Cold weather coming!

[TTremmy]

I would love some opinions here.

We live in Texas and use our rig year round in both hot and cooler weather. It rarely ever gets cold, like its about to be. We had plans this coming weekend to help some friends with an event and we were going to be staying in our rig, so I wasn't too worried about draining the water. I just got word from my wife, that she made a decision not to go because of the weather. Herein lies my question.

cold weather supposed to last 4 days or so, do I need to drain everything down? My old rig was super easy, and I have yet to do it on my GD, but it cant be that hard.

or do I just run the tank heater and leave the furnace on a lower setting?

I get that draining is probably the best option, but I have a 1/2 full water tank and my storage facility, although very nice, allows water to pool in my stall. AND its only 3-4 days of real cold stuff. Thoughts?

[howson]

TTremmy -- I live in NW Florida where it also rarely gets very cold, but on occasion the nights dip down below freezing. The safest practice would be a full winterization (with antifreeze) but I "cheat" by draining the entire system and then running the pump to ensure it's cleared out as best as possible.

What I then do is probably a little unconventional but it seems to work for my purposes--I use my ShopVac (on blower) and with a low point drain open I blow air through each faucet (sink, bathroom, shower,e ect) alternately turning the handle to cold and hot. This forces air down through the lines so gravity is assisting with evacuating any water left in the lines. Blowing air through the city water inlet, with the Nautilus panel set at all the different possibilities clears the water from those lines.

Again--forgive the repeat--but what I do is not what is in your owner's manual so YMMV on the results.

For the pooling problem under your RV, how about using a 5 gallon bucket (shutting off the water as needed) and dump in a convenient drain? At fussy campgrounds I'll sometimes have to do the same thing to keep from (gasp!) dumping clean, fresh water on the ground.

Good luck...

Howard

[Cate&Rob]

TTremmy
Hi Robert & Cat

It is not likely that you will find someone to tell you that the water in your Momentum won't freeze during "3-4 days of real cold stuff". Draining everything down will not be much better than doing nothing. Save your battery power and your propane and just winterize the water systems with antifreeze. There is a reason that the factory does this on every unit that they ship during winter months. It is not that difficult to do and eliminates the worry.

Rob

[Second Chance]

To add to what others have said... if you don't have power in your storage facility, your batteries will only run the furnace for 24 - 48 hours. The furnace fan is a 12 volt power hog. If you don't have power, I would follow Cate&Rob 's advice and winterize. It's not the tanks that I would worry about, but the water pump, lines, P-traps, water heater and fixtures. They are more likely to sustain damage from freezing than the tanks.

Rob