Winterizing an '11 MPG 184 <RANT WARNING>

hepcat

Member
<RANT ON>

Wow... I've owned a LOT of travel trailers over the years. This is THE most counter-intuitive design engineering I've ever seen in winterizing a trailer in the past 15 years. Perhaps there are some that are worse... but I haven't seen one. Who-ever allowed this assembly process to proceed in this fashion should be made to go around the country and work on his own designs as punishment.

So, I bought my MPG 184 this summer and I've used it several times. I've had many trailers, and I live in Iowa so I'm familiar with winterizing. I also have a 2006 Bigfoot 25' trailer that I bought new late in '06. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes to winterize, and most of that is draining the water heater and fresh water tanks. You open a small cabinet door near the couch, flip the bypass valves on the water heater, pull out the hose, stick it in the bottle of antifreeze that sits on the floor and pump away. Everything is easy to get to and understand. I finished the Bigfoot this evening (we're expecting 20*F lows the next couple of nights) in about twenty minutes. Now onto the MPG.

Being VERY unlike myself, I actually resorted to looking at the owner's manual for the trailer to try to find the water pump access. It says "...remove the access panel..." VERY informative... NOT!

So I knew that the water pump is somewhere under the shower pan (it's LOUD), and that there's a panel under the bath door held on with four screws. I drained the freshwater tank, drained the water heater, did the water heater bypass, and used the low point drains, and so far, so good. I pulled the panel under the bathroom door off anticipating finding the pump and the antifreeze hose. The panel allowed access to the drain pipe. Hmmm... well... I lifted the mattress (and support board) up... no access to anything on the curb side there. Hmmm... looking up a little, there's another panel by the TV on the bath wall over the bed... seems too high to get access to the water pump, but it's the only thing left. I pull that panel off, and that merely was the access to the bathroom faucet plumbing. At least that's easy to get to if need be.

So... I turn the pump on and try to figure out exactly where, under the shower pan it is. There is ABSOLUTELY no way to access the water pump from inside the coach. So... being the bright trailer owner I am, I went outside and checked inside the nearest outside compartment door to where I can hear and feel the pump. Sure enough... it seems to be just on the other side of the interior panel there. SO, I unload the outside compartment in the rain... and now it's nearly 6pm and dark and getting colder... and find that the panel appears to be held in by four screws. I would have expected, with as well built and labeled as this trailer is otherwise, that this would have been a hinged cabinet door of some sort labled "winterize here" or "water pump service" or something... but no... It's just a screwed-in panel with no handle. So I wiggle the tight-fitting panel out "just so" and lo and behold what lies before my eyes... but the water pump! YEAH! I also see that the supply line from the fresh water tank is twisted and kinked so badly that its a miracle that the pump can pull anything out of it at all. Sorting THAT out will be a chore for another day... hopefully one that is sunny and warm.

So I see where the anti-freeze hose attaches and flip the valve, and pull on the hose expecting (I don't know WHAT I was thinking) that surely the hose will be long enough to reach the bottle on the ground as an antifreeze bottle will surely not fit in that compartment upright.

I was wrong on both counts. Heartland apparently shaved about $1.80 off the production cost of each $22,000 MPG by giving a whopping 24" of hose. I DID find out, however, that if you're VERY talented and careful, a one gallon bottle of anti-freeze WILL fit into that compartment with an inch or so to spare above it. FURTHER, you CAN get the hose far enough into the container to JUST reach the bottom. At last, I turned the pump on and got the pink stuff into all of the nooks and crannies of the water system where it was supposed to go.

So... I gently removed the empty anti-freeze jug, and slid the VERY short hose back into it's compartment. I gently replaced the panel without screwing it in as I'd notice that there are already TWO sets of screw holes in the floor and side panel that it screws into. I may have to find a different way to keep it in place... perhaps shorten it a tad, and put a piano hinge, magnetic latch and a pull knob on it or something. And I secured the compartment leaving all the 'stuff' I'd had to take out of it inside the trailer as it was still raining.

So... Heartland folks... if you're really reading this stuff... c'mon. No one who buys a $22k trailer is going to balk at an extra $1.80 for another three feet of anti-freeze intake hose. And how tough is it, really, to put an extra sheet in the "owners manual" that is model specific about how to locate something as important as the winterizing valves and equipment. And last... why in the world would you EVER want to seal the water pump up like that rather than using a hinged cabinet door? The entire process could be made much more simple, both for owners AND repair technicians by the addition of another $5 worth of materials and no more time for assembly, and just a little more attention to detail.

<RANT OFF>

Now all that said, the MPG is overall, one of the best trailers I've ever owned. The fit and finish are amazing. The features for the price are head and shoulders above the competition. The MPG is an amazing product. I really love this trailer. Tonight, though I'm really bent at whoever decided that setting the winterizing up this way was ok.
 

TandT

Founding Utah Chapter Leaders-Retired
Recently I was at an RV show and I always like to see what all the mfgrs. are doing.

One high-end 5th wheel had the water pump waist high in a small locking hinged compartment door on the outside of the rig.

Everything was plumbed to that dedicated compartment and I remember thinking it would probably only take about 15 minutes to change the whole water pump.

It would not require crawling into anything, or even stooping over. It was a great design.

I hope others pick up on it. Trace
 

hepcat

Member
One high-end 5th wheel had the water pump waist high in a small locking hinged compartment door on the outside of the rig.

Everything was plumbed to that dedicated compartment and I remember thinking it would probably only take about 15 minutes to change the whole water pump.

It would not require crawling into anything, or even stooping over. It was a great design.

I hope others pick up on it. Trace

Manufacturers are getting better and better at making the systems cleaner, easier to repair and easier to operate. That's why it was so frustrating to find this cobbled-up setup on this particular late model trailer as it's otherwise well-designed.
 
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