Complete newb

[WildWeave96]

Hi all, I am one member of the Wild Weave!! Two folks just coming to terms with buying a new to us 96’ class C Tioga. It’s got some issues for sure. The folks who owned it before dis a great job redoing the inside so she’s cute. I’ve come here in the hopes of finding some helpful and gentle answers. Right now we are doing some water damage repairs so our new home will be sitting in the driveway for a few months. We know we need to winterize and have started the process, but got some snags. One being that the previous owners didn’t do a great job at cleaning out their black tank. So we’ve got literal crap to take care of. Questions— should we fill the water tank back up and go do a black water dump? We are in Wa state right now and even though it’s December, we’ve not had freezing temps. Could we get away with just leaving the tanks full as it sits in the driveway, or should we really do the whole anti freeze in the pipes work? We are thinking we’ll be on the road by February. Because of the water damage we’ve been keeping a little space heater running for the last month. So hoping that helps some. I feel silly with all of these questions but like I said. Completely new!! Also, watching YouTube videos, I see a lot of folks using an air compressor to flush out the tanks. Is this an absolute imperative or can we just drain and put anti freeze in?

thank you so much for listening and providing a space to ask questions. I’m looking forward to interacting with this community.

signed “Slightly overwhelmed but still exited and curious”

 

[AbdRahim]

Welcome. I would fill the black tank at least a 3rd to a half, dump in half a cup of Dawn Dishwashing liquid. Ride around for an hour, with stops turns, etc. Rally get it sloshing around. Let it sit overnight. Then do the drive again. Then dump and rinse several times. If there is a lot in there, you might use a whole cup of Dawn. Beware this will likely remove most of the lubrication from the dump valve seals., Therefore after the tanks are clean, Spray some silicone lubricant up onto the dump valve gates. I use a long piece of clear tubing on the end of the straw on the WD 40 SILICONE (not regular WD40) can. Get the straw right up to the closed gate and spray liberally. Work the valve open and closed several times. The push the tube back up and open the valve and spray liberally just inside. Pull the tube out and work the valves. Repeat until the valves operate smoothly. Also lubricate the rod the goes in and out on the handle. I do this several time during the camping season.

As for winterizing. I would. Better safe than sorry.

 

[TJ&LadyDi]

Welcome to RVF, @WildWeave96; glad to have you here with us. And, glad you are asking questions; that's how we learn.

As for winterizing, there are two primary options; antifreeze and blowing out all the lines with air. Properly done, either works just fine.

Now, if you can ensure that your coach will be heated 24/7, then your third option may be to do as you suggest with the space heater. There are two down-sides to that, however. First, just heating the interior of the coach doesn't necessarily mean that you will also heat areas where the pipes are located. And, second, if you should have a power outage during freezing weather, you will only have a few hours before things start freezing up in the coach.

Good luck with whatever you choose to do.

TJ

 

[Kevin D Pem]

Do the pipes. Antifreeze works fine. Things you need to do:

Drain the water heater. If you don't have bypass valves it is best to blow out the lines.
Drain the holding tanks.
If you have an ice maker drain it.
put antifreeze in the P-traps.
connect a hose to the water pump and put it in the antifreeze bottles and run the pump till pink comes out( the same color as in the bottles) out every tap, both hot and cold.

I think the heater to keep water from freezing in the water damage is a good idea.