[Archived]

Andy,

Welcome. The key to this answer is your comment that the bus will be stored in a heated facility. That has a large impact on the answers and there are two subjects. Starting with the winterizing, I would suggest you do not.

Fill the water holding tank and in that bay place a small heat source that draws limited wattage. I would suggest a cube heater set to the 500 watt setting and aimed at the water tank. In doing that you are creating a large heat sink that will give up that heat over a long period of time if the storage heating should fail for any length of time. That mass of water will prevent freezing in the bay for a very long time.

I would turn off the pumps, and open the faucets and as many other devices to allow water to back flow. I would open a fitting or valve to allow water to drain back just as an added precaution and that might not even be necessary. JUst make sure the water tank remains full and the holding tank is empty.

Verify the 20 amp outlet is not a GFCI protected circuit. If it is it will trip when connected to the coach. If not make sure the batteries are fully charged, set the inverters to their lowest setting for current draw and plug in the bus with all other circuits turned off. If you can set the inverter to a 10 amp total current draw, and the cube heater at 500 watts is turned on, your current draw is just shy of 15 amps which is near the 16 amp max I would suggest for a 20 amp circuit.

The chassis batteries should be turn off at the master, and just make sure you have good batteries and no phantom loads. You will probably want to top off the chassis battery charge every 2 or 3 months so when you do that turn off the inverters until the batteries have been recharged. The inverters will properly maintain the coach house batteries.

I don’t know if there is a correct answer regarding the refrigerator.

[June]

Thanks Jon,this is very helpful. I had seen that advise but was not sure if the circuit would handle the heater.

Here is the inverter remote panel that I have:



So it looks like I can select the “power share” option and set the 5A breaker size on each inverter. It also sounds like I should also turn the inverter part off as well since the ac loads will not be used but just leave the charge part on. In the past, when I have turned off the inverters, and hit the house disconnect switch and flipped the 24vdc and 12vdc chassis disconnects off there was still power flowing, e.g. the abs light in the Prevost wiring compartment located on the left front side of the coach was still lit as well as the cable connections and breakers between the inverters and batteries. I don’t have access to the coach documents at this point (2 hours away) so I apologize for not using the correct verbiage. I hope this is normal.

[Archived]

Welcome to the world of Prevost ownership. If I recall, that’s Gil’s previous bus and if so, it’s well maintained. Another trick for the water bay is a 100 watt light bulb, that will keep things from freezing. As Jon pointed out, keep the inverters on for maintaining the house batteries, but step down the amps accordingly.

I don’t see any harm in turning off the fridge. Just remember the ice maker supply line needs drained as well.

[Corey]

Thanks Tom. And yes, it is Gil’s previous bus. The main reason I bought this bus was because of the documented maintenance. It is also one of the more simple units I have seen which was also a good way to get into a Prevost considering their complexities. I have confess though, I did not realize just how complex and different they are – a lot to learn!

[AL]

If you elect to turn off the refer… keep the doors open. My repair guy says that is the number one cause of problems… trapped mosture causes stuff to rust up or whatever…. I have 50 amp in my barn so I never turn them off. The one time I did I had big problems with my belly uline…

welcome and good luck.

[Archived]

Tganks Bill.

[Allan]

Jon, above you say ” I would open a fitting or valve to allow water to drain back just as an added precaution and that might not even be necessary.” Where would I find that fitting or valve? I would not expect the water to flow back into the fresh water tank through the pumps or should the water pumps be bypassed? I suspect that I am missing something.

[Archived]

Just wondering if the electric water tank heater located in my water bay is sufficient warmth to keep water lines from freezing. The tank feels warm to touch.

As I am hooked up to 50amp, I keep the inverters on, hot water tank heater on, and run a small portable radiator inside the coach when it gets close to freezing.

[Peter]

Allen you should have a electric heater in the water bay with hot water tank on a thermostat for heating the bay in cold weather

[Archived]

Allan,

The hot water heater does a great job for freeze protection, I’ve done that with no problem, but not sure at what temperature would require more het. Like Peter says, you have a bay heater in your Liberty.

[Darcy]

When I park mine for three months dec, Jan, February I turn off water pump ,aux comp ,and water heater , park in side fill water tank drain waste tanks leave bypass open , one heater inside coach on one in water bay and all is good in -35 % temps but no wind inside that’s in Wyoming , I use plug for water heater to power cube heater in water bay and unplug water heater , I drain nothing , I would never try and winterize the bus to many things to get water out of and you can’t , I would never put antifreeze in lines , in the spring they are the ones that have all kinds of problems , broken water lines frozen pumps and filters that leak water , pressure tanks that have cracked fittings and washer that won’t work and leaks water , ice maker that leaks too and so on , it’s not a RV

[Peter]

The reason I suggest opening a valve is to allow gravity to drain water back out of the water lines, Open the faucets and open a drain valve in the bay and water in the lines will drain back.

I would NOT use or rely on the HW tank heater unless you are 100% confident the HW tank is full of water.

[Peter]

Common sense would dictate a full water tank when using it as freeze protection.

[Per]

I don’t mean to hi jack this thread….I can see the thermostat on the rear bulkhead in the water bay but cannot see where the electric baseboard or toe kicker is? My eyes must be failing as I am getting older…still a junior compared to Jon though!

[Jim]

It will be up high , it will look like a heat gun or a hair dryer you will have to turn the breaker on inside the house at electric panel, unless somebody took it out of water bay. The heat gun