Full Time RV Life in the Winter

We have been living full time in an RV for the last three years while we sort out how and what to do next after a rather disastrous 2021. If you watch YouTube RV influencers, they tend to gloss over some of the more challenging aspects of RV life for full timers. One such challenge is water in the winter. 

For those who slept through pretty much every science class and weather report since the beginning of time, water and freezing cold temperatures don’t play well together. The recent arctic blast that dropped temperatures in North Texas to sub 30 degree weather and occasionally sub 20 degree weather revealed a fly on the ointment of our RV’s water system. 

Our RV is supposed be “4 Season” capable. That term apparently has a wide variety of meaning in the industry. I my particular case, it DOES NOT mean that you can take the rig into freezing temps without some modification. For instance, case on point: the water system.

You would THINK a 4 season capable rig would have some insulation on the water system to help prevent freezing. Ha. Hahahahaha…. Yeah. Not so much. My rig DOES have a “heated and enclosed underbelly” which means the main propane heater on the RV is ducted into the underbelly which has a relatively thin layer of corrugated plastic and basic fiberglass insulation. The theory is that this will keep the pipes and tanks from freezing. While I haven’t experienced a tank freeze yet, the drain hoses most definitely will freeze and become blocked.

The bigger issue, in my opinion, is the water inlet panel which, on my RV looks something like this:

The black material is plastic. More correctly, probably 1/16” to 1/8” think plastic with NO INSULATION WHATSOEVER behind it. What’s more, the red light you see if a heat lamp showing through the gaps in the panel. Gaps which are a direct exposure for cold air to enter the RV. 

This rats nest is the other side of the water inlet panel. The water manifold itself is plastic; and, as you can see, it is a mix of PEX and braided vinyl tubing. All of that is connected together with plastic PEX fittings. Notice the complete lack of insulation. 

What I discovered is that the water inlet manifold was leaking at the connections on the backside. The plastic PEX fittings were leaking which I learned is pretty common where the braided vinyl tubing connects to the PEX lines as PEX fittings are not suitable for vinyl braided tubing which require a barb fitting and a worm clamp as opposed to a PEX compression ring. 

So, guess who is rebuilding the water inlet panel at the next opportunity, beefing up the fittings to brass, adding insulation and eliminating as much air gap as possible. Yeah. Fun. Add it to long honey do list. 

 The animals don’t see to be too concerned about it though.