This is my third article on full-time RV living. In this article I am going to cover those chores that we tend to do once every 6 months or so. Some of these are seasonal items.
Most of these seasonal or semi-annual tasks deal with the fact that your RV is considered a vehicle. As such there are maintenance and inspection items that need to be taken care of. First is the semi-annual washing and waxing of the RV. For this I recommend that you go out and purchase a cheap high pressure washer. I got a Black & Decker model from our local Wally World (Walmart) for about a few summers ago and we are still using it. Remember we are full-timers and do not have a lot of space to store items. So one of those big powerful wheeled jobs is not a good idea. This is also one task that you can easily find someone else to do. This year we actually had a local company come in and wash our rig. It cost us and saved us 6 hours of time. They did not do as good of a job as we do, but then again he didn't spend 6 hours washing and waxing the rig either. I think he was done in an hour. I am pretty sure come spring time, he will be getting another call to clean our RV. Seems to me that I have better things to do than spend a good part of the day for my wife and I washing and waxing the trailer.
If you are going to do this yourself, start on the roof! You will be so surprised at how much dirt and crud comes off the roof. If you wash the sides first, you will only end up rewashing them later.
As with any wheeled vehicle you have to perform some maintenance every now and then. Did you know that tires lose about a pound of pressure every month? That means that over the course of a year your tires on the RV will drop 12 lbs in air pressure. It's a good idea to keep the pressure up in the tires. They will last longer and the stability of the RV will be better. Another task that needs to be done periodically is lubrication. This includes the axles and bearings. If you have a generator, you also need to change the oil in it just like a car. Every three months at least, whether or not you use it. That is one of the reasons we didn't get a generator. Our 12 volts batteries have supplied enough power for the few times the lights went out.
If you sit in one spot for too long, the jacks, wheels and king pin stands are going to sink into the ground. About once a year or so, it doesn't hurt to level the RV. For us that means hooking up the truck, taking the load off the jacks and maybe moving the trailer a couple of inches to more level ground. Doesn't take long. In addition to leveling the RV it exercises the tires a little bit.
We had to replace our water heater this year. Seems we missed some maintenance steps which included draining and flushing out the water heater and replacing the cathode rod. Guess I can't complain too much, went 6 years on the one we got with the RV originally. Our RV repairman provided some maintenance tips which I have added to my annual inspection tasks. Cleaning the Hot Water Heater, Hot Air Heater and Refrigerator are now annual tasks. By the way, cleaning the refrigerator is not the inside part. RV refrigerators have a heat exchanger on the outside that needs to be cleaned of bugs and dirt.
Another annual task for me is to exercise the slide outs. Ours are out all year round, so my annual inspection is to pull them all the way in, check for lubrication and then extend them out again. Some slide outs use hydraulics and some are electrical. Each have different maintenance requirements. Check your owner's manual for any details, if there is nothing listed as your RV dealer.
Finally, there is the vehicle inspection. Some states require them and some don't. We are currently in Pennsylvania and they do require inspections. It is a once a year requirement which happens to be when I get all of my maintenance done as well as any other inspections that might be needed or desired.
Well there you have it. Life in an RV. My wife and I love it. In fact, we are now buying a new RV and expect to pick it up soon. I hope you have found these articles interesting and have gained some knowledge on full time living in an RV.
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