5 Steps to Prepare Your Camper for the Winter

Every camper owner out here knows just how liberating it is to go on a road trip in one of such vehicles. Still, with great privilege come great responsibilities and when the road trip season is over you are supposed to take care of your camper in order to keep it ready for the following year. While some may find this task daunting or even exhausting all you really need to do is take these five steps in order to prepare your camper for the winter.

1.    Storage or migration

The first step mostly depends on the way in which you use your camper. While some people live out of their vehicle and others use it solely for travel-purposes, the key thing to remember is that RV is not intended to withstand a harsh winter. Therefore, you ought to do one of two things. If you live in your vehicle, you may consider relocating someplace warmer until the end of the winter. On the other hand, if you merely use your RV for travel, you should look for a place where you can put it in for storage. This, however, requires a preparation stage of its own.

2.    Follow through on repairs

One of the most problematic aspects when it comes to repairing your camper lies in the fact that repairing the vehicle tends to be quite inconvenient. This is mostly due to the fact that you are always on the run. Because of this, you can start looking for some camper parts and plan some repairs during the winter. In this way, you will manage to get to time-manage your camper in the best possible way.

3.    Winterize the plumbing system

Probably the most hazardous part of your RV during the winter is its plumbing system, due to the freezing and bursting chance of your pipes. Luckily, winterizing your camper’s plumbing system is not nearly as difficult as it may sound. It consists of steps such as removing and bypassing your inline water filters, getting most of the water out of your system, as well as bypassing your water heater and installing a water pump converter kit.

4.    Cover windows and doors

Same as in an actual home, most of the heat will leave your camper through its windows and doors, which means you have to find a way to insulate them properly. While some may fear the complicated process that this may entail, the truth is that all you need is some heavy fabric you can transform into temporary curtains. Of course, some people even go as far as to use bubble insulation or foam, which are efficient but not aesthetic. On the other hand, if you plan to store your vehicle somewhere during the winter anyway, these two methods may be exactly what you need.

5.    Bring in some heat

Finally, those who live in their campers may be forced to look for an alternative heat source and the two most adequate options here are probably propane heaters and pellet stoves. Reasons behind this are numerous, most prominently because they don’t take much space and they are quite cost-effective. Most importantly, however, make sure that your CO detector is up and running, seeing how your camper might experience an increased level of carbon monoxide in the room.

Conclusion

As you can see, preparing your camper for the winter is hardly a rocket science, still, it is not always an easy matter either, seeing how it may require you to make some pretty big lifestyle adjustments. Be that as it may, if you want your camper to serve you well in the years to come, you need to take good care of it all year long and not just while you are actively using it.

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