Friday, March 30, 2018

De-Winterizing

I just realized that the motorhome has not run except for short periods over the winter to keep everything lubricated, for 11 months! It cannot be good for it and I have 3/4 of a tank of almost one year old gas in the tank.

The waterlines and hot water tank were also full of RV antifreeze and yesterday I decided to clean it out and purge the system. I drained the water tank, refilling and draining it several more times. I then hooked up the water hose to the RV, opened the gray water valve to allow the water to drain out onto the ground and turned on all the taps inside. I let the water run until all foam and telltale antifreeze smell had been purged out of the system. I then gave the six gallon hot water tank an extra few minutes to be sure it was completely clean. Then I re-filled the fresh water tank, adding about two cups of bleach. When it was full I used the water pump to pump water from the tank through each hot and cold tap until I smelled bleach and let a couple more gallons run through each tap just to be sure. Done!

Today I will tackle the black (sewage) tank! In theory it should be empty but just to be sure I will put a bucket under it when I pull the valve! When I know it is empty I will leave the valve open and use a hose from up above in the toilet to rince out the tank. Once it is spotless I will close the valve and put in a couple of gallons of bleachy water. Where does the dirty water from the tank go? Into the driveway gravel and maybe into the grass and hedge beside the parking area where it will join the deer and raccoon poop. It will do no harm.

Our intention is to put road insurance on the motorhome when the weather gets warmer and use it a little on the Island this summer.

Image result for rv sewer dumping

11 comments:

  1. In preparation for next years winter travel I would guess!

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  2. That sounds like fun. When we left your house and took the other route to Nanaimo, we talked about discovering the island sometime in the future. That would make for a nice summer trip.

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    1. Sure would. Lots to see, Long Beach, Alert Bay......

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  3. You live in a beautiful area so why not get out there and enjoy it.

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    1. Our plans include a trip to Alberta with a stopover in Kelowna!

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  4. Croft, just love the picture. You know the old saying, a picture is worth a thousand words.

    Well, I guess great minds think alike; Beach is feeling better, so he is outside doing the same things you are doing to our 26-foot Hi-Lo towable camper. It wasn't used last year because of our medical maintenance, but the camper still needs its TLC. However, he had to do two more additional tasks than you had to do. 1) the AC fan would not run; he took down the AC casing from inside of the camper, shined a flash light into the internals, and found a mud dobber's nest planted inside; there is probably another one, but he would have to climb on the roof and remove the outside AC casing to get to it; he is not quite ready to do that with his new knee; 2) he also rolled under the camper to grease the hydraulic rods which assist in raising the camper roof and checked the hydraulic fluid in the reservoirs.

    Beach is doing so well with the new right knee that we have moved up the surgery for his new left knee to June 4. If we have at least the same healing and therapy period with the new left knee, we may be able to start camping again for a short while in September. After a long camping drought, we will feel like wild animals which have been let out of a cage!

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    1. I know exactly how you feel Dee and you have a great way to put it! That is great news about Beach's knee, he will be so much more comfortable and mobile with the second one replaces. Good news all around!

      I just Googled your camper. I did not know exactly what you had and now I do. We have seen these on the road, nice unit!

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