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How to Winterize Your RV or Travel Trailer in Six Easy Steps

Temperatures will soon be dropping, which means you’ll need to prepare your RV for winter. This will protect your RV from damage caused by low temperatures. If you live somewhere warm, these steps are unnecessary, but for those of us in colder climates, it is paramount that we properly winterize our RVs.

Winterizing your RV doesn’t need to be difficult. Just follow these six steps and you’ll be set for the off season.

What you will need:

  • 2 jugs of RV antifreeze
  • Small receptacle that fits in your sink

Step One: Empty black and gray tanks.

It’s important to begin the winterization process with empty black and gray water holding tanks. Once this step is complete, close the valves.

Step Two: Drain the freshwater tank.

To complete this step, you will need to turn off the water pump. Then you can drain the water and close the valve when you are finished.

Step Three: Clear your water lines.

Put a small receptacle that fits in your RV’s sink, like a bucket or bowl, under the faucet. This will catch water so that it doesn’t go back into your tanks. Next, open the hot and cold sides of the faucet and turn on the water pump until the water ceases to flow. This could take about fifteen minutes. Repeat this process on every sink or shower in your RV.

Faucet that is running water.

Once that is complete, place a bucket under the drain valves. Open the low-point valves (these should remain open). After your water lines are cleared, remember to close all faucets and replace drain plugs to prepare for antifreeze.

However, you should open the water heater plug at this time.

Step Four: Bypass the hot water heater.

Many RVs come with a hot water heater bypass system, but some do not. In the case that your RV does not have one, you can purchase one or have it installed by a professional - or you can just skip this step altogether. This step is technically optional because bypassing the hot water heater with the valve simply prevents antifreeze from entering the tank. While antifreeze will not damage your hot water heater, filling it isn’t really necessary and allowing antifreeze to enter would be a waste of at least six gallons.

In any case, you should close your low point drain valves before proceeding.

Step Five: Prepare to fill with antifreeze.

To begin adding antifreeze to your RV plumbing system, you will first need to make sure that you have installed a water pump converter kit. With this in place, you will want to find the siphon from the kit and insert it into one gallon of nontoxic pink RV antifreeze.

Step Six: Let the RV antifreeze run through your system.

Turn on the faucet closest to your water pump and let it flow until you start to see pink. Be sure to do this with both the cold and hot water faucets.

Next, turn on all faucets for sinks and showers and open the toilet valves in addition to all exterior faucets and ports, allowing the antifreeze to flow through your entire system. Flush the toilet until you can see the pink antifreeze. It is also wise to pour about one cup of antifreeze down each drain and the toilet.

Lastly, you need antifreeze to flow through the city water intake. This should be located on the outside of your RV. To complete this step, take off the cap and remove the screen. Then, push on the valve until you see antifreeze. After this is done, you can replace the screen and the cap.

Step Six: Disconnect from antifreeze.

Now that you have drained your tanks and allowed antifreeze to flow throughout your system, you can put it away. Once this is done, you can turn the water pump off and stow the gallon of leftover antifreeze. 

Couple walking in the snowy woods.

And that’s it! You’re ready to store your RV for the winter.

To go the extra mile, there are a few more things you can do to keep your RV in its best condition during the winter, such as emptying your fridge and cupboards of food that could spoil or attract pests, turning off or unplug appliances or other electronics, and making sure the propane valve is off. You should also check your manufacturer’s recommendations for maintaining the battery during the winter.

If you are uncertain about any of these steps for your Grand Design RV, feel free to contact us with your questions or ask your local Grand Design RV service center .

Solitude covered in snow with the snow-covered mountains in the background.

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It's Time to Winterize Your Rig

GDRV4Life's picture

Nobody likes to think that an end will come to their camping season. For some winterizing your rig is not a necessary part of ownership for others, this is a reality. 

These two videos walk you through each of the two all in one system which Grand Design uses in their rigs. 

During this process, if you happen to find any problems with your plumbing system it is a great time to notify your dealer and schedule service and/or let Grand Design know you are having some issues with your rig by submitting a service request .

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IMAGES

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COMMENTS

  1. Grand Design How-To Series -- Standard Winterization

    Here is a brief video about how to winterize your Grand Design RV which has a standard utility center, not the Grand Design Exclusive Nautilus system. Comment * Switch to rich text editor. Name . Submit a Post; GDRV Calendar; Featured. Tips & Tricks. Animals and the Road. by: estahley.

  2. Grand Design How-To Series -- Standard Winterization

    Here is a brief video about how to winterize your Grand Design RV which has a standard utility center, not the Grand Design Exclusive Nautilus system.**Pleas...

  3. How to Winterize Grand Design RV

    Learn How to Winterize a Grand Design RV Camper Step-By-Step. Also a Great tip on water line washer replacement when you need one and aren't near an RV part...

  4. Winterizing your Grand Design with a Nautilus System

    Here are the step by step instructions on how to winterize your Grand Design RV when it is equipped with the Nautilus all in one system.**Please be sure to u...

  5. How to Winterize Your RV or Travel Trailer in Six Easy Steps

    Grand Design's commitment to exceeding customer expectations, in quality and service, has quickly made the Reflection a top-selling name in North America. ... Explore More Spend Less. The Reflection 100 Series of half-ton towable fifth-wheel RV's is an ideal solution for those seeking a feature-packed RV at a reasonable price. Its lightweight ...

  6. De-winterization videos for Nautilus and Standard Systems

    These videos represent the most common systems in Grand Design RVs. Older RVs could have variations or different systems. Please refer to your owner's manual for more details. If you need further assistance, please feel free to contact Grand Design Customer Service at 574-825-9679 or via email at [email protected].

  7. Winterizing Our Rigs

    Winterizing Our Rigs. 09-07-2020, 04:09 PM. Well, the Labor Day weekend is a wrap and snow started flying in the Rockies over the weekend. So that means that very soon, you'll need to start thinking about getting your RV ready for freezing temperatures. If you've been on RV forums for very long, you'll have noticed that there are tons of ...

  8. HELP 2970rl Winterizing

    It is recommended the water heater be drained and bypassed during the winterization process particularly if introducing RV antifreeze into the plumbing system. Page 98 shows the heater bypass procedure and notes the valve location--it's located at the back of the water heater, not at the panel.

  9. How to Winterize your Fifth Wheel or Travel Trailer

    Winterizing your RV can sound like an intimidating job, but it doesn't have to be! In this video I'll take you step by step through our process of winterizin...

  10. Winterize your RV Using Antifreeze! Grand Design Imagine ...

    *Here is the updated version of this video: https://youtu.be/e8SY7P8Fm5I* SHOP RV PRODUCTS! Our new AMAZON store has officially launched! https://www.amazo...

  11. Winterizing- Done Right!

    By HampyCampers. RV Winterizing- Done Right! Share. Watch on. Submit a Post. GDRV Calendar.

  12. It's Time to Winterize Your Rig

    For some winterizing your rig is not a necessary part of ownership for others, this is a reality. These two videos walk you through each of the two all in one system which Grand Design uses in their rigs. During this process, if you happen to find any problems with your plumbing system it is a great time to notify your dealer and schedule ...

  13. A Beginner's Guide to Winterizing Your RV! (How We Winterized Our Grand

    This video shows how we winterize our Grand Design Imagine XLS 22MLE. This video shows our experience, but we would recommend that you always reference your ...

  14. Winterizing with air

    12-28-2019, 01:37 PM. I don't see a need to do both (air and antifreeze). Either is sufficient. We don't winterize any more (full-timers), but when we winterized our previous travel trailer, we cleared the lines with an air compressor, ran the pump until it was dry, and poured some antifreeze in the traps in the sinks and shower.

  15. Travel Trailer How To

    We just bought Grand Design 2800 BH travel trailer. This video comes from our walkthrough. General RV was nice enough to allow us to film segments of our P...

  16. Winterizing a Furion Tankless Water Heater

    It staes to first turn handles to "Powerfill" and open low point drains and water heater drains. Turn Red, Blue, Green and White handles to a 45* angle and blow out with 40 psi air. Close all drains. Then turn handles to "Winterize" and pump in the RV anifreeze. Turn Blue,Green and White handles to 45* for 10 seconds and then back to "Winterize".

  17. Winterizing with solar panel

    11-15-2022, 03:14 PM. Hello everyone, I am winterizing my 2022 Reflection 31MB. I live in Long Island New York. Do I need to remove the battery or will the furrion solar panel and MPPT solar charge controller keep the battery charged throughout the winter. If I do remove the battery, does the, solar panel need to be covered, and the solar ...