Just Because Your RV Says ‘Winterized’ Doesn’t Mean It Is

When I researched buying our first RV I tackled it like it was a full university four year degree. Day and night, I studied. I bought books, I went online and watched videos, I read blogs, articles, watched every single T.V. program I could find about RVs and RVing. I was obsessed.

I did this seven days a week for almost eight months before we ever stepped foot onto an RV lot and then I did research for many months longer before we pulled the trigger and bought one.

We paid cash. It’s a lot of money for us and while I learned, there is no perfect RV, and no RV will be perfectly made, I was determined to avoid any pitfalls that were self inflicted if at all possible.

One of the many things I looked for in an RV (we had a list of must-haves and a list of what we could live without), was winterization. Could the RV camp in a cold climate? We live in Michigan and would likely store it in a cold climate so I wanted to optimize our chances of a long life for our rig given our crazy cold Michigan winters.

Well what I found out was “heated holding tanks” and “winterized” anything on your rig does not mean it is below freezing ready.

Not that we, as retirees were planning on camping in Alaska during the winter. However, we definitely planned on driving down to Florida (which we just did) during the winter months or out to Arizona or other warmer climates and to get there, unless you want to drive for many more hours than we like to travel in one day in the RV, you may hit freezing temps before you are forced to stop.

When I looked at the specifications of the RVs we were getting ready to consider, this was up there on my list of concerns.

As the illustration shows, what I thought addressed this concern was listed for our the RV we ended up purchasing brand new at the time.

I assumed (yeah, I know…) that heated tanks and “winterization drain system” meant, no problems using the plumbing while driving to Florida (for instance) from Michigan in February.

Well, as it turns out, not so much.

Now let me tell you straight up, we love our 2021 Jayco Greyhawk Prestige 31FP SO MUCH so as it turns out, we don’t care. I couldn’t care less that I misunderstood entirely that what the above says about our rig led me to believe something that was not factually true about our model.

This is what I do care about and how impressed we are with Jayco (and I get absolutely zero for writing this).

On the occasion we have had to call Jayco direct, and it has only been a few, Jayco has been spot on with helping us. Once we were on the road and I called them about our generator not starting for us. In real time, they did the whole trouble shooting thing, and talked us through not only how to start it but how to prevent it from happening again. We haven’t had a problem since.

Another time was with regard to driving down to Florida and de- winterizing/flushing out the anti-freeze so we could use the faucets and sinks on the way before reaching warmer temps. He asked for the VIN number and then recommended if the temperatures were freezing to wait until we were in above freezing temperatures. He did say we could use the toilet but suggested not using the sinks.

Overall, we have been exceptionally pleased with our condo-on-wheels or “The Blast” as we have affectionately named her.

Unlike the numerous stories of things that have gone wrong with even brand new RVs, ours has been remarkably trouble-free since delivery and we have enjoyed many amazing trips in it. Our dealership, Tradewinds RV in Clio, Michigan was great and has been great and Jayco has been an amazing corporation as well.

So does the fact that we can’t camp in six feet of snow irritate me? Nope. Just be aware that unless you go for one of those rugged off-the-grid, apocalyptic RV’s that will make your pocketbook half million or more lighter, you will have to winterize it yourself and keep the RV anti-freeze in your rig’s system until you reach warmer climes regardless of what the specs say!

Until next time: Duty, Honor and Seeing the Country RV Style!