Winterizing in Texas while still using RV regularily

[brrit]

We use our Class C motorhome at least twice a month and store it on a piece of land an hour from our house, but wonder how best to approach winterizing it. This week we have some temps with lows in the upper twenties and highs in low forties. Wondering how best to protect the water lines.

I do have electricity available so I could run a ceramic heater to keep temps above freezing, but I worry a tad about leaving a heater running.

I could winterize the motorhome, but that seems like a real pain every time I leave the motorhome for a week or two.

So, what do you guys do and/or recommend in this situation in the winter months?

[WILDEBILL308]

Britt, I am in the same situation. I don't winterize. If it looks like it may get below freezing I have 2 electric heaters in the coach and a small cube I put in the wet bay. If it is going to be really cold I leave the hot water heater on and the refrigerator. On my coach there is a heat wire that runs along the water line and solenoid for the ice maker. I found this out last February when it got down in the low teens. We got back in between storms and I made the mistake of shutting the refrigerator off. Later found the ice maker valve had cracked.
Bill

[PawPaw_n_Gram]

brrit wrote:
I could winterize the motorhome, but that seems like a real pain every time I leave the motorhome for a week or two.

I once winterized my TT seven times over one winter in the Dallas area. Because we had seven below freezing spells, each with good enough weather to take the rig out for a weekend or week between.

We are full-time now, and sitting at a COE park on Lake Lavon. My winterizing strategy starts tomorrow - I'm pulling out of the DFW area headed for south of I-10.

brrit wrote:
We use our Class C motorhome at least twice a month and store it on a piece of land an hour from our house, but wonder how best to approach winterizing it. This week we have some temps with lows in the upper twenties and highs in low forties. Wondering how best to protect the water lines.

If you have electricity, leaving the furnace running with the thermostat set about 50 is a good option. The most important part of the RV to heat is the underbelly where the water lines run, where the tanks are located, then the main body.

DFW area temps down into the upper 20s are not going to freeze water lines in an RV hard enough to burst pipes. However, the ball valves for the water heater bypass are very susceptible to damage. In my experience those are the most fragile part of an RV water system.

However, you should check with the owner of the storage location. Some storage locations out in the country near the DFW area will be 8 to 10 degrees lower in temps than the official temps at DFW airport.

A minimum of blowing out the lines and adding RV antifreeze to the P-traps would be best.

We've camped in this current TT in temps down into the mid-teens, for several days below freezing in a row. Not had a problem since we had electricity. My current rig has tank heating pads, and we leave the kitchen sink and bathroom sink cabinet doors open on really cold nights.

[pawpaw47]

BobR wrote:
For piece of mind, I would blow out the lines, empty tanks, drain W/H and add antifreeze to p traps. Takes me 20 minutes.

X2

[TomHaycraft]

This will be my 4th winter to simply blow the lines and add some RV antifreeze to the p-traps. We use the trailer year round, have found it quick, economical and safe.

[BobR]

For piece of mind, I would blow out the lines, empty tanks, drain W/H and add antifreeze to p traps. Takes me 20 minutes.

[Weldon]

We have our 5er in the country where the temp does get low. When concerned I drain the water from the lines and the hot water heater. I don't drain the fresh water tank.

[rhagfo]

We can winterize several times a year here in PNW, that is one of the reasons we blow the lines rather than use antifreeze. It takes about 20 minutes, best to have a portable air compressor, but very easy and quick.