Ever been snowed on ?

[Papaso]

My DD's have never seen snow and it's one of thier Christmas wishes. I'm sorta mulling over the thought to shoot up to North Carolina or Tennessee with the camper. Has anyone been snowed on with the PU popped up, maybe one of those overnight blanketing snow falls. I can just imagine the damage that it can cause. If it was up to me I'd never have to see snow again, I shoveled quite a bit of the stuff as a kid for fun and money and as an adult because I had no choice. My blood has thinned out over the years down here and I really believe that once they feel real cold not high 40's they'll be headed indoors to look at the snow from a nice heated room. I'll probably head up without the camper and stay at Hotel and make it a long weekend trip. Who knows just wondering.

[chasd60]

Liight fluffy snow won't hurt the camper at all. It is the heavy wet snow that will do the damage, I know from experience. I had my camper set up for winterizing and cleaning Nov. 3 of 2002. I had a family emergency out of state that took me away for a week. While I was gone we got heavy wet snow which bent the tenting shepherd pole on the larger bed end and caused the tenting to lay flat which in turn allowed the mattress to get rather wet. Luckily the pole bent in a nice rounded way and was easy to hand bend back into the original shape ( I actually added a slightly upward bend to it).
 
Tend to disagree with you about them heading back in when it gets cold. With a sled or something to slide on and a good deal of snow, kids will play until their hands get numb and their noses are about to fall off before they come in. We have had 2 weekends in a row with over a foot of snow each weekend and my 10yo DD is always outside playing in it. Of course we tend to have all of the right clothes for the weather.
 
My younger borther lives in Arlinton,TX and he shivers like crazy when he comes up and it is in the 40's let alone in the single digits.
 
 

My DD's have never seen snow and it's one of thier Christmas wishes. I'm sorta mulling over the thought to shoot up to North Carolina or Tennessee with the camper. Has anyone been snowed on with the PU popped up, maybe one of those overnight blanketing snow falls. I can just imagine the damage that it can cause. If it was up to me I'd never have to see snow again, I shoveled quite a bit of the stuff as a kid for fun and money and as an adult because I had no choice. My blood has thinned out over the years down here and I really believe that once they feel real cold not high 40's they'll be headed indoors to look at the snow from a nice heated room. I'll probably head up without the camper and stay at Hotel and make it a long weekend trip. Who knows just wondering.

[wiininkwe]

We've camped in snow several times, and as Chas says, just watch out for that wet heavy stuff.  (you can go out and knock it off the canvas so that it doesn't build up)  Also, remember that if it's snowing outside, it's cold (duh, I know you knew that) and your camper cannot stay as warm as a motel room.   If you're out playing in the snow and get wet or overly cold, be sure and have your heater on to take the chill off the air, and have plenty of warm dry clothing to change into.  Once you get cold, it's not pleasant to stay cold.   Keep hot liquids handy.   Also, the vinyl windows of your camper could become brittle, so try to make sure that when you pop down, your camper is still a little warm so that they won't crack as they fold.   Have lots of fun, winter camping is a great adventure.
T

[brainpause]

We got snowed on in March while in Townsend at Little River Village. If I were you, I'd take the PU a little farther north: We get the wet heavy stuff here.

The morning after the night it snowed, we awoke at 600 am to screaming children. We were quite irritated, and even shushed them through the canvas. However, we laugh now, because, as it turns out, it was a family from Florida whose kids had never seen snow. So they were excited.

Larry

[Opie431]

We had about four inches of  heavy snow last year and had no problems.  Our AAR is staked down when may have helped.  We have a furnace which kept us warm enough down to the high teens.
Wondering if ceramic heaters would work we tried one we had and found that one was not enough for our 12 foot PU when the temperature gets down that low, we needed two, one at each end.
We like to sleep in a cool room with windows open at home so we turned the furnace down at night and our electric blanket up. We put a heater next to our bed and when we woke up my husband turned the heat on it up for 15 minutes and then we got up and turned the furnace up.

[tlhdoc]

We had one trip in March where we were snowed on 2 nights.  Both nights it was a wet snow, but it only snowed about an inch and it melted off during the day.  We were dry camping and didn't have a furnace, so we kept busy to keep warm.

[topcat7736]

Papaso,

I wouldn't chance the popup in the snow. You can't predict how much might fall during the night and you could have a terrible mess on your hands in the morning.

As an alternative to driving all the way to a snowy area from Miami, why not drive to the outskirts and take a nice warm train ride to/from the snowbound area. Trains typically have a layover period for the return trip which would allow the kids to get wet, cold and happy by playing in the snow. Plus, on your part, there's no dangerous driving to do.

[Papaso]

Thanks for all the replies, even though the adventurer in me is intrigued at the thought of winter camping. The chicken in me is telling me to keep warm and forget all that nonsense; or is it just old age ? Amazing how plans change when your just wondering what to do. Now we are thinking about heading up to Jersey and spend New Years with the extended family in Elizabeth. We'll make a decision on Monday. Hopefully they'll be some snow somewhere in the area or within 2.5 or 3 hrs. drive. We'll probably fly up and rent a car, although I like Topcat's suggestion on taking a train, I'll do a little research on it today. But more than likely we'll fly. We're headed camping the week after, January 9th to Fort Wilderness to do the Disney Marathon. So we need to get back by Sunday the 4th. The way things look right now our camper is gonna stay nice and warm in sunny Florida and I'm headed into the cold, cold winter so our DD's can see snow and freeze their little butts off, ahh the things one does for our children, Brrrrrrrr.