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🎙️ RV Spring Maintenance Checklist—What to Inspect Before Your First Trip!
Podcast Title: RV Spring Maintenance Checklist—What to Inspect Before Your First Trip
Hosts: PJ, Lindsay, and Special Guest, Matt
Podcast: RV Small Talk
Episode Summary:
Spring is here, and that means it’s time to wake your RV up from hibernation! In this episode of the RV Small Talk Podcast, PJ, Lindsay, and Matt walk through an easy-to-follow spring maintenance checklist that will help ensure your RV is road-ready, safe, and prepped for your next adventure.
From checking seals and lubricating moving parts to inspecting your tires, detectors, and propane tanks—this episode covers everything you might forget to do but absolutely should!
🔧 Topics Covered:
- Inspect & Lube Everything That Moves
- Stabilizing jacks, tongue jack, coupler latch, door and compartment hinges
- Sliding window tracks and seals
- Why PTFE or silicone spray is better than WD-40
- Importance of checking and lubricating the breakaway cable and its plunger
- Slide System Tips
- When and where to use slide-out lube or seal conditioner
- Cleaning Schwentech slides without damaging them (hint: use canned air!)
- Tires: Beyond Just the Tread
- How to find the manufacture date on the sidewall (DOT number decoding)
- Lifespan of trailer tires (typically 5–7 years)
- Checking for cracks, bulges, or embedded objects
- Why a tire blowout is worse on a trailer than a car
- Detectors & Expiration Dates
- LP, CO, and smoke detector expiration timelines (5–7 years depending on the unit)
- Easy ways to test or replace them yourself
- Fire extinguisher check (pop-up green button or gauge check)
- Propane Tanks
- How to read the recertification date
- Why old tanks can be dangerous or unusable for refilling
- Other Things You Might Forget
- Wheel chocks have expiration dates too!
- Torque your lug nuts correctly (and why a torque wrench is a smart investment)
- Porta-potty date reading skills? Yep, it’s a thing (and Lindsay’s oddly proud of it)
💡 Pro Tip:
Even if your trailer looks good on the outside, winter storage can dry out seals and cause components to freeze up—make lubrication and inspection your first steps. Also, even “unused” tires age and degrade. When in doubt, replace them.
RV Spring Readiness Checklist — Let’s Get Rolling!
Spring is finally here, and if your trailer’s been hibernating all winter, it’s time to give it some love before hitting the road. Here’s your friendly checklist to make sure everything’s moving, working, and safe before your first trip.
🧊 De-Wintering: Let It Flow
- Flush your antifreeze and sanitize your water system.
- Run fresh water through all lines, and don’t forget the outdoor shower if you have one.
- Sanitize: Use a diluted bleach solution or an RV-safe sanitizer to clean the tanks and lines.
- Check for leaks around fittings, especially under sinks and in corners.
🔌 Power Check: Battery & Electrical
- Reconnect your battery (fully charged, of course).
- Inspect terminals for corrosion — clean and protect with terminal spray or a little petroleum jelly.
- Plug into shore power or fire up the generator to test all outlets, lights, and appliances.
🏕️ Appliances & Systems
- Test your A/C, furnace, water heater, and fridge. If something smells weird when it fires up — pause and investigate.
- Run the water heater on both electric and gas modes to make sure it’s happy.
- Light your stove and oven burners to make sure propane is flowing well.
🛞 Wheels, Tires & Brakes
- Check tire pressure and fill to manufacturer specs.
- Look for cracks, bulges, and bubbles in the sidewalls and treads — those can signal aging or internal damage.
- Check the DOT date (last four digits indicate week and year of manufacture — like “3224” = 32nd week of 2024).
- If your tires are 5–7 years old, it’s time to think replacement — even if they look okay.
- Inspect the lug nut torque (use a torque wrench if you have one — or swing by a tire shop).
- Look for nails/screws or anything stuck in the treads.
- Move the trailer a few feet so you can inspect the part of the tire that’s been resting on the ground.
🧼 Lube It or Lose It
Winter’s tough on moving parts. Let’s loosen things up:
- Breakaway cable: Make sure it’s not frozen, stuck, or frayed. Pull it to test it. Add a little 3-in-1 or silicone lube.
- Hinges & latches: Lube door hinges, window hinges (only if they’re glass, not acrylic), compartment doors, couplers, stabilizing jacks, and the tongue jack.
- Use a PTFE spray or silicone spray that says “leaves no residue” — not WD-40! PTFE is Teflon-based and leaves a dry film (not magic, but close).
- Sliding windows? Clean and lube the tracks — again, no WD-40. A little dry silicone spray works wonders.
📦 Slides & Seals
- Slide seals: Use a seal conditioner (like tire shine, but for rubber seals) to prevent drying and cracking.
- Slide tracks: If your slide uses bottom rails, you can lube those. If it’s a Schwintek system (aluminum rails on the sides), just keep it clean — no lube!
- Use canned air or a small air compressor to blow out debris from the tracks.
🔥 Safety First
- Smoke, LP & CO detectors: Check expiration dates (usually 5–7 years). If they’re expired — replace them!
- Test batteries and function.
- Fire extinguisher: Push the green button (if it has one). If it stays down, it’s no good. If it pops back up — you’re golden. Bigger extinguishers have a gauge — keep the needle in the green.
- Wheel chocks: Yep, they have expiration dates too (usually stamped on the side). Who knew? Well… now you do.
⛽ Propane Check
- Look at the collar of your propane tanks for the recertification date (usually needs recertification every 11–12 years).
- Turn on the propane and check for leaks at connections using a bubble solution or leak detector spray.
- Light all propane appliances to make sure gas is flowing.
🔧 Do a General Once-Over
- Inspect your roof, seals, and caulking — especially around vents, skylights, and edges.
- Look for signs of rodents or water intrusion inside.
- Run stabilizers up and down a few times to get the rust or gunk off.
- Check doors, locks, awning, steps — anything that moves should be moving smoothly.
📆 Maintenance Extras
These aren’t daily, but if you’re getting serious:
- Repack bearings (yearly or every 12,000 miles).
- Inspect brakes — if unsure, have a service center check them.
- Check your roof seals — reseal or touch-up as needed.
This list won’t cover everything, but it’ll get your rig ready for spring adventures safely and comfortably. If your trailer’s been sitting, don’t skip the lube check and tire inspection — those are big ones.
🚐 Final Thoughts:
This episode is not an exhaustive list of RV maintenance, but it’s a practical guide to get you camping again with confidence. Annual services like bearing repacks and roof reseals still matter—but these quick checks will keep your season on track from the start!
📣 Call to Action:
Are you ready for your first spring trip? What do you always forget to check? Share your checklist with us, and don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!
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