Hello from Washington State

[1anjl]

Hi everyone. I'm new here and also pretty new to RVs. My sister and I recently purchased 2 RV trailers and are living in them on her property here in Washington. Sisters trailer is a temporary home -6 mos to 1 year- until her home is built. My trailer on the other hand is being renovated - by me- to be a permanent tiny home. I'm kinda learning as I go. It's a good thing I'm a quick learner! Lol. I plan to buy a used motor home next year to travel in full time and use the trailer as my home base. I will probably flood your forums here with dumb newbie questions so I will apologize in advance lol

~Angel

 

[Rene T]

Welcome to the forum.
There are no dumb questions here. If you don't know the answer, it's not dumb tom ask no matter how small it may seem to you. Remember, we were all in the same position you're in right now.

 

[RVMommaTo6]

Sounds adventurous! Welcome

 

[Lou Schneider]

I have a similar setup to what you're proposing since I retired last summer, a 29 ft. trailer with a huge slideout semi-permantly set up as a home base and a small motorhome for travel.  The difference is my trailer is in the Escapees co-op park in Pahrump, NV and it's not anchored there.  I'm able to tow it with my pickup truck and decided to take it instead of the small motorhome when I spent a couple of months going to and from the Escapees Escapade in Sedalia, MO earlier this year.

Welcome to The RV Forum, and feel free to jump in and ask questions at any time!

 

[1anjl]

Thank you all for the warm welcome! Right now most of my time is spent troubleshooting and learning as much as I can about how things work...or rather why they don?t work in this trailer lol.  I have a domestic fridge that worked great when I first plugged it in. Moved it to the property, plugged it in here and now everything lights up but never gets cool, at all. Yesterday I finally got to the point of renovation that I could attach water from our well. Hooked up the hose and nothing. Water comes out hose when not attached...but nothing goes into trailer. Someone in the past had stuffed the outside water connect with butyl tape so I?m thinking maybe bad inlet. Headed to the store to buy a new one today. If that doesn?t work, I may just do all new plumbing in this darn thing! There is some gerry rigged stuff near the water pump maybe someone here knows why previous owners would have  replaced flex pipe with a  short black hose that disconnects near the pump? I will see if I can get a photo of it uploaded

 

[1anjl]

I tried uploading photos from my phone but it says file too large. I?m not savvy with computer stuff so no idea how to make it smaller on phone and no computer yet out here in the middle of nowhere lol I will try to describe the pump issue/mess. There is a flex pipe that runs the length of trailer. Ends near the pump then has a 90 fitting that goes from plex to water hose. There is a short black water hose 12? that is not connected to anything. There is another pic fitting and 90 with hose fitting that is not connected. That pex goes to a ahut off valve then tees off. One line drains out the bottom (there was no plug in the drain) the other line goes to the pump. Any ideas why someone should have done this modification? And if I?m not filling the water tank...would this be an issue for me? The way I understand it is I won?t need water pump unless I?m using fresh water tank...

 

[rwcamping]

Welcome 1anjl...
here on this site at the top has the tab as Library...lot of info..also how to fix stuff..
Love your and your sister arrangement... keep us post

 

[Lou Schneider]

Hi Angel ...

If the black tube is on the outlet side of the pump, it's probably a bypass someone made to get around the bad inlet to get pressurized water directly into the RV.

The bad inlet on the wall of the trailer tees into the plumbing somewhere on the outlet (pressurized) side of the water pump.  The pump only needs to be on when you want pressurized water from the water tank, when it's off it acts like a check valve to keep the pressurized water from backfeeding into the tank.

On the refrigerator, you'll have to see if the electric heating element is getting hot.  If it isn't, the ammonia-water mix in the boiler won't vaporize and you won't get any cooling.  Does the vertical pipe (the boiler) on the rear of the fridge get warm?  It's above the firebox usually on the right side.  Note it can take several hours for the refrigerator's absorption cooling system to get up to operating temperature and begin cooling the fridge ... it's not like a home refrigerator thst starts cooling down as soon as you turn it on.

 

[1anjl]

Thank you for your response! I think you are correct on the water pump/hose issue. I replaced the valve at the freshwater inlet and still no water. Then I turned the shut off valve at the pump and water started gushing out the hose. I hooked the black hose back up to the 90 that?s there  It leaks horribly but I did get water coming out the bathroom sink. So looks like I will be replacing that hose tomorrow. Will be nice if I can finally shower here even if with cold water lol. I still haven?t tried the water heater so no clue yet if that works.
As to the fridge. It was working when I plugged in at my old house. I moved it here and plugged in. A few days later I went to get water out of fridge and noticed it was hot. I thought maybe it was a fuse but that doesn?t seem to be the case. Also checked all the outlets gfci is not the issue. I did go out and look at back panel....that?s all foreign stuff to me but there is a vertical cylinder on right side that is warm to touch and on the left there is horizontal cylinder that is cool to the touch

 

[1anjl]

I know this probably isn?t the place to post this but wanted to update in case anyone else had the same water problem. I had hooked my hose to city water and no water came into rig. There was also some gerry rigged stuff at the pump that included a washing machine hose. Turns out that the check valve broke on city water inlet and whoever had rig before me added the hose near the water pump (on the other end of the TT). I replaced the city water inlet and replaced the leaking hose section with plex pipe and 2 new elbows. I now have running hot and cold water! It?s a relief to discover the water heater works. Also no leaking pipes so far I will start a thread in the remodel forum as soon as I can figure out how to upload pics in here oh and I turned on propane to fridge and checked for leaks. Now just waiting to see if fridge gets cold in a day or two

 

[rwcamping]

)You go Angel girl !!! You give me courage to believe I can do it !!! I'm still looking for " Matilda" but I know what I want and have no idea what mean to Own and take care of a RV for now .. ohh I mean , I have learned a lot here  so I know a bit ... keep us post on all the you learn/ find out
Thanks

 

[Seilerbird]

)You go Angel girl !!! You give me courage to believe I can do it !!! I'm still looking for " Matilda" but I know what I want and have no idea what mean to Own and take care of a RV for now .. ohh I mean , I have learned a lot here  so I know a bit ... keep us post on all the you learn/ find out
Thanks

The best way to figure out what you want is to rent a few RVs for a weekend each and try them out.

 

[1anjl]

.. keep us post on all the you learn/ find out
Thanks

Haha I think I will be learning and discovering forever or so it seems
Keep searching, your Matilda will scream out at you when you see her. At least that's what my TT did when I found her lol. Others who saw it told me to light a match and run. The inside wasn't THAT bad lol. But I'm one of them hopeless dreamer types. Others see a mess, I see what things `could` be with some time, TLC and elbow grease lol