As we start a brand new yr, Allie and I’ve been speaking about our future RV and journey plans. We have been discussing bringing the RV again out on the highway once more. After two years of getting a home-base in Oregon, we discover ourselves lacking the anticipation and pleasure that comes with exploring new locations, and bringing our house together with us to try this. We have discovered lots about dwelling in our house on wheels throughout our time being stationary, together with tips on how to higher take care of our RV, tips on how to dwell and work full-time collectively in our small house, and about tips on how to dwell in numerous climates and seasons in our RV.
Being born in New England, we’ve by no means been afraid of winter. There is a sure magic that comes together with freshly fallen snow, or vacationer scorching spots and widespread trails that we get all to ourselves. We take winter at a slower tempo, cooking a number of soups and baking bread from scratch. We atone for reveals and flicks, and naturally spend a number of our time crocheting for our small enterprise.
We do benefit from the solitude and serenity that winter brings with it, however after we started RV life, we shortly flocked to Florida to spend our colder months, together with many different full-time households. We have beloved chasing the solar and getting extra time and entry to the outside by staying in temperate climates. In our second yr of full-time RV life, we drove ourselves out to the desert and soaked up the nice and cozy climate and dry local weather all through the winter months. It was thrilling to have the ability to sit within the 70-degree sunshine in Tucson in February or swim within the pure Florida springs alongside manatees in December. Deep down although, I believe part of us missed winter. For our third yr of touring, we determined to remain in Colorado via a lot of the winter, each to discover and to entry extra of the season for our small enterprise.
Winter RVing in Colorado
Colorado winters are each lovely and brutal. We traveled all through the state and observed just a few issues we hadn’t thought of when planning our winter wonderland journey.
- Elevation: We didn’t contemplate how a lot of an influence elevation change could make in each temperature and snowfall. In Denver, we hardly ever confronted snowstorms, and the sunshine shortly melted any fallen snow, however up within the mountains we may fall asleep seeing the earth, and get up to 2 toes of contemporary powder outdoors of our door!
- Equipment: One one freezing chilly night time, we discovered all about freezing hoses, pipes and spigots! We instantly ordered ourselves a heated hose, a spigot cowl, and a few insulation for our slideout areas.
- Heat: Our propane heater has struggled to work persistently since we bought our RV and so we ordered ourselves two small house heaters to assist complement the propane furnace all through the colder months. We didn’t anticipate how a lot colder the center of our RV would get as a result of there are not any storage bays beneath that space, and since it’s the place most of our sq. footage is.
Colorado taught us tips on how to take advantage of winter in our rolling house. Once we settled into the move of tips on how to dwell day-to-day in our RV within the freezing temps, we obtained out and explored the gorgeous state. From pure scorching springs to countless mountain drives, Colorado winters are value braving the chilly climate to see among the most gorgeous surroundings our nation has.
Our fourth yr of touring meant leaving the RV behind and trekking throughout the nation with our suitcases, two puppies and our truck. We began our winter highway journey in Vegas, made our method via Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas earlier than heading northeast to New England for household time. This journey taught us that we don’t like leaving our house on wheels for prolonged journeys. We missed the consolation and ease of getting our routines and our personal house irrespective of the place we’re touring.
This fifth yr has been our wildest but! Winter has been a very difficult season for us right here in Oregon. Living on a mountain means climate can shortly change and may be extra excessive than in widespread PNW locations akin to Seattle or Portland. The PNW can be wetter than we have been used to, and that has include its personal challenges.
Here are our high ideas for wintering within the PNW:
- Get a Dehumidifier: This will prevent a lot work and vitality making an attempt to maintain your RV dry within the moist PNW local weather. We have two small dehumidifiers and have a every day routine of opening our lavatory vent fan after showers! As many RVers know, moisture is an RV’s greatest enemy, so protecting your RV dry turns into a precedence within the wet season.
- Insulate or Skirt Your RV: Skirting may be costly, however contemplate it an choice when you plan to be spending your winters in colder climates. You can match skirting your self, or rent an RV firm to put in it for you, however it’s effectively well worth the peace of thoughts because the temperatures drop. Your RV undercarriage will thanks in the long term!
- Be Creative: This is our greatest tip for getting via winter in your RV.
- On freezing nights, we depart our faucet dripping so that there’s fixed transferring water (which is much less more likely to freeze).
- We put our tank heaters on so we don’t find yourself with frozen black or grey water waste.
- We have a small house heater dealing with our doorway space as a result of we observed that’s the place we really feel essentially the most chilly air are available in.
- We use reflexix in our home windows and have covers for our vent followers that hold chilly air from creeping in. All of those
- On moist days, we pull our mattress off the platform a bit to cease condensation from dripping from our home windows onto the mattress.
With all of our new data and data about our RV, we really feel that we may journey in virtually any local weather and season. When we sit down to consider locations we nonetheless wish to go to, we don’t have to fret concerning the climate, however as a substitute, we get to concentrate on the enjoyable and pleasure of planning what life on the highway will appear to be for us sooner or later!