After-Trip RV Maintenance and Storage – Part 1 – Bernice’s Tips

Eventually, most of us go to someplace we call home. It’s a place to regroup and reflect on what we learned on the road. Yet once we arrive home, there are still RV maintenance tasks that need to be done. Here are suggestions to help you.

• At the end of each trip, pour two ounces of chlorine bleach down each drain and flush with water to retard bacteria and keep odors down. – Herb and Mary-LouPletcher, Taneytown, MD
  
• Baking soda can be poured down drains to sweeten them. – Herb and Mary-LouPletcher, Taneytown, MD
  
• Rubber molding covers screwheads on an RV’s outside seams. Water can collect beneath it and become stagnant, and mold can form. To clean the molding, remove it and soak it overnight in a chlorine bleach solution. (Use a 5-gallon bucket filled three-quarters full with water and add 1 pint of bleach-or more if mold is excessive.) Wash the area where the rubber molding was removed with the bleach solution. This kills the fungus that causes the mold. Also you can wipe the molding with a rag dipped in acetone. Acetone should be used carefully as it is highly volatile. – Carroll and Joyce Dell, Littlestown, PA
  
• If you normally keep plants in your RV, remove them whenever you plan not to use your RV for a while. Plants cannot tolerate the extreme high and low temperatures that might occur in a vehicle out of operation. – Professor Thomas C. Weiler, Department of Horticulture, Cornell University
  
• Put mothballs in a metal (nonflammable) jar lid and place inside the water heater door (away from the main burner). This will deter spiders from nesting and/or laying eggs. – Pete Jones, Westminster, MD
  
• When your unit is in storage, moth crystals in an open small jar placed in outside access compartments to the heater and refrigerator help keep spiders from building nests in the gas nozzles (jets). Always remember to remove the jars before activating the appliances-the crystals are flammable. – Shirley and Jack Lippy, Westminster, MD
  
• To winterize your RV: (1) blow out your RV’s water system, add RV antifreeze, and open and drain the water pump and water heater; (2) make sure the batteries are fully charged or remove them; (3) change the engine oil and filter; (4) clean and seal the roof as needed; (5) run the auxiliary power generator until the carburetor is dry of gasoline, then change the generator oil and filter. – Elmer “Butch” Bitzer, Reichart’s Camping Center, Hanover, PA
  

Next week I’ll cover more after-trip maintenance and storage tips including items related to RV covers, battery terminals, and unloading your RV.

Enjoy your RVing!
Bernice