When I started living the RV lifestyle, I knew I wanted something that could handle all kinds of weather. After researching countless options, I chose my Black Series RV from a local dealership. Its rugged design and four-season capabilities promise comfort and durability even in the harshest conditions. I’m preparing my camper to handle the cold as winter approaches and temperatures drop. For anyone searching for RV campers near me or wondering how to keep their RV safe during a cold snap, I’ll share some tips and tricks to ensure you stay warm, worry-free, and ready for adventure, no matter the weather.
I have never gone through a winter with negative seven in my camper. This is my second winter, so I survived the first one just fine. I learned some things from the do’s and do n’ts: products that work well and those that don’t. I want to run through some of those things to help somebody wishing to live this lifestyle in the future not stress out as much as I did.
All right, so first and foremost, the most important thing for me is propane. They come out once a month and top off my propane. It’s not the prettiest thing in the world, but it does the job. It keeps me warm; that’s all I need. So, I can deal with its aesthetic as long as it does its job.
They hook it all up. The connector hose runs back here, down here, and it ties into the hose from my camper. So that hose normally runs to the tanks that I have here. They disconnect it and run it straight to their tank. It does have a gauge on it, but the gauge stopped working. So, it’s not the best and prettiest thing in the world, but they do come. I’m on a schedule—they come once a month, top it off, and refill it, so I don’t have to worry about it. I’ve never run out of propane completely in a month.
Now that it’s getting colder, I’m paranoid about it, so I am having them come before this winter snap and top me off. They’re going to be coming and doing that soon. But absolutely the most important thing: propane.
It does have extra insulation on the underbelly of the camper, which helps during the winter. As long as that propane runs, I’ve never had it get below 68°F inside the camper. I haven’t had an issue with it whatsoever. When I got the demo, they told me and explained that the heater’s ductwork is underneath the camper and the underbelly, which provides some heating to the black and gray tanks and your freshwater tank.
The second most important thing to me is your skirting. Most people do the Styrofoam board, which I have done. I’ve had success with it. I contacted an embroidery shop in Kansas City and had them quote me. It was going to be almost four thousand dollars. I don’t plan on living in my camper for a while, so I didn’t want to invest.
I can skirt my camper with the Styrofoam board and tape, which takes time. I ballpark 100 to 150 bucks. I salvaged what I could from last year and bought additional boards this year. I will go in here and show you up close.
I just took a tape measure and measured the top of this—it doesn’t have to be perfect, it doesn’t have to be pretty. I don’t think it looks terrible. It’s serving a purpose, so it doesn’t have to look beautiful. This is just kind of a rough estimate: cut the sections and slap them on there. I would tape them and get them snug.
I would dig a gravel trench as much as possible, wiggle it in, and get it taped up tight to the top. Then, go to the next section. It went a lot quicker this year. Last year, I learned all the nooks and crannies. You can see some of this coming apart here—I need to re-tape.
The tape does start to come loose; it’s inevitable. It’s a constant fight. As the weather changes, as it gets cold and hot, it expands and loses some of its stickiness. You can also see here that I’m constantly taking sections and re-taping. It does fine as long as you keep it tight enough and snug.
Buttoned up as much as you can and keep that wind out of there; you’re going to find that completely; as far as the tapI have learned that e goes, I used the 3M brand last year. 3M was not the best—within a week of me putting the tape on the camper, it started peeling up.
I’ve had this up for two months already. I started early on it. I’m just now beginning to get the sections where they’re coming apart. It will sortre-stick. But ultimately, you must take the extra tape and reapply it to help keep it together.
Just as you do the sections, you take care of the seams. The other thing that has been huge in my success this year compared to last year is the gravel along the bottom. So once I did the other side, I crawled under the camper with a shovel and shoveled the gravel up along the base.
I took two-by-fours and wedged them under my tires to provide extra protection if the wind starts blowing and gets up under there and blows any of it out. Once one section starts to come out, that wind gets in there, and you’re completely wrecked.
I took the extra time and lined it with heavy flower pots under—I have plywood, heavy flower pots, and gravel pushed up along the bottom. We’ve had some significant winds this year, and I have not had any issues.
I’m really happy with it. This is the way to go. So once I got the inside all tucked in and buttoned up, I went along the outside and shoveled gravel up along the bottom to keep that gap as snug as possible.
There are—it’s not perfect. As you can see, there are some gaps in the bottom, but I’ll just randomly keep shoveling gravel along the bottom to help keep the wind out. I’ve had far better success this year than last, largely due to the gravel at the bottom, the stuff supporting it on the inside, and this specific tape right here.
The main things to note on the backside are where your water hookup and connections are coming in. I have cut holes in the Styrofoam, and I re-tape it and peel it back as I need to because I don’t leave this hose hooked up. I keep this as sealed off as possible and only undo it when I have to drain it, and I go from there.
I throw some tape on top—I mean, from a distance, you can’t tell. It’s fine; it doesn’t look that terrible. I don’t keep it hooked up on that side, but it does keep the wind out of there.
The biggest thing is keeping the wind out and sealing it up as tight as possible. I did put that plywood up—we had a kind of crazy storm that came through in this section. There was a decent gap at the bottom, so I re-putted gravel along the bottom and then put some heavy flower pots.
That up there to try to help block some of the wind. Now my black tank and my… it has my shower and my kitchen or bathroom sink come out of this. I leave it hooked up because it’s much easier to drain and not have to re-hook it. I try to deal with the black tank hose as little as possible, not hooking it up and disconnecting it. I do keep the valves closed in this area. Once you open everything up to drain, do your black tank first, then do your shower and sink water. I close everything down, then reapply the tape to seal it, keeping it all closed. You don’t want water running through this hose and freezing in there because you could have an issue. That’s another winter tip: keep everything sealed and closed unless you’re actively draining it.
Regarding the rest of the skirting, I had an issue with the bumper trying to cut and fit it around perfectly last year. I said to heck with all that this year and just boxed around it. So I have the full section at the bottom, and then I just took the little strips I had left over, and then I took them up, aped them, and sealed them tight. That was another area where it had a decent size gap, so I threw the plywood and 2×4 again. I’ve had no issues since then. But a little gap down here, it’s not going to kill anything. If I notice spots like that, I throw some more gravel up. But you can see where I’ve thrown extra tape up that’s come apart, and you redo it, and it comes apart. That Nashville tape is 100% better than the other stuff I used.
So next, we’ll talk about the basement area and other things I’ve done there. We could be doing overkill on this side of the basement area, which may be partially necessary. Still, I have noticed a difference in my thermometer under here when I keep this Styrofoam up. So I just cut and fit a piece of Styrofoam to this opening. It was a bit of a mess; it was cold out, and I drank the water. I just wadded it up and threw it in there, so don’t judge me, please. But I put another piece of Styrofoam here to protect this area from under the camper.
This cord here, I’m showing, I have gone ahead because I’m paranoid about negative seven since I haven’t experienced that cold of weather in this. I don’t want to deal with freezing pipes or anything. I peeled this back, opened it up, put a space heater in there, and ran the cord through here. So on those nights when it hits negative seven, I’ll come in here, plug it up, and let it run. It’s already set up to run. Cautionary things with that, though: make sure you have a heater with tip protection. If it does fall, it’s going to shut off. I try not to use it unless I have to. I don’t have to worry about it being a fire hazard; nothing under there will catch fire—just gravel. So I’ve made sure to clear out leaves and anything like that. Don’t leave under there; it could be an issue.
But I keep track of the temperature under the camper, in the basement, and inside during the winter. If you have any questions, holler and ask; I’d be happy to answer them and give feedback. I’m not an expert on this stuff, but I know what works for me and what has yet to work. Thanks for watching. Have a good one.
