General newb questions - Advice?
Hello all! I just created an account, but I'm excited about my new (used) camper and I plan on becoming a regular on this forum while I learn. It's a 1994 Viking 10ft truck bed popup camper. At this...
Forum Discussion
Humm.... lots of questions and some possible answers... (my oldest camper was a 2001, oldest RV is/was a 1966)
- Power: most RV's don't have a 'inverter' but rather a converter/charger. This converts AC power to DC power to provide power to: lights, pump, furnace, jacks (if electric), fans, fridge (if there is a DC mode), exc.. Generally the output of these are in PARALLEL to the battery however a word of caution here: converter/chargers of this era were famous for over charging batteries! (there used to be modern replacements for them that can be bought that don't do that.
Generally speaking anything that runs on DC power can be energized/powered by the battery and/or the converter/charger when plugged into AC power.
Depending on your truck, the 7-pin pigtail going to your camper may (or NOT!) have power: all the time, when the engine is running or not at all. You will have to test/check that yourself.
- Hot water: Older hot water heaters CAN/COULD be very basic units that required you to manually light a pilot light outside for it to work. Early GAS/AC units generally would have a switch inside the camper to turn on the heating element. Somewhat newer ones (like my 2001) had a switch on the outside that engaged a DSI system to light it and even more modern ones have switches for both GAS&AC inside next to each other - generally on a white rectangle.
The idea on how to fill the HW tank is when your fresh water tank has at least 6gal in it and your pump is on, open a hot water faucet. (I won't go into if your HW is 'bypassed' or not here, I'll let others take a crack at that). Pumps operate on the lack of pressure. IE: the pump automatically turns off when your water system is presurized and open a tap (let water out) relieves pressure and the pump turns on. Close the tap - pressure builds until the pump turns itself off.
- Mark0.
- Power: most RV's don't have a 'inverter' but rather a converter/charger. This converts AC power to DC power to provide power to: lights, pump, furnace, jacks (if electric), fans, fridge (if there is a DC mode), exc.. Generally the output of these are in PARALLEL to the battery however a word of caution here: converter/chargers of this era were famous for over charging batteries! (there used to be modern replacements for them that can be bought that don't do that.
Generally speaking anything that runs on DC power can be energized/powered by the battery and/or the converter/charger when plugged into AC power.
Depending on your truck, the 7-pin pigtail going to your camper may (or NOT!) have power: all the time, when the engine is running or not at all. You will have to test/check that yourself.
- Hot water: Older hot water heaters CAN/COULD be very basic units that required you to manually light a pilot light outside for it to work. Early GAS/AC units generally would have a switch inside the camper to turn on the heating element. Somewhat newer ones (like my 2001) had a switch on the outside that engaged a DSI system to light it and even more modern ones have switches for both GAS&AC inside next to each other - generally on a white rectangle.
The idea on how to fill the HW tank is when your fresh water tank has at least 6gal in it and your pump is on, open a hot water faucet. (I won't go into if your HW is 'bypassed' or not here, I'll let others take a crack at that). Pumps operate on the lack of pressure. IE: the pump automatically turns off when your water system is presurized and open a tap (let water out) relieves pressure and the pump turns on. Close the tap - pressure builds until the pump turns itself off.
- Mark0.
