Travel trailer life

[Joe1]

My wife and I and our 80 lb Golden Retriever lived in a 32' motorhome (no slideouts) for 15 months while we were building our house. During the summer, we would use about a 1/4 - 1/3 gllon of propane per day. In the winter, it could run to about 1/2 - 3/4 gallons per day. We were in California, between San Francisco and Los Angeles so the winters were mild. Our high winter consumption was on the road in cold climates.

The electric heater is an excellent idea since you have electricity. What are you doing for sewer service. We were in a commercial park for about 7 months until our well and septic were working so we moved to our property and hooked into the septic line long before the house was completed.

Keep the black tank closed until it's near full, so that with proper chemical usage, it will all be a liquid soup to dump properly. If you keep it open all the time, the sludge will not brake down and may eventually block the system, and probably will have a bad odor. I would also shut the gray water system a day or two before we dumped the black tank and then dump the gray tank which helped flush the lines and clean out the sludge.

Make sure you keep an eye on the battery level. Even though you are hooked to 110, you still run lightrs, etc through the 12 system and so it is constantly being recharged, and will use water over a period of time.

If you try to run AC later in the year, you should be on at least a 30 amp service. It will work on a 20 amp circuit if the extension is heavy enough AND you don't try to run a microwave, or toaster, or coffee pot or electric iron at the same time. It could burn up the AC. I know you said you were on a 30 amp circuit, but you may not be getting the 30 amps all the time.

Good luck with the reconstruction and the RV adventure.

You didn't say how large the trailer was. In October, we saw a lot of trailers with FEMA labels heading down south while we were on a trip ourself.

 

[Highbeam]

"Keep the black tank closed until it's near full, so that with proper chemical usage, it will all be a liquid soup to dump properly."

Excellent point, let me be a bit more graphic. If you leave the valve open your poop will create a cone shaped mountain since all the liquids drain off and leave the terd behind. Now that mountain is not something that you can stir up with a stick. It hardens like concrete to the point where people have actually just torn out there black tank to fix it. Let the black tank fill to 3/4 or more before dumping with a quick valve opening for rapid flow. This is not as important with your grey tank but it is still beneficial to let it fill up a bit before dumping so that all the solids get sucked out. Hair, scum, food wastes etc. Strange things accumulate in the grey tank.

 

[Bird]

All very good advice is your post, Joe. As for saying </font><font color="blue" class="small">( you may not be getting the 30 amps all the time )</font>, we had some interesting experiences with that in our travels. I learned early to first check the polarity of the plug, even in commercial RV parks. I found one in Arizona and one in Oregon that had reversed polarity. And I checked the voltage; found one low voltage in Indiana. And in Pennsylvania, the park owner said he had 30 amp service. The old gentleman was in his 80s and had hired an electrician to put in 30 amp electric outlets, which he did, but he had 20 amp circuit breakers. When I explained the problem, he called the electrician back the next day to finish the job. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Tdog]

Joe, Thanks for the tip. I knew about the black water 'dump at once' deal, but wondered if I should do something to rinse afterward. Black water just hit 2/3 yesterday, so it will probably go tomorrow. I'll see to it the grey water valve is closed to get a litttle build up for flushing purposes.

Dang, Highbeam, that's pretty graphic. They told me what to do, but could not have expained it as well as that.

Back down into the 30's again tonight, but I've got two full propane tanks on - - I'm good to go.

THanks all.

Jack

 

[JDgreen227]

Just wanted to pass along two tips, we have used our 30 foot Jayco extensively during the 10 years we have owned it. The OEM battery failed after two years, and I think it was because I always left the battery connected when I plugged the trailer power cord into 120 volts. I installed a poly truck toolbox on the front A-frame to house the battery and hitch gear, and in the process I added a heavy duty, key operated rotary shut off switch between the trailer ground and the battery ground. Whenever I plug the power cord into 120 volts, I disconnect the battery ground.

You can basically get the same effect by removing the battery ground cable from the terminal. This may not work on all trailers, but with the ground disconnected the 12 volt lights and pump on ours work from the converter. The second battery on our trailer was over 7 years old when I replaced it, and it was still working fine.

NOTICE: For those who tow their trailers, be sure the negative cable is reconnected before towing, or your trailer breakaway switch will not operate.

About propane conservation, we never leave our water heater pilot on for more than an hour. I simply light the pilot in the morning, turn on the heater for an hour, then shut off the pilot. The water in the tank stays hot for long enough for both of us to shower (miserly showers) and do the dishes. Next morning, I repeat the process.

 

[Highbeam]

Not sure I would recommend disconnecting the battery when plugged into shore power. When you do that, the onboard converter is trying to charge a battery that is not connected and may not like that. There are still some important electrical pieces and circuit boards that are now getting 12 volts from the converter only and not the battery so the converter gets a workout plus the voltage swings around without the big capacitor of a battery to smooth out the peaks. The newer converters are far superior and offer several stages to prevent overcharging the battery when plugged in long term plus some battery maintenance features to keep the plates clean of sulfates. Be sure the battery has water in it but leave it plugged in. Now if you are storing a trailer vacant with no hookups, then I would agree to disconnect the battery so that it doesn't get drained from parasite loads and to deenergize circuits to minimize vandalism and fire hazard.

 

[Bird]

I guess everyone does things differently. I never disconnected my batteries in RVs. But I did check the water level pretty frequently. And unlike JDgreen, when we parked and I lit the pilot light on the water heater, it wasn't turned off again until we were ready to travel.

 

[BB_TX]

Do the newer ones have direct spark ignition?

 

[Highbeam]

Yep, no more pilot lights at least on the furnace and water heater. Not sure about the fridge though, pretty sure thats auto ignition too.

I had a set up ritual which involved lighting all pilots lights when we arrived. Even before unhitching. I like hot water, heated interior, and cold beverages. In the summer, I was a little less worried about the furnace and I actually traveled with the fridge running /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[BB_TX]

<font color="blue"> I actually traveled with the fridge running </font>
Is that a no-no? I had not even thought about refrigerator running on gas.

I find this thread particularly interesting since I plan retiring in exactly 2 yrs and we have already started browsing RVs. I have learned a lot on this thread, particularly on the colorful description of the black water tank. I plan on frequenting some of the RV sites as we go along.

 

[Bird]

Yes, Bill, most if not all the newer ones have the auto spark. Of course when you get as old as I am, I'm not sure what we call "newer". /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I guess I was still lighting a pilot light on the water heater in an '88 model fifth-wheel, but the furnace was an auto spark, and the refrigerator had a piezo lighter. The '92 motorhome had the auto spark on water heater and furnace and still had the piezo lighter for the refrigerator. Of course my first RV was 1971 when you needed plenty of matches. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

As for running the refrigerator while traveling . . . well, the "experts" will tell you to shut off the LPG at the tank when underway for safety reasons, and I'm sure perfectly logical and sensible safety reasons, so you can't run the refrigerator unless you have the 12 volt option. They say if it's cold in the refrigerator when you start, it'll stay cold until you stop that day. Now that all makes good sense to me.

However . . . in real life, I always ran my refrigerators on gas when underway, as did nearly everyone I knew or travelled with. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif Of course I never had a problem, but I was never involved in an accident either. Part of the danger of having the gas on was the possibility of a broken gas line in an accident, so I guess the newer bottles with the POL valve reduce that hazard to some degree. I did find out that I could not leave the pilot light lit on a water heater when underway because it would blow out. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[Highbeam]

Yes, some people get very excited about traveling with the gas applicances running. If I am traveling 6 hours in 90 degree heat with stops along the way for lunch and such you can bet that I want to keep my ice cubes frozen. The pilot would blow out on occasion so I would check on it when stopped. People get particularly excited about fueling a gas pickup while the propane pilot light is burning in the attached trailer. Not sure if there is an actual law about this.

I frequent the rv.net site as well and there is a wealth of information on that site. It is huge and so many people participate that it is hard to keep up with the threads.

Water leaks, electricity management, and waste tank issues make up the biggest troubles to RVs. Everything else is just fun.

 

[Bird]

Joe, I've been out of RVing now for 11 years, but both of my brothers are still full time RVers. One (named Joe, as a matter of fact) lives in a 38' fifth-wheel, worked in the RV business as a salesman, manager, and RV service technician before retiring, and the other lives in a 36' motorhome and is still in the "on-site RV repair" business. And yes, I've refueled my truck (or car - remember when cars had big engines and we pullled travel trailers with them? /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif) with pilots still lit in the trailer, but when I had a motorhome with the ASME tank, the law required shutting everything down and having everyone out of the unit while refilling the LPG tank, and of course I did that.

 

[stevenf]

Tdog, does your trailer have ducted air if so I have a great solution to your heat/propane consumption issue. We own a 27' Sunnybrook nothing fancy but it does have ducted air on the thermostat there is a recirculation fan switch if you set up one of the little ceramic heaters under the intake for your A/C it will pull in the warm air and recirculate it thru the entire trailer. We spent all of our vacations looking for snow to play in and many times found ourselves in Colorado, New Mexico etc always around Christmas. We have never "NEVER" lit our propane furnace in really cold sub zero weather we did have additional ceramic heater to put in both ends of the trailer but we rarely needed them, and it was always toasty in our trailer. It does take a while, several hours to warm up if your in sub zero weather and just parked it but if you just leave the heater and fan on all the time with the thermostat set on the heater where your comfortable it works like a champ. I can't say how a regular old center of the trailer unit would work but I'd imagine it might just wouldn't spread the heat out as well. On a side note especially after reading Birds experience we always sat the heaters on the glass hot plates like they sell at Walmart for cutting boards, we never had a issue like Birds or maybe I'd be concerned, make sure you buy UL approved heaters they might be better don't know but at least they went to the trouble of having underwriters lab look at it before they sold it.
Steve