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tim665214's avatar
tim665214
Explorer
Jan 02, 2019

Critique my winterize technique

I live in N.E. Texas, so while we do not have brutal cold weather, we do get below freezing. Here is a quick way that I have found to quickly winterize. Since we will use our 5th wheel during the winter, I will probably be doing this several times this winter. Let me know if this is adequate.

1. Drain the FW holding tank.
2. Drain and bypass the Hot water tank.
3. Blow out the black tank flush lines.
4. Using the prmitive fill line, run antifreeze through all faucets until I see pink.
5. Pour some antifreeze in all p-traps, and comode.
6. Drain the grey water tanks to get rid of water that just got dumped in there.

Will this work? This bypasses the steps I did last year which was blowing out all of the lines with air, before adding antifreeze. Also, if I make sure there is pink stuff in all of the lines, do I have to mess with opening the low point valves, since they are in a difficult location? I keep my 5th wheel plugged in all of the time, so the batteries are always topped off.
  • 4. Using the prmitive fill line, run antifreeze through all faucets until I see pink.


    I also live in North East Texas. I follow all your other steps but have never done number 4. I have had four fifth-wheels over a 20 year period, and have never had freeze damage. If the temps got really low, I would turn on some heat in the trailer. I do open the low point drains and blow out the lines. My "shed" is open on three sides. This is not advise, just a personal report of my experience.
  • do you have ice maker in the refrigerator? You are going to want to either blow the line with air, or do A/F.
  • I would open up the low point drains. If you have pure water sitting in the bottom of those lines outside the trailer, they will freeze and most likely crack. Not the worst place to have a leak in the spring but still a pain to have to fix.