Winterizing an RV

We seem to do this every year!  That is wait until it is the last minute until a freeze strikes!  And then go out and reluctantly winterize  my oldest son's travel trailer!

They never want the camping season to end, so even though it will be way too cold tonight to leave it with water in it, reluctantly we have this boy's day out.  Today was that day, as last night was about 30 degrees, and tonight it is to be in the high twenties.

We met at about 10 AM, and I had gone over to the motor home and retrieved the water pump hose that came with the Tiffin.  Also I grabbed the 1 1/16 deep socket that is used to pull the water heater plug.  We stopped at the Olathe Ford RV dealership south of Gardner, Ks for some mouse packets, that I didn't write down the name of.  But they are a repellent that stink and the mice can't stand.

It was after 11 AM when we arrived at the storage farm just outside of the entrance to Pamona State Park.  An industrious farmer has transformed his ground into a golf course and a big storage area for campers and boats.  The place is packed with rigs of all ages.  They even have a little restaurant in the building for the golf pro shop.  Things were rather subdued at 40 degrees outside.

We were able to winterize the travel trailer quite quickly with the water pump hose.  You remove the fresh water  tank hose from the inlet of the water pump and replace it with the short winterizer hose.  The loose end goes into the jug of the pink stuff.  The water pump pulls the pink antifreeze into the lines.  We made sure it came out of every faucet and the toilet.

We had bypassed the water heater and drained it when we first arrived, and just like that we were done.  In the past we had filled the fresh water tank with 4 gallons of the pink antifreeze and then pumped it into the system.  Today the tank was empty when we got there and it remained empty.  We used less than a gallon of antifreeze and had the lines filled.  All because we had this little three foot hose to go on the water pump.

They have made these kits to go on the water pumps for years, with a valve and the pickup hose that is installed and left permanently, but the temporary hose was included with the Tiffin motorhome, and I had never thought of it before.  Cheap and works!

We spent the rest of our time on the little speed boat that my son keeps in one of the buildings.  It has quick water drains on it so it drains quickly as well.  That was mostly putting covers on and taking out batteries.

So I got to spend the day with my son Chris, and we made sure things will not be wrecked next spring.  This is our third year for this event with his current camper.  Time flies!

I didn't do as well riding in the pickup on our bouncy interstate as I had hoped. The expansion joints caused the truck to do the rhythmic thumpa, thumpa, and before long my incision was going nuts.  I suffered thru the 25 miles on I 35 each way, but I'm not ready for prime time travel quite yet!  If I was in the motor home, I think it would have been better, as it is heavy enough to not bounce with the crack heaves.  But I am not ready to head out for Arizona this week anyway.

But it was a day that I didn't have to sit here in the house and look out the windows, so who's complaining?

Retired Rod