Winter use - 2022 Sequence

[bmennig]

Newbie here. Taking my RV to Mammoth this weekend and have been reading all the different threads on winter use. Just wanted to see if my plan is on the right track. Temps at night 20-22 and daytime 29-40. We have electricity and water at RV park. My GF will be staying inside while I'm off enjoying the slopes. Here are my plans and questions.

Using Truma Combi heater along with electric heater to keep cabin warm. Will open cabinets at night. Cabin will stay warm the whole time we are there

Drain fresh water tank and only hook up city water during day when needed. Do I have to drain my fresh water tank?

Use RV antifreeze for flushing toilet and pour some down the sink.

Anything else I need to do or be aware of?

Thanks

[robertj1961]

There is a pretty simple way to push water out of the plumbing lines by attaching an adapter that attaches to the outside city water fitting. It basically is a male screw in adapter that has a bicycle pump fitting to blow air through the lines. It is called a RV Blow out plug and cost about $8. If it were me and you were going to do a quick winterization for the pipes, probably not a bad idea to use this in addition to what you are doing just to get as much water out of the lines as possible while sleeping etc. Just make sure you only use "low pressure" on that fitting. You can open each faucet one by one and use low pressure to get water out of the lines. Make sure you do that with the outside shower line if you have that because on mine it is in a more remote area and difficult to keep warm.
Since you are keeping the inside warm, should be ok but getting most of the water out of the lines with this method could be a little insurance.

Keep in mind you also probably have "tank heaters" you can turn on when using your van and when temperatures are down. On mine they are turned on through the BMPro Console located in your van.

It looks like your temperatures are not going to be "extreme" and we have found that a small space heater also works great without even using the Truma. If plugged in you can save your gas that way and just use the A/C to supply the heat in case your Truma is gas only. Some models are and some are not.

[DavidEM]

Low 20s is getting into an area that could give you trouble. If you aren’t going to blow the lines dry and “dry camp”, in addition to the other things like opening cabinets, I would put a 50 watt light bulb in the area where the water pump, tank and fittings are located.

David

[robertj1961]

Originally Posted by DavidEM

Low 20s is getting into an area that could give you trouble. If you aren’t going to blow the lines dry and “dry camp”, in addition to the other things like opening cabinets, I would put a 50 watt light bulb in the area where the water pump, tank and fittings are located.

David

Good advice. Luckily on his van if like mine the water pump is located inside. A good idea to make sure that area ( below the drivers side sleeping area on mine) is not colder than the rest of the inside. I would also add that one of those cheap "wal mart" style blueooth thermometers is not a bad idea to monitor temperatures in the water pump area.