As I mentioned in my last blog post, I winterized the trailer for the second time in a month. When I winterized it the first time I was well aware of our camping reservations for the New Years Holiday. However, $6.00 in RV antifreeze and an hour of my time is pretty cheap insurance against a potential freeze.

I’d love to know how many times I have winterized a travel trailer. At the very least, I’ve done it over 30 times. I’m happy to say at the risk of jinxing myself, that I’ve never had an issue doing it myself.

It always surprises me each time we purchase a new trailer, just how different they are set up from a mechanical perspective. Most of the time, this wasn’t an issue, but there were a couple of exceptions.

In the Coachmen Travel Trailer that we owned for over eight years, it was a real pain to winterize. The water pump was located under the bed. Once you took everything out of that storage area, there was a panel that had to be removed, along with a dozen screws. Then, I had to lay on my left side in the fetal position to access the water pump, water heater bypass valves, and the winterizing line. It was by far the most frustrating trailer to winterize because the pump would never self prime. So while I lay on my side with a water bottle next to me, I would take a mouthful of water and blow it into the tube. 

Gross, I know, but I never found a better, or less messy way to do it. Once it started drawing the water, I pushed the tube into the jug of antifreeze. Then I went about the business of running antifreeze through the lines. I was always overjoyed that I wouldn’t need to do it for another year.

Fast Forward to 2015 and we have the 24RBS Jayco. I struggled to find the water heater bypass valves. When I located them I was frustrated to see that they were located almost out of reach under the kitchen cabinets. Jayco in their wisdom (or perhaps just convenience) placed them deep into the back corner. In this case I had to lay on my side and use my left arm to reach about three feet under and feel for the bypass valves. I could barely touch them, so turning them with just my fingertips was even harder.

This shows just how out of touch manufacturers are with what potential owners go through on their rigs. It’s as if none of them have ever owned or used an RV. Unfortunately, the bypass valves aren’t the only big misses, but I bet it’s something no one thinks about when they buy a travel trailer. Not that it would be a show stopper if everything else checks all the boxes.

We were always surprised at how RV manufacturers miss a pantry, or a cabinet for a full size trash can. Those kind of things are really a necessity. If you have dogs, you can forget about having trash in the open. Unless of course, you can absolutely trust your dog. Up until Eva, we would have been able to get away with that approach, but we never had to. Since the Word “No” or “Don’t” doesn’t seem to be in Eva’s vocabulary, everything is baby proofed. This is probably a topic for another post…

On the Captiva, even though winterizing was a literally a pain, it did check every box for us. As I have said before, it had the most wonderful kitchen of any trailer we have ever owned, not to mention countertop and storage. 

So now we come to our current 2017 2950RL Imagine. This trailer actually had a lot of thought put into it. It checked (and still checks) all the boxes for us. Even in the winterizing department, it is easy to reach the water heater bypass valves. They are located behind a panel under the bathroom sink. I added a plastic door in the panel so I can easily access them. The water pump is located in the outside storage area where i added another plastic door to easily access it.

I didn’t time myself when we got home from Martin Dies Jr State Park on Tuesday, but I spent less than an hour re-winterizing. This time, it was quite unpleasant due to the cold weather. However, it’s something you don’t want to rush, because that’s the time you’ll wake up in the middle of the night and realize you missed something. That something will probably be important and maybe costly.

I’m glad I tackled it right away. The weather here has been unpredictable and there is some below freezing weather getting ready to roll in. Now, I can relax and not worry about the travel trailer. If you haven’t winterized your travel trailer, bad things may have already happened – you better go check.

We have already started scheduling trips for 2024 – If you haven’t you’ll want to start.