Keeping water tank from freezing while towing

Hello everybody.

I am a new TM owner and new to the forum. Your advice on the following question will be much appreciated. Living in Wyoming, it is likely that I will get caught in sudden daytime temperatures well below freezing. How can I keep the water in the drinking water tank from freezing as we roll down the highway? There is no problem when we get to our destination, put the TM up, and turn on the propane heater. But enroute, driving through perhaps subzero weather for 300 miles, there seems to me to be a good chance of freezing up.

One possible solution that occurred to me is to get a 12v Coleman portable car heater which is based on a halogen bulb, plug that into the 12v circuit in the TM, and stick the heater in next to the water tank. While undertow, there would be 12v current in the TM, so this would seem to work.

What do you all think about that procedure, or do you have some better ideas? I am assuming that before the trip, I made sure that the gray water tank was dumped, and perhaps put some rv antifreeze into it. However, I didn't want to drain my fresh water tank, since we wanted water when we set up camp at the end of the day.

[Bill]

You will be under way for 5-6 hours. Maybe 7 if you are on slow roads. For this amount of time, I can't prove it from experience, but my impression is that you don't have a problem. My reasons?

Water actually freezes quite slowly. If you put a 20-gallon plastic tank of water on your back porch when the temp is zero-degrees, it certainly wouldn't freeze solid in 5-7 hours. A crust of ice might form on the top, depending on how warm (or cold) the water was when you started. But this is not harmful.

The movement of the TM as you drive will continuously mix the water, so if any crust should form, it will immediately be mixed with the other (slightly warmer) water in the tank, and will melt.

The tank is made of a very flexible plastic. If some ice does form, the tank has a lot of give, so it won't break.

Your tank, being inside the RV, is protected from the wind. So temperature counts, but wind chill does not.

Your TM might have been a bit warm (compared to zero degrees) when you closed it up, so the tank has warm(er) air around it. And the water might have been a bit warm (compared to 32 degrees) when you put it in the tank. Either of these would delay freezing for quite a while.

So in the end, I think you are OK. When you get to your destination, turn on the furnace and open the door under the sink so the warmth in the room can get at the tank. But for the few hours you are talking about, I don't think you have a problem.

By the way, if your situation extends to, say, 18 hours with no heat, in 20-below weather, and high wind, then all bets are off. In that case, I am still under the impression that the tank won't burst. It might freeze, which is annoying when you arrive at your destination. But in this case the thing to be concerned about is the water pump - did it freeze?

In any case, your light bulb idea can't hurt.

Bill

Bill, I think it was but may have been someone else that pointed out that the 12v plug had an upper limit as to the wattage it could handle. Would the light be a problem there?

Borgman, if you use the light there should be two concerns. First mounting it so that it would not come in contact with anything that might melt or catch fire. Second, I would think the water pump would freeze long before the water tank. The pump contanins much less water in a smaller and tighter place thus would freeze much faster. As Bill has pointed out because of movement in the tank I don't think I would worry about it too much. We use to pitch a cider post in the cattle tanks to keep them from freezing and if the wind blew, they would not ice over however if it was a calm night guess who would be out chopping ice in the morning?

Thanks for all your suggestions and help. I agree that the water pump freezing appears to be the major concern in all this.

I owned a Alaskan Camper (telescoping pick-up camper) for many years and, for winter camping, got in the habit of carrying my water in pastic jugs. I left the camper winterized and moved the jugs from RV living quarters to pick-up cab and back as needed. That seems like a good solution here for winter camping, and there is no problem with a pump freezing up. I have a small fold-up, dry, mountaineering toilet which I use with a small pop-up tent for 4-wheel auto camping. Its the tent version of an out house. I can use that here in the freezing months to keep the recirculating toilet winterized.

Thanks again to Bill and Windbreaker for the suggestions. Spending winter nights in the Trail Manor, even without water, sure beats sleeping in a snow cave or in a tent in the middle of a snow drift, as I often used to do .

Best Wishes to All,
Borgman

Borgman,

Another suggestion would be to fill your freshwater tank with a hose connected to a warm water connection from inside your home prior to leaving on your trip. The warm water, along with the sloshing from the travel, should ensure ice free water on arrival. After that, opening up the cabinet so warm air from the heater should help.

ColoradoCop 8)

[Bill]

The sheriff's suggestion is probably the best of all. No way a tank of warm water will freeze in 5 or 6 hours at 0 degrees and no wind (inside the TM).

Windy has also made a good point you should heed. The specified maximum current for the cigarette lighter plug is 8 amps. Don't exceed it. Beyond that, someone on this board had a problem with the cigarette lighter socket overheating, and actually melting, when the current drain was substantially less than 8 amps. If I am recalling the sequence correctly, the wire on the back of the cigarette lighter socket had not been properly crimped (and was possibly too small as well). Anyway, if you plan to use this outlet at anywhere near its maximum capacity, you might unscrew it from the panel and confirm that the wire connection in back is properly (i.e., tightly) crimped.

BTW, what year is your TM?

Bill