Winter Camping Secrets

[tearhead]

I want to put in a "plug" (get it?) for an electric mattress pad. We also plug our little ceramic heater in to warm up the cabin for a few minutes. And we use the heater outside, too, in our shelter with the sides on.

[RioWilson]

Winter camping is not for everone. You must be prepared. We enjoy it because usually we are the only people in the park. It's nice sitting around a campfire while the snow gently falls around you. "No screaming dogs or barking kids anywhere in sight!"

This is precisely why we go too!

[bobhenry]

Thanks for the information. I wish I had seen it before I went camping this last weekend. It was definitely much warmer near the ceiling of the camper. I thought about how you reverse a ceiling fan in order to push the warm air down during the winter. A small fan in the camper will do the trick. Thanks again.

Here is a picture of my " ceiling fan" its simply wired to the grab bar I installed. In this summer pic it's pointed down for cooling but it blows upward in the winter to wash the heat down.







don't let the price tag fool ya it was 1/2 of 1st Saturday and I got it for $4.00 new in the box

[Vedette]

Hi we have camped in 25 degree temps in our tear. The roof has an inch of foam insulation thats it, nothing in the walls. We had a very small electric heater ( car warmer style) if you know what that is haha. It was toasty warm. We had to turn it off a few times as it was too warm. We did leave the roof vent open slightly to vent the humidity. No issues other than the darn water left outside was frozen and I didnt get my coffee right away. By the way were jealous...Its -4 deg f here so our tear is put away until May....Good luck
Hey I see your from Wisconsin, you know what a car warmer is..

Nice TV....!
Our years as Street Rod Campers have lead to our interest in Teardropping.
This, the building of "Miss Piggy"
Good Roads
Brian & Sandi

[Vedette]

To stay with the intent of this thread?
I have not winter camped for a number of years ( Last time was with my Scout Grout of which I was the Scout Leader) when my boys were in the Scouting movement.
Best suggestion I have is: What I used as a RULE.
"Stay Dry, Stay Warm! And your winter camping experience will be a good one!"
This applies to whatever type of Winter Camping you do.
Good Roads
Brian

[Kody]

The last time we went camping (tent) was before we brought Kody home as an eight week old puppy. We went down to Victoria and the temp fell to around 8 degrees at 3:00 am. We had packed lots of warm clothes and blankets and we had no real hassles. It will be much better when the TD is finished.

Kody

[BrwBier]

I have one tip for winter camping. After spending a week on a mountain top in Germany sleeping outside at about 10 degrees, my tip is DON'T. I don't know why the Army thought it would be fun.
Brwbier

[Bogo]

I used to go up and do Aurora watching in northern MN. Plenty of layers of bedding is the key. I had a bed roll that I laid out in my pickup bed. It was made up of multiple sleeping bags, comforters, and a space blanket. I slept out in the open with the sky above so I could watch the Aurora from inside my bedroll. I have a few rectangular sleeping bags of various temperature ratings. I'd choose which bag to sleep in by the expected low that night, and laid out the rest beneath as a sleeping pad. On top of the sleeping bag goes the space blanket and then additional blankets and comforters above it. The space blanket unfortunately traps moisture, but it reflects back lots of heat, and keeps the stack of blankets and comforters from getting damp from body moisture. I'd take the sleeping bag and set it out during the day to freeze dry. If it didn't fully dry, then I'd use one of the other sleeping bags that night and adjust the contents of the blanket and comforter stack to suit.

[Ned B]

I'm from central New York, and way back in the day (more days than I truly care to think about) my scout troop used to go winter camping. My father was the scoutmaster, and we 'always' did a fall and late spring camping trip, plus we would go either to the council's main camp or on a 'big' week long trip somewhere. When he took over the troop there was a set of square footprint tents, probably canvas (though I don't recall precisely), which some genius had cut a two foot square hole out of the center of the tents. We used those for a couple of years, putting down a tarp in the tent to 'complete' the floor.
One year our 'spring' trip was on Memorial day weekend, we went up into the Adirondack Park near Old Forge NY to the town of Thendara. We hiked in along a trail for several hours (numerous tales could be shared of that portion of the trip as well...), and eventually set up camp. We lugged our tents in, that I recall the hiked distance wasn't that far, two or three miles at most, one way, but we brought the tents and troop gear in on one trip, and then went back out to get our personal gear after setting up the tents.

Remember those tents with the hole in the floor and the tarps? Well... we picked as level a spot as we could, and we set them up. Being 'new' to that whole process, we didn't shovel out a 10x10' area (The first night) we simply set them up on top of the snow pack, staking them down and compacting the snow a little. Being late May, we were dealing with snow which had gone through numerous freeze/thaw cycles of course, and it was 'solid' enough that we could walk on it without breaking through the crust. Back to the tents... the way we used them was that everyone slept around the 'edge' of the tents, avoiding the large hole in the middle; the tarps didn't always work all that well at keeping dirt and what-not out of the tent as a rule. We kept a rotating fire watch up all night, and in the morning, except for the two guys who were tending the fire at the moment, we all woke to find that our tents had settled significantly into the snow pack. Our body heat had been enough to melt the snow pack, and we wound up with a 2' square tarp covered ' snow table' in the center of each tent, about 2' high! After the laughter died down, the solution was simple as could be; Clear out all of the gear, un-stake the tents, and lift them up on the poles... where we then shoveled out the 'table' from the center of the tent. Of course we also had to clear the rest of the snow from the footprint of the tents. That kept us warm enough during the day, along with whatever activities we had 'planned', but it pretty much was survival camping, which of course we did (survive I mean...) Multiple layers of clothing, Wool Socks, sweaters, hats... long underwear all helped keep us as warm as we could be. The air temp wasn't all that bad, it was in the 40's, but the snow pack meant it felt much more like Winter than the beginning of summer.

I think that summer a new tent fund suddenly appeared and we wound up with new factory second tents from the local Eureka outlet.

[Bogo]

For the real polar bear campers.

Starting a pesky truck in a remote area on a -20 morning can be done. Take your camp stove, light it and slide it under your engine. You need enough ground clearance so you don't have the stove to close to the bottom bits of the truck. A high ground clearance vehicle like Toyota 4x4 Pickup or 4Runner is perfect for this. Once you have the camp stove under there and lit, then block any wind from blowing under the truck. Let it heat up the truck for a good 30 minutes. To temper the heat some, a heat spreader like a skillet can be placed on top of the stove. If you want, you can even heat your breakfast while you are heating the engine. I'd use a covered skillet. Some pre planning could allow the technique to be used on a vehicle that wouldn't have enough ground clearance. The vehicle could be parked on some ramps to lift the front end. Snow cleared from the parking spot could be used as a wind break. When I went up Aurora watching I carried a fully charged battery as well as some large cardboard sheets to use as a wind break.

Of course if your truck has any oil leaks under the hood, I'd get them fixed before using this technique.

I've never needed to do this as my Toyota 4x4 Pickup has always started at -20, but I have tried it out once using my MSR camp stove. A few years back when we had a 0F cold snap here I tried it out in the driveway. I lit the camp stove, and then used some cardboard sheets to block the wind. After 20 minutes of heating my pickup started up like it was in the 40s out. I've also used it on tractors out in the field.

BTW: I got the idea for this from a show on living in Siberia. At one point they showed them with a fire under one of the trucks. The fire was to keep the engine warm so it didn't crack the block or other parts when started. A little over mid way down this page is a photo of some trucks with fires under them. http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/ar ... y/workers/

Here is the photo:

[Ned B]

For the real polar bear campers.

Starting a pesky truck in a remote area on a -20 morning can be done.

I used to drive semi, as well as dispatch freight in the northeast. The rule I lived by and then taught the rookies in the fleet: When it starts getting close to zero... the truck stays ON, and to heck with the fuel used.

[PKCSPT]

I like to go winter camping once a year. I stay in a state park with electric, I have a little ten dollar fan that blows heat and throw in my electric blanket. Between me and my dog plenty warm. Snow muffles the sounds, no one else crazy enough to be out there. Couple movies and I am good to go.

[alaska teardrop]

For the real polar bear campers.

Starting a pesky truck in a remote area on a -20 morning can be done. Take your camp stove, light it and slide it under your engine. You need enough ground clearance so you don't have the stove to close to the bottom bits of the truck. A high ground clearance vehicle like Toyota 4x4 Pickup or 4Runner is perfect for this. Once you have the camp stove under there and lit, then block any wind from blowing under the truck. Let it heat up the truck for a good 30 minutes. To temper the heat some, a heat spreader like a skillet can be placed on top of the stove. If you want, you can even heat your breakfast while you are heating the engine. I'd use a covered skillet. Some pre planning could allow the technique to be used on a vehicle that wouldn't have enough ground clearance. The vehicle could be parked on some ramps to lift the front end. Snow cleared from the parking spot could be used as a wind break. When I went up Aurora watching I carried a fully charged battery as well as some large cardboard sheets to use as a wind break.

Of course if your truck has any oil leaks under the hood, I'd get them fixed before using this technique.

I've never needed to do this as my Toyota 4x4 Pickup has always started at -20, but I have tried it out once using my MSR camp stove. A few years back when we had a 0F cold snap here I tried it out in the driveway. I lit the camp stove, and then used some cardboard sheets to block the wind. After 20 minutes of heating my pickup started up like it was in the 40s out. I've also used it on tractors out in the field.

BTW: I got the idea for this from a show on living in Siberia. At one point they showed them with a fire under one of the trucks. The fire was to keep the engine warm so it didn't crack the block or other parts when started. A little over mid way down this page is a photo of some trucks with fires under them. http://www.marxists.org/history/ussr/ar ... y/workers/

Here is the photo:

Bogo, No wonder the Russians lost the cold war. They blew up all their own trucks & soldiers!

This method is used in the far north to warm up planes & vehicles safely when there is no electrical service.

A weed burner connected to the propane tank & six feet of 6" furnace pipe w/elbow. This picture shows the set up, except that the weed burner is layed on the ground w/the nozzle just inside the pipe. The flame doesn't reach the truck. A blanket of some sort can help.

Go have your coffee - start your ride. Heck, I suppose a person could warm up the trailer before bed.

Fred

[Bogo]

This method is used in the far north to warm up planes & vehicles safely when there is no electrical service.


A weed burner connected to the propane tank & six feet of 6" furnace pipe w/elbow. This picture shows the set up, except that the weed burner is layed on the ground w/the nozzle just inside the pipe. The flame doesn't reach the truck. A blanket of some sort can help.

I like that method better than mine and it can be used on most vehicles. Any TT travel trailer I make will likely be propane heated so I'll have propane. I'd just need to add a long enough hose, the weed burner, and the duct work. The duct tube can be stored flat.

Another heater I just thought of is using one of the Zodi tent heaters. Smaller output so it would take allot longer. An insulated cover for the front of the car would help it allot. The air return could be incorporated into it so it is drawn out the grill. The hot air then can be piped into the back of the engine compartment via a duct .

I was using items I already take with me on every winter camping trip. A MSR stove on high might get it's flame as high as 4" above the ground. My Coleman may get them as high as 6". Camp stoves also have a reasonably consistent flame size. Using a skillet heat spreader makes the highest heat path longer and gives more time to lower to a non flame starting temperature. With the lowest point on my Toyota being 9" off the ground (standard tire size, I have larger), and most parts being 11" or higher I figured it was reasonably safe if there was no oil or gas leak.

[RioWilson]

Update.....we're here at Mirror Lake state park having a blast! Its 32 now and the sun is out....supposed to only drop to 15 tonight.....