Winter Is Coming.......2014........

Winter Is Coming.......2014........

Part of the point of our blog is to provide inspiration, encouragement and good stories....I also like to provide some useful and practical information. For others in similar situations, by choice or necessity, I'd like to save you some headaches by sharing our trials and errors. With the assurance that below freezing temperatures were close, we had to prepare. Obviously we had been through some cold weather already in Ohio, but this is different, and we no longer have to be mobile. One thing that HAD to be done is to get rid of that extremely irritating shaking and bouncing! I bought a set of four screw jacks and put them under the axles. I raised the wheels just off the ground and then readjusted the stabilizers at each corner. This works amazingly. 

I purchased some pipe to plumb in the sanitary line. First, I coupled the galley tank, grey water tank and the black tank and then plumbed it straight to the sewer connection. A great "anti-ice" is the black wire used in gutters and eves to prevent ice dams. Cheap and easy and works well with the plastic. No freeze-ups yet. We also purchased a heated hose. This has actually been a very amazing device and well worth the money!

Since the trailer has a 30A/120V connection and we have a full 50A/240V available I made use of this. With winter coming and the possibility of needing to run additional space heaters and the fact that we are occasionally short of electrical power to run all the necessities I made some adjustments without converting the trailer to 50A. I built a temporary service box with a 30A receptacle and a 20A receptacle. This runs the trailer power plus the heated hose and the drain de-icer. Also, I ran another cord in the outside shower access to the inside of the trailer for a dedicated heating circuit. Even if we run out of propane we will be able to heat and cook with electricity! No freezing this winter if I have anything to say about it!

Although our trailer is equipped with an enclosed under belly for cold weather it's not going to be energy efficient long term. Most "residential RV's" require some sort of skirting. This helps cut down on heat loss and trailer movement due to the wind. It also creates somewhat of a storage "shed" underneath the trailer. Looking at our many options and the pros and cons we really ended up with a couple deciding factors. The park didn't want anything tacky (and rightly so) which rules out the plastic or canvas types. Also we are on a tight budget. A very tight budget. Turns out the cheapest way to skirt the trailer is with 2x3's and OSB! A coat of white paint and it looks great! Without putting thermometers under the trailer I can't say how significantly it has helped already but I can say it has helped. I can tell partly by the rate of propane consumption and by how little the trailer shakes in the wind!

Propane... This is our main heating source. We have the standard 2 30# tanks and then we purchased a regular grill type tank. This way we can always have a tank hooked up and make better use of our trips to the store for refills. Its also a very comforting backup because I know the small tank will heat and cook for at least two days!

**********EDITED TO ADD....AFTER WINTER OF 2014*********

We froze a couple times on extremely cold days. The poop pipe froze once. The fresh water pipes froze twice and I couldn't figure out where at first. For a couple days we only had water running from the "bathroom" sink which is right next the the fresh water inlet and is heated. Our next "Winter Update" post will talk more about this and what we've done since 2014 to keep our trailer from freezing!

Genesis 8:22

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”