10/17/2024
There’s basically three options to guarantee your lines don’t freeze.
1 - Run furnace to heat everything - assuming your heat is properly plumbed to your underbelly and/or basement. This is extremely expensive and not recommended for full time.
2 - Install skirting and run space heater under RV to keep everything above freezing. This is second best but not ideal as installing and removing everything every year is costly and cumbersome plus it’s still not the most energy efficient.
3 - by far the best option is to remove the underbelly panels and wrap all exposed water and sewer lines with 12VDC electric heat trace, then wrap the pipes and heat trace with closed foam insulation. This creates an insulated heated enclosure around every single pipe. Re-install the underbelly covers as your second layer of insulation and then use great stuff to seal any remaining openings to the outside underneath - this helps prevent cold air as well as critters from getting in.
This is BY FAR the most effective method of bullet proofing your rig for any weather. You don’t have to use skirting ever again because you’ve essentially created and entirely, double insulated thermal controlled space in the underbelly that you can turn on at the flip of a switch for the tank and pipe heaters. Air traveling under the rig won’t matter and you can travel anywhere knowing you’re freeze protected 24/7 because you can run the tank and pipe heaters on 12v.
We have camped in single digit temps and been the only rig in our row of campers with water in the morning.
It’s going to cost probably a couple hundred dollars maybe close to a grand but the heat savings and utility value you get, not including just the peace of mind is well worth it to me.
