I thought I might be able to wait another month or so before winterizing our motorhome, but a cold snap predicted for tonight has left me no choice. Our van’s covered storage site is still fully exposed to the outside air, and the water lines running under the coach could freeze and crack unless the water is removed or replaced with antifreeze.
The manufacturer, Leisure Travel Vans, provided us with very complete documentation on all the individual components included in our coach (such as the installed appliances, the electronics, the generator, etc.). But the general instruction manual detailing overall motorhome operation/maintenance is a disorganized and outdated set of procedures that have been cobbled together from various models and years. And perhaps the most confusing of all is the section on winterization. For example, the manual includes instructions to drain and bypass the hot water heater tank, but my model has an on-demand water heater (with no tank) that – according to the manufacturer – should be plumbed with antifreeze rather than bypassed.
So I’ve edited and amended the instruction manual so that it has the right winterizing information for our model and year. I apologize that this particular blog post is very specific for the owners of our particular model, but I’m hoping this spares them a little frustration if – like me – they are new to the whole winterization routine. My revised illustrated instruction pages can be downloaded from this link: Winterizing the 2015 Free Spirit SS
