Hints, Tricks and Gadgets/Tools --- small ones.

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Hi all,  i discovered this handy fire starter gimmick a few years ago..  save your toilet paper tubes,,, shred some newspaper... heat up those blocks of parafin , and pour over  the shredded newspaper..stir quickly before it hardens... stuff into tubes tightly,  and you have a firestarter that will burn for ten minutes ....  we use them in our outside wood burner also... works great. and they dont take up much space.
 
Love the toilet paper tube idea and I would sure try it, but I'm pretty lazy when it comes to starting the campfire.  A propane torch takes just a couple minutes and is still pretty cheap.  I will take the time to start a fire the old fashion way of collecting various sizes of small pieces of wood and using paper for ignition, if friends we're camping with bring their children and they want to learn how to start a fire.

This isn't exactly a tip or trick and I'm not trying to change the direction of the thread, because it's surely a good one.................., but maybe it is a tip.  Not mechanical, but a human nature, good karma kind of tip.

Here's my tip.  When you can, try and create life long memories for children when you go camping.  When we first started tent camping 16 years ago we used to bring our son, niece's, nephew and sometimes one of their childhood friends.  Whenever we talk to them now as grown ups they still remember the fun things we did camping with them.  They're all grown up now and rarely join us camping, but for any friends we camp with that have small children, we take a lot of pleasure in creating memories that they'll remember for a life time.  Last weekend we camped with two other couples and their kids.  I taught the children gun safety with a BB gun pistol and we shot at cans hung from tree branches.  Gun safety was first and foremost and it was the first time any of the children had experienced shooting a pistol.  I'm fortunate to have a very gifted family life and doing things like that make me feel like I'm giving something back.
 
I did think of a nifty trick that has proven quite handy.

For the shower in our motorhome we installed a 3 button, push button soap dispenser purchased at Walmart for about $25 as I remember.  It's got liquid shampoo/conditioner and 2 kinds of body wash.  Wife doesn't want to smell like Old Spice body wash.  No soap scum to deal with at all, unlike using a bar of soap.  Next to it, mounted high are a couple of hooks with those plastic loofa scrubs hanging.  The loofas rinse quicker and easier and dry out better & faster than a washcloth. 
 
Wolf Pack Fan said:
I did think of a nifty trick that has proven quite handy.

For the shower in our motorhome we installed a 3 button, push button soap dispenser purchased at Walmart for about $25 as I remember.  It's got liquid shampoo/conditioner and 2 kinds of body wash.  Wife doesn't want to smell like Old Spice body wash.  No soap scum to deal with at all, unlike using a bar of soap.  Next to it, mounted high are a couple of hooks with those plastic loofa scrubs hanging.  The loofas rinse quicker and easier and dry out better & faster than a washcloth.
Now that's a smart idea.  Thanks for posting this.
 
If you are going to get one of these fixtures, I recommend a 4 tube one and that the individual tubes can each be removed for cleaning etc.  I got mine from Amazon, I think.  We had a 3 tube one where all were one piece and I frequently got introuble with DW about cleaning, refilling etc.

Also the wash puffs that Bed, Bath and Beyond sell are great for the same reason as the loofa scrubs.  I have also got these at Wal_Mart for about a buck rather than the $3+ BBB charges and sometimes they are even branded BBB.
 
We've had this one for several years.  3 tubes, a mirror, and the tubes are individually removable for refilling.
 

Attachments

  • Dispenser.JPG
    Dispenser.JPG
    41.2 KB · Views: 173
Ned said:
We've had this one for several years.  3 tubes, a mirror, and the tubes are individually removable for refilling.
Well heck, Ned.  Why didn't you tell me about it earlier instead of making me wait for Wolf Pack Fan to post it? ;D
 
Ned said:
We've had this one for several years.  3 tubes, a mirror, and the tubes are individually removable for refilling.

Dang Ned!  That's a nice one.  I like the idea of the tubes.  So they're removable?  The mirror is a cool little touch too, though I don't think it would get much use, as I don't shave when camping.  I guess it could come in handy for admiring myself though  ::)
 
I have the shower dispenser that's all one piece and I agree.  The next one will have the individual tubes.  I also have a single one I use for hand soap by the bathroom sink.  I usually mix 1/2 hand soap and 1/2 water so it isn't as thick and we use less.  It's just nice not to have another thing to go flying when we're on the move.  In our last motor home I had one by the kitchen sink also but the one we have now the sink is too far from a wall.

JoAnn
 
Wolf Pack Fan said:
When you can, try and create life long memories for children when you go camping.  When we first started tent camping 16 years ago we used to bring our son, niece's, nephew and sometimes one of their childhood friends.  Whenever we talk to them now as grown ups they still remember the fun things we did camping with them.

Indeed. My mother always kept a notebook in the TT growing up, and she recorded each trip we took, and wrote just a few words about what we did. Not only did it help preserve the memories, it resolved more than one "discussion"!
 
Hi everyone.
  I just found this site yesterday and found some great folks that helped me out with a concern of mine.  I wanted to share a answer that I had learned some time ago.
Over the years, I have found some discussions regarding the problem with their showers.  If/when one closes the flow control on the shower head, when it's opened you'll get cold water onto yourself until things settle down.  Most, if not all plumbing systems built into motorhomes have a simplified system to help one winterize the unit.  It consists with a three way valve and a spring check valve, both at the water heater so one can bypass the heater while winterizing the system. The spring check valve consumes energy. Let's say 1# of water pressure .  So, for example, when your in the shower you have  35 # of cold water pressure to the shower head and 34 # of hot water pressure  to the shower head. When one closes the flow control on the showerhead the water pressure must equalize causing the cold water to flow through the shower valve and into the hot water piping system until all pressure become equal.  When you turn the flow control on at the shower head the hot water supply is now filled with cold water thus cold shower water for a moment.
    There's  a simple fix.  I removed the spring check valve and replaced it with a full flow ball valve.  No more cold water in the shower when I turn the diverter in the shower back on as the pressure is equal.  It causes me to have to manage two valves instead of one when I winterize the unit, but it that really a concern ?  Try it for yourself.  It will work.
 
Richard, I'm not ready to say that I agree with Allyn's observations or conclusions, but is your winterizing bypass arrangement a single valve, or multiple valve, system?  The answer will determine the existence and/or the number of check valves at the heater and may have an impact on which has the higher pressure.

I have the single valve system which requires check valves on both the input and the output of the heater.  My shower will run cold for a few seconds when the diverter is reopened, however I've never considered it a problem that required any sort of correction.
 
Richard, ours does the same thing, sometimes.  With higher water pressure it tends to run hot at first, with low pressure it starts out cold.
 
Just Lou said:
Richard, I'm not ready to say that I agree with Allyn's observations or conclusions, but is your winterizing bypass arrangement a single valve, or multiple valve, system?

Lou,

I have never winterized my rig, so am not sure what type of winterizing setup I have. On a few occasions we have found that the water is cooler than the shower water. Ned mentioned this in a post below. I do not know whether the water pressure was lower or higher than normal or whether we were on the pump vs. city water when this happened. I would guess that 95%+  of the time the water is hot when the flow control is turned back on. I don't consider it a serious problem, as long as I remember to turn the shower head away from me before turning the flow control back on.  :eek:

R
 
Ned said:
Tom, a battery that stays in the green under the 100A or so load is more likely to stay usable than one that goes in the red.  The load tester is for finding bad batteries, not predicting future failures.

But to test "a" battery, one would have to disconnect each battery from the group and test each one individually, correct?  Or can you hook the battery tester up to the group of batteries, and if it shows green they are all good?  Then if you get red, then test them all individually?
 
http://shop.biolitestove.com/BioLite-CampStove_p_15.html

Here we go, a way to prove how green we are.  Clean up campsites, charge our electronics.  PLUS cook dinner.

I may need to buy one.
 
Back to shower diverter, I don't turn it all the way off, leave a dribble, and yemp stays fine.  Mine does the cold blast,
 
PancakeBill said:
Back to shower diverter, I don't turn it all the way off, leave a dribble, and yemp stays fine.  Mine does the cold blast,

I can't shut my diverter off completely. It dribbles a stream about like a wooden match and does a hot blast. Hot vs. cold must be related to how each individual RV is plumbed, the water pressure, the type of winterizing valve setup, and/or perhaps which direction the RV is headed relative to the North Pole. Once you know that a hot or cold blast is likely, just turn the shower head to the side for a few seconds and live with the results.

R
 

Latest posts

Members online

Forum statistics

Threads
131,670
Posts
1,382,734
Members
137,455
Latest member
MtnRV
Back
Top Bottom