RV Roof Care

At least once a year you should inspect the roof of your RV. Climb on top of the unit and do an inspection. Look for dried, cracked or missing sealant around vents and joints. Look for tears or rips or other damage. Finally, take a broom and sweep off any built up dirt.

Bad Smell

Do you get a REALLY bad sewer smell after the RV sits for a time? It may be possible that the toilet valve doesn´t seal completely letting sewer gasses escape the tank. To test for this problem, fill the bowl with water and let it sit. If the water drains out the valve is not sealing completely. One way to solve this problem is to put a light coating of waterproof grease or Vaseline on the seal.

Toilet Paper for Waste Tanks

Your RV dealer will be glad to sell you RV/Marine type toilet paper ´specially´ made for your waste tanks. Usually this is more expensive than regular toilet paper and may not be needed. To check if your TP is OK to use in your RV, put one square of it in a glass of water. It should begin to dissolve quickly. If it does it is OK. Look for toilet paper in the store that says it is OK for all septic systems. Usually the cheapy TP is the best.

Basic Tools

What basic tools should you bring in your RV?
Complete socket set - get 6 point if possible.
Combination Wrenches
Get these in Standard as most RVs will be, but do be prepared for Metric
Slot and Phillips screw drivers
Adjustable (Crescent) Wrench
Water pump pliers (also know as slip-joint)
BFH (Big Friggen´ Hammer)
Lug Wrench (you´d be suprised!)
Duct Tape
Silicone Sealer
Flash Light
Flares/Safety Reflectors

Cleaning It Out

If your black tank has solid deposits in the bottom, it diminshes the total capacity of the tank (and smells even worse than usual!) Before going to the RV specialist to have the tank removed and cleaned, try this:
Dump a 5 lb bag of CRUSHED ice down the toilet. Add a little bit of water and go for a drive. The ice will act as an abrasive and may save you a costly tank removal!

Water Cleaning System

To clean out the fresh water system follow these steps:
1. Fill the water tanks 1/2 full.
2. Add a solution of 1/4 cup bleach and 1 gallon water for every 15 gallons tank capacity
3. Open all the faucets until the all air has been removed from the system and the solution has filled the water system.
4. Let the unit sit for 3-5 hours.
5. Drain the water system and refill with fresh water.
6. Run the fresh water through all faucets and drain the system again.

Leave the system empty and drain to prevent the build-up of microorganisms. This will also prevent pipes bursting if the weather freezes.

Fixing a Gas Tank Leak

One of the most dangerous things that can happen while you are traveling is to have your gas tank spring a leak. Sometimes this can happen if road debris hit the tank or, more often, the RV gets bottomed out and a small hole is scraped into the tank. Not only do you have a mess on your hands, but you also have a flammable liquid dripping from your RV.
One quick way to fix such a minor leak is to take a bar of hand soap and rub it over the hole. The soap will react with the gasoline and form a kind of cement. Of course this is a temporary fix, but it should help you get to a service station.

Keeping Hoses Clean

To keep your fresh water hose clean you can do the following:
First shut off the fresh water. Next loosen the hose at the fresh water spigot. Now remove the hose from the RV and coil it up, being careful not to let the end hit the ground. As you coil it, keep the hose above the fresh water spigot end and any water remaining should drain out. This will leave the hose mostly free of water. Finally, screw both ends of the hose together to keep debris from entering you drinking water.

Battery Charging

If you will be Boondocking for an extended time and are worried about needing to recharge your batteries, invest in an automotive battery charger. Trying to recharge your battery from the generator or RV motor is slow and possibly harmful to your batteries. The generator (if it is wired to charge the battery) is very slow. They usually do not have any means to stop charging one the battery is full and can boil a battery dry rendering it useless. Using the RV motor is not very efficient. The best way is to run the generator and plug your battery charger into an RV electrical outlet. The charger is designed to bring a battery up to full charge and then trickle charge to top off the battery but not boil it dry.

Fuel Problems

If you don´t run your generator often enough the fuel in the carburetor will go bad. Symptoms of this include rough running or a no start condition. The remedy is to empty out all the old fuel and clean the carburator out. Be vey careful working around fuel.

Don´t Play with the Throttle

Do not move the generator throttle linkage by hand. The generator RPM controlls the AC output. If you have appliances plugged (like the microwave and TV - even if the TV is off) you can overload them and severely damage them.

Prevent Freezing

To prevent damage to your RV water system from freezing weather, completely drain the system. You can do this by turning off the water pump and opening ALL the water faucets, hot and cold. Next, open the low point drain valves. Leave the faucets and valves open to allow all the water to drain.

Sanitizing

Buy a container of waterless hand sanitizer and store it with your tank dumping supplies. After you are done dumping, use the sanitizer before getting back in your rig. This will prevent germs from being transferred to door handles and sink faucets while you clean up.

Disconnect Your Battery

If you will not be using your RV for any length of time, disconnect the battery. Your RV has many systems that draw a small amount of current all the time. Things like your propane leak detector, tank monitors or digital clocks will draw enough current to drain you house batteries if you are not pluged in.

Pre-tow Checklist

Before moving out with your Toad attached, check the following:
Brake and turn lights
Safety chains
Hitch attachment (at the Toad and at the RV)
Brake safety cable (if equipped)
Toad tire pressure
Toad transmission/transfer case settings

Wear Gloves

Next time you are at the store, buy a pair of rubber gloves. Get the kind that cover half of the forearm. Stash these with the rest of your tank draining equipment and use them every time you dump the tanks. When you are all done, give them a good rinse and put them back.

Water Heater Care

If your water heater starts ´leaking´ from the pressure relief valve you try two things to stop it. A. Very carefully lift the manual lever on the valve and let it sit back. This may reseat the gasket (USE CAUTION - THE WATER IS HOT!!).
B. You may also need to restore the air gap in the water heater.
To do this the unit MUST be off and cool.
1. Turn off the water pump or city water supply and open hot faucet in the RV.
2. Next open the drain on the water heater and let all the water drain out.
3. Close the faucet and with the pressure relief valve OPEN, turn on the water pump. Let the water heater fill until water just starts coming out of the valve. 4. Close the valve and restart the water heater.

Water Heater Care #2

Don´t start the water heater unless it is filled with water. The water heater is designed to heat water and can be damaged if run dry.

Transmission Cooler Line Leaks

Occasionally the coolant lines on your automatic transmission will leak. This is usually caused by the metal lines coming loose and rubbing against something. To fix a leak on these lines you can quickly and easily cut the line to remove the damaged area and splice the pieces together with rubber tubing (you do carry it in your emergency supplies, right?) and hose clamps.