-With the winter months approaching, is there a concern that this could be you?
-Welcome to HappilyEverHanks.
Let’s talk about winter RV living.
Last year, do you remember? We spent an entire winter in our RV in Pennsylvania.
Do you remember the single digit temperatures? -Ooh.
-The frozen pipes?
Do you remember all the blizzards?
-Blizzards galore, is what I remember.
We’re gonna talk about how to prepare your RV for winter RV living.
Things like skirting, is it worth it? -Totally.
-Propane, water, holding tanks.
-Ooh. Let’s also talk about the number one thing you’re gonna need
when you actually start RV winter camping. -That’s good.
-Even if you don’t plan to winter RV, you’re still gonna wanna know this information.
Because how many times are you making the drive down south...
escaping that winter, and then boom...
Snowstorm.
-Don’t worry guys. Our answer isn’t gonna be...
"Your RV has wheels, so just move it".
-Literally was uh one of my answers.
-Oh.
Awkward.
When you’re done with this video...
don’t forget to go checkout all of our other content to get you started with RV living.
So when an RV is listed as having the arctic package or four seasons...
What does that actually mean?
-So, when you go buy an RV, right off the lot...
it is not made to withstand freezing temperatures for prolonged periods of time.
So don’t go out expecting you’re gonna buy an RV, head up to Alaska, and call it good.
And that’s a huge thing. Even with the special package of four seasons.
Whatever you wanna call it. You’re gonna need some extra items...
to protect you against the winter.
-Some extra goodies. -I like that.
The number one thing for us, the hardest learning curve was skirting.
So what it basically does is it creates like a wind barrier, when you’re out there in the elements.
There could be extra wind just sucking that heat right out, from the bottom of your RV.
-Yeah. It’s keeping the bottom portion of your RV nice and warm.
So you don’t have all that heat loss.
-Also, when you have that extra protection there...
you’re not gonna be blowing through as much propane.
-When we didn’t have skirting, and the temperatures dropped really low in Pennsylvania...
we were going through a tank a day.
-Easily. And we have 30-pound propane tanks.
We’re gonna get into all that and what that means later on.
But basically, what you need to know, pricey.
-So, you know you need to do RV skirting but what do you do? Where do you start?
-We started off with foam board skirting. Super simple.
-Yeah. So going over the pros and cons of foam board skirting.
It’s not cute. And it kinda was a hassle to put on.
I mean, you’re sitting here saying it wasn’t that much of a hassle but...
You gotta dedicate a whole day to putting these on.
-That’s true. Making all those measurements, all the cuts.
The foam board itself made a mess like when you’re there cutting it.
Foam’s going everywhere. It’s just… it’s not fun.
-Yeah. But the pros. Super cheap.
-Yeah. Oh definitely cheap. I think all the supplies cost us around 200 dollars, out the door.
You can get it at Lowes. You can get it at Home Depot. You can buy it on Amazon.
So it’s easily accessible.
-And what we mean by super cheap is that there...
are so many companies out there that charge thousands of dollars...
for not just the RV skirting, that looks all professional. But the installation and all that.
-Our recommendation would be...
If you are going to be doing winter RV living for multiple years in a row.
Set yourself up for success, and maybe go the professional route.
Because hey, you’re not gonna wanna keep doing and re-doing this foam board skirting.
-Yeah. -It’s just no fun.
We have an entire blog post dedicated to all this.
So we’ll link it down in the description below, if you’d like to read more about it.
And it’s a good reference guide as we go along further in the video.
-Yeah. It’ll have photos and it shows you exactly...
step-by-step how we layed out the foam board skirting. All that fun stuff.
-You’re talking my… My thing.
I like that. -That’s good.
-Now we had mentioned before without the skirting, we were going through so much propane.
And it was just like so expensive.
-And I know what you’re thinking.
If you’re plugged into electricity why don’t you just use your space heaters?
Or why don’t you just use extra heat that works through electricity?
We’ll tell you why.
-How do you know what they’re thinking?
Can you hear them?
(inaudible rambling)
-Shhh!
Hey guys. I can hear you too.
-See? That’s what they just said.
-So even though you’re plugged into an electric heater, whatever you wanna call it.
You got the heated lamps and all that jazz.
You still need to keep the underbelly of your RV warm.
-Even though you might have the insulation, the heated underbelly package.
You gotta use propane to heat the underbelly.
-When we say underbelly, you’re like what, what, wha? An RV has a belly?
Yeah. You’re darn right it does.
And what we’re talking about is all your tanks.
All your storage capacity, the insulation, the water lines…
It’s all underneath where you’re walking throughout your RV.
That’s considered the underbelly.
It’s the spacing between the outside and inside of your RV.
-And that’s where you wanna make sure your pipes aren’t becoming frozen.
-Make sure you are always keeping an eye on that temperature.
And we’re gonna get into some best practices in just a little bit.
-When it comes to propane...
A lot of times people will rent a propane tank from a company, and they’ll come and fill it.
And they’ll do all that fun stuff. And when you’re done, you give the propane tank back.
That has not been the case twice for us now.
You call these companies and if you say you live in an RV, they’re like whoa. Hold on.
We do not rent tanks to RVers.
-It’s a liability thing because...
When they give you that rental propane cylinder...
they cannot physically go check and test the propane lines themselves. -Yes.
See what your options are out there.
But we have had to go the route of purchasing a 100-pound propane tank. -Yep.
-Which is about 23.4 gallons of propane?
-Wow, you’re just really laying it out there with all the deets. I love it.
-So the downside to that is now you have a propane tank
that you maybe don’t wanna lug around the country with you.
-You bought it out of pocket. -But the nice part is they’re in high demand.
If you have to purchase one is just list it online and hopefully sell it, before you hit the road again.
-The one we bought was about 200 buckaroos.
Yeah and that’s officially money currency. Buckaroos.
I’ve seen the 100 gallon ones. They’re the big boys out there.
If you guys have experience with getting those filled out on the road.
Or you have anymore experience with winter RV living...
Please throw it down in the comments below. So we can all learn.
-Why don’t you share… um...
The whole thing with using your electric fireplace and the propane together.
-Oh, good one.
Okay, so this is where we ran into the first problem with our RV water lines like freezing up on us.
If you’re running your fireplace within your RV, if you have one.
And your propane furnace in your RV at the same time.
What you’re gonna wanna do is you’re going to want to set that fireplace about...
five degrees less than what you have the propane furnace set at. -Yeah.
-The reason for this is...
is because the fireplace will never have a chance to catch up to the propane furnace.
That will allow the propane furnace to continuously blow hot air through the underbelly. -Right, right.
(furnace running)
-Because you don’t want that to like stop running when it’s below freezing.
-When this happened to us, it was like 75 degrees in here.
That fireplace was on and busting out that hot air and it was nice and toasty.
But the propane furnace was not running.
It was not blowing that warm air throughout the underbelly.
And guess what? Our pipes were slowly freezing up.
-You could also invest in some kind of temperature monitoring device.
Like a thermostat where you have different zones, and we have one of those.
We actually keep one in the fridge.
-I forgot about that. -Yeah. We keep one outside.
And then we have one in the underbelly.
So you can keep track of the temperature...
in the underbelly and then you’ll know if your water lines are gonna freeze or not.
-Since we talked about the heater underbelly, and all that jazz. Let’s talk about the water lines.
-Yeah, because that’s what will give you problems.
I think a lot of people are curious to know like...
do I have to get a heater water hose if I’m gonna be winter RV living?
-And what we did was we filled up our fresh water tank, every time we needed some extra water.
So we would hookup the hose, fill up our fresh water tank.
Undo the hose and then run off our internal water pump.
-Which is a 91 gallon water tank and that would last us like almost a week.
-It’s kinda all according to how much money you want to dish out.
And how much convenience you’re looking for.
Those heater water hoses can get pretty expensive.
-Yeah. But the nice part is they’re considered safe for drinking.
-Yeah. -So if you’re a person that has like the dopest water filtration system in your RV.
And you wanna be able to drink fresh water then that might be the route for you to go.
-A lot of these products that we’re gonna talk about, you can refer to them in the description below.
If you are looking for that. -We got a whole Amazon page of winter RV living.
Don’t you worry. -Wow.
We are just so fancy. I know.
So when we talk about holding tanks...
A big key thing you wanna know is
we always recommend not dumping until your tanks are completely full.
Black tank, grey tank. Whatever tank.
-That goes for your black tank no matter what.
-Yes. -Whether you’re RV winter camping or you’re summer camping.
-And really quick. If you wanna know more about RV tanks and how all that works.
Check out this video above. But getting back into what I just talking about.
You do not wanna dump your tanks continuously.
And what we mean by that is leave your grey tanks open all the time.
-You don’t wanna do that if the temperatures are gonna freeze.
-Well yeah. If there’s residual water sitting in that RV sewer line, it’s gonna freeze.
And when it freezes, it’s gonna thaw.
And it could crack that RV sewer line so you’re gonna have a mess on your hands.
Just something to chew on for ya.
-This is where we should talk about how the tank heaters work.
Yeah, mm yeah. -Why are you pointing at me? You answer it.
(long sigh)
-A lot of RVs come with tank heaters and these are great.
They will work on keeping your fresh water tank, your grey, and your black tanks warm.
It works like a heating pad that goes over your tank. -Yeah.
-And it will kick on… -When it drops below like 46 degrees. -Yeah.
And it works off of your battery, if you didn’t know.
-Oh snap. That’s a sweet little nifty tip there.
So what we did is we kept those turned on the entire winter.
-Yes. -Just leave em on, peace of mind.
As talked about before, I did wanna stop and mention.
You know, pump the brakes and talk about that number one tool, you’re gonna need for winter RV living.
-Oh yes. -And not even winter RV living.
This counts for any RV season at all. You’re gonna need this tool. -Yes.
-And what we’re talking about is a dehumidifier.
-Oh man. There’s so many people…
I see em on the social media posts that have like water dripping on their walls.
Or they have a moisture build up.
-What is really going on is there is a build up of humidity in the RV.
When temperatures are hotter inside, temperatures are colder outside...
that fluctuation is gonna create condensation within your RV.
You need to stay on top of running a dehumidifier to prevent any like mold or water damage.
So we were really really careful with making sure we were running that dehumidifier…
Dehumidifier all the time.
-Get one without wheels.
-That’s good because our first one we bought had four little wheels on it.
And every time we would travel and leave that here in the RV, that sucker is just like…
Wham!
-The one we have now works great. It’s not super huge.
And it doesn’t roll around when we’re driving.
-I’m gonna say that’s a plus.
-Yeah. That’s great. -So one for Ney Ney and Carl.
-Some other things you can do to your RV to help keep it nice and warm inside are…
Take it away, Carl.
-Were you gonna say Reflectix on windows?
-Ooh. The Reflectix.
-How did I know you were gonna say that?
-Ooh. Our RV looked like the inside of a Hershey Kiss.
-Basically what Reflectix is… It’s an additional insulation barrier.
That we put on our RV windows.
You lose a lot of heat, believe it or not, through those windows.
It’s just kind of… I don’t know. You feel a little draft there. -Yes.
-So this Reflectix is a barrier to create like an air gap between the window.
It’s almost like an airplane window.
You ever notice that there’s dual pane windows when you’re up there at 30,000 feet.
And you’re like why is there a window here and a window here?
It’s kind of the same concept. It creates like an air gap right there.
It creates an extra...
layer of insulation.
-Do we have dual pane windows?
-No. -We wanted it.
-Quick side note. A lot of people say that is so worth it.
And then other people are like, dude, that’s not worth it.
So let us know what your thoughts are.
Keep it clean down there, okay?
I know your duces are going up and everyone’s like swinging and stuff.
But when comment down below, let us know if you have the dual pane windows.
And if you stand behind them.
-Another place you’re gonna lose a lot of heat is around the slide-outs.
And we’re not fancy so we literally just took extra blankets, and sheets, and towels.
And shoved them around the roller slide.
-Yeah but tell them about that other uh…
You know what I’m talking about. -Okay.
Pool noodles. -The pool noodles.
-So we went to the hardware store and they have like pool noodles that are used for insulation.
And that fit perfectly around some of the slide-outs.
It just wedged in there and prevented that extra heat loss.
-The pool noodles were actually meant for pipe wrapping.
-Yes. -So they come pre-slit and all you had to do was take that and slide it underneath your slides.
And then the other half… Like pretend this is your slide, it’s sliding under.
The other half of the pool noodle would wrap around and would create that...
barrier so there’s not that draft coming in. -And it was cuter looking.
-Well I thought it was pretty cute how I did this too. -That’s what I’m saying. It was…
-I just wanna make sure we’re on the same page here.
I think we’re good.
-Carl.
Something else you can purchase. It’s like a little square vent insulator.
Perfectly fits up there. And then you can take it down whenever you need to open your vents.
-Yeah, that’s true.
When you’re like cooking and stuff? -Yeah.
-Or when you’re cooking and it’s getting smokey in here.
-Or when you’re in the bathroom. Lettin er rip.
-Geez Louise.
Sorry.
This is my favorite part, here.
-Why is it your favorite part?
Because this happened to us a couple times already and it’s just so relatable.
-You know what? And it’s gonna happen to everybody out there.
You’re gonna sit here and be like, well I’m never gonna winter RV.
I don’t wanna do that. I’m going south. -We hear ya.
-What happens if you’re headed your way south and you’re in the Georgia mountains...
and like you said, boom snowstorm. Or boom, freezing temps. -Ow.
We see so many people posting out there online like...
oh my gosh, unexpected cold front came in and I don’t know what to do. -Texas.
-And you’re gonna want to listen to this, cause we got some good tips for ya.
-What you’re gonna want to do is disconnect your water hose.
Work off your internal tank.
You have a built in water pump...
(water running)
That’ll get you water from your tank to your RV.
You don’t have to fill it up all the way, but just enough to get you through that amount of time.
And the reason we say that is then you don’t have to worry about your water hose freezing.
-Another big thing, is get that propane running early and often.
You wanna get that ahead of the game because...
the more you wait, and those temperatures drop...
it’s gonna take longer for that RV propane to compensate and come back up to a normal temperature.
-Go fill up the propane. -Just really quick. -Be ready.
Because if you are running your propane continuously…
I think I read that a 30-pound propane tank will kick in like 24 hours.
If it’s running continuously.
A lot of people, when they first buy their RV, you just have that one 12-volt deep-cycle battery.
Please don’t rely on that to keep that furnace going all night.
Absolutely, because it’s gonna take an increased load on that battery.
That battery is gonna be going dead really quick with the furnace. -Yeah.
-All the lights you’re running. The water pump, etc. So just try to plan for electricity. -Yeah.
-That one time we got stuck in Colorado...
in like negative five degree temperatures and the snow storm came through. -Oh yes.
-A big thing is we didn’t have skirting then.
And a cool thing you can do if it’s a severe emergency.
And you’re really looking to get some of that heated underbelly going.
You can actually use snow, push it up against the side of your RV, and treat it as an igloo.
-Oh yeah. I mean that’s if you want a really good workout.
-But hey, if you wanna do everything in your power to prevent frozen pipes.
You know, it just might work.
-Don’t panic guys. You just gotta be on top of watching the highs and lows.
The temperatures of where you’re headed and your route.
We like to use WeatherBug.
Maybe we’re going here for the night, I could plug it in.
And it’ll tell me how low the temperatures are gonna be.
-Ooh, another one is uh shout out to Michael. Because we just met you on the road.
He suggested that windy app. It’s just called Windy.
And it’s free. -It’ll also show the highs and lows too on there.
It kinda works like a weather app.
-But if you’re out on the road and it’s super windy and you’re getting concerned about blown over.
That’s got you covered.
So enough small talk, if you really want to see the good drama.
And the Hanks going through it all. Don’t worry.
We painted the story and it’s not a pretty picture.
Check out these videos right here. Because we’ll take you along for the journey.
-We love you guys. And we’ll see you next week.
-Bye guys! -Bye!