Have any of you ever taken your MH out of winter storage and used it to go south for a few weeks? If so did you de-winterize it before or during the trip? If so how did you re-winterize it before you returned home to the snow?

MagillaGorilla wrote:Have any of you ever taken your MH out of winter storage and used it to go south for a few weeks? If so did you de-winterize it before or during the trip? If so how did you re-winterize it before you returned home to the snow?You posed in Class A's and we have a Class C. But, in our case, the answer is sort'a "Yes". Yes as we re-winterized it when we got back. And yes as we de-winterized it before leaving. We got back late and it wasn't hitting bitter cold, so I left the furnace on that night and ran the tank warmers.But then in the morning, I re-winterized everything in front of the house. Since I'm new to this, it took me about an hour.

We depart January 1st from about 40 miles north of Philadelphia and drive about 500 miles the 1st day. This is usually far enough south to get out of the freeze zone for the 1st night of staying in the motorhome. It's easy to de-winterize....just hookup water and run through the lines till all sign of pink antifreeze are gone.Another option would be to stay the first night at a motel/hotel and then on the 2nd night you should again be out of the freeze zone.When returning home winterize the motorhome in the South Carolina area. After winterizing use rest stop bathrooms and stop overnight at hotel/motel.

We took ours out of storage right after New Year's in NW New Mexico during a very cold (-20 at our Durango, CO airport) spell. We took a few gallons of water, enough to flush and make coffee, brush teeth, etc., and did not commission our water systems until we were in San Diego. Spent a night in the place where we stored it (an RV park with hook-ups) and one on the road in Arizona where night time temps were still well below freezing. In the morning, a big ice cylinder fell off the living room slide when we closed it! That, from opening the slides the night before. Used paper plates, but rinsed out real coffee mugs and had a meal that we had prepared at home for both nights. We left our coach north of Tucson for a few weeks on the return and re-winterized there, because they, too, had a week or so of 20 degree temps at night.

We blow out the lines so when we leave we go south and then put water in it, if it's cold we turn on the furnace and the tank heaters. We like to stay south till it's warm enough but if we need to come home in the cold we just blow out the lines when we get home.

On the few occasions we've winterized the coach while staying at our Adirondack cottage through the Christmas/New Years holidays (most of the time we stay in the coach), we de-winterize a day or two before we head south, fill the water tank, and just keep the heat on until we reach warmer weather for our own comfort. We've never had a serious problem with frozen water lines even at sub-zero temps. If there's still a few below freezing nights when we come back for spring clean-up, it doesn't matter since we'll have the heat on anyway, but I could blow the lines out if needed.

Question for people that live in the land of snow

dverstra
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
We leave Michigan and drive a Long Day to get as far south as I can. I then de-winterize at a Full hookup site that has running water. On the way back, if it is really cold where we are headed, I winterize at a campground the night before heading home.
FULLTIMEWANABE
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
Bill/Diana wrote:
All this talk about winterizing has caused it to snow here. I'm about 40 miles north of Philadelphia and we just had a few snow flakes blowing around. STOP IT !!!

Yesterday was shorts weather here in Alberta today it's long pants, socks and even had to put the heating back on. Brrrr.
Bill_Diana
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
All this talk about winterizing has caused it to snow here. I'm about 40 miles north of Philadelphia and we just had a few snow flakes blowing around. STOP IT !!!
Two_Jayhawks
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
We have done what you described almost every year. We have never felt the need to winterize before coming home. We will stop at a dump station near the home and winterize when we arrive at home.
MagillaGorilla
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
A gross question but is has to be asked............

What do you do with "solid" waste if your RV is already winterized? I am guessing that if I flushed it with the pink antifreeze that it would not be the end of the world even if it sat there for the winter.
Goldencrazy
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
Yes. Leave it winterized and use windshield fluid to flush. Use bottled water for drinking. Use disposal eating utensils as much as possible. A little water mixed with the pink stuff in grey tank is ok. Sometimes it is two days until we can unwinterize. When camping in really cold we leave slides in as much as possible. Makes a huge difference and of course a lot easier then in truck stop or rest area. Run generator fairly steady and supplement heat with space heaters as tanks are winterized anyway so no need to worry about getting heat to them. Couple of bottle of windshield washer and bottled water and it works well. Winterize as others do as soon as home but do drain tanks when temps start getting below freezing. Leave valves open and then just add pink stuff when home. I winterized on April 1. !0 bucks of pink stuff is cheap insurance.
MagillaGorilla
Explorer
Apr 23, 2015
I use to pay to have my RV winterized. I did this until it was done wrong and I had to replace a line in my MH. Since then I have always done it myself.

So my original question is not about how to winterize as much as the process people go through when leaving cold weather and then returning in cold weather.

We are considering leaving Mass in December and then returning in January. I cant really de-winterize it at my house in December because by then I have no access to a hose on the outside of the house. So I figured I would flush the system at a truckstop somewhere in the Virginia area. That part seems straight forward to me. Its the trip home that concerns me. I guess I would have to do it in Florida and then live without water all the way home.
ferndaleflyer
Explorer III
Apr 23, 2015
When I lived up North I used the DP for skiing all the time and no matter how cold nothing ever froze----but I would add a ceramic heater near the water pump and an extra one in the heated basement. It was also always hooked to shore power or had the generator running. Here in NC outside of a few cold nights I don't turn on the heat all winter---at least thats what the locals call it--WINTER.
WyoTraveler
Explorer
Apr 22, 2015
If the temp is below 10 F I am winterized. I just blow out the lines. Takes me about 20 minutes because I have a W/D. If the temp goes above 10 F I dewinterize by taking on water.
FULLTIMEWANABE
Explorer
Apr 22, 2015
Been doing it most years since late 1990's leaving freezer box Alberta for Nevada and Arizona for easter breaks of about 3 weeks. Earlier easter is more concerned we are about coming back dewinterized but never ever had a problem. Whilst heading south we leave it winterized (we do it ourselves for less than $15 every year versus being charged $150+ for dealership to do it wrong!). The Antifreeze in the grey and black keep things good there, and we carry water on board in containers for quick strip washes and bathroom use enroute. When we hit around St George Utah area by second night usually, we typically fill up the tanks and flush the lines out.

If we were in depth of winter returning, we for sure would rewinterize before hitting cold temps. It's easy the more you do it with practice and only takes us about 10 to 15 mins to pump all around including washer and outside shower as well as inside faucets, shower and toilet.

FWIW: We kick ourselves when as newbies we paid an arm and a leg to a dealership to do it and every year we started up we had leaks. Not once since doing it ourselves have we had any split pipes or over tightened plastic nuts. You don't know what you don't know eh?