Drain for Fresh Watet Tank

[dale farley]

Is there a drain for my fresh water tank. I have the coach parked at a friends house, and it is getting down to about 28-30 degrees at night. Since I can't plug it in right now, I am concerned that something might freeze. I though I might try to drain the fresh water if I can, but so far, I have not found a way to do that unless I pump it all out with the 12V pump. On one page of one of the manuals, it says drain the fresh water tank, but they don't elaborate on how to do it.

[Coloradobus]

Roadrunner,

Have you looked in the bay where your hotwater heaters, water pump are curbside bay cloest to the rear wheels. You might spy what looks like a sewer dump valve onloy the size of a grey water dump valve. If it is there, it should be labeled "fresh water dump". Is there a chance to leave you genset on and run either you webasto or electric heaters. There should be wabasto exchangers in your underbelly as well as one electric.
Good luck. YOu really don't anything to freeze. It will be a ROYAL Pain you know where to fix.

[Joe Cannarozzi]

Although 28 t0 30 is sub-freezing, if its just for overnight hours thats not cold enough for long enough to freeze. Just my opinion, but based on many years in Chicago with many campers, we have left water in many lesser quality campers under the same conditions and have never froze anything. I am not by any means suggesting this on a regular basis and be carefull but if those are the lows at night, not to worry.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Joe is right. But when you are confronted with a situation like this you really need to consider the risk / reward ratio.

For short periods of near feezing temperatures it is likely nothing will freeze if it is just an overnight low temperature. But each time you get away with taking a risk like that human nature will permit you to push the envelope a little more each time. To save a few bucks worth of diesel fuel so you do not have to run your generator or Webasto you could face some serious expenditures if things did start to freeze.

BTW, from reading horror stories the broken pipe or fitting from a freeze is usually a small part of the cost of letting the coach freeze. The most damage comes from having a small leak hidden from view that does a lot of water damage before you are aware of it.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Dales question ties in with my question (which wasn't answered) . Is there some switch setting or what provisions must one make to leave the bus without electrical connection in freezing weather for one or two weeks. Can the bus take care of itself? That is turning on the generator and or the webasto (if thats what its for) or any other combination of components to maintain a safe temperature for the water? This would be for example if you were in Quebec in Feb. and you had to leave the bus to fly to Libya to meet Jerry W. for a cookout.

[dale farley]

I agree with everyone's comments. It normally only stays below freezing for an hour or so at a time, and that doesn't cause a problem, but this week it has been below freezing for several hours in a row.

Although, I don't think anything would freeze in the coach, when I lay down at night, I get that nagging feeling of "what if it does". My solution so far is that I brought the coach home and plugged it in and turned on the bay heater just a tiny bit. I just thought if I could drain all the fresh water out of the tank and lines I would be safe. I will do some more looking, and I guess if I don't find a drain, I will pump it out with the 12V pumps. Thanks to all.

[Just Plain Jeff]

Dales question ties in with my question (which wasn't answered) . Is there some switch setting or what provisions must one make to leave the bus without electrical connection in freezing weather for one or two weeks. Can the bus take care of itself? That is turning on the generator and or the webasto (if thats what its for) or any other combination of components to maintain a safe temperature for the water? This would be for example if you were in Quebec in Feb. and you had to leave the bus to fly to Libya to meet Jerry W. for a cookout.

I'll give you an opinion and an answer to the question, since no one else seems to be willing to step up to the plate.

Leaving a coach in freezing weather for one or two weeks by itself is a recipe for disaster. Not only would you have problems with batteries, but diesel fuel (depending upon the blend) will likely gel and the generator won't work. Further, you would experience a lot of hinky problems with water connections and possibly with the air system if there is any condensation in the lines (and there are a lot of air lines in a coach).

Here's how I came to this: We sold our first coach in Florida to a gentleman from Wisconsin. It was in the middle of the winter. Despite my strong advise to the contrary, he drove the Angola to -4F Wisconsin and parked it next to his barn, plowing the snow back with the back bumper. He returned to the bus in 2 days and the fuel had in fact gelled, batteries were gonzo and had a ton of frozen pipes.

The information which I got from him after the 'arrival' was pretty sketchy, but I was led to believe that his lack of care of the coach in Wisconsin cost him about $14K to get the coach back up to snuff.

Motorhomes should be kept in some kind of heated storage during severe weather or you will pay for it.

Is that an answer, or what?

P.S. If JDUB eats prairie oysters in the Oklahoma Territory, Lord only knows what he eats In Libya.

[Jon Wehrenberg]

Jim,

Chardon is not that far from Jamestown, NY, so I can tell you what I did.

I described above what heat I had in the bus when it was in my barn. I had 100% of the house and bus batteries turned off. I never had any trouble when I woke the bus up for a trip. I just turned on the battery circuits, let them charge up a little if necessary, turned on the engine block heater at least 4 hours before we were going to leave, and when the time came we started it up and away we went. That bus did not have a Webasto so if it was seriously below 20 degrees we ran at fast idle until the temperature gauge came alive, and that was so the transmission was warm enough to shift. Generally that amount of time coincided with the time it took to load last minute stuff, hitch up the car and lock and alarm the house.

[JIM CHALOUPKA]

Those were two wonderfull answers and just what I was looking for. Parking in the land of NANUCK of the north is now off my things to do list!! Thank you , JIM

[dale farley]

Well, I solved two problems today. As Coloradobus suggested there was a large drain for my fresh water tank. People say they don't see motorcycles because their eyes are attuned to looking for cars. I looked two tmes in every bay for a 1" drain for the fresh water. As soon as I started looking for a larger dump line, it was as plain as day with a decal on it that clearly told me what it was.

That was bad, but this one is worse. After spending several hours yesterday and a couple hours today, I solved the problem with my toe kick heater. While talking to the tech in Oregon, he had me doing several procedures with the relays and breakers. At one point he said, "Now turn on the thermostat in the bathroom again". To this I had to say that I wasn't aware there was a thermostat in the bathroom. I had been turning on the one in the bedroom. I was originally told there were 3 thermostats, and I had that planted firmly in my mind. As soon as I located the bathroom thermostat and turned it on, the heater came on just like it should. I apologized to the Tech, and I apologize to all of you who gave me input. The next time I ask a question, make sure I have turned the switch on first.