Waking an RV up after a Havasu summer

A vehicle that sits through a Havasu summer is not resting. Heat, sun and stillness each do their own damage, and the checks below are what they leave behind.

RV checks after a summer in storage: batteries, both banks

Start here, because it is the most likely thing to be dead and the easiest to get wrong.

Chassis and house batteries both self-discharge, and heat accelerates it. A battery left sitting discharged for months sulphates, and sulphation is largely permanent: no amount of charging brings the capacity back.

What to do. Have both banks load tested rather than voltage checked. Clean and tighten the terminals. If the unit will sit again, fit a maintainer rather than simply disconnecting, because disconnecting stops the parasitic draw but not the self-discharge.

House batteries are 12-volt work and often get handled by whoever is competent with them. Propane appliances are a different trade and should go to an RV technician.

Reading this with one of these in front of you? One call, one local mobile mechanic company serving Lake Havasu City, and you get their name before anyone comes out.

Call (928) 985-5477

Tyres: read the date, not the tread

RV and trailer tyres almost never wear out here. They age out.

Ultraviolet light and heat break down the sidewall compound, and a tyre with excellent tread can have cracking deep enough to fail. The date code on the sidewall tells you the week and year it was made, and for a unit that sits in the sun that number matters more than the tread depth.

Also check for flat spots from months of standing, and set pressures cold and to the load, not to the maximum on the sidewall. A cover over the tyres during storage costs very little and buys years.

Brakes, and everything else that seized

Standing causes surface rust on rotors and drums, and calipers can seize, especially on a unit parked with the parking brake applied. On a heavy vehicle that is not a minor issue.

What needs looking at before the first trip: brake operation on both the chassis and the trailer, the breakaway system and its battery, the electric brake controller setting, and whether anything drags when the wheels are turned by hand.

On the chassis side, also check that the steering and suspension move freely and that nothing has seized from months of stillness.

Rubber, fluids and rodents

Rubber. Hoses and belts age by calendar here, not by mileage. A hose that has gone hard and glassy is due regardless of how little the unit moved. Wiper blades will have dissolved. Weatherstrip perishes.

Fluids. Used engine oil is acidic and sitting in a crankcase for months is not neutral, which is why changing oil before storage is the better order. If that was not done, change it now before the first trip. Check coolant condition as well as level.

Fuel. Degrades over months and causes running problems that get misread as ignition faults. Stabiliser prevents it.

Rodents. Wiring looms and insulation are nesting material. This is the failure that hides longest, because the damage is invisible until a circuit stops working. A look through the engine bay and under the dash for droppings and chewed insulation belongs on every wake-up inspection.

Questions this guide gets asked

Can a mobile mechanic do all of this? The chassis half, yes: batteries, charging, brakes, cooling, fluids, tyres and diagnostics. The house half — fridge, roof air, water heater, plumbing, propane — is an RV technician's trade.

Is it worth doing before a trip or can it wait? Before. Nearly every item on this list is cheap to address in a driveway and expensive on the side of a highway in August.

How long does a wake-up inspection take? An hour or two for the chassis side on most units.

What if it has sat for more than one season? Assume the batteries are gone, the tyres need dating, the fuel is stale and the brakes need attention, and be pleasantly surprised if not.

See the RV and fleet page.