MY HUSBAND SAID IT WILL ONLY TAKE AN HOUR - PART 2

Back this week to the lack of organization in winterizing our RV.  The start of this story was two weeks ago - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2018/11/my-husband-said-it-will-only-take-hour.html

We are able to skip part of the process which involves emptying out the hot water tank as we don’t use it and keep it off line.  Good thing as this involves opening the tank from the outside with a huge wrench and he has trouble doing so - often it takes both of us - so I never would be able to do it alone and he could not do it with his shoulder and arm as it is.

The rest of the process involves letting water out of the hot and cold taps in the sink, shower, outside shower and the toilet bowl.   Due to not wanting to put water we don’t have to into the outgoing water tanks since they could not be drained, we used a box that we have which fits the sink to let the water out of the pipes -  we use it for outgoing water if we travel after we winterized for the year and therefore could not use running water.  We open all the taps one at time and let the water out.  We did have to let the water in the toilet go down the tank.  (Toilet looks similar to home toilets, but when flushed a trap door opens into the tank.)  Then I have to use a wrench to open a cap on the pipe which comes from the water pump - under the bed in a cabinet - which means that I have to take the table top off the top of the cabinet and then the protective foam under it out - we shove them between the front seats, where the pillows, blankets, and mattress covers were moved when I unmade the bed. 

There is a water pump in this area which normally would pump water from the clean water tanks to be used in any of the taps mentioned or the toilet.  The first year we had the RV we had the dealer do the winterizing and show us how to do it.  We also had it install a two way switch over for the pump to either draw water from the clean tanks or we could hook a hose to the other side of the switch over and have it draw the antifreeze from through the hose from the a bottle of antifreeze.  I had to use an adjustable wrench to open the cap on the switch over.  Husband handed me a 7 inch long wrench.  The space in the cabinet seems to be between 7 and 7 and half inches tall - I could not get the wrench on, adjust it to size, and turn it to take off the cap.  After much yelling between us - “I know how to use a wrench!” - we switched places and he took the cap off.  I then attached the hose to the switch over and shoved the other end into the first bottle of anti-freeze. 

Husband went around and opened each of the taps and ran the tap until it ran pink, the color of the anti-freeze. He did this with each tap in each of the 3 pairs of taps.  I had to switch the bottle of anti-freeze twice while we were doing this.  He then poured a bottle of the anti-freeze into the toilet bowl and let it into the tank under it - remember, he already put one bottle - a gallon - before.  Normally we don’t put this much in the toilet tank, but we were worried about the water already in it freezing.  He then stepped on the flush pedal and ran more of the antifreeze through the water pump until the water coming out of the pipe into the toilet bowl was also running pink.
We then disconnected the hose we were using and I put the cap back on the two way switch and switched it back to draw water from the clean water tanks.

Lastly we had to pour antifreeze down the sink drain and the shower drain in the floor.  I poured out 2 separate cups of antifreeze first and poured the rest of a new bottle of anti-freeze partially in the floor shower drain and most of it down the sink drain (the two drains go to the same grey water tank).  I then had to S L O W L Y pour one of the cups we set aside down the toilet drain and then the other down the sink drain.  These are poured slowly so that it will stay in the traps (you know, the bend in the pipe that you see under the sink).  Last thing I did was put pieces of pipe foam - you know - the tubes of plastic foam that is slit up one side and one puts on pipes in their house to keep the pipes and valves from freezing - over the valves related to the hot water tank.  This tank and its pipes are just above the (uninsulated) floor and the valves in the pipes have frozen in the past until we started pieces these pieces of foam over them for the winter.

I then had to pack up everything we had used and put the bed  - with the table top under it - back to where it belongs.  Husband went into the house as he did not feel well - both because his shoulder and arm were hurting and he had bent down and was dizzy and nauseous as gets from same.  I had to unplug the RV from where we plugged into our house electricity in our porch so that we could run the water pump without using up the battery’s charge.  I put everything back in place inside the RV and then put stuff back in the porch that is kept there and put the wrench back in the garage workshop.  I then took a last walk around the RV to make sure everything was put away - good thing - the driver’s side window looked funny - it was still open!  I closed and walked around again. 

We will have to call the RV dealer over the winter and make an appointment for next spring to have them take apart and find out what is wrong with the macerator and/or its pump.  Hopefully we put enough anti-freeze in enough places to keep the rest of the system from freezing - and costing us even more money. 

I will admit that after deducting the time we spent trying to get the water out of the black and grey tanks - trying to get the macerator and its pump to work, the rest of the process really did only take a little more than an hour.

After my complaints about using a wrench which was too long for the space - which apparently we don’t have one the correct length as previously he had not been able to find a short adjustable wrench which opened large enough - he is buying me a rather expensive (for us) 6 inch wrench as a Christmas gift.  I guess this may be one year that I cannot say that I did not want anything and did not get a gift.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Procrastination can lead to panic.  Try to get things done when they should be done. 

It does turn out that we were lucky not to have gone on a trip after our last one.  As it is we have two tanks that need to be empty with a bit of water and a much larger bit of anti-freeze.  If we had gone on a trip after our last trip, when we went to dump the tanks at the end of the trip we would not have been able to do so.  When we took the RV to the dealer we would have had to have them empty the tanks to work - and that would cost even more.