Winterization Question

I live in North Carolina and, unfortunately, wrecked my tow vehicle last week so I'm unable to take our RV to a service center to have it winterized.

This is our first TT that we bought a few months ago so I watched a ton of youtube videos before winterizing it myself.

Everything went smoothly except for the last step of winterizing the city water inlet. According to the videos I watched I should have been able to get antifreeze to come out after removing the screen and holding down the valve.

But when I held the valve down a small amount of water came out and then stopped completely. No antifreeze ever came out.

Did I do something wrong? Is this something I should worry about?

Also, with the winterization kit, should I "open" the valve from the fresh water tank into the water pump or leave it turned "off" to pull from the hose that I used to feed in the antifreeze? None of the videos I watched mentioned this step.

Thanks!

If Your pump is close by to your inlet your good.  My two trailer have only 2' of travel from inlet to the pump by pass. Very little water in 2' of hose.

dalamarjj78 said:

Also, with the winterization kit, should I "open" the valve from the fresh water tank into the water pump or leave it turned "off" to pull from the hose that I used to feed in the antifreeze? None of the videos I watched mentioned this step.

Click to expand...

I have a separate short hose underneath with a valve that changes from tank to that hose, that sucks the RV antifreeze from the jug.
Drain your water tank
Drain your system through the low port drains at the very rear, bottom of the TT.

Here's a decent checklist to our Library
http://www.rvforum.net/joomla/index.php/27-maintenance-items/206-winterize-your-rv

cavie said:

If Your pump is close by to your inlet your good.  My two trailer have only 2' of travel from inlet to the pump by pass. Very little water in 2' of hose.

Click to expand...

My city inlet is at the rear of the TT and the pump is closer to the front (by the door). So the pump is probably around 12 feet from the inlet.

SpencerPJ said:

I have a separate short hose underneath with a valve that changes from tank to that hose, that sucks the RV antifreeze from the jug.
Drain your water tank
Drain your system through the low port drains at the very rear, bottom of the TT.

Click to expand...

Sorry, I don't think I worded my question clearly. When I filled the lines with antifreeze I had to "open" the valve to my short hose and "close" the valve coming from my fresh water tank. Now that the TT is winterized should I leave it this way? Or change it back to how it was (with the short hose valve "closed" and the fresh water tank "open")? None of the videos or checklists I viewed clarified this.

As long as you have pink stuff throughout your water system, have run it through all faucets, toilets, outside shower etc, I don't think t matters how you leave the valves.  I turn mine so they are all ready to go in the spring after a sanitation process.  I also leave a note what needs to be done in the spring, I forget  8)

Did you drain your hot water tank?  I didn't see that mentioned or missed it.

Bob C. said:

Did you drain your hot water tank?  I didn't see that mentioned or missed it.

Click to expand...

These are the basic steps I followed:
- Drained the fresh water tank
- Opened both low point drains and ran the pump until no more water came out
- Made sure my hot water heater & propane were turned off
- Drained the hot water heater
- Bypassed the hot water heater
- Turned "off" the flow from the fresh water tank and turned "on" the flow from my short hose
- Turned on my water pump
- Put antifreeze into the system by opening every hot and cold faucet one at a time at every water point (sinks, toilet, inside shower, outside shower)
- Turned off the pump and released the pressure by opening a faucet
- I *tried* to get antifreeze to come out of the city inlet by removing the screen and pressing the valve but only a little water came out. I never obtained a fresh flow of anything with the valve held down.

I may have forgotten a step since I'm basing this list off memory and not the checklist I had on hand at the time.

Thanks.

If you released the pressure by opening a faucet in the order shown on your list, there was no pressure left to push water/antifreeze out the city inlet. My preferred sequence is to press in the fill port valve and hold it open with a toothpick, etc, and then cycle the pump on until antifreeze flows out the inlet.

Sounds like you did everything as should be.  Now the following year you won't even need to consider taking it to a Dealer for the work.  )

NY_Dutch said:

If you released the pressure by opening a faucet in the order shown on your list, there was no pressure left to push water/antifreeze out the city inlet. My preferred sequence is to press in the fill port valve and hold it open with a toothpick, etc, and then cycle the pump on until antifreeze flows out the inlet.

Click to expand...

Ok, thanks. At this point would it hurt anything to turn my pump on again to re-pressurize the system, open the city inlet to fill with antifreeze and then turn off the pump/depressurize the system?

dalamarjj78 said:

Ok, thanks. At this point would it hurt anything to turn my pump on again to re-pressurize the system, open the city inlet to fill with antifreeze and then turn off the pump/depressurize the system?

Click to expand...

I would, just stand back off to the side.

Thank you everyone for your input! I feel much better now since it sounds like I did everything correctly. I guess I'll find out for sure next Spring.