Winterizing Your Trailer
When living in latitudes where winters reach freezing temperatures, it’s important to know how to protect your investment when storing your trailer through the big freeze. Water expands when it freezes and that’s bad news inside the water lines and appliances as it can cause them to split and fail.
Water tanks, water heaters and water lines are all vulnerable during freezing temperatures but there are precautions you can take to make sure everything is in tip top condition when things thaw out.
Air Purging
The simplest method to prepare is simply to remove all water from the system. A popular method of doing this is to pressurize the system with air and open each tap one by one until the system contains only air.
To do this you will need a blow out plug with an air connection fitted. Once in place, you can pressurize the system with up to 40psi which will simulate city water pressures and that of the water pump in the trailer. By opening each tap and shower fitting individually, each part of the water system will have the water expelled and replaced by air.
Once done, your water system will be ready for storage throughout the winter and come spring, all you need to do is fill your tanks and run each tap until all the air has been expelled.
Antifreeze
Another easy method of winterizing is replacing the water in the system with antifreeze. By purchasing a few gallons of non-toxic antifreeze, you can simply drain the water tanks and replace the water with the antifreeze then run each tap until the water is gone and replaced by the coloured antifreeze.
Drains
To ensure drained from sinks and showers are prepared, pour a couple if pints of antifreeze into each drain to replace the water. This will protect the traps from freezing and splitting.
Winter Camping
Camping during freezing conditions and using the water system on your trailer requires specialized accessories. A system that uses a water heater and reticulating system is one way it can be done.
With heated water continually circulating, the system is unable to freeze and allows you to use all the features of the trailer.
Another method is using heating pads for water tanks and heat tracing along water lines. This system is electrically run and requires adequate power supply for the duration.
Remember, both of these systems are only good for when you’re using your trailer and storage during freezing temperatures will still require on of the earlier methods to protect your water system.