Valve

Last Winter in Campbellsville Kentucky, at Indian Ridge Campground, we had a pretty rough Winter.

We had a opening where we could move up on the very scenic ridge beside friends, but were concerned that we had never spent the Winter in our then new Coleman fifthwheel, so, we stayed down out of the North wind swept ridge.

Even then we had a couple of problems, one was insulated and a heat tape added, earlier this year, though we never did freeze all the way up, we did have a exposed grey water dump valve that wouldn’t open because it was frozen. Here is a look.

Since the valve is on the sewer manifold that is exposed, below the heated basement and belly, and is dry below the valve, we won’t leave the heat tape turned on all of the time. The heat tape manufacturer advises to only put the tape on pipes that are filled with liquid. The cord that plugs in will remain exposed and easily accessed. So, when the valve freezes in the closed position, we will plug it in, long enough to thaw the valve and dump the gray water tank.

Our other gray water tank and the Black water tank, have their valves up inside the heated belly of the trailer and have not frozen up so far. If they ever do freeze, we will have to give the project another thought or two.

After securing the heat tape in place with gorilla tape, it was time to apply some insulation.

The insulation is foil backed and self adhesive, but, I taped it with Gorilla tape anyhow.

Here it is on the pipe above the valve.

I made sure it was sealed up to the belly skin, thinking that would help in windy conditions.

The valve, being a difficult shape to wrap, didn’t come out as neat looking.

This type of heat tape seems to be no longer available in most hardware stores because of a change in the electrical code, or so they tell me.

I had to find this one on Ebay. Here is a look at the simple items needed for the project.

I really like the Frost King insulation. It was easy to work with and we have lots of it left over for future projects.