Nine Days Before the Trip and Major Camper Issues!

We used it once in the fall and never even turned on the hot water heater. My husband was going to take it in to get winterized and was told to do it himself. We followed the directions to the tee.

There are several ways to winterize a TT and often the directions for the trailer are sometimes vague. IIRC below are the three from the worst to the best ways to winterize. They all involve bypassing, draining the Water Heater and opening the low point drains along with opening all faucets, including the toilet and outside shower if you have one, etc. You also have to drain the water tank. After that you close the low point drains and all faucets. I didn't include all the steps so don't take this information or the below as being complete.

1. Simply blow out the lines using low pressure air like 15 to 20psi including the toilet and low point drains. You also pour like a cup of water in each sink and tub plus toilet. This can leave enough water that it can collect at some point in the plumbing and freeze and burst the line.

2. Simply pump RV antifreeze thru all the lines letting at least a cup going into each sink and tub plus toilet and low point drains. This is fairly good, but you might still have a little water mixed with the antifreeze, but unless your really expect cold temps like -20 should work fine.

3. Do #1 followed by #2.

Larry
 
Oh! I just thought of one more thing. We never used the water when we went camping so there should have been no water in the system. My husband used the antifreeze and turned on the pump.

My other thought is who needs water when there are so many other beverages?

I might be mistaken, but a lot of dealerships fill the water heater and tank so you can check out the water system during your PDI.

Larry
 
We live in sunny wonderful western PA. We have on occasion hit the -20, but can get in the - numbers quite a few times a year. We have had campers since I was a kid, and I learned how to winterize from my dad. Matt is 5 and I already have him helping me. We have never used air, I go and buy 2 gallons of rv antifreeze, we have a 2 way valve on the intake side of the water pump with a pickup hose and the hose to the tank.

I empty the cold tank, and pull the sacrificail anode out of the hot water tank and let both drain completely. I turn the bypass on the hot water tank. and have Matt hold the pickup hose in the antifreeze. I turn the pump on and go to the furthest faucet from the pump. I run the cold and then the hot until I see pink for at least a couple of seconds. I do this with each sink and toilet as well as the shower and outside shower. This usually takes about 1 1/2 gallons, I put the last 1/2 gallon in the fresh water tank after I put the plug back in, just in case. The antifreeze running down the traps and into the holding tanks takes care of them. It's worked for us all these years, I had to do it twice this year LOL, it was in the teens when we got back from the fort.
 
We live in sunny wonderful western PA. We have on occasion hit the -20, but can get in the - numbers quite a few times a year. We have had campers since I was a kid, and I learned how to winterize from my dad. Matt is 5 and I already have him helping me. We have never used air, I go and buy 2 gallons of rv antifreeze, we have a 2 way valve on the intake side of the water pump with a pickup hose and the hose to the tank.

I empty the cold tank, and pull the sacrificail anode out of the hot water tank and let both drain completely. I turn the bypass on the hot water tank. and have Matt hold the pickup hose in the antifreeze. I turn the pump on and go to the furthest faucet from the pump. I run the cold and then the hot until I see pink for at least a couple of seconds. I do this with each sink and toilet as well as the shower and outside shower. This usually takes about 1 1/2 gallons, I put the last 1/2 gallon in the fresh water tank after I put the plug back in, just in case. The antifreeze running down the traps and into the holding tanks takes care of them. It's worked for us all these years, I had to do it twice this year LOL, it was in the teens when we got back from the fort.

Can't see anything wrong with what you're doing except I would recommend first gravity draining the system via the low point drains which mine stuck out about 6in from the belly of the trailer and just had caps on them. It was a PITA since I had to lay on the ground and using two wrenches remove the caps, then open all the faucets go back out and recap. I blow out the lines and do the antifreeze thing like you do also loosening those low point drain caps to make sure I had antifreeze in those two 6" exposed pipes. I replumbed my low point drains where I now have two brass valves with hose barbs on them mounted as shown in the pic below and now I don't have to lay these ole bones on my gravel RV pad when it's COOOOOLD outside or mess with wrenches and the first time I winterized I got both water and antifreeze down my arms and on my jacket because of their lousy location.

2495336480035848260S500x500Q85.jpg



This is pic of the drain valve mounted to the trailer frame. That 2x4 is where the old low point drains exited and was there to keep critters from getting up in the heated underbelly. You can see some of the hopeful protection provided by the angle iron brackets for the valves, hoses and handles. Also, with the barbed fittings if I want to I can recollect some of the antifreeze that drains out and reuse it. It might have a little water mixed in, but with it being good to like -50 straight a little water shouldn't hurt since I blow out my lines before winterizing.

Finally I can actually get hot and cold water from those two valves if needed when the water system is up and in use.

I had all the parts laying around so the cost was minimal except for that white water hose. I had to go to McMaster Carr and got some food grade service hose that I used to connect the old low point drains to my new low point drain manifold. I needed to get some hose that had the same pressure/temp ratings as the PEX and the best I found was silicone reinforced food grade service hose from McMaster Carr and is their stock # 5153T12 which is 3/8" ID and has a bend radius of 2" and remains flexible even in very cold weather. It has a temp rating of -65 to 350F and a pressure rating of 125PSI at 72deg so it will be fine even outside my enclosed underbelley going to my new drain manifold. This stuff is amazing, but ain't cheap at $6.15/ft as of Mar 2008.

I have several other pics in the following album

CLICKY

Finally, to solve the problem of having the water heater drain inside the door and down the side of the trailer and the door I installed the following (I have an Atwood WH that doesn't use the rod on the drain plug.

2501063160035848260S500x500Q85.jpg


The following album has additional pics of it installed and how it works.

CLICKY

Larry
 

Larry, you really are my hero!! Are you sure you don't want to write some things for my newsletter?
 
Larry, you really are my hero!! Are you sure you don't want to write some things for my newsletter?

Just about everything I've done is in my trailer mods album on my webshots site with some descriptions in the picture captions so feel free to use whatever you think would help. The reason I shy away from things like you're suggesting is that I willingly take responsibility for anything I do, but would feel bad if someone tried to do something I did and they botched it or were unhappy with their particular results. In the 17 years my wife was a Realtor there were many, many times I could have helped with minor things on some of the homes she sold, but I would only change light bulbs just for that same reason. Just like in that plumbing thing for the low point drains those are on the pressure side of the water system and I used all S/S extra wide hose clamps (that includes the screw that while a lot have a S/S band the screw is not S/S and in exposed locations will rust and can let go years down the road) that need to be checked and retightened several times till things are stable. Even that HW drain thing, I will have to watch for a while to make sure that fitting I used to go into the tank will be O.K. Since my trailer is not even 6mos old I have little time tested mods that I can honestly say I can vouch for ... based on my last trailer and some of the mods that I did lasting 10, 15, 20 years I feel confident what I'm doing now is fine, but I can say that.

Finally, it is one thing to post stuff in an open forum like here, where other opinions can be expressed even to the point of someone saying what you have done is bad because XYZ, but it's another when it's in a one way communication like in a newsletter or published article.

Larry
 
I know Larry, I asked you before, and I completely understand. You just have a very professional way of expressing yourself and your modifications.

I respect your decision, and I was just expressing my admiration.
 
I know Larry, I asked you before, and I completely understand. You just have a very professional way of expressing yourself and your modifications.

I respect your decision, and I was just expressing my admiration.

:worship: :worship: :worship:

Nuff said :rotfl: :lmao: :thumbsup2 :cool1: :banana: :love: :hug: :yay: :dance3: :woohoo:

Larry
 
Yes, Larry, you really are awesome. Thanks for the pics. As for how we did it, Mark poured the anitfreeze into the tank, turned on the pump and then turned on all of the connections including the inside and outside shower and waited until it was all running pink.

We live in West Virginia and we didn't have an exceptionally cold winter. We'll see what happens. I'll find out tomorrow. For now, though, I'm saving Larry's post for next winter.
 
I have a thought. You don't say exactly where the leaks are or how it is leaking (i.e., split water line, cracked fitting). Is it possible that the leaks are ocurring at the connections? At the beginning of every season when we are getting our TT ready I go and check every water connection I can reach to make sure they are tight. Almost always I find one that can be tightened a bit. Some folks on another forum have talked about leaking connections straight from the factory. Of course it is possible the connections loosened on the trip to the dealer. After all there is a whole lot of shaking going on back there.
 















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