Lazy man winterizing

[Stan.Birch]

Originally Posted by huntnski

Oh how I dread that long 3 weeks of winter!

Oh! Gasp!! How aweful!!

[MickBrennan]

Call the guy.
Pay him.
Done.

[CampDaven]

Originally Posted by GlennLever

if thtis data is right Normal Temperatures (BENTON Weather station, 0.85 miles from Benton) Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Annual Max 51.5 57.6 65.8 73.6 80.6 87.6 92.2 91.7 85.1 76.0 63.0 54.0 73.2 Mean 39.3 44.3 52.8 60.5 68.9 76.3 80.5 79.0 72.5 62.1 50.5 42.2 60.7 Min 27.0 31.0 39.8 47.4 57.1 65.0 68.8 66.3 59.9 48.1 38.0 30.3 48.2 Looks like January is your worst month, but February is a concern, for what you have invested I would have it winterized.

This tells me the average bad is 27F.
Any enclosure plus residual daytime sunlight/heat would preclude any 25F for 4+ hours that would endanger anything.

I'd say furnace at 40 and trouble light in the wet bay will be nuff. Furnace is propane so if the insides of the place is big and has no more than mice to kill with only very occasional fumes and vents good with the door open, what's to worry about?

[Luv2go]

We live in the Northeast now and used to live in NC. We've winterized our coach once when we moved up here and didn't have power at the storage facility. We use our coach all winter for winter sports and use the methods detailed in my post at this link. To update that post, last year we had no issues with freezing at all with temps approaching 5 degrees F.

We don't have an icemaker but I suspect the heat from the fridge would keep that water line unfrozen if you kept it running, or you could disconnect it for the winter.

[GlennLever]

Originally Posted by huntnski

Thanks to everyone on your replies. Will be trying a variety of things and monitoring how often that door gets opened during the really cold spells. Like I stated I never had a problem with 5er, but at that time I also seldome opened door getting other equipment out.

Oh how I dread that long 3 weeks of winter!

29 outside right now, will not see 70 again for 25 weeks

[huntnski]

Originally Posted by GlennLever

29 outside right now, will not see 70 again for 25 weeks

Thanks for the report, ain't this a great nation or what. Be leave it or not I once wanted to move further north just so we could have a real winter, got over that thought!

[BrutusTheDog]

The record low temperature for Benton:
January -12° (1962)
February -17° (1951)
March 13° (1965)
April 23° (1987)
May 35° (1960)
June 44° (1966)
July 50° (1972)
August 46° (1986)
September 32° (1967)
October 20° (1993)
November 7° (1976)
December -2° (1989)

Running an electric heater is very expensive compared to the time/cost it takes to winterize an RV. Would you let your wife/children leave 5, 100 Watt light bulbs on 24/7? Electrical costs would be $15 to $20 per month and this is with the heater on low.

[Dog Folks]

Worse case: A storm comes through and you lose the power for two or three days.

How will you keep it warm then? I would not risk it. Pay someone to do it for you.

Cheap investment.

[LSC9901]

With all the severe weather the south has experienced this winter I am now curious exactly what you did and how the MH has survived. While I enjoy doing the grunt work I can understand those who don't like it. Here in VT they charge a fair amount to winterize. Probably because here it is a must. For the $5 or $10 and 30 minutes I'd prefer to be safe .... no matter where I am.

[DGShaffer]

I'd suggest crossing your fingers but that does require some effort.

[GlennLever]

My guess is it is to late now.

[PatStab]

Hey you don't want to take a chance on your investment do you?

My husband fixed me a way to winterize mine that is pretty easy. I'm going to have him show me how to blow the lines out also, we have a couple of air compressors.

He added a tube and valve for me to suck pink antifreeze out of the bottle. I took the hot rod out and drained the water heater, let whatever water is in the lines drain out too, turned that valve on, poured pink into the washer and turned the drain cycle on, ran what water out of the icemaker line I could, stand alone, through the little sink faucet connected to it. If I have a problem there is a valve under the icemaker where I could disconnect the line and drain more there to allow enough out for expansion, so far its been ok. Then I put the tube in a bottle, turned on the kitchen faucet till it ran pink, same in bathroom, same in toilet, of course I've changed gallon jugs, next time I will pour it all in one bucket. I used 4 gallons total. I took one jug poured some down each drain then half gallon in washer, and lastly ran it through the undersink filter through the icemaker line. I need to change that filter anyway. That's it, sounds like a lot of work but it really doesn't take long and I don't worry. Oh I did turn the water heater valve off bypass at the last to protect it.

I would not take a chance on any coach with the winter we are having, its not that much trouble to flush them later either in my opinon.

[6wheels]

I have modified a small space heater that does not have heater elements exposed. I just feel safer using the finned type of element. I removed and taped off the HIGH leads, and then did a forming adjustment (bent) to the bimetal strips that it uses for a thermostat, calibrating the unit so that it kicked in when the temps got close to 35 degrees in the basement. The heater is plugged into an available outlet forward of the tanks and it kept clear of anything for about a couple feet all around. The LP TANK is CLOSED. This is a DIESEL unit NOT GAS. This heater does not have a timer, a clock, a start button - just a heat setting and a thermostat. Since the tanks are just across the wall partition from the storage area everything in the basement stays above freezing. I used to put the heater in the wet bay, but the door became hot to the touch. This was before I recalibrated the bimetal strip.

There are permanent solutions from the marine industry that are safe even on a gas coach. Do a search for bilge heater and look for one in the 700-1500 watt range. They make removable and mountable versions and they range from 2-500 dollars.

[SarahW]

Originally Posted by DGShaffer

I'd suggest crossing your fingers but that does require some effort.