As we start a brand new 12 months, Allie and I’ve been speaking about our future RV and journey plans. We have now been discussing bringing the RV again out on the highway once more. After two years of getting a home-base in Oregon, we discover ourselves lacking the anticipation and pleasure that comes with exploring new locations, and bringing our residence together with us to try this. We have now realized quite a bit about residing in our residence on wheels throughout our time being stationary, together with tips on how to higher take care of our RV, tips on how to reside and work full-time collectively in our small area, and about tips on how to reside in numerous climates and seasons in our RV.
Being born in New England, now we have by no means been afraid of winter. There’s a sure magic that comes together with freshly fallen snow, or vacationer sizzling spots and well-liked trails that we get all to ourselves. We take winter at a slower tempo, cooking numerous soups and baking bread from scratch. We atone for reveals and films, and naturally spend numerous our time crocheting for our small enterprise.
We do benefit from the solitude and serenity that winter brings with it, however after we started RV life, we shortly flocked to Florida to spend our colder months, together with many different full-time households. We have now cherished chasing the solar and getting extra time and entry to the outside by staying in temperate climates. In our second 12 months of full-time RV life, we drove ourselves out to the desert and soaked up the nice and cozy climate and dry local weather all through the winter months. It was thrilling to have the ability to sit within the 70-degree sunshine in Tucson in February or swim within the pure Florida springs alongside manatees in December. Deep down although, I believe part of us missed winter. For our third 12 months of touring, we determined to remain in Colorado by means of a lot of the winter, each to discover and to entry extra of the season for our small enterprise.
Winter RVing in Colorado
Colorado winters are each stunning and brutal. We traveled all through the state and seen a couple of issues we hadn’t thought of when planning our winter wonderland journey.
- Elevation: We didn’t think about how a lot of an impression elevation change could make in each temperature and snowfall. In Denver, we not often confronted snowstorms, and the sunshine shortly melted any fallen snow, however up within the mountains we may fall asleep seeing the earth, and get up to 2 toes of recent powder exterior of our door!
- Gear: One one freezing chilly evening, we realized all about freezing hoses, pipes and spigots! We instantly ordered ourselves a heated hose, a spigot cowl, and a few insulation for our slideout areas.
- Warmth: Our propane heater has struggled to work constantly since we bought our RV and so we ordered ourselves two small area heaters to assist complement the propane furnace all through the colder months. We didn’t anticipate how a lot colder the center of our RV would get as a result of there are not any storage bays beneath that space, and since it’s the place most of our sq. footage is.
Colorado taught us tips on how to benefit from winter in our rolling residence. As soon as we settled into the circulation of tips on how to reside day-to-day in our RV within the freezing temps, we acquired out and explored the attractive state. From pure sizzling springs to limitless mountain drives, Colorado winters are price braving the chilly climate to see among the most gorgeous surroundings our nation has.
Our fourth 12 months of touring meant leaving the RV behind and trekking throughout the nation with our suitcases, two puppies and our truck. We began our winter highway journey in Vegas, made our means by means of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas earlier than heading northeast to New England for household time. This journey taught us that we don’t like leaving our residence on wheels for prolonged journeys. We missed the consolation and ease of getting our routines and our personal area irrespective of the place we’re touring.
This fifth 12 months has been our wildest but! Winter has been a very difficult season for us right here in Oregon. Dwelling on a mountain means climate can shortly change and will be extra excessive than in well-liked PNW locations corresponding to Seattle or Portland. The PNW can be wetter than we have been used to, and that has include its personal challenges.
Listed here are our high suggestions for wintering within the PNW:
- Get a Dehumidifier: This can prevent a lot work and vitality making an attempt to maintain your RV dry within the moist PNW local weather. We have now two small dehumidifiers and have a day by day routine of opening our toilet vent fan after showers! As many RVers know, moisture is an RV’s largest enemy, so preserving your RV dry turns into a precedence within the wet season.
- Insulate or Skirt Your RV: Skirting will be costly, however think about it an possibility for those who plan to be spending your winters in colder climates. You may match skirting your self, or rent an RV firm to put in it for you, however it’s nicely well worth the peace of thoughts because the temperatures drop. Your RV undercarriage will thanks in the long term!
- Be Artistic: That is our largest tip for getting by means of winter in your RV.
- On freezing nights, we go away our faucet dripping so that there’s fixed shifting water (which is much less prone to freeze).
- We put our tank heaters on so we don’t find yourself with frozen black or grey water waste.
- We have now a small area heater dealing with our doorway space as a result of we seen that’s the place we really feel essentially the most chilly air are available in.
- We use reflexix in our home windows and have covers for our vent followers that preserve chilly air from creeping in. All of those
- On moist days, we pull our mattress off the platform a bit to cease condensation from dripping from our home windows onto the mattress.
With all of our new info and information about our RV, we really feel that we may journey in nearly any local weather and season. After we sit down to consider locations we nonetheless wish to go to, we don’t have to fret concerning the climate, however as an alternative, we get to give attention to the enjoyable and pleasure of planning what life on the highway will appear like for us sooner or later!