Winterize my travel trailer

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by Smk

I have a Forest river wildwood 28ckds and was wondering how to winterize the trailer using the pink anti freeze do I put the stuff in the fresh water tank and let the water pump it thru or is there some other way that I don't know about?

Yes after you blow the sys out with a compressor set @ about 30 psi !!!
Try search for other ideas !!!

[happyttowner]

You will need to buy this and install it on your water pump. It uses the pump to draw the antifreeze from the bottle.
Make sure you drain all water out of system and close valves to hot water heater and open the bypass valve on the hot water heater.
Place tube in antifreeze bottle and turn pump on. Then your ready to go to each faucet and run it til pink comes out! Make sure not to run out of antifreeze or you will be sucking air in the lines.
Dont forget your toilet or your shower head. Or your outdoor shower if you have one.

[Flybob]

Check the Library here (green header on page). 1st topic under plumbing.

[MT Biker]

I find it funny that people are afraid to put anti freeze in the fresh water tank, yet have no problem drinking the same water flowing through the lines that had anti freeze sitting in them for months.
Just flush and sterilize the fresh water tank and you will be good to go.

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by MT Biker

I find it funny that people are afraid to put anti freeze in the fresh water tank, yet have no problem drinking the same water flowing through the lines that had anti freeze sitting in them for months.
Just flush and sterilize the fresh water tank and you will be good to go.

The difference is how difficult it is to get the AF back out again.

With the lines you just flush out and it's all gone. With the freshwater tank, the drain isn't always at the bottom of the tank. So you could have an inch or so of AF sitting at the bottom that takes a ton of flushing to get it all out.

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by happyttowner

You will need to buy this and install it on your water pump. It uses the pump to draw the antifreeze from the bottle.
Make sure you drain all water out of system and close valves to hot water heater and open the bypass valve on the hot water heater.
Place tube in antifreeze bottle and turn pump on. Then your ready to go to each faucet and run it til pink comes out! Make sure not to run out of antifreeze or you will be sucking air in the lines.
Dont forget your toilet or your shower head. Or your outdoor shower if you have one.
Attachment 190760

I installed one of those in our old TT,,, but there is almost no room in our Sunseeker to install one,,, so instead of using 1 gallon of antifreeze we use 2

[DBigbee]

I have a Wildwood X-lite 241QBXL, and the water pump is under the bed. To get to it, you have to remove the mattress and the board on which it lies. You'll need a screwdriver (a cordless drill with a Phillips screw tip works best), and go through the hassle of finding a place to put all that stuff while you work on the pump.

I had to buy a kit to splice into the outgoing water line from the pump to install the clear tube which is inserted into the antifreeze bottle. The kits are available online or at any RV supply store. After that is done, running the pink stuff through your plumbing system is as simple as flipping the water pump switch. (But don't forget to bypass the water heater. That also required the removal of a panel to access the valves.)

Someday I'll buy a more expensive RV with all those controls readily accessible.

[Rmstack]

Many newer campers come with this already installed. Check to see if your camper has it.

[bikendan]

Originally Posted by Rmstack

Many newer campers come with this already installed. Check to see if your camper has it.

I don't believe that the Wildwood line does.

[Smk]

I checked to find water pump and mine does not have the hose I may have to add the converter kit or just do what the other reply said , blow out tbe lines and and do it that way. Thanks

[Smk]

So found out had to buy conversion kit but it would not suck the antifreeze from bottle so we got longer hose, ran it out the door to the ground where the bottle was at still no suction. So we finally put antifreeze in fresh water tank and the pump worked and was winterized in less than 30 min. Thanks for all the help

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by Smk

So found out had to buy conversion kit but it would not suck the antifreeze from bottle so we got longer hose, ran it out the door to the ground where the bottle was at still no suction. So we finally put antifreeze in fresh water tank and the pump worked and was winterized in less than 30 min. Thanks for all the help

Did you install winterizing kit on the suction side of the pump !!!

[5picker]

Originally Posted by Smk

So found out had to buy conversion kit but it would not suck the antifreeze from bottle so we got longer hose, ran it out the door to the ground where the bottle was at still no suction. So we finally put antifreeze in fresh water tank and the pump worked and was winterized in less than 30 min. Thanks for all the help

Did you prime the hose by pouring some antifreeze in it?

And... why was the bottle on the ground outside the R/V?
You want the bottle as close the pump as possible. Adding a L O N G hose only makes the pump work harder to suck the antifreeze.

[HAPP]

Just for your info, My nephew tried to winterize and couldn't get anti-freeze to draw. I found that the hose to the pump was missing an O-ring at the pump. Got my O-ring kit out and made a good tight seal and that was it.
By the way, I'll say it again...DON'T put anti-freeze in the fresh water tank. I say this because I use it in my farm tank sprayer and mold grows in that tank and I would not use that for fresh water for anything. DO NOT PUT ANTI-FREEZE IN THE FRESH WATER TANK............EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Wolverine 1945]

Originally Posted by HAPP

Just for your info, My nephew tried to winterize and couldn't get anti-freeze to draw. I found that the hose to the pump was missing an O-ring at the pump. Got my O-ring kit out and made a good tight seal and that was it.
By the way, I'll say it again...DON'T put anti-freeze in the fresh water tank. I say this because I use it in my farm tank sprayer and mold grows in that tank and I would not use that for fresh water for anything. DO NOT PUT ANTI-FREEZE IN THE FRESH WATER TANK............EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have put AF in our FW tank for years,,, we also sanitize every Spring,,, we have never had a problem,,, we don't drink a lot of water from FW tank,,, but do drink some,,, and use it for cooking,,, when I want water I drink from our coolers,,, which I clean with Soft Scribe after each use,,, we also use that water for making coffee !!!

If a person does not have a winterizing kit,,, what else can we do ???

[Iwritecode]

Originally Posted by Wolverine 1945

I have put AF in our FW tank for years,,, we also sanitize every Spring,,, we have never had a problem,,, we don't drink a lot of water from FW tank,,, but do drink some,,, and use it for cooking,,, when I want water I drink from our coolers,,, which I clean with Soft Scribe after each use,,, we also use that water for making coffee !!!

If a person does not have a winterizing kit,,, what else can we do ???

On our previous trailer we used a small submersible pump and a 5-gallon bucket. Fill the bucket with a few gallons of AF, put the pump in, hook up a hose from the pump to the city water connection and pumped the AF through. Never touched the FW tank.

[Wolverine 1945]

Each to there own,,, I have no problem with adding a couple of gallons of AF to FW tank !
And will continue to do it that way,,, if I had room to install a Winterizing kit,,, I would !!!
I sanitize in the Spring,, and flush twice !!!

[Boomerweps]

I added the winterizing pump input kit. I had the same lack of draw problem with the antifreeze jug same level two feet tops away from the pump.
This first year, I found a very small funnel to fit the hose, held the hose up, and poured from the jug into the hose. PITA but it worked. Used less than a gallon for all the piping and poured the rest in the black & gray tanks.
NEXT year I will use my new rig to supply antifreeze. Haven't decided on the bucket yet but I bought a 2 pack of small spout valves made for 5 gallon plastic buckets for home beer brewing. The small spout fits the hose perfectly. I'll just put the antifreeze in the bucket, bucket on the shelf above the water pump. Easy peasy !

[HAPP]

Originally Posted by Wolverine 1945

I have put AF in our FW tank for years,,, we also sanitize every Spring,,, we have never had a problem,,, we don't drink a lot of water from FW tank,,, but do drink some,,, and use it for cooking,,, when I want water I drink from our coolers,,, which I clean with Soft Scribe after each use,,, we also use that water for making coffee !!!

If a person does not have a winterizing kit,,, what else can we do ???

Drain the fresh water tank and blow out the lines with 40psi air pressure. Pour some anti-freeze in the sinks, shower and toilet to keep the P-traps from freezing.
To each their own....put anti-freeze in your fresh water tanks if you want. It's not a good idea.

[5picker]

Originally Posted by HAPP

Just for your info, My nephew tried to winterize and couldn't get anti-freeze to draw. I found that the hose to the pump was missing an O-ring at the pump. Got my O-ring kit out and made a good tight seal and that was it.
By the way, I'll say it again...DON'T put anti-freeze in the fresh water tank. I say this because I use it in my farm tank sprayer and mold grows in that tank and I would not use that for fresh water for anything. DO NOT PUT ANTI-FREEZE IN THE FRESH WATER TANK............EVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'd suspect you had something growing in there before the addition of R/V type antifreeze. I've had a few bottles of unsealed, partially used R/V antifreeze sitting on a shelf for years that nothing ever grew in them. Same concept... plastic container holding antifreeze.

Look... it isn't the end of the world if you dump some R/V antifreeze in your fresh tank. And BEFORE the advent of winterization kits, it was done a lot more than it is now.

It simply is hard as hell to flush it out of certain models where the drain line isn't on the bottom. It takes LOTS and LOTS of flushing to get it out... AND... whatever fresh water doesn't come out before dumping the antifreeze in the tank, (again because not all drains are on the bottom) dilutes the antifreeze to a less effective formulation.