As we step closer and closer past Fall and into Winter, Dallas is sure to see its usual harsh weather patterns. While Texas typically averages only 1 inch of snow a year during winter, it’s still important to maintain upkeep on your favorite RV. If you’re looking to winterize your RV for the upcoming season, you’ve come to the right place. There are a lot of steps involved in the process, but Coach Specialists has got it all down.
To winterize your RV, there are most steps than just pulling out some de-frosting spray and a giant ice scraper. If you’ve made the decision to finish out your camping or traveling season, then parking your coach until next spring will require some work. Putting in the work now will save you some extra cash when you don’t need any repairs due to damage from wintry environments.
Steps to Winterize Your RV
Materials You Will Need:
If you’re worried about winterizing your RV by yourself, you can always have a professional take care of the handy work. They will be able to know and handle all of the necessary requirements. Before you can get started on the process to winterize your RV, you will need a few items in your arsenal. Coach Specialists has all of these items at each of their locations in order to winterize your RV:
- RV Antifreeze – Should be nontoxic. Usually, 2 to 5 gallons is enough to handle most RVs plumbing lines.
- Cleaning wands to handle all of your holding tanks
- If your RV does not already have one, you will need a water heater by-pass kit
- Wrenches, screwdrivers, and necessary tools to remove drain plugs
- A converter kit for your water pump
- Tubing for the inlet side of the water pump
We understand it can be difficult to find and know how to use all of these tools. This is why Coach Specialists makes its services to winterize your RV available. Once you have these tools available to you, you can begin to winterize your RV.
Winterization Process
The whole purpose of winterizing your RV is to prevent water systems from freezing and breaking. This would cause severe damage to your entire RV costing you thousands of dollars. Whether you take your RV to a professional team to have it winterized or you do it yourself, having an understanding of the make and model of your own RV will help things go much smoother.
How to Steps:
Step 1:
The first step is to remove any of the inline water filter systems you have and bypass. When you finish, you can begin draining your fresh water holding tank. If your RV has a built-in tank flushing system, your next task is to empty the gray and black holding tanks. If there is no built-in system, you will need to use the wands we mentioned earlier to clean out the tanks yourself.
Step 2:
Your next step is to empty out your water heater. This is an extremely important process in winterizing your RV. Use caution when you do this if you are doing it yourself. You should never drain your water heater if it is under pressure or still hot. You’ll want to start opening all of the faucets in your RV (both hot and cold) – don’t forget the toilet valve. Use your water pump to force the remaining water out before turning off the system after the draining is complete. Your by-pass kit is going to come in handy next.
Step 3:
As we mentioned, if you don’t have one of these, we at Coach Specialists can handle this for you. We will use a by-pass kit to by-pass the water heater, making sure it doesn’t not fill up with only antifreeze. A water pump converter kit is then installed; connect the clear tubing mentioned above to the inlet side while the opposite end is placed into a container of the RV antifreeze. Once this is completed, the system is pressurized. This is when you should open the hot and cold valves until you see the antifreeze. Once you see that in all faucets, turn the water pump off and open a faucet release any pressure that had built up. Be sure to close all the faucets and valves when you are finished with the entire process. As this is a time consuming and confusing process, make sure to do your research or contact a professional for help.
Using Coach Specialists to Winterize Your RV
This post mainly discusses the process to winterizing your RVs water tank systems. This is a vital process in proper/regular maintenance and will save you so much money in the future should this break. As we move further into Winter, we’ll discuss other areas of your RV you should begin to winterize in the coming months. If you have more questions about how to winterize your RV, reach out! We’d love to help you take on this project.