System check up panel. What do these mean?

SCADAMAN29325 wrote:
Just drove it home last week. Our 1st RV! The learning curve is steep!

Our panel is different, but somewhat similar.

Water Heater: On/Off? Correct. Turns on/off propane heat to water heater. Do not turn on if water heater is empty as damage can result. Some RVs also have a 110 Volt heating element. That should have a separate switch.

Water Pump: On/Off? Correct. Pump is not needed when connected to a campground water source. Good practice is to turn off the water pump when traveling and when away from the RV as piping leaks have been known to happen. Also applies to campground water source.

Generator: Start/Stop? Correct.

Generator hours: Hours of run time? Correct.

Tank 1: Gray water, empty? Correct.
Tank 2: Black, 1/4 full? Possibly. Waste water level indicators, especially for the black tank, are notoriously unreliable. We verify the level in our black tank by opening the toilet valve and looking down the pipe using a flashlight to see the level. If you do this, don't drop the flashlight!

LP Gas: Full? Correct.

Fresh Water: Empty? Correct.

Battery (Batteries?): Top (van battery?) RVs have two battery systems. A chassis battery and one or more "house" batteries. The chassis battery has the same function as in a car - engine starter, headlights and other lights, etc. The house battery supplies 12 volt power to run lights in the living section, the water pump, circuit power to the water heater and refrigerator, etc. There is normally a solenoid that connects the two battery systems together when the engine ignition is on so that the engine alternator will charge the house batteries when driving.

& bottom (generator batteSTOP? No idea what this is.

Water Heater Pilot: will the LED light once I light the pilot or do I need to push a button somewhere? Unlikely that you have a pilot light for the water heater. This light should be on when the propane flame is heating the water.

Low? High? Good? What are these? The switch shows the Battery Condition using these three lights.

Pump? Pump what? Black? Gray? This light is lit when the water pump switch is on.

Your RV should have come with a number of manuals that you should read and the RV dealer should have done a walk through with you and explained all of this.


Thanks! Phil


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