Winterized the Camper

I winterized the camper yesterday.

Yup, camping season is officially over in our household.

After my son's final baseball game of the fall season, I picked up some RV antifreeze from the local hardware store ($2.99 a gallon; ouch!). After lunch, I headed out to the Back 40 where we keep our camper and set to the task of winterizing it.

Started by hooking up and pulling it up onto wood planks. I read somewhere that leaving your tires on bare ground was not a good idea, so the last two years I've gotten them up on the wood. Plus, I've got about $400 in new tires over the last two years, so I'm willing to do anything to keep them from going bad prematurely. I expect to buy some tire covers soon, too, although the make-shift covers I used last year also would work just fine.

Next, I unhitched, and cranked up the camper so the back end was the low point.

After I got the tires squared away, I plugged into the Trailblazer and got to work on the waterlines.

I started by draining the fresh water tank, which took a while since it was about half full. Once it started to drip, I drained the black and gray tanks. Once they started slowly dripping, I drained the water heater. Then opened the hot and cold low point valves. Went back inside, opened up all the faucets, and waited patiently for everything to drain through. Didn't take too long.

Then I closed up everything, switched on the water heater bypass and hooked up the bypass for the RV antifreeze. My bypass is pretty simple: a four foot length of tube and a T-valve spliced into the line leading from the fresh water tank to the water pump.

So then I switched on the water pump and methodically turned on each faucet, starting with the furthest faucet from the water pump, until pink was flowing from each one. Flushed the toilet a few times until it, too, ran pink. Poured a healthy dose of RV antifreeze down the shower drain and sink drain and toilet. Switched off the pump and opened up all the faucets again.

Cleaned up and done!