RV Winterization Basics For Beginners – Step-By-Step Process

in this episode we'll go through the step-by-step process of winterizing my 2020 keystone bullet 243 bhs travel trailer while you may have a different rv most of these steps should apply to your situation if you happen to own an r-pod travel trailer i have a specific video available that speaks to winterizing my r-pod 179 on the maintenance playlist on the channel hey everybody this is john marucci i made the jump to traveling with my pod back in 2016 and have never looked back i've had my share of problems along the way and this channel attempts to be what i wish i had when i started out so let's go ahead and jump in so here are the tools and supplies you'll need to do this job first off a small air compressor that can adjust to 20 pounds psi a blowout plug to attach to the air compressor two to three gallons of rv food safe pink antifreeze a phillips and flat head screwdriver towels small water buckets and a wrench and socket if your water heater has an anode rod so let's look at part one which has to do with removing all the water from the rv step one is to make sure that your black and gray wastewater tanks are empty now we did this on our last camping trip of the season and were able to take considerable time to flush the black tank well i highly recommend this before starting this process step two outside and underneath the trailer open your fresh water tank's drain and allow it to empty this may take a while depending on how much fresh water is in your tank you may have to reach under the trailer quite a ways to reach the valve step three turn on the water pump and open a faucet to suck up any remaining water in the line between the fresh water tank and the pump from the time you see water flowing to when it begins to spit air maybe up to 30 seconds or so the faucet may spit air for a few minutes as it empties any remaining fresh water in the line use a small bucket in the sink to catch the water so it doesn't go into the gray water tank when it finishes clearing the line turn the water pump back off step 4 open both low point drains underneath the camper again these may be a bit tough to reach then open several faucets to allow air in the system to drain water through the low point drains you should see water come out of the low point valves as the system drains step five with the low point drains open open the pressure release valve on the water heater this will allow the hot water tank to drain the six gallons it holds if you have a water heater with an anode rod remove it to allow the hot water tank to drain but remember to release the pressure from the tank first step six with the low point drain still opened and the faucets re-closed attach a blowout plug to the city water connection this has an air inlet on one end like the valve stem on your tires and threads to attach to the water connection apply low pressure air about 20 psi for several seconds using an air compressor you should see more water push through the low point drains you can get a blowout plug from our amazon storefront if needed step 7 move the blowout plug from the city water inlet to the black tank inlet apply low pressure air about 20 psi for several seconds to the black tank flush inlet the interior lines for the black tank flush may allow some water to remain in the lines if they are not blown out this will only push a minimal amount of water into the black tank step 8 remove the blowout plug and remember to cap the city water and black tank flush line inlets now we'll move on to part two which is to add rv pink antifreeze into the system step nine is to locate the panel in front of the hot water tank and remove the panel the valve for the hot water tank is inside the trailer for my keystone bullet 243 bhs it is under the stove in the kitchen identify the tank's bypass valve and turn the valve to bypass the hot water tank you will need to bypass the hot water tank so that you don't fill it with rv antifreeze unnecessarily step 10 find the location of the water pump for my trailer it is next to the bed on the driver's side if you're not sure where the water pump is turn it on for a moment to locate it by sound make sure you turn it back off once it's located step 11 on the water pump locate the freshwater intake line you may already have a hose on this line that can be used to winterize if not replace the intake line at the water pump with a siphon line there is a simple clip on the water pump that loosens and should allow for easy exchange of the lines have a small towel ready for any water spillage step 12 get a gallon jug of rv antifreeze pink colored and food safe open it and insert the siphon line into the jug remember to only use rv pink food safe antifreeze step 13 turn on the water pump and go outside and verify the low point drains are dripping pink antifreeze once you confirm that you have pink antifreeze coming out of the low point drains close both low point drains you'll waste a lot less antifreeze if you have someone helping with this step step 14 turn the water pump on then open the interior faucets at the sinks and shower one at a time make sure the kitchen sink has antifreeze coming through that the bathroom sink has antifreeze coming through that the tub faucet has antifreeze coming through and that the shower has antifreeze coming through as well step 15 flush the toilet until the water is pink leave some pink antifreeze in the bottom of the toilet to keep the drain valve from drying out over the winter step 16 antifreeze through the outdoor shower both hot and cold also run antifreeze through any outdoor water quick connect that you may have step 17 pull the hose out of the antifreeze bottle just enough so it can't suck up any antifreeze out of the siphon line turn on the water pump and open a sink faucet until the antifreeze is sucked out of the siphon line you may need to hold the siphon line up to get all of the antifreeze out step 18 put a small towel down under the siphon line near the water pump remove the siphon hose from the water pump by opening the clamp move the siphon hose from the water pump area and place it in the bucket then attach the fresh water tank line back to the water pump and close the clamp when done remove the towel step 19 stow the intake siphon hose and re-secure the access panel to the water pump area remember to turn the power off to the water pump and finally step 20 pour some rv antifreeze down the kitchen sink p-trap down the bathroom sink p-trap and down the tub p-trap this will ensure some antifreeze remains in the traps off-season notice that we used two and a half gallons of rv antifreeze in the entire process doing this solo more than likely this could have been done with two gallons had i had someone to close the low point drains more quickly in step 13 above that should do it congrats on winterizing your rv remember to remove the smoke detector batteries and leave the smoke detector bay doors open this will serve as a reminder to replace the batteries when you de-winterize in the spring if you found this video helpful please click the like button we'd love to have you join the on the road team by subscribing to the channel also click the bell icon near the subscribe button to keep informed when new videos are published if you want to dive deeper we put more content and photos on instagram and twitter at john marucci and you can also follow us on facebook at jamarucci on the red thanks for watching stay safe this is john marucci in so long for now

Channel: John Marucci

Views: 921,094

Keywords: keystone rv, travel trailer, keystone bullet 243bhs, keystone bullet, 2020 keystone bullet, bullet 243bhs, keystone rv winterizing, keystone rv how to videos, rv maintenance, rv checklist, rv winterizing, rv winterize antifreeze, rv living, rv life, rv newbie, john marucci on the road, john marucci winterization

Id: 3xN2-ahkL5g

Length: 9min 49sec (589 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 24 2020