Winterised or not? (1 Viewer)

[mnd]

Current 'van (Euramobil) is FULLY winterised, typical teutonic build! When not in use, it stands on a disused army drill square, no cover, no EHU for weeks at a time, until we decide to jump in it and head off to wherever,. would my R.V cope with this type of treatment? i. e. pull up lock up and go home, no water draining or any of that carry on, simply empty fridge/freezer and leave door open, take away the perishables and laundry that's all we need to do, bearing in mind recent temp oop north has dropped to -8 deg recently, can I do just the same..?

Keith once told me I was at the bottom of a very steep learning curve, just did'nt realise how far down the curve I am!

 

[Floozie2]

Hi Mnd

From experience (Winnebago Journey) the answer is NO! We freeze up easily and in the recent cold snap the loo flush valve split. Second time; I'm a slow learner. All of our water systems are quite exposed; underslung fresh tank with a laughable sliver of insulation polystyrene, waste tanks are a little better served but will freeze in really cold and prolonged cold spells. Had to thaw tanks out in Austria with a heater when I forgot to empty them before hitting the minus temperatures- took nearly a day to thaw and empty with a bucket. That lesson I have learned! Ours has a water distribution centre in one of the lockers and that easily freezes up. The pump is in a fairly exposed position too. RVs don't have the same level of insulation as a German build (they are designed for warmer climes), so take more to heat and stay that way and to be honest the blast furnace that is used for heating is woefully inefficient. I have been looking at ways of insulating and heating my tanks and fitting a better heating system. Once I've decided what to do, I'll probably post my successes and failures here.

Funnily enough, I had debated whether or not to downsize and the Euramobile was the replacement of choice. What stopped me? Two things really. Space and payload, particularly as we full-time and the fact that despite their short-comings, we just love RVs - particularly our Floozie2! :thumb: So we're prepared to overlook her foibles or sort them out so they don't cause any trouble. Hope I've helped!

Richard
Floozie2

 

[Lindy-C]

Hi Mnd

From experience (Winnebago Journey) the answer is NO! We freeze up easily and in the recent cold snap the loo flush valve split. Second time; I'm a slow learner. All of our water systems are quite exposed; underslung fresh tank with a laughable sliver of insulation polystyrene, waste tanks are a little better served but will freeze in really cold and prolonged cold spells. Had to thaw tanks out in Austria with a heater when I forgot to empty them before hitting the minus temperatures- took nearly a day to thaw and empty with a bucket. That lesson I have learned! Ours has a water distribution centre in one of the lockers and that easily freezes up. The pump is in a fairly exposed position too. RVs don't have the same level of insulation as a German build (they are designed for warmer climes), so take more to heat and stay that way and to be honest the blast furnace that is used for heating is woefully inefficient. I have been looking at ways of insulating and heating my tanks and fitting a better heating system. Once I've decided what to do, I'll probably post my successes and failures here.

Funnily enough, I had debated whether or not to downsize and the Euramobile was the replacement of choice. What stopped me? Two things really. Space and payload, particularly as we full-time and the fact that despite their short-comings, we just love RVs - particularly our Floozie2! :thumb: So we're prepared to overlook her foibles or sort them out so they don't cause any trouble. Hope I've helped!

Richard
Floozie2

Heaters are available for under-slung holding tanks and waste pipes Richard. Feel free to drop me a PM if you would like any information.

 

[Floozie2]

Thanx

Hi Lindy C

Thanks for that, it was the route I was thinking of going down for the tanks. Now all I need is an effecient heating system, one that runs off gas, is quiet in operation and provides a constant warmth throughout the caoch. I don't ask for much!

Richard

 

[Jim]

Billym told me that at a skiing trip earlier this year, they had to leave a resort as the RV just would not cope with the extreme cold. Everything just froze up.

RVs are used extensively in the cold states of the US and of course in Canada so those rigs must be winterised. So the answer to your question is that it depends on your RV. If the tanks are underslung with no heating then make sure that they are drained if there is a chance of frost. On most RVs its VERY easy to drain down with big easy access taps in the wet locker designed for just that.

As for just parking up; emptying the fridge and leaving, yep thats all we do but leaving even a winterised vehicles systems full of water in a cold spell is asking for trouble i think.

Have you bought an RV yet?

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[johnsandywhite]

Heaters are available for under-slung holding tanks and waste pipes Richard. Feel free to drop me a PM if you would like any information.

:Cool: Our Newmar is already fitted with Basement locker blowers from the heating system. Shame I didn't know about that while we were touring the USA. Froze the pipes and burst JUST before a drain cock. Had to stick a bung in it to stop it leaking. :Sad:

 

[olley]

Hi Jim is right it depends on the RV, all my tanks are in the double floor which along with the lockers is heated by the ducted air heating, we also have DP windows.

Never experienced any real cold ourselves, but the couple we bought it off toured Canada in it and reckoned they were warm and toasty with nighttime temperatures down to -40F

Olley

 

[Forestboy]

When I was in Florida recently I asked about this because I would like to drive up to Colorado for some skiing. As someone else said RVs are generally built for warmer climates and the aircon is more important than the heating.
I only saw one RV that was suitable to take to a cold climate and that was a Simba which had been fully winterised. It had heaters in the waste lockers, tanks were between floors with heaters piped to them and pipes were lagged and again had blown air towards them.All the heaters were temperature controlled so they came on automatically. All this was already fitted so was no cost but I would imagine retro fitting would be quite expensive.
I planned to take our RV to the Alps next year but having spoken to BillyM recently and hearing about his experience I'm not so keen now.