Moving into our first Camper (+ winter RV tips!)
Up in Northern MN we’re in the middle of one of our coldest weeks this winter. We’ve been itching to get back in the camper and reminiscing over some of our firsts. I thought it might be fun to share the story of moving in to our first camper with you.
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Our plan was to move in slowly, over the course of about a month. We had our apartment mostly packed up, but it was right across the street from campus and the camper was a forty minute (on a good day) commute. And the apartment had water and electricity. Neither of which was part of our parking spot in the state park.
But the day we picked up the camper and drove it to our first parking spot, none of that seemed to matter. This camper was ours in a way the apartment never would be. It was already home. Once we got it set up for the night, we knew we weren’t staying in the apartment anymore. The next day was a Saturday and we decided we’d pick up the dog I had found for adoption that day. Instant home.
It took a little longer to finish emptying out our apartment, and we got rid of over half of our stuff (although we’re still going through and editing our belongings now, four years later!). That first week in the camper was frigid. Our battery ran out of power one night around 4 am, and we couldn’t run the generator until 6 am due to park rules. It wasn’t far below freezing, but that day we ran into town and picked up a second battery to keep it from happening again!
The weather warmed up pretty soon, but that first month was quite the learning experience. Our camper wasn’t connected to shore power or water, so every few days we were pulling the RV around to the dump station to empty our tanks and refill. (We filled our tanks quite often before we found that the dealership had removed the lowpoint drain plug.) We had a very heavy generator that was a little overkill for our rig, but we could only run it during the day. So we learned pretty quickly some of the essentials to boondocking. Looking back, we weren’t prepared to live in a RV but we learned as we went. A lot of research had gone into our desicion to live in a camper, but until you do it you just don’t know how you’ll adapt.
We acclimated to RV living fairly quickly, and a few months later when we visited family in Minnesota, it felt strange to be in a house. Even our dog (he was just two months old when we adopted him) was a little skittish about the sheer amount of space available to him. Now that we’ve spent a few years in an RV, we notice that we sleep better in small spaces, so our house might have just a loft for our bed. There’s just something really cozy about a small space.
Since that first April, we’ve spent parts of three winters in a camper (this year we haven’t stayed in our camper since September). We’re usually parked in Colorado for the coldest months of the year when we’re living in the RV. Winters there are much milder than our hometown and after being out there for a few years for school it feels like home too.
We’ve learned a lot about RV living in general, but I wanted to share a few winter RV tips with you in case you were planning on taking a trip yourself. Or if you just wanted a glimpse of what camper life is like.
Our Winter RV Tips:
Keep an eye on the weather. Living in an RV is probably similar to living in a tent. With less insulation than a house, whatever the temp is outside is close to what the temp inside will be. RV living necessitates adapting to your environment. We’ve never been more in-tune with nature than when we’re in our camper.
Wear Layers. When it gets cooler, you can stand the drop in degrees if you wear extra clothing, like wool socks or long johns. It might take up more room in your very limited (or non-existent) closet space, but pick up a few comfy sweaters at your local thrift store. Trust me on this one. You can always drop them back off in the spring when the weather warms back up.
Eat warm food and drink teas or hot beverages. While you are warming your outside, try to keep your inside toasty as well. Besides, comfort food or your favorite drink might give you the morale boost you need to make it through the chill. Just don’t leave your oven or stove-top running to heat up your RV. That will just let a bunch of propane fumes in and set off your CO2 detector.
Invest in a heated hose. These are a lifesaver. Even on cold days you can fill your tank. On really cold days and nights, be sure to empty and roll up your hose. No matter what kind you use.
On cold nights, make sure your tank isn’t full and leave your faucets open. The air buffer will allow water in your tanks and pipes to freeze while minimizing the damage that expansion will cause. Just know that this means you probably won’t be able to wash your hands (depending on water levels) so be sure to have some hand sanitizer around.
Skirt your RV if you can. Your RV floor is the coldest place in the winter. Cold air can easily get into your camper from underneath, but skirting is a pretty easy (and affordable) way to keep out the chill. You can DIY it with some plywood and foam insulation, or buy a canvas kit. There are a lot of great options for RV skirting both on the market and on pinterest.
Consider insulating your propane tanks or using a larger size in cold weather. Twenty pound propane tanks are notoriously inefficient in cold weather. If you don’t want to be changing tanks out every other day (or at 3 am) just switching to a forty pound tank can make a drastic difference. If you aren’t in one parking spot for the winter, you can also cover your twenty pound tanks in a heated and insulated tank cover.
Leave cabinets open at night. This allows air to get to your pipes to keep them from freezing. Or, at least it gives them a fighting chance. Used with the tip mentioned previously about leaving your faucets open can prevent a lot of damage if (and when) your pipes do freeze.
Consider taking in your slide(s). Slides are the worst heat leak your rig probably has. They are often un-insulated. On really cold nights, consider taking them in long before it gets cold so that your heater doesn’t have to work as hard (or waste propane).
Find a second (or third) heat source. Our rig came with a propane heater, but we used space heaters when we were plugged into shore power for a few reasons. One was that no heat ducts were actually ran to our toyhauler, which is our daughter’s room. On cold nights she either needed an electric heater or crawled into bed with us. The second was to help minimize propane use, which was more expensive for us when it gets down to 20 above. And finally, propane creates condensation in tiny spaces, and we don’t want mold issues. We’re considering putting in a cubic mini for this coming winter, just to extend the cold season use of our camper (and also for morale! what’s better than a fire and tea to wind down for the night?).
Know your RV’s limits. Our first RV was not a four-seasons. It did not handle the cold well. Even though our second and current RV is considered a four-seasons, it is by no means a Minnesota four seasons. We’ve found through experience that it can (and we can) handle temps down to around 10 above. We’ve been wintering the last two years in northern MN, which means finding some other housing situation until about March or April. Know what your rig can handle, and if the weather is getting colder than that, find somewhere else to stay until it warms back up.
Just go south. If all else fails, your home has wheels on it. Just take it far enough south that you can survive.