First time driving rv in the winter months, I have ?

[veraletta]

First time driving rv in the winter months, and I have question about winterizing...
We are diving from Ohio to Florida on December 13th.
We are new to RVing and don't know much...about winterizing or de-winterizing.... Just know that it has to be done... We are going to let the Winnebago do the winterize in the fall...

1. I was wondering do you wait until you get to the Fort Wilderness to de-winterizing RV?
2. How long does this take to de-winterize RV?
3. Also will we need to winterize rv before leaving?
Are RV has heated electric drainage system...

 

[jbrostek]

I head down to FL and Disney every year leaving just after the new year. We make the trip from the DC area in a about a day and a half and we dewinterize during our overnight stop southbound in SC. From there we stay dewinterized until the morning of our last day heading home when we winterize the coach again so we can just shut it down and put it away after we return.

Since you have a heated area, you could dewinterize at home and let the tank and bay heaters take care of it for you. One family that joins us comes from PA, and they dewinterize before heading 5 hours south to VA as they stay in the camper overnight when they arrive.

Generally in the december/january timeframe youll encounter hard freeze as far south has the NC/SC boarder. And while there are cold snaps in the south, they are not much of a hard freeze that I would worry about lines freezing heading down the road.

 

[Cousin Ed C]

We dewinterize a few days before we leave, usually 12/28. We plug in at the house and set the gas heat for about 50. We have a Winnebago Journey, which means we leave the gas heat on as we travel. It's a diesel and doesn't heat the house nearly as well as a gas Winnie. We take 4 days going down.

Dewinterizing is turning on the heat and flushing any RV antifrezze out of the water system. That's about it.

 

[veraletta]

We aren't staying anywhere on the drive down, so we would have to do the winterizing and de-winterizing at the fort.
Does anyone know about how long it takes to do either of these?
Thanks everyone

 

[golfknut]

De-winterizing only takes a few minutes.
A simple matter of draining out all the antifreeze from the water lines and un-bypassing the water heater. Good idea to give the water system a good flush after the antifreeze is out. I always sanitize our water system after I de-winterize but I probably won't be able to do that on our way down to Florida next winter as we will be on the road...and not at home where I usually do it.

Winterizing takes a little longer. You need to open the low point drains and drain all the water out of the water system (open all sink/shower faucets when doing this).
You will then need to pull the drain plug on the water heater and drain all the water out of it.
You then change the water heater valve settings to the bypass setting. Open all the faucets/showers and pump antifreeze into the water lines and make sure it runs out of each faucet/shower/toilet before turning each faucet off.....including any outdoor shower line.
You will also need to pour a little antifreeze into each sink/shower trap. Also make sure antifreeze is in the toilet bowl...on top of the seal.

 

[veraletta]

Thanks golfknut
Do you think we would have enough time to winterizing on the morning before we leave florida or should we do it the day before?

 

[golfknut]

To minimize stress I would suggest doing it the day before you leave. You have enough other things to do the morning you leave.

 

[golfknut]

Are you bringing the RV antifreeze down with you?
I've never taken our RV down to Florida so I don't know if they sell it down there or not.
Another very important thing.....buy the correct type of antifreeze.....you want RV antifreeze not the regular automotive type antifreeze. You don't want to put the regular stuff in your water lines.....very bad.

 

[super_camper]

Winterizing normally takes 20 minutes plus the time to remove food etc. De-winterizing takes a half day including sanitizing the water system. It would likely take much longer if its your first time.

We travel from Ontario to Florida for Christmas, we normally leave the weekend before Christmas and return the first weekend in the new year. I will de-winterize and sanitize the water system before we leave and always winterize after we return.

The only requirement is that the temp is above 0C or 32F so I watch the forecast and do it as close to our departure and return dates as possible.

 

[super_camper]

Are you bringing the RV antifreeze down with you?
I've never taken our RV down to Florida so I don't know if they sell it down there or not.
Another very important thing.....buy the correct type of antifreeze.....you want RV antifreeze not the regular automotive type antifreeze. You don't want to put the regular stuff in your water lines.....very bad.

The Kissimmee Camping World sells RV Antifreeze. I often use plumbers antifreeze from Lowes or Home Depot but Home Depots in Florida didn't carry it.

 

[veraletta]

I will bring RV antifreeze down with us. I was thinking I would need at least 6 bottles of it...
If you de-winterize before you leave home how to do keep RV lines from Freezing before you leave?

 

[bjschil]

We live in Wisconsin, and winterized before Dec 1. We drive to WDW and unwinterized, then winterized with RV antifreeze before we head home. Each winterization takes about 3 gallons. I believe Camping World or any Rv dealer would do this for you for around $30.00

 

[2goofycampers]

I will bring RV antifreeze down with us. I was thinking I would need at least 6 bottles of it...
If you de-winterize before you leave home how to do keep RV lines from Freezing before you leave?

It takes 1 1/2 gallons for us to do a 30 ft TT. I'd think 2 bottles would be plenty. Wal-Mart sells it. Our local Wal-Mart also has some RV stuff on clearance already.

 

[super_camper]

I will bring RV antifreeze down with us. I was thinking I would need at least 6 bottles of it...
If you de-winterize before you leave home how to do keep RV lines from Freezing before you leave?

After I de-winterize the RV stays at home plugged in with the heat on so it doesn't freeze. We have been going down for years and I only recall 1 year where we had an extended period of freezing temperatures after de-winterizing.

 

[jbrostek]

Walmart is way cheaper, but usually have a hard time finding it in FL. So when I prep to winterize at the end of the local season I buy enough to take care of the FL trip and keep it in the RV.

 

[veraletta]

Super camper do you run the heater (furnace) when driving down to florida? As I would have to stop before going through the two tunnels in Viriginia...
I was wondering about the furnace running the whole trip...

 

[super_camper]

Super camper do you run the heater (furnace) when driving down to florida? As I would have to stop before going through the two tunnels in Viriginia...
I was wondering about the furnace running the whole trip...

We do use the furnace as necessary, in our rig the furnace also warms the wet bay to keep it from freezing.

I don't take the Virginia route during the winter, I only drive the I75 route as the weather and road conditions are generally better. If I recall correctly though you do not have to shut off propane for the tunnels in Virginia.

 

[jbrostek]

Unless your comming from the delmarva area there are no tunnels/bridges in VA on that route. I do run my furnace through the trip without issue as the dash air just cannot keep the coach warm enough.

 

[pocomom]

I went last year to Disney from the mountains in PA. I dewinterized in va, and re-winterized on the return in Georgia. We have the heat on the whole time on the trip. but we can have sub zero temps in the winter and I was afraid if I got in late at night and left it in the driveway there would be damage. Also I preferred doing it in nice temperatures! I was doing it solo with 3 young kids, and it took an hour for both processes. There is a handy pump tool , like a reverse bilge pump for a boat that I found really worthwhile as my low points in the rv were hard to access. This, I just stuck one end in my antifreeze, threaded other end on my water tank intake and pumped it in. I choose to disconnect the hot water heater, but you can just use more anti-freeze and leave it, then I ran the water to make sure pink antifreeze was coming out of all the lines, poured some down all the drains and was done. For de-winterizing I just drain the anti-freeze out, and flush with a tankful of water. I always sanitize my tanks too, so this takes a bit as you put bleach in and have to flush it out completely again. Reconnect the water heater and that's it. Really not hard. Make sure you know if you can run your water pump dry- it's handy if it is ok, (our rv place said no but the water heater manufacturer said no problem. Good luck!

 

[KristinU]

Can I suggest that you do you own winterizing this fall? We paid to have it done our first fall with our travel trailer and a. they didn't bypass the water heater and b. they messed up our city water inlet and I had to replace it the next spring (which I understand is very common), and c. it is so simple we were kicking ourselves after we knew what to do. I know it is really scary at first, but it doesn't need to be. And I'm thinking that if you do it yourselves in the fall you will get the experience with it so you're not fretting about it for the trip. There are some great tutorial videos on YouTube. Some people get into using air compressors to blow out the lines, but we just use the pink antifreeze using the onboard pump and go on our merry way. Ours (and most) has an intake tube just for this purpose, again, Youtube or an RV-ing friend would be a great resource to help you look for everything.

We dewinterized and rewinterized on a FL trip for Christmas and New Years this past year. We picked up our new pink stuff at Wal Mart on the way back home. I agree with 2goofycampers in that you won't need 6 gallons (unless you don't bypass the water heater...then you'll need more), 2 or 3 should do it.

Once you do this stuff once or twice it will be old hat and you will wonder why you thought it was going to be so complicated!