Winter in Texas

[AHTX]

We have a 2019 33DS, and it looks like we are going to have a couple of nights of colder than usual temperatures - down to 16F. I must admit that I didn't pay much attention to winterizing when we bought the motorhome last summer. We are supposed to be camping over the weekend, and I expect that us being in there with a space heater will keep everything warm enough, but then the couple of days after we get home are supposed to be below freezing. Assuming the black and grey tanks are fully empty after the trip, what do I need to worry about? I have never fully drained the FW tank - I believe that the low point drain is on the door side behind the bathroom - hopefully that is simple enough. Do I need to add some kind of antifreeze in the plumbing before draining (in the traps at sinks etc.)? What about the water heater - does that need to be drained? If so, how do I drain the hot water? Or is a few hours below freezing not going to be a problem? In the past when the temperature drops in this part of Texas it is only below freezing for 10-12 hours at most, but I have never seen the forecast down to 16F before!
Thanks in advance for any advice

[WanderMore]

The water heater could freeze, as could any water in the lines. To drain the water heater you would open the pressure relief valve and remove the anode rod. Your water heater may have bypass valves which would allow you to effectively remove your drained water heater from the cold and hot water lines as well as join the hot and cold together. Once that is done you can winterize the lines by either pumping rv antifreeze through all lines and fixtures or blowing air through all lines and fittings. Yes to putting some antifreeze in traps as well as gray and black tanks. There should be a drain for the fresh tank. I would leave that open to prevent condensation from freezing in there. Don’t forget your outside shower!

[EdJunior]

When you get home, can you hook up the RV to the house? I usually turn my heat on to about 40 or 45 degrees so the inside stays above freezing, then put a space heater on the water lines in the front of my 5th wheel, and under the sink. My black and gray tanks, as well as my fresh water are empty anyway. So just get the space heater to the pipes most exposed to the cold, and the interior heater will keep all the pipes inside from freezing. This has always worked for me. I usually have to fill my LP tanks afterwards, but I don't have to worry about flushing antifreeze and all the other stuff involved with winterizing. The RV is ready to go on our next trip.

[Reverse_snowbird]

OH MY! They've changed the forecast and we're supposed to get down to 16 degrees over the weekend here too! That's pipe busting weather in Houston. It's not supposed to get above freezing during the day and that's a problem.

Follow WanderMore's advice and winterize that rig. You could try just heating the rig and that works for most winters, but I wouldn't risk it at 16 degrees and below freezing for over 24 hours.

Now I've got to get busy winterizing the outside faucets on the house and fill some water bottles just in case the lines freeze. (Here in Houston our water lines are in the ceiling. Not good if a pipe bursts)

[AHTX]

Thank you for these replies. The forecast is looking even worse now - down to 11F on Monday night! There is no salting of roads down here, so we have decided not to go on the camping trip this weekend, but I think I will drive the RV over to the house and plug it into the house electric (hoping the 20A connection will run the fireplace), and I will find and open up the drain for the FW tank. I have ordered antifreeze from Ace and should have it in the morning, so I will put that in the traps. Hopefully I will have a couple of days to get everything taken care of before the freeze.

If I were to blow water out of the lines with an air compressor - where do I hook up the air line? I don't have a fitting for this, but assume I could put a few layers of tape around the blow gun to get enough of a seal.

[WanderMore]

There are some good videos on YouTube about this that talk about how much pressure and the sequence of opening which point first. Less mess and less money spent on chemicals. Just search “winterize rv with air”.

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by AHTX

If I were to blow water out of the lines with an air compressor - where do I hook up the air line? I don't have a fitting for this, but assume I could put a few layers of tape around the blow gun to get enough of a seal.

The water inlet is where you blow it out, but it might require a special fitting.
If you're going to put in RV antifreeze, you don't have to blow out the lines. Open the low point drains and open the faucets to drain the water out of the lines, then put in the antifreeze.

Glad you're staying home. You may need the rv if the electric goes out. We're going to hunker down starting this weekend. You're just west of us and we may be snowed in by Tuesday.

[EdJunior]

Yeah, this is gonna be a nasty one. Jeez, you move down here to get away from all that, and it still nips you in the bud. Y'all stay safe out there.

[AHTX]

Thanks again for the advice. I'm going to bring the RV from storage tomorrow morning and hopefully it won't be too much hassle to get the water out, but I do have a few questions. I've watched some Youtube videos, but as it is the first time I am doing this I'm hoping that the more experienced can point out what I am doing wrong!

My plan is to
1. drain the FW tank (low point drain, looks like this is going to be a red hose under the rear passenger side) - leave the cap off or replace? Or doesn't it matter?
2. make sure there is no pressure in the lines, then remove the anode rod in the water heater, turn off electric switch on heater
3. find the heater bypass valves, and bypass the heater
4. hook up the air line to the city water connection (30 psi seems to be the advice), then go through the kitchen sink, bathroom sink, toilet and shower making sure I see water stop and hear air coming out. I think I saw that I should also blow air through the black flush line
5. Here's where I run out of ideas... We have the washer dryer - is there a way to get the water out of the lines for that?
6. pour a cup or so of RV antifreeze into each drain - maybe a little more as I want to make sure that whatever is pushed into the tanks is mainly antifreeze, I guess. Grey and black dump valves are closed throughout?

I'm not planning to pump antifreeze through all the lines, though the latest forecast has us below freezing for 36 hours with a low of 6F - does that warrant pumping antifreeze as well as blowing the lines out with air? If so, where do I access the winterization line to do this? Or is there some way to pour the antifreeze in through the city fill line?

Thanks for any advice on what I have to get done. I'm going to have plenty to do with the RV and wrapping the house pipes and putting Christmas lights around the plants I want to save!

[ARhappycamper]

Originally Posted by AHTX

Thank you for these replies. The forecast is looking even worse now - down to 11F on Monday night! There is no salting of roads down here, so we have decided not to go on the camping trip this weekend, but I think I will drive the RV over to the house and plug it into the house electric (hoping the 20A connection will run the fireplace), and I will find and open up the drain for the FW tank. I have ordered antifreeze from Ace and should have it in the morning, so I will put that in the traps. Hopefully I will have a couple of days to get everything taken care of before the freeze.

If I were to blow water out of the lines with an air compressor - where do I hook up the air line? I don't have a fitting for this, but assume I could put a few layers of tape around the blow gun to get enough of a seal.

If you have 20 amps you can run the furnace and the electric fireplace if you have propane. I run both on a 15 amp outlet.

[WanderMore]

It looks like you’ve got it down.

WRT washer/dryer I would disconnect the lines, drain them and blow out the fittings like all the other faucets.

The pink antifreeze can actually freeze. It just doesn’t expand. So don’t be surprised to see pink slush or frozen bits. If (not likely) it does freeze in the traps it would have to melt a bit before the traps drain again.

Let us know how it went after this ice age.

[FrankG]

When the store's open in the morning I would be surprised if you find any Pink Antifreeze on the shelfs. Drain all the tanks and water heater. Heat the interior or blow out the lines. Empty the water pump strainer.

To properly blow out the lines, after draining everything and opening all low point drains and all faucets including the outside sprayer, close it all up. Find a way to introduce 10 to 30PSI compressed air to the city water inlet then open one valve at a time, repeat several times, don't forget the toilet. The only thing left is the drains, you could remove the traps, or use a plunger to evacuate the water. Hopefully you don't have a Ice Maker in your refrigerator to deal with.

Good Luck

[Reverse_snowbird]

Originally Posted by AHTX

My plan is to
1. drain the FW tank (low point drain, looks like this is going to be a red hose under the rear passenger side) - leave the cap off or replace? Or doesn't it matter?
!

1. Fresh water drain hoses are usually clear. I don't know you're particular rig, but if you have a blue and red hoses next to each other, those are low point drains for the system. You open those, then open the faucets to drain out the water. Those can remain open or closed. Closed if you're going to add rv antifreeze.
As long as your fresh water tank isn't full that should be ok. You just need room in the tank for the water to expand as it freezes.
6. Leave grey and black tanks closed.

If you can find the rv antifreeze and have the time, do it. Otherwise, leave the faucets open. If the water freezes in the lines, it will have room to expand and hopefully not damage anything.

Good luck with your plants. The last time this happened (now I'm revealing my age), wrapping plants didn't work with most of my plants. A trip to the garden store in the spring proved expensive.
Good luck.

[zipmart]

I posted this elsewhere. Here is what I do:



We live 35 miles south of DFW and our MH is currently parked in our driveway hooked up to 50 amp shore power but not water. My oldest son and his wife are sleeping in it at night til they move into their new house. I have an electric heater inside to augment the furnace and keep the thermostat set at 60 at night. With the electric heater the furnace runs only occasionally. The tanks are heated. I have three 75w flood light bulbs in the 3 bays where pipes/hoses are visible and have refrigerator/freezer thermometers in these bays to monitor temps. Last night it got down to 18 degrees here. When I checked the temps this morning, all 3 thermometers read between 50 and 60 degrees. This works for me.

[edm]

This post may be a little late but here we go.
We have a 2016 FR3 30DS and we live in a cloud area of Oregon. The temps here will drop below zero and snow. The things I do if we are still using our rig in the winter and need water are. I use the propane heat as much as I can that way the water bays are heated with the ducted air. Forest River has made it so that there is some hot air escaping into the water areas. My bays that have water lines and so on stay above freezing.

When winterizing your rig with compressed air be sure you pay close attention to your water pump and pre filter that will not be blown out with compressed air. Also your water tank will not completely drain out and if the vehicle is move water will run into your water pump line again. We disconnect the water pump line and leave it open until we are ready to use it again in the spring.

Good luck and hope this helps. Happy Travels.

[Scrapper]

Sure could use some of that 18* temperatures here. Right now it's -8*, -21* wc, 6 mph wind. Sun is shining with not a cloud in the sky. The highest it's been since Thursday was 8*.

[AHTX]

Thanks again for the help. I know that our little cold snap in Houston is nothing compared to the North, but it's really made me think about the plumbing of the RV and the house!

I got the air fitting from Amazon and (after an embarrassingly long time wondering why I couldn't get any pressure before noticing that I didn't replace the low point drain plug!) got the water out of the lines and tanks. I also added the pink antifreeze in the drains, so hopefully all set...

One thing I wondered about this morning is the water pump. I have no idea where it is, I am sorry to admit - and the online manual isn't really any help. I wondered if there is still water in the pump, and should I pulse it on for a second to get that water out - I guess it would then just be a little bit of water in a line somewhere, but not enough to worry about.

[edm]

Your water pump should be in the same compartment a the water heater. All of the bypass valves and the water tank outlet should be in there. On our 30 DS Forest River had a black plastic panel with a opening in it you could reach through. I removed that panel and left it out so I can see in there and use the space.

Good luck hope this helps.

[zipmart]

Here is an update on my previous post (https://www.forestriverforums.com/fo...ml#post2498397)

Outside temp this morning when I got up was 1*. Went out to check on the RV. Lowest temp in any of the 3 bays I had placed the 75 watt flood lights was 40*. The other two were 58* & 62*. My son and his wife said the RV was comfy sleeping with the thermostat set to 60.

For those of you wondering why they are sleeping in the RV and not in the house - our granddaughters are in the 2 extra bedrooms inside.

[WanderMore]

Sounds like some quality alone time coupled with quality grandma & grandpa time. Everybody wins!