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Maintenance of your rig will pay huge rewards and keep you a happy camper! Lots of problems happen when a rig sits unused. Some RVer’s only travel a few times a year, others sit in one location for months at a time. Take time to check over your unit carefully on a regular basis. Roof leaks, mice infestations, and mold problems are some examples of problems that start slowly and if left unchecked will cause huge issues. Engines should be started every few weeks and allowed to warm up to provide lubrication to all moving parts. Also check to make sure your batteries are keeping a good charge.
I like to keep my rig clean and waxed. Not only does it look better, and stay cleaner, but invariably I spot issues that need attention while doing the cleanup.
PaulExcellent tip, Paul. Thank you so much! And for those who may have had their batteries die, be sure to see if you have a warranty on them; you just may get another one for free!
Good advice about the mice, they can eat up you wiring and find ways to get inside your motorhome you never new existed they often find holes in your floor and they make nests in the insulation. Rodents on the west coast carry Henta virus and its found in there fecal matter, handle with care when you dispose of any of it. I found birds nests behind my grill and wasp nest hidden in various place’s. One thing that’s important is tire rot, I found 1 tire that’s splitting. It has no more then 2500 miles on it. So keep them covered. Especially in the west coast and desert areas, as well as the south U.V.is killer on rubber.
I wrote this elsewhere on a Pippi-gram but anyway that expanding spray foam under the coach works well to keep critters out. Before you start the can spraying make sure to identify each location, the can cannot be reused once you started using it, it dries in 10 minutes and plugs up so be ready to use the entire can.
WD 40 is magic juice for any RV. One small squirt on the outriggers will keep ants out. WD 40 makes any surface shine and deters wasps and hornets. It cleans oil and tar stains. Soak your tow hitch to stop rust and make shine. A quick wipe down on the first foot of the awning prevents it from looking like a golf course after a rainstorm.
Ivory flakes are the best for mice if you are putting the rig into storage. Sprinkle around and they will avoid the area. If you cannot locate this, you can use a dryer sheet, the type that smells like cheap perfume, they chew on them and get very sick and will avoid the area. Rodent poison is a no no!!!! They crawl away and die from dehydration, then stink up the small space they crawled into to die.I recently stuffed steel wool into any holes I could find where mice were wandering through. Hopefully I’ll never need it again but at least some prevention is now in place. The spray foam is a great idea, too.
I understand the steel wool is the best solution. I was told that mice like to nibble on the spray foam as well.
I understand the steel wool is the best solution. I was told that mice like to nibble on the spray foam as well.
In addition to plugging up the cracks and crevices that mice like to get into we also used moth balls and sticky mouse traps. Seemed to help a ton, although I don’t know why moth balls would help, but it’s just something my wife had heard about and it was worth a try. Haven’t seen or heard any mice in our RV since.
The moth balls technique has to do with the potent, undesireable smell. It’s probably the same reason it works with moths. Dryer sheets also work as do several essential oils like peppermint. Good you’ve found what works for you!
I just spent a half day yesterday closing up holes on our brand new Jayco Eagle HT 29.5 BHDS. I climbed underneath and identified openings, as well as identified openings in the basement and inside the RV. Once this was done, I used spray foam to seal them up. There were also a couple of spots like in the battery compartment that I couldn’t close and inside the basement where wires can go through the floor for outside TV, so I used steel wool on those spots. While I was doing this, my wife spread dryer sheets throughout the RV inside and in the basement to keep mice away. We didn’t use moth balls, because that smell takes a long time to go away, where the dryer sheets smell good.
The RV will sit from now until March or April, depending on how much snow we get here in MASS.
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