Tips for Winterizing Your RV
When winterizing an RV you need to make sure that all your water lines in and out of the rig are kept warm. We do this by doing two major steps. Skirting the rig, and winterizing the water line coming into the rig.
Skirting the RV – You can use a number of materials to skirt your rig. We used tarps because of cost, but plywood, or metal siding, would be the best thing to use, and if you can add a layer of 2 – 3 inch thick foam board, that will give you all the more protection from wind, and help keep the under belly of your rig nice and warm on those cold winter nights.
When you do your skirting, regardless of what materials you are using, you need to attach a 2×4 to the material at every section, where two pieces come together. Do this around the entire rig. Not everyone encloses the tung of the rig. However, some people do enclose the tongue, and it can be done in a way that makes a storage area. Just create a door on one side with hinges, and a padlock. Then you can put a freezer in it, or just have extra storage.
Next you need to winterize your water line running from the spicket into the rig. The way we did this was we bought a heat tape, and ran it the length of our hose from the intake on the rig, all the way to the spicket, and then down the spiket into the ground about 3 feet. We then put a grey foam tube insulation over the heat tape and the hose, then we wrapped electrical tape around all of that. Next we took insulation and wrapped it around the spicket coming out of the ground, and then place a bucket over that. This helps to keep the spicket nice and warm and help the heat tape work more effectively.
The next winterization step we take is to put plastic over the windows. This is very easy, you can get enough to do 5 house windows, plus the two sided tape, and alcohol wipes, for under $8.00 at Wal-Mart. All you do is cut the plastic to fit your window, put the tape around the window, put the plastic up over the tape, and then take a hair dryer, and take it back and forth over the plastic until all the wrinkles are out of the plastic.
If you have slides on your rig, here is an idea that we are using to cut down on any drafts. We took strips of memory foam, (any foam will do), and tucked it in around the slides. We also put foam, (sheets work too), around the base of the bedroom slide to help the draft that comes in there.
There you have it, a few good tips to help you get your rig winterized. Remember, you can use these ideas for park model homes too. The plastic on the windows is also good for ALL homes, conventional as well as RV’s.
Happy Rv’ing!
