To Dump The Fresh Water Tank ... Or Not?
New to this forum ... and new to RV-ing. My wife and I just purchased a new truck camper last Thursday ... an ALP Adventurer 86SBS. Believe it or not, we got the bare minimum of a walk through, so I have a ton of questions ... some of which I hope to find answers to by searching this forum. This is one I'd like a more immediate answer to, though:
??? The manual that came with the camper has a WARNING:Filling the fresh water tank should ONLY be done if the camper is on the truck, or if the floor is supported. Failure to do so may result in damage to the unit.
Does this mean that I should dump the fresh water tank before I remove the camper from the truck? If I take it off the truck while the tank still has water in it (the tank holds 45 gallons, by the way), that would be the same as filling it before loading it on the camper ... and the possibility of damage as stated above, wouldn't it? Here's the thing, there are going to be times when I want to take the camper off the truck and park it so that I could take the 4x4 into some rough terrain to do some fishing. If I've got to be dumping water before removing it from the truck, finding some support for the floor, then filling the tank again ... assuming I can even find a source of water in a remote location ...it's going to be a royal pain in the butt. What do folks do?
Maybe I could ask another question while I'm here ... seeing as it's sort of related to the first one? For winter storage in the backyard, I'm planning on pouring a concrete platform (ground level, of course) with ring bolts or chains set in the concrete that I can attach my fastguns to. This would make it pretty stable as far as wind is concerned ... and we do get some pretty high wind in this area. How high off the concrete platform should I set the camper with the jacks and should I also support it some way with blocking, saw-horses or some other thing instead of just leaving it up on the jacks?
??? The manual that came with the camper has a WARNING:Filling the fresh water tank should ONLY be done if the camper is on the truck, or if the floor is supported. Failure to do so may result in damage to the unit.
Does this mean that I should dump the fresh water tank before I remove the camper from the truck? If I take it off the truck while the tank still has water in it (the tank holds 45 gallons, by the way), that would be the same as filling it before loading it on the camper ... and the possibility of damage as stated above, wouldn't it? Here's the thing, there are going to be times when I want to take the camper off the truck and park it so that I could take the 4x4 into some rough terrain to do some fishing. If I've got to be dumping water before removing it from the truck, finding some support for the floor, then filling the tank again ... assuming I can even find a source of water in a remote location ...it's going to be a royal pain in the butt. What do folks do?
Maybe I could ask another question while I'm here ... seeing as it's sort of related to the first one? For winter storage in the backyard, I'm planning on pouring a concrete platform (ground level, of course) with ring bolts or chains set in the concrete that I can attach my fastguns to. This would make it pretty stable as far as wind is concerned ... and we do get some pretty high wind in this area. How high off the concrete platform should I set the camper with the jacks and should I also support it some way with blocking, saw-horses or some other thing instead of just leaving it up on the jacks?
