[A/S] Grrr! (a long story)

["Richard P. Kenan" <as5368@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, friends:

   Our trailer is stored at Top of Georgia down in the lower area.  
There has not been a hard freeze up there yet, but one is forecast
for 
several days next week - down to 18 deg.  So, Jane and I (with my 
virus) went up there today to complete the winterizing by pumping
pink 
stuff through the lines.
   While doing this, I noticed that my Hensley hitch was askew.  Upon 
examination, I discovered that someone had stolen the roadside spring 
jack - took it clean away!  This requires a hex wrench to remove a 
retaining ring, but nothing else more daunting than removing a clevis 
pin.  The hex wrench makes me think it was not a casual intruder, and 
as nothing else was damaged, it doesn't look like a vandal.  The
hosts are friends, and we told them about the theft as we left.  They 
said that there had been incidents of theft before at ToG, and that 
the culprits were believed to be guests.  Guests!!  It takes all 
kinds, I guess.  There's no way that park hosts can keep this kind of 
thing from happening from time to time, but it *is* aggravating.
     They mentioned that there was another trailer in earlier in that 
region of the park with a Hensley, which, of course, means nothing.  
But it's tempting to think that someone needed a spring jack and 
simply lifted mine.  After all, they're not much use for anything else
except a Hensley Arrow.  If that's the case, I hope he or she gets 
good use out of it and that it helps to solve their obvious money 
problem.
     It's not a disaster - I'll call Hensley on Monday and buy a new 
one.  But Damn!
     We also pumped almost 3 gal of pink stuff into our lines, which 
should hold only around 1 gal.  I switched the three valves on the
HWH bypass, as instructed; at least, I think I did.  Walt Barksdale 
told me that they were 90 deg valves, so I turned the two main lines 
perpendicular to the lines, and the bypass parallel
(Incidentally, in typical Airstream Owner's Manual style, you are told 
that access to these valves is from beneath the lavatory; that's a 
real contortionist's trick, and I simply could not turn one of the 
valves from that contorted position.  Fortunately, I decided to remove 
the mattress on the twin bed on that side and look in that 
compartment.  Voila!  The valves are easily accessable this way.  Now, 
why couldn't the owner's/service manual have mentioned this?  Would it 
kill them?  Jeez!). 
     We did not have one of the plugs that you're supposed to put in 
place of the undersink drinking-water filter element for this 
operation (our friends, the Hosts, gave me one as we left), so I had 
to put a dish under it, which worked very well, as the flow there 
was not very great.  Unfortunately, I discovered that, even after I 
had closed the drain petcocks on the lines, there remained a slow but 
steady drip of pink stuff from the low point on the fresh-water tank. 
Maybe the petcocks lead internally? The lines were fine last month, 
when we put in.  Another problem to ferret out...sigh.  I suspect,
but did not check, that some of the antifreeze went into the HWH.  We 
did get it out of the lavatory sink and the shower, but never got any
from the kitchen sink.
     I've never heard of *anybody* having trouble with this process, 
but I seem to have found a way.  Story of my (trailering) life. 
Well, thanks for listening.  It does help.

- Dick, wondering what's next.
(5368)