It has been a trial! And I?m not even done yet!
The voluminous bag of documentation that accompanied the unit seems to lack anything other than the most rudimentary instructions on winterizing, generalized so as to be applicable across their entire line of motorhomes. Nothing detailing the valve layout in our specific model.
Just locating the freshwater tank, let alone figuring out how to drain it was a trial in itself! Not visible from underneath the motorhome at all and totally on the other side of the vehicle from the only filling location. Turns out it is actually located in a blind compartment under the refrigerator! The drain tube is invisible from underneath too.
Turns out the drain tube it is located directly over the LPG bottle and splashes out all over it! Even knowing where it is, it is hard to see.
There are six valves in the water system including two for the hot water bypass. I finally found a diagram for the h/w tank valves but never did find any instructions on the four other valves all located under the kitchen drawer.
So, I finally got things drained!
I thought I?d take the easy way out and put a few gals of RV antifreeze in the freshwater tank . . . but no go. Seems I can not just pour the stuff in with a hose and funnel. It seems to require pressure to get anything into the tank at all. I read here that some units have backflow check valves in the filling line that prevent simple gravity fill? There is no sign that the water strainer at the top of my filling port is removable by the way.
So I bit the bullet and decided to let the pump take the a/f directly from the bottle as I saw no other alternative. I got it all set up, turned the pump on and let it suck happily away. It did! But I had forgotten to put the valves back into the operate from the drain position and A/F poured all over the floor back through the disconnected pump inlet tube. What a mess!
So, we try again. Pump sucks another bottle of a/f up. No leak this time . . . but why isn?t it shutting off? I turn the pump off . . . and hear the sound of my last bottle of a/f draining down the exterior of the motorhome through the hot water tank I thought I had bypassed after removing the drain plug.
%$#&**@#!
I am now out of a/f.
It all sounds hysterically funny . . . but, somehow I did not see the humour in it at the time!
I am still perplexed that the h/w heater seems not to be bypassed as I thought it would be when I threw those two valves into the ?other? position from where they had been when we got the thing. Must be, in all the confusion and panic, I flubbed it and switched one or both of them back.
I hope to get more a/f this week as my schedule allows and get this very unpleasant chore finished.
I really feel Coachmen should have provided model specific valve diagrams to make this easier!
Incidentally, and on a different issue, ours is supposedly a ?2008? model but left the factory line January 29, 2007 and is on a 2007 Chev chassis. How can it be a ?2008?? In any event it does not have the ?water works panel? alluded to in the documentation that is supposed to make winterizing easy. It was a rental unit in its previous life and we purchased it in April 2008.
I am making detailed instructions for myself so that this will not be such a mystery next year. Needless to say, the dealer we bought it from is 1000s of miles away so we are pretty much on our own with it.
Has anyone here any experience with winterizing late model Freelanders?
The voluminous bag of documentation that accompanied the unit seems to lack anything other than the most rudimentary instructions on winterizing, generalized so as to be applicable across their entire line of motorhomes. Nothing detailing the valve layout in our specific model.
Just locating the freshwater tank, let alone figuring out how to drain it was a trial in itself! Not visible from underneath the motorhome at all and totally on the other side of the vehicle from the only filling location. Turns out it is actually located in a blind compartment under the refrigerator! The drain tube is invisible from underneath too.
Turns out the drain tube it is located directly over the LPG bottle and splashes out all over it! Even knowing where it is, it is hard to see.
There are six valves in the water system including two for the hot water bypass. I finally found a diagram for the h/w tank valves but never did find any instructions on the four other valves all located under the kitchen drawer.
So, I finally got things drained!
I thought I?d take the easy way out and put a few gals of RV antifreeze in the freshwater tank . . . but no go. Seems I can not just pour the stuff in with a hose and funnel. It seems to require pressure to get anything into the tank at all. I read here that some units have backflow check valves in the filling line that prevent simple gravity fill? There is no sign that the water strainer at the top of my filling port is removable by the way.
So I bit the bullet and decided to let the pump take the a/f directly from the bottle as I saw no other alternative. I got it all set up, turned the pump on and let it suck happily away. It did! But I had forgotten to put the valves back into the operate from the drain position and A/F poured all over the floor back through the disconnected pump inlet tube. What a mess!
So, we try again. Pump sucks another bottle of a/f up. No leak this time . . . but why isn?t it shutting off? I turn the pump off . . . and hear the sound of my last bottle of a/f draining down the exterior of the motorhome through the hot water tank I thought I had bypassed after removing the drain plug.
%$#&**@#!
I am now out of a/f.
It all sounds hysterically funny . . . but, somehow I did not see the humour in it at the time!
I am still perplexed that the h/w heater seems not to be bypassed as I thought it would be when I threw those two valves into the ?other? position from where they had been when we got the thing. Must be, in all the confusion and panic, I flubbed it and switched one or both of them back.
I hope to get more a/f this week as my schedule allows and get this very unpleasant chore finished.
I really feel Coachmen should have provided model specific valve diagrams to make this easier!
Incidentally, and on a different issue, ours is supposedly a ?2008? model but left the factory line January 29, 2007 and is on a 2007 Chev chassis. How can it be a ?2008?? In any event it does not have the ?water works panel? alluded to in the documentation that is supposed to make winterizing easy. It was a rental unit in its previous life and we purchased it in April 2008.
I am making detailed instructions for myself so that this will not be such a mystery next year. Needless to say, the dealer we bought it from is 1000s of miles away so we are pretty much on our own with it.
Has anyone here any experience with winterizing late model Freelanders?
