Community Forums

Letsgoagain · 06-28-2016, 06:30 PM

Hello,
We are moving to Florida and will have to store the motorhome at a storage facility. We have always had the luxury of having it right in our driveway until this move. New house is in gated subdivision that doesn't allow motorhomes at the house.
I would appreciate any thoughts on what I need to do to properly store it in a storage yard. For example, battery care. Do I turn the battery disconnects off or should I actually remove the cables? Should I just get some kind of solar charger set up because there is no shore power?
Anything you can think of that I need to be considering would be helpful.
Thanks.

gemert · 06-28-2016, 06:45 PM

How far away from you is the storage lot? If you are reasonably close just go exercise the coach and genny once a month. I would not leave mine for months without being able to check on it and run things.

cbramsey · 06-28-2016, 06:50 PM

I have my Dutch Star in a storage lot because I don't have room for the coach at my house. I turn off the house batteries when I place the coach into storage. I am only about 25 minutes away (with traffic) from the coach and go check on it periodically.

I do take the coach out for a short excursion every month or so. In the winter, I also run the generator to help keep the batteries from going dead.

SpaceNorman · 06-28-2016, 07:32 PM

We're up in Michigan. Coach lives on an outdoor storage lot near home. Our space is a pull through. When we "land" in the storage lot - we make sure the steer wheels are pointed straight ahead (don't want the body settling on the tires if/when the air suspension settles). We make sure everything inside the coach is "OFF" - all the light, the Aquahot diesel burner, the inverter, etc. We check to be sure all the windows are locked and draw all the blackout shades - including the windshield and entry door (don't need the sun beating on it - and don't want the curious peeping at the innards!). We exit the coach, close the steps and lock the door (both the latch lock and the deadbolt). Finally, we kill both the house and the coach battery disconnect switches - and then take a lap of the coach to make sure all the exterior compartment doors are locked.

The coach rarely sits more than 2-3 weeks without being used. However, when we do have a longer stretch - we make a point of stopping by the coach and firing it up. Even in the winter cold - we'll stop by, run out the slides, fire up the Aguahot and bring the internal temperature to room temp, fire up the generator ... and often start the coach engine to bring it up to temp. It's pretty common that we'll grab a movie, some Chinese take out, a bottle of wine - and call it "date night". On several occasions we've spent the night ... it's a nice little getaway from the house and the kids. Best of all it's but 10 minutes away from our stick and brick home.

JohnBoyToo · 06-28-2016, 08:22 PM

What SN said, but many, MANY rv's kill switches don't always KILL everything, I would put a mechanical battery disconnect on one cable of each battery set and just pull it each time...

I'm lucked out and found covered storage WITH a 20 amp circuit that tends the battery for a pittance !

Letsgoagain · 06-28-2016, 08:40 PM

Thanks for the replies. Wondering if turning the disconnects off on the batteries preserves the batteries until you return to charge them up? I know there are parasitic loads that still pull even when switches are off.
Lot of good ideas in your replies. The storage yard will be only 10 minutes away so I will be checking it often. At least I won't have to winterize it anymore.

vsheetz · 06-28-2016, 09:40 PM

A solar panel or two with a quality controller would be my solution.

SpaceNorman · 06-28-2016, 09:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Letsgoagain

Wondering if turning the disconnects off on the batteries preserves the batteries until you return to charge them up? I know there are parasitic loads that still pull even when switches are off....

Our coach has a "Battery Cut-Off" switch located on the bank of switches next to the passenger seat (along with the porch light switch, awning extend switch, step switch etc.) This switch kills the 12 volt DC power to the coach. This is NOT the same as the battery disconnect switch.

We have two battery disconnect switches - located in the same external compartment as the coach batteries. One serves to disconnect the coach batteries the other serves to disconnect the house batteries. We throw these two switches every time we park the coach in storage - and have never had issues with batteries discharging as they sit with the disconnect switches turned "OFF" (i.e., batteries "disconnected").

10Boomer · 06-28-2016, 11:05 PM

Most what was said above us what we do. We have similar situation our HOA doesn't allow the coach in the residential areas.
I may add though, exercising systems is real important point. I also back my coach onto 2x10 cut wood planks for the wheel/tires to sit on. Pavement or concrete not very friendly to tires. To much surface temperature/moisture transfer to rubber. I add wheel covers always. I cover my RV when it's more than a month in storage to keep internal temps low.

Sent from my iPhone using iRV2 - 2008 Monaco Camelot 40 PDQ

Playtime III · 06-29-2016, 06:48 AM

We are in FL and learned the hard way. We stored in a storage rental shed place that also had a designated place for RV storage. Most of the places we looked at had sand/grass/weeds. Fine for TT/5r/smaller class As. But for heavy DPs not so much. We were looking following record rains and most lots were soft to walk on. Mgt says "NEVER HAD A PROBLEM" but my feet were making marks ....pass, on to the next. Found the facility with managed drainage and an elevated RV area. Great, feels firm under foot but still sand/grass/weeds. The next biggest RV there was a 34' gasser. I just came off a trip and weighed in at close to 40k. As I was backing into my space, the turning of my steer wheels broke up the top crust layer. As I pulled forward to straighten out and make another backing, I stopped with the drive wheels over the broken crust. The wheels just spun and dug in, and I have a tag axle to further disperse the weight. The lot must have been backfilled with sand. Under the crust was only sand, no gravel. We were able to deploy the jacks and try to back fill/use lumber in the hole but didnt work. Four hours waiting for a towtruck to winch us out (from the rear).

Point is, if your RV is heavy watch where you park (especially in FL) .