Below you'll find common freeze points and tips for water supply freeze prevention.

• Supply Line:
  • Do NOT leave a faucet trickle overnight to prevent supply line freezing. While it is helpful to prevent freezing, the problem with this is that it can easily overfill your grey water tanks. Many people have made this mistake to awaken to a coach with sopping wet floors.
    • A better option is to fill on-board fresh water tanks during the warmer daytime and then disconnect, drain, and store your freshwater hose.
    • For extended stays, heat tape and insulation are the preferred means of maintaining free flowing supply lines.
  • UDC: Even though the basement/belly is heated, the UDC area is separated from this area. This separation prevents a good deal of heat from reaching the exterior side of the UDC and allows for only its back side to be heated. Some campers have had issues with the supply line freezing in this area even with heat tape up to that point. A 15 Watt light bulb turned on in the UDC will provide enough heat to solve the problem if you experience it.
• Kitchen Water:
  • If your Kitchen water stops flowing but the Bathroom water flows fine, check your Low Point Drains. It seems that the drain lines T into the Kitchen supply right at or close to the belly of the RV. When the temperature dips below about 28°F, these T's can freeze and prevent Kitchen water flow.
    
    • If you have a heat gun, run it on High pointing up at the intersection of the Low Point Drains and the belly of the RV (not too close, You CAN melt things ). After about 5 minutes with a heat gun, you should be flowing again. If you only have a Hair dryer, that will work too, but you'll need to apply the heat longer.
    • Insulating the Low Point Drains with small bubble - Bubble wrap will do good down to about 20°F to 22°F.
    • Below 20°F, you will probably need to provide some heat for this area to prevent freezing. Heat wrap and Insulation is one way to do this.
• General:
  • It is often helpful to add an electric heater in the basement area for extreme cold temperatures. While there is a heat duct in the basement, it is only on when the furnace is running. The problem is that the furnace thermostat is in the living area which heats and cools at a different pace than does the basement. So, the basement can cool off significantly between furnace run cycles and allow freezing to occur. An electric heater with it's own locally set thermostat will help keep the basement above the freezing mark between the furnace run cycles.
  • For long term winter stays, it may be desirable to put a skirt around the RV. A skirt will help keep the wind from whipping through under the RV and stealing your precious heat. Please weigh the side effects below with the benefit and decide for yourself if skirting is really needed for your situation.
    • Skirting provides a nice place for critters to keep warm through the winter. This can lead to undesirable infestation in the RV itself since they will try to get to the warmer areas, and try to locate easier food supplies.
    • Skirting traps in moisture which can lead to condensation and mold on the underside of the RV.
    Some have suggested using straw / hay bails for the skirting and leaving small gaps between the bails.  Straw is an excellent insulator, while the gaps prevent moisture build up.  Make sure the straw is clean and dry to start with.  Don't want to bring any unexpected items to the party.