Travel Forum / Travel Types / RV Travel / September 2004

Not sure what you mean. The 12-volt DC systems are always hooked up to the
battery. The 120-volt AC systems require the trailer's power cord be
plugged into a suitable receptacle, at RV park or your home, to be used.
The LP systems require that the tanks have some LP in them and the valves
turned on. Typically, only the refrigerator can use LP or 120 VAC and it
looks for the former only after failing to find the latter.

No. The wind velocity would probably blow them out, but more importantly is
not having open flames around where vehicles are being filled with
gasoline. The contents of both usually are just fine after several hours of
travel after having reached temperature prior.

Usually not the less expensive ones. Needs 120 VAC or LP.

with battery charger and/or it will charge from vehicle while being towed,
and/or it will charge when the trailer is plugged into 120 VAC through your
converter.

Your choice

12 volt batteries in parallel. 6 volt batteries in series.

The larger ones work great, best with lots of sunshine.

Do Google search on that topic.

At least annually, and yes.

The trailer in Fargo or Ft. Myers? What you can't blow out may get you in
trouble. Install w/h bypass and put antifreeze in lines and p-traps after
draining all tanks including w/h.

Sanitize freshwater tank and lines with chorine bleach treatment. Follow
with baking soda flush and drain.
Put 5 gallons of water and some black water tank chemicals (enzyme type
only) after dumping the black water tank.
Usually don't need chemicals in grey water tank but it doesn't hurt.

Larger is black tank.

Take the camper on a trip. If you find rocking objectionable while camped,
use stabilizers. You can get ones you have to deploy or you can weld others
to the frame. Look around at what others do.

Do a google search for the manufacturer, or a local dealer, or both.

No, I don't use LP while rolling, but it can be done, safely. Whether
your fridge, like mine, will run on 12 volts only, depends on your
fridge make and model. Most models use 12 volts from the battery to
power the controller board for the fridge, so you will need to keep
the battery suitably charged. If you have a propane detector, they
also will drain your battery, somewhat, whenever on.

How you charge the battery may be: 1) from the tow vehicle, while
connected. 2) From a electrical input line 120 volts (landline or
generator), 3) using a small auxiliary charger like you use on car
batteries (requires 120 to the charger, though). and/or, 4) Solar
panels.

Solar panels should work, but obviously not on cloudy days when the
sun is low in the sky, or at night. They can "help", but only as a
trickle type of charger.

IMO 2 12Volt deep cycle type batteries are just the ticket, and in
parallel configuration. Have this done for you if you don't know how.
Electricity is not very forgiving stuff for raw amateurs.

Brakes and wheels depend on usage, condition, and type you have.
Before a long season of use, with a new trailer, I'd be tempted to
just replace all wheel bearings, period. Problem is, with you being in
the tow vehicle, you may not notice a problem with your wheel
bearings, until they've caught a tire on fire, etc. Then you're in the
sh.t, big-time.

Never put anti-freeze in the water lines! :)

Exactly how to winterize your unit depends on how cold your home area
gets in the winter. Talk to people from your own area. Fairbanks is a
lot different than Phoenix.

Larger tube ?? gives me no clue on your tanks. A small sample of one
into a bucket should answer your question.

You can get some stacking stabilizer jacks from Camping World, etc.,
pretty cheaply. If you want full "just press a button" stabilizer
jacks, I doubt it's worth it unless you are really using the trailer
very frequently.

Pick up a good RV maintenance book, like Woodall's, or whatever you
like. It will come in handy.

Hope that helps.

Dave
Go Metric!

On my refrigerator there is a selector knob that you can select elect. or
LP.
The elect is 120 AC. So you have to be hooked up to 120 for that selection
to
be used.

Some what controversial. I have always in my moterhome run the frig while on
the road. Very occasionally has wind knocked out flame. The battery must be
on
to run the control board. Uses very small amperage.

On my moterhome I have solar panels. I installed them myself. Not cheap. I
have 2
75 watt siemens that put out max 7 amps. These are wired to a charge
controller which
is wired to the house batteries. As far as batteries are concerned it it
depends on how you
use your trailer. If you "dry camp" that is with no hookups then one battery
would not be enough
for most people. If you have hookups most of the time then you might be able
to get by with one.
As far as adding an additional battery, it is the voltage that determines
how you tie them
But since you have one it must be 12 volts. So if you get another one they
would be wired on parallel.
That is + to + and - to -.

If you are talking about where you put the sewers hose on, the tank with the
larger tube going to
the valve is the black water tank.

Frank Howell

I've never had a 3-way fridge so I can't help with that.

Yes. Propane today has automatic shut offs, so a catastrophic line break should
not result in disaster.

Maybe. I a.s/u./med that your first question indicated a 3-way fridge. If so,
the answer is yes.........but not for a long period of time........unless you
have solar panels (lots of them) and plenty of batteries.

You can parallel (+ to + and - to -) more than one 12 volt battery, and you can
connect in series (- to + leaving the unconnected + and - as your cable
connections)) 2   6-volt golf car batteries to make a very large and much
better 12 volt battery, then use more pairs of them to make a much stronger
bank of batteries, by treating each PAIR of 6-volt batteries as a single 12
volt battery and connecting those in parellel.

Yearly, and if you know what you are doing. Otherwise pay someone to do it
yearly.

RV antifreeze, but don't put it in your tank. Buy a water heater bypass if you
don't have one, and diverter valve to put in your system so you pump can suck
antifreeze out of the bottle and into the lines. Ask a seperate question on
winterizing so this post doesn't get quite so long.

Larger is always black, cause you don't want chunks to plug it up. Never ever
use full hook-ups to leave you black tank open, or you'll end up with a "black
pyramid" under the stool on the bottom of the tank. Not good.

Yes you can add them. Yes it is worth it. Just buy simple jacks at Camping
World, Camper's choice, or your local RV dealer. In your case, I would probably
go to the RV dealer because you need help deciding what you need.

Lon

Hi,
If you can contact the manufacturer and see if they can get you a
copy of the owners manual.  Then go out and find  the " RV Handbook"
and the "RV Repair and Maintenance Manual" by Bob Livingstone.  You
can get it from Camping World http://www.campingworld.com/ or Campers
Choice http://camperschoice.com/  or probably from
http://www.amazon.com   Another place to find out about some RV
systems online is http://www.phrannie.org/phredex.html.  For some
battery information try
http://bart.ccis.com/home/mnemeth/12volt/12volt.htm

There are other places online that can help too.  Do a Goggle search
for what your looking for and you will find lots of information.

Basically your LP, battery and 120V electric are three different
systems.  Your refrigerator, water heater and furnace will all be run
off of LP *BUT* they need your 12V battery system for control.  On
your frig switching over from LP to 120V can be automatic or manual
depending upon the controls on the refrigerator.  You can find the
name of your frig and it's model number and go online and look for
Norcold or Dometic and you should be able to find operators manuals.

Changing over from battery to electric on a travel trailer for
everything but the frig is usually just a matter of plugging into a
120V outlet.

If you need a second battery or not depends upon how you plan on
using the TT.  If you just plan to use it in campgrounds with
electrical hookup's then you don't need a second battery.  If you plan
on using in to boondock (no electric, sewer or water hookups) then you
should get a second battery.  If you don't know how to wire up the
battery find someone who does or do a little research before you try.
If it's two 12V batteries you wire them in parallel if it's two 6V
batteries you wire them in series.  In either case using the properly
sized wire.

Brakes and wheel bearing should be checked at least once a year.  As
long as your pulling the wheel bearings you might as well re-pack
them.  You can do it if you know how.

I use air to blow out the lines then put anti freeze in too.  Nothing
worse then a water leak in an RV.  Especially one you caused by not
winterizing using anti freeze which is cheap.

The large drain is usually the black tank 3" while the smaller one is
the gray tank.

Stabilizer jacks keep the RV from moving when your moving around
inside of it.  Rolling over in bed can cause the TT to rock.   Try it
and see what you think.  You can add them anytime.  Me I would add
then :)

Hope this helps.  Take care and Happy Campin...

RichA
"We Get To Soon Olde and To Late Smart"