Biggest Camping Mistakes That STOP You From STAYING WARM!

so when winter camping self-sufficiency is the name of the game hey there this is Jen co-founder of escapod trailers I'm super excited to share this video with you guys today Drew gave us an incredible opportunity to be able to share some firsthand tips and tricks with the playing with sticks Community about winter camping in a teardrop trailer Jen will be covering what these overlooked newbie mistakes are you'll surely pick up a thing or two from her whether it be new gear you've never heard of before or a simp camping technique you wish you knew earlier but why Jen well selfishly because I wanted to see the too's winner performance in action but more importantly because Jen knows a thing or two about cold weather not only is she a world-renowned freestyle skier her and Chris are the only ones I know who geek out on this winter camping as much as I do while we'll peek at the too two's features today and how they make cold season camping even easier the heart of this video is tailored to you these tips are going to keep you and your trailer safe plus they'll ensure you no longer will need to settle for short camping seasons on that note we're going to finish getting packed up and we'll see you out there so when winter camping self-sufficiency is the name of the game most campgrounds are going to be closed so you really need to make sure you have your basic needs met food shelter water and a little bit of heat wouldn't be so bad most likely one of of the main objections you probably have to Winter camping is how the heck do you stay warm and I totally get it but we have a few tips for you this might be a long section uh we're going to start by first talking about layers the clothing that you bring is so important I am wearing leggings right now we have snow pants that we can put on as it gets colder Chris already has the snow pants on well thank you um my giant jacket I think one of the main things you want to think about is a a Long Jacket that covers your thighs keeping your thighs warm helps to keep you warm and then of course there's heat sources so there's a few different options here for this trip we're using the solo stove it's really great to keep the wood off of a wet ground to keep everything nice and dry so that it burns pretty easily solo stoves are great also because they help to minimize the amount of smoke that rises in the air um and with how much you're going to be uh spending time inside and in enclosed spaces when winter camping it's nice to not have things get too covered in that smoke smell um there's also great portable propane fire pits that you could use as an alternative if you want to completely stay away from smoke and in some areas where there's really strict fire regulations propane fire pits are the only way to [Music] go another important consideration especially when camping in a teardrop trailer where you don't have a lot of interior space to stand up in is figuring out how to expand your enclosed living space so we love things like this Rome Annex room that just attaches to the awning um we set up a Mr Buddy Heater in there in order to have some heat in that space as well uh but anywhere where you can stand up and be comfortable protected from the wind protected from the elements if it does start snowing is hugely helpful and since most teardrop trailers have outdoor cooking you also want to figure out if you can get some sort of cover over the hatch and the galley area area so we love the back road shelter from Kelty we have that set up here and it keeps everything nice and enclosed but the walls can roll back really easily if you do have a beautiful day and you want a little bit more um open space then you can pull those back and get that fresh air but it keeps everything nice and protected it is a great wind blocker for the stove while you're cooking um and really just helps to again expand that interior living space so this is just a look inside the annex room and the annex room is great as a shelter just by itself because it does protect you from the wind and elements but if you do want to make it warmer in here there's a couple different options uh we have the portable buddy by Mr Heater it's a simple propane heater um you know some things to think about and actually Drew has a great video where he goes into some different hacks for how to modify and retrofit these heaters to really make them work well at Camp um but you're going to want to make sure that you have ventilation uh inside of the tent if you are running this heater as an alternative you could use a diesel heater um the nice part about diesel heaters is that they sit outside of the tent they come with um Plumbing so they can be plumbed into the tent in order to blow in that warm air while the exhaust is staying outside of the tent now the caveat with the diesel heater is that you're going to need an additional power source in order to be able to run that heater and an additional fuel source cuz it's diesel not propane that said you are able to Route those up into a rooftop tent so if you had additional campers with you and you're utilizing your rooftop tent that's a really great option if you're not yet sold on the value of the annex room I just wanted to talk through a few use cases for our family that makes this so wonderful um one as you can see you can set up a table in here and eat a meal without getting blown over by the wind or rained on or snowed on so that's always great but addition Al it's especially when winter camping this serves as a pass through uh between the outside snowy environment and inside your cabin so there's an opportunity to dust off snow a place to easily take off shoes while you're getting into your cabin um and it's also a lot easier to change your clothes or put on additional layers when you have a place where you can stand up so we absolutely love the anx room um they're great year round but especially for winter camping and then as you can see they connect directly to your trailer so you can open this up when you're ready to get in and just make your way inside another major consideration when winter camping is going to be your power supply batteries lose their charge a lot faster in cold weather so you want to make sure that your batteries are well insulated uh especially if you have lithium batteries lithium batteries will go into lockout mode if they get too cold and then render your entire system useless now on the too 2 Voyager we have all of our mechanical systems the plumbing and the batteries and all of our utilities inside of an insulated heated compartment which we've named the utilities closet and so that helps to mitigate the issue the Tapo 2 Voyager also comes standard with a solar panel which is really nice especially during the winter months because it will help to recharge that battery if it is losing its charge a little bit faster than normal and along with power is going to be propane you want to think about fuel propane is most commonly used for um your heat as well as your stove um and if you are running heat in your trailer you're going to be running through that propane a lot faster so for winter camping we like to bring a backup tank with us um it's great again as a backup power supply for the heat inside of the cabin um but can also be used for one of those propane fire pits as well condensation is one of the pain points that you're going to hear about when camping in the winter in a teardrop trailer it occurs when it's cold outside and warm inside that temperature differential is going to create some moisture to form and it's exacerbated in the tiny space especially when you're sleeping at night and exhaling so it can be mitigated in a few different ways um condensation mostly forms on hard surfaces things like Windows or in a lot of teardrop trailers you're going to see a a wood panel finish one of the really nice things about the topo2 Voyager is that we have a soft touch headliner that's something that will mitigate the formation of condensation inside and there's a few things that you can do to mitigate these issues and as condensation might pop up in your Teardrop trailer you can get something called reflecti um it's a window cover an aluminum foil type uh insulated cover that you can put over your windows um our trailer we have window covers that come with to cover the Stargate and we have an add-on for the window covers for these beautiful Windows here um the other thing that you can do and it sounds counterintuitive but you can crack the vent um either on your fan or if you have a too2 voyager uh or Nomad you can crack the Stargazer window in order to let a little bit of air circulation going one other thing that really helps to mitigate condensation is the option of having heat inside of your cabin the too two voyage comes standard with heat and it creates a really dry environment inside of the trailer in combination with that soft touch headliner we've also strategically placed the vents to blow across the windows um windows again like I mentioned that's going to be one of the primary areas where uh condensation occurs and the warm dry air that blows across those not only adds an additional insulation layer but helps to keep the condensation down if you go back to those basic needs of food shelter and water we're going to spend a little time talking about water you need to have water when you're camping and the truth is most teardrop trailers aren't truly Four Season campers in that their water systems most often can't be used year round a lot of them will have water tanks that are mounted on the underside of the trailer and plumbing that is routed externally uh thus exposing it to uh the potential to freeze um for water pumps to get damaged for pipes to crack um one of the really cool things about the topo2 Voyager is that we've moved the entire water system again inside of a heated insulated trailer so we actually have water on board here round if you are using the water system on your topo2 Voyager you're still going to want to be mindful of a few things um one is to make sure that the heat is running as soon as you are set up at Camp um the other thing is if you're draining your water into a Jerry can on the side of the trailer like we are here you're going to want to make sure that you empty out that Jerry can every night before the water freezes inside of the tank um that way you get more use out of your 5 gallon Jerry can um in relative comparison to your 21g tank now if you don't have a teardrop trailer that has a usable water system what are you going to do and there's a few different options the primary thing that you can do is bring freshwater Jerry cans um full of water uh and you're going to want to keep those as warm as you can throughout the day to make sure that they don't freeze uh but most of the time when you're worried about freezing you're worried about freezing in those small spaces so pipes are going to be more vulnerable water pumps are going to be more vulnerable um and the big tanks aren't going to be as susceptible especially if they are larger volumes of water um so you'll be able to use those um and you can always um keep pots of water if you're concerned about the Jerry can freezing if you set aside some water in a pot you can put that pot on the stove in the morning um and uh start melting that down so that you have usable water all right let's talk about one of my favorite subjects food food again the first thing mentioned on our uh basic needs food shelter and water um we need to eat now cooking when camping can be really fun when it is warm out when it's cold out you don't want to spend a ton of time having to do a lot of food prep and cooking your meals when you're Outdoors so our main tip here is plan ahead and prep some of your food in advance of your trip this is honestly a great tip for camping yearr round but especially comes in handy uh for winter camping um one little hack that we've used fairly often and Chris has used on his mountaineering trip when he's going and camping on a glacier for weeks at a time is to precook some meals and then put them in vacuum seal bags then you can just heat up some water and drop the bag into the hot water and it will reheat the food and once everything warms up you just cut open the bag and you serve your meal in terms of time saving um the truma combi has three different heat settings and boost mode the water comes out at 140° what's so great about that is you can actually just directly fill a thermos straight from the faucet when that water is on boost mode and then drop your vacuum sealed meal into the thermos put the lid back on it and let it heat up over time then you don't need to be supervising a stove waiting for water to boil um you can just leave it in there and it's going to be ready when you are it's a really nice handy way to do things and it cuts down on the amount of dishes that you need to do and doing dishes when you were winter camping is really not fun especially if you don't have access to hot water so this is really great for minimizing any dirty pots and pans and just getting straight to the fun part the eating a few final thoughts as far as the nourishment game is concerned while winter camping one is to make sure that you have a nice insulated uh mug or thermus to keep hot beverages available uh and the other kind of ties into this is just to to try to have hot meals hot beverages warm food it's going to help keep you warm and the warmer that you stay the longer you're going to be able to stay out camping and enjoy your trip another detail that makes Winter camping a little bit more complicated than camping other times of year is finding a location uh campgrounds are most likely going to be closed and then you're going to have to worry about what the road surfaces are like are they icy are they snow covered are they even open so there's a few different tips that we have um to navigate this one you can still use um apps like eye Overlander or the dirt to help find a campsite and remote areas on BLM land or national forest uh but we definitely recommend that you Scout in advance of your trip be familiar with the road closures uh with the snow levels and be extra mindful of the weather for the time that you are planning to go camp you're also going to want to make sure that you bring traction devices with you in the worst case that you do get stuck when you're towing a trailer it's obviously adding weight to your vehicle and because the trailer does not have a motor on it and cannot Propel itself it's really dependent on your car's traction to get it out of places so things like go Treads what we love about go Treads is that they're really multi-purpose so they can be used for traction and they can also be used to level your trailer when you are at uh at camp and because you are a little bit more limited in terms of your options something like this is going to be really handy to have with you another great tip for winter camping especially if you are camping with kids is to download some videos some movies your favorite episode of playing with sticks to be able to watch when you're waiting out a storm and you're hunkered down inside Chris and I climbed into the top O2 Voyager the snow is starting to fall the wind is picking up um and we drop down our little laptop stand here and we're going to settle in for a little entertainment now there's a few more steps that you can take that really will make a big difference in your cold weather camping you're going to want to check out this electric blanket comparison video right here on the left side of the screen as well as our other video that we made detailing more cold weather camping tips and tricks and if you want to learn more about escapod Tapo 2 we've done a full detailed walk through with Jen previously on this channel and you can find it right here on the right and as usual stay safe out there and we'll see you in the the next episode