Weekend skiing trips

[on the fly]

Hello friends,

I know there is a lot of information on here in regards to taking a trailer up into cold weather conditions. I read through a lot of it but I’m not sure that I have a good grasp on it so I want to ask my question directly.

I live in San Diego California and during the winter I participate in a lot of winter sports like skiing and boarding.

I’ve never taken my airstream into freezing weather conditions, it is always been at sea level and temperatures over here don’t drop below 50.... tough life, I know.

This season I would like to take my airstream to destinations like mammoth, Utah and Colorado.

But mainly I want to be able to drive up to Mammoth for a long weekend, say Friday through a Monday, and camp out either with hook ups or without hook ups.

My question is do I need to be concerned about anything freezing on my trailer?

For a short weekend trips do I need to worry about lines freezing or water tanks freezing?

Forgive my ignorance but I don’t Live in a place that gets cold so I’m not as sharp about this stuff as some of you who live in places where it freezes

[dbj216]

Hi from Colorado: Living here gives me an appreciation for towing on slick roads. Colorado requires trucks to have chains, and cars to have good traction. Mountain weather changes rapidly, especially going over the mountain passes like Loveland or Vail or Berthoud or Wolf Creek.

I'm a wimp. I don't tow my Airstream on slick roads, especially downhill. It isn't worth the risk to me.

Your Airstream is built for below freezing conditions. The furnace heats the insulated water tank compartments. But sometimes the dump valves can freeze up, and certainly it is difficult to connect to a city water hose. The furnace can keep your trailer comfortable, but many folks complain about cold areas in the trailer. I complain that mine is 70 degrees at the ceiling, and 60 degrees at the floor. Airstreams aren't the greatest all season campers. Aluminum is a great conductor of heat and cold.

But my son has no trouble. Here is a photo of him in a Colorado ski resort parking lot. How would you like to spend the night here? Bring a shovel. He likes it.

Other folks will chime in with better advice than mine.

David

[Lily&Me]

Aside from things freezing once you are there, you have towing a trailer long distances to and from in all that to consider.

Sounds hazardous to life and limb to me.

Maggie

[pteck]

I've been wondering much the same. From San Diego here as well and have thought about going into snow country in the winter. The drive to Mammoth is relatively tame. With only the last ~40miles past Bishop at higher elevations and subject to snow. It's a straight freeway with no switchbacks.

My tow vehicle is full time 4WD with 3-peak rated AT tires, so capable in this type of weather. I imagine carrying at least 1 set of chains for the trailer is all I would need to be prepared for just about anything?

Definitely interested in opinions of those that have dealt with this kind of travel or hail from snow country.

[twbucksr]

We full time in our 27FBQ and easily make a week between black tank dumps. Grey tank dump frequency depends on the number of showers so I would not worry about your dump valves until you get home.

Depending on how cold it gets, you could easily go thru your 60# of propane keeping the trailer from freezing up. I would bring a third 30# tank to swap out and make sure you know where you can get it refilled in town just in case you get stranded.

Another concern would be proper weight distribution. 4wd will not help if the weight is not properly distributed to all tires.

[Dan and Liz]

I wouldn’t ...

[wulfraat]

I live on the front range in Colorado - I towed once in the snow on the flat (headed down to New Mexico on i25). It sucked. Trailer tires have shallow tread depth and are ridged = trailer will slide / wheels will lock under braking.

That would be catastrophe going down I70. Last week coming over Eisenhower there were cars off the road all over the place - super greasy, people were driving 15 miles an hour downhill trying to stay on the road. Not a place for travel trailers.

I would consider pulling the trailer in light winter conditions with chains on all axles (TV and trailer), but even then, and airstream is an expensive piece of equipment to chuck into a ditch or down the side of a mountain when you can't make a downhill turn even at low speed.

[Kanusport]

If you can keep your heat going then you shouldn’t have to worry as much about freezing. So if you can hook up or otherwise use battery power to run your furnace then you can keep the pipes warm so to speak. You could also use a generator to crank the heat up during the day and or top off your batteries, or solar. As others have advised, and I’m sure you are aware, be careful traveling in hazardous conditions.
Check out this blog for inspiration I found it the other day.

http://just5moreminutes.com/blog/cat...ntures/skiing/

[wulfraat]

Well it was 65 degrees on the Colorado front range today. Roads are dry up and over the continental divide so we are headed up to Breckenridge for some skiing tomorrow. Back tomorrow night before the snow comes on Sunday anyone else up at Tiger Run RV park this weekend?

[afk314]

I'm in Boise, Idaho and have been thinking about this, too. I have a lot of flexibility, so I could easily make a mad dash to the base town of a ski resort during fair weather and hunker down if things got bad. For me that would be Ketchum, ID or somewhere outside of Idaho Falls where I could hit Jackson or Targee.



I've camped in the mid-20's before. It's been doable but I can't say comfortable. I fought moisture during the night - leaving a vent cracked at those temps put a chill on things even when the furnace is going full time.



I'm still thinking about it though - I just need some people who do this to chime in and tell me it isn't a recipe for misery!



-Adam

[Kanusport]

Obviously you don’t want to drive in a blizzard but I’ve successfully driven on snow covered roads. Also with the airstream winterized we camped at -4 degrees f recently. Here’s my thread on the subject. We had some condensation but nothing crazy and not able to be mitigated with use of the fan and venting the windows.

http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/...ng-190759.html

I say go for it you’ll have fun and it’s awesome to have your own little cabin on wheels.