[Archived]

Go south.

I could not be more serious. With no shore power the electrical concerns I have increase exponentially if you also want to keep the coach warm. Winterizing is a complex and often inadequate way to protect systems and devices. It is too easy to fail to winterize something and then the problems really begin.

[DON]

Thanks Jon, schedule is to take the coach down to NAples, Thankgiving, one week prior …

per your note I should take it down earlier to avoid issues? Say end of OCtober?

[Archived]

YES!

Without power, and sitting outside, you run big risks of something happening that will cost you big money.

Head south the middle of October or sooner to be safe.

[Tim]

Thanks Mark…I guess I have change POR schedule….last year when I left MI, same time frame, we had an ice storm, “plastic coach” was frozen all the way to Tenessee and the drive was a challenge….good reminder, thx

[DON]

We are not trying to be negative, but are attempting to make you understand all of what you are thinking about is possible, but with risks.

Whether the risks are associated with the electrical question or winterization the consequences have the potential to have substantial costs. Tom correctly points out the deep discharge of batteries and then recharging is going to accelerate your need for batteries. Keeping batteries charged and limiting battery depth of discharge greatly extends battery life so you save a lot of money. Being powered on reliable shore power saves fuel, batteries and you have far less risk of failure.

When you add sub freezing temperatures to the equation and the need to protect the coach systems from freezing your risks ramp up. A coach can be winterized. Several PC members do that. But as our coaches got more and more well equipped the complexity of winterization has increased. We have water lines we often don’t consider, we have appliance components that hold water and that water has to be purged or replaced with anti-freeze. We have traps in drains we cannot get at. They need to be filled with anti-freeze. When I look at my plumbing and its multiple systems just the thought of winterization scares me. How do I protect the RO water system and all the devices it is connected to? How do I know I have anti-freeze in the low spots of the hot and cold water lines as they snake through the bays and plumbing chases?

And even if I actually succeeded in getting every single water line and drain empty of water and replaced with anti-freeze what do I have to go through when I want to use the coach? I cannot imagine how much flushing of the systems I would have to do to get the anti-freeze from the washer, refrigerator ice maker lines, the RO cartridges, the coffee maker, plus all the water lines, the pump, the HW heaters, etc.

You get the picture when you start examining your coach.

[Archived]

An airstream or two, is plenty pain the “hat” when it comes to winterizing. 15 years ago, it took us a day and half half to winterized a Country Coach Affinity—-the barn became insulated and heated

Plumbing is one thing, there are parasitic battery drains on our Marathons. The inverter fans are directly wired to house batteries,moor one. When we changed 0586eXV graphics, we followed Marathons protocol, two weeks later batteries dead, unrecoverable. Head south!!!!

[joel]

Even if all goes well with winterization process a marathon with batteries shut off could have failure with internal battery in the tech link computer, causing failure requiring you to send the unit back to marathon….Many things to consider when talking about a coach being left unplugged for any period of time…..

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1999 XLV X-6872,  liberty #440

[Brian]

This discussion should be of great interest to potential buyers and new owners.

In an ideal world your coach should be in a heated or well insulated building that will never approach freezing temperatures, it will have a reliable 50 amp power supply and it should be a few steps from your house so you can monitor it every day.

Is that possible? Yes, and a lot of us have exactly that means to store our coach when it is not in use. As soon as you take away any of the three elements I described above the storage of a coach becomes more complex. Much more complex.

Even with power and freeze protection things can go wrong and frequent monitoring is really beneficial. If you don’t have power or freeze protection the discussions relating to that show clearly there are risks that can be substantial. So if you are planning to buy a coach, or have just purchased one try to protect the coach as described above because it will pay big dividends.

If I cannot keep my coach secured in a building where it is protected and which has power I will not own a coach.

[Archived]

DT, last fall we got stuck later than normal (for reasons unrelated to the bus) in SE Wi. Got nervous at 18 deg. If we had not had a reliable 30A or greater power source, I would have driven the bus to our Fla home and flown back to Wi to finish our buisness. Geo.

[Dorel]

Thank you everyone, due to coach complexity I wanted to confirm with the experts for best practice.

Appreciate your input!