What Is a 4-Season RV, And Is There Really Such a Thing?

Like others, I really enjoy camping and traveling in the winter. A couple of additions to some of the suggestions from others. 1. Use electric heating tape to wrap the exposed water lines in the wet bay. Pay special attention to the water pump. The water in the pump can and will freeze. 2. If the weather forecast calls for snow or ice, pull the slides in. There is no real good way to get the snow and ice off the slide toppers. Not a popular thing to do, but could save a lot of trouble later. 3. Very important to check your roof seals before your trip. If you get snowed on, the build up on your roof will start melting slowly. This makes it very easy for the snow melt to get into your walls before you are aware you have a problem. By the time you know, it is too late. 4. If possible, store your water hose and sewer hose inside a bay until needed. Use water from your tank instead of the spigot. Fill the tank as necessary and disconnect when not used. There are several benefits when doing this. It keeps more liquid in your tanks. More means harder to freeze. It also allows you to screw the covers on in the wet bay rather than leaving them off and inviting cold air into the bay. You can also put a light bulb in the compartment and turn it on. The heat from the bulb will assist with preventing freezing.

I hesitate to drive north of I-10 in the winter. We were driving from warm Dallas to Lancaster, PA in mid-March 1993 and got caught in a blizzard. At the time, we had a Gulfstream Friendship MH diesel pusher. We had to get off of the interstate and got trapped on a US highway going up a mountain. The fridge was way off level. We burned a huge amount of LP to keep warm overnight. We needed to get towed up the mountain after disconnecting our car. The ice from the roof melted and got on the hinges of the outside compartments, which we couldn't open. The generator wouldn't start until the chassis engine got the voltage up. We never made it to a campground. Driving home, ice damaged the sewer house carrier mounted under the chassis.

Traveling from the Odessa, TX area in our new, 2006 Travel Supreme 38' DP on a 2005 Thanksgiving long weekend in Ruidoso, NM, it was gorgeous as the snow fell. We had towed a car with us. Our 3 slides were out. The heat pumps kept us toasty and we had plenty of hot water from our Hydro-Hot. What a vehicle for our first trip in it! We stayed in a campground. I started planning our trip home on Saturday. We had topper awnings over the slides. In spite of them, the slides would not retract because of the ice. I didn't bring a snow shovel. We drove the tow car to Walmart and bought a shop broom and their last snow shovel. Getting up on the slippery, EPDM roof, I chopped up the ice. I used the broom to sweep off the snow but the topper awning fabrics were iced. I used the broom handle to try to break the ice off and was partially successful. The awnings, still stiff, wouldn't fully retract, only partially. We had to get home because the next day was back to work. Residual ice melted onto the floor when the slides were retracted. The sewer hose cracked when flexed. The water hose couldn't be coiled up. As we drove home in heavy, slow traffic, the residual ice on the roof bounced around and damaged one of the AC shrouds. The ice would fall off the roof and onto nearby vehicles as they tried to keep away from me. The topper awnings were never the same after that. They eventually had to be replaced, much sooner than expected. That MH had heated holding tanks and had available heat from electricity, diesel or the heat pumps. Everything worked fine except on the outside of the RV. It was an expensive, short trip.

If you like your RV, "4-season" or not, you'll want to keep it below I-10 in cold weather. It's not that you can't do it. We drove the Travel Supreme to Baltimore on Xmas for a funeral and we were lucky. Check the weather forecast before you go.

One more thing: Way back when, I posted this in Motorhome Magazine and they actually paid me for this! If it's nice and warm and humid where you are coming from and the weather forecast shows that you will be driving north through a cold front, it could be absolutely deadly. When you hit the front, the windshield will get cold and you will have precipitation on the inside of the windshield. You are driving and all of a sudden, you are blind. It's hot inside the MH and you even had the dash AC on. The wipers have nothing to wipe off - they're on the outside. It will take a long time to get heat from your defroster. You can't reach the windshield easily with your hands to wipe off the condensation. If you're lucky, you may have a few seconds. Your only salvation is a Swiffer with some paper towels wrapped on it. Probably, your SO will have to do the wiping and more than once. Again, check the weather, be prepared.

I need a new front grill ASAP. We have a 2020 fleet wood fortis that has a cracked grill and it’s almost falling off. Trying to find one and replace it myself. Do you have any suggestions as to where I could order one that’s not 900.00 that the dealer quoted? Thank you

We camp late into the season for Buffalo Bills games in a Artic Fox travel trailer. Run a Honda 2000 generator to keep battery charged and are cozy. Holding tanks dump nicely on our way home. Only problem is ice and snow on awnings and slide outs. Sometimes we need to use a hair dryer to melt what's on as well as crank up the heat to retract. Love your website.

My wife and I live in northern Minnesota and have winter camped for many years, especially in state parks that stay open during the winter for cross country skiing, snowshoeing, and other winter activities.

We had a double pane window Mountain Air which did simplify things, including two air conditioners that could be used as a source of heat. Between the comments mentioned below, as long as we had a plug-in we could be quite comfortable

However our newer 30 ft Winnebago Vista does not have double pane windows and is not outfitted for winter camping. We still have continued to enjoy cold weather camping with a number of adjustments.

The first is to forget the use of our furnace. It burns fuel too quickly and distributes the heat throughout the entire RV when we only need it in a portion. So we adapted by using a small Buddy heating system with a propane tank in the shower and the Buddy sitting in the hallway. During the daytime it is facing the living area and kitchen. At night it faces the bedroom. We have always been comfortable using this adaptation. I know some people would object to using propane tank in the interior. However the propane tanks today and the newer buddies system have so many safety features that we have never had a problem. And as a catalytic type heeter, we vent but not as much as if we had a regular open flame inside the coach.

Also forget about using water in the kitchen sink, toilet and shower. Instead we have gallons of freshwater in jugs available to use in the kitchen. You can get by with only using a very limited amount of water to wash and clean up.

We also use a mixture of RV antifreeze and window washer fluid to flush the toilet. This keeps the toilet "water" liquid down to extremely. The liquid stays at least slushy or better so that the black water tank can be emptied even at low temperatures.

Finally we keep the windows, which are not double pane, reasonably warm by using our pull-down shades. They actually prevent a lot of cold air encroachment. We also put a blanket or divider of some type behind the driving area. This also keeps the cold from the massive front windows from encroaching on the living quarters. No need to heat that area as well.

With these adaptations, we have always managed to stay comfortable at least in the '60s. And here in northern Minnesota, we love and even prefer living in the sixties at times.

I hope this is useful, even though we no longer do a lot of cold weather camping now that we are in our late seventies. We go south for the warmer climates during winter. But these adaptations worked well for us for many years.