Here in the front range of Colorado our shoulder seasons are quite long an make for pleasant camping and exploring. In fact, we probably do more camping in March - May and September - November than we do in summer. However the draw back is the weather can be extremely variable - 80F and sunny one day (and at one altitude) and 15F and snowing the next night. The consensus seems to be that it is fine to use the water system in these conditions as long as you are careful - keep the heater on at night, open the cabinets, run the hot water heater. However, you still need to winterize the water system between trips for when the camper is switched off and sitting in the driveway - which brings me to the topic of discussion: What have people done to quickly winterize the camper between trips?
So far my after trip procedure, on my month old Fleet flatbed, has been to drain the hot water tank back into the main water tank (open the HW drain valve then turn on the hot faucet), and shut off the input. Drain the main water tank by parking on a slope and leaving the drain valve open. Hook up the shower and leave it low while opening the sink faucet to drain that line. Run the pump until it stops pumping water - although this seems to leave a fair amount of water still in the pump. Is there anything else I need to be doing?
To speed this up I have added two shut off valves in the line to the outside shower (doubtful we will use that this time of year), and I have built a compressed air blowout adapter for the city water hookup. I have an onboard compressor, and built an adapter to go from an air chuck fitting to an inline pressure regulator (set at 30PSI) to a male garden hose thread. The new faster plan of attack is to hook the compressed air up to the city water - turn on the sink faucet (hot and cold), and shower (if used) and wait till air blows out these. I can then close the valves to the shower and it will stay dry. I can then drain the main tank through the low point drain valve, and run the pump. It seems that this could still leave a fair amount of water in the pump - any tips for getting the water out of the pump?
So far my after trip procedure, on my month old Fleet flatbed, has been to drain the hot water tank back into the main water tank (open the HW drain valve then turn on the hot faucet), and shut off the input. Drain the main water tank by parking on a slope and leaving the drain valve open. Hook up the shower and leave it low while opening the sink faucet to drain that line. Run the pump until it stops pumping water - although this seems to leave a fair amount of water still in the pump. Is there anything else I need to be doing?
To speed this up I have added two shut off valves in the line to the outside shower (doubtful we will use that this time of year), and I have built a compressed air blowout adapter for the city water hookup. I have an onboard compressor, and built an adapter to go from an air chuck fitting to an inline pressure regulator (set at 30PSI) to a male garden hose thread. The new faster plan of attack is to hook the compressed air up to the city water - turn on the sink faucet (hot and cold), and shower (if used) and wait till air blows out these. I can then close the valves to the shower and it will stay dry. I can then drain the main tank through the low point drain valve, and run the pump. It seems that this could still leave a fair amount of water in the pump - any tips for getting the water out of the pump?
!
