Winter Prep (Part Five) Insulation - Outside

Living Fulltime in an RV – During an Iowa

Part Five - Insulation

So, now we have water in the RV.  How do we keep it from freezing in the RV’s water lines?  If you have a full four season RV you MAY not have to add skirting.  Again, my opinion here is that the cost of adding insulation is miniscule in relation to replacing broken pipes and water damaged floors and cabinetry. 

What I recommend* is using foil sided foam board for the skirting.  The foam board (½ to ¾ inch) is ridged enough to stand up to the weight of snow and the blast of winter winds.  It is also easy to cut with a razor blade knife.  
*You will of course ask the office where you are wintering what restriction they may place on the type of skirting.

Foam board insulating skirting

Some of my neighbors go all out with the skirting by building complete frames out of 1x1s and attaching the foam board with plastic pop rivets. Others only make a frame to attach the bottom of foam.  Personally, I find the board when taped together with aluminum duct tape is sufficient.  Because the insulation will have gaps at the bottom due to the uneveness of the ground, I use expanding foam from a can to complete the seal.  The foam also helps to stabilize the board against the wind and snow.

(Next topic:  Insulation – Inside)

Winter Prep (Part One) Picking the Site

Living Fulltime in an RV – During an Iowa Winter

 I’m not an expert – just experienced

When I'm talking about living in an RV in winter this is what I'm preparing for.

Since the last post was about snow, I thought I’d show y’all (practicin’ my southern accent for NEXT winter) some of the things that we NON snowbirds have to do to survive these northern winters.  Just to be clear, I am NOT talking about winter camping.  I am talking about living in an RV during a northern winter.

I will breaking the preparation into categories and will cover one category a day.  Some information will be repeated in separate posts because some preparation covers more than one area.  (I just don’t want you to think you are having déjà vu when you see the repeated information.) 

Part One – Picking Your Site

The number one thing that needs to be done to prepare an RV for LIVING through the winter is find a place to park so that you don’t have move the darn thing.  Trust me on this, once the cold weather sets in, you do not want to have to move it.  Roads are slick, cross winds are brutal and water lines WILL freeze without heat.  Making your ‘home on wheels’ stationary for months at a time takes some fore thought.

In the middle of a northern winter, no one even considers ‘boondocking’.  At a minimum you want a spot with electricity and sewer.  It is POSSIBLE to do without a freeze proof water source – but not recommended.  You can always carry in or buy five gallon water bottles to drink, wash dishes and bodies, as well as flush the stool.  However, the thought of carrying sewage away from your camp site just seems like an insurmountable obstacle, for me.  Okay if push came to shove, you could use one of those blue totes and drag it through the snow to a dump site.  But – yuck!

If you are staying in a park or resort, find out who maintains, roads, parking, sidewalks, etc. and how often.  What amenities are available to you at the park; are there laundry facilities, showers, pools, exercise equipment, and so on?  What other forms of recreation are available in the local area?  Are there other people staying through the winter and do they get together to socialize?

100# and 30# LP tanks

You will also need to know if you pay for electricity and if you do, is it metered or is it estimated.  Since you will most likely be using a LOT of LP, is it available in the park?  Is LP delivered to your site?  Do they have larger tanks (100 pound) available for rent or exchange?

And how about trash?  Is it picked up at your site?  Do you need to carry it to a dumpster and where is it located?  Are recycle bins available?  What, if any, restrictions are there on what can be placed in dumpster/recycle bins?  Is it permissible to burn paper and cardboard trash in the campfire at your site?

Now, about emergencies; who ya gonna call?  (No! not Ghost Busters)  Is there on-site help for mechanical and electrical problems and how do you contact them?  What days and hours are they available?  Is 911 service available (if you are fulltiming, you most likely are using only a cellphone – cellphones may NOT work with the 911 service since they do not give you LOCATION)?  Where are the closest Doctors, Dentists, Veterinarians, Pharmacies and Hospitals?

(Next topic;  Water Out – Waste Water)

Living full-time in a fifth-wheel RV. (Part Three)

I’m not an expert – just experienced

Imagine downsizing from this to a 35' RV

      Cutty's Resort remains open during the winter so it was possible to go ‘full time’ in the RV.  That same year we sold our 1890 Victorian home and became full-timers.

Our dream had been to retire to a ‘mobile lifestyle’.  I envisioned it being something like, waking in the morning and flipping a coin to decide if we were to travel left or right, forward or back.  We were still several years from being able to retire but we were beginning to live a version of the dream.

Our friends and family were concerned for us to the point that when we said we were going to live in the RR during the winter they asked, “Won’t you be cold?”  To which we replied, “I don’t know, ask us again in the spring.”  Well, thanks to following the advice of other full-timers, we made it through that first winter with only minor difficulties.  And, “No” we were not cold.  We learned to use foil-backed foam insulation to skirt the trailer.  We also learned to use ‘trouble lights’ to provide just a little heat behind the RV refrigerator. (Unlike household refrigerators which use a compressor, RV refrigerators rely on evaporation and must have heat to work.)  We learned to use plastic film to cover the windows.  We learned how to depend on the fresh water tank for water and how to keep the water lines from freezing.  But most of all we learned how beautiful God’s world is in the winter.

We watched the leaves on the trees around the lake turn from green to bright fall colors and then to abandon the trees for the winter.  We watched the sunlight sparkle so brightly on the lake that it almost hurt your eyes.  We watched the geese and ducks invade and then leave as they passed through to warmer areas.  Gold finches changed to their drab green fall color.  Rabbits, raccoons, deer and hawks became the winter time entertainment replacing the song birds of summer.  We discovered that the winter sun shining on snow and ice mimicked the sunlight sparkle of the summer lake.  We discovered how little we needed for us to be happy.

For the next couple of years we made the resort our home base.  However, we also were able to volunteer as camp hosts at a couple of Corp of Engineer parks around Saylorville Lake.  We both were still working full time (though we were both doing temp work).  

In the years since then we have both retired.  Ella was tired of waiting for new temp jobs to open.  I had a heart attack that made me even more aware of how quickly things can change.  Since retiring, we have done more work camping and some part-time jobs. 

Now that we qualify for Medicare it will give us more freedom to travel without worrying about whether our insurance will be honored.  Our plan is to travel to the Austin Texas area for the winter of 2012-2013 and then return to Iowa for the summer months.  However, we’ll see how those plans work out.  They have already gone through some revision.  The original plan was to purchase another RV to take to Texas.  We would then leave that one in storage in the south and return to Iowa and live in the RR. (to be continued)