Winter Storage Questions

R

Ronanmd1

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 3, 2013
Messages
133
Location
Calgary, AB
Hey guys - Tried searching the forum, but couldn't find specific answers to these questions. Never owned a camper before, so I have some questions related to my winter storage...

1. The camper is in stored on its jacks in my heated garage. I plan to lower it onto some pallets as well. I presume I should store it with the top lifted if possible?

2. The master power switch is turned off. The truck has 2 AGM batteries as well as the factory supplied isolator and solar controller. Should I keep the camper plugged in using the shore power adaptor while it is sitting there to maintain the batteries? Do this intermittently? Constantly?

3. I drained all water before storage, but don’t really know whether I need to fill with non-toxic antifreeze since it is inside for the winter. The jugs seem to come as 4 litre jugs and the instructions say not to dilute it. That would mean somewhere between 10-15 jugs to fill it up! Seems not right, but I have never had a camper before. Should I just leave it drained and refill/bleach it in the spring?

4. Finally, if I decide to use a generator with the set up in my camper, how do I actually use the generator to charge the batteries in the camper? Do plug the generator into the camper using the shore plug? Do I connect to one of the 2 batteries in the camper directly?


Thanks for the help,

Jason
 
Jason when I sent the earlier welcome message to you I hadn't seen this question to the forum from you - I don't have all the answers for you, but as to number 1; I had a dolly built to lower the camper frame onto and thus am able to move it around inside the garage and can hug the sides and move to ready for packing, etc. with ease. The metal dolly has three 4x8's on it so that the camper lowers onto soft base. The casters were a bit hard to find, and are probably overbuilt (each will hold 800 lbs) When the camper is on the truck, I lay the dolly up agains the garage wall and out of the way; otherwise the cammper is on the dolly during winter storage. I also leave the top extended up. I also just had Terry Budd at FWC supply the thermo liner for summer and winter. I'm not good at adding photos to topics but as soon as I learn I'll send a photo of the dolly. good luck, Terry
 
You said the batteries in your truck? I assume you meant Camper? AGM batteries are less susceptible to cold than lead acid but I would not let it be in freezing conditions for extended periods, and they should also be stored in a charged condition. They however do not like over charging. I'd either do a thorough exam of the specs on your shore power charger compared to the battery manufacturer specs for charging or have it disconnected, monitor the condition and plug in when needed to top off. The other alternative is a battery maintainer if you want to plug in and forget. If you get the battery specs and go to a Batteries Plus type business they can set you up with a maintainer. Typical AGM batteries are good with an 80% discharge duty cycle. It would probably be best to cycle the batteries once a month. That is not needed but certainly could not hurt.
 
With regard to a Generator....... That's an easy one. Start it up and plug it in to your shore power. Plug the blender in and get out the rum.

BTH... love Canada. Just returned from BC/Skeena.
 
Kispiox - oops, yes I meant the camper batteries. The garage is heated, so I don't expect prolonged freezing. The battery maintainer sounds like a simple solution.

My wife will like the sound of that blender! That area of BC is amazing. I grew up on Vancouver Island, but got up that way occasionally.

Thanks for the input.

Jason
 
Others may disagree, but I have to tell you that unless you want to run 110V AC appliances in the bush it is just weight and fuel storage not needed. My Hawk with solar, AGM batteries and LED lighting can be lit up like a Christmas tree till midnight and again early and be fully charged via solar by mid to late morning. AGMs also recharge at a much faster rate than lead acid.

They also make low voltage DC blenders!
 
Ronanmd1 said:
Hi Jason, Welcome to the forum. I expect that you are enjoying your new FWC. I have had mine for 1.5 yrs and I am new to RV's. I went through the same question period as you did. This is an excellent place garner info as many of the contributors are very experienced. I will offer what I have learned and what I do as we live in the same neck of the woods.

Hey guys - Tried searching the forum, but couldn't find specific answers to these questions. Never owned a camper before, so I have some questions related to my winter storage...

1. The camper is in stored on its jacks in my heated garage. I plan to lower it onto some pallets as well. I presume I should store it with the top lifted if possible?

I built a dolly - with wheels from Princess Auto to set the camper on. This works well for me as I like to sit in the camper and drink beer while I am plotting, planning, fiddling and puttering for the upcoming year. I can move my Hawk around the garage and put the top up or down or whatever. The Dolly is very handy if you are using your garage for storage.


2. The master power switch is turned off. The truck has 2 AGM batteries as well as the factory supplied isolator and solar controller. Should I keep the camper plugged in using the shore power adaptor while it is sitting there to maintain the batteries? Do this intermittently? Constantly?

I left mine plugged in all winter last year ... not sure if this was the right thing to do or not. I am using 1 battery as issued from the factory. My Hawk is a 2010. The battery lasts about 4 days in one spot with no furnace. I went 10 Days on a bear hunt with just running the truck occasionally. I am not sure if storing it over the winter like this did damage or not. This year I intend to charge the battery once a month and run it down a little bit (while drinking beer and hiding from the Mrs :D ) I will set a reminder on my phone. I invite anyone who knows better to jump in here!

3. I drained all water before storage, but don’t really know whether I need to fill with non-toxic antifreeze since it is inside for the winter. The jugs seem to come as 4 litre jugs and the instructions say not to dilute it. That would mean somewhere between 10-15 jugs to fill it up! Seems not right, but I have never had a camper before. Should I just leave it drained and refill/bleach it in the spring?

This is important. Consider that we live in a very cold climate compared to some of our brethren to the south. I spoke with Terry at FWC on this. He advised to be on the safe side run the antifreeze through the lines. I purchased 1 big jug from home depot, poured it directly into the water tank,(You do not really need much) ran the pump until the faucet, the shower, and the little glass thingy under the sink ran and showed pink. There is a shut off valve to block the anti freeze from entering the aluminum hot water tank. In Terry's words best to do this than get any surprises in the spring. I did this last winter with no issues.

This said if your garage stays heated it may not be required. I simply flushed my water tank out in the winter without issue..

4. Finally, if I decide to use a generator with the set up in my camper, how do I actually use the generator to charge the batteries in the camper? Do plug the generator into the camper using the shore plug? Do I connect to one of the 2 batteries in the camper directly?

As mentioned earlier, run the genny, and plug it in. I bought a honda 2000. It fits nicely at the back door with a small gerry can. The rubber footing prevents it from sliding. The Honda kept the battery up with running the furnace just a couple of days ago while hunting Bighorns in Alberta.

PS: The Generator also runs the AC too!

Thanks for the help,
Jason
Click to expand...
 
Ramblinman said:
Hi Jason, Welcome to the forum. I expect that you are enjoying your new FWC. I have had mine for 1.5 yrs and I am new to RV's. I went through the same question period as you did. This is an excellent place garner info as many of the contributors are very experienced. I will offer what I have learned and what I do as we live in the same neck of the woods.

Hey guys - Tried searching the forum, but couldn't find specific answers to these questions. Never owned a camper before, so I have some questions related to my winter storage...

1. The camper is in stored on its jacks in my heated garage. I plan to lower it onto some pallets as well. I presume I should store it with the top lifted if possible?

I built a dolly - with wheels from Princess Auto to set the camper on. This works well for me as I like to sit in the camper and drink beer while I am plotting, planning, fiddling and puttering for the upcoming year. I can move my Hawk around the garage and put the top up or down or whatever. The Dolly is very handy if you are using your garage for storage.


2. The master power switch is turned off. The truck has 2 AGM batteries as well as the factory supplied isolator and solar controller. Should I keep the camper plugged in using the shore power adaptor while it is sitting there to maintain the batteries? Do this intermittently? Constantly?

I left mine plugged in all winter last year ... not sure if this was the right thing to do or not. I am using 1 battery as issued from the factory. My Hawk is a 2010. The battery lasts about 4 days in one spot with no furnace. I went 10 Days on a bear hunt with just running the truck occasionally. I am not sure if storing it over the winter like this did damage or not. This year I intend to charge the battery once a month and run it down a little bit (while drinking beer and hiding from the Mrs :D ) I will set a reminder on my phone. I invite anyone who knows better to jump in here!

3. I drained all water before storage, but don’t really know whether I need to fill with non-toxic antifreeze since it is inside for the winter. The jugs seem to come as 4 litre jugs and the instructions say not to dilute it. That would mean somewhere between 10-15 jugs to fill it up! Seems not right, but I have never had a camper before. Should I just leave it drained and refill/bleach it in the spring?

This is important. Consider that we live in a very cold climate compared to some of our brethren to the south. I spoke with Terry at FWC on this. He advised to be on the safe side run the antifreeze through the lines. I purchased 1 big jug from home depot, poured it directly into the water tank,(You do not really need much) ran the pump until the faucet, the shower, and the little glass thingy under the sink ran and showed pink. There is a shut off valve to block the anti freeze from entering the aluminum hot water tank. In Terry's words best to do this than get any surprises in the spring. I did this last winter with no issues.

This said if your garage stays heated it may not be required. I simply flushed my water tank out in the winter without issue..

4. Finally, if I decide to use a generator with the set up in my camper, how do I actually use the generator to charge the batteries in the camper? Do plug the generator into the camper using the shore plug? Do I connect to one of the 2 batteries in the camper directly?

As mentioned earlier, run the genny, and plug it in. I bought a honda 2000. It fits nicely at the back door with a small gerry can. The rubber footing prevents it from sliding. The Honda kept the battery up with running the furnace just a couple of days ago while hunting Bighorns in Alberta.

PS: The Generator also runs the AC too!

Thanks for the help,
Jason
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Ramblin man - Thanks for the advice. What part of AB are you located in?

I have a few more specific questions related to the antifreeze. Did you only put in one 4L jug? I thought I needed much more than that. Can you be more specific on the which valve you shut off to prevent the fluid from getting into the hot water tank. Is that the bottom valve in the instruction manual on the line that runs horizontal?

If I am correct, the procedure would be as follows:

1. Turn off valve to hot water tank
2. Pour 4L jug into water tank using fill spout on side of camper
3. Open sink lines and run water pump until pink comes out fawcet
4. Open shower lines until pink comes out shower
5. Open rear drain spout briefly until some pink comes out

Leave until spring. Sorry to be specific, just want to be sure I get this correct.

Jason
 
Agreed Rambliman,... AC as in Air Conditioning, is the best reason for a generator, but didn't dawn on me that you Albertans had that concern. Or as you point out, if your camper is going to be jacked free for prolonged periods of time in the bush. ("bush", meaning big canopy forest during prolonged cloudy conditions) However, if that's the case, I would make up a pigtail so that could just bring the truck along side and plug in to charge during morning warm up rather than carrying the generator. Originally I was going to get a second solar panel but the demand is just not there. As stated earlier, my opinion is based on Skeena BC cloudy, wet and cold worst possible conditions. In fact, I have left the outside lighting on all night just to try and draw down the batteries to maximum duty cycle. Even on a cloudy day the solar does the job. However, please note my camper is all LED, two AGMs and solar.

To upgrade a camper with LED, battery capacity and solar vs. cost of generator is an easy calculation, in terms of amp hours and cost balanced against convenience and physical storage considerations.
 
- Air Chuck Adapter to Hawk water inlet = $8 at home depot
- Low Water Drain for Hawk = Free from factory install
- Adding 40lbs of compressor air through the Hawk water lines & pump = Priceless! (and takes about 3:30 to completely winterize, chemical free)



(Note: Don't forget to drain your hot water tank too, that takes about 2 minutes)

Just my worth
 
First you should empty your water tank through the drain valve, then run the faucet until you get only air, I'm told (I don't have a water heater, so don't have to worry about that.) If you go with antifreeze, you only need a small amount to fill the drain line and pump through the sink lines, to displace any water left. You don't have to fill the tank with the stuff, one bottle should be enough.

Regarding battery charge, again I'm told the charger installed by FWC is a basic version not designed to be powered full time, but can be upgraded by plugging in an advanced controller. I found this link here on WtW which supposedly fits the charger supplied by FWC, but please understand I haven't taken my cover off to check this myself: http://www.solar-electric.com/smarcharconi.html If this is not the one to use, at least the link lists some of the issues we need to consider before leaving shore power hooked up all winter. You could probably get by with attaching shore power one day out of each month of storage, if that fits your situation.
 
Edmonton!

There should be two valves - one runs to a house that goes no where and the other one goes to the hot water. Simply turn it 90 degrees.

I drive around with the white plastic screw removed from the side of the camper for a couple of days because the water just seems to keep coming out. I also leave the drain spout at the rear beside the door open while going through this procedure. A drive to and from work should suffice. I leave the white plastic bolt out (which is a pain in the arse to get undone) and I put that bolt in the drawer of the camper so I will hopefully stumble upon it in spring when I am getting the camper ready.

I close the little spout by the door.

Then I run all the taps (for me this is the shower and inside tap) Hot only and then cold only until just air comes out (Be sure to put the water pump on)

I pour the 4L (Big one from Home depot) into the water spout - more of this runs down my arm than anything so wear old clothes.

Then I run all the taps until they run pink

I confirm the little glass water pump gizmo shows pink inside.

I will PM you my phone number. You can call if you like and I will talk you through. It really only takes 10 Mins. I was also a little edgy wanting to get it just right. Once you learn how the system works - it all makes sense.

Did I miss anything?

You better hurry its getting freakin cold up here. :D
 
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