Seasonal camping

[Mikebecki]

Does anyone out there use their trailer on a seasonal site. If so is there anything that needs to be done differently in regard to trailer upkeep?

[rockwood06]

Originally Posted by Mikebecki

Does anyone out there use their trailer on a seasonal site. If so is there anything that needs to be done differently in regard to trailer upkeep?

Yes we do. In most cases when you are on a seasonal site the campgrounds will not let you wash your camper, this is what most people want to do so it looks nice.

We are weekend seasonal campers, and there three things i do before we leave the camper until the next time... #1. Turn the water heater OFF, #2. Shut the water OFF to the camper, and #3. Set the a/c to 75-78 degrees, this is to help with humidity.

There is not much more to do that i can think of, maybe there are some other members that have some ideas.......

[Mikebecki]

Is it necessary to slide in(?) Any slideouts.

[realebill]

we are on a seasonal site in chincoteague,va. we are permitted to "wash the trailer once a year...of course with no road grime it doesn't get very dirty. i still do the normal PM on the trailer,check the caulking,the seams,the roof to try to prevent any problems from occuring. i winterize it when closing up for the season,and i do put the slide in. anxiously waiting on april 1st when we open the trailer for the summer.!

[Dieselboy]

I have a site at Brant Conservation Area in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. This year will be a fun season due to my new (used) 2005 31BHSS. I'm not as lucky as realebill though, as our season opens on the 29th of April. Heck, I don't even actually pick up my trailer until April 14th. These are going to be the longest 8 weeks ever. lol

But yeah last year I know many people did wash their units, but I'm not sure if it's allowed once a year or once a month. Some others went all out and jacked their trailers up and put them on blocks and removed the tires. I don't know if this is totally necessary but whatever floats their boat. All I did was set the tires on a couple of 2 by 10s with old used tire treads screwed to them (cushioning) and set the pressures to the max pressure listed on the sidewall and covered them.

I must admit I cheated though.. My parents are retired so I solicited them to stay at the trailer as much as possible throughout the week while I had to work, and then I went up for the weekends. The deal was I paid the all the fees etc. but they had to do the site/trailer upkeep.

They were told essentially what rockwood06 said. If leaving for a few days, shut the water to the unit off and shut the heater off too. Our site isn't a sewered site, so my dad also had to empty the holding tanks into a tote and take it to the dumping station as well, however a washroom is located only 2 sites from us anyways, so we rarely used the washroom in the trailer and he only ended up doing it about once a month.

[Mikebecki]

Filling the tires to the maximum pressure is tire pressure something I need to check periodically? Could you please explain covering the tires? Thanks to all for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

[rivercat49]

One difference is to use pvc for plumbing instead of flexable drain hose and we put skirting around camper.

[tentcamper1]

do you put the awnings in? We don't seasonal camp, but last year a friend who does left his awning out and the wind blew it over the trailer. I know some guys who have them attached to decks, etc.

[Dieselboy]

Originally Posted by Mikebecki

Filling the tires to the maximum pressure is tire pressure something I need to check periodically? Could you please explain covering the tires? Thanks to all for the feedback. It is greatly appreciated.

I dunno if it bears any scientific merit, but a tire carries all of it's weight on the sidewalls - so if it sits all year without moving and has a softer pressure, the the tire flexes a lot more at the bottom where the weight is sitting. I believe this causes the sidewall to deteriorate faster in that one bulgy flexy weight holding area (yes, that's the technical name for it! haha). So I put as much pressure in as the manufacturer suggests so there's very little flex to the sidewall of the tire and in my warped sense of universal balance, I think by placing a tire tread on a softer surface (like another tire tread) rather than the 'hard' board that it will also save the trailer's tire from "squaring" at least a little anyways .

As for checking the pressures regularly, it doesn't hurt. I'm a mechanic and I'm a bit of a tire nut. IMO tires are the most important part of any vehicle - without traction the vehicle is useless. You may accelerate to a decent speed if you drove for about 5 minutes straight, you wouldn't be able steer with any sort of confidence, and you might be able to stop the vehicle... sometime.... eventually. So I'm always checking the tires on my vehicles/trailers etc. and I NEVER skimp out on them.

As for covering the tires, it is also just to protect the sidewall from sun/ weather damage. The sun's UV rays will prematurely deteriorate the rubber in tires. In the transportation trade this is called a "weathered" tire. At least up here it is. The passenger side of my trailer sees a fair bit of sun on my site so I just picked up a couple vinyl tire covers from my dealer (I think they're like $15 each - in Canadian money) and threw them on. They have eyelets on the inside corners so you can strap them on with a bungee cord to prevent them from blowing away in the wind. There are more elaborate (and costly) "double" vinyl covers for tandems and even triples for tri-dems axles and even plastic fully moulded covers too but I have also seen some people just shove a piece of plywood in front of them too. It doesn't have to be anything fancy though, just as long as the tires aren't exposed to the sunlight everyday.

[Mikebecki]

Great information. Thanks!'