Do we need to winterize?

[Sylvia and Bob]

We live in Wisconsin, but store our Born Free in a heated garage. We plan to head down to Florida in a few days and wonder if we will need to winterize before hitting the road. Will the heat on in the cab while we travel and the heat on in the coach when we are camping be enough to keep things from freezing on our way down? At when temperature should we be winterized while traveling? We certainly don't want to do damage on our first snowbird adventure.

Thanks for any assistance with this question.

Bob and Sylvia

[whemme]

Personally I would not risk it. If you left for Florida on the start of a day that was above freezing and you made it far enough south to get out of the freezing zone, then you could probably get away with out winterizing.

You don't say which model Born Free you have but certain water lines within the coach are not very well protected by the cab and coach heat being on while traveling in cold weather. Most of the water lines run right along the floor under the cabinets; the outside shower lines and faucet; the four water line drain valves that protrude thru the floor to the outside; the rear shower water lines are in an outside wall, and the shower U trap are all susceptible to freezing when traveling in below freezing weather.

If you drain and bypass your water heater, it only takes about 1-1/2 gallons of pink RV antifreeze to winterize a Born Free coach. It is a relatively simple process at a cost of only about $7.50.

[shilohdad]

We have traveled with our 2006 24 Rear Bath in sub-freezing weather at night with no problem. We have actually camped (with electricity) in weather as low as 15 degrees. The day we bought our Born Free, we had to stay overnight before Kim could give us our complete walk-through. That night it went down to 24 degrees with sleet! As per Kim's recommendation, we kept our hot water heater on, opened all the cabinet doors to allow air to enter where the pipes are, and ran our 1500 watt electric heater we use to keep the interior of the coach at about 60 degrees. No problem.

Subsequently, we have done this several times. On our last trip to Florida, some nights went down to 15, even at a campground in south Georgia, but warmed up to above freezing during the day. Again, we had no problem. We actually left a few days early, because the weather here at home (lower New York State) was due to go down to a low of 8! I asked Kim about that, and he was somewhat ambivalent. He wouldn't say yes it was OK, but did not want to say it wouldn't work. We erred on the side of plumbing safety and got the heck out of Dodge before the temperature went down quite that low.

So, my take would be - if the temperatures won't go down much below 20 at night, and get above freezing during the day, you will be OK as long as you keep the interior of the coach warm. On our 24 RB, we open all the lower cabinet doors in the kitchen and the bathroom a bit to let the warm air in. So far, so good.

[al1florida]

We have traveled with our 2006 24 Rear Bath in sub-freezing weather at night with no problem. We have actually camped (with electricity) in weather as low as 15 degrees. The day we bought our Born Free, we had to stay overnight before Kim could give us our complete walk-through. That night it went down to 24 degrees with sleet! As per Kim's recommendation, we kept our hot water heater on, opened all the cabinet doors to allow air to enter where the pipes are, and ran our 1500 watt electric heater we use to keep the interior of the coach at about 60 degrees. No problem.

Subsequently, we have done this several times. On our last trip to Florida, some nights went down to 15, even at a campground in south Georgia, but warmed up to above freezing during the day. Again, we had no problem. We actually left a few days early, because the weather here at home (lower New York State) was due to go down to a low of 8! I asked Kim about that, and he was somewhat ambivalent. He wouldn't say yes it was OK, but did not want to say it wouldn't work. We erred on the side of plumbing safety and got the heck out of Dodge before the temperature went down quite that low.

So, my take would be - if the temperatures won't go down much below 20 at night, and get above freezing during the day, you will be OK as long as you keep the interior of the coach warm. On our 24 RB, we open all the lower cabinet doors in the kitchen and the bathroom a bit to let the warm air in. So far, so good.

In your freezing weather examples, had you used your shower and sinks, as well as the toilet?

I would be very concerned about having black & gray water sitting in your drain pipes right where the dump valves are.

Also on my 2005 26RSB, the "P" trap right under the shower would have water in it and would quickly freeze, breaking the PVC pipe.

Attached is a picture of the drain pipe & "P" trap right under my shower and fully exposed to the weather.

[lassen]

We've done two January departures from a heated garage, the water system charged and wet. First time temp was -12 and second time -9, furnace running with cabinet doors open. Run 300 plus miles to Russell,Ks. where temp was in mid twenties. Next morning temps were 15 degrees and second time at 19 degrees. Shower P-trap had anti-freeze and a little in the holding tanks.

It can work,but you have to do things right because there is no room for error in those extreme temps.

Jack

[shilohdad]

al1florida,

We did not use our shower. We did keep antifreeze in the shower trap as long as we were in freezing temperatures. We did use our toilet and sinks. If it was REALLY cold we would put some pink antifreeze into the holding tanks. That rarely happened, as it is only a problem when dumping, and we would do that when temperatures were above freezing. We would only be in freezing temperatures for a day or so while traveling to warmer climes. So, yes, we did use all our fresh water systems except the shower. Apologies to any campers who got too close to us!

When traveling back north we would monitor the weather. If the temperatures were OK, we would wait to winterize until we got home, dumping at the last above freezing location. Otherwise we would winterize someplace on the way home.