Just got down to 18 last night where im camped in my 2018 cyclone. Furnace ran all night so should have been warm air in underbelly. Also ran the yeti pack and line warmer all night but still had froze up kitchen faucet and rear bath and toilet. Front bath had water and water pump would run. Its thawed now but wondering if any of you experiened this and what have you done to remedy? Do i need to tear into the dreaded underbelly?
Frozen lines
- Thread starter mwc
- Start date
I just went out and looked to see if I could push them up in the underbelly or bend them up but I don't think that's going to happen they're really stiff right there and there was no play whatsoever in the lines. Has anyone ever just removed those drain lines and coupled the lines up in the underbelly? I'm not sure the low water drains are really that necessary for winterizing I didn't have any on my last camper.
danemayer
Well-known member
Yes, that's exactly what would happen.
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You could make a rectangular cut in the coroplast, leaving the front edge intact. The cut the drain tube just above the coroplast and install Sharkbite press-on end caps, like this. Clean the coroplast and tape back into place with Gorilla Tape or even better, scrim tape.
Save the drains/valves and if you ever decide to restore them, just replace the end cap with a press-on coupling.
Flick
Well-known member
I reckon wicking is a good probability for the lines that are freezing to freeze up, but I think it would be worth your time to investigate the problem a little closer, perhaps when it warms up, just to be sure that for some reason those lines are not unduly exposed. If they’re not wicking, perhaps they need to be wrapped above the coroplast to keep them warmer. Just thinking out loud.
david-steph2018
Well-known member
We froze up last November (2019) in Chattanooga when it was down to 15-16 degrees overnight. After we thawed out I wrapped the low points with pink insulation, two layers, and then added the gray pipe insulation on top of it. Since then we have been in a couple of areas were it got cold, about 25 overnight, but we did not freeze. At this time we were in Benson, Arizona and the humidity was only around 15%.
Yes the freeze up in Chattanooga did block everything beyond the front bath to the rear. On our Road Warrior the garage floor is NOT insulated after about 4-5 feet into the garage area. The rear holding tanks are inside the insulated area, but the fuel tanks are not covered.
Thanks guys, there is a T in the lines just above the coroplast so im sure that T was frozen up from the 10 inch drain hanging down beneath the coro. Dane, I dont think I can cap those ends, the T is just too close to the coro. I assume i can just take out the T and put in a sharkbite coupler and just do away with the drains. I use the blowout method for winterizing anyway. Im not real sure what the drains are for other than to speed along winterizing or to just drain lines so old water doesnt sit in lines. Thoughts?
danemayer
Well-known member
Our Landmark doesn't have low point drains. When we lived in central Texas where it rarely got below freezing and then not by much, I winterized with compressed air which blew the water out of the lines. Now in Colorado, I use RV antifreeze and the antifreeze pushes out the water that's in the lines.
I think the idea of low point drains is to provide a simple way of draining all the water out of the water system. But that alone is not sufficient to winterize faucets, toilet, showerhead, and probably not the washer prep lines.
TravelTiger
Founding Texas-West Chapter Leaders-Retired
As Dan said the low point drains are probably the cause. But also, heat from one vent to the underbelly won’t keep the entire space very warm.
We like to take our rig skiing, so we have had the freeze ups and learned what works and what doesn’t. We added heat pads to our water lines going to the kitchen, but we know we could be in near zero temps.
You can consider dropping the coroplast and wrap the lines with foam pipe insulation going back to the kitchen and rear bath, that would help. It’s possible if the pex is laying on the metal frame, cold can transfer from the metal to the line and cause them to freeze.
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We like to take our rig skiing, so we have had the freeze ups and learned what works and what doesn’t. We added heat pads to our water lines going to the kitchen, but we know we could be in near zero temps.
You can consider dropping the coroplast and wrap the lines with foam pipe insulation going back to the kitchen and rear bath, that would help. It’s possible if the pex is laying on the metal frame, cold can transfer from the metal to the line and cause them to freeze.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Thanks for the replies. Im going to do away with the low point drains and insulate those lines a bit since they are low in the underbelly. I cant believe i didnt realize that was where it was freezing up. I was thinking those drains were at the end of all the plumbing somehow. If i freeze up after that then i may go in and insulate more as suggested. Thanks again!
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