Winter Camping in your Motorhome

[masseyfarm]

Not everyone heads south with the Canada Geese when the leaves turn.

Some RVr's enjoy the various winter activities, while some have a sudden change of plans due to family or medical emergencies and have to prepare to stay in a climate that many motorhomes are not really made for.

This video, made in BC, gives some good tips on preparing to survive and maybe even enjoying the winter stay in your RV.

This is not an Airstream motorhome, but the same tips can be used on any RV.

The only caution I would make on this video is regarding the portable propane heater. I would not use one of these except in an emergency because of the moisture and condensation problems that can occur inside.

One thing that is not mentioned is the snow build up on the roof. The snow is a great insulator, but if you have solar panels that your are depending on, you will be out of luck when the snow builds up. I recommend to NOT try to remove snow load from the roof as damage can be done to brittle Air Conditioning covers, vents, solar panels, etc.

Dave

HOW TO: RV in the Winter - YouTube

[masseyfarm]

Not going to get much RV roof mounted solar this time of year at my location. This is a 9AM shot this morning and the sun is very low on the horizon.

A portable solar panel might work for the winter but it might be susceptible to damage at ground level.

Dave

[masseyfarm]

I mentioned above that I recommend not removing snow from your unit in the winter as there is a high risk of damage to the roof membrane and other equipment mounted on the roof.

On my Clipper, I have a 40W panel on each Penquin shroud, one for the #1 Chassis battery bank and one for the #3 Electronics battery bank. Both these panels can be fed to the house batteries through solenoid switches controlled from the cockpit.


If I was camped in heavy snow conditions I believe, if I ran the heat strips on the Penguins, that the normal warm air leakage to the shroud would probably melt the snow on the solar panels mounted there. I will have to test this theory with the next snowfall here.

Having solar to these two battery banks gives some peace of mind if there was a loss of the land tether due to weather etc.

Dave