Skip winterization?

[FloraFauna]

Before you think I am crazy, please hear me out.

I am wondering about skipping winterization this year so that the trailer is ready to go for winter trips south or colder weather camping when we get an occasional cold weather breaks.  When I winterize, I find myself not considering trailer travel until Spring - 5 months of no camping and no trailer use.  Nobody wants to winterize and dewinterize several times per winter. Would be nice to head south especially in February or there are times midwinter where we get relative warms spells with brilliant sunshine with or without snow.

Winterization seems like surrendering.

Pertinent information:

1. I live in southern Wisconsin so cold weather happens.  Sometimes we get to 0 F or below but not often and not for long - maybe once or twice per winter for a few days.  Obviously I don't intend to head out in the coldest weather but such conditions in storage would present a risk.
2. The Ollie is in unheated, dry storage with electricity about 200 ft from my house so I see the trailer and monitor it everyday.  Solar gain to the building will often have the storage space at 10 to 20 degrees above the outside temp.
3. I would leave the Truma furnace on and set at like 40 or 45 F.  Obviously I would burn through some propane but I am amazed how efficient the Truma furnace is and since the interior of the building is ventilated I don't see a CO risk.  I see some others have put electric space heaters in their trailer but I would worry about air/heat movement and cold corners with a small electric heater where the furnace fan with the blower is more likely to distribute the heat.  Maybe combine the space heater with a fan?
4. I drain my tanks after every trip so tanks would be empty.

Does anyone have experience (or more experience than I with my Ollie) in this regard with advice to share?

[SeaDawg]

Winterize. 

It's not that hard to dewinterize when you get south.

We had a freak winter storm in late October in nc. I hadn't winterized. We lost the outdoor shower. 

Even if you just drain and blow out the plumbing, you're better than nothing. I buy rv antifreeze as soon as it's on rhe shelf, and keep a few gallons extra through summer. If nothing else, makes a great door stop.

Where you live (and I grew up near there), I'd winterize after last fall trip. That's what we did in "tropical" southern Minnesota.  (You know, the pineapple belt....:)

You don't have to "de-winter" to do a weekend trip. Just carry water in jugs, and a portapotty, or use a wag bag in the toilet, if you don't want to de-winter. 

Edited October 13 by SeaDawg

[Geronimo John]

Having any water in the trailer lines with a hard freeze can cause extensive damage.  Strongly suggest the above sage recommendation....it's just not worth the risk.  Using the trailer dry can easily be done.  For the toilet use one of those bags in the toilet or "go" elsewhere.   

GJ

[dewdev]

@FloraFauna I strongly agree with the above comments. I live in Maine and we have some cold snaps in the witner, like you.

With the tanks empty, the worry is really freezing of the water lines, particularily the plastic fittings and backflow preventors. That type of damage is a real pain to fix. The backflow preventors and some of the water lines are difficult to access.

Play it safe and winterize. You do not have to have water in the lines to camp in the winter; just bring bottle water to drink.

If going south, then dewinterize when you get below the freezing zone.

Edited October 13 by dewdev

[FloraFauna]

hmmm.  So far three for three on winterize from those who have been doing this longer than I.  Thank you for your sound advice.  I kind of knew my idea was wishful thinking and not practical given my location.  We have a composting toilet so that's not an issue in any case.  I also already have the RV antifreeze as well.  Definitely don't want to trash my water lines and valves. 

[jd1923]

11 hours ago, FloraFauna said:

I am wondering about skipping winterization this year so that the trailer is ready to go for winter trips south or colder weather camping when we get an occasional cold weather breaks.

@FloraFauna I’ve been doing this for years, though Wisconsin is not Arizona. However, I learned this procedure from an engineer who winterized his Bigfoot Class-C using only compressed air at his home in Calgary.

We travel Oct through May, not summers. I do this when we get home between winter trips, Not using the pink stuff 2-3 times per winter, or ever.

Some say “I would never use compressed air.” I say, I’d never use pink chemical antifreeze. OTT does not recommend using compressed air.

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9849-winterizing-without-rv-antifreeze/?_rid=8971/

 

Edited October 14 by jd1923
Fix link

[Patriot]

11 hours ago, FloraFauna said:

I live in southern Wisconsin so cold weather happens.

Your northern location tells me all I need to know. I would really think about winterizing based on where you live. A few minutes of effort can forgo hours of locating and repairing a leak. Our Truma makes winterizing super easy. 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 14 by Patriot

[John Dorrer]

On 10/13/2024 at 2:06 PM, FloraFauna said:

Before you think I am crazy, please hear me out.

I am wondering about skipping winterization this year so that the trailer is ready to go for winter trips south or colder weather camping when we get an occasional cold weather breaks.  When I winterize, I find myself not considering trailer travel until Spring - 5 months of no camping and no trailer use.  Nobody wants to winterize and dewinterize several times per winter. Would be nice to head south especially in February or there are times midwinter where we get relative warms spells with brilliant sunshine with or without snow.

Winterization seems like surrendering.

Pertinent information:

1. I live in southern Wisconsin so cold weather happens.  Sometimes we get to 0 F or below but not often and not for long - maybe once or twice per winter for a few days.  Obviously I don't intend to head out in the coldest weather but such conditions in storage would present a risk.
2. The Ollie is in unheated, dry storage with electricity about 200 ft from my house so I see the trailer and monitor it everyday.  Solar gain to the building will often have the storage space at 10 to 20 degrees above the outside temp.
3. I would leave the Truma furnace on and set at like 40 or 45 F.  Obviously I would burn through some propane but I am amazed how efficient the Truma furnace is and since the interior of the building is ventilated I don't see a CO risk.  I see some others have put electric space heaters in their trailer but I would worry about air/heat movement and cold corners with a small electric heater where the furnace fan with the blower is more likely to distribute the heat.  Maybe combine the space heater with a fan?
4. I drain my tanks after every trip so tanks would be empty.

Does anyone have experience (or more experience than I with my Ollie) in this regard with advice to share?

High Risk Low Reward. It takes 10-15 to winterize and maybe 10 minutes to dewinterize. You can carry a couple of small jugs of water and RV Anti-freeze to use in the toilet.

 

We live in Indianapolis and can expect 0° - 20° for extended periods. We get South where it might get to 35° at night and dewinterize. We keep our Truma Aqua-Go closed and the filter stored until we are in wark weather

 

 

My question is why would you even risk doing what you have posted. When pipes in your Oliver freeze and crack, many times it is in hard to get to places, resulting in added expense and major stress.

 

It simply isn't worth the risk, when it only takes 10 minutes to dewinterize.

[Patriot]

38 minutes ago, John Dorrer said:

High Risk Low Reward. It takes 10-15 to winterize and maybe 10 minutes to dewinterize. You can carry a couple of small jugs of water and RV Anti-freeze to use in the toilet.

 

We live in Indianapolis and can expect 0° - 20° for extended periods. We get South where it might get to 35° at night and dewinterize. We keep our Truma Aqua-Go closed and the filter stored until we are in wark weather

 

 

My question is why would you even risk doing what you have posted. When pipes in your Oliver freeze and crack, many times it is in hard to get to places, resulting in added expense and major stress.

 

It simply isn't worth the risk, when it only takes 10 minutes to dewinterize.

After a good wash and detail inside and out we winterized and covered up XPLOR  today. We used approx 2.5 gal of RV antifreeze. Agree with @John Dorrer super easy to dewinterize should we decide to head to the coast of somewhere beautiful. 👍🏻🇺🇸😎
 

 

 

 

[FloraFauna]

There is another way to frame the question I posed (in an admittedly reaction inducing way).  How cold can you camp (all systems on,  heating and plumbing) before the risk of water lines freezing becomes a  concern?  Oliver advertises this as 4-seasons trailer but that obviously has limits.  What is that limit?  Your responses suggest that limit is between 0 and 20 degrees.   Certainly you can use this 4 seasons trailer with temps in the upper 20's, right?  I am camping right now and the nightly low is forecast at 27 degrees. Or is the limit 30 degrees?

[SeaDawg]

Depends. 

Keep the belly warm. In our older ollie, we were good to teens, if it warmed above freezing daytime. 2008 doesn't have your insulation. We open accesses to the belly, and run heat.

Me, if i know temps will be freezing/cold, I winterize, to avoid stress. 

[Rivernerd]

5 hours ago, FloraFauna said:

I am camping right now and the nightly low is forecast at 27 degrees. Or is the limit 30 degrees?

We have camped in ambient temps as low as 9 degrees F with the furnace running on propane (nearly full time to keep up).  We pulled the outside shower head inside the hull by twisting it off, then putting it back on inside.  Our remote thermometers in the belly of Hull #1291 reported temps down to 33 degrees F, but not below.  No freeze damage.  Whew!

That said, I do not recommend camping in an Elite II in temps below 15 degrees F, to be safe.  With lows in the 20s F, you should be o.k. with the furnace running.  

Towing an Elite II in sub-freezing temps is a different issue, as it is potentially dangerous to run the furnace on propane while on the road.  And, your water heater is at risk unless you have a Truma with the antifreeze adapter.  On the trip mentioned above, we did our travel mid-day, when temps were above 32 F, because we choose not to run the propane furnace unless we are parked.

[Mike and Carol]

17 hours ago, FloraFauna said:

There is another way to frame the question I posed (in an admittedly reaction inducing way).  How cold can you camp (all systems on,  heating and plumbing) before the risk of water lines freezing becomes a  concern?  Oliver advertises this as 4-seasons trailer but that obviously has limits.  What is that limit?  Your responses suggest that limit is between 0 and 20 degrees.   Certainly you can use this 4 seasons trailer with temps in the upper 20's, right?  I am camping right now and the nightly low is forecast at 27 degrees. Or is the limit 30 degrees?

We’ve camped with overnight temps in the teens and had no problems.  We also camped when the temperature never got above freezing for several days and had no issues.  Especially if the daytime weather warms to above freezing the Oliver does great.  We don’t enjoy very cold camping just like we don’t enjoy endless rain days.  Even though the fire pit can warm up the Clam pretty quickly we try to avoid very cold weather.  Mike