dewinterize question

Iraqvet05 wrote:
We are headed to Lake Jacomo in Lee's Summit but aren't leaving until Saturday. Hopefully this snow will be done and we will have no accumulations!

We have been there once and it was very nice. We are going to Clinton State Park next weekend. Have a great time!

We are headed to Lake Jacomo in Lee's Summit but aren't leaving until Saturday. Hopefully this snow will be done and we will have no accumulations!

Hey there iraqvet05, where are you heading this weekend? Were still up in the air about heading out tomorrow too Smithville Lake. Its going to be wet but i'm ready to get this season started. Hope you have a great weekend.

For what it's worth.

Your new so your first "de-winterize" experience should be done at home rather than at the campground (better to be home if you mess something up). I also recommend that you take the time to sanitize your water system as part of the "de-winterizing" process. Fill your tank with water/bleach as other have recommended - allow the bleachy water to flow through the water system - let it sit overnight - then flush out all the water - fill the tank again without bleach and flush lines until no bleach smell.

Here is what I do for this. I have a outside filter that I fill with about a 1 and half cups of bleach. I then connect city water and set the bypass on the water heater for summer use. I then turn on all faucets till I smell bleach, this includes inside and outside. I let this to set for maybe 4 or 5 hours. I then open up the outside filter and place a cup of baking soda in it and repeat the above items. You can just flush the bleached water out by running water through it but the smell of the bleach makes it very hard for me to stay in the camper so I use baking soda. I do want to point out since we bought this camper in 2008 I have never put any water in the water tank and only use the water pump each fall to winterize but that may change this summer as we will be camping at Shawnee State Park outside of Portsmouth and their sites do not have water only electricity.

Change the description of the activity from dewinterizing to sanitizing. If you only fill the FW tank partway the top part does not get sanitized. The chlorox needs to set in the tank and lines for at least three hours to properly sanitize the system. BTW you want to sanitize the water heater also.

I de-winterize with 3/4 cup of bleach in my 40 gallon tank which is then filled with water. Flush all lines/tanks. Let it sit 4 hours to disinfect after driving around for 10 or 15 minutes to slosh the bleach solution onto the top of the tank. Drain everything, then do it again with fresh water to flush out the bleach.

If you don't want to disinfect, anything that gets all of the antifreeze out is fine.

You can de-winterize using city water. There may be a small amount of anti freeze in the pump and in a short amount of line past the pump but when you do use the fresh water tank, you can flush it out then. Drinking small amounts of RV anti freeze will not harm you.

I dewinterizing my fifthwheel with city water hook up first and fill all the lines and hot water heater , then i put water in .why run the pump to fill the lines and hot water heater.