Winter camping in Amarillo, TX in freezing weather

[K Kumar]

Hi all.

This is a long post.

I wanted to share our experience with the TM community in case someone is curious on how things work out or have general advice.

My son & I recently moved to Amarillo, TX and are living in a TM at an RV resort. I have never camped in freezing weather before, and didn't expect that in Amarillo. But have learnt after moving here that it can be rough in the winter.

Anyway, two weeks back when both of us were in CA, the weather turned bad in Amarillo. Upon my return, noticed the showers had a leak and kitchen faucet would not work (no water). Fixed the leaks. Working on the kitchen faucet. Learning a lot in the process about the TM.

This week it is going to be snowing and temps are below freezing at night with wind chills going into the negatives. We have two electric heaters. With both heaters in the living area, I can raise the inside temp to 60 degrees (outside is 10 degrees) with out a problem. Trying to avoid using the furnace since it uses up the propane tank in 3 to 4 days!! I didn't expect that.

Hoping that if we live inside the trailer with the heater, the water pipes won't bust up. Plan on adding some RV antifreeze into the toilet so nothing goes wrong there. Noticed that if I have the 2 heaters and the overhead heater (mild heat) in A/C on, the 30 Amp circuit trips. Can only have 2 on at any given time. Have water in the 20 gallon tank for use. Shut off the outside water line at night. Have the water hose covered with thermal heat cable & insulation tape so water doesn't freeze in it. Resort people said it is ok to hook the sewer hose and leave the drain valve open, it would not cause any problems. This way I don't use the grey holding tank.

We have 3 in. memory foam padding on top of the mattress. That helps significantly. The top is cold initially, but after a few minutes, it settles to our body temperature. The edge close to the back wall is cold. Need to figure out if I can do something about that. I read in the forum you can put swimming noodles to solve this problem. Need to try this. Also plan on using an electric blanket to see if that would help (think this would get the circuit breaker to trip). Keep the small heater at the foot of the bed, and it keeps the sleeping area warm without a problem at night.

Use the resort facilities which are excellent for showering, restroom, etc.,.

Took out the Marine battery yesterday as I was working on the tub faucet. Going to get it tested and see if it is any good at Walmart. Don't know how old it is and whether it works, since I got this TM used 6 months ago.

We have actually lived in this TM full time for almost 4 months and adjusted to it well. It helps we travel on work, so we use the TM as our base camp.

Look forward to comments and advice.

Thanks.

[tentcamper]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like you have a good base camp.

When we camp in the cold below 20-F we try to leave one door open on the kitchen and bathroom cabinets. But using water it drains to the gray tank, which will freeze.

Try removing the aerator on the kitchen faucet. Years ago, we had an issue when we connected to city water. Starting with an empty hotwater tank. We stirred up the settlement in the water heater and it caused the aerator to clog with no water flow.

[commodor47]

We had a similar 30 amp circuit breaker issue when attempting to operate a small electric heater and the microwave. I solved that by purchasing a heavy duty extension cord, connecting it to the power pedistal (most campground power posts have a separate 120 volt double outlet) and ran the female end of the cord up between the vinyl flap by the entry door. That is where we plug in the small electric heater (no more circuit trips). You might consider not using the heat strip in the air conditioner which will also help to reduce circuit tripping.

Pool noodles can be hard to find this time of the year. Instead, we use the black pipe insulation, available at any hardware store.

Rather than an electric blanket, we opted for a heated mattress pad. They generally do not draw a lot of power and have never caused the 30 amp breaker to trip.

Dick

[rvcycleguy]

We use a ceramic electric heater placed in the hall way towards the rear bed and an electric blanket under the sheets to keep the bed warm. Have not had an issue with breakers tripping although we are using different plugs. The one under the dinette sofa and the other for the blanket is near the wardrobe.

We don't use the furnace due to the noise at night.

[Bill]

Commodore47's suggestion to run a separate extension cord from the power pedestal to the inside is a great one, and will cure your circuit breaker problems. We use an electric blanket rather than a mattress pad. Neither uses much electricity, but the electric blanket has a dual control so the sleeper nearest that cold outside wall can set a higher temperature.

Re the frozen outside shower, this is a common problem, and is a pain to fix. Since there is no easy way to shut off the water supply to the outside shower, you may want to buy a short heater cable and stuff it behind the door and into the compartment.

If you leave the gray tank drain valve open, that is OK. However, when the time comes to drain the tanks, you should close the gray drain valve and fill the gray tank at least halfway. Then drain the black tank. And last, drain the gray tank. This rinses your gray tank, and rinses the drain hose.

There is no need to put RV antifreeze into the toilet, since the black tank is indoors. As Tentcamper suggested, if you leave the bathroom door open so that the heat from the living area can get into the bathroom, neither the toilet nor the tub plumbing will freeze. Beyond that, I'm not sure that RV antifreeze is good for the thin rubber toilet gasket, which is a pain to replace. (I am also not sure that the RV antifreeze will harm the gasket - but why take a chance?)

RVCycleGuy: All of the outlets inside the TM go back through a single breaker in the breaker box, so splitting your load among multiple outlets has no effect. I seem to recall that one of our members, with some electrical expertise, installed another outlet somewhere inside, and wired it through one of the other breakers. Most of the other breakers are only lightly loaded.

Bill

[tentcamper]

What I ended up doing to get the second heater off the one 120V outlet breaker. I installed a GFI outlet on the AC unit junction box.

Under the camper below the water heater is a junction box that connects the rubber cord that powers the AC unit and is wired back to a 20 amp breaker. It's a 20 amp service. Since I don't run the AC and a elec heater at the same time. I mounted a 20 amp GFI outlet to that box with a weatherproof cover. Now all I do is drop a white 4' extension cord under the flap to the box.

When its cold and we need two heaters. We use that heater for the front section and keep it on high and the second heater we put on low when using appliances. The second heater we use a plug thermostat to maintain temp.

[Bill]

Very nice idea! Thanks for outlining that. There are other breakers that could have been used, but I think they all would involve getting into the breaker box itself, which is more complex.

Bill

[gonzo628]

it would not happen to be the Oasis RV Resort off of Arnot Rd, would it?

[K Kumar]

Thanks for the suggestions.

Yes, it is the Oasis RV resort.

I did add the RV anti freeze to the toilet before reading Bill's post. Hope it doesn't damage the toilet.

Here is an update. Noticed by 6 pm yesterday, the shower in the tub had frozen, as well as the shower drain. Thankfully, I had removed the shower head as per the suggestion in this forum. So, hoping there is no permanent damage to it. I didn't keep the bathroom door open as suggested during the day. Maybe this wouldn't have happened if I had done that. But the bathroom sink worked fine. No issues there.

Sleeping area was warm with the small heater even with negative temperatures due to the wind.

Checked the aerators on the kitchen sink and they seem to be ok. So, still need to figure out what is going on in the pipes under the sink and why the water will not flow through. Atleast I am getting water in the bathroom sink - from both internal holding tank & external hose.

My shore power has 2 additional 110V sockets. But both are being used to heat up the outside water pipe & hose, and so I need to figure out a creative way (probably buy a multi socket adapter) to hook up an extension cable and run it inside the TM so I can connect one of the electric heaters to avoid tripping the 30 A circuit.

Anyway the weather is going to get better by Sunday, and hopefully I don't need all the extra heat & protection next week.

[gonzo628]

not that it is of any consequence, but when we took our trip in our old trailer, we stayed over at Oasis. We ate our dinner at the Subway just up the road at the Love's travel stop. The following morning we made the obligatory trip to Cadillac Ranch.