Earlier this month, we had to sadly close the trailer up. The trailer park where we have the camper closes for the season on the long weekend in October.  I’ve never winterized a trailer before, and the park staff will do it for a fee of about $60.00, but it seems to me that the major issue is to ensure most of the water is out of the lines.  After a discussion with an acquaintance, I decided that I would try to save the 60 bucks. Hopefully come spring, the trailer plumbing will be fine, there will be no mice nests, and everything will be ready for us to almost move back in and enjoy the camper next spring and summer.

I know that a lot of RV owners run anti-freeze through all of the water hoses in their RV’s, but I don’t really get that.  I know water freezes, and when it does, it expands and can damage plumbing. But, I don’t see how a small amount of water left in the lines will cause damage, and why anti-freeze is really required.  If there is no pressure on the lines, and the water is drained as much as it will drain, then there should be plenty of room for any expansion for any of the small amount of drops that might still be in the hoses.

So that’s what we did – we drained the water from the bottom where the water source is attached.  As well, we opened the hot water heater and let the water drain out of that. As a precaution, all of the faucets were left open too.

I did pour anti-freeze down the sink and bathroom drains as well as the toilet though. I also read that putting vegetable or peanut oil into the toilet is helpful and keeps everything lubricated.

As far as mice are concerned, we found a couple of holes where they might get in and sealed them up. Then, on the advice of another experienced RV owner, we spread bounce dryer sheets around the floor, especially in areas where mice still might find a way in. Apparently, bounce fabric softener dryer sheets repel mice. I’m not sure how they do that and don’t even really know that it’s a fact that mice will be repelled, but for the price of a small box of bounce sheets, I thought we may as well give it a try.

All the food was removed from the  trailer, and we brought back to our apartment all the linens and sleeping bags. No point in giving any mice that do enter an opportunity to chew on our sheets and sleeping bags to create a warm nest.

It took a little longer than we thought it would to get it all what we hope is ready for the winter.  Over the course of the winter, we’ll probably drive up and then walk in to inspect the trailer and make sure everything is fine.

We’re going to miss it! I’m sure there are going to be some cold days in February when we’ll have warm memories of all those evenings around the campfire. We’ll be missing it very much! But at the same time, we’ll be looking forward to more of the same come May 2011.

What do you do to winterize your RV?

One Response to “Closing Up The Trailer”