Outback Winterizing

[jb238smw]

It gets pretty cold here in NE GA, so I winterized my Outback yesterday. Here's what I did:
1. Drained the hot water heater and closed the bypass valve. Left the drain plug opened.
2. Drained the main tank and grey tanks.
3. Opened the hot and cold sides of all the faucets and shower, then turned the onboard water pump on for a few seconds to clear the lines.
4. Used compressed air at the city water connection for several minutes and verified that no water was coming out of the taps and shower head.
5. Added about 1/3 gal of antifreeze to the each of the sink drains (2) and shower drain.
After finishing, I left the faucets open, but closed the grey line valves.
Can anybody think of anything I left out, or should have done differently?

[JRTJH]

Use air to blow out the black tank flush and be sure there's no water/content in the black tank.

Make sure you don't have water in the toilet valve (located on the foot pedal) and pour some antifreeze on top of the toilet valve to help prevent the gasket from drying out over the winter.

If you have an outside shower, be sure you also blow all the water out of that fixture.

Cover the furnace vents (outside) with tape so nothing can crawl inside (wasps, etc) unless you have the stainless steel screens on the vent. Do the same with your water heater door and use a piece of sheet plastic (white trash bag, etc) to close off the refrigerator vent doors on the side of your trailer. You can't do much with the roof vent, but the side vents are great places for wasps and mice to get access.

If you have a mouse problem (or if you want to prevent a mouse problem) check the entire bottom of your RV for any gaps that might allow entry. Many of us use Fresh Cab mouse packets inside our storage bins and inside the trailer. They seem to work better than other products (I don't work for Fresh Cab).

I leave my holding tank valves open slightly, that will help prevent any water that might be left in the tank from forming ice against the inside of the slide valve. It probably wouldn't cause a problem, but with the extreme cold we get, anything I can do to prevent ice formation is a "good thing", so I don't want ice on the rubber gasket on the slide valve.

Unless you disconnected the water pump from the system, you still may have water in the pump inlet side hose. Disconnect that hose, let it drain back into the fresh water tank (only about a cup or so) and turn on the water pump momentarily to push any water in the pump head out of the diaphragm.

Turn off your propane tanks in case you develop a leak over the winter.
Remove or prepare your batteries for storage. The battery cutoff switch does not disconnect your battery completely and it will probably discharge completely in about a week or two, so disconnect it and find a place to store it through the winter.

[Desert185]

Toilet flush valve? Outside shower? Black tank flush? Did you do one faucet at a time or open up everything and blow the lines?

[MerlinB]

If you have low point drains in your water lines, those should be opened and allowed to drain also. Didn't see any mention of them.

[jb238smw]

Yes, I opened the low point drains - forgot to mention that

[jb238smw]

Thanks for all the good info. Think I got everything on the plumbing side, but hadn't thought about the vents as entry points for critters. Got all those taped up and went over the underside checking for holes, etc. Did find two access panels that used zip ties to secure them - fixed that by taping them closed. Guess I'm ready.

[jb238smw]

Did one outlet at a time.