RV Camping; Tips, tricks & repairs

[killramos]

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Because a Tacoma is basically a car anyway.

[speedog]

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Hey it’s no ridgeline

Ridgelines rule...

[FraserB]

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Got to see @nzwasp 's sick trailer. Really neat little unit, and so simple! No HWT bypass at all. No level sensors in black, grey or fresh tanks. Also have a new appreciation for the tow capability of the Toyota Highlander. Truly the Honda Fit of SUV's.

I wonder how it would work with winterizing if there is no bypass. My understanding is that if you get antifreeze in the HWT, it will pretty much never come out fully and you’ll always have the foamy water

[spike98]

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I wonder how it would work with winterizing if there is no bypass. My understanding is that if you get antifreeze in the HWT, it will pretty much never come out fully and you’ll always have the foamy water

You blow out the lines.

Simple solutions work best with simple systems. In a complicated 40ft 5er, antifreeze is recommended as you can have low points or dead heads that will not blow out but in a small unit with a very small amount of piping, blowing them out is very effective and safe.

In this case, i would drain the hot water heater and open the low point until there is no water. Then hook up to the city connection and go around opening/closing taps then finally the low point again. Any small amount of water left in the tank bellow the inlet would not be a risk of expanding and damaging some piping.

[ExtraSlow]

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I wonder how it would work with winterizing if there is no bypass. My understanding is that if you get antifreeze in the HWT, it will pretty much never come out fully and you’ll always have the foamy water

I wondered about that as well. For that reason I recommended to him that he use the compressed air method of winterizing. You'd need six jugs of that pink stuff just to fill the HWT, plus one or two more for the lines. Sounds like a bad time.

[nzwasp]

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Got to see @nzwasp 's sick trailer. Really neat little unit, and so simple! No HWT bypass at all. No level sensors in black, grey or fresh tanks. Also have a new appreciation for the tow capability of the Toyota Highlander. Truly the Honda Fit of SUV's.

I can highly recommend @ExtraSlow rv consulting services and firewood supplier; gave me the run down on all the parts of my new trailer that I didn’t know about, and also hooked me up with a trunk load of firewood to which I gave him some shitty beer (so shitty that it was the last lonely case that looks well worn from people picking it up and thinking “this beer looks to shit to drink”). I’m sure we all look forward to the reviews.

Regarding the Honda Fit, I feel like that is the economy car of choice for beyond members.

[Thaco]

i am curious what that electrical box thing by the HWT is, maybe the tank has some fandangled electric bypass valve or something?


But if it truely ddoesnt have a bypass, i'd put one in personally, might cost you like $30 for the valves and some pex (a little more if you have to buy the tool) probably save yourself that in pink shit in the first couple years

[nzwasp]

How do you guys charge your phones when your at a site with no power? My unit doesn’t have a built in inverter so I’ve had to buy an inverter to hook up to the external battery and then charge that battery with solar panels (which I think are really shit) or charge directly off the solar panels which seems to be somewhat effective.

[killramos]

This isn’t RV camping specific. But I use one of those USB power banks for any time I’m away from a wall socket. A lot of them can charge your phone multiple times over. I just leave one plugged in in the car ready to go.

[spike98]

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How do you guys charge your phones when your at a site with no power? My unit doesn’t have a built in inverter so I’ve had to buy an inverter to hook up to the external battery and then charge that battery with solar panels (which I think are really shit) or charge directly off the solar panels which seems to be somewhat effective.

Buy one of these, mount, then run to a fused 12v source.

https://www.amazon.ca/IZTOR-Charger-.../dp/B01I198AP8

Solar should be to keep the batteries charged. If your batters are toast, replace them.

[Tik-Tok]

I plug into my truck

[nzwasp]

I also bought one of those car charger/jumper thing with a USB port and built in inverter that needs to be charged first at home. However this thing has a sealed 20ah battery in it and it says it can charger a phone for 40 hours before the battery is drained. Now I thought my charging cable plugged into a 3.1amp port would drain by 65ah battery after a day so how can a 20 ah battery last so long?

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This isn’t RV camping specific. But I use one of those USB power banks for any time I’m away from a wall socket. A lot of them can charge your phone multiple times over. I just leave one plugged in in the car ready to go.

Ya I also have a 20,000ma battery but I forgot it at home and we kind of assumed there would be an inverter built in to the system. Seems the 12v battery is just for lights, slide and water pump.

[killramos]

Well I imagine the phone will be fully charges after an hour or 2 and then be good for a day or so?

It wouldn’t be a perpetual 3.1 amp draw is all I’m saying...

My phone lasts days camping, I don’t really use it in the woods lol.

[dirtsniffer]

My camper has a 5v cigarette lighter built in so I use that for phones and the baby monitor

[Thaco]

I just installed a couple cig lighter/power outlets and use a car charger USB, my solar keeps my batteries topped up during the day so no worries about draining.

[Thaco]

anybody have any suggestions or reviws for LTE boosters? i have been looking at something like this

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01...P091AP8K&psc=1

to install in my RV, I was thinking of having it mounted just slightly above the roof for travelling to allow better signal inside the vehicle for emergencies and to keep the kids entertained, but then i would also figure out some way to rig up a pole to lift it like 10+ft above the rv while parked. (i am often unable to escape work, even with a legit excuse like no cell signal)

I have seen the weboost and others that are well reviewed, but i have no desire to spend $1300 on a solution from them, i'd rather something more cost effective.

[Tik-Tok]

I've been toying with the idea myself. Quite a few campgrounds we frequent are just on the edge of reception, plus being in a faraday cage doesn't help. I've got the bonus of already having a retractable antenna on our trailer, so I would just mount it on top of that one.

[spike98]

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anybody have any suggestions or reviws for LTE boosters? i have been looking at something like this

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B01...P091AP8K&psc=1

to install in my RV, I was thinking of having it mounted just slightly above the roof for travelling to allow better signal inside the vehicle for emergencies and to keep the kids entertained, but then i would also figure out some way to rig up a pole to lift it like 10+ft above the rv while parked. (i am often unable to escape work, even with a legit excuse like no cell signal)

I have seen the weboost and others that are well reviewed, but i have no desire to spend $1300 on a solution from them, i'd rather something more cost effective.

Get a Wilson booster or don’t waste your money.

[Thaco]

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Get a Wilson booster or don’t waste your money.

a wilson booster is a waste of money... i have no interest in spending that much, i'd rather just drive in to town or whatever when i need better signal than spend $1300 on one

[spike98]

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a wilson booster is a waste of money... i have no interest in spending that much, i'd rather just drive in to town or whatever when i need better signal than spend $1300 on one

Then don’t waste your money. But a Wilson booster is not a waste of money. Hundreds of thousands of hours of use by the folks in O&G says otherwise. The cheap ones that claim to work well, don’t. So if you need to be connected that bad, open your wallet.