By Russ and Tiña De Maris

Step into most any RV and you’ll find a panel with a set of gauges. Press the button, and you’ll quickly have a handle on how much fresh water there is in your tank, and how much black and gray water you’re carrying. Chances are equally great that you won’t find much to tell you how much propane you have in your cylinders.

If you’re a motorhomer, this isn’t too great a problem. Most motorhome LP tanks have a dial gauge showing the level of propane in the tank. Yes, you’ll have to step outside the coach to check it out, but it works. The same isn’t true for “towables” and truck campers, rigs that come with portable “DOT” cylinders. A few (and we say, “very few”) RV manufacturers include a gauge on the panel monitor that shows LP levels, but it’s rare.

So what’s to do? Is there a way to know how much LP you’re carrying? There are a few methods. A couple of after-market “level indicators” are out there. One is a simple flat plastic rectangle that magnetically sticks to the bottom of your LP tank. A color chart on the indicator changes colors as the LP level drops, warning you when you’re getting close to the ‘bottom of the barrel.’

Another is an add-on dial gauge that inserts between the LP cylinder and the RV’s gas pigtail. A pointer needle gives an approximate indication of how much LP remains. Both of these approaches have their problems: If your LP cylinders are under a cover, you’ll have to pull the cover off to check out the gauges. One couple found–after buying a new set of gauges–that while they worked fine, they wouldn’t fit under the cover. If they wanted to know how much LP remained, they had to remove the cover, install the gauges, do the reading, then remove the gauges to put the cover back on.

Costs? The simple plastic “stick on” gauge is less than $4 each; the in-line gauge sells in the $20 range. Both are available at Camping World and similar outlets.

For a completely accurate account of how much LP is in your tank, you must weigh your LP cylinder, subtract the “tare weight” of the cylinder (stamped on the cylinder by the letters “T.W.”) and then multiply the result (the actual weight of the propane) by 4.2 pounds to know how many gallons of LP you have. OK, that 4.2 pounds is at 60 degrees Fahrenheit.

We found a great scale of this job. Called the Balanzza, powered by two AAA batteries, is a small palm-of-the-hand scale that does a great job with LP tanks (and fish!). The Balanzza retails for $24.95, and can be purchased online at balanzza.com or locally in many Target stores. The device weighs up to 100 pounds or 44 kilos.

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By Russ and Tiña De Maris

Not every RVer uses their rig throughout the year. Some do a winter lay-up and wonder: Just how will my batteries cope with cold weather? Taking care of RV batteries will add to longevity–ignore them and you may wind up replacing come spring.

First, let’s confirm that your rig will be stored somewhere in the lower 48. Alaska (so we’re told) gets frigidly cold in places; if you have an RV in Alaska, your best bet is to bring it (and yourself) south of the 54th.

For the rest of us who stay out of Seward’s Icebox, cold care for RV batteries is fairly easy. First rule: Never store your rig with batteries at anything less than a 100% charge. A fully charged battery won’t freeze, but less-than-full batteries can (and sometimes do). A battery frozen is a battery that expands and can break the casing, ruining the battery and spilling acid causing still more trouble. So hang your charger on your battery and fill ‘er up.

What causes batteries to lose their charge? Two things: A load on the battery, even small, “parasitic” loads like those placed on them by say, an LP gas detector or engine “computer” will with enough time, deplete the battery charge. The second cause of discharge is “self discharge,” meaning that batteries, left to themselves, with time will simply discharge on their own.

Battery loads can be eliminated simply by disconnecting the batteries from their circuit. For “house” batteries that care for non-engine systems, disconnecting the load means loosening and removing the negative cable from the house battery bank. Of course, safety detectors in the coach will no longer work to warn your of any sort of disaster. Disconnecting the SLI (“starting, lighting, ignition”) battery will cause any “trouble codes” stored in your rig’s engine computer to vanish from memory. You may want to have a technician hook up a code reader to verify you have no stored codes–some auto parts stores will do this for free.

Even with batteries disconnected there’s still the issue of self-discharge. Rule to thumb says, the colder the battery, the slower the rate of self-discharge. This means you might be able to come out and hook up your battery charger every few weeks to bring your stored batteries “up to snuff.”

We’re much bigger fans of just leaving the batteries hooked up to their related circuits and hooking a “smart” charger to them. A smart charger analyzes the battery’s needs and charges them accordingly. Once at full charge, a smart charger applies a “float” charge that keeps the battery at the fully charged level, but doesn’t allow for a damaging overcharge.

We have “seasonal use” car that we store away from shore power. When not in use, we have a regulated solar panel hooked up to the battery that keeps the battery topped off. Regulated, because any old solar panel hooked directly to a battery doesn’t have the sense to stop charging when “full” is reached, and the result of overcharging can be fatal to the battery.

The same principle applies to RVs equipped with solar panels. If the rig is stored outside where the panels can find the sun, and the system has a regulator, your “house” battery issues are solved. Getting “juice” to the SLI battery in your motorhome is possible too, but it will require a bit more wiring and equipment to tie it to the solar array.

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By Russ and Tiña De Maris

In the hill country out west it’s not uncommon to find 18-wheelers the hard climb with ‘warning flashers a’blazin. To most RV folks it just makes sense. After all, crawling up a steep grade and traveling far less than “freeway speed,” giving a bit of a warning to the folks coming up from behind is no more than sensible. What about RVers?

What about RVers? Towing a big trailer or hauling up the hills in the old motorhome, at times our speed can drop below the “norm.” Most of us are courteous enough (and smart enough) to pull over into the right lane. But do we turn on the hazard flashers to give a little additional warning to those behind us?

What about in fog? The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that in daytime fog conditions just running tail lights isn’t enough to give folks behind a good warning–in fact, turning on tail lights gives no more visibility than if they were turned off. However, the NTSB found that even the lowest rated hazard flashers could increase visibility. For example, if you’re driving fog where your rig could be seen 300′ to the rear, by turning on your hazard flashers you could be seen 450′–this with the least of the light emitting hazard flashers. It seems to make sense that using hazard flashers when moving slow or when obscured by weather.

Evidently not all states agree. In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts it’s illegal to use hazard flashers except when a vehicle stopped or disabled beside the highway. I’m not one to foment rebellion, and I’m not sure which states allow the use of hazard flashers on moving vehicles and which don’t. But I do know I’d rather “tell it to the judge,” with my rig in one piece than to keep my hazard flashers off to not offend local statute and wind up with an 18-wheeler in my rear living room.

But there is a technicality: Many rigs use the same lights for hazard flashing as they do for stop signals. When that happens turning on the hazard flashers can lead to “pulsing brakes” on trailers. That’s because the brake controller “sees” the flashing stop signal circuit as a requirement to fire the trailer brakes. It can be a bit annoying, particularly if you have to “tune up” the brake controller intensity for your rig–kind of like your four-year-old grandchild when he first learns how much fun it is to shove gramp’s rocker back and forth: A real neck-breaker.

Here’s the “work around.” For less than $20 you can buy a “pulse controller” from your RV supply store. Installed according to directions, the pulse controller will isolate your brake controller from your hazard light circuit putting an end to those pulsing brakes.

photo: R&T De Maris

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By Russ and Tiña De Maris

When winter heads toward your parked RV, it’s surely susceptible to the ravages of Old Man Winter. An area that can hurt you the most: Water. RVs are full of water, both in fresh water systems and in the back end, too. If you don’t get the water out, expansion can break pipes and create misery.

Get The Water Out: First, shut down the gas and electricity to the water heater. BE SURE THE TANK IS GOOD AND COLD BEFORE YOU START THE NEXT PROCESS: Open the drain cock (or remove the plug if no drain cock is available). To make the drain quicker, open the pressure relief valve to break the vacuum. After the tank has drained out, close the drain cock and safety valve.

While the water heater is draining, locate and open the fresh water tank drain valve. It too, should be drained completely, then the valve closed. By now you’ll have also disconnected your fresh water hose, drained it, and stored it away.

Antifreeze Method: Next, you can either inundate the entire water system with RV antifreeze, or blast water out of the lines with air. The latter is less expensive and effective. To use antifreeze, pick up “the pink stuff” at your RV part store–NEVER use automotive antifreeze which is toxic.

Set your water heater bypass valve to “bypass,” else you’ll need a whole lot more antifreeze to unnecessarily fill the heater–calling for six gallons or more. Now you can either dump a couple of gallons of antifreeze in the fresh water tank, or you can buy and install a special plumbing connection that allows you pump antifreeze directly out of the jug–ask your parts guy, he’ll be happy to sell you one.

With antifreeze at the ready, turn on the RV water pump. Move through the RV and open each water fixture and run it until the pink stuff flows out. Don’t forget the shower, toilet, and the outside shower. Start at the fixture closest to the pump and work out. If you’ve got a washing machine, following the manufacturer’s instructions for winterizing it, too. Once you’ve got all the lines thoroughly “pinked up,” shut off the pump.

The method we prefer skips the antifreeze and doesn’t require a water heater bypass. Instead you equip your “city water” inlet with a blow-out plug that allows you to pump pressurized air into the water lines and blast the water out. Blow-out plugs are another RV part store item.
If you can set your air compressor pressure, set it for 40 pounds to keep from blasting your plumbing lines. If not, it’s best to have a helper available to disconnect the air line between fixture visits. The idea is opening each fixture and pressurizing the line until all water is driven out of the line.

And don’t forget to dump both your gray and black water tanks. Some RVers find this an advantageous time to use a tank cleaning wand to clean out any of the more disagreeable memories of summer from the black water tank. Be sure to dump a few ounces of RV antifreeze down each of the drain traps, and leave a bit spilled in the toilet as well.

photo: R & T De Maris

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