Using the van in Winter

[Fairy Godfather]

May sound obvious.. but being a newbie, is there anything to be careful of when using the van in Winter? How do you stop your water reservoir / waste tank from freezing on a really cold night?

 

[f6c]

Water heater for the fresh water bucket under the outlet pipe for the waste

 

[hilldweller]

May sound obvious.. but being a newbie, is there anything to be careful of when using the van in Winter?

If you've not bought a winterised van your only hope is that your central heating copes.

First thing to freeze will be the pipes under, or inside close to the side where heat does not reach.

Someone mentioned 12V fishtank heaters - but you'd need hook up for a heating load.

Someone recently posted, leave the grey waste tap open, let it freeze in a bucket rather than your tank.

Winterised tanks are lagged and sometimes heated, not a DIY job for normal folk.

Best advise is drive to Spain.

 

[Stewart J]

Waste water most prone to freezing its usually the smaller quantity (mass) leave the drain valve open at all times allowing it to empty into a container/ waste hog or the like.

Your FW tank should be ok again take a few precautions, keep tank level high its a big mass of water and will take a lot to freeze it. Lag any exposed pipework especially the drain you can always remove it come the spring.

Your internal pipework should be ok when using the van the temperature will not fall below zero.

This has worked for me over the past couple of winters and we've used it in some extreme conditions for a week or more in 2010/2011 :thumb:

Go for it the sites are usually a lot quieter.

 

[peter marshall]

Hi
If you leave your water heater on it should stop the automatic drain valve from dumping your boiler water, I have had it dumped a coulple of times on the drive, leave waste pipe open in to a hog etc, and you shold be ok, we also leave the heating on low if required on site. Pete

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[GJH]

We used our previous Elddis Autoquest 100 several times in very frosty conditions without any problems but it didn't have an automatic dump valve for the water heater. The current Burstner does have an automatic dump valve so in cold conditions earlier in the year we left the water heater on low overnight. Also meant I didn't have a cold shower in the morning

 

[1948]

if you have heater installed in the MH (whatever nade) you will have no oroblems using MH in winter, Get a weather station , (cureently around £20 in Aldi) leave remote senser out of MH ideally near waste tank (if located outboard) keep an eye out for outside temp from weather station, when temp drops down to around zero C open and drain waste to bucket (not container) as it is much easier to turn bucket upsidedown and empty a lump of ice just drop out (cannot do that in a container till ice melt) when you move on, leave waste open till you see from weather station outside temp is above zero then close waste tap and back to normal , I use my wagon a lot more in winter than summer, love it, quiet and tranquail, no crowds,

 

[grumps147]

You probably have one, but silver screen, and Haganap has posted on here not all that long ago what he has done for a skiing trip, a quick search on winterising should find loads of info for you.

 

[Welsh girl]

If you have the winter pack you need to have both tanks at least quarter full for the tank heaters to work.
(winter pack consist of , both water tank heaters, tanks and pipes lagged and insulated)
We found out to our cost 2 winters ago.
Have had no trouble since, leaving the heaters on, we have all pipes lagged as well.
We spend all the winters out as we full time, sites are really quiet.
We would like to winter abroad but cannot due to our Susie the yorkie not being able to get her rabies booster.
Next van will be winterized though with onboard tanks.

 

[Ralph-n-Bev]

We use ours all year round .
Infact we love the cold frosty mornings , and as long as we are not in a boggy field , we dont mind the heavy rain drumming on the roof.
As newbie's we didn't realise when we bought her , that we had dropped on and got it right 1st time.
The mizarGTL top class living is fully winterised , has on board heated water tanks , and webasto deisel heating, we are also able to use habitation electrics /gas when on the move. We had had caravans before and thought all motorhomes were like ours.
We've just had a weekend over in Hawes . We dont use hook up but have Trojan batteries . It got to -2 Saturday night and was blowing a gale and throwing it down , but we have been - 12 up in Aviemore for a week long stretch. Without hook up , at 20 deg plus inside toasty warm .
What ever the weather we love to get away for the weekend.:thumb: