Winterizing '19 Force HD

[The Renegade]

I did not want to derail the other thread for the Isata's so thought I would start new thread. I am winterizing tomorrow and will blow out with air first but would really like to add the antifreeze also. I did not see any winterizing valves or anything in any of my manuals so if anybody could give some advice it sure would be appreciated. I'm not sure how to pump the antifreeze through the lines and the water pump. Also not sure about the hot water heater. Thanks for any help.

[rskeans]

My old process (not necessary anymore) was to:
1. drain water heater. This becomes the storage tank for the air.

2. Pressure tank with about 40-50 lbs of air.

3. open the various faucets and let the air push out any water in the lines. Don't forget the toilet. You will have to re-pressure the tank a couple times.
4. Pour about a cup of RV anti-freeze in each trap. Toilet also
Your done.

[The Renegade]

Originally Posted by rskeans

My old process (not necessary anymore) was to:
1. drain water heater. This becomes the storage tank for the air.

2. Pressure tank with about 40-50 lbs of air.

3. open the various faucets and let the air push out any water in the lines. Don't forget the toilet. You will have to re-pressure the tank a couple times.
4. Pour about a cup of RV anti-freeze in each trap. Toilet also
Your done.

I know you are right but dang it makes me nervous not having any antifreeze in the lines. I have only winterized a camper that was set up permanent and would crawl underneath and disconnect the fresh water tank outlet and then cut the pump on to circulate the antifreeze but I dont think thats possible with this one.

[rskeans]

Ahh I forgot to mention to drain all tanks, fresh, black and gray. You were gonna to that anyhow.

If you blow out the water lines there is no water left to freeze except for some residual which poses no problem. However, you must feel comfortable with what you do. I don't remember what I did with the water pump. I've been parking in AZ for the last 7 years and preparing for freezing is history.

[Silver Arrow]

I just winterized my DX3 and I start by removing the anode from the hot water heater and letting it drain completely, also remove the filter element from the water filter. Then I close hot & cold valves at the water heater & open the bypass valve. Next I connect compressed air at low pressure to the water supply hose. Then we open each of the interior & exterior water valves (including the toilet) one at a time until mostly air comes out. Next I briefly open the hot & cold valves at the water heater. After most of the water is out, I pump antifreeze into the system thru the water supply hose, and open each water valve one at a time until pink fluid comes out. Then I open the hot & cold valves at the water heater until antifreeze comes out of the anode/drain opening. After all of this is done I drain the gray & black tanks.

If you have a residential frig w/ water & ice dispenser you'll also have to dispense water until antifreeze comes out. For the ice make I had to run the frig w/ the water system pressurized w/ antifreeze until it started making pink cubes, which took a few hours. After that we closed the water valve to the frig and haven't used the dispenser since because it's such a pain to winterize. We just buy bags of ice as required & put them in the freezer compartment.

We've done this for the last 2 winters and can do everything in about 1/2 an hour if everyone pays attention & does their task when instructed. That's the hard part.

[wfo9]

Don't forget to pour into your sinks, shower... to get anti-freeze in the traps.

The water heater will just have air in it after you pull the anode and bypass it.

[The Renegade]

Ok I think I am good on most of this now but how do I pump antifreeze through the water supply hose. Is this done with an external pump? Like a small 12v on demand pump?

[Kenny kustom]

Does that coach not have the Anderson valve?

[The Renegade]

i've seen you guys talk about an Anderson valve but i dont really know what it is so i will say no...

[wfo9]

Since you probably have a water tank under the bed, the pump is most likely right there and has a valve and suction hose to pull antifreeze directly from the bottle. Take a look it should be obvious.

Anderson valve more or less lets you go to that mode from the outside connection.

[The Renegade]

Originally Posted by wfo9

Since you probably have a water tank under the bed, the pump is most likely right there and has a valve and suction hose to pull antifreeze directly from the bottle. Take a look it should be obvious.

Anderson valve more or less lets you go to that mode from the outside connection.

Yes the tank is under the bed and a pump is there for sure. I will look this evening for the line you are talking about. I hope it’s there and I’m home free. Thank you

[tdemeyer1]

But we are going to stay in it a lot of the winter. We need to use everything. It has switches marked "Tank Heaters" not sure when or exactly how they work? I don't know if we need to put any little heaters under either? It can get in the teens at night where we will be. Any suggestions?

[The Renegade]

Well this did not go very well. I blew out the water lines with air but just was not satisfied so decided to use antifreeze. I made a pump system with a 35 psi pump to circulate through the fresh water inlet. All went great. I had antifreeze in every faucet and even the wet bay faucet.

Got to looking and no antifreeze had passed through the filter container. I did drain and remove filter but no antifreeze. I remember reading where the water filter only worked coming from the fresh water tank. I wanted both sides of water filter filled with antifreeze so here is where stupid kicked in.

I decided I would just pump antifreeze into FWT and then circulate with on board water pump. Well the outlet for the FWT is not on the bottom so wasted a lot of antifreeze. I then found the water pump and like WFO9 said there was a spare hose and a valve there but I only had a half gallon left. I tried to pump from the container but the pump would not draw from the container so I had to use a funnel and pour antifreeze into the pump through the line. Would like to say it worked but I ran out and will have to try and continue tomorrow.

A couple of questions. Why in the heck does this water filter not have a bypass and does all of what I have said make sense? Should the pump not have drawn the antifreeze out of the container without me having to pour it in? Why does the water have to come from the FWT to circulate through the filter and the lines on both side of it? If you pump antifreeze through the fresh water inlet, why does it never get to the water filter and the lines on both sides of it?

[wfo9]

Don't know the specifics of the setup, but that is odd on the filter.

On my RV the filter only does water going into the coach to either supply city water or to fill the tank, there is no further filtering.

When you tried to suck anti freeze into the pump, did you flip the valve to bypass the tank. It probably will require some gravity to get it primed the first time if there is no fluid in it.

[bclemens]

1. The DX3, Force and Isata 5 do not have an Anderson Valve.
2. The pump likely did not draw antifreeze because you had already blown out the lines, so it was not creating suction/prime. You really need to do that with water in the lines for best results.
3. no water filter bypass because that needs to be winterized as well. I think they do make a cap for it...but not sure.
4. We have seen a few of the "winterization valves" installed wrong.

[The Renegade]

The boss man working on Sunday. You must have read where I was gonna do this and thought you better check so I didn’t blow something up.

Next time it will be a simple process. I did all the stupid stuff this time.

But I did relieve the pressure on the Truma before pulling the plug unlike somebody else we know.

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by Mountieman

But I did relieve the pressure on the Truma before pulling the plug unlike somebody else we know.

phhhfttt....yeah, those dummies that forget to relieve the pressure! Ha!...I'm surprised they're allowed to even own tools.

[wfo9]

Originally Posted by wfo9

Don't know the specifics of the setup, but that is odd on the filter.

On my RV the filter only does water going into the coach to either supply city water or to fill the tank, there is no further filtering.

When you tried to suck anti freeze into the pump, did you flip the valve to bypass the tank. It probably will require some gravity to get it primed the first time if there is no fluid in it.

Oh yea, before you try sucking.... LOL Make sure you have the sinks or whatever open to take away head pressure, should still work with the lines clear but some flow pulling would help.

[hook47]

On my DX3 RB, the water tank is in an outdoor bay and the pump is under the refrigerator, almost accessible. What I did was buy a 3 way valve from HD/Lowes and spliced it in the feed line from tank to pump near the tank. Simple install and added some hose to put in an RV antifreeze bottle. Had not blown out lines so didn't take much to prime. Removed the filter cartridge before I pumped antifreeze. Carbon filter removes the red dye which makes knowing if antifreeze has filled the line with enough concentration difficult. Also need to remove filter from Fridge unless your fridge needs a filter to flow water into dispenser and ice maker as mine did. Just had to feel/taste fluid coming out of fridge water dispenser to know it was coming out. Kept that old filter to reuse this winter.

[The Renegade]

Well job now complete. First time always sucks trying to find what you need and exactly what valves do what. Thanks for all the help guys.