Why You Need to Winterize Your RV
RV owners know the importance of protecting their investment. Whether it’s performing regular maintenance year-round to ensure optimal performance, or adding customized parts and accessories for a more personalized touch, RV upkeep is crucial in order to keep your home-away-from-home looking and performing its best. With winter right around the corner, soon there will be snow and ice on the ground. As camping season comes to a close, most RV owners choose to store their RV’s until winter is over, but parking your RV doesn’t just end once you remove the keys from the ignition. Winterizing your RV is a serious ordeal, and crucial to ensuring your RV is safe and ready to use once the snow melts and the flowers poke back out of the ground. At South Thompson RV, we provide winterizing services for your RV. Here’s why it’s necessary to book a winterizing service.
What is Winterizing?
Winterizing your RV refers to the steps that must be taken to protect your travel vehicle from harsh winter weather. South Thompson RV offers a winterizing kit that contains all of the elements you need to prepare your RV for Mother Nature’s wrath of snow, ice and slush. One of the most common problems you’ll encounter if you ignore the winterizing process is your water system freezing over. Any inline water filters, holding tanks, water heaters, toilets, showers, sinks and drains all contain full or partial water. If it’s not removed, it will freeze once temperatures drop below zero degrees. Water that is stored in ceramic tanks, for example in your RV’s tub or toilet, can cause serious damage by cracking, or the pipes could burst in extreme cold. When you winterize your RV at South Thompson RV, we make sure all of the water in your RV is flushed out and drained using non-toxic anti-freeze to pressurize the unit.
How Can I Tell If My RV Is Winterized?
Winterizing your RV requires the use of antifreeze to flush the lines. High volumes of water and other liquids will travel through the lines in order to remove excess buildup or water. Antifreeze is bright pink in colour, and you’ll know when your RV is ready to be stored when the water runs clear again. If you see pink liquid, or even a slight discolouration streaming from the taps or filling up in the toilet or tub, the system needs further flushing. You would never want to run the risk of drinking water contaminated by antifreeze.
Preparing your RV for winter also entails inspecting the outside of the vehicle and repairing any holes or cracks and sealing any faulty caulking or insulation. Depending on how extreme the winter is, your RV could sit in storage for months, and that alone conjures up the possibility for one of the biggest problems to arise. Rodents seek shelter from the cold, and your cozy RV could be the perfect nesting spot for unwanted guests this winter. When you book a service appointment to winterize your RV at South Thompson RV, ask us about the products we have available to keep mice out.
Plan on storing your RV this winter? Bring your RV into our Service Centre for routine maintenance and winterize your RV before the snow settles in. Book an appointment online, or contact us at 1-(888) 871-4058 to reserve your appointment.
