This is an important topic for those that, for one reason or another, live in an RV year-around. Reasons are varied but, there is a growing number of people that are living in Recreational Vehicles 24/7. Perhaps you are a full time, Club Affiliated RV er who travels from one vacation spot to the next, a laborer where your job requires you have the ability to move from one job site to the next in little time. Perhaps you have chosen to live the remainder of your life in an RV upon retirement in an RV Retirement Community or perhaps you are just thinking about the possibility.

As stated in some of my other RV guides, an RV requires routine and timely maintenance if it's components are to function as expected. Inspections of the roof membrane, topping off your battery levels, checking seals on sidewalls and around windows, checking the operation of seasonal components (furnace, etc) during the off-season to insure they will operate as they should when you do take your RV out, etc. are just a few items that need to be done to insure your investment is protected for the long-haul. As a minimum, Semi-Annual check ups of your RV are very important. This is even more important as your RV ages! Do not neglect your RV.

Okay, what if your RV doesn't get an "Off-Season"? What if you need to occupy your RV on a regular basis? What if you have to coexist with your RV in a bitterly cold area for a winter or two?
Frozen water lines and sewer pipes, a refrigerator that has stopped working, are just a few of the common problems that owners encounter while RVing in cold weather. There are a lot of questions that you may have... If I park on a permanent or semi-permanent site, should I remove the tires and wheels? Do I have to skirt the RV and, if so what kind of skirting? What way should I face the trailer for optimal life and continued functionality of the components that are affected by colder climates? (Yes, it makes a difference how your trailer is placed!) The list of questions goes on... This guide is written with you in mind. If you must live in your RV year around, these pointers will help you to have the best experience possible.

An RV is just that... a Recreational vehicle. Sure, it has a place to sleep, prepare meals, shower or bathe, watch TV, etc. but, unlike a house, the RV is on wheels, walls are made to flex as it is moved. The exterior walls of an RV are usually thinner, with less insulation. Often times, waterlines, drain pipes and tanks are not protected from the outside temperatures and are subject to seasonal changes in the weather.   

Some of the things I am going to suggest are not only unconventional but could ( notice: The key word is "could"... NOT "would") void warranties on specific components in your RV. but, it will save you alot of time and money on unneeded repairs and replacement of costly appliances and components. As an RV Technician located in an area where literally thousands of RVs are in full use year round, I have come to understand what works and what doesn't work. Some of this knowledge has come from trial and error (of both mine or that of the RV owner) as well as the use of good ol' common sense.

Lets get started:

I've got a story for you... Several years ago I got a call from a local RV park. It was February and it was bitterly cold. An RV owner had left his higher-end motor home parked there while he flew to Phoenix, AZ to see a very sick friend. The assumption would be that, as long as the furnace stayed on, everything would keep from freezing. After all, even the baggage compartments underneath had heat to keep things nice and toasty! Then a chain of unfortunate events changed all of that. The RV park had a power surge. The surge didn't even last a fraction of a second but, as a result a breaker inside the motor home was tripped. This was the breaker that provided electricity to the converter.... The component in the RV that keeps the batteries charged. The furnace continued to operate until the batteries died and then the cold set in, freezing every water line in the coach until they burst. Water found its way into the RV and spilled onto the floor and quickly turned to ice, freezing the slide outs, carpet and everything else to one another. I couldn't even get into the unit as everything was frozen solid. The ice had built up around the wheels and into the wheel wells, the baggage compartments were also full of ice. All we could do was shut off the water supply and wait until spring for things to thaw out. The insurance company came short of totaling the unit and the repair bill was close to $32,000.00! Floors, several walls, plumbing, and all electrical components had to be replaced. The moral of this story? If you have to leave your occupied RV for more than a day, during the winter... winterize it. An hour of preventive maintenance can save you a lot of $$$ and provide you a place to stay when you get back! If possible, familiarize yourself with your RVs winterization procedures and, if in doubt, have someone else do it.

Here are some cold weather tips:

• During the cold winter months, your RV's furnace is the most important component. If it quits working..... eventually everything will quit working! Before cold weather sets in, have your RVs furnace checked out real good by a competent RV Technician. Have him check out the furnace operation as well as the firebox for structural soundness.
  
• During really cold days, while you are away from your RV, open your kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to allow heated air to enter them and keep water lines inside cabinets to keep from freezing.
• Open faucets to allow a slow drip as moving water takes longer to turn into ice. 
• Wrap the fresh water lines supplying water to your RV with heat tape. Get as close to the water inlet as possible. Remember to wrap the heat tape with a good insulating material as well to keep the heat around the line(s).
  
• Insure all waterlines going to your RV are snug and tightened securely so they don't leak.Water flowing outside heat taped lines can short out the heat tape, rendering them useless.
  
• If you have them, turn on your tank heaters. If you don't have them, buy some and have them installed.
• Wrap the area of drain pipes from the tank(s) themselves to the valve(s) with heat tape. Do not use the steel-braided type as it gets pretty hot and could damage the plastic pipes by burning grooves into them until holes develop. Use the plastic-coated type instead. 
• Plumb your RVs waste lines with solid ABS plastic instead of the wire spiraled plastic drain hose. There are twist-on adapters avaliable that will glue or thread to solid 3" ABS black pipe. Design the solid waste line to have a four to six degree slope when running from your RV and to the hole in the ground. Too much or too little slope could have disastrous results. The cheap plastic wire-bound waste hose is good for summer camping but will quickly freeze and spill it's contents all over the ground or, worse yet, freeze solid and back the waste up into your black water (toilet) tank.
• Try to keep your BLACK WATER tank valve closed until it reaches a level of 2/3 to 3/4 full. Keeping it open all of the time will allow the water to run out but the solids to stay in the tank. Eventually, the solids will build up and block the dump at the base of your toilet, making it unusable.   
  
• If the underside of your RV is enclosed, you have the option of routing some of the heated air from the furnace to that area. In fact, many RV Manufacturers already do this. If your RV does not have an enclosed belly, consider having it done or skirt the RV and insulate it real good.... More on this later.
• Many RVs have "Cold Spots". Unfortunately, these cold-spots are usually in the bedroom. Before retiring for the night, you can control where the heat is distributed by placing rugs over vents in the warmer areas. This will redirect the air from the furnace to the bedroom. On rare occasions, if you block too many vents, the Sail switch (Micro switch) inside the furnace, may shut off the LP gas supply to the furnace thereby causing the furnace to quit heating so test things out first and use moderation when doing this.
  
• Some RV owners use small electric or catalytic heaters to augment the furnace's heat and, while the use of these heaters keeps the chill off, they also keep the furnace from running as much. This allows for the remote areas of the unit which hold water lines and plumbing to get colder, so remember to open the cabinets. Follow the safety instructions on them.
• Keep your Smoke Detector, LP Detector, and Carbon Monoxide Detector batteries fresh and installed!
  
• Have a good ABC fire extinguisher in easy reach and know how to use it. SAFETY FIRST!
  
• If you learn of any RV component recalls, do not procrastinate... have them taken care of quickly. Any competent RV repair shop should be able to advise you of current recall information and if it applies to your RV. Recall repairs shouldn't cost you anything unless the RV Tech has to travel to your location to perform the service and, in some cases, that is covered too.
• Fill those 14" x 14" ceiling vents with insulating material. There are RV Vent "pillows" made for that purpose. These keep condensation from accumulating on the inside of the RV as well as keep the warm air from escaping.
  

To some, these steps may sound like a real hassle but, if you take it on as a way of life, it will quickly become second nature and WILL save you the headaches of expensive and major repairs.

Of Special Note: Your RVs Refrigerator is very vulnerable in cold weather. Your RVs refrigerator has chemicals in the cooling unit that will gel up like diesel fuel if the outside temperature gets down too far. This will stop your refer from working properly. There needs to be a certain amount of heat in the vented compartment behind the refer for it to operate as it should. For that reason, it is important to park your RV so the back of the refrigerator gets as much southern exposure as possible. While this will not guarantee that your refer will continue to work, this will help. If that is impossible to do or if it is extremely cold, you can open the access door on the outside of your RV and add a bat of UNFACED FIBERGLASS INSULATION to cover the vent holes in the lower compartment access, thereby slowing down the circulation of air through the compartment and keeping some of the heat in. A single bat of unfolded and unfaced R11 should be good enough.You are not trying to completely block off the vent... you Just want to slow down the movement of air through the compartment on the backside of your refer.  NOTE: Use only UNFACED fiberglass insulation as it is not adversely affected by heat sources or open flame. AS a suggested rule, place the bat in the compartment when the outside temperature gets down to and stays below 15 degrees... just remember to pull the bat out the next spring or the refrigerator will run too hot and will stop working as well. NEVER cover or block the upper vent. In conjunction with the UNFACED fiberglass bat, I've seen the use of a small shielded 60 watt bulb in the bottom of the compartment to help further provide heat to the cooling unit in cold weather as well. Just insure if you use the bulb, place it in a drop light socket with shield and place it away from wires or anything else it may come in contact with. THE MAJOR REFRIGERATOR MANUFACTURERS FROWN ON THIS PRACTICE SO, IF YOUR REFRIGERATOR IS STILL UNDER WARRANTY, YOU MAY WANT TO FIND AN ALTERNATIVE MEANS TO KEEP YOUR FOOD COOL. The major manufacturers provide for no preventive maintenance in this area. It was explained to me that an RV refrigerator goes in an RV... Following that thought, an RV is what it is... a RECREATIONAL VEHICLE, and the use of their product was not intended for extreme cold weather operation. Thus so, the procedure for a frozen cooling unit is to remove it from the RV and let it thaw in a heated garage or room for at least 72 hours or more and then retest it for operation before re-installing it. Why wait for it to freeze in the first place? Preventive maintenance is the key.

As a note, I've also seen owners fill the outside of the refer access panel with the grey or white split styrofoam pipe wrap. They just cut them to length and fill the three vents, so commonly seen on Dometic and Norcold access panels. These syrofoam tubes fit snug and, because they are on ther outside of the access panel, they make more room for a drop light and are seen easily so, come spring... you will remember to remove them.

So ,how do you know when your refrigerator is froze up? It is a pretty good indication that the chemicals have gelled up is when: 

• The outside temperature has been below 15 Degrees F or less for several days
• The refrigerator has stopped cooling on the inside
• Touching the Chimney (Commonly a silver vertical tube on the right side of the back of the fridge behind the access panel) is warm while at the same time, the absorber vessel ( a big grey or black horizontal canister sitting the middle of all of the tubes in the back of the fridge, also behind the access panel) is cold. To prevent damage to the cooling unit, immediately TURN OFF YOUR REFRIGERATOR AND CALL A SERVICE TECHNICIAN.  
• NOTE: AFTER your refrigerator is froze up, the ONLY thing an RV Technician can do is remove the unit and place it in a warm place for 48 to 72 hours to let it thaw out. He must also test it for proper operation before re-installing it in your RV.
  
  
  Skirting is many times required by local regulation or city ordinance in many permanent RV Parks or locations. Skirting can be as simple as unvented plastic sofit material to framed-in painted plywood and/or anything in between. The unvented plastic sofit is inexpensive, looks good, and weathers very well with little maintenance. It disassembles quickly if you ever have to or decide to move. The majority of Travel Trailer/RVs have aluminum "J-Wrap" lower panels that wrap under the bottom edges of the unit and provide a place to fasten plastic "F Channel" with self-tapping screws. Fastening the F-Channel in this fashion does not lower the resale value of the RV. Once in place, set some "J Channel on the ground. There is no reason to attempt to make the J Channel on the ground perpendicular to the "F Channel on the frame but you should attempt to make them as straight as possible. Once the upper and lower channels are in place, just start measuring the unvented sofit to fit and slide the panels in vertically, measuring each piece as you go. It takes a few hours to complete but the finished product is very pleasing. If you live in a colder area, back the inside of the skirting with 1" minimum residential Styrofoam panels and tape to secure with duct tape. If your unit has slide outs, don't forget to close those in too. If you need to move your RV often, you can buy the custom made snap on vinyl skirting as well. It does a good job keeping the wind from under your RV but little in insulating from colder temperatures. Many times, the snaps are screwed directly into the exterior walls so, keep the snaps and zippers cleaned and lubricated with a pure silicone spray. This will help to save the snaps from being completely pulled out of the fiberglass when snapping or unsnapping them to or from the RV. (Fiberglass repair is expensive.)
  
  Wheels are seldom taken off when an RV is parked and skirted. If you do not plan to skirt, the wheels and tire should have UV protecting covers to prevent rot. It's also a good idea to park your RV on small slabs of wood. This puts a barrier of added protection between the ground and your tires, when parked for an extended period of time.

If you are lucky enough to have a Service Tech in your area that makes Service calls to your RV, instead of asking you to bring your RV into his shop, do yourself and the Tech a favor. Take the time and make a list of the components in your RV. In the case you would need the ON-SITE services of an RV Technician, it is helpful and time saving if you have this list avaliable and in a handy location. Include the MAKE, MODEL, and SERIAL NUMBERS of the appliances that are used to keep you comfortable.. Furnace, Water Heater, Refrigerator, 110 VAC to 12 Volt DC Converter/Power Distribution Panel, Inverter, Air Conditioner(s), etc. This helps the Service Technician gather the correct parts or insure that he/she has them before coming out to fix your RV and saves precious time. There are some Service Techs that will travel 70 or more miles to make repairs. Keeping that in mind, there is nothing more dreadful than having him make 2 (or more) trips because he did'nt bring the right parts the first time around... all the while, it's 17 degrees below zero, your water lines have froze solid and, you have no heat or lights! Who pays for the driving time and mileage? You do! When the Technician does get back 3 hours later, you could have other, more serious problems to add to the list.  Instead, when you call the RV Shop for service, DO NOT WAIT for the Service Tech to ask you for a make and model of the component you are having trouble with. Beat him to the punch and tell him up front. This will save you time and money! (Personally, I will not even go on a service call until I have this information at hand.) The hour or two that it takes you to compile this list could save you literally thousands of dollars! 

I could go on but, space doesn't allow me to. I hope you can take something from this. Knowledge is Empowerment... and can save you $$$$!

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Perhaps you have questions, comments, or need help with something RV Related? Drop me a line at hglpd1@bresnan.net

Thanks for reading. Check out my other RV guides.