Winter

Good thing I didn't follow through on the idea of going over to New Mexico between  Christmas and New Years.  Blizzard over there!

Back home, I'm about done with my "insurance" project of preparing for the necessity of changing a tire on the road.  My latest project has had to do with winter storage and travel.  It's not Minnesota, but it seems like a good idea to do some degree of cold-proofing the Beast when it's stored here in Tucson. I want to be able to freeze-proof the rig quickly, and put it back in service easily when I want to hit the road.  Here's what makes sense.

• Turn off water pump.
• Drain the fresh-water storage tank.
• Drain the hot water heater unless it was already empty. 
• Put the hot water heater plumbing in "bypass" mode.
• Connect air compressor to external water input using a "blow out" adapter. Limit air pressure to 25-30 psi.
• One by one, open faucets and let the air pressure force water out of the lines: kitchen, bathroom sink, bathtub/shower, external "shower." 
• Drain holding tanks.
• Pour a cup or so of RV antifreeze (non-toxic; pink) into each drain for the P-traps.  Pour a larger amount into one drain so it goes through the trap into the grey holding tank. Pour some antifreeze into the black tank via the toilet, mostly to keep the seals from drying out.

That sounds elaborate, I grant you.  It involves a short trip to the nearby (free) dump station.  And the drain on the fresh water tank is currently painfully slow: it uses a very small-diameter rubber tube.  If the tank was full it would take well over an hour (I did this last year). So:  I'm going to ask the good folks at Merrigan's to put in a larger-diameter drain pipe.

To undo all this, I need to put some water in the fresh water tank: enough for washing and flushing and that's all.  Then I turn the pump on and "burp" the various water lines.  I may or may not put the water heater back on line.

Once I get the routines down, and assuming I can drain the fresh water tank in a more reasonable time, I'm guessing each of these procedures will take about an hour.  Maybe less.

I actually enjoy figuring things like this out!