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Original Member Title: Advice about fall camping with 2025 Micro Minnie 1720FB
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A new 2025 Micro Minnie 1720FB owner asked how to protect the trailer during a late September Yellowstone trip with possible overnight freezing temperatures, full hookups, and a preference for using a small electric heater instead of the propane furnace. Members generally said brief overnight freezes with daytime thawing are usually not a major risk to the trailer plumbing, but the city water hose is vulnerable, so several suggested filling the fresh tank during the day, disconnecting and...
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GSD1971

New Member
Joined
Aug 10, 2026
Posts
4
Location
Vancouver Island
Hello, we just became owners of a 2025 Micro Minnie 1720 FB and will be taking her to Yellowstone in late September. I know we are likely to have freezing temps overnight and just want to get some seasoned advice on what we need to do to protect the trailer. We will have electric, sewer, and water hookups. I am planning to buy a small electric ceramic heater and hoping we don't have to run the propane furnace. Any and all advice is most welcome!
 
Welcome to the forum!
If you are only there for a few days is different than for a month or so.
For a few days you might want to get a little bit larger electric heater to keep the inside warm. The propane furnaces uses a large amount of propane. So with that in mind make sure your tanks are full and you may even want to carry a third just in case.
They make a fresh water hose with heat tape of some sorts. You may want to think about that.
Hope some folks who have really camped in the cold will come on with more advice.
Good Luck and enjoy
 
One place that we find freezes much quicker is the wet bay as it often has just a thin metal door and gets little of the heat from inside. Keep in mind that heat tends to go up and away, not down to the wet bay! If not on hand, it may be worthwhile to shop some old lamps like from garage sales or thrift shops as they can make handy things to reuse to add heat in the wet bay or other places where you feel plumbing might freeze. I seem to have old clamp lights from work that are now too much trouble for guys to use, so I like them as they can be clamped in lots of the smaller spaces.
One way to make the electric heaters a little less nuisance if they are too loud? We have remote thermometer/controllers that let us keep the heater in front or around the sink plumbing but keep the control near the bed to monitor the temperature where we are but put the noise farther away!
 
Generally, there’s not much freeze danger as every day should see temps rise above freezing. The only overnight freeze worry is for your city water hose. Best practice is to connect the hose to fill your fresh water tank during the day then unhook it from the water spigot in the evening. Then just use your on board water pump and the water in your fresh tank.

The pipes and tanks under your RV would require constant below freezing temps for 36-48 hours at minimum- temps that never rise above ~28 degrees for there to be any freeze damage. Especially when running your RV’s furnace.

When we lived in Jackson, Wyoming we made it a yearly outing to spend the last weekend that Yellowstone was fully open every year in the park. (That was usually the second week of October.) Technically, the park never closes but services close up and snow covers all access except for snowmobiles in the dead of winter.
 
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Thank you for your reassurance everyone! Hoping to stay off propane, I was going to get a small electric heater. Does anyone have any experience with Xtreme heaters? They make an interior heater that has operates at 750 W on low and is made for RV use - would that stress the electrical in a Micro Minnie (I know they're a bit funkily wired)?
 
The general rule is that you’ll want to use the propane furnace for better freeze protection for the RV. You don’t get the same results from a space heater.
 
Many compact electric heaters have different settings that use different wattages. a 1500watt heater is designed for typical 15 amp, circuits, which is what your trailer has. Just be aware that unlike a home, it's likely all or many of the outlets in your trailer are on a single shared circuit (except the microwave which is in it's own circuit as is air conditioners). Running a heater on high and using a hair dryer might trip a breaker. You can get an idea of how many separate circuits you have by checking the breaker panel. No need to spend extra on a heater specifically designed for RVs or marine use. Just look at the box, to see if it has low medium and high wattages and has the features that work for you - remote, thermostat control, etc. We've used a compact DREO model 316 brand heater that doesn't take up much space, is quiet, has a thermostat and three heat levels - 1000, 1300, and 1500watts. We originally used it as a bathroom heater in our Class A, but now use it in our 2018TB.

One thing to note is most modern RVs use a branch off the propane furnace to run heat into the wet bay. It's the case with our 2108TB, especially if it's advertised as being all season or in the case of our 2108TB having the Comfort package. As is mentioned above, it takes quite low extended temperatures to freeze plumbing. In these trailers the lines commonly run though the interior of the of the trailer so are a little less prone to freezing. In the case of our trailer, domestic water enters through the wall in the same cabinet as the hot water heater runs along the base of the inside bathroom wall, under the shower and into the kitchen. The holding tanks are in the belly, but one trick is to be sure to try to keep your fresh water tank full as it behaves like a thermal mass, that takes extended time in low temps to get cold. In shoulder weather, we fill the tank, use city water when daytime temps are mild, and disconnect and drain the hose at night. Some use heated RV hoses. Where running the furnace or somehow providing supplemental heat to a wet bay is required is when temps never go above freezing even during the day - flat out winter camping. The lowest temps we've camped in was 7F at night, and 14F during the day. It wasn't our choice to camp in such temps, a winter cold front caught us on the road one week. Fortunately it was in a Class A with easy access to the wet bay where I ran a small electric heater, not so easy in these trailers.

Another cold weather trick is to open the cabinet doors under the bathroom and kitchen sinks. Doesn't need to be wide open, just propped open an inch with something like a folded towel.

A quick search showed me that your trailer has heated tanks. If you are still concerned with overnight temps, you can always switch on the tank heaters. Just make sure your tanks have some water in them. For us, we've never used our tank heaters so far when camping in the shoulder season when daytime temps are mild, and nighttime temps hover around freezing. Hope some of this helps. Sounds like you have a great trip planned.
 
We have been in a snowstorm in Yellowstone in mid-September, so checking weather and road conditions (online "WY511") just before you get there is a very good idea. Our first September trip to YNP was 1973 and we have made many fall trips there since. Our favorite time to be there!

We use a 1500w max, oscillating electric heater in our RV in shoulder seasons and when snowbirding. But, if nighttime temps are predicted below 40 degrees, we always turn on the tank heaters (we have a heat duct into the wet bay). And we seldom use city water hookups in shoulder seasons unless we are south of I-10. We just put as much fresh water in the tank as we need to take care of however many days we will be stationary. Then we disconnect the hose, drain it thoroughly, and pack it away until our next stop. And we don't hook up the sewer hose until we are ready to dump, even in FHU sites.

Have a great trip. The aspen may changing, which is always a treat.
 
Generally, there’s not much freeze danger as every day should see temps rise above freezing. The only overnight freeze worry is for your city water hose. Best practice is to connect the hose to fill your fresh water tank during the day then unhook it from the water spigot in the evening. Then just use your on board water pump and the water in your fresh tank.

The pipes and tanks under your RV would require constant below freezing temps for 36-48 hours at minimum- temps that never rise above ~28 degrees for there to be any freeze damage. Especially when running your RV’s furnace.

When we lived in Jackson, Wyoming we made it a yearly outing to spend the last weekend that Yellowstone was fully open every year in the park. (That was usually the second week of October.) Technically, the park never closes but services close up and snow covers all access except for snowmobiles in the dead of winter.
Have you ever had an issue with your hot water heater working properly at that altitude (7800’)? Our Winnebago Thrive has a tankless water heater and the booklet from Suburban says there could be issues at higher altitudes. We called Suburban and they said the heater is only tested to 4500’ and some people have reported issues with the propane working properly above that.

We will be at Fishing Bridge CG in late September
 
We have a tankless WH (Truma), live at 5,700' in CO, and have camped at 10,600' in the Rockies with no WH propane issues. Same for the two previous trailers we bought new in Chicago that had 6-gallon propane-electric WHs. Our Class C we bought as a 1-yo, used RV in AL and it has never been adjusted for altitude since we bought it.

So, I doubt the OP will have WH issues since his RV is brand-new. I think the manufacturers use language like that because they don't want to haul their RVs from IN to CO to test them, so their lawyers insist on that wording. My experience has been that it is mostly old RVs with a lot of miles that seem to have peopane issues and those may be related to lack of WH, furnace, oven, etc., maintenance.
 
I camped.in my 2024 1821fb micro minnie last.fall.and the.temps.were.in the mid 20s at.night. my propane furnace.kept.up just.like.it.should. i.would.be very leary of putting extra.heat lamps.in any enclosed.spaces, that's asking for a fire in my opinion
A.thord propane tank.sounds.like.goo insurance. The.furnace.should.help.keep the pupes.from freezing, of.course.you can open a few.cabinets to help .
The only issue I had in.cold weather camping.was.i got.a.small.puddle.of condensation on the.floor.just.outside.the bathroom. Probably cracking a.window.or.vent.wouldve helped or just a rug over that spot.have a great trip maybe I'll make it next year
 

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