Okay not to winterize?

[orangecrush]

I live in Charlotte and even now before winter has arrived, we have had nights that drop into the high teens.

I keep my trailer under a 40 foot carport and keep it plugged in when not in use. I set my furnace for 40 degrees and turn on my tank heaters.

I don't winterize because we still use the trailer during the winter albeit only once a month in the winter.

As long as it's plugged in and being used, anyone see any issues with not winterizing it?

Thanks,

Mark

[wahoonc]

Originally Posted by orangecrush

I live in Charlotte and even now before winter has arrived, we have had nights that drop into the high teens.

I keep my trailer under a 40 foot carport and keep it plugged in when not in use. I set my furnace for 40 degrees and turn on my tank heaters.

I don't winterize because we still use the trailer during the winter albeit only once a month in the winter.

As long as it's plugged in and being used, anyone see any issues with not winterizing it?

Thanks,

Mark

At minimum I would blow the lines, takes about 10 minutes. Also depending on the type of tank heaters you may not want to run them if the tanks are empty.

I live over near Fort Bragg and we are having the similar weather. I run a small space heater set on low in my camper, don't bother with the furnace, it eats too much propane. My camper is a 16' the little electric heater on low will keep it 40° above ambient temps.

Aaron

[orangecrush]

Originally Posted by wahoonc

At minimum I would blow the lines, takes about 10 minutes. Also depending on the type of tank heaters you may not want to run them if the tanks are empty.

I live over near Fort Bragg and we are having the similar weather. I run a small space heater set on low in my camper, don't bother with the furnace, it eats too much propane. My camper is a 16' the little electric heater on low will keep it 40° above ambient temps.

Aaron

I should have been more clear myself… I have the thermostat set for 40 degrees but I use little electric heaters since the trailer is plugged in anyways.

I'll keep in mind about the tanks. I guess if they're empty, there's no real point on keeping them on. (especially after I read about them possibly melting)

Thanks!


Mark

[ATCguy]

Seems we're all from NC so far. I live over in Whiteville (about 40 miles west of Wilmington)... and yeah, we've had our share of cold nights below freezing too. I didn't winterize mine because I know that I'm going to be heading to AZ with it out in just a couple of weeks... but I did do a few things.

As Aaron stated, you at least need to blow out the water lines. If you've got an air compressor, you can buy a handy little attachment from Camping World for this... costs about $8. I also drained the hot water heater tank, and removed the camps from the low point drains. So at this point, there should only be a small volume of water in my grey tank... and a small bit of water in the P-traps of my 2 sinks (kitchen & bath). Well, the water in the grey tank isn't going to hurt anything (plenty of room to expand if it freezes)... and I poured a small bit of the pink antifreeze into each of the sink traps, while leaving the taps open. That's so if by chance the water in the traps does try to freeze... with the tap open, they'll be room for expansion without compressing the air & blowing the pipe.

With that done, I don't need to waste money by running the furnace or any electric ceramic heaters, as there's nothing else left to freeze & cause damage.

[orangecrush]

Originally Posted by ATCguy

With that done, I don't need to waste money by running the furnace or any electric ceramic heaters, as there's nothing else left to freeze & cause damage.

I actually keep the heat on (and ac in the summer) so to protect the interior. The glues they use, cheap paneling and such won't take the abuse of change of temperatures like in a house.

While my trailer sits at my shop, in the summer I turn the AC (set for mid 80's). I know it's costing electricity but at least the interior doesn't take the abuse of hot and cold temps.


Mark

[wahoonc]

Previous experience with campers, it takes very, very little water in the wrong place to freeze and break a cheap plastic fitting. While the fitting may be inexpensive, the resulting damage and clean up can get expensive. I always blow the lines, drain the water heater, leave the low drains open (leave the caps off on this one, going to switch to valves) and pour some RV antifreeze in the drain traps. Freezing water can do an amazing amount of damage in the right places. I have seen schedule 40 iron pipe freeze and split.

Our camper stays plugged in when at home, currently it is parked right behind the house. Next year we should be getting a new large barn built, then it can be parked inside completely out of the weather.

Aaron

[russ]

i have mine parked in a heated garage and i still blow out the lines.
as somebody else noted the lines split easy in cold weather and we see -25 on a regular basis. If the heat in the garage ever goes out i want to be assured it wont happed to me.