RVs and wintertime do not mix well. Trust me, I know. Years ago when Miss Terry was being treated for cancer, we spent several weeks in Traverse City, Michigan during the winter, when snow piled up several feet deep around our motorhome, and the temperature dipped into the single digits every night.

At the time we had our Pace Arrow Vision, which we came to call the Motorhome From Hell, and it showed many of its shortcomings during that ordeal. We went through huge amounts of propane just trying to stay warm, and the best we ever managed was to take off the worst of the chill inside the RV.

Of course, the best way to deal with cold weather is to get as far south as you can go, before the snow falls. But just in case you find yourself stuck in cold weather, here are some tips that can make it more comfortable.

RV furnaces are notorious energy wasters. Just stand outside your RV the next time you have the furnace on and feel all of that heat blowing out the exhaust. That is wasted propane that you are paying for. Small electric cube heaters help a lot to ward off the cold, if you have sufficient electrical power to run them. We found that catalytic heaters such as the Olympian brand are great in an RV. They use much less propane than an RV furnace, and do not require 12 volt power to run a heater fan. 

In a motorhome, the windshield conducts a lot of cold to the interior of the rig. Keeping the windshield covered with bubble foil can help reduce this. Foam inserts in the roof vent openings also helps keep the cold out.

Using some type of skirting material, be it plywood, plastic tarps, or even bales of hay to surround the bottom of the RV helps insulate from the ground up and makes a big difference inside.

The low temperature was not the only thing we had to contend with. In an occupied RV during cold weather, condensation quickly builds up inside, and it can create a real mess. Keeping a roof vent or windows open to circulate the air isn’t an option unless you want to freeze. We found that products like DampRid, which can be found at WalMart or Camping World, help a lot, but you can never completely eliminate the condensation problem. We spent a lot of time armed with towels, wiping down every glass or metal surface, and the interior walls of our motorhome.

Many RVs are supposed to have “winter packages,” which include heated plumbing bays, but in reality, a lot of them don’t come anywhere close to being able to handle really cold weather. We found that a clamp-on utility light with a metal reflector, which you can find at any hardware store, fitted with a 25 watt bulb, can keep a closed utility bay toasty warm and prevent pipes from freezing.

None of these ideas will make your RV feel like a sauna inside, but hopefully they will help keep you more comfortable if you have to spend time in very cold weather. But remember my own personal motto, and consider adopting it as your own: When it snows, Nick goes!

Thought For The Day – A bad worker always blames his tools.

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Before I get into the topic of today’s blog, I wanted to tell you that I received an e-mail last night telling me that that Red from Too Crazy Ladies has fallen and broken her hip, and required replacement surgery while in Marshall, Michigan. Please send your prayers and postive thoughts their way. 

There are a couple of threads on the Escapees RV Club forum about folks with low incomes and limited financial means who are considering the fulltime RV lifestyle. Some of them just want to follow the dream that so many of us already have, while others are considering living in an RV due to economic reversals.

One poster referenced the second category and said that these people often did not have the resources to purchase a quality RV fit for fulltiming , and had no idea of the maintenance costs involved in RV living. He said it was reminiscent of photographs of those who fled the Dust Bowl in the 1930s to find a better life in California.

It may have been a hard experience, but it worked out for a lot of those Dust Bowl Oakies, including my wife’s grandparents. They came from good stock, they were used to hard work and hardship, and they were willing to do whatever it took to make a better life. Maybe it will for some of these new folks too.

While I agree with a lot of what was said in that thread about the fact that the RV lifestyle can present many unexpected challenges, there is a flipside to that coin. You can do it with limited resources. We know because we have!

 When we started out fulltiming, we bought one of the most expensive new gas powered Class A motorhomes on the market, and it turned out to be a lemon. After eighteen months it was falling apart. About that time my wife was diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer and they told us to start planning for her funeral. The day after she was diagnosed, our health insurance company found a loophole in the policy that let them deny her claim. The nest egg we had put away disappeared in minutes and we found ourselves facing a mountain of debt. So I guess we were as desperate as some of the folks described in that post. But as they say, when you hit rock bottom, there is no way to go but up.

Our first order of business was getting Terry healthy again, and today, almost nine years later, she is cancer free and fully recovered. That’s all that really matters. The motorhome went to wherever it is that motorhomes from hell go to, and we bought an ancient MCI bus and converted it into a comfortable home on wheels slowly over time, as we lived and worked and traveled in it. We used to laugh and say it was our buckboard, because every time we got a buck, we bought another board and took another step forward in our project.

We have worked hard and things have gradually turned around for us, and we continue to enjoy this wonderful lifestyle. And the view out the windshield of our old bus is the same one the guy in the high dollar luxury coach parked next to us enjoys!

It just goes back to what my Dad told me over and over again as I was growing up: If you want something bad enough and you are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen, you’ll get there. 

Thought For The Day – Ask your doctor if medical advice from a television commercial is right for you.

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