Winterizing your holiday trailer

[rayf01]

About what time do you guys start to winterize your holiday trailers? I just bought mine this year, and although the water tank is pretty much empty, I know my lines still have some water in them. I really want to go out camping yet in October, but I am wondering if I am pushing it.

[Justanotherbuck2]

In late season, I just don't use the water system anymore, not worth the risk of broken lines, I carry water and still use the toilet and such, drains are much larger and tend to stay hot, at the end of each trip I empty my grey and black tank and put RV antifreeze down each trap. I use mine year round this way. Including snowmobiling in Jan.

[rayf01]

Do you use the RV Antifreeze in your lines as well or just drain them out a best you can? Last guy had antifreeze in the lines and after a lot of flushing pre-season every now and then you get a taste of it.

[fishmonger]

RV antifreeze works well, however its always a chore to get the stuff out of the lines every spring. Some may argue that there is no taste/residue, but I have a hard time ingesting all those chemicals.

My suggestion...find a small air compressor and blow out the lines. Make sure you empty the hot water tank and leave the drain plug out as well.

If you are thorough, its a better alternative to antifreeze in my opinion.

WARNING...do not just drain the lines.
WARNING...make sure ALL the stop valves are opened.
WARNING...make sure routing lines to your hot water tank are cleared of water as well.

Any residual water will find a low spot to pool and will freeze and bust your lines...

Good luck with whatever you decide...

[HunterDave]

I have my trailer on a seasonal lot. When the weather starts to get too cold I drain the hot water tank and open all of the taps/shower and blow out the lines with my air compressor. Then I'll use the water pump to put in a couple of gallons of rv anti-freeze and turn the taps off individually when it runs pink (Don't forget the toilet). A cup down each trap and I'm done. Once I've done that I don't use the water system. I'll use the toilet a bit in the fall if I have to but as soon as it's cold enough I line the bowl with a bag and out it goes to freeze over night. I use my trailer during the winter and don't have any problem.

Unless you fill the hot water tank with antifreeze, it flushes out of the lines very quickly in the spring. If you forget to drain the hot water tank and you fill it with antifreeze then it'll be in the lines for a LONG time if you don't drain it out.

I should add, don't dump the antifreeze into your water tank to flush your lines. Take the hose off of the tank that supplies the water pump with water and add the antifreeze from there. That way you only have antifreeze in your lines and it'll flush out easy.

[JB_AOL]

A little known fact...
RV antifreeze has the same ingredients as regular ice cream...

In other words, it will not harm you at all (as long as you are not allergic to it). So aside from tasting bad, it's not a big deal..

Don't take the chance, once you get the winterizing routine down, it shouldn't take more than 10-15 mins. In other words, winterize now, then re-winterize later if you use the trailer again.

I don't know many people who blow out the water then add anti-freeze. It's either one or the other. I personally use antifreeze and just give it a good flush in the spring. Although we use bottled water for drinking & cooking water. You can use a bleach solution (then water flush) in the spring to get rid of the taste if you like.

My brother blows out his system. To me it seems like a bigger pain than it's worth. He removes his pump, and then blows out the system. But he still uses bottled water.

[ccmckee]

I blew out my system last year for a change. I made an adapter to hook my compressor to the water hose connection on the trailer and just turned down the pressure from the compressor to 50 psi, opened all the taps one at a time until they blew clear as well as the toilet. I also have 2 caps under the trailer that are the lowest points in the system, pulled them off until there was no water,pull the plug on the heater and let the water drain.Poured some anti freeze down the drains and good to go, takes all of about 15 minutes.

[Stinky Buffalo]

We do the same as JB AOL... We don't usually drink the water from the tank- we bring along our drinking water.

You can get a little piece of hose with a connector that attaches to the intake on your pump - you put the open end into the antifreeze jug, prime it up and you're ready to start.

I start from the fixture that is farthest from the tank (e.g. the outside shower) and work my way forward.

Do you have a bypass kit on your hot water tank? It sure makes winterizing a lot easier...

[rayf01]

So would you guys be winteizing now? I live 15 min north of Edmonton.