“Winter” RV Newbie Preparing for Colder Temperatures
Keeping the new 5th Wheel RV cool in the heat of the south Texas summer was a little more difficult than cooling the previous RV Travel Trailer. The ceilings are taller in the 5th Wheel. There is more square footage. It stands to reason that cooling a large and space with more volume would be a little more difficult. With that in mind, I should anticipate that some of the same tactics I used to keep the RV cooler could also be used to keep the RV warmer as temperatures start to dip.
Let me me completely honest. The word winter in the title is in quotation marks for a reason. Living in Deep South Texas what we call cooler temperatures is no where near what much of the country experiences. I mean, my sister was telling me about snow in Indiana the other day while I was driving home from work in 75 degree weather in January. Having said that, the Rio Grande Valley is slated to receive some cooler than normal temperatures as the weekend progresses and into next week.
So. What steps am I going to take to help ease concern about keeping the RV warmer?
I still have some left over pipe insulation from a previous project. I plan to use some of this at the city water access point to provide some additional insulation. Additionally, I could also wrap some of this around the hose itself that brings freshwater into the RV. At this point I do not have the fresh water hose on a stand to keep it up off the ground (that will be forthcoming), but using some of this to put a small insulation barrier around the fresh water hose should help.
Now, something else to point out. Our 5th Wheel RV is winterized, meaning it has an under belly covering and is meant for four seasons. That, provided that our temperatures should not dip nearly as low as the rest of the country, should help protect our RV as well. Nevertheless, because the RGV will see cooler than normal temperatures, we will still take some extra precautions.
During the hottest part of the summer, and if I am honest a good part of the "fall” as well, it was still quite hot in south Texas. Reflectix helped significantly when we put it up in the windows. This will be helpful to help keep warm air inside the RV.
Like total newbies before, we used double sided command strips at first. Don’t worry. We learned.
One place I did not put reflectix in the summer, but will do so in preparation for the cooler temperatures, is the Max Air Vent Fans. There are two in the RV. I’m not sure if I ordered the official reflectix pillowy pieces designed specifically for this purpose that it would arrive on time. For now, I will use the left over reflectix to cut some pieces and use command strips (for now) to get them into place. While I am not a fan of the command strips for this (see my next recommendation), it should suffice for now. Rest assured though, that I will get one of these ordered for the next time. And these work for retaining cooler temperatures in the RV as well, so it will more than serve its purpose.
When the Command Strips inevitably failed, we ordered these off of Amazon. These proved very helpful when keeping the reflectix us. So far, we have not had any issues with them, and this is what we will be using to hang the reflectix back up for the “winter” months.
If you are interested in these products, check out this link above. We will receive a small commission if you purchase this product with our affiliate link. Having said that, we can rate these with confidence as we are 6 months in and they have worked great!
Before the temperatures do dip, we’ll top off all three propane tanks. This should help ensure that we have enough fuel to heat the RV for a few days. This particular cool spell won’t last terribly long, so even if we run the heat for a majority of the day it should be fine.
Additionally, we are hooked up to shore power 24/7 at our RV Resort. As necessary, we have a space heater as well. Between these heating sources, we should be able to keep the interior of the RV at a reasonable temperature. And, if I remember anything from growing up in the upper midwest, I can recall how we kept our pipes warmer at much lower temperatures - keep the house warm, and open the cabinets to allow the heat to circulate around the interior pipes. Should this be necessary, we’ll do this as well.
Keeping the Interior of the RV Warm
Because our RV is already winterized, with the underbelly bottom, one of the additional ways we can combat cooler temperatures and concerns about freezing pipes is to keep the inside of the RV warm. And keep that warm air circulating inside.
Something like this can be used in more vulnerable spots; under the sinks, specifically. I have this particular model and will use it in a small space if needed.
Additional Desired Items
Admittedly, I do not have these yet. However, this product is used by one of my preferred YouTube channels in his Truck Camper, and I have them in my Amazon list. Again, they will be ordered; however, I am not sure they will arrive on time for this particular anticipated winter episode. I already have a thermometer I can read from an app, but these will help in some of the at risk areas of the RV.
By no means is this meant to be an all inclusive list. These are ideas I have as I take a look at the weather early next week. While I do not want to go overboard in my preparation, I do want to go through the practice of having some sort of an idea and plan for what might work when cooler weather arrives. It was not all that long ago, actually; that there was a significant cold spell that hit Texas. And because Texas is not on the national power grid, the Texas grid failed. There were rolling outages with freezing temperatures that lasted for days. This is weather Texans are not used to, and the lack of preparation resulted in catastrophic events where people lost their lives. Am I suggesting that the weather I am about to experience will be the same situation? No. But I am suggesting that being prepared in our home and being prepared in our now full time RV life is a little different in terms of preparation; and I want to be prepared in the event we do experience severe weather like we did before.
With that in mind, I’d love to hear some of your RV Life winter preparation hacks. Leave us a comment, a story, or a lesson learned.
Happy RV’ing!
