When it comes to winterizing the TM, there are many people who take extra precautions and do far more than I do. I have had no problems in Colorado winters by just opening all faucets and then the four drains. If you have an outdoor shower, you can remove the head. This should take care of the hot water heater, the water storage and the water pipes Because of a fear of freezing experiences of other owners I am going a bit further. For example I will run the water pump with all faucets open to expell any water that may remain inside the pump. Some run consumable antifreeze into their system. As to taking the plumbing apart where possible, I feel this is beyond the call of duty. Above all, there seems to be a number of people having pipes freezing as a result of not draining the shower system. This repair is more difficult due to the fact, the break is less accessible.
Any hot water heater plugs are more difficult to remove. Just by their nature of being recessed and as you pointed out "welded on" by age it takes a socket (1 11/16") and a strong arm to get it to turn. You may even need a cheater on the end of your socket handle. Every couple of years, you should loosen this plug to examine the anode rod. This also may prevent its being welded to the water heater threads. If the rod appears badly pitted with huge areas missing, this might be a good time to replace it. A new rod will cost about $10.00. As for removing this plug to drain the heater, I don't think that if you have done the above mentioned draining, that you will get much water out of the tank. But as I said, there are many possibilities ofthings you can do to to winterize your TM, so if you think something worked before I am not recommending that you do it any differently.
Hal
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