Winterizing your RV can seem like a daunting task, but it’s not that bad and if you live in an area that doesn’t hit freezing levels then it’s even more easy as you are not too concerned about freezing and broken pipes.
Here are the steps we follow to ensure we don’t end up with broken pipes. Remember we are in Washington State, so we do things according to the weather conditions in this area.
My process that has worked for us for 30 years:
1. Drain both gray and black water tanks.
2. Drain fresh water tank (keep open for at least an hour to let it drain the most it can).
3. Drain the water in the pipes, at the drain plugs. They should be outside under the trailer. ( This should be The lowest spot in the trailer.)
4. Open the drain on the hot water tank.
5. Open all faucets.
6. Turn off fridge and freezer. Defrost both if needed.
7. Prop both fridge doors open.
8. Put plugs back in the water drain ports, close hot water port.
Optional steps:
9. If in really cold climate (eastern Washington) I will close all faucets and rig up a small paint sprayer air pump to the inlet on the city water line to push air into the lines, and slowly open and close faucets to export all excess water in the lines. I’ve done this every year with my trailers in cle elum that stay year around. And this has never failed me, when I take the time to do it!
10. This last year I put a small electric space heater in my trailer at home (near Seattle) during the winter when it was the coldest, and it helped to keep snow from turning into ice on top of the trailer and seemed to help keep everything above freezing temps.
11. I open all doors and cabinets inside the trailer just to let the air in the main cabin keep thoes closed up areas a little warmer.
Not saying this is the way to do it but it works for us without having to use winterizer, I don’t like to put anything but fresh water into my fresh water tank. I will do a clean out of my fresh water tank next season with a bleach solution.
Batteries: Allways check battery fluid levels and top off with distilled water if low. If you have power plugged in some will keep everything hooked up and plugged in. I prefer to disconnect the batteries in the winter and put them in the garage on a float charger. Or I have left the batteries on the RV and connect a float charger. I don’t like relying on the converter to keep my batteries charged through the winter because it can over charge them and cause damage to the batteries.
Good luck!
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