Winterize our Viking

[syoungblood]

Hello All,

In Wisconsin, it appears that time is before us.  I will need to winterize our 2002 Viking.  Our first two seasons, we took it in to winterize it.  I am beginning to feel ambitious.  I have never winterized a camper before, but was going to try to do it this week.  I wanted to get the advice of the knowledgable campers who dwell here.  Our Viking does have a hot water heater.  Any advice on how to or where to look for direction would be appreciated.  I hope you all had a blessed and fun camping season.  
:frosty:

[bearbait]

Although I am not familiar with Vikings specifically,  I can tell you that your owners manual probably has all the information you need to winterize it yourself.  First of all, drain your on board water tank,  drain your water heater and open up all your water lines so as much watrer as possible drains out on its own.

 
Now their are two schools of though on what to do next,  I don't think it matters in the grand scheme of things which you choose to do.  One is blow the water lines out with compressed air,  getting all the water out.  Others skip this so they don't risk losing the prime in their water pump because after all,  when you get done their will be anti-freeze through all the lines anyway.  I personally don't think it matters if you do it either way.
 
Then close all your water lines and take a look at the back of your hot water tank,  see if the manufacturer installed a bypass kit .  If not,  they should have supplied you with a short piece of water line with a couple of fittings on each end.  Unhook the lines from the back of the heater and hook them to the short piece of hose they supplied.  If it has a bypass kit,  all you will need to do is flip the two valves to close off the heater so that water can't go into or out of the tank anymore.
 
Put a couple of gallons of RV anti freeze into your holding tank and turn on all your faucets,  both hot and cold.  Let them each individually run until you see the fluid (it's pink,  so easy to see) come out of the faucet.  Remember to open each valve including outside faucets or showers.  Put a little bit of fluid into the sink drain also to keep that from freezing.
 
Now something else I do is take the anode rod out of the water tank just so that any water left in the water tank has a place to drain if it's expanding and contracting through the winter.  It isn't much at all,  but it does give it plenty of room that way just in case.
 
That's it,  your done.

[4campinfoxes]

Last year we simply drained everything, then blew all the water out with an air pump.  Worked great & there was no anit-freeze clearing out to do in the summertime.  

Sharon

[MtnCamper]

Put a couple of gallons of RV anti freeze into your holding tank and turn on all your faucets,  both hot and cold.  Let them each individually run until you see the fluid (it's pink,  so easy to see) come out of the faucet.  Remember to open each valve including outside faucets or showers.  Put a little bit of fluid into the sink drain also to keep that from freezing.

Or you can make you a short pickup tube, replace the inlet piping with that tube, and suck the pink stuff driecty from the bottle. No need to put it into your tank, and you can do the whole job with a half gallon.

Tim (5055) has a good plan on his website, If you have more questions email me, and I'll help ya.

Or better yet here is how I do it.

Here is how I winterize the camper:

1)    Drain Water heater

2)   Drain the supply tank for the porta potty, and put a little antifreeze in that too. Or    take it in the house, wouldn