Winter Camping

[IonaCaravan]

We are contemplating going up to the Cairngorms in a couple of weeks. We do not have any experience with using a caravan in very cold weather. I'm really wondering about the practicalities of having a water container outside the van and water possibly freesing in pipes. Any advice would be most appreciated.

Iona

 

[forestgump]

you can buy a cover for water container but i use a old padded jacket and run the pump and pipe cable down the sleeve.

 

[TonyH1]

Hi, If you're talking about outside water containers then I presume you haven't got an onboard tank so yes, it will be likely to freeze. Regarding pipes freezing, modern caravans on the whole have all the pipe work internally but some may have short runs outside. I would expect these to have a drain point on them so you should already be aware of these from draining down for the winter.

Quite a lot of winter caravanners cope with using water from containers and do without the taps.

Hope this helps

 

[Entwood]

It is not difficult to lag your aquaroll, lift it off the floor, or even keep it inside until needed, I've seen all these things done......

However .. many, many folks forget that waste water freezes just as easily, and many waste pipes have long lengths under the van totally unprotected.

I have helped too many folks you have plenty of clean water .. but sinks/shower trays full of the dirty stuff going nowhere.

So think about waste as well as clean. In REALLY cold weather (-18) we don't use the onboard stuff at all. containers of fresh water indoors, kettle to heat, bucket or bowl used instaed of sink, that way it can be carried out and got rid of.

A "strip wash" is as hygenic as a shower, just takes longer

 

[Steve L]

We caravan all year.

I use a couple of XL long padded coats that are water proof to lag our Aqua rolls. Put them onto some 100mm blocks of wood to keep them clear of the ground. For added protection we errect a sun camp porch awning on the offside of the van to form a shed for the waste water and aqua rolls as they are close together on our van.

Make sure you don't leave the pump in a barrel that is about to run out overnight.

I extreme weather -15 or so, unplug the pump at night and keep it in the van.

Leaving the cuboard doors open under the sink area also helps to reduce cold spots.

Finally we always have a 5 Litre bottle of water inside the van ready for hot drinks should the pipes freeze.

We have only had a couple of nights where our water froze, and even then it thawed by lunchtime.

The last site we were on (5 star) had been frozen for most of december, forcing us to use the dish washing sink in the heated toilet block to get aqua roll's filled. I had to thaw the cassette disposal with buckets of hot water from the laundry room and flush our waste using same said buckets of water as the flush system had lost it's supply to frost.

One tip for the tow car aswell, shut a wheeli bin liner in the door apeture to stop the door seals freezing to the cold steel of the door on the drivers door. At least then you can get into the car and start the engine to thaw the rest out.

Forward planning is the key to a happy winter trip.

Have fun.

Steve L.

 

[Del_374232870]

As well as the above, I always used to get an old cardboard box which I flattened and sat the aqua roll on, this provided additional insulation from the ground.

Also whilst most vans have internal pipes, a week area is where the pipes run over the plastic wheel arches, had the water system freeze here once. Simple to remedy, I got a few capet samples and used them to provide insulation between the wheel arch and the internal pipes

 

[Steve L]

Couple of good tips there Del.

I reckon thats where my pipes get caught, but its under the cooker so I will need to do a bit of dismantling to get to the arch. I wonder though, could the same effect be got using spray foam insulation on the outside of the wheel arch and then sandwiching it with a supple sheet of pvc. That would also rienforce the arch in case of a tyre blowout.

Do you reckon adding an inch of insulation would work ok?

Steve L.

 

[Del_374232870]

the wheel arch where the pipes run on our van is below the cooker as well, I gained access from the floor cupboard under the cooker, then measured , cut the carpet sample and the slid it between the pipes and wheel arch. I cut peices for the sides of the wheel arch as well and stuck these on using double sided tape, the job was ackward as I was working semi blind but bot to dificult. Whole thing took a couple of hours and never had a problem since even though have had tempretures down to minus 9

 

[Countrylass]

Iona

We're just back from Braemar(-4 when we left at 4pm). We never use the outside water supply but do the same as Nigel with water containers etc.

 

[Paul_5074021]

Hi

We have caravannned fairly regularly in cold weather, including the first week of January this year in the Peak District - 15cm of snow and down to -8C overnight. We have found the insulated Aquaroll cover supplied by Bags2cover (www.bags2cover.co.uk -

 

[IonaCaravan]

Thanks for all your replies and good advice and tips. I had thought that not using the onboard water system might be the answer and judging by your responses I think that will be the best option for us. I don't want to go to the expense of expensive aquaroll covers as hopefully this will be a rare event for us. We'll go back to our old camping days albeit in more luxurious surroundings!

Iona

 

[joeby]

Make sure you take some water with you in case you get stuck ,at least you can make brew

 

[joeby]

Make sure you take some water with you in case you get stuck ,at least you can make brew

i know every one covered every thing ,but i thought would mention the water again because we had 500 miles of snow driving through France ,and it got so cold in the end the wipers were freezing and we had to pour water over the screen even though the heater was full on

 

[Steve L]

Our Aquaroll covers are both very cheap and also recycled so we could also claim an eco friendly status too.

We trawl the charity shops and aquire two of those 3/4 length waterproof dovette type larger ladies jackets. We even choose a colour to match.

Then we simply fit them over the Aquaroll and use the excess body and sleeves to wrap around the water pipe.

This has served us well down to -10 and at a cost of

 

[Lynn_374568394]

we have been to Grantown-On-Spey in the highlands of Scotland for the last 6 years at xmas and new year

we were there this xmas in all that snow and litterally had to dig our way out of the van each morning lol

In the Amara we had the aquaroll lagged with hot water tank lagging you use at home and raised it from the ground on wooden blocks, but it always froze and we had to use the prep area for water

we now have a van with on board water tank but still lose water as its the pipes that freeze this year we had no water for all the holiday but usually we just lost water for around 4 days

what I do is keep a bottle of water inside the van for when we want a drink of tea ect and I make sure we have a bottle of water when we leave in case we get suck in bad weather on the way home

In Winter caravanning you take the risk of losing water and having to use the sites prep area but it all adds to the the experiance of winter caravaning but it no way takes out the fun of it

another tip especially in Scotland in winter...use your gas fire not electric as its warmer, the first year we stayed on electric as we were new to caravaning and didnt know the tips and did feel a little cold at times but another caravanner told us to switch to the gas fire...it made a huge difference

I look at caravaning this way......I dont care what the weather is...you dress for the weather so long as the van is warm...enjoy

 

[Grahamsprite4]

hi there i actually use a small pond heater that i drop into the aquaroll on a evening then remove in the morning never had frozen water yet!

 

[Hamer_5041128]

Our last four caravans have all had inboard tanks. I have caravaned for a few years during the winter period in extremely low temperatures, sometimes down to -12c, and below freezing in the daytime.

I have only had one internal pipe freeze, a few years ago.

I lag all external and internal pipes with the grey pipe laging from B and Q.

On my present caravan the blown air pipe runs round past the inboard tank and then along under the same bunk as the hot and cold water pipes to an outlet.I have disconnected the blown air pipe from the outlet under the bunk so the warm/hot air blows out under the bunk. I have aimed the pipe so that some of the blown air blows behind the fridge and beyond.

At about one foot intervals i have drilled holes in the blown air pipe to release a small amount of warm/hot air along its length under the bunking.

The blown air is adjusted so that virtually all the warm/hot air comes out under the bunk and not into the body of the caravan.Some warm air does come up behind the cold bridge board of the side bunk.

I have a 1kwt Dimplex Coldwatch thermostatically controlled heater in the end washroom, and run the main fire on either 1 or 2 kwt depending on what else is in use.

The heating is run 24/7. I fill the inboard tank each morning and then empty any remaining water out of the aquaroll.

I learnt this method of caravaning from friends a good few years ago.

I cannot use the blown air in the body of the caravan, even if i wanted to, due to the fact that my wife has a condition called "dry eyes" and has to use eye drops. Her eye consultant advised against blown air.

Hamer

 

[ken_374564897]

we camped at glenmore over christmas and new year in temps of -16

degrees,lag the bottle and pipes outside and leave all cupboard doors ajar,at night leave the bed box doors down to let the warm air circulate around the pipework,you will find that things do freeze until it gets towards minus ten anyway.

stay out of the trees if it snows,a branch full of snow landed on us at christmas causing lots of damage.

 

[ken_374564897]

hi, that should read-do not freeze until about minus 10 degrees