Sunday, April 29, 2012

Winterizing and the Upcoming Camping Season

This past weekend was our first camping trip of the season. Our little camp trailer got winterized last September (I believe, if I remember right). We did quite a bit of research to winterize. After all that research, what did we learn?? Our pipes could freeze. What did we do?? We used RV antifreeze, ran it through the pipes and let it sit all winter. Oh, and we removed the gas tanks and battery for garage storage, removed all food items out of the inside and we tarped it since it's a leaker in too many places to count. So what did we do when it was time to go camping again? Well, the obvious, we (by we, I mean hubby) put the gas and battery back on. Then we drained the pipes and water tank, then I left it up to hubby to run water through the pipes to clear out the RV antifreeze. Did he do this? Well of course he did! Did he do this long enough?? Oh no...our first camping trip had water tasting with a hint of antifreeze. Oh no...don't worry...it's RV antifreeze which is not the poisonous killing type. But still...it left us with less than a gallon of water to drink for 24 hours (that gallon was our combined sippy cups and Nalgene bottles that we travelled with). As quoted on a fellow website "Run your water pump and open each faucet in the rig one at a time and allow water to flow for a minute or so. If you used antifreeze, let the water flow until all color and odor is gone. Also run water in the toilet and the shower until all the color is gone and the water is clear." Well, lesson learned...maybe. I guess that will be proven next year when we dewinterize again. So the big question this spring that has sprung upon us: Do we keep lil' miss Layton and revamp her and all her leaky and rotten walls and ceiling and floor or do we sell her and buy something that is not a fixer upper? I truly do love this little trailer. But having gotten to know her we realized that the amount of time and energy and money that we will have to put into her to get her like new again will possibly be equal to the amount of a new non-leaky trailer. Having said that...naturally the trailer I want costs WAY MORE than fixing up lil' miss Layton. Like this one:
SO CUTE!!!