Winterizing a North Trail 28BH

We have the manual to our North Trail 28BH, but it's unclear on how to winterize our unit. Any suggestions from start to finish on how to do it? Does it require anti-freeze or do we just let out all of the water?

Hi Eckmann,

Welcome to the Heartland Owners Forum and Family. We have a great bunch of people here with lots of information and all willing to share their knowledge if needed.

I'm sure some of our North Trail owners will jump in soon and help you with the winterizing question.

Enjoy the forum.

Jim M

Eckmann said:

We have the manual to our North Trail 28BH, but it's unclear on how to winterize our unit. Any suggestions from start to finish on how to do it? Does it require anti-freeze or do we just let out all of the water?

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Hi, we plan on just draining all of the water out of everything, hot water heater, toilet...no anit-freeze. We had motorhomes that sat during the winter and that is all we did, and kept a little heater going some of the time.
We now plan on getting a cover for our TT, or we do have the option of keeping it under cover at my mom's place about a mile away.

Eckmann... If you are in Alaska or Colorado for that matter, I would do the full winterization including the use of RV Antifreeze. It will give you peace of mind and when spring rolls around, you won't be surprized by some broken plumbing issues. Use the advanced search box in the upper right hand corner of the page and type in winterization. There are several post and one of them will have all the details you need. It is much more simple to do than it seems when reading the instructions. After you have done it once, you will also understand how all the plumbing is rigged and how it functions. Good Luck!

I bypass the water heater and drain it. Blow out the water lines with an air compressor. Pull anti freeze through the lines with the water pump and then pour a little down each drain. After you do it a few times, it's easy. Our last North Trail T.T. took about an hour. With the new North Trail, it will take me longer to find all the pumps and heaters, than it will to actually winterize it. Lots of good info. on this forum.

,I just winterized my Big Country. Opened the drain for the fresh water tank and left it open. Pulled the plug on the water heater and let it drain. Left out the plug but put a plastic cap from one of the anti-freeze jugs over the opening to keep the bugs out. Switch the valves to by-pass and the suction valve to winterize. Stuck a short hose in from the suction fitting into a gallon of RV anti-freeze. Go inside and turn on the pump. I like to start by opening each faucet both hot then cold and watch it run until I see the pink anti-freeze come out. I do the farthest faucets first. Do the same with the hookups for the washer dryer even if you don't use them. I put a short hose on them and run it down the drain that's next to them. Do the rest of the faucets as well as the toilet. Leave a little anti-freeze inside the toilet bowl to keep the seal. By now you should be into the second jug of anti-freeze. Outside, flush the outside shower the same way. After I dump and flush my tanks I unscrew the sprayer head from my outside shower and use the hose to force a little anti-freeze into the black tank flusher. Then I take about 1/2 gallon of anti-freeze and pour a cup or two into the kitchen sink drain and the bathroom sink drain to make sure there is some in the tanks. The whole project takes about 10-15 minutes and I've never had a problem in 20 plus years in temps as cold as -30 or so....Don

We had two motor homes and I used the RV antifreeze just once. It tasted so awful the next spring and it took all summer to get it out I refused to use it again. Here's what I've done. First remove the hot water heater drain or heater element. That will allow the water tank to drain. Now shut the water heaters bypass valve so when you put the air in it won't go into the heater tank and loose all its pressure. You want the compressed air to build in the lines and not in the water tank. You can open any or all of your low drain valves and allow most of the water to drain from the system using gravity. Sometimes when we are coming back from a trip and I know I'll need to flush the system when I get home I open the low water drains before we leave the campground and allow the motion to move the water around and maybe get a little more of it out. Once most of that water is out adding the compressed air will get the rest of it out. I always connect my compressed air where you connect for city water. You should use a regulator so the air pressure is not to great. I usually set mine at about 5-10 PSI at the beginning. I made a little connecter that screws onto the city water hookup and it has an air quick disconnect fitting so I can connect my air compressor to it. When you connect the air since it is well below normal water pressure (30-40-lbs.) there is no danger of breaking a fitting or water line. I usually close all the low drains because most compressors can't provide enough volume with so many leaks. Now go inside and start opening your water faucets. The air will force the water out into the sinks etc. Once most of the water has blown out then you can turn up the pressure to kind of air dry the lines. When all the water is out protect the traps with antifreeze or good low temp windshield washer fluid. That's the method I used for 15 years and never had a single water line issue. Just don't forget to flush the toilet and the outside shower head to get all that water out. I usually then add some washer fluid into the holding tanks.
Hope this helps. I was a teacher for 35 years and I just can't give a short answer to any question. This sometimes bothers my Wife.
TeJay