Winterizing 101.....

Happy Tuesday afternoon everyone.  We hope everyone's week is sailing along smoothly.  Our week has been good so far, but tomorrow afternoon Rob is going to an Oral Surgeon for a consultation, so keep your fingers crossed everything will be OK.

Right now it's 68 degrees, humid, and cloudy outside.  Those conditions are supposed to change rapidly over the next 24 to 48 hours.  It's going to finally get cold around these parts.  So this afternoon after school, Rob winterized the Pod.

Since our freezing temps are not super, super low, and generally last only a few hours during the early morning hours, Rob doesn't have to take some of the extra precautions those of you in other parts of the country have too.

He did take his camera with him and took a few pictures to document the steps taken.

#1.  Find the left over RV antifreeze from last winter.

#2.  Open the taps on the sink and shower. 

#3.  Pour about a cup of pink stuff down the drains.

Now our holding tanks are empty, so this is basically to protect the p-traps on the sink drain, and any liquid in the tank drain pipe extensions themselves.

#4.  Remove the "low-point" drain caps on the outside of Pod.

  
Now on our 175 model, these are located directly over the axle on the "street-side" of Pod.

 Here's a picture of the drain caps and the 7/8's wrench you may need if the fitting just turns in your hand.  The first time Rob took the caps off, they were on Gorilla tight.  Now he only tightens them hand tight.

Here's what your water heater looks like with the access panel removed.  

Now if you've opened the low point drains, and opened all the water taps in the Pod, there should be no pressure in the WH.  It's still a good idea to not to skip step #5.

#5.  Open the pressure release valve at the top of the WH access, to release any pressure left in the WH tank.

Rob keeps a dedicated socket and ratchet in Pod just for this next step.

#6.  Remove the anode rod from the WH to drain the WH tank.

STAND BACK.....or you will get wet!

The socket size is 1-1/16th's.

Here you can see water calmly pouring out of the WH.  

IF you forget to release all pressure on the WH before performing step #6, this release of water will NOT be so calm!

You have been warned!!

Here's a picture of the anode rod and the socket/ratchet used.

Rob just stores the anode rod and low point drain caps in the back of the water heater.  

All that's left is......

#7.  Hold the flush valve open on the toilet for at least 15 seconds to let any water in that line back-flow out of the system

#8.  Run the pump for about 15-20 seconds to make sure all water is out of the system.

Now the lines won't be perfectly dry, but in our climate, the moisture left won't cause any issues.

Also, since we have trips planed in November, December, and you never know possibly January and February, it's easy to reverse the above procedure and be able to use our water system.

Thanks for checking in today.  

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

A Small Repair.....

Welcome on a Wednesday afternoon.  We hope everyone is having a great week so far.  If you recall, on our last camping trip we had a switch to fail on the the power tongue jack.  We were still able to raise and lower it manually so all was good.

Rob did contact Forest River for a replacement switch.  We are still waiting on that switch to arrive.  In the mean time, Rob did some searching for this switch online.  From the manufacturer of the tongue jack the switch was $65.00 plus shipping.  WOW!  From etrailer the same switch was a bit cheaper at $55.00 plus shipping.  Oh my!  But Rob finally crossed-referenced the same switch (minus the pretty lettering) for $14.99 plus shipping from Northern Tools.  Bet you can guess where he ordered a new switch from!!

So with the delivery of this afternoon's mail, the new switch was here.  So after getting supper started, Rob installed the new switch.

Here are a few pictures detailing the repair.....

Here you can see the broken switch.

ANYTIME you work with any electrical components, disconnect the electricity.  So the FIRST thing Rob did was remove the fuse for the power jack.

Here are the tools used for this repair.

Here's the new switch as we received it in the mail.

Here you can see the top cover of the jack removed.  Rob said to be sure to note which wires were connected where on the old switch.

Here's the wiring diagram that came with the new switch.  Rob said that thankfully the new switch hooked-up identically to the old switch.

And finally, here the new switch is all installed and tested.  Like we said above, it doesn't have the lettering, but to save $40 to $50 dollars, we don't mind one bit!








Thanks for checking by today.  Have a great rest of the week.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.

Two More......

Howdy on this beautiful North Carolina Wednesday afternoon.  We sure hope you've had a great week so far.  We though maybe we should make a little post today.  Since school has started back our days have been sleep, eat, school, eat, sleep, lather, rinse, repeat.  

Kinda boring huh?  Well don't worry, we do have a couple of more camping trips planned for this year.  You can read all about them on our 2013 trips page.  

Today's post is about our States Camped Map.  We picked up one of these maps this summer at Camping World.  Rob installed it on the acrylic glass on the lower half of the screen door.

This map shows all the states where we have camped in either the long trailer, the pop-up, or the Pod.  After this summer's adventures, we were able to add two more, and Rob did just that this afternoon.

See if you can figure out what states they may be.  Here's two clues:

1.  One stop was at the Brown Family Driveway Campground.

2.  One stop was at the County Fair Grounds.

Here's a before picture.....

And here's the after picture.....

That's all for today.  Thanks for checking by and have a great rest of the week.

Until next time, stay safe out there.....-R,T,&J.