Our first trip

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BaylissMason

Member
Joined
Jul 11, 2017
Posts
8
Location
Midlothian, VA
First and foremost thank you to everyone that answered our newbie questions, without your guidance our first trip probably would not have gone well. With that being said, our first trip a few weeks ago went surprisingly well! Set up was easy. Our site was very level so we didn't need any additional levelers. Our 17 year old was with us so setting up the TV was his job (our TT has a HD antenna that worked great). The fridge took much longer to cool than we anticipated, but at least now we know. AC cooled the TT down quickly. I used the stove several times, but still haven't fired up the oven. Maybe next time.

Now on to things we learned...the gray tank fills up a lot quicker than expected. I checked it several times a day LOL. Our trip was 5 days and I dumped it down to 1/3 full twice before the last day. The black tank took the entire trip to get to 2/3 full. More on that to come. On our 3rd morning the hubs came outside and asked me why the light in the fridge wasn't working. I assumed it was just burnt out. Big mistake...huge! When I went to get something out of the freezer to defrost for the next morning I noticed it was already defrosted! Somehow the fridge got turned off (we were running on electric not propane). I noticed the green light on the outside was off so I turned it back on and it started cooling again. Luckily nothing was ruined.

Another thing we noticed over the course of the trip was that the trailer got shakier over time. We were on a gravel pad and didn't have blocks under the stabilizers. Lesson learned, we now have 2x6 blocks to put under them.

Now on to the black tank. We didn't have one of those stinky slinky holder things to help with gravity. We are getting one before our trip this weekend. I did go ahead and buy the clear adapter that has the clean water hose valve so that we could clean out the tank better (yes, we also bought a separate hose for this). That thing worked great and I would highly recommend.

All in all we had a great time and love our new TT. Next year we will be doing a seasonal site because we want to use it all the time! The size was perfect for the 3 of us and we definitely made the right choice.

Happy camping!
 
Congratulations on your first trip. You didn't mention where you went to.

"I did go ahead and buy the clear adapter that has the clean water hose valve so that we could clean out the tank better."

Those clean outs don't work unless the pipe sticking out of the black tank is perfectly straight. If there is a 90 degree bend the water won't go around the bend. And even if it is a straight shot it is not going to work very well because you are trying to get water to do in two directions in the same pipe at the same time. I recommend installing something like this on your tank permanently. It is easy to install.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BUQOCM/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1
 
We completely emptied it first, then started the clean out. After about 4 go arounds with the clean water we felt good that it was fairly clean. The water was running back out clear. Luckily our pipe is straight so it worked for our set up.

Thanks for the recommendation, will definitely check it out.
 
Re: your fridge taking a while to cool down. We keep a number of plastic bottles filled with water frozen in our chest freezer at home. When we get ready to load up for a trip, I put several of them in the fridge as soon as I turn it on. That seems to really help get it cool quickly as it isn't trying to just cool down an empty space. Then we just replace the bottles with our groceries and we're good to go.
 
Glad your first trip went so well.  There's definitely a learning curve involved but we've all been there.

Regarding the refrigerator, we start it two or three days ahead of time.  After it's had a chance to start cooling I start adding some cold things like drinks from our house refrigerator.  I try to get it filled, except for last minute items like milk, by the last night so it has a good chance to cool overnight after opening and closing while filling.  We tend to leave it on Automatic mode so it switches back and forth between gas and electric.  If yours had been on automatic and you were plugged in it would have gone to electric automatically when the propane got turned off.  The exception to Automatic is when we're boondocking and want it to stay on propane.

I bought my husband one of those "stinky slinky holder things" and he ditched it after one use - said it was useless.  I have heard, though, that some RV resorts that have nice grass require them so the hose doesn't kill the grass but we've never been in a place that was so picky.  Other people swear by them so discount my comment if you like having one!

ArdraF
 
When you start your oven....if it has a regular pilot light be prepared to spend a good 10 minutes on the floor holding the "light Pilot" button depressed until gas gets to the orifice.

We start our refrigerator 24 hours before we leave. We also chill everything in our house refrigerator before we put it in the RV refrigerator.

I keep a thermometer in the refrigerator with a display of the temperature on the side of the refrigerator.


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As far as Gray water goes...I use a bowl in the side of the sink that I rinse dishes and when I'm done I put this water into our "fire putter outer bucket".  That way I keep some water out of the gray tank.  We almost exclusively boondock, so that kind of conservation has become necessary.  Good luck on your next adventure!
 
Glad everything worked out for you.

We are on our first trip also. So far, it has lasted six years.
 
kportra said:
As far as Gray water goes...I use a bowl in the side of the sink that I rinse dishes and when I'm done I put this water into our "fire putter outer bucket".  That way I keep some water out of the gray tank.  We almost exclusively boondock, so that kind of conservation has become necessary.  Good luck on your next adventure!

We save the water from dish washing to help with flushing in the toilet when more volume is desired. This helps us save water, reduce water going into the gray tank and due to our tank sizes, this tends to help fill the blank tank closer to the desired level (2/3) before It is emptied.
 

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