By Chris Dougherty
Chris Dougherty is a certified RV technician. Here is a letter he received from a reader while he was serving as RVtravel.com’s technical editor.
Dear Chris,
I have been RVing since 1974 and one thing really bugs me with every RV we’ve owned. When we are parked for weeks at a a time and running roof air conditioning the water runs off the roof and down the side. It leaves stains on the roof and marks down the side. Is there any way to tap this drainage and have it run out a hose or something. I can’t believe manufacturers haven’t thought of this problem. —Thanks, Bob
Dear Bob,
That’s a great question, and a frustration to me as well.
There is a fix for higher-end RVs, but they’re built with it installed from the factory. They install flexible hose from the air conditioners down through the coach to discharge on the ground. There are small plastic cups that screw to the bottom of the A/C, usually two, that catch the condensate from the base pan and divert it to the hoses. I actually end up fixing these somewhat often, us they get plugged up with goo, or the cups crack.
While you can’t run the hose in the walls of your coach, you could do the same system but with the hose on the roof instead. You’d have to be creative on this one, and modify the kit a bit. Having your gutters clean, if you have gutters, and having gutter spouts on the end will help to divert the water away as well.
##RVT760
I also had this problem with gen set. Turned out it was not putting out power. A good cleaning of commutator with com stick and reseating of brushes did the trick. Hope its only a fuel problem. I was surprised that tecs did not find this on my unit .