First ski season in the van in the books

[Theputnams515]

It was fantastic.

Just really fantastic.

Logged more that 20 days on the mountain.

Started the week before Thanksgiving and went into April.

The furnace kept the van at 65-70 degrees for the pups all day, our batteries worked flawlessly. We did stay in a park where we negotiated a special deal most nights but did boon dock/stealth it a handful of nights.

It was nice to have a base camp in the parking lot to come back to for lunch etc.

We will make improvements this year and head out to ski ASAP next season.

On to hiking/paddle boarding seaso!

Thanks for all the input last fall to get us ready for the winter. Anyone thinking about doing this, let me know I would be happy to share advice and tips on getting your rig up for winter.

BTW my Geny decided to start working again, for those who remember lol.

[rowiebowie]

Congrats on the good time!

BTW, have your generator call my generator. Mine could use some advice.

[JohnnyCLE]

Yes, congratulations on the good times!

A few questions:

What was the make and model you used? Was it configured as a three season or four season unit. If three season, did you winterize once at the beginning of ski season or multiple times throughout the year? Colorado gets some early and late freezes when do you winterize / de-winterize? What was the lowest temperature you camped in in ski country?

[Theputnams515]

Originally Posted by JohnnyCLE

Yes, congratulations on the good times!

A few questions:

What was the make and model you used? Was it configured as a three season or four season unit. If three season, did you winterize once at the beginning of ski season or multiple times throughout the year? Colorado gets some early and late freezes when do you winterize / de-winterize? What was the lowest temperature you camped in in ski country?

Ok, our van is a 2000 Roadtrek 200 Chevy. It is a three season unit.

So I winterized it in October and hauled water for the season. We still used the facilities by incorporating RV antifreeze into the loo and gray tank. No water entered out fresh water system since winterization. I have seen people use 5 gal nato style water cans run through ther pump to get running water to the sink but I have not done that yet.

We we dewinterize the rig in May. Probably mid month.

The lowest temp we skied was 0 (at the resort that never heated up past 7 all day) and dropped into the -20 f range for the night. We were plugged in at night but our suburban furnace kept us nice and comfy. The batteries performed fine all day to keep the furnace running for the dogs. One trick we learn early, the day before you head out use an electric heater to heat your unit for 24 ish hours. Everything will be nice and warm and will help you keep your rig nice and warm for the weekend.

We see no problem heading out for a week or more in our rig next winter.

Word to the wise, get some good three peak rated or dedicated snow tires and chains. This will help keep you safe on snowy roads.

I have a nice picture at Monarch in CO with our 200 and some other road trek 200s and 190s. Pretty darn cool.

We will be boondocking all over hiking this summer.

[Nspekter]

We did a camping/skiing trip to Colorado in our 2013 ERA at the end of March. Like the putnams we left the fresh water system dry and used antifreeze in the grey and blacks. Our coldest nights were around 10 and the furnace kept us toasty, batteries were fine running the furnace for the day.
My main comment here is about the tires. I put a set of Michelin Cross Climates with the 3 Peak on last summer and they were great. Driving in a couple of snow storms over 10 and 11,000 foot passes I didn't feel them slip at all. Only time they slipped was getting out of a parking space on a hill. Just backed up, tried a slightly different angle and came right out.