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.