Mice are bad enough! Packrats would be horrible. The mice tear up paper towels and toilet paper and anything else they can find to make their nests. Every time we want to go out in it, I have to sanitize and clean the thing top to bottom. That's when I'm glad it's no larger.

We put boxes of mothballs around the wheels and 2 jackstands.

Oh Lord!

😳

I looked at the thread because as I leave Florida and am heading home to arrange for the RV pickup ....I am thinking about how cold it is getting at home.......and how we will need to winterize ..... and so I am using the iPad to pull up the manual to read......

The issue seems to be ...should we blow the water out (using less than 40 psi of course) of the lines with a compressor or use a bicycle pump to push it out....or just drain with valves open and pour antifreeze right in once drained naturally.

and does it go in the water heater ...and how in the world do we get rid of the antifreeze in the water tank .....although I suspect we will have bottled water to drink.

It's an adventure

One bit of advice re the mice
They get in my truck come winter...
Don't know how.. I looked and looked..for breeches

Nested in glove compartment ( must be a fav place)
And behind jump seats ... ate a vinyl car cover I kept in there...

Anyway DO NOT SET OUT TRAPS and then forget!
One sunny winter day..that sun will heat the interior ...and... well let's say..5 months later that odor will still be up your nose...it will incorporate itself into your DNA..... it will be part of what you leave to your offspring....

I USED EVERYTHING!!
And vinegar MIXED with that odor is sickening...

Awful...awful....

We'll do that, Anna. Good idea! Kent removes the tires and stores them because our sun ruins them quickly, even when they're not used much.

Had the mice problem once and they were in the engine compartment. We have it stored at a facility with several barns and we did move to another barn several years ago and have never had a problem since.

That's good, Jean. Mice get in our truck engine in the garage. It's a year round problem, but worse when the weather gets cold and they all try to get warmer places.

Karen, being sited in the middle of the woods backed up to a preserve assures us a steady flow of mice. I wish I could train them to something useful


I am mulling a countertop gizmo... thinking about some base covered in Velcro for the counter. I would like to Velcro down the toaster or French coffee pot to a fixed Velcro base ...so to that end

Put on your thinking caps and share with me if you have found innovative ways to prevent slides, store, double up on usage of a single item, etc

I already went to marshalls and found lidded storage containers for sugar etc..and a few baskets that will slide into overhead compartments

Velcro might work. I try to keep everything in the cabinets while traveling. Our shelves have a tiny lip on them, but it's not enough to keep everything from flying on to the floor during travel. Big pain! Hangers and clothing sometimes fall down in the closet. I think there is a type of bar that can fit down over the hangers to prevent it.

Oh I love this thread, we have a small camper, 18' no slide outs. We just started camping last year, after spending a weekend in a tent in the rain I told my husband if we are going to continue this I need a camper. My son started out with a pop up and upgraded to a nice 32' with two bump outs, great for them and the kids. We decided we'd like to tag along and started with the small one...can't fit much more up our drive but do want to get one with slide outs next year. Even just the two of us it's cramped, forget it if we take my grandson and then the girls want to sleep in ours too can't even think about taking the dogs

We tend to stay in parks that are family friendly and a must have is fishing, big fishing family here. We take along a couple of kayaks, canoes and boats.

We will be going to Frontier town in Maryland in the spring my son was there last year and they loved it.

Lots of travel plans in the future and a lot of places on our bucket list to see.

We never have a problem with mice in ours we use one of those ultrasonic rodent repellers that you plug in to an electrical outlet. We have used them for a lot of years so either we have no mice or they work. I don't remember the brand we bought but we got it at Sam's Club. We keep our rig plugged into electric when we are not using it. Oh I should add that we keep it in the rig all the time so it does it's job no matter where we are located.

Rosie, we never let the RV special antifreeze get into our water heater (it has something to do with the heater element) as it will make your hot water smell like rotten eggs. I do know that when my DH winterizes he always says how easy this one is to do it takes him very little time. I know he drains the water and our water heater has a bypass lever so it won't get RV antifreeze and when he puts in the RV antifreeze he uses the built in water pump to circulate it throughout the complete water system until the RV antifreeze runs out of each faucet which he turns on the off. When you want to use your rig again you drain the RV antifreeze which in not dangerous then flush the water lines with fresh water. The dealership will show you how to do this plus you should also receive a manual that explains how every thing on your rig works. We keep ours in our motor home because it can come in handy when you are on the road. Don't be surprised when you see the instruction manual, ours is large and thick it explains everything you can imagine.

Betty, we have the ultrasonic rodent repellers and the mice just laughed at them. We got ours at Costco. We put them in the trailer, well house, and garage, and had mice in all those places. I was really hoping they'd work for us.

Karen, I am so glad ours works for us because I hate mice, we have had this one for years even moved to each different rig when we upgraded and it is still working because I can hear a slight high pitched hum hope it lasts forever. I keep extra towels, sheets and clothing and paper products in the rig year round we do take all things that could freeze out over winter if we are not going south. Either ours is and have been built to be rodent free or the ultrasonic deal works for us because there is never ever a bit of damage.

I know there are mice around here because once in awhile one will get into the garden shed but I put poison in there over the winter which works.

Originally I wanted to be able to leave ours stocked with everything that was not perishable. Now we just have to empty it out each time we return. It makes it a lot more work to get ready and to return.

I'm sure it's possible that some brands of coaches are more rodent proof than others. My husband has gone over it, and sealed up a lot of holes, and he's put steel wool in some areas. They hate that, and can't chew through it. We've had them chew through plastic things!

We have never had to seal up anything on ours but have not found things that need sealing up, that and having to take things in and out would really put a damper on it and be a lot of extra work. Whichever it is the manufacturer or the ultrasonic we are happy campers.

You're lucky, Betty. Getting ready and closing it down are such a chore for us that we dread it. It's always fine after we get to our destination and can enjoy it.

Guess we never realized how good we have it not having that extra work. When we upgrade to a different rig we consider that to be a lot of work of course then everything has to be taken out and put in the new one.

Yikes to the mice. My favorite part of having an RV is the spontaneity - jump in and go. We keep it stocked at all times, and I even have basic camper clothes (pjs, socks, etc.) so all I have to pack is immediate clothing and meals.

That sounds wonderful, Deb. That is what I envisioned when we first got it. The mice put an end to that!

Rosie, don't worry about the antifreeze getting into the water tank. As Betty said, there is a bypass for that. When DH winterizes our unit I stand in the kitchen or bathroom and yell, "The water is pink!" As for Velcro I don't know if it would hold if heaven forbid you should have to make a panic stop. I don't want to hear about you getting injured by a flying toaster. We have very few things that we leave on the counter tops. For instance, we have a built-in coffee pot under one of the upper cabinets and we always put the pot away in the cabinet. That's one of the items on our check list.