It's been getting cold at nights lately and I have not winterized my Breakaway yet. Should I start to worry about frozen/broken pipes? It has been in the 30's at night and 50's during the day lately here in NJ. I am trying to hold off in the hopes that we may catch a nice weekend or two in November where we can get away. I have looked at some prior posts and think the idea of blowing out the system and just using rv antifreeze in the drains may be the way I'm leaning. I just have to get to the store and get the proper fittings to do so. Just looking for some immediate advice on when I should be concerned about the outside temperature. I do not have any heat in my storage areas.
Thanks, Bruce

If you do the blowout w/antifreeze in the drains, be sure you've really blown all the water out. When we bought ours, that's how it had been winterized, but there was enough water in the elbows that brought the water up to the galley faucets to freeze & pop the elbows off.

I'll tell you, one thing you don't want to have to do is repair that plumbing there. Been there, done that.

After that episode, I now charge the whole system with antifreeze.

quote:

Just looking for some immediate advice on when I should be concerned about the outside temperature. I do not have any heat in my storage areas.

The wise guy answer would be 32 degrees but we are not like that here . Are you a gambling man? You would need some luck on your side as you're taking a gamble. I would be concerned if the temps stayed below 31 degrees for several hours.

The first year I did mine I used 10 gallons of RV antifreeze to do my system. This year I bought 6 gallons and have 4 gallons left over.

What has changed? I have a better understanding of all hoses, drops and traps. I now blow out the system with compressed air and drain out all lower drain valves. I have a water heater drain, a water tank drain and a lower cold and hot water line drains under the bathroom sink behind a false bottom panel.

I then park the coach facing uphill. The water pump is in the back of the tank area and all of my drains are on the back side of their respective part. All drains get shut off and I then add 6 gallons of RV antifreeze to the fresh water tank.

I run the hot water at the farthest (kitchen) spicket until it comes out a dark pink. With the system blown out this takes no time at all. I then do the bathroom hot water until that's a dark pink. Farthest cold water, bathroom cold water and toilet then I stop - Ooops, don't forget the spray nozzles...

I drained the water heater and each charged line until they were dry, refilled the fresh water tank with the drained stuff and redid the above again.

After draining the whole system again and placing it back into the same jugs I test them for protection levels.

I'll be able to get another year out of those 4 gallons of leftover antifreeze as I do not see it getting to 32 below zero next year. I will also be adding 2 more gallons of fresh antifreeze so it'll be even lower.

While this may be overkill, I haven't had a problem doing it this way for the past 3 years. Last year really doesn't count as I could have gotten away without any antifreeze. I found a 6 pack of Budweiser in a compartment box when I was getting her ready in the spring and it wasn't even bulged.

I would suspect that Jersey is a little warmer then where I live, but... YMMV

Thanks guys. I still would like to know when to winterize. Do we need multiple days and nights in the 30's before we need to be concerned or does 30's at night and 40-50 during the day pose a threat? My thought was the process of blowing out the system and adding anti freeze to the drains and tanks (as suggested in prior posts on this subject) would be good if we caught a nice weekend and therefore would be able to use the Barth without concern of anti freeze through the system. We do get nice weekends around here during the winter months. Heck, I remember riding my Harley on New Years Day more than once recently! So, opinions on when to do this and the method above would be appreciated...
Bruce

This may sound like oversimplifying, but could you get by "roughing" it, as in dumping a jug of water down the toilet after use, and using a 2 gallon from the IGA for drinking and coffee, etc. If you can get by without completely recharging the H2O system you could use everything else and enjoy the extra winter days that global warming affords us. Woops, nuf said!

Bruce, I feel your pain as I also try to take the coach out throughout the winter months. I actually blow out the lines, as others have mentioned, keep the tanks empty, run the furnace at a low setting, and keep all cabinet or plumbing access doors open. I feel my biggest danger comes from the "city water" inlet on the side of the coach. Obviously the water heater also needs to be drained. I go through a lot of propane this way, so it is not a cheap solution, and if the weather forcast calls for a long deep freeze, I'll put the fluid in. I live in Kentucky, so we are moderate most of the time.

This solution is not without risks. Once I was familiar with winterizing the system, I don't find it so bad if I I have fully winterize it a couple times during the winter.

I might add that it doesn't hurt the mechanical aspects of the coach to get the beauty out a couple of times during the winter months.

Good luck. Tom

Danny, using the jug to flush the toilet & grocery store water (or a jug brought from home) is a fine solution for a winter weekend without recharging the whole system. Any old tent camper will tell you that works. No showers, of course, & just remember to drain the holding tank when you get done.

Hi Bruce,

With the desire to continue to use the Barth over the winter, you complicate your winterizing issue. However, you should not wait any longer. A good freeze for a day or so could give you big problems.

Drain and blow out your entire system. Do you know what your entire system consists of? Both Dick Muise and I missed a part in our first season. I forgot to run some antifreeze through the auto fill valve and had a leaker in the spring. He did the same thing. It got fixed, but I now know what to do.

I drain my fresh water holding tank completely and bypass my hot water heater after draining it. I then pump four gallons of antifreeze through the entire system using my water pump until it runs out of each fawcett and into the drain. The flow pours into all the drains and winterizes the traps and adds a small amount to the grey and black holding tanks so that the valves are protected.

Being farther north, our winter is just too cold to get the coach out so it gets covered from about Thanksgiving until some time in March. It makes for a long spell without use.

Now that I have retired, next year will allow us to travel south for part of the winter. We would go this year, but our daughter is going to have a baby around the end of January or early February. This happily thawarts or plans for this season.

Bill G

Thanks Bill. I'm working on this today. I am having a hard time finding the water line (hot & cold) drain valves. I know where the water storage and hot water heater drains are, but cannot find any other drains under the caoch. Is that possible?
Bruce

FWIW.....Our coach had drain valves at several spots. Under each sink, near the pump, etc. They were marked with little card stock tags tied on with string. The writing is age-faded. They drain through the floor by tubes stuck through holes.

My own preference is to drain everything, then blow it out with air, then pump antifreeze in with a Camco winterizing kit until faucets and toilet flow pink.

quote:

Originally posted by Danny Z:
This may sound like oversimplifying, but could you get by "roughing" it, as in dumping a jug of water down the toilet after use, and using a 2 gallon from the IGA for drinking and coffee, etc.

Yeah, we do that all year. We call it extreme water conservation and drinking water safety. A spray bottle for flushing is even more water efficient. If the bowl is sprayed with silicone, it requires even less water to clean. Holding the valve open with your heel while downloading helps, too.

I guess the first thing I need to do is identify where my pump is. It would be nice if there was a water line schematic in the book....I looked for valves and cannot locate any, other than a couple of handles in the bedroom closet. Those just have lines in and out with valves on them and I don't know where they go.
Bruce

Well, the valves in the bedroom closet were hot and cold drain valves that just empty under the chassis. I do not see any drain valves under either sink. Blew out the lines and emptied the HW heater. Pured some pink stuff down the drains and in the holding tanks. That should get me by for now. Gotta find where my pump is located...can't yet. I'm not even sure what I am looking for, but can hear it run from an area of the coach and I think I'm norrowing it down. Could it be hidden behind a wall? Or, could it be mounted under the coach? Ran it quickly and nothing is coming out, so hope that means its empty......
Bruce

quote:

Originally posted by Bruce & Kathleen:
Blew out the lines and emptied the HW heater. Pured some pink stuff down the drains and in the holding tanks. Ran it quickly and nothing is coming out, so hope that means its empty......
Bruce

It is best to let the pump force anti freeze out of each faucet.
That is why it is pink.....so you can see it coming out of each fixture. That way you know that any water left anywhere is diluted with anti freeze. It is possible to have anti freeze in your water tank that is not sucked up by the pump.

The Camco winterizing kit pays for itself in a few years by requiring the use of less anti freeze. It sucks anti freeze directly from the jug, so none is wasted sitting in the bottom of the water tank. Not having anti freeze in the tank means life is simpler first trip in the spring, too.

An added advantage of the winterizing kit is that it allows you to fill your water tank from a jug sitting on the ground or in the toad, eliminating the back strain of pouring from a heavy water carrier.

Camco sends me an Indian casino chip every time I plug their product.

"Could it be hidden behind a wall?"
If your fresh water inlet is in a compartment on a "wall" above the tanks the pump may be behind this "wall". If so, the "wall" of 1/4" composition (masonite stuff) comes off via screws, revealing the pump behind it. Follow the lines from the fresh water tank; one off the tank bottom will go directly to it.