Winterising your Leisure Vehicle

How to winterise your leisure vehicle

Now that the temperatures are dropping and winter is making its way in, you might be thinking about storing your leisure vehicle over this period. Here is a guide to help you avoid any unwelcome surprises in the springtime.

1.     Drain your tanks

Make sure you drain all your tanks – fresh and wastewater tanks, as well as your boiler and toilet cassette. Any water left in your leisure vehicle will freeze in the cold weather. This can cause a lot of damage to your tanks as the frozen water expands, meaning it is putting unnecessary stress on your tanks, causing cracks and fractures, later leading to leaks. It is good to vent your fresh and wastewater tanks by leaving the drain valve open. However, make sure to cover them with a mesh covering to avoid and insects or other creatures entering your tanks.

2.     Open your taps

As well as your tanks needing to be emptied, you need to make sure that all water has come out of your taps and hoses. By leaving the taps open it provides room for expansion in case any residual water is in the tap body. You will need to make sure that your pump is turned off.

3.     Remove all food

You will want to remove all food from your fridge, cupboards and any storage spaces. Damp and mould find ways to breed in leisure vehicles, so by removing food you help avoid mould growing. Also, you don’t want to attract any rodents into your leisure vehicle, no matter how well it is hidden, they will be able to smell it and will find a way in. Make sure to give all the interior a good clean to remove any remaining odours or crumbs.

4.     Put the fridge door ajar

By putting the fridge door ajar, you help this space ventilate. As fridges are normally cold, dark and small spaces, they are ideal for mould to appear. So, by making sure your fridge door is ajar, you allow this space to breathe, meaning when you come back to it, you are not met with any funky smells or surprises. Additionally, if you have a separate freezer door, make sure that is ajar too.

5.     Furniture

It may be worth considering taking soft furnishings into the house. Alternatively, to maximise the ventilation throughout your leisure vehicle, it is ideal to put your seat/bench cushions onto their sides. There are plenty of fixed ventilation points throughout leisure vehicles, including underneath your benches, so by putting your cushions on their sides, you allow the ventilated air to travel further into your leisure vehicle. To help protect your soft furnishings, you can place a breathable covering such as a cotton sheet over them. You can close your blinds to protect the inside from sunlight, however if they are spring operated it is not recommended. Over time the springs become stretched and weakened; instead, you can create cardboard cut-outs for your window.

6.     Maintaining battery power

Lack of use for long periods of time can cause serious damage to both your engine and leisure batteries. The vehicle being sat for a period of a couple of weeks is enough to deplete the engine battery to the point it will not be able to start the vehicle. To help avoid this, regular driving is an option to help recharge them. This comes with the added bonus of helping maintain the engine, as the drive will need to be at least an hour long to ensure a period of driving at normal operating temperature to keep all the working parts at their best. Alternatively, if you have a solar panel of at least 40W on your roof, it is likely to provide enough power while in storage to keep your vehicle and leisure batteries topped up (check your control system allows for the solar panel to charge your vehicle battery as well).

7.     Vehicle base

Most base vehicles for motorhome and campervans are based on a commercial vehicle designed to work every day, so if you are storing the vehicle, you need to make sure you check the following. Increase the strength of the washer fluid solution as recommended by the manufacturer to make sure it is protected if temperatures reach sub-zero. As well as this it is ideal to top up your fuel tank before storing, as moisture in the air can cause corrosion to your fuel tank or can cause water to get into your fuel. To help protect your tyres from getting flat spots, you can inflate them to the maximum recommended pressure by the manufacturer. It is recommended to use chocks on the wheels, and to put the engine into gear to secure the vehicle instead of keeping the handbrakes on. This is because the handbrake is likely to seize up on the brake discs or drums over the winter. If you have self-levelling fitted to your motorhome, you can use this to lift the motorhome enough off the ground so that there is no weight on the tyres. This also adds as another security feature.

8.     Gas systems

Check all valves on gas cylinders and underslung tanks are closed.