Question for Big Foot TC userer

[bobinyelm]

I recently acquired a nearly mint '96 Big Foot C2500 (the older 2500s are almost identical to today's 1500s) with the center-left kitchen w/ the wet bath rear-left bath. Mine doesn't have the basement as do the newer design C2500s, for instance.

There's a small door on the forward bath wall at the bottom with a 2" blade flush valve behind it.

Here's a photo link: http://screencast.com/t/nPGdmmvNgeW

I suspect it closes off the shower drain to the gray tank so it can't back-slosh into the shower floor, but the BigFoot owner's manual (unfortunately it applies to the TT, 5th, and TC) so doesn't mention the valve.

It also didn't mention the location of the HWH bypass valves (which I located by removing a cabinet drawer), so I figured it was better to ask here.

Also, there/s a heavy gauge (#10 or 12) yellow wire not part of the wiring harness in the bad-step that makes a U-Turn, and has a 20 amp inline fuse in it. It isn't labeled to say what it controls, but it sure looks factory.

The right rear dinette makes into a single bed, but with the table set into the supporting ledge-boards, the rear aisle part of the table is completely unsupported. Is there a portable leg or something that is supposed to fit under the unsupported corner to hold it up? Without this, any weight placed on the un-supprted corner would cause the table-top to flip off.

Thanks-

[bobinyelm]

Thanks-
I'll look for it!

Bob

[stevenal]

Done

[bobinyelm]

stevenal wrote:
I finally took a look at my 'foot. It's been a while since I've used the dinette bed. A platform folds up to support the table edge. This platform has a foldable leg to support it. It all folds and hangs off the bench seat when the table is being used as a table.

Thanks for looking.

I don't see anything on mine at the back end of the dinette that would fold out to help.

Any chance you could snap it with a smart phone and send it to me at bobinyelm@yahoo.com if you can't post it here?

The 2X2 I mentioned doesn't look like it would be involved in the table top.

Bob

[stevenal]

I finally took a look at my 'foot. It's been a while since I've used the dinette bed. A platform folds up to support the table edge. This platform has a foldable leg to support it. It all folds and hangs off the bench seat when the table is being used as a table.

[bobinyelm]

HMS Beagle wrote:
They need to quit charging if they want to see that forum grow.

Even if you had the original wiring diagram from Bigfoot, they are so rudimentary as to be pretty useless. Bigfoot builds a great camper, but their documentation has always been second rate.

I agree on all counts!

[HMS_Beagle]

They need to quit charging if they want to see that forum grow.

Even if you had the original wiring diagram from Bigfoot, they are so rudimentary as to be pretty useless. Bigfoot builds a great camper, but their documentation has always been second rate.

[bobinyelm]

I joined the Big Foot Forum as suggested, BTW, and posted my questions with photos.

So far no replies-

Hopefully, someone will visit the Forum over the week-end and offer some suggestions.

There were some comments that virtually few seem to visit the Forum since the company came back from bankruptcy (a former employee bought the company from the entity that it was sold to by the Bankruptcy Trustee), and that it was due to the format and dues required. Some DO still show up there, they said, but they would like to see the Forum grow again.

[bobinyelm]

I found out why Grant at the BigFoot factory may not have been able to answer my questions about my 1996 Big Foot C2500 truck camper.

During the bankruptcy proceedings, after completion thereof, the Court ordered and observed every scrap of paper from the Big Foot offices taken out to a mobile shredder unit for destruction.

The person reporting said that makes ANY search for things like brochures, wiring diagrams, and early construction techniques nearly impossible unless an employee just happened to remember it.

[bobinyelm]

Actually, I went out a bit ago and poured a few ounces of pink into the shower drain until it sounded like it was filling up, and went around and pulled the "T" handle, and I heard the sound of drainage falling lower (presumably into the gray tank below). That was convincing.

I could have positively confirmed this by pouring more into the drain to show I was starting from empty again, but the sound was pretty convincing.

In lieu of finding BF camper owners knowing, the mystery yellow wire will wait until it's warmer.

If I weren't so cheap, I guess I'd ante-up and spend the $20 to join the Big Foot Owner's Group I guess.

[mkirsch]

For $3 a 1 gallon jug of RV antifreeze would allow you to confirm your suspicion about the blade valve without dewinterizing the camper. Dump it in the shower with the blade valve closed, and see what happens.

[bobinyelm]

Actually I emailed BF and have corresponded with Grant there who says that my 1996 model is basically too old (in other words) to know absolutely about it. Many things, like the clearance lights, are no longer available, even, and the factory has no new source for them, so my unit's bit of an orphan it seems.

Grant's been patient with me, but much of what I learned about the camper to date was by experiment.

I thought the previous owner, a retired engineer who bought it new, would be a good source of information, turned out to have only used it as a mobile bedroom, and had not used the systems during his ownership, so has not been.

The gent didn't ever even light the hot water heater, or know that the HWH bypass valves were closed, evidently by the factory or the selling dealer, that they existed, or that one had to remove a cabinet drawer and reach around to move them (either did the factory, even after a couple exchanges, however). I now know these things.

Semi-funny story:

I was surprised when I made the "assumption" that because the bypass valves were closed, the HWT had been emptied, and that the camper had been "winterized." Because when I removed the nylon drain plug to verify, I was literally knocked on my ass by terrible smelling 20 year old water that must have been under 50+psi. I had opened the taps to vent pressure, but NOT again after I found the bypass valves closed. Doh! I knew better.

Anyway, that's why I am looking for better information sources here.

I guessed at function for the valve behind the little door because my Casita travel trailer has a similar valve (located elsewhere), and its purpose was to, when closed, prevent gray waste tank water only a few inches lower than the floor drain, from sloshing into the shower floor when driving on rough roads. Because it's now below freezing, I've refrained from experimenting by filling the shower with the blade valve in it's two positions.

I've found sometimes the best practical source of information is owners who have lived with the systems a while, which is why I was, in lieu or factory help, asking here.

[Bigfoot85]

I had the same question when we originally got our 1985 unit ... and I emailed them at bigfoot@bigfootrv.com ... they responded the same day. I remember that it had something to do with isolating the shower drain from the gray water tank when it gets relatively full. But, do email them for the full answer.

[bobinyelm]

Thanks for hosting my photo!

Any opinion on the valve purpose?

[deltabravo]