New Seasonal Camper - Dewinterizing Question

[valerry]

We have reserved our very first seasonal camping site and are very excited to try seasonal camping this summer. We live up in Montana and have access to the site from April until October. We were told that people start bringing in their campers in April. Obviously we do not want to dewinterize this early because we are not out of the clear for freezing weather until mid to late May. Are there any other seasonal campers that bring their campers in that early and then do you just dewinterize your rig at the campsite when it after the frost free date? Just curious what others do who have northern seasonal campsites.

[valerry]

I think you will love it up here! Glacier National Park is Stunning!! I am originally from Alberta so my husband and I are always having "Mountain Wars" of which ones are the best...the Rockies or the Appalachians!

[Merrykalia]

valerry, about 1 1/2 hrs away. In Norton, right in the middle of the beautiful, Appalachian (Apple at chun) Mountains. Lived here pretty much all my life. I've visited lots of places and only Alaska rivals it in beauty.

We plan to visit your way next year.

[valerry]

Thank you everyone! I am so glad I asked. I have been a lurker on this site for a while reading so many posts but this was my first post and you have been so helpful. Merrykalia, I see that you are from Virginia. My husband is from Bluefield. 🙂

[spadoctor]

I don't use antifreeze in the hot or cold water line and haven't for at least 25 years or more. I blow it out. If you do it that way you can use a 35.00 harbor freight compressor each time you leave. And no worry about any antifreeze left in the lines either. Just add a cup in each drain when you leave until no more freezing

[Merrykalia]

Yes, draining it into the dump station or the sewer there at your site is the thing to do. Leave it winterized until you feel that you are safe from the freeze, then turn the water on and run it through your system. You will be set.

On another note, we always turned our water off at the inlet when we leave to go back home. Better safe than sorry.

[valerry]

We will there mostly weekends and whenever I can get my husband to take some days off around our weekends. So we will want to leave it winterized up there until Mid to late May. So, draining the antifreeze into the dump station at our site is safe? I just don't want to move the camper to dewinterize and of course I want to get it up there as soon as we can. I don't mind leaving it winterized up there until it is safe if we don't have to move it to dewinterize it when the time comes.

[jfkmk]

Dewinterizing is quite easy and can be done anywhere. Make sure all the low point drains are closed and reinstall the drain plug on the water heater. You may want to sanitize the fresh water tank then simply run clean water through the system until the pink stuff is gone. If you're at a seasonal site, don't be tempted to leave the black tank valve open. Solids will build in s smelly rock hard pyramid that will be almost impossible to clean out.

[paulcardoza]

How much time will you be in the RV early on? We are in ours full time from 4/1 through mid November, here in New England. Once we turn on the heat, there are no issues with freeze-ups going forward. We fill the onboard tank to cover in the even the water hose freezes.

If you are going to just use it on weekends, you should probably wait till the threat of hard freezes pass. Otherwise, set the heat at some low temp like 55deg and "hope" it doesn't fail while you aren't there. Risky........

[valerry]

Thank you so much for your answer. We were also curious about getting all of the antifreeze out of lines. If we parked it up there in April...are we able to just clear the lines right at the campsite with the full hookups in May when we are ready? I hope this isn't a silly question.

[Merrykalia]

We aren't from Montana, but when we used to have our trailer on a permanent site at the lake, we had water, sewer and power available all year long. We paid for these services in addition to the lot. We would drain the water in late fall, but would still go to the lake and spend a few days there during the winter. We brought water with us and used that to flush with. We did not turn the water back on until it warmed up enough to not have a long, hard freeze. (If the black tank froze for a few hours, it was no big deal. It thaws quickly when it gets warm.)

We would normally turn the water on at the middle/end of April, but we would occasionally have some freezing temps after that, but as long as it didn't stay below freezing for more than 6-8 hours, and then warmed up to above 35, we didn't worry about it and never had a problem. Until we were sure that the freezing was over (usually about May 10), we would disconnect the water hose and drain it before we left, but that was all.

As long as your RV get sun during the day, it will warm it up inside to many degrees above the outside temps.

I hope that answers your question, at least from my point of view.