I wasn't sure where exactly to post this but thought this might be the best place to get more experienced hunters to comment. I just bought a travel trailer for use as my base camp for elk hunting and my question is how to prepare the plumbing for late season cold. I've never used a camper that had a water heater, toilet, etc. during elk season and want to know how best to prepare it so I don't damage it in the cold. My assumption going in is to winterize everything prior to season and avoid using the water tanks and holding tanks since they most likely will freeze and cause me problems. What do you guys do during hunting season that use these type of campers? How do you winterize everything to make sure you cause no problems? Thanks for the help.

The holding tanks are easy. Just dump in some antifreeze before you leave home. The water tank & lines depends entirely on your camper. I have one that's well protected. I've used it down to 0 without a problem. OTOH, my partner's trailer has the water tank hanging under the frame. When we use it, we leave all the lines & tank empty and take a bunch of gallon jugs of water. We winterize both the same way. We drain the water heaters and bypass them with hoses make for the purpose. Then we dump antifreeze in the tank and run 1 faucet & toilet at a time until antifreeze comes out. Finish by putting a little antifreeze in each drain trap.

Thanks for the help and comments Rock Chuck!

The simplest way is to blow out your lines with air pressure,just like some RV dealers do.Much better than RV antifreeze,in my opinion..Then put some RV antifreeze in your traps and toilet.

Take a Porta-Potti for a toilet to replace your RV toilet and a 5-gallon water dispenser for cooking/drinking in the RV and never worry about freezing again....

Spent many a moon in freezing temps in an RV...A hair drier is mans best friend to thaw frozen pipes in hard to get places.

Jayco

One more thing about RV antifreeze,although they say it is non-toxic,I would never poor it into my water tank...Disconnect the line that goes to your water tank at the water pump and ad a short line that will reach your 1 gallon antifreeze bottle and suck the antifreeze right out of the jug instead of your water tank.

If you use antifreeze in your lines for the winter,flush/flush/flush in the spring.That stuff is nasty,safe or not,that's why I use air instead.

Rock salt works in the holding tanks also if your still using it in low temps.

Jayco

1. Drain your holding tank completely, I have never put antifreeze in the tank. I also make sure my grey and black tank are cleaned and empty.

2. I made an adapter that screws onto my water pump and the other end of the hose goes into a gallon of antifreeze. (Takes two gallons for my camper - Wal Mart put the stuff on clearance for $2 a gallon in the spring)

3. I run each faucet until it runs pink, don't forget the toilet, shower, and any exterior faucets and hoses. This also put antifreeze in any drain traps.

4. I then drain the grey and black tank of antifreeze.

I have never had anything freeze on me.

PS. Don't forget to both bypass and drain your water heater, I just leave the exterior plug out all winter.

Blowing out the lines works IF you don't have any low spots. I once spent a week dismantling my former boss's RV bathroom to replace a water line under the tub when water settled there after being blown out.

Nothing like coming off a mountain, in the rain, snow, and mud on a steep grade and seeing your trailer pass you up!

My thoughts exactly,

I wanted a camper to replace my tent until a couple of years ago; it was the last weekend of deer season I hunt the sierra�s at or above 8000 and rain \ snow made setting up my tent and keeping it dry during the process impossible and again I wanted a truck camper or trailer!

Heading home and down the hill I could barely stay on the frozen road and came across two trucks one with trailer and his buddy with a big truck camper slammed up against the bank. Both drivers claim they were slowly heading down hill but the trailers keep pushing them faster and were lucky then had only minor damage.

I started looking for a better tent.

I came up with a Cabelas Extreme weather tent that has the option of setting up the additional floor liner, poles and storm cover first. Then when you are inside out of the weather (and wipe up the liner) you can put the tent up in a dry environment. First time out I got to put it up in the rain and camped warm and dry in one of the worst weeks I have hunted.

+1 With anti freeze coming out every faucet I know my pipes are protected. Saves worrying for me.

The largest RV dealer in Boise Idaho only blows out the lines and does not ad RV antifreeze and they service RV's clear to McCall Idaho that gets to -20+ yearly.I have never frozen just blowing out my lines as taught by the RV foreman there..To each his own...

People complain about water taste in there RV yet they fill there tanks with the garden hose instead of an RV hose and fill there lines with antifreeze.

This is from Prestone RV antifreeze.....



As I said..To each his own.....

Jayco

I winterize my fifth wheel after antelope season and use it and my outfitter tent through January. Dry camping is fun.

Thanks for all the additional info. Dry camping is all I've ever done during hunting season so this won't hurt my feelings any. I just didn't want to mess anything up by not winterizing properly before the snow flies.

dont get antifreeze in your hot water heater -it will eat up the anode in short order. yes sir, real short order.

OK, a couple of things here.
First, I regularly use RV anti freeze in my camper as winter comes on. The camper is a 1997 Lance Truck Camper. I've had no problems what so ever with anything because of it's use. After all of these years, if it were any kind of problem, I'm sure I'd know about it.
While the concentrate may cause problems, the diluted form, that's one gall on per 14-15 gallons of capacity is not. I simply drain it out when spring comes, fill with water and Clorox for it's yearly sanitizing, then, after a couple of days, drain the Clorox and water out. Yes, water that comes from the first couple of refills does taste like swiming pool water. But it's never hurt me or anyone else.
My Lance Camper has flowing hot water down to -10 degrees. If it warms up at all, it comes back. I loose both hot and cold at -20 degrees. In spite of this, I've never cracked a pipe.
That's because they build them with not only lots of insulation for both the tanks and the lines, but the forced air heating system warms these as well.
At the end of my hunt, I run RV Antifreeze into all of the above and go home to warmer Kalifornia. One year, everything froze up near the end of the hunt, and I came home early. I did have very little water left in the freah water tank. But the lines would not take the antifreeze. Still no problems.
So, I've never put RV antifreeze in before I needed it. After five trips to Montana, sometimes hunting until the second week in december, this has worked for me. E

Winterize and use it soley for shelter.

Winter tires for your trailer or well fit chains solve some of the winter TT problems. Using the trailers breaks when chained up to keep the speed down on ice can keep you out of ditch. Doing the 6-8 wheel slide on the highway is not very fun. Hit the garage sales for old studded tires if they are legal in your state. The big sweeping turns west of Burns Oregon have nearly gotten me a few times. Morning sun melting a slick glaze on the packed ice/snow. Chukar hunts in January pulling the trailer can be interesting. Be it the car hauler with samurai, Dump trailer with the big wall tent camp or the TT.

An old truckers trick is to disable the brakes on 1 trailer axle in the winter. The idea is that 2 wheels will keep turning when you're braking to help keep it in line. If all 4 lock up while braking, it's off to the ditch.
How well it actually works I can't say. Never tried it myself.

Test, these guys have pretty much summed it up, but here is a good site if you are new, or even old as far as RVing. Tons of tips, tricks and maintenance issues. As an aside I have nothing to do with this site. There is just tons of experience here and a lot of it from full time RVers.

http://rverscorner.com/

Thanks, IDnative. I'll check it out.

I hear you.
We arrived to the camp site last year. It started raining. I lowered the corner jacks, we climbed inside, opened two cold beers from the fridge and watched through the window with a great deal of sympathy how the neighbors were hustling around their camp site, setting up a tent in the rain.
When we were done I pulled the trailer from 14 inches of snow. The neighbors tent looked like a big snowdrift, I am sure it was a blast digging out and packing it, all wet and frozen.
There are two sides to every coin.