First thing you should do is buy heated tape to put on the faucet outside. The first night that the temperature went below freezing we woke up to no water coming from the RV. We immediately thought that our pipes had frozen and quickly rushed out to get all the materials to build our skirt. To our surprise the faucet outside was frozen and so nothing was passing through. After attaching the heated tape and covering it with insulated tape, the water began flowing again:)
Second thing is how to keep water always flowing into the RV. You have two options; you can either go outside and hook up the hose every time the fresh water tank is empty and after filling it put the hose away, or you can buy a heated water hose. This costs about $120 for a 25" hose. It will never let the water freeze going into your RV, well, at least to below 40F. We went with the option of buying the hose just in case we needed continuous flowing water.
The most important thing is making a skirt for the bottom of the RV. I looked into many options and anything purchased professionally was over $1000 plus we would still need to install it. If you wanted to buy the same material from a craft store and make it yourself it would be about $500. After noticing that most of the people at the campground we are staying at are using foam boards with the support of wood to keep it secured, we decided to see how much that would cost. We ended up spending $150 which covered all the insulation, wood, extension cord, nails, and an electric heater. The skirt took about 5 hrs to piece it all together, but now that it's done it looks great and very efficient. Rich already has a plan to build something underneath so we can easily store it during the warmer months.
A couple extra things that are worth to have are electric heaters for the inside of the RV so it will help with the costs in the winter, antifreeze that you should put into every tank after emptying it to make sure nothing freezes in there, and a back up propane tank for the just in case scenario. Another tip that I read is that you should always keep all the holding tanks closed until they are completely full and ready to be emptied because any running water could freeze in the sewer hose and create major problems.
Since we have readied ourselves for winter we haven't run into any problems with the pipes. The only thing that is worth mentioning is how much you have plugged into the outlets outside. If you have too much plugged in and blow the circuit it will shut off all the heated hoses, tapes, and electric heater and you could wake up with a nightmare in your hands.
Happy RV living!!:)
