Full Hookup at RV Park

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.
See posts with no answers
Z

Ziggyman

Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2009
Posts
13
Today I decided I want to learn a little bit how water and waste works when fully hooked up at a RV park.  I see information in the library relating to electrical, but not water and sewer.

Are the storage tanks (fresh, black and grey water) bypassed when hooked up to "full hookups", or are all these hoses connected directly to its associated tanks regardless?  If this is the case, then the true definition of "full hookup" really means you can perform your general maintance of flushing out and filling the system without having to move the trave trailer.


 
Ziggyman said:
Today I decided I want to learn a little bit how water and waste works when fully hooked up at a RV park.  I see information in the library relating to electrical, but not water and sewer.

Are the storage tanks (fresh, black and grey water) bypassed when hooked up to "full hookups", or are all these hoses connected directly to its associated tanks regardless?  If this is the case, then the true definition of "full hookup" really means you can perform your general maintance of flushing out and filling the system without having to move the trave trailer.
Click to expand...

The hose goes to the tanks for gray and black water and are never bypassed. Some RV's use separate output connections for each, others use the same one. In either case, both outlets will have a shutter (before they come together, if only one output) that you operate by hand, but some more expensive RV's might only have a button to press or whatever.  At a RV park, when connected up to the drain dump station, you can keep the gray tank valve open but keep the black water valve closed and only open it when the tank is well more than half full. That helps get everything out of the black water tank. It's best to close the gray water valve a while (a day or two) before you open the black so you can use the soapy gray water to help clean out the hose after draining the black water tank.

The fresh water in should screw on to a thingie on the outside of the RV. With this connected up, you do NOT need to use your water pump. This does NOT go to the fresh  water tank. You have a separate thingie on the outside of the RV to fill the water tank with. Usually behind a small door that will require a key to open. Expect it to be on the same side of the RV as where you screw on the hose.

White hoses are usually used for drinking water. Other colors for other stuff, such as cleaning things.

-Don- San Francisco, CA​
 
Ziggyman said:
If this is the case, then the true definition of "full hookup" really means you can perform your general maintance of flushing out and filling the system without having to move the trave trailer.
Click to expand...

Full hookup means you have water and drain dump station right at your campsite.  Most likely, you will have a other stuff too. Some RV parks have TV cable, internet and /or telephone right at your campsite. Past the drain and water, what "full hookups" means can vary greatly.

-Don- SF, CA​

 
Very simply, Full Hookups (FHU) is Water, Electricity, Sewer.  You have "city water" connected to your RV.  You have electricity to your RV.  You have access to a sewer pipe.  So yes, you do not have to move your RV to a dump station to empty the tanks.  Don did a good explanation for how to do the tanks while at a full hook-up site.

The other very common type of site is "W/E", or water and electricity only.  And then there's "boondocking".  This is where you are wholly self-sufficient (you supply the water, the electricity, and store the sewer until you can find a dump station). 

Hope this fills in any blanks.
 
Procedure for using Full Hook-Ups...

When connected to "city water", your fresh tank is not used and water flows from the hose direct into the RV's interior water lines. The only exception to this is when filling the tank or if the pump is turned on. The water pump always sucks from the fresh tank, whether city water pressure is available or not, so if you leave the pump on for some reason, remember that the fresh tank will eventually get sucked dry. In general, leave the water pump off when connected to city water, but it may be used if city water pressure is low and you want to boost it a bit.

The gray and black tanks are always used, i.e. the waste from the RV goes into the tanks first. ALWAYS leave the black tank dump valve CLOSED until it is at least half (preferable more) full, then dump just as you would at the dump station.  This prevents the solids and paper from building up in the bottom of the black tank, something that can occur fairly quickly if you do not follow this procedure.  You can leave the gray valve open if you wish and let the gray water flow right through the tank and into the sewer hook-up. However, there will be a gradual accumulation of food wastes and slime, so be sure to occasionally close the gray dump valve and let the tank fill enough to "whoosh" it out when the valve is opened again. Half full or more is good.
 
Thanks everyone for the valuable information.  I am sure most RVers will find some of the questions I will be asking to be overly obvious because its second nature.  But when you are that new to the trade, I think its always important to learn the basics and not just assume.  So, I am hoping people don't mind me asking a few basic questions alone the way.
 
One more suggestion;  Create a p-trap in your sewer hose by placing a rock or something under it.  This will allow water to collect in the P-trap and thus prevent insects from coming out of the sewer and into your hose, and even your Gay tank - if you leave it open.
 
Some RVs do not have a separate freshwater tank fill.  If you cannot locate one on your rig, then you should have a valve inside that lets the tank fill from the fresh water connection.  The only difference is instead of moving the hose to the fresh water fill, you turn on the valve to fill the freshwater tank.

Everything else remains the same - you only use water from the tank when you are away from a freshwater connection and turn on the pump.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Members online

Total: 545 (members: 9, guests: 536)

Forum statistics

Threads
131,954
Posts
1,388,153
Members
137,708
Latest member
7mark7
Back
Top Bottom