Many sites discuss what RVers do in winter to deal with cold temperatures and survive winter. But most of us, don’t just want to survive the winter. This got me thinking about what else we are doing while we survive the winter in our RV. That got me thinking about what our RV park neighbours are doing while living in their RVs through the winter.

Full-time RVers do the same things that other people do in winter. Some go somewhere warm, stay in one place, work to earn a living, spend more time indoors, take part in winter sports, entertain friends, and help each other out.

Keep reading if you are interested in more details.

What Do Full-Time RVers Do in Winter?

Living in an RV park through the winter, we met a lot of people who live in their RVs for a lot of different reasons. We also have our reasons, and we do, plan to do, and know people who do, a lot of different things while living in their RVs through the winter:

• Go somewhere warm like migratory birds.
• Stay in one place because it is more difficult to move.
• Work to earn a living, staying close to where they work.
• Spend more time indoors, because it is cold outside.
• Take part in winter sports, which makes cold weather fun.
• Entertain friends inside or bundled up outside.
• Help each other out when they could use a helping hand.

Some Full-Time RVers Go Somewhere Warm for the Winter

Many RVers go south for the winter. Where we are from, people who do this are called snowbirds. Like migratory birds, they go south when the weather gets cold and come back north when it warms up.

That’s what we plan to do starting next winter. Starting next fall, we plan to spend the winter travelling to warmer places in the US.

We didn’t do it this year to be close to Judy’s work. But next year, she will stop working. This brings us to the next option.

Some Full-Time RVers Stay in One Place for the Winter

Others hunker down and stay in one place. Travelling in sub-zero temperatures is hard on any vehicle, including an RV.

Not a lot of RV parks are prepared for winter inhabitants so it’s not as easy to pick up and go to another park as it is during other seasons.

Skirting, heated water hoses, and heated sewer lines are more difficult to move and set up in a new place.

Finding RV parks with heated water lines to accommodate winter RVers is also difficult.

Staying in one place makes it easier to prepare your unit to be comfortable in winter.

Many wait to travel until the weather gets warmer.

That’s why many RVers stay in one place when the weather gets cold.

Some Full-time RVers Work in Winter

We spent our first winter as full-time RVers staying in an RV park close to Judy’s work. Many of our RV park neighbours also work.

When there is a demand for workers where there is not enough housing, you hear of people who choose to live in RVs to live where there is work.

Some Full-Time RVers Spend More Time Indoors in Winter

We moved into the RV park in spring. Not surprisingly, during the spring, summer and fall we saw a lot of people enjoying their time in the RV park.

People enjoyed walking their dogs, visiting with friends or going biking. People cooked outside, enjoyed campfires and just being outside. The kids enjoyed playing in the playground or meeting their friends in the rec center.

Also not surprisingly, when the weather turned cold, we saw fewer and fewer people out and about. We, and they, tended to stay inside more, just like they would if they were living in a house.

Some Full-Time RVers Take Part in Winter Sports

While some RVers stay inside in winter, others like to enjoy the outdoors by participating in winter sports.

Many ski lodges have winter RV parks close to them. When we were younger, we stayed in our truck camper in the winter RV park near where we were skiing.

Snowmobiler websites make recommendations for toy hauler RVs. Toy haulers allow people to stay in their RV close to where they want to go snowmobiling.

We’ve had friends who enjoyed hunting, who used their RVs as their Basecamp for their hunting trips. Some of them parked the units and left them to use in future hunting seasons.

The RV park that we are living in is also close enough to a city that there would be opportunities for hockey or curling as winter activities for RVers.

One of our RV park neighbours spends his weekends with his kids ice fishing. I have also heard of others who use their RVs to take them close to their favourite lakes for ice fishing.

As you can see, full-time RV years also take part in winter sports.

Even in Winter, Full-Time RVers Entertain Friends

When you stay in an RV park for a long time as we have done, you develop a sense of community with the other longtime residents.

In the first few months we lived in the RV park, we were invited to other people’s places more than we had been in the previous five years of living in a house.

People in our RV park are very different from each other, but we all have one thing in common. We live in an RV and that makes us different from most of the other people around us. We all have that common ground and from it comes a sense of community.

Neighbours become friends. Friends invite friends to share good times together. We barbecue, enjoy campfires, play games, or enjoy watching sports together.

This doesn’t stop when winter comes. Sometimes we entertain friends inside. Other times we build the fire higher outside, and everyone dresses warmer.

Full-Time RVers Help Each Other Out in Winter

That sense of community shows when things go wrong.

We help our neighbours when the challenges of living in an RV in winter become apparent. Someone helps when someone’s waterline freezes, their furnace stops working or something else goes wrong. Also, they help when preparations need to be made before cold weather comes.

The ways that full-time RVers help out include RV park neighbours who:

• Helped build frames for skirting around RVs.
• Helped cover RVs with bubble wrap for better insulation.
• Built ramps to allow handicapped RVers to get in and out of their units.
• Made DIY heated water hoses for first-time winter RVers.
• Helped fix malfunctioning furnaces.
• Helped thaw frozen pipes.

During our first winter living in our RV, different RV park neighbours helped us with each of these. We also saw neighbours helping others solve each of them.

More than one social get-together was cancelled when some or all of the participants were off helping a neighbour overcome a problem