Winterizing In the South

What's the big deal about winterizing. It only take about 20 minutes to blow out the water lines and pour about half of a gallon of antifreeze into the drain traps. At a cost of 20 minutes in time and $2.00 in antifreeze, it would be worth it to me not to even question whether I need to worry about freezing.

Just my .02! :B

Ramair wrote:
I agree with all the above if the temp does not drop below 25 or below 32 for only a couple hrs I would not worry. if you want to be on the safe side just undo the low drain points and be done with it.

So, you'll pay the guys repair bill if it freezes?

I too have survived many quick dips below freezing, and sure it's a good gamble, but "gamble" is the word.

Is it a few hours below freezing followed by sun and 50 degrees or is it 40 degrees and thick clouds? Is it 25 degrees and 10 seconds or 25 degrees for 10 min?

I'm not at all comfortable telling folks "don't worry" and "be done with it", and have read plenty of regret stories on this board in recent years.

We are only 4 hours from myrtle beach, just north of Charlotte. The coldest time for us is in the morning just before dawn. That's normally the coldest point. We are originally from Augusta, Georgia and you and I both know that the weather is unpredictable. It could be freezing at Christmas this year or you could be wearing shorts. Growing up in Augusta, I remember temps between 0 to 10 degrees happening every year at one time or another. Winterizing, if or/and when, down here in the south is a matter of preference. We personally prefer to do it. But that doesn't mean we can't use our motorhome. We just go to someplace that has a bath house and try to park somewhere near it. Just as we would at ocean lakes there in myrtle beach. We just do not use any of the plumbing in the RV while there. Leave it all to the bath house.

My sister and her husband live south of Atlanta. Years ago they had a camper and her husband blew out the lines. He thought he got all the water out. Thought that is. Come that winter, he had some repairs to do. If you don't winterize, you are only playing against the odds.

I agree with all the above if the temp does not drop below 25 or below 32 for only a couple hrs I would not worry. if you want to be on the safe side just undo the low drain points and be done with it.

A few hours of temps just a few degrees below freezing will not be a problem for you. Your RV will retain enough heat for significantly longer than that. More than a few hours, or temps below 25F would cause me to be concerned.

I live in the mountains of North Alabama.
We have a little winter, but I'm cautious.
I drain everything, blow out the lines THEN...
Run the Pink Stuff into my lines and traps.
Extra in Grey, and Black tanks.

I do it cause it's my RV...

Dallas TX, 1980's. Lost an outboard lower unit due to freezing temps and no winterization. Why take the risk, winterize it.

I'm in NC about 30 min west of Durham and chapel hill. I empty my tanks and run the pink stuff through the lines. I also put a little water mixed with pink stuff in black tank just to keep that little bit of water from freezing. If we take the trailer out, we simply open the faucets and capture the pink stuff back into the jugs or empty milk cartons so we can use it again at the end of the trip. One of my coworkers had pipes burst in her trailer when she didn't run the pink stuff through it. she also had a soda bottle explode one winter when she forgot to take it out for the winter. She also taught me to pull all of my toiletries because freezing temps change the constitution of some of the liquid soaps, shampoos and toothpaste. Now we have totes that we put everything into for the winter and it stays in our spare closet until spring.

We live in the metro-Atlanta area and we used to never winterize. Most winters are fairly mild by Northern standards. But two years ago it got cold, really cold--below freezing for 3 weeks. Ugh. We lost 2 pipes to breakage. Ever since then we don't take chances.

We usually try to camp at least one weekend a month, but this year we have some stuff going on which will prevent us from camping until late February, so DH just went ahead and winterized the TT. That's one less thing for us to worry about.

Allworth wrote:
Are you planning to drain out water as you are "spinning" along??

That is really considered bad form.

People seeing you go by do not know whether it is drinking water, grey water, or black water! They tend to think the worst.

I guess I'm bad form. When we bought both of our TTs the fresh tank was full. I just removed the plug, and took off. Ran water out for about 20 miles.
Also when I drove a truck. We hauled produce out of Texas. When you haul produce. They put "top ice" on it, so that it can melt, and run down thru the produce, and keep it fresh. Guess where it goes when it gets to the trailer bed. Yep, out the drains and onto the road. 2000 lbs of it. it runs out for days.