INTRO

It's time to winterize your RV. In Staying on the Road, we will break down how to winterize your RV and the importance of doing so. Enjoying the RV life it's going to be all about putting your RV in storage. So, they kind of work hand in hand. It's time to put everything in storage for the wintertime. Then we will visit Gray Wells Provincial Park in British Columbia at the Next Stop.

And then we're going to wrap up the show with RV Envy. And in this episode, we're going to talk about... RV Roof Magic. It has a coating for your roof, so don't get too excited there. There's no magic involved. This is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer podcast, delivering the smarts you need to enjoy the freedom of the RV lifestyle without the fear of breaking down.

ENJOYING THE RV LIFE

So, this is episode 134. So, let's get into it. Welcome to the show today, Alexis.

Alexis- Thanks, Eric. It's good to be here.

Eric- And how are you today?

Alexis- I'm doing swell.

Eric- That's great. All right. So, um, I have no rants today. Well, I always have rants, the RV industry is what it is. The only change is going to come from RV purchasers. And if they stop purchasing new RVs for a year, maybe we'll make some changes. Let's go on strike. But I do want to mention again, that we are one of the top-rated podcasts on player FM, which is cool. And we're making our way up, climbing up the ladder and different platforms as well. So now let's get into Enjoying RV Life.

So today, we're going to talk about putting your RV into storage and that's going to tie into our main part which is about winterizing the RV. So, they go hand in hand. So, we're probably not going to spend as much time on this as we are in the, uh, staying on the road. So, Alexis, what can you tell us about putting your RV in storage or why we need to do that?

Alexis- Right. As you said, we're going to go in more depth with it, but there are some important things that you need to check off when you're putting your RV away for the year. Uh, for one, you need to winterize it properly, you know, don't let it go, don't do it, uh, halfway, you need to do it the right way, and we'll help you figure that out here at Highway 93 RV.

Eric- And two, um, disconnecting the battery, operating devices, appliances, that includes your TVs, your radios, all that kind of stuff. It's a good idea to disconnect so your batteries don't drain, right? And then to cover any, or remove any exposed items, if you have an awning, make sure that it's retracted and secured.

Alexis- Um, inspect your tires and your brakes. This is a great time to look over everything, so you know maybe come springtime what you need to replace or do it during the winter because then you'll be ahead of the game.

Eric- And then don't forget to clean your RV. That's something I think is important because it gets dirty during the year when you use it and if you clean it, that's going to keep the mold and mildew away and you'll just be, you'll be ready to go when you, when you take it back out.

Right. Very good. So, these are all good reminders because many times the focus is just on draining the freshwater system, and all these other things are part of winter preparation, you know, covering things, putting things away, cleaning the outside of the RV, you know, use it all summer long. Maybe you've cleaned it, maybe you haven't, but it's nice to get a good, uh, uh, you know, clean the roof, um, put the UV guard on it, then maybe wax the rest of the RV.

So, everything's nice and tip-top. So, it goes through the winter, and depending on where you're wintering, California is different than, let's say, here in Montana or other states where it's even colder and winter is longer. So that's just a little extra protection while sitting there, and even during the wintertime, you still get UV rays and things on, you know, exactly, you know, the idea to keep the snow off the roof if you can, there's generally going to be a layer depending on where you live, but you know, trying to keep too much or not allowing too much to accumulate.

Yeah, yep. Yeah. And so, it's nice to have a list. If you make a checklist for your RV. So that way in the springtime, you can just reverse it. Yep. You'll thank yourself. Yeah. It makes it easier. And that way you won't forget something. Alexis brought up a good point. You know, inspecting your tires and brakes. Yeah.

You go into wintertime; you're not going to want to replace them for storage. That's for sure. For four or five months, you know, just sit there. That's a waste. Don't do that. It might give you an idea of what you need to do in the springtime, though, or check the brakes during the wintertime and pack the wheel bearings; there are things you can do there.

To get ahead of the springtime, cause... You know, wintertime, depending on where you live, like I said, you can do a lot of these things in some areas. Once you put that RV in a store, it just buried in snow, you know, so make sure it's water-tight when you do that. There are no leaks. Exactly. Sometimes we think that we're covered and we're not.

Then you come in the springtime. It's like, oh man, what happened in here? You know, a host of problems, right? And that roof protects your entire investment. So, keep that roof in good shape. That's where your investment begins. So that's going to bring us to staying on the road now, and this is where we're going to talk about winterizing your RV.

So, previously, in Enjoying the RV Life, we touched on it. Good things, some good pointers, because you want to do certain things besides winter, or get all the water out of your system. You know, here in Montana, people talk about winterizing their RV in the... The main thrust is always just draining the water out, so nothing freezes.

So come springtime, they're not buying faucets, water valves, fittings, things like that. They're trying to avoid that, but there's still more to winterizing your RV than just draining out the water. Sometimes that's the most important thing, depending on where you live. So, you know, you want to make sure that, let's say, your batteries, are you going to leave them out all winter, decide that, if not, put them in where it's a little bit warmer so they don't freeze.

You know, battery companies like Interstate say that a battery can be left out in freezing temperatures if it was fully charged beforehand. So, if you disconnected it and it was fully charged, it should be good throughout the winter. But I hear other things from customers who have done that, and it doesn't work for them, they must buy a new battery come springtime.

So, I recommend just taking your batteries, putting them inside where it's warmer, and putting them on a NoCo charger, a smart charger, so it'll keep them charged all winter long, without overcharging it, because it's a smart charger. It turns on and off, and you can set it to the battery type that you have.

So that's a great way to go, looking at the outside of the RV. And you know, your RV, you know, where you live, you know, where some of those weaker points might be, and take advantage of it during the wintertime. There might be some things that you can do. Like maybe you checked out your tires. They look bad.

And you think, well, maybe you need to check the brakes. Like what Alexis brought out earlier. So, check the brakes during the wintertime, if you can, and take care of some of that stuff in the colder months. That way in spring comes, it's already done. You get ahead of it a little bit. You know if it's possible if your RV is not all snowed in or covered up.

Do some maintenance things during the winter. So that way, springtime comes, and that baby is ready to go or almost ready. You have half of it done. I keep my RV inside, so it makes it easier to do that. It doesn't mean I do it, but it makes it easier to do it. But I try to do what I can. Hopefully, everything's done before I ever put it into storage.

STAYING ON THE ROAD

So, all right, now winterizing your RV. You know, the most important thing here is just to get all the water out of the freshwater system that you do want to drain the black and gray water tanks to make sure that they're empty. You'll never be able to get all the water out of them because of how they're designed, so there's always going to be some water left in there so don't worry about it.

If you have a gallon of water in there, it really shouldn't be an issue. It shouldn't be able to freeze and expand and break anything because it has plenty of room to freeze and expand. You know, if there's some stuck in a three-inch valve, well, it might be a problem, but you're not going to be able to do much about that.

It is what it is unless you can open the valves, you know, before it starts getting cold out and let it air dry as much as it possibly can. So that is an option. Certainly, it wouldn't hurt. There's only so much you can do. Even with the freshwater tank, you can drain it. There's only so much water you can get.

You can get out now. Some people do pour antifreeze in there. Just, uh, be a little air on the side of caution, I guess, and many people do this differently. There are two different ways people do it, blowing out the system and putting RV antifreeze in the system. And I want to emphasize that RV antifreeze, not automotive antifreeze or boiler antifreeze, is made for the freshwater system.

You don't want to mix that up and put the wrong one in there. That could be detrimental. There are things you do. You want to drain all the water out of the system. If your RV has low-point drains, you open those up. It gets all the water out of the water lines because they're at the lowest point. You're going to drain your freshwater tank.

Anywhere you can drain water, you drain the water. Open the faucets inside. That's going to help water drain out. So, draining the systems. Very important. Now, some people don't do a lot with draining it because they're just going to put antifreeze in there and they feel that that's okay, but I would recommend draining it, just getting all the water out and then doing your antifreeze if that's what you're going to do.

But before you get into that, you know, part of draining the water system is making sure your water heater has a water heater bypass kit on it. Some RVs come that way. Some don't. If you've been living in a cold country for a long time, more than likely, it's already done. If you bought the RV in Arizona, you just brought us to North Dakota.

Well, it probably doesn't have a water heater bypass on it. So, you'll want to do that in our store. We do sell a lot of those in the wintertime because people buy RVs from all over the country, and they end up here. Or for some reason, it doesn't have one, but you want to make sure you're bypassing that water heater.

Otherwise, when you put in an RV antifreeze, it's going to go into the water heater. That'll take either 6 or 10 gallons of antifreeze right there. It's a lot of money. It's a waste of money. And the same if you're blowing it out with air, you want to bypass the water heater, so no air is going in there. You know, it's just filling up a tank with air.

That's a waste of air. You want to have all that air pressure going into the rest of the RV. So, the bypass kit for the water heater is very important. This isn't something you should just ignore. Make sure you have one. And be familiar with how it works too. So that bypass kit will come, you know, you drain the water heater after you turn off or bypass the water heater.

Go ahead and drain it. Get all the water out of it. Maybe flush it out. Then you can leave the anode rod or drain plug out. You don't have to put it back in. Some people do, some people don't. I don't think it matters. Um, just make sure there's no water sitting in the threads of the anode rod or where the anode rod is screwed in.

So, it doesn't rust there, and you get a bunch of rust buildup. That can be a problem. It does happen occasionally. So, we're on our way here. We're getting closer. So, you've drained out all the water. You've gotten every bit out as much as you can. And so hopefully, your water or your water pump already has a conversion kit on it.

They will allow you to pump antifreeze through the system. If you don't, then you'll need to purchase one of those. It's not a big deal. Most RV stores are going to sell it. It's a very simple system and it just hooks up to the water heater. I mean to the water pump. permanently and it has a line that goes from it to the gallon jug of antifreeze and you're doing one gallon at a time.

You're just pumping it right into the system. I mean, you could put it in a bigger container if you wanted to, which might not be a bad idea. If you had like a five-gallon bucket, you just pour all five gallons. If you have, if you need more than that, you could have someone standing by to pour in that other gallon once there's room, and that way it never stops moving.

It just goes through the system seamlessly and that way there are no air gaps, no possibilities for anything to cause a problem. It's just going to push that. Air and any water that is raining remaining in there out, and then you can just turn on your pump and let it fill up the system and open one faucet at a time and get the air and then the residual water into pink starts coming out the color of the antifreeze simple and you can let it run a little bit longer.

You know, if you want to use 10 gallons when you only need five, but you want to make sure it's winterized, that's fine. The antifreeze is going to go into the holding tank. It's not going to hurt anything in there. Okay. So, if you go a little bit overboard, antifreeze is relatively cheap compared to a lot of things.

It's not going to hurt anything. That's what I would do. I would err on the side of caution. And, you know, like I said, or no, I didn't say, um, thought I did. So, we have complete instructions. We're winterizing your RV. And if they're not on the smart RV or. com website, they will be by the time this episode is published.

When I say that we're thinking, I'll get published ahead and I don't even need to say it. Alexis, you're supposed to smack me when I start talking like that. All right. So anyway, it'll be on the website. So, you don't have to worry about it. It's on the website. So, it has complete instructions. It's very thorough, very thorough.

And it even covers putting some antifreeze in the pea traps and so forth. That's talking about RV antifreeze on winterizing. And yeah, there are two schools of thought here. Some people like the antifreeze and some people don't. Some people hate it because they feel that it leaves a taste in the water line, so they'll never do it again.

Other people believe in sending air through the system and flushing it out that way. Most dealerships use RV antifreeze. Most technicians use RV antifreeze if that gives you some direction there. So, air is the other way to do it. So, you can get a fitting that hooks up to the city water fill or city water hookup on your RV, and you'd screw that fitting in there.

And you hook up your air compressor to it, that air hose right from your air compressor just goes right onto this fitting. And then you go inside and start turning, opening faucets and stuff like that. Now again, you want to make sure all the water is drained out first. You don't want to blow the water out.

You just want to get as much water out on its own and let it drain. You know, some people even leave their drain valves open overnight. They might take the RV and drive around the block and get some of that water moving that's stuck in odd spots. You know, they're... Get very particular about it, they want to make sure nothing's left in there.

Cause you know, sometimes a little bit of water can cause a lot of damage. Like in a faucet, you know, just a tiny bit of water. If it freezes can break a, um, you know, the fittings in there. So being cautious like that is okay. Or a toilet valve that Dometic hundred-dollar toilet valve. You know, you don't want to buy that every spring, if you can avoid it.

So, draining out the water is the first thing you do, bypassing the water heater, make sure that you're not going to fill it up with air. You know, you drain it out and again, flush it out. It's the same principle as if you're using the antifreeze there. So, you've got all the water out of the system, so now you're going to hook up your air hose to it, and you're going to go inside the RV, and you're going to want to open different faucets.

Starting with the furthest one and then working your way closest back to where, uh, the air comes in. Each faucet is going to spit and sputter, and water is going to come out and little bits of water. Then hopefully no water will come out. Hopefully, you don't have a bunch of water in your air compressor that's going into the system.

So, make sure your air compressor is dry or you got a water separator on it. And that also makes it taste nasty too. That, that air can be bad. And then you're going to do that throughout the RV or just basically you can get all the water out of the system by using air. It's straightforward.

And generally, you're going to find, you know, probably don't ever see it, but there might be some water that finds us a place in a waterline, maybe in an elbow. If there's not enough in there to expand and crack anything, it's fine. It's that expansion that causes the issue and that's why things break.

So that's a good way to go. So, you can use either RV antifreeze, or you can use the air to blow out the system. All of them are good options. The main thing is that you do it some people because they've had so many problems with things breaking, they've, they've, uh, run RV antifreeze through the system, things still break.

They have run air through the system. Things still break. When I say break, they freeze and break. So, they're like, okay, now what do we do? So, what they're doing is they're blowing it out, doing a thorough blowout on the system, and then they're running antifreeze through it. Which makes sense, you know, you get as much out as you can with the air, put the antifreeze in and that should do it every time.

There shouldn't be an issue, but it seems like there is an issue from time to time, no matter how you do it, something, just one of those weird things. I know we hear it a lot about people that get their RV. Uh, winterized at dealerships that something always breaks and I'm not condemning every dealership saying everything that they winterize is breaking.

I'm just bringing that out that that's what we hear, how true it is. I don't know or to the extent of it. I don't know, but I know it happens, but you do want to make sure you do it right. Take your time, you know, talk to some local experts if you have any, if you're not sure, but basically, it's blowing it out with air or using antifreeze RV antifreeze or using them both.

It's a pretty simple process. The main thing is that you do it. And at the end of the day, come springtime, something breaks, you know, it freezes during the wintertime. I wouldn't worry about it. I would just replace the part. I wouldn't overthink it. Like, start kicking yourself. What did I do wrong? How embarrassing, you know, gosh, I hope no one finds out.

It's like, who cares, man, you saved, you saved money by doing it yourself regardless because you would have paid someone to do it. And there's a possibility that things might still have frozen anyway, because of the design of it or something. Had some water in there that just could not get out. I do want to mention, I didn't say this, but it is on our sheet.

Open and close the water valve on the toilet. A lot of people don't do that. They forget to open and close the water valve. Cause when you open it, it's going to allow water to go through or. Antifreeze to go through the air to go through and get all that water out. Don't forget to do that It's just like opening and closing the faucets the same thing.

It's just on the toilet. Take care of the water system That's a priority, but don't forget about everything on the outside making sure that RVs are watertight. There are no cracks up on the roof and the sealant is going to let water in when that snow or rain or snow starts to melt, rain starts coming.

Depending on where you live in the wintertime, the weather is different. You might get more snow than you get rain. You might get more rain than you get snow. Or you might get snow that tends to melt, you know, a couple of days later and all that water on the roof now can leak inside. So, check that, double-check it, triple-check it.

You must keep the RV dry, especially in the wintertime. Well, anytime, because your investment's all in that roof. Alright, so I think I've covered that. Covered it quite a bit, thoroughly. And I know it's a subject we do discuss, uh. At least once every year, but you know, in our store during the wintertime, it's a subject we discuss every day with our customers.

So even though they're aware and we make our customers very aware of things, we run 80 radio ads talking about it, you know, so we're very thorough here. So, it still is that one area that gray area, I guess it just gets overlooked sometimes. All right. So that is going to, oops, wait a minute. I can't move on yet.

I was going to, but I'm not, I got to stop. I got to tell you about our coffee. Yeah, I already did once. Well, I'm telling you again, so it's going to be on smart RV parts center available for purchase. It comes in three flavors. It's a whole bean coffee. Um, we call it camper's coffee. The stuff is awesome.

We have a flavor card called, uh, can't talk 406. Which represents, you know, the 406-area code of Montana, awesome flavor. We have snowed in and cowboy coffee. For any one of these flavors, try them. You'll fall in love with it. I guarantee it. If you like coffee, you're going to like this, and I love it. All right, now let's go to the next stop and we're going to go to way Wells Gray Provincial Park in British Columbia.

Yeah. It's cold out there. You're going to need some coffee. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. In the wintertime, well, even in the summertime it gets cooler. Put some maple syrup in the coffee.

NEXT STOP

So, Alexis is, this is her idea of going here.

Alexis- It is. What is that supposed to mean?

Eric- So that means we're going to let Alexis start this whole conversation off.

Alexis- Sounds good.

Eric- So, Alexis, tell us about it.

Alexis- This place is just cool. I mean, Canada is amazing. Underrated, I think, all parts of it. But there are some natural attractions in Wells Gray. Um, they have a ton of waterfalls. Um, they have rivers. The wildlife is incredible. Really good recreation. They have hiking, camping, and fishing. And you can get to the park year-round, but obviously, it might be more challenging during the winter. So, it's always recommended to go when it's warmer. What else to say? Well, a lot of Canada closes in the wintertime too. That's true. No kidding. Yeah.

Eric- And Alaska and boy, anything open highway was barely open. Yeah, I bet. Okay. So now you've got a million things listed here. So, this is a lot of good information. So, if you go to the website, TheSmartRVer.com, check out the Next Stop. In this entire article, there are a lot of things to do. It's really. Yeah, thorough. Places to eat, of course. You know it. One place that stood out to you, Alexis, that you want to go chomp at.

Alexis- The Painted Turtle restaurant sounded cute. I just like the name more than anything. So that's in Clearwater, British Columbia. That looked cute. And then they always have a pizza place. I think it's called in, I'm probably slaughtering this, but Barriere. British Columbia, there's Sam's Pizza and Rib House.

Eric- That sounds good right now. Yeah. Interesting combo. Can't go wrong. So then are there places for the RVer to stay after you've traveled all that distance? Right, and ate all that pizza.

Alexis- There are a lot of RV parks. It kind of lists it by location, but there's Clearwater Wells Gray KOA. There's Dutch Lake Resort and RV Park. There's the Blue River Campground and RV park, um, Bailey's Salome RV Park. There's just a ton. Just Google the area and you'll find one for sure. Yeah, it sure looks like it.

Eric- So that sounds like a very nice place to go. Generally, we don't venture out of the United States too often. I know. You know, British Columbia is a cool part of Canada. Absolutely. And worth going, a lot of beauty in Canada. I'd say so. So, I would say check that out. And speaking of Canada and beautiful, don't forget to check out RV Destinations magazines. There we go. I'm sure there's something in Canada in that magazine, but the quality of it is just awesome.

And you know, it covers such a diverse area with all these great pitchers. You know, here on a podcast, we can't describe something. Well, we can, but it's not going to be the same, in this magazine from RV Destinations, man, it brings things to life. So, check it out, go to RVDestinationMagazine.com, and see for yourself why we talk about this magazine so much. And by the way, they're not a paid sponsor. We do some trading and stuff, but. We just love the magazine, you know, so there's no, no benefit for us. And in that way, and its good people know that because, you know, we're paying for this show.

RV ENVY

It's not sponsored by anybody. So, we own it. It's our opinion on everything. And we liked that. So now that's going to bring us to RV Envy and we're going to talk about rough magic. So, what is rough magic? Some of you may have heard of it, but many of you probably haven't. But almost everybody out there has, a rubber roof on their RV.

There might be some metal ones. There might be some fiberglass ones, but I'm sure a good chunk of them are rubber roofs and RV roof magic is for you. If your rubber roof is getting old and to the point where you think you need to replace it, generally a rubber roof, you know, doesn't just start tearing.

It just doesn't need to be replaced one day. Like one day is good. One day it's not. Usually, something happens to it where it needs to be replaced. And in that case, like if you get in an accident or a tree falls on your roof, that's a different animal. This is not the product that's going to fix that.

That's going to require a new rubber roof. But this product is for the guy that has an RV. There's maybe 12, 13, 15 years old. The roof is getting to that point where it's starting to, you can see the black underneath the white. The white is flaking off. It's like the roof is just deteriorating. RV Roof Magic is a coating you put on the roof that becomes part of that rubber that's already there and it saves the roof and it's going to add life to it.

I think it's between 10 and 18 years, depending on the condition of the roof when you put it on. Now, RV roof magic is not available in most RV stores. It's an online product, which yeah, I'm generally not too fond of offering those. But these guys seem to have it together. I've talked to them. I've, they have two different companies and I've talked to both, and I like the company, their product.

It makes absolute sense. We've been recommending it here because most of the products you get to paint on your rough that supposedly seal it. They just create more maintenance and I'm talking about the products are maybe like a hundred, two, 300, you know, you painted on, there's a lot of roofing companies for RVs that do like a roof, you know, like RV Roof Magic, but it's much thicker and it's going to last forever.

So that's not the one I'm talking about. It's just a hang elixir-type product. It's like a gallon of paint and after two or three years, it just becomes a maintenance issue. That's not the product you want. You want something like RV Roof Magic. And just so you know, the average RV is about five or six hundred bucks to do, and that's doing it yourself.

It takes one gallon per 50 square feet, and you must do it that way. That's the ratio. You can't thin it out. You can't stretch it because that'll ruin the product, and it won't protect your roof the way it's designed. So, if you want to use it per their instructions, you buy accordingly. And another cool thing is, let's say you buy six gallons, you only use five and a quarter gallons and you've, so you've got three-quarters of a gallon left over.

You must replace a roof vent or two roof vents down the road, completely replace them. Well, that product will sit in the can. I think they said for five years before it goes bad, it's either three or five, but even three years is still pretty good, you know, so that's the kind of stuff you normally take care of before you use a product like this, but if something happened and you had to replace it.

You can hang onto that can for a few years and still have a good product when you go to use it, you know, There's not too many products like that. Even paint shouldn't sit around that long, even though it does, you know, it did change So that's another plus of this. So, check out RVRoofMagic.com and see if it's the product for you.

It's the product for a lot of RVs out there. So, look at it. One final thing I want to say is going to is about going to our YouTube channel and checking out the videos at TheSmartRVer. So, it's YouTube.com, TheSmartRVer. But if you just type in TheSmartRVer, we'll come up, check out our YouTube videos subscribe to them like them.

It helps YouTube understand whether people like them or not if they're valuable. And of course, the more people subscribe, the better it is for us. Then we come up more often in those videos and all these videos are helpful. They're designed to help you. They're to the point. They're not around the bush.

We're not opening boxes and showing you how the box opens and wow, look at this. This is nice. Look at the UPC. None of that garbage. We get to the point. We chuck the boxes. That's what we like to do throw boxes. All right, so that's just a reminder there. Go check out TheSmartRVer on YouTube look at the videos and like and subscribe.

If you like them, then like, and subscribe. The next episode is going to be 135 and one of the big pushes we're going to have in there are conversations to be about. RV Defender. Now RV Defender is a tire blowout system. This product rocks. So, we're going to have an interview with the owner of the company, Zach Patterson in episode 135.

OUTRO

So, I want to thank everybody for listening today, for downloading the show, for liking it, for sharing it, and for subscribing to it. So, this is Eric Stark with TheSmartRVer podcast has been great hanging out with you. If I don't see you on the road, let's conn