Winterizing and Valves

[kozzy]

OK, well while winterizing today, I had all the valves set correctly. Blew out my lines and then hooked up the bucket with antifreeze ( yes, i do both, anal LOL) anyways, the pump would not suck up the antifreeze. Same problem last year and the year before. Those years, I ended up switching the black tank flush hookup and with freeze guard hook up. Here is why.....the freeze guard hook up is an anti siphon valve, and I believe the pump just dosent have enough juice to suck it open and draw in the antifreeze. The black tank flush, however, is a straight valve. When I switched them, everything worked fine, the pump sucked up the antifreeze and ran through the lines, the black tank flushed worked, and now dosent spit water back, even though its clean.
Now, is this the way its supposed to be and mine was backwards from the start?
I looked up online, and found a Montana video from the factory, and the video shows the anti siphon on the freeze guard and the straight open valve on the black tank..
Any thoughts, anyone?
I must have ran that pump for 30 minutes trying to get it to prime before I gave up, and went to what I did last year, which was switch the valves. For now, I am going to leave them as i changed them, unless someone can tell me otherwise ...because this way makes sense to me in my head...

[The Landrys]

Make sure you have a good seal where you antifreeze hose connects. Take the screened washer from your city water hook up and put where the antifreeze enters your trailer.

[BB_TX]

Getting a good seal at the hose connection has been a problem for some. The slightest air leak will prevent the pump from picking up the antifreeze. Some have had to use two washers to get a good seal. I actually had to sand my washer thinner as the hose fitting did not have enough threads to screw down the hose tightly without popping off. I also found that if I first opened a low point drain to get the antifreeze flow started, then it went pretty well afterward.

Some have also reversed the screen washer so that the screen pushes in the check valve.

[kozzy]

i did notice that it needed a washer, so I moved the inlets around again, and put a washer in there and had the same results. Never thought of the screen idea.
ill have to move the valves back and try that. Still makes no sense to me why there is a back flow check valve on the antifreeze inlet, and not the black flush. that seems backwards to me..when I swapped them, everything worked great!

[RichR]

Kozzy- seams you have solved my problem-will give it a try,thanks.

[kozzy]

glad to help out, i might just leave the valves the way I switched them, makes more sense to me that way anyways