[Richard and Rhonda]

Hi Jennifer,

Welcome back. Allow me to chime in on a couple of things. I am thinking that I would not want to depend upon the building staying above freezing in Montana. If you are 100% sure it will stay at 40 then don't worry about any of the water issues.

The are two ways to protect the water lines from freezing. One is to fill them with RV water line antifreeze. It's the pink stuff which consists of propylene glycol. It tastes awful, but will not kill you if you ingest it. The other antifreeze that we put in our engines, ethylene glycol is deadly. OR, you can remover the water from the lines. The easiest way to do that is to blow the water out with compressed air. I hook my compressed air line to my city water intake. The only big issue here is that if you use your coach air it will be around 120 psi. The water system was not designed to take that kind of pressure, so to be on the safe side the air pressure needs to be reduced to about 35 psi. My coach has an internal water pressure regulator that is set at 35 so I can hook the air line directly to the city water intake. You can buy a fitting to do this or make one by mating a male garden hose fitting to a air line quick disconnect. Pressurize the water system with air and can open the faucets one by one and blow almost all the water out of the lines. I make two full circuits of the coach when doing this to allow small amounts of water to settle in crooks and crannies. However some water will be left in the traps for the sinks and shower. You really don't want to blow the water out of the traps or the waste tank smell has a direct path into the coach. Pour some of the RV antifreeze propylene glycol in all of your drains and the toilet.

The aquahot heats water and circulates it to the heat vents. That fluid should be a 50/50 mixture of water and ethylene glycol. You don't need to drain the ethylene glycol side of the AquaHot, but I would use coolant test strips to make sure I had a 50/50 mixture of EG and Water. The hot potable water side of the aquahot will be blown out with the air procedure above.

Cranking the gennie and running it at load is to drive the moisture out of the windings.

If you want to crank and run the chassis engine, by all means drive it 20 or 30 miles to get all the temps up and drive out any moisture. Otherwise, let it sit. Do not crank and idle in place. That does more harm than good.

I would disconnect the negatives on the batteries. And charge them when I had the chance.


And Rhonda and I have a CoMotion tandem, and we love it. C'dale makes a nice ride, but a wee stiff for me. I guess I'm a wimp. I do get the tandem in the basement, but I drop both wheels and turn the stoker bars sideways.