It's getting to that time of year when we are thinking of getting our Troll covered and ready for winter on our drive.

There are a number of things we always do to prepare for the cold & freezing weather to come, and we have a kind of routine we follow.

It struck me that we have a welcome number of new members who may not have gone through this process and that now might be a good time to ensure that they realise how important it is to thoroughly drain your water system so that it does not get hit by any heavy frost that can get in the taps and split the cartridge inside.

I am someone who didn't drain every part of the water system thoroughly one winter and when I re-filled the water tank and fired up the system both taps leaked all over, & our first trip of the season was taken without the water system.

You might not be aware just how expensive this costs to get fixed - I think it cost £200+ for the parts and the labour at an Eriba dealer. This is obviously something we don't want repeating and have become rather OCD & a bit neurotic about it.

We drain all the taps and tanks using the system. Then we use an inflated balloon or bike pump on each tap to blow the remaining water out. I then put some heat on in the caravan for a few hours around the tap to dry things up (not sure this does much bot I am OCD with it)

We then leave both taps open and in the position between hot & cold and then thoroughly insulate everything around the taps and boiler with old hiking socks, bubble wrap and old towels.We insulate all the areas under the taps and around the hot water boiler

I try about once a week to open the caravan cover door and get some fresh air in but, unlike some other owners, I don't leave a window slightly open or leave any heat source on. My neighbours with a BWBox leave a little greenhouse electric heater on in theirs.

This will be the fourth year we have done this and so far it has worked.

I'm not saying do the same as us but rather give some real thought into how you are going to protect your water system

Good luck

MikeT

New owners is a valuable point. Don’t want to feel like I’m teaching Grandma to suck eggs but .....
Other things apart from the extremely important water system is moving all cushions away from the walls of the Eriba (even better is indoors if you have the space) and we leave as many cupboard and lockers doors open as we can, don’t know if it helps but it’s to avoid areas of non circulating air. We do leave a couple of windows slightly open, only in the vent position and then cover the van. Going in and opening up the cover particularly on those occasional bright winter days always feels like a good idea or maybe it’s just Eriba withdrawal 😁

Any excuse to go and sit in the van LOL. Yann and I were talking about reasons to go and visit Betty today LOL