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jonnygreenwood's avatar
jonnygreenwood
Explorer
Jan 04, 2017

Question about winterizing fifth wheel

Hey everyone,

This is my first post here. If there's a better forum to post this question to, please let me know.

I have a 2005 Keystone Cougar fifth wheel. It has the polar package, meaning the underbelly is sealed and insulated to prevent pipes from freezing in winter.

I lived in the fifth wheel full time for the past year, but now I'm trying to sell it and am no longer living in it.

We have some very cold temperatures coming this weekend (lows in the teens and single digits), and I'm concerned about the pipes freezing in the underbelly and/or in the hot water heater.

I'm trying to decide what the safest and easiest thing to do is. I don't want to winterize it if I can avoid it, because hopefully it'll be sold in the next couple of weeks, and it'd also be nice to be able to run water and demonstrate that the hot water heater works in case someone asks. But I'm also not going to be there at night, so my concern is that if I set the thermostat for the central heat at the lowest setting (say, 42 F), it could run out of propane one night, get really cold in there, and a pipe could freeze.

So I suppose I'm basically asking for guidance with the following:

- Is it best for me to shut off and disconnect the water intake (it's from a thermostatically controlled heated hose)?

- Do I need to somehow drain the hot water heater to ensure that nothing in it freezes and breaks?

- Is it safe for me to shut off the water intake and/or drain the heater and leave the heat off without pouring winterizing fluid into the system?

- Is my best bet to just fill up a 10 gallon propane tank, switch the water heater over to electric, turn down the propane furnace thermostat to its lowest setting, and leave things as they are until it's sold?

Thanks for any guidance. I just don't want any breaks or leaks to happens.
  • rhagfo's avatar
    rhagfo
    Explorer III
    Jan 05, 2017
    TS21sso wrote:
    In reference to your suggestion of turning on heat to low setting. I have a neighbor who parks his Mobile Suites, plugs in electric, hooks up 40 lb propane, sets to low setting. Doesn't worry about freezing and is also ready at any time to hookup and leave.


    I simply blow my lines, pink stuff in traps only, and drain the FW and holding tanks, ready to go at the drop of a hat.
  • patriotgrunt's avatar
    patriotgrunt
    Explorer
    Jan 05, 2017
    Greene728 wrote:
    RWjSIM2003 wrote:
    Most potential buyers are going to be more impressed that you take the time to winterize the rig correctly.


    This too! For me it would show your making the effort to take proper care of the rig.


    I just made this comment to my wife about some RVs for sale locally on post. I doubt any of them have been winterized and there's no way I'd buy any of them without knowing for sure.
  • TS21sso's avatar
    TS21sso
    Explorer
    Jan 05, 2017
    In reference to your suggestion of turning on heat to low setting. I have a neighbor who parks his Mobile Suites, plugs in electric, hooks up 40 lb propane, sets to low setting. Doesn't worry about freezing and is also ready at any time to hookup and leave.
  • Greene728's avatar
    Greene728
    Explorer
    Jan 04, 2017
    RWjSIM2003 wrote:
    Most potential buyers are going to be more impressed that you take the time to winterize the rig correctly.


    This too! For me it would show your making the effort to take proper care of the rig.
  • Greene728's avatar
    Greene728
    Explorer
    Jan 04, 2017
    bid_time wrote:
    I think the last sentence of your post is the key. If you don't want it to freeze, then you need to winterize it. Otherwise, you risk damage that will have to be repaired before you can sell it. So in essence, pay a few dollars now, or a few hundred when you try and sell it and water comes shooting out everywhere.


    Agreed!!!
    The very minor cost and inconvenience is nothing compared to busted lines or water heater. Opening low point drains, draining water heater, and then blowing lines and antifreeze to p-traps is the most logical avenue that will probably suffice. But with temps like that your best course of action is full antifreeze.
  • RWjSIM2003's avatar
    RWjSIM2003
    Explorer
    Jan 04, 2017
    Most potential buyers are going to be more impressed that you take the time to winterize the rig correctly.
  • bid_time's avatar
    bid_time
    Nomad II
    Jan 04, 2017
    I think the last sentence of your post is the key. If you don't want it to freeze, then you need to winterize it. Otherwise, you risk damage that will have to be repaired before you can sell it. So in essence, pay a few dollars now, or a few hundred when you try and sell it and water comes shooting out everywhere.
  • DutchmenSport's avatar
    DutchmenSport
    Explorer
    Jan 04, 2017
    Although I use the "pink stuff" ... RV antifreeze, in your situation, you might want to consider just blowing the lines out. You'll need to get a plug that fits on your fresh water inlet (where you hook up your garden hose), and it needs the end that looks like a vale stem on a car tire. Then you use an air compressor, open each faucet (one at a time), and pump the air through until nothing but air comes out the faucet. Repeat for both hot and cold, toilet, and any outside shower, faucets you may have too. Don't pump in 120 pounds of pressure and then turn on the faucet. You'll blow your lines. Turn the faucet on first, then pump the air.

    Your water heater should be set on by-pass when you do this. And you should drain your water heater also. It will freeze and potentially break!

    If you do the air winterizing, you can easily run water through everything again (leaving the water heater in by-pass, or filling it, either way).

    I think winterizing with the pink-stuff is best though. There is NO guarantee you will sell your camper in 2 weeks. If you get luck, you can still run water through all the pipes, un-bypass the water heater and fill it to demonstrate it works, and if the potential seller passes, you can winterize again. Pink-stuff is the best protection since it pushes ALL water out, is relatively inexpensive ($2-$4 a gallon, depending on where you buy it), and usually only takes 2 gallons.

    You will also need to extract the water from your P-traps (shower, and all sinks). The standing water in the traps will freeze and break them. You can simply pour pink-stuff down the drain. Although, this year I removed the p-traps and dumped the water out.

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