Issues Winterizing

[notanlines]

Patricia, you have been doing something incorrectly over the years in winterizing your Cougar. The average experienced RV'er could winterize four Cougars with 6 gallons of the pink stuff. I suspect you have not bypassed your water heater and are filling it along with your water lines. I have winterized our Suites a few times and at most I use a gallon and a half to 2 gallons. Same with our Raptor WITH washer connections.

[flybouy]

Originally Posted by mitig8r

I, too, am trying to winterize my 2015 Keystone Cougar 5th wheel, which I have done successfully in prior years. On my RV, I have a water pump located in the underneath storage compartment (why would a manufacturer ever put it down there, where it takes a tiny acrobat to get to it?). The water pump has a bypass valve which can be turned to a clear vinyl hose that is inserted into the antifreeze bottle. As I said, it has worked fine in prior years. This year, the water pump sucks up about a quart of antifreeze and then stops (mind you, this RV takes a bit over 6 gallons of antifreeze to fill all the lines). As far as I can tell, all the faucets have been drained and closed, the hot water heater bypass valve is in the proper position, and so on. Any ideas on why my water pump would shut off prematurely?

Was the pump working using the fresh water tank? If it was, then I'd suspect there's an air leak. Either the winterize valve, the hose connection, or the hose is allowing air in. If the pump wasn't working properly i.e. not as much pressure as it used to have or took longer for it to shut off after closing a faucet, or you don't know because you didn't use it, then possibly the pump has developed an issue over the years.

The above is predicated on the trailer being connected to shore power or the battery(s) at full charge when running the pump.

[MurphyIRE]

At least you have an antifreeze/winterize port. I always start by blowing out, but that's not in enough in cold winters. I wound up going under the bench and exposing the pump to make a direct connection to the pump. Turned the pump on and got Antifreeze through all equipment.

[58Cougar]

mitig8r, if you turn on a faucet does it pull from the pink jug? it was mentioned all the taps were closed.

[mitig8r]

We had an appointment with our RV dealer to get some other work done on the camper, and it is getting cold here, so we ended up asking the dealer to winterize it. As a result, I'm not sure what the answer will be. We did keep the faucets closed, so that is my guess as to why the water pump stopped. But that still leaves me with the question of why it worked with the faucets closed in prior years.

[German Shepherd Guy]

mitigr8r. I am guessing that in prior years someone did turn on a faucet and thus kept the pump working. Just a guess on my part. With no outlet the pump quickly pressurizes the lines and stops. Remember that for next year.
If you think of it, go to the User CP tab on your account and create a signature. Will help others to help you when a question is asked.

[PoCoDep]

I used Canskan's trick, & it worked like a charm.