Do we have to winterize if we use our RV during the winter?

You winterize for that one time when it freezes enough/ long enough for pipes to freeze, so doesnt really matter one day or 90 days, but, BUT....

Some people never winterize and are fine when pipe freeze solid, yet some have pipes burst.
The PEX pipes do much better than any other pipe.
Plastic water tanks take a very long time to freeze and are able to expand some, I have seen people store a full fresh tank for years in freezing winters.

Up to you, there are risk no matter what advice you get...

I had been putting off doing my "Arizona" winterizing but we had a dusting of snow last night and a few flurries through the afternoon. With the forecast calling for sub freezing temps from 11 through 8 tomorrow morning I finally decided it was time to "Git er done."

Drove over to the nearby Giant gas station and their free dump sites and drained both tanks. I then drained all of the fresh water from the coach and drove around with the valves open until
the remaining water in the lines had cleared the coach. Added the RV antifreeze to the sinks, shower, and about a quart each in the black and gray tanks.

Parked our 24' Class C back in the driveway and hooked up a small AC heater, put it on low {1,300 watts} with the fan at the minimum setting. I opened the lower drawers and cabinets and for good measure turned on my tank heaters. This is probably overkill for a long night at 26 - 30 degrees but it could easily get a lot colder without warning.

I'll check the coach before going to bed and of course in the morning when I will turn off the heaters and expect this to work well. Film at eleven...

:C

There's no easy answer. Conditions vary by climate and by RV.

It was 27° when I hitched up at 6:30 this morning. It was chilly enough indoors that I didn't want to get up. Once I got moving though, I couldn't believe how cold, sluggish, and crunchy everything was in my pickup while all my tools and accessories were toasty warm and pliable in my storage bays. The ducting for our furnace is good, but not great, which means that the basement stays pretty warm.

Ditto for the cupboards. It was nice and warm when I opened the cupboards under the bathroom and kitchen sinks.

So for us, a few nights where the overnight temps dipped into the 20s with 45° daytime highs worked out just fine. I wouldn't chance it if it were much colder though.

I'm not aware of a spot in Southern UT that is not subject to hard freezes during the winter, regardless of what the "average" temperatures are.

Are you saying you'll be around to babysit the trailer daily depending on temperatures?
If you're OCD about watching the weather and around, then it may be fine.
At the temps you said, it IS fine, but you may not have thought it through.

JIMNLIN wrote:

forrman wrote:
We live in Southern Utah, where temperatures are starting to dip in the low 30s and high 20s at night. But during the daylight hours temperatures are in the high 40s to Lowe 50s. We still plan to go camping every 3-4 weeks from now through the Spring. Do we still need to winterize bnow and de-winterize right before our next trip?

There is no simple answer as we have no idea how well your rv is insulated. Nor do we know how cold it gets during the winter where you will be camping or where the unit is stored.
Winds with below freezing temps can cold soak a rv and freeze water/drain lines even with the furnace going. RV trailers don't all have the same floor/walls/roof R values.

There is a simple answer to this, we live in the PNW near Portland. Temps in winter can get into the high teens, when we would get back from a trip I would look at upcoming weather and if mild would just park it in the storage yard.
If the weather looked to turn cold, I would go and use compressed air and blow the lines and drain the W/H, put pink stuff in the drains. This process usually took about 30 minutes once at the yard.
I never put pink stuff in the water lines as DW could taste it for weeks, and most the parks we went to in winter were not full hookup making flushing difficult.
There were winters I did this six times, other winters might be once.

Also remember that most forecast temps are for 'the airport' or a central to everybody spot. Microclimates exist everywhere.

forrman wrote:
We live in Southern Utah, where temperatures are starting to dip in the low 30s and high 20s at night. But during the daylight hours temperatures are in the high 40s to Lowe 50s. We still plan to go camping every 3-4 weeks from now through the Spring. Do we still need to winterize bnow and de-winterize right before our next trip?

There is no simple answer as we have no idea how well your rv is insulated. Nor do we know how cold it gets during the winter where you will be camping or where the unit is stored.
Winds with below freezing temps can cold soak a rv and freeze water/drain lines even with the furnace going. RV trailers don't all have the same floor/walls/roof R values.

You will need to use an electric space heater to keep the temperature well above freezing. In addition there are some other areas of concern such as the HW tank. In most RVs the tank receives little heat. If the temps start dropping into the 20s or below you might want to turn on the HW heat in the evening at least to warm up the water in the tank.

I would also recommend you get a remote temperature sensor so you can track the temperature from inside the house. I thought I had everything working but snow pushed down on the power cord to the point where the space heater stopped working. Fortunately I had winterized the water system and only lost some food items.

RV antifreeze is pretty cheap. You might want to winterize, not have to worry about freeze damage and save the cost of electricity for the space heater.

If you are not going to have it heated, for 3 weekS
YES winterize
A sudden hard freeze could damage your rv , if not winterized

I’m in Georgia, and in the winter it may be in the teens for a few days, and then in the 70’s in a few days, so I winterize a multiple times per year. I’ve gotten it where I can winterize pretty quickly.