Travel Trailer Maintenance Checklist

Updated September 2026 · Vacation Checklists

A travel trailer maintenance checklist only has three real jobs: keep water out, keep the wheels safe, and keep the systems from freezing or rotting while the trailer sits. Inspect the roof and every seal about every three months, replace trailer tires on age rather than tread, repack the bearings once a year, and winterize before the first hard freeze. Those four habits prevent most of what actually destroys trailers.

Water intrusion is the number one killer, and it is slow and quiet. By the time you see a stain on the ceiling, the damage behind the panel has been growing for a season or two. That is why the roof gets checked on a calendar, not when something looks wrong.

Heading out soon? Build your gear list with our free packing list generator and pick the RV preset, so the tools and spares below actually make it into the trailer.

Updated September 2026

The travel trailer maintenance checklist, by interval

Print that table and stick it inside a cabinet door. The whole point of a maintenance schedule is that it runs on dates, so you are not relying on noticing a problem.

Water is the enemy: roof and sealant inspection

Do this every three months, and always after a trip with hail, heavy branches, or a long stretch of highway.

How to inspect. Get on the roof safely, or use a ladder and a phone on a pole if your roof is not rated to walk on. Work in a grid so you do not skip a corner. You are looking for cracks, gaps, lifted edges, chalky sealant, and anything that has pulled away from the surface it is bonded to.

Every penetration gets checked, because every hole in the roof was made on purpose and every one of them is a leak waiting to happen:

• Air conditioner shroud and its gasket
• Vent fans and skylights
• Antenna and satellite mounts
• Refrigerator vent
• Plumbing vent pipes
• Front and rear cap seams
• Every screw head on the roof edge trim
• The awning rail along the side wall
• Window frames, door frame, and any exterior light or outlet

Know your roof type before you buy sealant. EPDM rubber, TPO, and fiberglass each want different products, and using the wrong one can soften a rubber roof. Check the manufacturer's spec for your model.

Two sealants, two jobs. Self leveling lap sealant goes on horizontal surfaces, where it flows out and seals itself. Non sag sealant goes on vertical surfaces like window frames, where self leveling sealant would run down the side wall and look terrible while sealing nothing.

Clean before you seal. New sealant over dirty, cracked old sealant fails fast. Scrape back anything loose, clean the surface with what the sealant maker specifies, then apply.

Keep a tube of the right sealant in the trailer. Finding a crack at a campground is common. Finding the right product in a small town on a Sunday is not.

Tires: the part that gets replaced on a birthday

Trailer tires fail from age far more often than from wear, because trailers sit for months at a time and sunlight and ozone do the damage that miles would have done.

Read the DOT date code. On the sidewall, after the letters DOT and a string of characters, the last four digits are the week and year of manufacture. A code ending in 3222 means the 32nd week of 2022. That is the tire's birthday, and it has nothing to do with the day you bought it.

Replace on age. Most trailer tire makers and RV shops advise replacing special trailer tires somewhere in the three to five year range regardless of how much tread is left. Check your specific tire maker's guidance, then set a calendar reminder rather than trusting your eyes.

Inflate cold, to the sidewall number. Trailer tires are usually run at the maximum cold pressure molded into the sidewall, which is different from how car tires work. Check them cold, before you drive, not after an hour on the highway.

Check the spare. It ages at the same rate as the others and it is the one nobody looks at. Make sure it holds air and that the jack and lug wrench are actually in the trailer.

Torque the lugs and re-torque them. Use the torque value in your trailer's manual. After any wheel comes off, re-torque after the first 10 miles, again at 25, and again at 50. Lug nuts settle, and a wheel coming off a trailer is a very bad day.

Cover them in storage. Sunlight is what ages tire sidewalls. Covers are cheap.

Worked example: how old are these tires really?

You buy a used trailer in April 2026. The seller says the tires are "almost new" and they look it, with deep tread and no cracks.

You read the sidewalls:

Deep tread, no visible cracks, and every single one is at or past the replacement window. The right rear and the spare are the ones that will let go on a hot interstate in July. Tread depth told you nothing useful here. The date code told you everything.

Wheels, bearings, and brakes

Repack the bearings once a year or around every 12,000 miles, whichever comes first, unless your axle maker says otherwise. Old grease breaks down, and a failed bearing can seize a wheel at speed or start a fire.

While the drums are off, check:

• Brake shoes and drums for wear and scoring
• Brake magnets for uneven wear on the face
• Wiring at each brake for chafing or corrosion
• Seals for grease leaking onto the shoes, which ruins braking

Adjust the brakes at least annually. Electric drum brakes drift out of adjustment as the shoes wear, and a trailer that pushes your tow vehicle at a stop sign usually just needs adjustment.

Test the brake controller at the start of every trip. Roll forward slowly in a parking lot and use the manual lever on the controller. You should feel the trailer pull you down. If you feel nothing, do not tow.

Check the breakaway cable and its battery. That little battery runs the trailer's brakes if the trailer separates from the tow vehicle, and it is dead on a shocking number of trailers. Test it once a season and replace it when it does not hold a charge.

Look at the suspension annually: leaf springs for cracks, shackles and bolts for wear, U-bolts for tightness, and equalizers for elongated holes.

Propane, appliances, and detectors

Propane work is where you stop being casual. If anything here is uncertain, take it to a shop.

• Leak test every season. With the system pressurized and all appliances off, brush soapy water on every fitting and look for bubbles. Never use a flame to find a leak.
• Look at the hoses. Cracked, brittle, or weather checked hoses get replaced, not taped.
• Regulators age out. Manufacturers give a replacement age for two stage regulators. Check yours and note the date.
• Turn the propane off for travel. Off at the tank, not just at the appliance.
• Have appliances serviced annually. The furnace, the water heater, and an absorption fridge all need their burner assemblies cleaned. Spider webs in a burner tube are a genuinely common cause of a furnace that will not light.
• Clean the fridge vent at the exterior wall. It collects leaves, dust, and nests.
• Test the LP, smoke, and carbon monoxide detectors every single trip. All three have a replacement date printed on the unit. They expire even if they still beep when tested.
• Check the fire extinguisher for a charged gauge and a current inspection.

The water system

Sanitize twice a year, or any time the trailer has sat with water in the lines. The standard method uses a bleach solution: about a quarter cup of unscented household bleach for every 15 gallons of fresh tank capacity, diluted in water and poured into the fresh tank, then the tank filled and pumped through every faucet including the shower and the outside spray port until you smell bleach at each one. Let it sit several hours, drain, then flush with fresh water until the smell is gone.

Flush the water heater twice a year. Drain it, and if yours has an anode rod, pull it and look. Steel tanks use a sacrificial anode rod that dissolves over time, and replacing it when it is mostly eaten is far cheaper than replacing a tank. Some aluminum tanks do not use one at all, so check your model before you go hunting.

Check the water pump and its strainer for debris, and listen for a pump that cycles when nothing is running, which means a leak or a bad check valve.

Look under the sinks and behind the toilet every few months with a flashlight. Slow leaks show up as swollen wood before they show up as water.

Treat the tanks properly. Keep the black tank valve closed until it is at least two thirds full, then dump. Dumping order and technique are covered in our RV trip checklist, and getting it wrong is how you build a clog that needs a shop.

Spring: de-winterize and shake down

Do this over a weekend, three or four weeks before your first trip, so there is time to fix what you find.

1. Wash the exterior and inspect while you wash. You will find cracked sealant this way that you would never notice from the ground.
2. Do the full roof and seal inspection described above.
3. Flush the antifreeze out of the plumbing. Run every faucet until the pink is gone, then sanitize the whole system.
4. Reinstall anything you removed for storage: water filters, the water heater drain plug, the anode rod.
5. Pressure test the plumbing by running the pump and watching for drips at every fitting you can reach.
6. Reinstall and test the battery. Charge it fully, check water levels on flooded batteries, and clean the terminals.
7. Test every appliance on both propane and shore power where applicable: fridge, furnace, water heater, stove, air conditioner.
8. Check tires for pressure and date codes, and torque the lug nuts.
9. Test the brakes and the breakaway before you leave the driveway.
10. Run a shakedown trip one night close to home. Everything that is broken will announce itself in the first 24 hours, and you want that to happen where you can drive home.

That shakedown night is the most valuable item on this list. Our RV checklist for setting up covers the arrival routine to practice while you are there.

Summer: the in-season checks

• Tire pressure cold before every travel day, including the spare
• Roof air conditioner filter cleaned monthly in heavy use, because a clogged filter kills cooling
• Awning fabric dried before rolling it up, every single time, or you grow mold on it
• Slide seals wiped and treated with the lubricant your maker specifies
• Wheel hubs checked by hand for heat at fuel stops, since a hot hub means a failing bearing
• Battery water topped up monthly on flooded batteries
• Sealant spot checks after any storm

The hot hub check takes ten seconds and has saved more trailers than any other roadside habit. Touch the back of your hand to each hub when you stop for fuel. Warm is normal. Too hot to touch is a problem.

Fall: winterize before the first freeze

Water expanding in a line splits it, and the split is usually somewhere you cannot reach without cutting into a wall. Do this before the first hard freeze, not after the first cold snap surprises you.

1. Drain the fresh, gray, and black tanks, and rinse them
2. Drain the water heater and bypass it, so you do not fill it with antifreeze
3. Open all low point drains and let everything run out
4. Blow the lines out with low pressure air, or pump RV antifreeze through the system with the pump and a siphon hose
5. Run each faucet, the shower, the toilet, and the outside spray port until pink shows
6. Pour antifreeze into every drain trap and into the toilet bowl
7. Remove water filters and any inline cartridges
8. Clean the fridge, prop the door open, and remove all food
9. Deep clean the interior, because crumbs are what invite pests
10. Pest proof: steel wool or foam in every entry point around wiring and plumbing pass throughs, and look under the trailer, not just inside
11. Remove the battery or put it on a maintainer, and store it somewhere it will not freeze while discharged
12. Cover the tires, close the vents, and if you use a cover, use a breathable one made for RVs

Never use automotive engine antifreeze in a drinking water system. Use the nontoxic RV antifreeze made for potable plumbing.

Winter: what to check while it sits

Storage is not a break from maintenance, it is just a lighter version.

• Walk out once a month and look at the roof and the cover for pooling water, tears, or snow load
• Check for signs of rodents, which is easiest to catch early
• Check battery charge if it is stored in place on a maintainer
• Clear heavy snow off the roof if your roof is rated for it, since the weight is real
• Move the trailer a few feet occasionally if it sits for many months, to avoid flat spots on tires

Build a small spares and tools kit

Keep these in the trailer permanently:

Add the general road gear from our roadside emergency kit, and if you are routing a tall rig, our roundup of the best RV trip planning app covers apps that route by height and weight instead of sending you under a low bridge.

Frequently asked questions

How often should I inspect travel trailer roof sealant?

Every three months, plus after any storm with hail or heavy branches and after any long highway trip. Check every roof penetration, the front and rear cap seams, the roof edge trim screws, and the awning rail. Catching a hairline crack in a sealant bead costs a tube of sealant, while missing it for a season can cost a wall.

When should trailer tires be replaced?

By age, usually in the three to five year range depending on the tire maker's guidance, no matter how much tread remains. Read the last four digits of the DOT code on the sidewall for the week and year of manufacture. Trailer tires sit still for long stretches, so ultraviolet exposure and ozone age them out well before tread wear does.

How often do wheel bearings need to be repacked on a travel trailer?

Roughly once a year or every 12,000 miles, whichever comes first, unless your axle manufacturer specifies otherwise. Have the brakes inspected and adjusted while the drums are off, since it is the same labor. Old grease breaks down and a seized bearing at highway speed can destroy an axle or start a fire.

What is the right way to sanitize an RV fresh water system?

Use about a quarter cup of unscented household bleach for every 15 gallons of fresh tank capacity, diluted in water before it goes in the tank. Fill the tank, pump the solution through every faucet including the shower and the outside port until you smell bleach, let it sit several hours, then drain and flush until the smell is gone. Do this twice a year and any time the trailer has sat with water in the lines.

Do I really need to winterize if I only get a light freeze?

Yes. Water expands when it freezes, and it only takes one cold night to split a fitting or crack a pump housing. The damage often hides inside a wall or under the floor and does not show up until you pressurize the system in spring. Winterizing takes an afternoon and the repair does not.

What maintenance should I do before every single trip?

Cold tire pressure on all tires including the spare, a lug nut check, all lights and the brake controller, safety chains and the breakaway cable and its battery, all three detectors tested, propane off at the tank for travel, and a walk around looking for anything hanging, loose, or leaking. Ten minutes, every trip, no exceptions.

How do I keep mice out of a stored travel trailer?

Remove every scrap of food, deep clean the interior, and then seal entry points from underneath with steel wool or expanding foam around wiring and plumbing pass throughs. Mice get in from below, not through the door. Check monthly during storage, because the problem is far easier to solve in week one than in month four.