Parking/Storing for 3 Months

[Jim & Alice]

Hoping for some advice.   We are parking our 36' Class A Dolphin Motorhome for three months, on our private lot in the Yuma, AZ area.   Timing is early-October thru early-January.     

Wondering... What actions for storing should we consider?    I am currently planning to... disconnect house batteries... turn off water.... turn off Electricity (Breaker)... drain tanks... close slide-outs... Dish down...   I also wonder about leaving water hose hooked up, sewer hose hooked up, electricity cable hooked up.

Am I missing anything?

Thanks much,

Jim

 

[bobsallyh]

We own a lot here in the Foothills also and here now. We have never "stored" the rig here but are familiar with folks that do so. Both in parks and private lots.

Disconnect house batteries---yes

turn off water at the source (faucet). If you are on Far West water, I'd turn the water off on your side of the wall. store hoses also because of UV rays

turn off electricity at breaker

tanks, you could leave some water in each tank, not necessary though

sewer hose, if covered let it hooked up, but shut valve, if out in the sun, store it as it may save you several months of use. sun loves the blue, brown, and red sewer hoses.

power cable to the rig, pick up and store. Never had a problem with thievery, but an unattended 50 amp cable could be inviting.

dish stored, and all roof vents closed, all windows closed.

slides in and no awnings out.

if I can be of more help just PM me

[Kirk W]

3 hours ago, jlapeer said:

I also wonder about leaving water hose hooked up, sewer hose hooked up, electricity cable hooked up.

I probably wouldn't unless you plan to arrive late and want to use it very quickly. And we always prop the door of the refrigerator open.  I do put several gallons of clean water into both of our waste tanks just to prevent the drying up of any residue left behind when dumping. 

[Barbaraok]

After cleaning fridge, put newspapers and coffee grounds in each and close doors.  If you have covers on your roof vents leave vents partial open.  I put a zip lock bag of water over each drain and also over the ball in the toilet.  Make sure tires are covered.  We also cover front windshield and side windows and close all blinds

[scouserl41]

We just stored our rig for 4 months in FL this summer  with no problems. Did pretty much what everyone else recommends with the addition of making window shades from stuff called "Reflectix" (I think that's what is was called). Anyway it's like bubble wrap except it has a mirrored finish. You can get it from Home Depot etc., It's easy to work with, you can cut it with regular scissors. There's a special tape available to join pieces together but duct tape would probably be fine. It comes in rolls about 12' by 2 1/2'. 

We made a shade for each window leaving them 1/2" oversize. The 1/2" was enough to let us jam it in the window openings behind the day/night shades and it held for the entire period without anything else to hold it in place. It really kept the interior temperature down. We even made a set for the car too. Sun and heat can really damage the interior of any vehicle.

I definitely recommend tire covers plus park with the tires on some plywood to isolate the tires from the ground. We have some 1/8" polypropylene pads we use for this.

Make sure there is no food left in the rig, nothing at all that isn't in cans. Rodents love to get into RV's. We sprinkled ant killer all around each wheel to keep insects out and put bags of mouse repellant in the engine compartment of the rig and the car. (We found a mouse nest in the motorhome engine compartment when we came to leave our winter quarters this year).

When you get back you may have to fill and empty the fresh water tank 4 or 5 times before it starts to taste normal again.

Hope this helps

BnB

[Jim & Alice]

Thanks to all the folks here that offered advice... Bob & Sally... Kirk... Barb... scouserl41...

Thank you very much!

Alice and I are going to print these all off, and come up with our departure plan.   The backdrop? We have an RV lot here in the Yuma Area that we (recently) own, and for the first time are leaving the MH on site here for a lengthy period of time to drive (toad) back east for extended family visits.   We have great neighbors, and that will help.

Thank you again, folks, and if I can ever help out in reverse, just shout.

Jim & Alice LaPeer 

 

[Smitty77_7]

If you have power, and don't mind paying for it, you could do all of the other things, but leave power on and set AC to 90-95 to have the AC kick on. It can sell get very hot in Yuma the next few months... Since you have good neighbors, leave your key with them and ask them to spot check the coach from time to time... 

Barb - I was going to add to pour some oil base film into the sinks to keep the P Traps from drying out. But I sure like the tip on baggies with water as seals... Don't recall having read that one before:)!

Best to all,

Smitty

[Jim & Alice]

On 9/28/2017 at 6:58 PM, Barbaraok said:

 I put a zip lock bag of water over each drain and also over the ball in the toilet.

Barb, like Smitty points out, is using the zip lock bags for 'moisture seals' the reason for doing?

Thanks,

Jim

[Barbaraok]

Easy to do, keeps dust, etc., out of drain and have water right there to pour into trap as we take coach out of storage come spring.

[lappir]

8 hours ago, Barbaraok said:

Easy to do, keeps dust, etc., out of drain and have water right there to pour into trap as we take coach out of storage come spring.

Great idea, could limit evaporation and keep the traps full. 

Rod

[Kirk W]

On 9/28/2017 at 8:58 PM, Barbaraok said:

I put a zip lock bag of water over each drain

I think that this one could be good for more than just when storing the RV. We always use the sink stoppers when traveling to prevent the wind over the plumbing vents drawing the water out of the traps, but I'm thinking that the zip-lock bag of water would be a good idea there also as it would give a better seal and refresh the water in the traps immediately upon stopping. 

[Ray,IN]

On 9/28/2017 at 9:58 PM, Barbaraok said:

After cleaning fridge, put newspapers and coffee grounds in each and close doors.  If you have covers on your roof vents leave vents partial open.  I put a zip lock bag of water over each drain and also over the ball in the toilet.  Make sure tires are covered.  We also cover front windshield and side windows and close all blinds

Thanks for the water bag tip. I realized there is another use; I bought DW flowers and she couldn't find a safe place for them while driving. I filled a few Zip-lock bags and placed them around the vase in the kitchen sink. They rode well without falling over.

[pinger]

Don't forget the STA-Bil in the fuel tank

[Phil Saran]

I have to ask does it every get down to freezing at night during the winter where you are?

If so I would add RV antifreeze to the sink drains and the toilet.

But then I live in Colorado and we do get down to freezing temps.

[Jim & Alice]

Feedback on this thread.

We took the advice of the many excellent comments here, when we stored our motorhome on our lot in Wellton, AZ.   We were gone 105 days (Oct - Jan), driving the toad.   When we returned the motorhome 'started back up' quite nicely.   Only problem we had... was (evidently) dust on our 50 Amp plug prongs... that may have caused some voltage variances.   Our surge protector recycled us twice before I checked the plug... noticed a fine layer of dust on the plug prongs, cleaned them, and that seemed to fix things.   Curious, as this dust was minuscule.   Also, I would use Stabil next time.   Did not do that this time.   A few comments below this post is a checkoff list of the things we did in preparation to be gone 3 months.   

 

 

[sandsys]

52 minutes ago, Jim & Alice said:

Motorhome Storage.docx.lnk

My computer said it had no app to open this link.

Linda Sand

[Jim & Alice]

15 minutes ago, sandsys said:

My computer said it had no app to open this link.

Linda Sand

Linda, could you please try it again?   Let me know?

Jim

[Kirk W]

8 hours ago, Jim & Alice said:

Linda, could you please try it again?   Let me know?

Jim

I'm not Linda, but I went to your post and tried to open that link and it appears to be pointing to a file that is stored on your computer. In looking at the name, ".docx" is the file extension for an MS Word file of recent vintage. Older versions use ".doc" for theirs. You can't link to a file that is on your computer but must have it stored somewhere on the internet. 

[Darryl&Rita]

Good link now, but it's to a download file. The Word doc needs to be proof-read, too. The shed has the same action twice, with different wording.

[Jim & Alice]

Sorry, Folks, for the confusion with this document.   I spent 35+ years as an IT person... and learned one thing for sure:   To Err is human... but to REALLY foul things up requires a computer!   

Here is a cut & paste of the same document.  

c   Shed                    - Close & lock windows.

c   Shed                    - Lock shed.

c   Shed                    - Motorhome - Place spare Keys on nail hook inside shed.

c   Water                  - Turn off at faucet.

c   Electric               - Turn off at AC breaker box (turn breaker box off last).

c   Satellite dish     - Down & stored. Pause Dish contract.

c   Slides                  - Bring in.

c   Steps                   - Leave up.

c   Battery Disc.      - Disconnect button.

c   Tanks                   - Leave a little water in Black, Gray tanks.

c   Cabinets             - Lock outdoor cabinets.

c   Drapes                - Put down all.

c   Drains                 - Ziploc bags, water filled, over drains to seal.

c   Sewer Hose       - Detach, store in water compartment.

c   Water Hose       - Detach, store in shed.

c   Electric Cable   - Detach, store in shed.

c   Pest                     - Put D-Con out.