Hey all,
Well I finally got my rig home. Everything went pretty well except for 3 faux pas on my part. I bought it from a place called Tucson Park and Sell RV. This unit was a consignment rig and it was as described, lightly used and in good condition. However the rig was not as clean as we would have expected and although the guy who did our walk thru was a nice guy he really did not know much about the technology of this rig so was disappointed with that.
We drove to Tucson to pick it up. Tucson gets an average of about 10" of rain a year, we just did not expect to get it the two days we were there.
We spent a couple of nights at an RV park to make sure all systems were working properly then took to the road to drive back home to northern NM. One thing for sure is there were no roof or window leaks, woo hoo!
On the drive home we planned on staying in a campground near Grants NM that did not have any facilities. We got there and set up camp after 8 pm in a snow storm. We discovered a small water leak in the island sink (from road vibration). My first faux pas was that my flashlight batteries were almost gone and it took me a few minutes to fix the leak. In my cold haste I inadvertently left the driver side storage locker open all night. I was wondering why the heater kept coming on so often during the cold night. Fortunately even tho it got down to 15 degrees we did not suffer any frozen lines. All water systems were working.
My second faux pas was that we got a dusting of snow and it did not dawn on me to sweep the snow off the slides before i retracted them. More on that in a moment!
Later in the day after about 100 miles of driving, it had warmed up to 37 degrees. We opened the rig and found another small water puddle (less than a cup) in front and to right of fireplace. We could also hear a distinct but slow drip. My fear was a water line had frozen and started to link.
My third faux pas was that I had planned on temperatures being around mid teens to low 20's when we got home and was going to winterize the rig the following day. Unfortunately temps dropped down below 0 that night. I left it with the heat on and set up a small electric heater in the storage compartment to keep water lines from freezing.
The next day I went over to see if there was any freeze damage. All the water lines in the Island and the storage compartment seemed to be fine. But when I started to winterize it I found the small filter from the fresh water tank to the pump (rear driver side corner) had frozen and cracked. After more discovery the pump was fine. As I started to winterize, I found some slush in the lines. So I turned the heat up to 80 in the rig and let every thing thaw out and finished the winterization process. Long story short, I think I averted some major disaster and got the entire rig winterized (many thanks to StuartN who pointed out where to look). I have gone back in and it seems the system has stayed pressurized so I think I am good to go.
The leak that was in front and right of fireplace I attribute to snow melt from bringing the slide in without sweeping it off. I have triple checked and do not see any leaks there (fingers crossed). Since I am more than 2 hours away from any RV dealership, I called Thompsons RV in Pendleton and ordered a new filter and T-fitting. That should be simple to replace.
Long story short I have become intimately familiar with my new rig and am glad I bought a Glacier Peak ORV. I know I made the right choice. If I had to do it over, I would have waited a month before taking delivery or winterized it before I drove it to the high country. One thing I learned is that with better prep I would be much more comfortable going winter camping in this rig. No one to blame but myself.
Thank you all for your help and guidance. I will try to pass on my lessons to others.
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