How to Prepare Your RV for Winter

Sadly, many of us are wondering how to prepare the RV for winter. Snowflakes will soon be falling and depending on where you live, you might already be gearing up for winter. A quick moving October snowstorm greeted this writer with 15 inches of the white stuff just this morning and while I was shoveling out it had me thinking about all of the other tasks I need to handle before winter comes in full. A few things on this winter preparation checklist: cut, chop, and stack firewood, insulate the single pane windows in my cabin, get my skis tuned, and winterize the RV. Your checklist might be similar, or you might be living the snowbird life and think I’m crazy to be excited about over a foot of snow outside before Halloween.

Regardless of your personal feelings on the coldest season, if you are reading this post, chances are you have an RV. While many of you might drive your rig somewhere warm for the winter months, many of us park our RVs for the winter and let them sit until the snow melts in spring. If you fall into the latter category there are some key things to consider when preparing your RV for winter hibernation. Let’s take a look at how to winterize your RV and make sure it sits safe and sound for the long, cold months ahead.

Why to Winterize?

You might be wondering why you just cannot simply park your RV in your driveway or storage lot for the winter and forget about it. If you live in a mild climate that doesn’t see harsh temperatures, you might be able to get away with the park and forget method but if you’re in a region that experiences freezing temperatures and other aspects of the winter season, you need to winterize your RV to protect it from the elements and insure everything works in the spring. Learning the steps and getting in the habit of winterizing your RV every fall will help protect your investment and keep your vehicle in great condition for years of highway travels.

Related Read: Preparing Your Coach For A Long Winters Nap

First Steps

The first thing you should do when winterizing your RV is to familiarize yourself with the process. Read this post or a similar guide to know what tasks are ahead and what materials you might need to get the job done. There are also services or mechanics who can take care of this process for you but it’s really pretty easy so I’d recommend saving your cash for future travels and learning how to winterize yourself.

A few materials and tools that you should have on hand for the job:

• Basic hand tools

• An RV Tank Cleaning Wand to clean your water tanks

• RV/Marine Antifreeze

• Water Heater Bypass kit (if you don’t have one built in)

Remove Water Filters or Bypass

A water heater bypass kit will allow you to bypass the water filters in your RV when going through the winterizing process. You can also remove your water filters, but a bypass kit is a quick and inexpensive way to save a little bit of time in the process. You want to bypass these filters because the chemicals and liquids you use to winterize the RV can damage the filters pretty easily.

Drain Your Tanks

You will want to drain all of the water out of every tank. Water will obviously freeze over the winter and any left in the tanks can expand and break pipes, connections, and the tank itself. Pull the plug on your gray water and black water tanks. Let all of the water drain and make sure you are at a proper disposal location for your black water. Use the RV tank cleaning wand on your black water tank to make sure no weird bacterial growths occur over the winter.

Related Read: The Bad Winter Advice No RVer Should Follow

Drain Water Lines and Water Heater

You also need to drain the water lines and water heater in your RV. If you simply drain the tanks without draining these, you risk damaging plumbing or the water heater which can both be expensive to fix. Turn on your water heater and let it cool before beginning. Remove the drain plug on the heater and open the pressure release valve. Next, open all of the faucets on your RV including the sinks, shower, and any other water fixtures it has to drain the water lines completely. You’ll also want to use the Water Heater bypass kit here to insure no chemicals from the next step go through the heater.

Add the Antifreeze

The next step to winterizing your RV is to add antifreeze to the water system. Be sure to use an RV/Marine type antifreeze for this job. To get the antifreeze into your water system you will need to disconnect the water pump and place the draw end of the pump into the jug of antifreeze. You can also use a water pump converter for this task if you don’t want to disconnect your pump. Once you have this pump system set up, open your cold water faucet handles until you see antifreeze coming out. Repeat this for the hot water faucets. Flush the toilet until you see antifreeze as well. Finally, pour a cupful or so of antifreeze down each drain on the RV, including the toilet.

That’s all there is to winterizing your RV to get it ready for long term storage during the winter months. It’s an easy and essential aspect to RV ownership and once you know the steps to take, you can get the entire process done pretty quickly. Be sure to check your RVs owner’s manual for any additional or specific steps necessary for your RV. Each RV is a little different and yours might have an extra step and extra appliance that needs to be winterized. Following these steps to winterize your RV will result in fewer problems come spring and give you the peace of mind that your RV will sleep safely all winter long.