Winterization Advice Needed

KI

Kingfish

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 16, 2015
Messages
230
Location
Little Rock
I now have my 19' stored indoors with no heat...... but I do have electricity. My question is if I keep heat on in the trailer, say 45 degrees or so, will enough heat radiate from the trailer to keep sewer pipe, tanks, etc. from freezing. It's a large metal building, so temp will be comparable to outside, 20F at night and 30F day. I would like to hear from someone with similar situation.
 
Do the experiment, as others have likely not.
And tell us how it went. Bump that heater up to 50F.
I think you'd be OK. The weak spot is the toilet flush valve. The other stuff is pretty robust.
 
We live in Kansas about 350 miles west of you. I can't say that our conditions are exactly the same as yours but they are similar. We do have electricity available to heat the cabin in storage but experience and the fact that too much of the US electrical grid is on poles high above the ground have made me a believer in the old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth 2000 pounds of cure in the case of RV plumbing. Besides that, about 3 feet of water bearing tubing is exposed beneath our 2020 21C where cabin heat has no effect.

My personal wintering policy is to blow out all water lines and chase that with RV antifreeze throughout the system induced at the water pump inlet. The entire process takes about 30 minutes. After blowing out your lines and inducing antifreeze throughout your system, turn the heat on in your trailer if it makes you feel better, but I'd let Habberdabber be the guinea pig on this one.

John
 
JohnK-ESC said:
but I'd let Habberdabber be the guinea pig on this one.
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No way! I too blow out my lines and thoroughly winterize. I'm always struck by the folks who are reluctant to do the efforts involved in trailering.
Having fun is a lot of work, as I've come to learn. Winterizing isn't a lot of work, but it is some.
 
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Maintaining a camper isn’t for wimps 😬 especially if you want to do it right. I have a heated shop and I still blew my lines out and drained my tanks. If it were me, I would drain and clear the lines. But that’s just little old OCD me.
 
BravoDeltaRomeo said:
Why wouldn't you just winterize?

It takes 10 minutes and costs $8.
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Do you mean use anti-freeze? Because it's not necessary if the lines are blown dry.

I blow them until only a mist comes out. Then I do it again until nothing but air comes out and I've never had any problem even in prolonged freezing spells. I do take care to make sure that the toilet valve is dry.

Ron
 
Ron in BC said:
Do you mean use anti-freeze? Because it's not necessary if the lines are blown dry.

I blow them until only a mist comes out. Then I do it again until nothing but air comes out and I've never had any problem even in prolonged freezing spells. I do take care to make sure that the toilet valve is dry.

Ron
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The OP seemed like he didn't want to do any sort of storage prep, be it antifreeze or blowing out and wanted to leave the RV heat on. I wouldn't trust that method.

In the past I always did a drain and then antifreeze. With the Escape, I did the drain, blow, antifreeze, drain, blow method. We will get a week straight of High -20c and Low -35c.

Any method to prep the pipes is better than none.
 
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BravoDeltaRomeo said:
The OP seemed like he didn't want to do any sort of storage prep, be it antifreeze or blowing out and wanted to leave the RV heat on. I wouldn't trust that method.

In the past I always did a drain and then antifreeze. With the Escape, I did the drain, blow, antifreeze, drain, blow method. We will get a week straight of High -20c and Low -35c.

Any method to prep the pipes is better than none.
Click to expand...
I have always done one or the other. Blow out the lines or fill all the lines and traps with pink stuff. Never had a problem. This is the first year I've had electricity available, but I think I'll err on the side of caution, and not rely on our electrical grid.
BravoDeltaRomeo said:
Why wouldn't you just winterize?

It takes 10 minutes and costs $8.
Click to expand...
I want to come watch you do it in 10 minutes.
 
Kingfish said:
I have always done one or the other. Blow out the lines or fill all the lines and traps with pink stuff. Never had a problem. This is the first year I've had electricity available, but I think I'll err on the side of caution, and not rely on our electrical grid.

I want to come watch you do it in 10 minutes.
Click to expand...

If you are ever in the area and I'm winterizing, I'll let you time me. Even if it took you 30 min, the peace of mind is well worth the effort.

Erring on the side of caution seems like the best move. You are fortunate to have an indoor storage facility, I wish I had one.
 
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GinoandLinda said:
Maintaining a camper isn’t for wimps 😬 especially if you want to do it right....
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You can count yourself in the Non-Wimp camp once you have had the hot-water-tank-cleanout-shower. A cold fall morning is the perfect time to pull out the anode, get drenched from the residual pressure, get drenched again when flushing out the amazing amount of scale and crud, and finally freeze your fingers trying to screw the anode back in at just the perfect angle to avoid cross-threading. Now you're a winterizing professional...
 
Definitely agree that the blow-out method is the way to go; used to do the pink antifreeze method but it does not feel as foolproof as seeing just air come out of all your lines when you're done blowing them out, that's 100% done right.
 
BravoDeltaRomeo said:
If you are ever in the area and I'm winterizing, I'll let you time me. Even if it took you 30 min, the peace of mind is well worth the effort.

Erring on the side of caution seems like the best move. You are fortunate to have an indoor storage facility, I wish I had one.
Click to expand...
 
Kingfish said:
I bet I could be there in 10 minutes:roflblack:. Seriously, your advice is sound, I just went ahead and drained everything and filled the pipes with pink stuff.
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Hopefully you flipped the valves to isolate the water heater before filling with pink antifreeze. Otherwise you'll be smelling sweet every time you shower next year. Don't ask me how I know this.... :rolleyes:
 
We used RV antifreeze once on our Starcraft and never again mainly because we camp all year and blowing out the lines just works better for us. Never had an issue with anything freezing or having to flush our lines.
 
Winterization aside.... I've done it both ways over 20 years with equal success.... my original question remains. If the inside of the trailer has heat, will any plumbing on the outside of a 19' be at risk. I think maybe theres only a flexible water line from the fresh water tank and of course the sewer and grey tank
 
alanmalk said:
Which are super easy to protect from freezing. Just empty the tanks and leave the valves open.
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Yep, you're right. Pretty easy. Unless you gotta hitch up and pull it out of storage and go 10 miles ten miles across town to a dump site.
 
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