De-winterizing our 2019 Travato 59K
This is a write-up of how I de-winterize our Travato. I'm explicitly talking about our specific rig, a 2019 Winnebago Travato 59K class B van. I may have left something out, or I may have screwed up something — but hopefully this helps someone, at the very least it'll help future me!
The steps I took are based on a combination of previous experience and some resources found online. They're specifically tuned for the 59K. For more resources, see my winterizing write-up.
Some people de-winterize a Travato without sewer hookups. I find that sometimes getting the taste of antifreeze out takes more water than the tanks can hold at once, so I'm assuming here you have water+sewer hookups.
Print this out or copy-paste into a to-do app, cross out items as you make progress, and make a note if something was different!
Materials and tools
- sewer and water hookups; rinsing will consume a lot of water
- new water filter (the Culligan US-600A cartridge takes D-20A, D-30A, or D-40A filters, higher numbers are fancier but lower flow rate makes pump stutter; I'm buying D-20A for us) (you may also need new O-rings)
- special wrench for loosening water filter cartridge may be useful
- (if sanitizing:) funnel, to pour bleach solution into fresh water tank
- (if sanitizing:) adjustable large-mouth wrench, to loosen fresh water tank gap
- towel
- toilet paper (to notice small leaks)
- flashlight
- 1 disposable cup (to smell/taste test for antifreeze/bleach)
- maybe a bucket, if you can't dump ext shower antifreeze/bleach on the ground
De-winterizing steps
- fully remove sink plugs so water can drain: kitchen, bathroom
- connect potable water hose to tank fill inlet, add few gallons of water to fresh water tank, turn off water at source. turn on water pump, if pump keeps running erratically (even once per minute), try tightening low point drain valves first, if it still happens you have a leak: turn off pump and fix leaks before proceeding
- optional but will save some time: drain antifreeze instead of pumping it through faucets to sewer: use low point drain to drain antifreeze (with pump on), take care to not run fresh water tank empty; close all valves and faucets when done
- turn off water pump
- optional: drain the water you added to fresh water tank to flush antifreeze from tank to ground without having to pump it out through faucets: open low point drain valve, wait until water stops, close low point drain valve
- connect to sewer, open black & gray dump valve, leave open while de-winterizing to avoid overflowing tanks
- move water hose from tank fill to city water inlet
- turn on water hose
- double-check to make sure sink plugs are out so water can drain: kitchen, bathroom
- flush most of antifreeze out of the system before sanitizing with bleach (on city water so pump not needed):
- to optimize for time: flush both kitchen and bath sink for a while, then close both
- rough flush individually until water no longer has visible pink antifreeze or foaming:
- flush kitchen sink hot+cold
- flush bath sink hot+cold
- flush shower hot+cold (into toilet), ensure handle cutoff valve is open
- flush toilet fill
- flush toilet bidet
- flush ext shower
- optional: sanitize tank & lines with bleach; if you don't want to do this, skip the next section
Sanitizing
- (note: Truma is still in bypass mode, not getting sanitized with bleach; it has its own heat-based sanitizing you can do whenever)
- use large-mouth wrench to loosen fresh water tank cap; try not to drop it down the narrow gap (again)
- put funnel on fresh water gravity fill
- add bleach to fresh water tank, use roughly 1.5 gal water 3/8..6/8 cups household chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite solution);
with our blue 6 cup water jug that means: 6 cups of water, 1/8 cup of bleach, repeat 4 times - remove funnel and close fresh water tank cap
- turn off water, move water hose from city water inlet to tank fill
- turn on water hose and fill fresh water tank (don't let it overflow too much; you're diluting the bleach); turn off water hose
- turn on water pump
- run each faucet until you smell bleach from each
- turn off water pump
- sit 4h
- drain tank
- refill tank
- to optimize for time: flush both kitchen and bath sink for a while until you can't easily smell bleach, then close both
Flush antifreeze/bleach
- (if you skipped sanitizing:) turn on water pump
- beware letting the pump run empty; refill fresh water tank if needed
- flush till you can't see, smell or taste bleach or antifreeze; this can take a long while
- flush one outlet at a time, hot and cold separately, close outlets when done:
- flush kitchen sink hot+cold; make sure sink is not plugged and is not overfilling
- flush bath sink hot+cold; keep watching as it might can drain slower than faucet flow rate
- flush shower hot+cold, ensure handle cutoff valve is open
- flush toilet fill
- flush toilet bidet
- flush ext shower; disconnect, drain and stow hose
- flip up driver side bed, remove storage cubby and side access door
- turn pump off, clean pump filter
- ensure Truma pressure relief valve is closed
- switch Truma bypass valve to normal
- run kitchen faucet hot until no air comes out
- check for leaks around Truma plumbing, use toilet paper
- ensure water hose is off at the source; disconnect hose, stow
- ensure pump is off
- to make removing filter cartridge easier and spill less water under the bed, relieve pressure by opening kitchen faucet briefly: cold, hot
- ensure kitchen faucet is closed (if you fail to do this, undoing the water filter canister will spill much more water under the bed)
- remove water filter cartridge; use towel underneath
if possible, take to house to wash with hot water and dish soap (it collects gunk, and without the filter it will trap antifreeze on the bottom as water only circulates well at the top; if it was easier to take off we'd have done that earlier already) - install new water filter
- run water through new water filter to rinse it: open kitchen faucet cold until no carbon residue is seen in water, rinse as much as manufacturer tells you to (15 min)
- check that water filter housing seal didn't leak, use toilet paper; if it did, replace O-ring
- restore bed
- close black & gray dump valves, stow sewer hose
- add chemical treatment with some water to black tank
- turn off water pump
- sanitize Truma: set source to LP gas (to save gas, you can preheat with electric, but actual sanitization wants gas to be guaranteed to reach high temperature), hot water level "boost", when heated (not blinking), set timer for 30min to turn off
- put towel in laundry
Shopping links are affiliate links and help us pay for this site. Our opinions are our own, and not paid for.