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Rbertalotto's avatar
Rbertalotto
Explorer
Oct 25, 2016

Easiest Winterizing yet!!

This past summer I installed an onboard compressor with a storage tank in the Toy Hauler....Great for airing up water toys, tires, cleaning of fishing equipment and dirt bikes....

You can read all about the install here:

http://rvbprecision.com/rv-projects/forest-river-grey-wolf-19rr-compressor-installation.html



But this year it was used to blow out the airlines in preparation for winter.

I didn't have to search around for the pancake compressor or run a 100' airline from the shop.

Turned on compressor...Filled air tank....set pressure at the regulator / water separator to 40psi....installed the blow out connection to the city water line....bypassed water heater..turned faucets on one by one and low drain opened....Little bit of AF in all the drains..DONE!



All that was left was to drain HW tank and suck a little bit of AF into the pump.

Didn't take more than 20 minutes!

NICE!
  • Nice, thanks for sharing.

    It may be the easiest but, the best is still, Go South for the winter. :C
  • RoyB's avatar
    RoyB
    Explorer II
    Hey RoyB-MA... Sounds good... It certainly is the way to go for my much smaller 12-foot box OFF-ROAD setup... I don't have that many water lines to worry about in my setup and the beauty is I go back to using water again by just adding water to the fresh water tank the next day...

    I carry my tankless 12V air compressor in my truck under the rear seat area and setup on the tailgate of my truck with the compressor where I can clip into the batteries mounted on the trailer tongue area. My long air hose fits the city water inlet where I use one of those air adapters. Using the tankless compressor allows me plenty of time to go open up water spigots one at a time and not build up any high pressure in the lines... The one only P-trap gets a douse of pink stuff.

    This is a ten minute job for me to do - The longest time used is draining the fresh water tank if it was full to start with. This also drains most of the hot water heater contens using the low water drain point if I open the Hot Water spigot.

    I just read another post where the guy found more water in his low drain point after he finished. I too do what he and others do and check for more water after I have finished... Sometimes I find some as well... I also do the manual opening of the Hot water relief value to allow it to drain better through the low water point for the other lines. I don't worry so much about leaving some water in the hot water heater. It has lots of room in it for expansion from a freeze.

    Nice install of your compressor...

    RoyB-VA
    Roy Ken
  • Thanks Roy,

    Yes, I always find a little water in the low drains after I'm done. I leave them cracked open just a tiny bit to let the last few drops escape and not freeze and damage the plastic ball valves i have on the end of the low points.
  • Heading to southern clims in January.....We expect a freeze here in MA this weekend...Snow too! UGH!!!
  • Rbertalotto wrote:
    Heading to southern clims in January.....We expect a freeze here in MA this weekend...Snow too! UGH!!!


    You ain't gone yet?
  • Don't forget to pour some RV anti-freeze into the drain J-traps including the washing machine drain. If you have an ice maker there will be water there that you need to blow out as well. Before we full timed we used the blow out method and if we changed out minds and took a Winter trip we just added water and we were ready to go!
    Good job!
  • Drains...Done!
    Washing Machine...Don't got one!

    Agreed, with the blow out method I'm good to go at a moments notice
  • cool modification but we simply add 2 bee hive heaters and keep the entire coach from freezing. if needed we turn the heat on.

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