Travel trailer life

[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