Low water pressure and toilet won't shut off.
The long weekend is almost here and the CG has been filling up quickly and will be fully booked by tonight. Water pressure has been okay for the past couple of days but now it is down to about 12 psi...
Forum Discussion
Sometimes you need to expect the unexpected. What would RVing be without a little adventure? :)
We got outta the Bend/Sun River Thousand Trails CG early yesterday morning. We went to bed the previous night with pressure at around 50 psi and thought the CG staff had fixed whatever the issue was. We turned the supply off overnight just in case so the toilet wouldn't overflow. When we woke up yesterday morning we had no pressure - zero, zilch, nada. Okay, so I know low water pressure and low voltage isn't uncommon at their CGs, but this is just ridiculous.
Went outside to find that our 50' of hose was frozen solid and that the CG faucet wouldn't even produce a dribble. Contrary to the weather forecast, the temp. had dipped below freezing overnight and as of 7 am it was 30 F. We were all packed up and ready to head off on the next leg of our trip so with no running water DW decided to head over to one of the public restrooms. She discovered there was no water there either and of course the toilet couldn't flush so the staff would have found a little anonymous present left behind. Oh well, haha. Not sure what the rest of the campers wanting to use the public restrooms ended up doing. Must have been mayhem with everyone looking for some place to "go", lol. Good thing we "carry" - bottled water that is, so at least I was able get a morning caffeine fix.
The entire CG of 320 sites probably had no water from either frozen water hoses, no CG supply or both. Dump station had no water. None of their faucets have heat tape on them. The place was full of kids too and I can imagine how much fun families would have had just trying to make breakfast. But it does get cold up in Bend so not sure why a couple degrees below zero would hurt anything. The low pressure the day before couldn't have been temp. related but we will never know exactly what was going on.
I've now discovered how hard it is to coil up a water hose that is frozen solid and what it's like at a dump station with bare hands emptying 3 tanks in below freezing weather especially with a sewer hose that is almost rigid. And with the cold, all 4 tires on the TT were down 5 psi so I had to drag out the compressor. At least no lines under the trailer or none of the tank contents froze up. Maybe I need to get myself a pair of fur-lined winter gloves for the trailer.
Managed to find a new toilet valve in Albany, Or. en route to the Oregon Coast. We phoned in advance and the parts guy said "yeah, got one for sure". Got there and found he had looked up the wrong part no. Luckily they had the right one, which was their last one too. Can't wait to do my first RV toilet supply valve replacement.
Funny thing is, the week before we were in Vegas at the Thousand Trails there. It's so warm at night there that we had the AC running 24 hours/day and it's so warm all the time that the city water comes out of the ground quite warm - even had a nice warm shower with it before I realized we hadn't turned the water heater on. A couple we met in the CG there said that the Bend T/T CG is there no. 1 favorite T/T CG. Guess they haven't been in early Sept.? On the positive side, it is actually quite pretty, lots of trees, sites well apart and very quiet.
Enroute to the Oregon Coast, we chose a poor route and then there happened to be a detour due to road work. Ended up in Pacific City about 3 hours overdue, despite what we thought was leaving plenty early enough and expected to find nothing but lousy sites left. Surprise, surprise, we have what is probably the best site of all of them here - very far end of the CG, no vehicle or people traffic going by and overlooking the ocean complete with the soothing sound of waves crashing on the beach. Probably the best site we've ever been in. If any of ya'll in Bend River are reading this, hope things worked out okay!
BTW, we're a couple of those sissies that never use their FW tank because we camp exclusively in CGs with at least water and power. That plus I've read a few too many stories of holding tank supports failing in transit. Also, our FW tank is in a location ahead of the axles that affects the tongue weight too much as I found out the first and only time I traveled with it full and had to empty it before getting very far.
We got outta the Bend/Sun River Thousand Trails CG early yesterday morning. We went to bed the previous night with pressure at around 50 psi and thought the CG staff had fixed whatever the issue was. We turned the supply off overnight just in case so the toilet wouldn't overflow. When we woke up yesterday morning we had no pressure - zero, zilch, nada. Okay, so I know low water pressure and low voltage isn't uncommon at their CGs, but this is just ridiculous.
Went outside to find that our 50' of hose was frozen solid and that the CG faucet wouldn't even produce a dribble. Contrary to the weather forecast, the temp. had dipped below freezing overnight and as of 7 am it was 30 F. We were all packed up and ready to head off on the next leg of our trip so with no running water DW decided to head over to one of the public restrooms. She discovered there was no water there either and of course the toilet couldn't flush so the staff would have found a little anonymous present left behind. Oh well, haha. Not sure what the rest of the campers wanting to use the public restrooms ended up doing. Must have been mayhem with everyone looking for some place to "go", lol. Good thing we "carry" - bottled water that is, so at least I was able get a morning caffeine fix.
The entire CG of 320 sites probably had no water from either frozen water hoses, no CG supply or both. Dump station had no water. None of their faucets have heat tape on them. The place was full of kids too and I can imagine how much fun families would have had just trying to make breakfast. But it does get cold up in Bend so not sure why a couple degrees below zero would hurt anything. The low pressure the day before couldn't have been temp. related but we will never know exactly what was going on.
I've now discovered how hard it is to coil up a water hose that is frozen solid and what it's like at a dump station with bare hands emptying 3 tanks in below freezing weather especially with a sewer hose that is almost rigid. And with the cold, all 4 tires on the TT were down 5 psi so I had to drag out the compressor. At least no lines under the trailer or none of the tank contents froze up. Maybe I need to get myself a pair of fur-lined winter gloves for the trailer.
Managed to find a new toilet valve in Albany, Or. en route to the Oregon Coast. We phoned in advance and the parts guy said "yeah, got one for sure". Got there and found he had looked up the wrong part no. Luckily they had the right one, which was their last one too. Can't wait to do my first RV toilet supply valve replacement.
Funny thing is, the week before we were in Vegas at the Thousand Trails there. It's so warm at night there that we had the AC running 24 hours/day and it's so warm all the time that the city water comes out of the ground quite warm - even had a nice warm shower with it before I realized we hadn't turned the water heater on. A couple we met in the CG there said that the Bend T/T CG is there no. 1 favorite T/T CG. Guess they haven't been in early Sept.? On the positive side, it is actually quite pretty, lots of trees, sites well apart and very quiet.
Enroute to the Oregon Coast, we chose a poor route and then there happened to be a detour due to road work. Ended up in Pacific City about 3 hours overdue, despite what we thought was leaving plenty early enough and expected to find nothing but lousy sites left. Surprise, surprise, we have what is probably the best site of all of them here - very far end of the CG, no vehicle or people traffic going by and overlooking the ocean complete with the soothing sound of waves crashing on the beach. Probably the best site we've ever been in. If any of ya'll in Bend River are reading this, hope things worked out okay!
BTW, we're a couple of those sissies that never use their FW tank because we camp exclusively in CGs with at least water and power. That plus I've read a few too many stories of holding tank supports failing in transit. Also, our FW tank is in a location ahead of the axles that affects the tongue weight too much as I found out the first and only time I traveled with it full and had to empty it before getting very far.
