They clipped on the inside of the windows. I placed insulation up in the roof vent areas and covered it with tin foil to keep the heat from escaping.

Over the years I saved a lot of money RV camping compared to what it would have cost for motels.. It was also nice to have a piece
of your home with you while working out of town. I highly recommend it. For additional information visit this site: http://www.camperlifestyle.blogspot.com