Caveman_Charlie
Explorer II
Joined 19 years ago
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Re: Rank your RV issues
I have a 1993 Travel Trailer. The refrigerator died last year but, at that age I'm not complaining . Truthfully, the only problem I've had is a leak in the rubber roof. This has been going on for 5 years. I've tried fixing it the right way 3 0r 4 times, that didn't work. I took it to the nearest dealer 70 miles away and they tried to fix it the right way. (But, quite frankly they looked at me funny becasue I was trying to fix such a old camper), that didn't work. My girlfriend and I gave up on the fancy Dicor stuff and just started stuffing Silicone Calk everywhere, that hasn't worked either. I just leave the one ceiling speaker out and when it rains I put a bucket under it to catch the water. I did get a lead on a place 50 miles from me that I might take it to and see if he has any ideas.1.4KViews0likes0CommentsRe: How to stay warm in cold weather.
I've never done it but a small Chinese version of a Webesto Diesel Heater would be a nice addition in the winter time. It is safe (vents and draws combustion air from the outside) and doesn't use much electric. I bought one a few years back just in case I ever want to mount it.726Views0likes0CommentsRe: Where to for Thanksgiving?
dedmiston wrote: My wife reminded me last night that I “volunteered” to help out with her office potluck today, so I got up early and baked five loaves of bread and made two pounds of butter. Good stuff. Did you actually make the butter ? I've seen articles about how to do it but, it is to difficult for me .676Views0likes0CommentsRe: Winter Battery Storage
Flapper wrote: Gdetrailer wrote: nickthehunter wrote: If they are fully charged they won’t freeze at zero. As they self discharge over time while sitting there they could. A discharged battery will freeze at 20* F. A trickle charger or something similar (solar?j will help to keep the batteries fully charged. ^^^^THIS^^^^ Folks don't take batteries out of their cars for winter when not using that car for several months in the winter, why should one drag the batteries out of their RV for winter? Fully charged batteries will not freeze even in sub freezing temps for weeks at a time. Simply put, no need to go to the work and hassle of removing and storing the batteries inside your home, garage or basement as long as you have fully charged the battery and have disconnected the battery from the RV electrical system for the winter provided you do not have access to power while in storage. If you have a RV with a modern multistage converter and you have power available, you can even just plug the RV in and let the converter take care of the batteries. What you don't want to do is leave the batteries connected to your RVs electrical system without having some means of charging. The RV electrical system has 12V devices like the stereo, water heater, fridge, furnace which all draw a small amount of power even when they are turned off.. Those small draws will flatten your battery in a matter of a week or two.. Hence the need to plug RV into power or disconnect the batteries for storage. x2 on this! If batteries routinely froze at 0, none of us in Minnesota would ever be able to drive our cars! Fully charged batteries won't freeze until -73F. For 20 yrs, I have just fully charged the 6 various RV and boat batteries I own, completely disconnected, and left outside in their respective boats/RV's. Ditto on the vast majority of boat owners in our region. Nov-April, and in the spring mine have never been at less than 85% of charge, and usually above 90%. Batteries do self discharge over time, but cold slows them way, way down. In Minn, even with the summer, the average temps mean over a year before they get to 50% self discharge. MUCH faster in Texas or Arizona in the summer - then it may be 3 months. For places that get snow, just fully charge, disconnect and forget until spring. Yup, I charge the battery on my boat as I winterize it. Then I unhook it and leave it in the boat. The last battery lasted 10 years this way. It wasn't bad when I replaced it I just thought that was enough. On my TT I have 2- 6 volt batteries. I store it at home, in a shed, and have a voltage meter inside so I can watch it. I make sure the voltage is up to snuff. If it drops a little low I flip on the power converter for a few ours and top them off. The last batteries I had in there lasted 10 years too and I still have them. But, they were getting to the point where they wouldn't hold there charge for as long so I installed new ones.788Views0likes0CommentsRe: anti siphon device ?
LouLawrence wrote: I suppose this is an inappropriate or unnecessary suggestion, but couldn't you just replace the manual setup with a simple 12v pump and new faucet? It's not inappropriate but, the hand system works quite well for the little bit of water used when I use this camper. And,, I keep this pop up for going places with no electricity. I bought it used, cheap. It looks like it must have had some sort of battery system on it at one time but, the whole thing has been removed. It's really just a tent/bed on wheels. So easy to tow though. I live in SW MN and have a friend that moved to Duluth on the north shore of Lake Superior this year. Beautiful country up there. To visit him, and go camping up there, I need to go through what we call the Twin Cities of Minneapolis/ St.Paul and their suburbs. Plus, It's a 5-6 hour drive for me to get there. I can drag this pop up though the cities at 70-75 mph, get 20 mpg, and not worry about abusing it. It's kinda old school thing and that is fun sometimes too. I use it once, maybe twice, a year. I paid $1000 for it and kinda regret it because either I should have just bought a tent or spent more money and got a better pop up. Oh Well, I had fun with it this year and will again next.953Views0likes0Commentsanti siphon device ?
Although my primary RV is a travel trailer I also have a old pop up camper I use occasionally. It has a hand pump on the kitchen sink. There is simply a water tote below the sink with a 3/8 flexible line that you put into the tote. You pump up and down on the valve handle mounted behind the sink to pump up water and there is a pipe that shoots the water into the sink basin. It works good for what it is intended for. The problem is that after pumping the water that is still in the line will try and slowly siphon (fall) back down into the tote. You can even watch the pump handle move position as it does this. This causes a suction noise back through the pumps outlet above the sink. This is right next to my head as I'm trying to sleep at night. (it's really a annoying noise) There is no real way to cork off the end of the outlet. What I need is something to put in the line below the sink that will keep the water from trying to fall back down into the tote and therefore no more siphon at the valve. Sorry that I did not explain this well. Does anyone have a solution to stop the hand pump from siphoning back down into the tote below it ?4KViews0likes12CommentsRe: Fridge won't stay lit
wa8yxm wrote: enblethen wrote: No thermal couple. It uses a flame sensor. Manual Yup many companies call it a "Flame Sensor" There are two or three types of Flame Sensors. I know two of them One is a common Thermocouple The other is photovoltic I'm not sure there is a 3rd or but am allowing for the posibility. I'm guessing a high temp thermostat might work. Thermocouples are the most common. I'm familiar with standard Thermocouples. They are in a lot of furnaces and in the water heater on my camper. They have to heat up and then they hold a valve open so the gas can flow though. I don't know anything about Photovoltic sensors but, I can kinda guess how they work from the name. On this fridge the igniter and the sensor are the same thing. When you activate the fridge the circuit board opens the gas valve and the igniter sparks. After the gas lights the the igniter senses the flame it then shuts off the sparking at the igniter and the circuit board continues to hold the gas valve open. If it doesn't sense the flame the circuit board will shut everything down. After 3 tries it goes into lock out and you have to turn the fridge off and back on to try again. I'm told it does this by measuring the amount of currant flowing through when the igniter is sparking. When the flame is in the way of the spark the amount of currant is different and the circuit board senses this. So it's not a Thermocouple and it's not a Photovoltaic sensor either.900Views0likes0Comments
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