Join me as I go on a winter campervan adventure taking my VW T6 to the Alps. My trusty blue merle collie “Blue” and I depart from Dover on the P&O Ferry “Pioneer”. This is a gentle video in which I share some of the scenery, adventure and challenges of driving to the Alps along with sleeping in a pop top campervan when it’s -6 degrees C outside.
We left Dover and took the ferry to Calais. From there we stopped at Fountainbleau before meeting up with friends (a surprise). Then we drove in convoy to La Tania, a lovely ski resort at 1400 meters altitude near Courchevel. My friends stayed in a chalet whereas I stayed with Blue in my 2018 VW T6. We had a lot of snow and a lot of fun and I loved being in the cold of winter in my campervan. Having a proper diesel heater really helped and I share in some of the features and challenges. Clearing snow off the solar panels, refilling the fresh water tank at -3 degrees C.
Winter Campervan Lesson’s Learnt
There’s a saying which goes something like… the adventure begins when the challenges start. You can take that in life too, in that when things are tough or you’re being challenged then that’s when you grow: “Life is school for your soul” and all that. Here’s a few things that I learnt.
Insulation & Heating
The pop top is where you’re going to lose the most heat. I used an inflatable sleeping mat, the kind you use in a tent to insulate one side. I used an assortment of cushions to insulate the other side. For the front I pulled 1/2 the duvet of the top bed down and held it in place with two tins of beans. It was rather “Heath Robinson” but that’s the spirit of adventure. Sure I could have brought a pop top liner but I didn’t want to. If you’re thinking of hiring my van for winter then rest assured I’ll provide a liner 😉 but personally I like to improvise. It’s a good attitude to have in life!
This picture shows some of my improvised makeshift winter campervan insulation:
Snow is Awesome, It’s also heavy!
With over four inches of snow in one night the roof got heavy and I placed the entrenching tool between the upper bed and the top lip of the van to wedge it in place and help support the extra weight of the snow (as shown above). You’ll see in the video above that I also cleared the roof and panels of snow at one time.
My front windscreen had a cover over it which covered my windscreen wipers (see image above). But if your wipers are exposed then it’s a good idea to pull them out away from the vehicle for two reasons. If you get a lot of snow it can actually bend them and also it stops them freezing to the windscreen (and then ripping when you try and use them!).
External Pipes Will Freeze
Despite it dropping well below freezing I didn’t have any problems with the pump or water system, partly because Jess has an internal water tank. The one problem I did have was the drain pipe for the water which runs under the vehicle froze, making it impossible to drain the sink.
Once I was back in the UK I inspected the pipe and found that it actually has a low point forming a water trap beneath the vehicle, which is why it froze up. I will look into re-routing that pipe to eliminate the trap (might do a video on that). But what’s the take home lesson? A campervan is a set of systems: heating, fuel, water, drainage, solar etc. You should ask yourself “what if this system fails?” do you have a plan B? I might do a blog on this one day, but in the case of the frozen pipe, it meant I couldn’t use the sink for a few days, so plan B was to use a bowl instead. Simple.
There’s lots more I could share about the winter campervan adventure, so feel free to ask questions and I’ll do my best to answer them below.
