Winter Truck Camping Essentials
Between a cross country road-trip where we followed a polar vortex with temps of -18 farenheight, a 65-foot snow season in North Tahoe last year, and living full-time in our truck camper for that past 7 months, we’ve learned a trick or two about how to stay warm in our setup! Our camper is a 1971 Dolphin Camper that was made in sunny SoCal–AKA it is not a very warm, insulated, 4-season type of camper. This still does not stop us from taking our rig into harsh conditions. We are very much so mountain people and love to ski! Here are some key essentials that we have to keep our setup warm, safe, and comfortable. 👇🏼
DIESEL HEATER
CHECK OUT OUR DIESEL HEATER HERE. If you are in the market to get a heater for your rig, I highly recommend going with a diesel heater. When you are in wintery climates, it can get pretty moist in your rig. When you have a propane heater, it’ll throw more moisture in the air. Since we already have a propane stove, we didn’t want to create any more moisture than we have to. Diesel heaters actually make the air pretty dry, which is great for our situation. In addition to this, propane heaters are NOT great at higher elevations. We’ve found diesel heaters to be a lot more reliable at higher elevations, and it’s super important that you have something reliable to keep you warm. We have a Vevor Diesel heater. It is a pretty affordable system and gets the job done. It also has an app to use control it directly from our phones! This also has an automatic altitude adjustment to help with the fuel flow! There are a couple maintenance things to know about these types of heaters. In the winter, it helps to add a little bit of a fuel additive to help prevent the diesel from gelling up! There are also certain protocols to take to prevent soot build up. This blog goes into the maintenance side pretty well.
CO2 DETECTOR
It is EXTREMELY important to have a carbon monoxide detector. Last year, we did not know about taking care of our diesel heater, and got a soot buildup. this caused a carbon monoxide leak to occur while we were asleep in our camper. If we did not have a carbonmonide detector in our camper, it’s very possible that we could have died that night. ALWAYS have one in your rig. We actually have two. We have this and this one!
EXTRA HEAT SOURCE
In case your power goes out, I recommend a Little Buddy Heater! These things shut off automatically if they fall over, and are safe to use indoors.
EXTRA WATER JUG
In case of something fails and freezes with your watertank/plumbing, always keep an extra water jug on hand!
EXTRA LAYERS
In case your heat sources are completely out, it is essential to have blankets and layers to be comfy in cold climates. We LOVE RUMPL blankets. We have a couple stashed around the camper and truck. We also recommend a cold weather sleeping bag. Don’t forget to have clothes that can layer and keep you cozy for a variety of climates. Wool layers are my favorite. Smart Wool is one brand I really recommend. Wool is great because its antimicrobial, very warm, and doesn’t tend to get as smelly as fast as synthetic matieral.
TRUCK ESSENTIALS
When it comes to winter, you want to make sure you have some safety tools when driving! We recomend a one-piece shovel. These things are supper tuff and we don’t go anywhere without it! In case you get stuck, it is always smart to have traction pads as well. Make sure to have appropriate tires for your specific truck. With how heavy our vehicle is, we go with a Load E range all-terrain tire that also is rated for snow. We also carry chains (it’s mandatory depending on the regions and states you’re in. They are also great to have in gnarly conditions. If you have a diesel truck, it’s important to consider keeping your block heater warm. I recommend having a gas generator going when it’s below 20 degrees. A car bra isn’t a bad idea either!
POWER
In order to keep your heat going (and other appliances) you want to make sure you have enough power to keep you comfortable. Currently we use this setup to run our heater. In the future, we plan to have solar on our roof to more easily keep our setup charged + an inverter so our power bank can charge while we drive!
