Winter Storage Questions
Great first season in our 2008 Winnebago Destination/DP. Alas, winter will be coming to soon here to Maine. Due to other obligations, its time to put the toys of summer away now. Winterizing the...
Forum Discussion
Thanks for everyone's experienced replies. Since this is my first winter with a Coach, I'll be doing a version of winterizing too. I won't likely be doing it until after Thanksgiving, though, since here in NC we don't get really cold weather until after then...unless there's a freak cold snap. The pink stuff in my water lines will be the main thing I do. Washing the outside, topping off the gas tank and changing oil, as well as winter-time washer fluid will be on the list too.
In reading one response about cranking the engine once a month during storage....my experience with engines has led me to say, NO...DON'T DO IT! ...unless you can get out and drive around for 30 minutes or more. The reason is that a short run on a cold engine is much worse, IMHO, that not running at all. The cold oil makes for dry or almost dry starts and there will be condensation that builds in the oil pan as it sits in changing temperatures. Unless you get up to normal running temps to evaporate the moisture, just cranking the engine for a few minutes idling will only serve to circulate the moisture throughout the engine and eventually cause damage. Like someone else said, change the oil before you store so it's as fresh as possible and top off the fuel tank with fresh fuel along with a good additive such as Sea Foam to preserve and reduce condensation buildup there too.
And be careful with the recommendation for a solar panel. I found out the hard way on a large generator that solar panels without a regulator/trickle circuit will boil your battery dry and it will be worthless. You can buy solar panels all day long on Amazon or Ebay that tout being able to provide trickle charging directly to the battery, but make sure that if you're going that way, you get a separate regulator box. The one I bought advertised that it would keep a 12VDC battery charged. Well, after frying the battery I actually measured the output...on a sunny day, the solar panel was putting out 30VDC. You're better off turning off the disconnect switch or simply removing the cables prior to long term storage. Always remove the negative cable first and reconnect it last. Unless there's another maintenance reason, you shouldn't need to physically remove the battery from the compartment.
One other thing, if you can in the indoor storage, you will want to exercise your generator under load for 30 minutes or more at least once per month.
In reading one response about cranking the engine once a month during storage....my experience with engines has led me to say, NO...DON'T DO IT! ...unless you can get out and drive around for 30 minutes or more. The reason is that a short run on a cold engine is much worse, IMHO, that not running at all. The cold oil makes for dry or almost dry starts and there will be condensation that builds in the oil pan as it sits in changing temperatures. Unless you get up to normal running temps to evaporate the moisture, just cranking the engine for a few minutes idling will only serve to circulate the moisture throughout the engine and eventually cause damage. Like someone else said, change the oil before you store so it's as fresh as possible and top off the fuel tank with fresh fuel along with a good additive such as Sea Foam to preserve and reduce condensation buildup there too.
And be careful with the recommendation for a solar panel. I found out the hard way on a large generator that solar panels without a regulator/trickle circuit will boil your battery dry and it will be worthless. You can buy solar panels all day long on Amazon or Ebay that tout being able to provide trickle charging directly to the battery, but make sure that if you're going that way, you get a separate regulator box. The one I bought advertised that it would keep a 12VDC battery charged. Well, after frying the battery I actually measured the output...on a sunny day, the solar panel was putting out 30VDC. You're better off turning off the disconnect switch or simply removing the cables prior to long term storage. Always remove the negative cable first and reconnect it last. Unless there's another maintenance reason, you shouldn't need to physically remove the battery from the compartment.
One other thing, if you can in the indoor storage, you will want to exercise your generator under load for 30 minutes or more at least once per month.
