Florida Freeze Warning and Our Challenger

[BradnKaren]

20 years of Rving in FL and we've never winterized. We would drain the tanks, turn off the pump and leave the faucets open on the cold nights. We now have a 2017 Challenger 37LX and I'm a little more concerned about the freezing temps we are suppose to experience overnight with this RV. We are under a freeze warning for about 6 hours. I read a few threads about winterizing, tank heaters and such. We do not have tank heaters. I though we would just run the furnace and be ok. Shouldn't we have heat flowing into the bays to keep the pump, lines, and tanks from freezing? After running the furnace for a bit just now and checking, it appears we do not. The bays are cold. Anyone with a Challenger or other model know what and where we need to look and/or do to get heat into the bays?

[revjeffrey]

Put a cup or bowl of water out
Tonight I would bet none to minor freezing during the 6 hrs. Certainly nothing to freeze piping.

[16ACE27]

Not sure where you are, but we are in Lake City, basically the intersection of I-10 and I-75. We've been in the mid 20s the last 2 nights and expect to be there tonight. The ACE is parked in the driveway with the furnance set at 55 degrees. No problem the last 2 nights and I expect no problem tonight. I haven't even turned off water to the remote water spigots as I don't expect them to freeze.

If the temp went into the teens overnight or if it never got above freezing during the day I would take more precautions, but this is the way I have rolled with our travel trailers for the last 20 years in this location and not froze a pipe yet.

[Bob Denman]

I agree.
A freeze warning for just six hours is an annoyance; you'll be fine.

[BradnKaren]

Ok sounds good! Thank you all. Never worried about this before, but we've never had this big of an investment in an RV before either. I'm still wondering about the heat in the bays though, for future reference as we do plan to head north in it eventually.

[wild bill]

Our ace has a heat duct in wet bay that is suppose to keep both tanks heated
And are water is up inside rv

[DocMike]

We found out the hardway while camping and the weather turned sub-freezing during one camping trip, so disconnet from your water source and either drain your hose or put it in the shower inside your RV (otherwise you may be looking for a new hose and or water faucet tomorrow). Everything else on our RV did just fine, hit 20 degrees one night and 18 the next. We ran our little electric space heater most of the night with an occasional heat boost from the gas furnace when needed.

Doc

[Tearstone]

Originally Posted by DocMike

We found out the hardway while camping and the weather turned sub-freezing during one camping trip, so disconnet from your water source and either drain your hose or put it in the shower inside your RV (otherwise you may be looking for a new hose and or water faucet tomorrow). Everything else on our RV did just fine, hit 20 degrees one night and 18 the next. We ran our little electric space heater most of the night with an occasional heat boost from the gas furnace when needed.

Doc

That's what I ended up doing with our hose. I disconnected our fresh hose and put it in the compartment. Went to go add more water to our tanks a couple of days later and the hose had ice in it. I've been putting in the shower ever since, I definitely need our fresh hose to refill our tanks regardless of what temp it is outside. The spigots at our site retain the water in our ground so they have continued to work good throughout the past couple of weeks.

We have a small space heater in our bay that I've plugged into the spare 30A supply on our hookup. I keep it at a constant 50 degrees and monitoring it with a remote accu-rite remote thermometer from Wal-Mart. We have two space heaters inside and even survived the 9 degrees the other night.

One issue I'm not too happy about is that it doesn't feel like our slides are properly sealed on along the floor. We can almost feel cold air coming out from under the kitchen and couch. We lined the seal along the floor with some cheap AC insulation from Home Depot.

Florida, you all have nothing to worry about for a couple of days in some chilly weather.

[gentilebrian]

No need to unhook anything. Just let the water trickle and it will be fine. If you are really worried wake up half way through the night and run all the water for a few minutes but trickling the water should do the trick.

[Mromeojr]

I have an Axis 25.2 2017. Where Is the low drain located? Winterized with hot water tank and drained all other tanks and faucets.

[Joe-FL]

The first thing that is going to freeze when camping in cold weather is the white water hose coming into the RV. We carry the heated hose for those rare times we experience night time temps in the mid to high 20's. It is just as easy though to disconnect and run off your on board tank/pump.

Pex plumbing will take some minor freezing. Not sure I wouldn't be taking more winterizing steps if I was camped in the panhandle of Florida right now, but down here in SW Florida there are certainly no worries.

[RV Pirate]

Originally Posted by BradnKaren

Ok sounds good! Thank you all. Never worried about this before, but we've never had this big of an investment in an RV before either. I'm still wondering about the heat in the bays though, for future reference as we do plan to head north in it eventually.

For what it's worth, I was told that the 37LX has a heat duct in the basement.

[WarEagleDan]

Last week was the coldest in several years with long periods of temps in the teens. I put 100w bulbs under the outside kitchen sink, in the sewer compartment, under the inside sink next to the HWH/outdoor shower. I had already replaced the Coleman slider thermostat with the digital model so just set it on 35. Everything came thru fine.