Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Tips for Maintaining Your RV



You have been saving for it and have dreamed night and day for the moment when you would have an RV of your own. Now that you have it, the hard part comes, you have to maintain it to avoid there being any damage to it or you getting stranded and your dream soon becomes a nightmare. There are some basic steps that you can undertake that will help you to maintain your RV and to ensure that it will be there for you and will provide years of enjoyment for you and your family. An ounce of prevention is well worth the trouble you may experience for a short time.

The obvious place is to begin with the engine. This is an important part of the routine as this will determine if you get stuck far from home or not. The basics that you would check on your car, you will want to make sure that you check on your RV. Tires, belts and hoses, the battery as well as looking at the exterior of the vehicle will ensure that everything is operating as it should be. After you have done this check, it is time to go inside and do a check of the vehicle.

Look at all of the elements on the inside. Check at doors and latches to make sure there is no wear and tear that is present on these parts. You will want to make sure that you check that the latches are actually latching and not acting as such and then you take a turn a little fast and half of the stuff that was put away becomes free from its container. This is a common issue that seems to get overlooked and not given a lot of attention. This will be an easy and quick check for you to do.

Go to the bathroom and look at the connections and fixtures to again ensure that you are not dealing with a case of something will break while you are on a trip. Connection or fixture breaks it can cause a mess, damages to your RV and can be quite expensive. A little prevention will cost a lot less than taking the time and money to have something replaced after it had broken without any type of warning.

Try to limit the amount of boiling on the stove. Boiling a lot with windows closed will lead to water collecting in parts of the RV as well as leading to stains that will form. You can easily avoid this by either using your microwave as much as possible, or open widows enough that the boiling water not cause condensation to form and run the risk of causing damage. This is true as well for when you are taking a shower. Try and limit the amount of steam that is allowed to collect inside the RV.

When you are done with a meal, make sure that you get rid of any leftovers and you wash the dishes as soon as you can. Leftover food can attract number of rodents as well as bugs. Keeping the inside clean will be very important to ensure that you are not taking any uninvited guests along on the trip with you. This seems to be the one area that many people miss the boat on and make this mistake on a regular occurrence. The next thing that they know, their home on wheels is being invaded by a number of unwelcome rodents and bugs.

Leaving liquids that can freeze and then explode is another horror that can often be avoided with a little care and time placed into thinking about this. Water, sodas and other liquids that can freeze is one of the biggest issues that a person will experience with their RV. It is not a comforting thought when you discover that the twenty-four pack of sodas have all exploded and made a sticky mess all over the interior of your RV. This can be avoided if you are thinking forward, and remove anything that could freeze and explode causing damage to the inside of your RV. If the RV will not be used in the winter months, then it is important that you take the needed time to do some basic repairs to the outside of the RV as well as on the inside to make sure that moisture from the exterior does not lead to any serious issues such as rotting leather or tires that wind up dry rotting. This only needs to be done about once every month to ensure that everything is as it should be.

Flush out systems and replace hoses regularly. Even if you think that everything is okay, it is a good idea that you go and replace hoses that have been around for a while as to avoid a sudden failure of these hoses while on a trip. This along with a basic tune-up will help to allow the RV to always run at the top performance that it can deliver. If you don't want to do the maintenance yourself, there are a number of places that can do this for you and will not charge an arm and a leg for the services. You may just have to look around a little to find these places in the area that you live in.

All of the mentioned tips will be vital in helping you to maintain your RV to the utmost of care and not lead to you finding your dream trip quickly being reduced down to a nightmare that you deep down wished would just end. This for the most part will be the biggest thing that you need to keep an eye on to ensure that your trip remains your dream. Taking a little care can provide a number of memorable trips.

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