Winter Camping for the season in New Hampshire

[In Pursuit]

Enjoying winter camping in my Oliver, snowmobiling every weekend.

[Bill and Nancy]

I almost took mine to Cannon mountain skiing last week end but I decided for the two nights it wasn’t worth getting salt all over it. But it’s coming out for April, it’s the first time I will have another few days to go someplace. 
Bill

[Rivernerd]

3 hours ago, Bill and Nancy said:

I almost took mine to Cannon mountain skiing last week end but I decided for the two nights it wasn’t worth getting salt all over it.

The biggest concern that keeps me from towing our Elite II during the winter is road safety.  I have towed my much lighter raft trailer on snowy roads a couple of times, with sometimes scary results.  No accidents, but some close calls.  So, I gave up towing it until the roads are no longer snow-covered or icy in the spring.

Have any of you more veteran Oliver owners experienced loss of traction, fishtailing or loss of control on snow-covered roads?  Any issues climbing hills on snow-covered roads while towing an Elite II?

[John Dehne]

 That’s cold!  I had to put another log in my stove after looking at your picture. We winter camp and have been out in 20 deg. with Lite snow with no problems. It’s the wind at those temp that makes it bad. Seems like the older we get the more we like the 3 season camping. Really enjoy being outside. I wouldn’t  want to winter camp in any other camper but our Oliver. Stay warm and have some fun.

[GAP]

We just got back from two week in Quebec.  Was -15 one night and lots of overnights around 0.  Aside from burning a 30lb LP tank every 3-4 days, was plenty warm.  In spite of lots of mods to drive temps in entire garage to mid 50s on those nights, the water system froze up - when it was just above 10 degrees out.  Turns out reflectix is decent at minimizing radiational heat loss but really not great at radiational heat loss so even in the warmish areas, where a pex line is up against exterior insulation, it will freeze.  Luckily, no damage done.

We parked for a few nights by a none-too-fancy, stick built, stock 25' class c RV.  Had for-real pink board house insulation and matts of stuff that was similar to our reflectix but was thicker sheet plastic between the foil.  They had no problem with their water systems on the -15 night.  

Had lots of useful take aways from the experience.

[GAP]

12 hours ago, Rivernerd said:

The biggest concern that keeps me from towing our Elite II during the winter is road safety.  I have towed my much lighter raft trailer on snowy roads a couple of times, with sometimes scary results.  No accidents, but some close calls.  So, I gave up towing it until the roads are no longer snow-covered or icy in the spring.

Have any of you more veteran Oliver owners experienced loss of traction, fishtailing or loss of control on snow-covered roads?  Any issues climbing hills on snow-covered roads while towing an Elite II?

We've done a few thousand miles of mid winter towing with our '21 Elite 2.  Mostly with an F150 with 3 peak stamped tires, so they are solid in the snow.  There is a lot of weight which helps traction but it's spread out over a large area and 8 tires which hurts traction.  Have had a couple of minor straight line slides but never had the trailer sway or side slip.  

Generally, the trailering necessitates extra caution on compacted, shallow snow.  The weight seems to help it out pretty good in deep stuff but, your chances of the trailer slipping increases for sure.  Given a day with black ice or light snow over ice, I'd opt for sitting it out.  For the most part, if the pavement is covered, we're in 4wd and taking it slow.  We have but have never deployed tire cables for both Oliver and the Ford.  They would probably make for very secure driving but are a pain in the butt to use and not really up to covering lots of ground.  Really an emergency option.

[GrumpyChoi]

I guess I would also be interested in how well the batteries perform in these conditions.  I believe the operating specs for the lithiums are 3 degrees F on the low end, so should be a good test.  And really cool pictures. 😀

[GAP]

Just now, GrumpyChoi said:

I guess I would also be interested in how well the batteries perform in these conditions.  I believe the operating specs for the lithiums are 3 degrees F on the low end, so should be a good test.  And really cool pictures. 😀

We've insulated the door on our battery compartment (minnimally with two layers of reflectix) and have run a heat duct to the streetside that snakes under the battery box.  Even when temps dropped below 0 Fahrenheit, the digital bluetooth thermometer sitting on top of the batteries showed that temps stayed in the high fifties.  The bluetooth feed from batteries themselves as displayed on the LifeBlue App shoed the batteries maintained an internal temp in the 60s.  I can't think of an apples to apples test to compare performance to summertime conditions but we've been happy with the performance.

[GrumpyChoi]

1 minute ago, GAP said:

We've insulated the door on our battery compartment (minnimally with two layers of reflectix) and have run a heat duct to the streetside that snakes under the battery box.  Even when temps dropped below 0 Fahrenheit, the digital bluetooth thermometer sitting on top of the batteries showed that temps stayed in the high fifties.  The bluetooth feed from batteries themselves as displayed on the LifeBlue App shoed the batteries maintained an internal temp in the 60s.  I can't think of an apples to apples test to compare performance to summertime conditions but we've been happy with the performance.

Oh well that answers my question though.  I don’t plan on doing a lot of sub zero camping, but you never know.  I like your answer, and I think it solves any worries I may have had. 

[In Pursuit]

I was set up at a winter campground, so I didn't have any issue with my batteries due to the fact I was plugged into a shore line.

 

[GAP]

18 hours ago, In Pursuit said:

I was set up at a winter campground, so I didn't have any issue with my batteries due to the fact I was plugged into a shore line.

 

I'd like to hear more about your winter camping water usage.  We've had problems with our pex lines freezing.  Can you share some details such as - did you keep your trailer winterized or activate the water system: If the system was active, what sort of prolonged temps did you encounter?  I've found that our trailer is fine (after mods) in temps to low teens if daytime tempos get above freezing but is problematic when exposed to multiple days straight  of frigid conditions:  What is your hull number and do you have the newer Truma heater?  Thanks much on sharing that information.   

[In Pursuit]

I camped all winter DRY, some guy's do hook up black water with PVC piping and flush with anti freeze.

[In Pursuit]

On 5/23/2023 at 2:56 PM, GAP said:

I'd like to hear more about your winter camping water usage.  We've had problems with our pex lines freezing.  Can you share some details such as - did you keep your trailer winterized or activate the water system: If the system was active, what sort of prolonged temps did you encounter?  I've found that our trailer is fine (after mods) in temps to low teens if daytime tempos get above freezing but is problematic when exposed to multiple days straight  of frigid conditions:  What is your hull number and do you have the newer Truma heater?  Thanks much on sharing that information.   

I was dry camping all season. They have bathroom facilities at the camp ground.