RV Q & A January 2009 by Mark Polk

*NOTE: At Mark's discretion, material might be edited to suit a wide audience. Due to the large volume of material and correspondence we receive, individual replies might not be possible, nor can we acknowledge receipt of submitted material. Selected questions will be answered in future issues of our RV Education 101 newsletter and on our site. Thank-you for your understanding.

Q. Mark, we have our first class A motorhome (4 months now) and are not going to use it in the winter. What are some things I should do to winterize it and come Spring is there something I should do? Thanks

Mark Says: Congrats on your first motorhome, I know you will enjoy it. We offer a DVD on winterizing and storage, but if you can do without the visual part of it I also offer an article on winterizing at our sister site, RV University and there is a spring preparation article there too.

Q.We go snowmobiling in Maine with my toy hauler. This year I have a new travel trailer. This is the first trailer I've had with slide outs! Last year I had a Gear Box with no slide outs and we got lots of snow! My question is about snow on the slide out roof when it's time to pull them back in?

Mark Says: I used to snowmobile all the time as a kid growing up in Pa., now I'm lucky if we see snow in NC.

Snow on the slide out is a common problem when camping in the winter where it snows a lot. The answer is you need to clean as much snow off of the slide out roof as you can before bringing the room in. Anything left on the roof ends up inside the RV. If the slide out has a slide topper (awning) over the roof you will probably need to clean it off more often to prevent any damage to the awning fabric caused by heavy snow.

Q. Hi, I saw an article you wrote on a site about roof care. we have a 1989 5th wheel trailer, how do we know what type of roof it is??? We have no books on the camper..........my husband looked up there and said there is some cracks, he just doesn't know how to fix them.

Also, this past weekend, he opened the door to the fridge and was overcome by gas...........we are assuming its freon...........we only use this once a year to go to the fair.......when we went this year, the fridge wouldn't turn on when plugged in....someone we know hooked it up to the gas tanks in back and it worked fine............we brought it home and plugged it in electrically and it was working then this gas started to leak, he has opened both fridge and freezer to air it out. Now he is going to remove the fridge as we bought a new small one at walmart to just plug into the outlet.... can he safely remove this fridge if the gas has all escaped....... thanks for any help you can render..........I am going to sign up on your site to get the newsletter, I think it may help us out.

Mark Says: Your roof could possibly be covered by aluminum, rubber or fiberglass sheeting. You should be able to tell what it is by examining it closely. Once you determine what it is ask you local RV dealer for a sealant that is compatible with the roof covering.

The smell you are smelling from the fridge is ammonia. When the cooling unit gets a leak you will smell this. It is okay to remove the refrigerator, but make sure the LP gas line going to the refrigerator is properly plugged and sealed off to prevent the possibility of a gas leak when you turn the gas cylinders on again. It needs to be tested for gas leaks by a qualified RV service center after working on the LP gas system.

Copyright 2009 by Mark J. Polk owner of RV Education 101

RV Expert Mark Polk, seen on TV, is the producer & host of America's most highly regarded series of DVD's, videos, books, and e-books. http://www.rveducation101.com/