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Tip Archive
If you decide to join a membership campground, don't buy from the sales people at one of the campgrounds or during a promotional free visit. You will pay more than you need to. Instead, check the ads in RV magazines or contact a broker who sells memberships at discounted prices.
When draining your tanks, drain the "black water" first and then the gray water. That way the cleaner gray water will wash out your hose.
Use a "high volume" water regulator attached to your hose to enhance your water supply. It gives more volume of water at the same pressure.
Check your tires before you move your RV, every time you disconnect your electric plug. You can buy a "tire thumper", a device like a billy club or small baseball bat at truck stops. A tire low in air makes a different sound from a properly inflated one.
When you take possession of a new RV, insist on a complete walkthrough to find out where everything is and how it works. If you have a camcorder, make a video. Otherwise, take detailed notes.
Add a door closer to your screen door to keep the flies out as you go in and out of your RV.
Inspect a campsite before you back in to be sure there is room to extend your slideout. Watch for nearly invisible posts or bushes that are taller than your slideout or out of sight of your mirror.
The main concern when backing is being able to see any obstacles behind you. Low-down obstacles may not show up in your mirrors, so the best way to back into a campground site is to have someone stand outside your RV and guide you in with hand signals and/or a handheld radio.
In choosing your RV, decide what style of dinette works best for you. Bench dinettes have storage beneath the bench and some make into beds at night, but freestanding dinettes (the ones with real chairs) offer flexibility when you have guests.
Whenever you park, set the emergency brake. Pets or kids can easily accidentally knock against your gearshift lever. If moved to neutral, your whole RV can slide down the nearest hill.
If you have the choice, a stainless steel sink is more durable than a porcelain one. Cups, bowls or glasses in cupboards above the sink may fall out when you first open the cupboard after a trip, and chip the porcelain.
To get more food into your cupboards and fridge, decant the items from their original packages. Cereal takes less room in gallon baggies. Veggies in the crisper take less room in baggies, too.
If your RV has only 30-amp wiring, or you are at a campground with only 30-amp service, perform a "triage" when using electrical appliances. Don't run the microwave and air conditioner simultaneously. Turn one off to use the other.
In considering whether to get a vehicle with a diesel or gas engine, one factor is power. Diesels develop more power, so if you are towing or driving a large RV, diesel may be the way to go. On the downside, diesel vehicles are considerably more expensive than gas-powered.
When buying an RV, don't seriously discuss the sale with a salesperson until you have done a lot of homework. Find out the retail and wholesale values of the RV you want to buy and of your trade-in if you have one. Then you will know if the salesperson's proposal is a good one.
If you decide to buy an RV from a private party, check out the RV magazine ads, your local newspaper, and visit some consignment lots.
If you buy an RV from a "tax-free" state you may still have to pay sales tax wherever your register your vehicle. Check out the option of forming a Montana corporation to register your vehicle in that tax-free state. Reputable attorneys advertise in the RV magazines.
To get comfortable behind the wheel of a large motorhome or fifth wheel, find a church parking lot during the week or a school parking lot on the weekend, and practice driving around it. Practice left and right turns and backing.
As you approach an intersection in your big rig, look for the "stale green" light. If a lot of cars have collected to your right and left on the cross street, the signal may be about to change. Calculate where you must begin to stop and decide on a point of no return where you can't safely stop.
Never think that you have to go as fast as the posted speed limit or other drivers. You need more time than they do to slow or stop a large vehicle, and the faster you are going, the longer it takes to stop. At speeds below 40 miles per hour, leave 4 seconds time gap between the time the vehicle ahead of you passes a given point and the time you pass the same point. Over 40 mph, leave a 5-second gap.
If you want to pass another vehicle, try to do it on level ground where you can accelerate easily. A large motorhome or truck, especially if it is towing something, is slow to accelerate; you will need a lot of room and a lot of time for passing. If you are towing a trailer, remember that sudden moves may make it unstable.
Steep grades can offer a problem when driving a big rig. To check out where they are, purchase Mountain Directory. The east and west versions of this book describe the exact grade and driving situation for all significant highways in the country.
Driving down a steep grade can be as intimidating as going up. It's a good idea to enter a steep slope at a very slow speed so you are sure to maintain control. Downshifting is a good idea. In lower gears, the engine's compression helps slow you down so that you don't have to ride the brakes.
Turn off propane before driving your RV down the road, or turn off refrigerator when you pull into a fuel station.
Selecting an RV with a convection oven above the cooktop instead of a propane oven below the cooktop will give you increased kitchen storage space.
If your RV has a combination washer-dryer, consider creative ways to deal with the 2-hour-or-longer wash and dry cycle. Put the clothes in before you go to bed and take them out clean and dry in the morning. Or, start your generator and water pump as you go down the road and arrive at your next campsite with laundry done.
Check the bedroom of an RV you are considering to make sure there is room to walk around the bed when you make it.
A generator will provide electric power when you are not hooked up to a campground power source, but generators are noisy and most places forbid their use before 7:00 a.m. and after 10:00 p.m. An inverter can be an alternate power source. Inverters silently convert battery power to A.C., but will not run air conditioners or microwaves and over time will run down house batteries.
Wind blowing across a highway creates unstable condition, especially for towing. Consider deferring a trip until wind conditions improve, or if you encounter high winds, pull over until they diminish.
To find the location of gas stations, truck stops and restaurants along Interstate Highways, purchase a book called The Next Exit, available in RV supply stores and online bookstores. This book lists each Interstate exit in the country, and what you can find there.
When driving down a steep grade, downshift to maintain control of speed. Don't ride the brakes. If towing a trailer, use the trailer's brakes to help slow your descent.
Know the height of your RV and check posted bridge clearances before driving under them. If no height is posted, consider an alternate route.
Don't back a motorhome with tow car attached. Detach the tow car first.
When backing a trailer, to start, grasp the steering wheel at the bottom. If you then turn your hand to the right, the trailer will go right, and if you move the wheel left, the trailer will go left.
Always level your rig when you park it, to protect your refrigerator. When the refrigerator is not level, the combined chemicals that cause cooling can separate, crystallize and block the circulation of the cooling unit. Once this has happened, it is irreversible.
In a pinch, a set of boards or blocks can be used to level your rig. Place the boards on the ground, and drive over them so that the board is under the low side of the RV.
Use your levelers only for leveling your RV. Do not use levelers to jack up the RV to change a tire or work on the brakes. They are not intended to lift the entire weight of your RV, and might fail while you are underneath it.
When leveling a motorhome, do not accidentally lift the tires of your RV off the pavement. Doing so can stress the frame of your coach and may twist the chassis and eventually cause the windshield to pop out. If you find one wheel in the air, redo your leveling procedure to correct this situation.
Not every car can be safely towed behind a motorhome without damaging its transmission. Should your car turn out not to be towable on four wheels, the only solution that avoids buying a new car is to get a tow dolly.
To find out if your car can be towed behind a motorhome, check with the dealership or visit www.motorhomemagazine.com, click on "Dinghy towing," and select the model year of your vehicle. This list requires Adobe Acrobat to read.
If you are towing a car behind a motorhome, after connecting towbar, make sure the brake lights, flashers and turn indicators are working properly on both car and motorhome. At the same time, check that the car is set in neutral gear, with the brake off, and that the ignition key is turned to the "accessory" position so that the wheels are free to turn.
Because stability is an important safety factor when towing a trailer, in addition to your hitch you should also have load-distributing bars and breakaway safety chains, which are required by many if not most states for trailers over a certain weight.
Be sure to use toilet paper that dissolves readily in your RV's toilet. Wads of undissolved paper can clog up the black water drainage system. Use toilet paper marked "safe for septic" and to be sure, test a piece in a glass of water. If it does not dissolve quickly, do not use it.
Adding chemicals to your toilet will help dissolve solids so that they will easily flush out when you drain the "black water" tank. These chemicals use enzymes or bacteria to break down the wastes. You can purchase them at most RV stores.
Remember that your black water tank has from 35 to 50 gallons of liquid in it, weighing up to 350 pounds. This fluid can generate considerable force at the discharge end. Open the drain valve slowly and be sure everything is securely connected and going into the sewer before you start the drainage process.
Pinhole leaks in your sewer hose can be temporarily repaired with a couple of wraps of duct tape, but a leaky hose needs to be replaced as soon as possible. Purchasing a good-quality sewer hose will pay off over time; the heavier material is more dependable.
If liquids are draining slowly or not at all from your tanks, check the angle of your sewer hose to make sure that it slopes downhill. You can buy or make a hose support to achieve this.
Have two hoses in your RV, one for hooking up to fresh water and another for flushing your tanks. To be sure of telling these apart, purchase them in two different colors, for example, green for tanks and white for fresh water.
Before you connect to a site's water supply, check the pressure. Most RVs are designed to use pressures of around 40 pounds per square inch. If the pressure is higher than that, a water pressure regulator attached between faucet and hose will protect your system from burst pipes or hoses.
To keep dirt and sediment out of your water system, connect a pair of filters to your rig's water connection. One filter between The first filter uses a string cartridge to filter out rust and sediment. The second uses charcoal to eliminate bad-tasting chemicals and some bacteria from the water. For the lowest price, buy your filters from a hardware store rather than an RV supply store.
Rather than having one long hose for your RV water supply, try several shorter ones such as one eight-foot and one six-foot hose. A long hose tends to kink and form flat spots in its structure that will always collapse no matter what you do to fix it.
Keep the vents in your air conditioner clean and free of dust by periodically wiping the vent with a dry sponge. Also, clean the air filters inside the vents every. To clean the filter, first remove the vent cover and the filter, then wash the filter in warm soapy water. Rinse and let it dry. When dry, replace it inside the vent cover.
When setting up your awning, make one side a little lower than the other. Then, if it rains, the water will roll off your awning rather than collect on it in a weighty pool that might tear the fabric from the frame.
Deflappers are inexpensive devices that help secure an awning to the frame and make it less likely to tear off in a high wind. They are easy to install, two to three on each side, depending on the awning's size. Purchase at RV supply stores.
Before you plug into a campground's power system, examine the connector or plug on your power cord for melted plastic or corroded terminals. If you see either of these, clean off the corrosion, or buy a new connector as a preventive measure. Don't wait until you plug into a campground outlet and your cord goes into meltdown.
Before you plug into a campsite where electric outlets appear old or corroded, check the outlet with a circuit/polarity analyzer. If the analyzer indicates reversed polarity, a problem that occurs if the outlet is incorrectly wired, move to a different site and notify campground management. If the readout indicates that the ground wire is energized, do not plug in. A hot ground wire can cause a fire, or severe electrical shock.
An AC voltmeter will tell if the voltage where you are plugged in is 120 volts, or not. If your voltage is markedly low, turn off your computer. Complicated electronic devices do not respond well to low voltage. Low voltage occurs if a campground is not properly wired to support the amount of electricity used by a large number of RVs simultaneously.
A ground fault interrupter, or GFI, is a device often located in the bathrooms of RVs that senses an unsafe electrical condition and automatically shuts off the outlet. To restore power, push the reset button.
To maintain coach and chassis batteries, check the water level in the cells from time to time. If you need to add water, use only distilled water. Regular water can damage the delicate electrolyte in the battery cells. Corrosion of the battery terminals can be cleaned off with a weak baking soda solution.
High temperatures in the transmission fluid can damage the transmission. The normal operating temperature of a transmission is between 160 to 200 degrees F. Be sure to monitor the gauge, especially when going uphill or on a hot day. Consider installing an automatic transmission fluid temperature gauge that will report transmission fluid temperatures.
The "check engine" light is a warning that something is wrong. Even if everything seems okay, you need to have the problem checked out by a mechanic using a computer to access built-in engine and transmission diagnostic systems. Never ignore a warning light.
Use cost-saving memberships to cut down on campground fees. Good Sam parks offer discounts to members of the Good Sam Club. Passport America lists half-price campgrounds for its members. KOA offers a discount card. Coast to Coast and RPI require affiliation with a membership campground, but offer camping at around $8.00 per night. Most of the above have limits on how long you can stay.
Many Walmart stores will allow RVers to camp overnight for free in their parking lots. Be sure to inquire first at the store, observe good camping decorum, do not open slides or put out awnings in the store parking lot. As a courtesy, repay the store's hospitality by shopping there.
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