Post by Cowboy Camper on Oct 19, 2009 19:31:39 GMT -6
Sad but true... It's that time of year again for many folks who would rather be camping. It's time to admit defeat to the weather and finally realize that we have to do this Winterizing chore again.
So, let's get to it! Cause I'm here to Help ya out if needed. Here's my set of Instructions for y'all to follow.
Of Course, the goal is to get the Water out of and the RV Antifreeze (Pink Stuff) into all of the plumbing lines.
The obvious first step is to drain out all of the lines and the supply tank. A good way to really drain out the supply tank is to open up the tank's drain valve at the end of the last camping trip of the year before you head home. The water sloshing during the drive home will certainly empty the tank well. (Especially for me on that last 5 hour drive home!)
If you have a lot of plumbing in the camper (as I do) such as a water heater, Shower and so on, there should also be a Main Drain/Low Point drain under the camper. When the fresh supply tank is empty, go ahead and open that drain too. Open all of your faucets too at this time, as this allows air into the lines and gets more water out of them.
Open up your drain lines at this time as well. As you fill the system with the pink stuff, you'll also need it to drain a little.
Water Heater Notice!
Remember to use the Bypass Valve(s) for the water heater to keep the Pink Stuff Out of there! It's only a waste of the pink stuff to fill that 6 or 10 gallon heater's tank.
Instead, All you need to do with the water heater is drain it out. Do this by simply removing the Anode rod or a plastic plug. To make it drain out faster, open up the T&P (Temp and Pressure) Release valve at the top of the water heater.
Basic Sink and Shower Lines:
Now we're ready to get the Pink Stuff into the lines. To do this, find the Supply Line from the tank and remove it. Place that loose line into a gallon jug of Pink Stuff. When you turn on the water pump, it should readily draw the Pink Stuff into all of the lines while building up pressure. Go back into the camper and start opening Sink and/or Shower valves one at a time. Do both Hot and Cold and shut them off when the 'water' is pink. When the water runs Pink, your lines are Safe! (Don't forget to also run Pink in the outside shower if you have one!)
If you only have a small (10 gallon tank) and and a single Hand Pump faucet, about a 1/2 gallon of the pink stuff is all you'll need to safely winterize your sink. Maybe even just a quart will do. My '75 Palomino would have gotten away with this small amount of pink stuff had I known about the need to do this at the time I owned it. Luckily, it lost pressure all the time so by the time winter came along it had lost all prime in the hand pump. Thus, no pink stuff was ever really needed in it.
City Water Connection:
This doesn't take much pink stuff at all. On many (most?) campers, the city feed only has about a foot of water line from the hose hookup to the common plumbing that it now already full of antifreeze. That's how it is on the '08 Palomino and I suspect that other campers are built in about the same manner. I had a city water connection on the '75 camper too but it only ran that one foot to it's own single faucet.
A simple Hand Pump can be found at most RV Part's Departments for (guessing) $15.00 or so, and this is a handy way to get the pink stuff into that line under pressure. It's a hose connection to the camper, and the free end of the other hose goes into the gallon jug again. A couple of pumps and the system is pressurized enough for you to turn on a single faucet to feed the antifreeze into that line. Since the other lines were already flushed with the on board 12v water pump, this really is all it takes to finish off the city line.
Cassette Potty:
For the on board Cassette Potty, you'll want to drain out the Fresh Water Flush tank as much as you can. You can either flush the toilet enough until you run it out of water or you can disconnect the site tube that lets you know how much water is in that tank. My tank ran empty before we were done with our last trip, so I never refilled it and just used the nearby shower water to flush the potty. Hey.... it worked! )
At the fill port for that fresh tank there is a trap like holding area that can hold quite a bit of water. Last year I learned about that the hard way, cause it had frozen up on me by the time I wanted to get the pink stuff into it. So... to save y'all some trouble now, I'm advising you to use the hand pump again to pump that out as much as possible. When that's empty refill it with the antifreeze,
enough to see a little pink in the site tube. go inside the camper and flush that pink stuff through until you see Pink in the bowl. At this point, the cassette Potty is safe.
The same can be done with a Porta Potty that is not built into the camper. If you keep the Porta Potty in the camper during all Storage times, be sure to flush some antifreeze through it so nothing gets damaged.
Cassette and Porta Potties: On BOTH of these units, you may now have some leftover Blue Stuff (sanitizer solution) now mixed with some Pink Stuff (antifreeze). I just recommend dumping that out into your Home Toilet to be safe. There may be more of a load in there than you remember from the last trip, so it's just best be safe rather than sorry. Some folks hold the waste on purpose, some forget they didn't dump it. Either way, I think y'all know where I'm comin' from on this one.
No Further treatment is necessary for the Waste Holding tank if it's dumped out at this time. If empty, there will not be enough of anything to freeze and expand that will cause any damage.
There you have it, folks. I think that about covers everything. After following all of the instructions here, all of the supply lines (and the drains too) should now be full of the Pink Stuff. Take heart in knowing that your camper's Plumbing System will now survive the winter damage free, and she'll be ready for you to flush her out with fresh new water next Spring so that we can get back to Camping again. ;D
So, let's get to it! Cause I'm here to Help ya out if needed. Here's my set of Instructions for y'all to follow.
Of Course, the goal is to get the Water out of and the RV Antifreeze (Pink Stuff) into all of the plumbing lines.
The obvious first step is to drain out all of the lines and the supply tank. A good way to really drain out the supply tank is to open up the tank's drain valve at the end of the last camping trip of the year before you head home. The water sloshing during the drive home will certainly empty the tank well. (Especially for me on that last 5 hour drive home!)
If you have a lot of plumbing in the camper (as I do) such as a water heater, Shower and so on, there should also be a Main Drain/Low Point drain under the camper. When the fresh supply tank is empty, go ahead and open that drain too. Open all of your faucets too at this time, as this allows air into the lines and gets more water out of them.
Open up your drain lines at this time as well. As you fill the system with the pink stuff, you'll also need it to drain a little.
Water Heater Notice!
Remember to use the Bypass Valve(s) for the water heater to keep the Pink Stuff Out of there! It's only a waste of the pink stuff to fill that 6 or 10 gallon heater's tank.
Instead, All you need to do with the water heater is drain it out. Do this by simply removing the Anode rod or a plastic plug. To make it drain out faster, open up the T&P (Temp and Pressure) Release valve at the top of the water heater.
Basic Sink and Shower Lines:
Now we're ready to get the Pink Stuff into the lines. To do this, find the Supply Line from the tank and remove it. Place that loose line into a gallon jug of Pink Stuff. When you turn on the water pump, it should readily draw the Pink Stuff into all of the lines while building up pressure. Go back into the camper and start opening Sink and/or Shower valves one at a time. Do both Hot and Cold and shut them off when the 'water' is pink. When the water runs Pink, your lines are Safe! (Don't forget to also run Pink in the outside shower if you have one!)
If you only have a small (10 gallon tank) and and a single Hand Pump faucet, about a 1/2 gallon of the pink stuff is all you'll need to safely winterize your sink. Maybe even just a quart will do. My '75 Palomino would have gotten away with this small amount of pink stuff had I known about the need to do this at the time I owned it. Luckily, it lost pressure all the time so by the time winter came along it had lost all prime in the hand pump. Thus, no pink stuff was ever really needed in it.
City Water Connection:
This doesn't take much pink stuff at all. On many (most?) campers, the city feed only has about a foot of water line from the hose hookup to the common plumbing that it now already full of antifreeze. That's how it is on the '08 Palomino and I suspect that other campers are built in about the same manner. I had a city water connection on the '75 camper too but it only ran that one foot to it's own single faucet.
A simple Hand Pump can be found at most RV Part's Departments for (guessing) $15.00 or so, and this is a handy way to get the pink stuff into that line under pressure. It's a hose connection to the camper, and the free end of the other hose goes into the gallon jug again. A couple of pumps and the system is pressurized enough for you to turn on a single faucet to feed the antifreeze into that line. Since the other lines were already flushed with the on board 12v water pump, this really is all it takes to finish off the city line.
Cassette Potty:
For the on board Cassette Potty, you'll want to drain out the Fresh Water Flush tank as much as you can. You can either flush the toilet enough until you run it out of water or you can disconnect the site tube that lets you know how much water is in that tank. My tank ran empty before we were done with our last trip, so I never refilled it and just used the nearby shower water to flush the potty. Hey.... it worked! )
At the fill port for that fresh tank there is a trap like holding area that can hold quite a bit of water. Last year I learned about that the hard way, cause it had frozen up on me by the time I wanted to get the pink stuff into it. So... to save y'all some trouble now, I'm advising you to use the hand pump again to pump that out as much as possible. When that's empty refill it with the antifreeze,
enough to see a little pink in the site tube. go inside the camper and flush that pink stuff through until you see Pink in the bowl. At this point, the cassette Potty is safe.
The same can be done with a Porta Potty that is not built into the camper. If you keep the Porta Potty in the camper during all Storage times, be sure to flush some antifreeze through it so nothing gets damaged.
Cassette and Porta Potties: On BOTH of these units, you may now have some leftover Blue Stuff (sanitizer solution) now mixed with some Pink Stuff (antifreeze). I just recommend dumping that out into your Home Toilet to be safe. There may be more of a load in there than you remember from the last trip, so it's just best be safe rather than sorry. Some folks hold the waste on purpose, some forget they didn't dump it. Either way, I think y'all know where I'm comin' from on this one.
No Further treatment is necessary for the Waste Holding tank if it's dumped out at this time. If empty, there will not be enough of anything to freeze and expand that will cause any damage.
There you have it, folks. I think that about covers everything. After following all of the instructions here, all of the supply lines (and the drains too) should now be full of the Pink Stuff. Take heart in knowing that your camper's Plumbing System will now survive the winter damage free, and she'll be ready for you to flush her out with fresh new water next Spring so that we can get back to Camping again. ;D