To winterize or not the winterize, that is the question. -

Camping can be unpredictable. If you do any type of camping you already know that. Last year I book 4 trips for my family and while they were technically in “winter” you never know what winter will bring in east Texas. Typically we have mild winters, but you never know what you’ll be hit with a snow-pocalypse.

The Trips.

The first trip we took was to Beavers Bend State Park in Oklahoma. If you haven’t been there I highly recommend it! Anywho, it was cold. As in 34º at 6 PM, which is cold for us. The second trip was to Tyler State Park for a Christmas light park, and there we saw 35º. Again, that is cold to us east Texans where we hit 110º in the summer for multiple days on end. Third trip, Lake Whitney State Park. We were sitting right at freezing on that trip. And our fourth and final trip, the one that made me realize winter camping is not for the faint of heart: Tyler State Park where we dropped down to a whopping 16º.

The good, the bad, and the ugly cold.

So here we are on Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend hitting 16º. And I failed to mention our heater was broken and my husband didn’t have time to fix it before we left. So I bought two of these handy dandy space heaters and they kept us nice and toasty! However, the pipes on our trailer were not so toasty. They were frozen solid. Not only our trailer, but the water spigot at the campground was frozen. So, at 6:34 AM my husband headed outside with my hair dryer in tow (which is amazing, BTW) and began thawing the spigot so we could have water.

The nasty truth.

You see, my hubby didn’t quite think things through and he closed all the valves on the trailer so he could run water through the sewer hose after dumping out black tank, what he always does to rinse out the nastiness. Do you know how long it takes a 4″ pipe to completely turn to ice? Less than 2 hours when it is as cold as it was. So, we could not dump. And when he tried to open valves they all broke off in his hands. So we had to replace them all, and did so with these snazzy metal handle valves. Hubby hates plastic.

Are we too late?

At 9:19 AM we pulled out of Tyler State Park, as ice was beginning for form on the road. Our trailer steps were slick as snot causing our oldest son to fall and get a huge bruise on his backside. Thankfully, he was ok! But as we began our trek home, the whole 45 minutes, we wondered if we were too late winterizing and if we had just done catastrophic damage to our fifth wheel. Upon arriving at home, we unloaded and attempted to blow out lines to prevent any further damage. Once we were finished, we loaded back into the truck to take our trailer to the my in-law’s land where they, too, were winterizing in temps in the teens, while snow was falling.

Never, ever, ever AGAIN.

After that experience we decided we will never use our trailer in the winter again. Ever. Thankfully, the only things damaged were the valves my husband broke. And our amazing tankless water heater was still putting out scolding water in the teen temps (say whaaaat???). We know we lucked out with our trailer being fine and not having any pipes bursting or tanks cracking.

When is the best time to winterize, you ask?

Back to my original statement: camping can be unpredictable. You don’t know when you’ll get hit with a cold snap in the 20s in October or March. Shoot, my college roommate in Alaska got a trailer with her family this summer and they had to winterize 2 weeks ago because it was getting below freezing. So it all depends on where you live, then it all depends on what battles you want to fight, or which ones you think you can win.

Below is my winterizing check-list! Are there any different things on mine than you have on yours? What are some things you might add?

Check roof/seals/skylights.
Remove all perishable foods, including all liquids that can freeze.
Close propane valves.
Go around your trailer and look for small holes/gaps where rodents can squeeze in and cover them or stuff with steel wool.
Drain all water lines.
Empty water heater.
Use a compressor to blow out all lines.
Place all linens in sealed containers or bags to ensure pests won’t use them as a new home.
Place damp rid in the trailer, I place mine in the sink so if it gets knocked over it’s easy to clean up!
Place mouse traps inside trailer.
Make sure battery is not connected.
Open fridge doors.