[A/S] Winterizing

["peigofireland" <peigofireland@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,
We are back from purchasing our '74 31' Excella 500 in Oregon.  I 
did write a post about the trip, but pushed post rather than send....

The trip back was uneventful and short.  The trip there was 
excrutiatingly long....  Remember that going the extra 50 miles may 
make a trip shorter!!!  We were on the curviest up and down road all 
the way from Spokane to Walla Walla with detours which took us out 
of our way anyway.  Once in Oregon we meet the owners/sellers of our 
baby.  They were wonderful loving people and we hated taking their 
Airstream away....It was as though we were taking their 
independence.  It hurt.

We promised to stay in contact with them and if we get out that way 
again we will stop to see them.  Great people!

It was a beautiful trip back, elk, blue heron, et al.

My question now is winterizing.  I have been to many sites, Tom 
Pattersons, Airstream Forums and others trying to find the best way 
to winterize.  When we follow the manual and the advice on all of 
the above sites we are still in a quandery.  

Mark has tried to drain and bypass the water heater as suggested and 
the waterheater does not drain.  The previous owners said they 
winterized and we can see tell tale signs of pink, but not what 
would be needed in Montana in the winter.

We have used 4 gallons of antifreeze by disconnecting the waterpump 
intake from the freshwater tank system under the sink and pumped the 
antifreeze into the trailer from that point.  We still don't have 
pink running from the faucets.

Everyone talks about bypassing the water tank.  We don't have a 
petcock to do this.  Mark is thinking he needs to take off the panel 
in the bathroom to look at the tank.  He sees sign of something 
leaking in the past as there were some RVfresherner things under 
there that were moist.  He has an idea that he will replace screws 
with screwable rivets rather than the normal screws in the panel.

He thinks the hot water tank is filling with the antifreeze, but 
when he opens the valve on the outside of the trailer to see if 
antifreeze is coming out, nothing comes out.

Where is all the antifreeze going???

Can someone please go over winterizing?  We aren't blowing lines, 
but filling them with antifreeze because we believe the previous 
owner has blown the lines because of the residual pink we can see.  
If we have done everything wrong so far how do we collect the 
antifreeze and start all over again?  Would appreciate this.
Peg & Mark
'74 31' Excella 500