Looking for an owner's manual

[Alicia and Mike]

Hello! We just purchased a 1986 Cascade truck camper from a local auction. We are new to truck camping in general, and were hoping to find an owner's manual from even a remotely similar model to ours, and have had no luck online. Figured this would be a great place to ask! Thanks, and we are so excited!

 

[HueyPilotVN]

Welcome to the Forum.

You just found your owners manual.

I am sure that someone here has an answer for any question about your camper.

 

[CharlesinGA]

Most RV manufacturers don't bother with anything more than a couple of sheets of paper telling you how to winterize it and a few other simple things.

As far as appliances go, manuals for stoves, ovens, water heaters, furnaces, and other items are readily available on the internet. Almost all PDF format and easily downloaded.

But first, you need to go thru the camper and locate the ID tags for every individual piece of equipment to determine the brand and exact model of it. With a stove, you will need to remove the top (usually pushing hard to the rear and lifting the front), with a fridge, it is usually inside on a sticker, sometimes on the back side accessible thru the outside vents, and with water heaters, it is on the outside on a sticker, just open the door. Take pictures of everything, start a separate album on your phone for the camper.

The site below is a very good source of manuals for many RV related pieces of equipment.
Service Manuals
Owners Manuals

There are many other sites, you might post your final list, we might find it faster than you, and provide links.

As someone noted, just ask if you need to know something.

There is a Cascade model made by Host Industries, I am not sure if the Cascade you bought was possibly built by a predecessor to Host or not.

There are two Truck Camper specific forums that may be helpful. They are more oriented toward hard core offroading and overlanding, but cover a bit of everything.

Truck Camper Adventure

Truck Camper Magazine | 2022 Truck Campers, News, and Reviews

With the economic hard times that we have been thru in the past, especially in 2008, there have been major upheavals in the RV industry and companies have come and gone, merged, bought out and disappeared, you name it, and the RV appliance and accessory business is no exception, filtering down to two major companies acquiring all of the small manufacturers of the past.

Charles

 

[HueyPilotVN]

See I told you. Charles gave you a much better answer than I did.

Most every question you might have has probably been asked here.

 

[Alicia and Mike]

Most RV manufacturers don't bother with anything more than a couple of sheets of paper telling you how to winterize it and a few other simple things.

As far as appliances go, manuals for stoves, ovens, water heaters, furnaces, and other items are readily available on the internet. Almost all PDF format and easily downloaded.

But first, you need to go thru the camper and locate the ID tags for every individual piece of equipment to determine the brand and exact model of it. With a stove, you will need to remove the top (usually pushing hard to the rear and lifting the front), with a fridge, it is usually inside on a sticker, sometimes on the back side accessible thru the outside vents, and with water heaters, it is on the outside on a sticker, just open the door. Take pictures of everything, start a separate album on your phone for the camper.

The site below is a very good source of manuals for many RV related pieces of equipment.
Service Manuals
Owners Manuals

There are many other sites, you might post your final list, we might find it faster than you, and provide links.

As someone noted, just ask if you need to know something.

There is a Cascade model made by Host Industries, I am not sure if the Cascade you bought was possibly built by a predecessor to Host or not.

There are two Truck Camper specific forums that may be helpful. They are more oriented toward hard core offroading and overlanding, but cover a bit of everything.

Truck Camper Adventure

Truck Camper Magazine | 2022 Truck Campers, News, and Reviews

With the economic hard times that we have been thru in the past, especially in 2008, there have been major upheavals in the RV industry and companies have come and gone, merged, bought out and disappeared, you name it, and the RV appliance and accessory business is no exception, filtering down to two major companies acquiring all of the small manufacturers of the past.

Charles

So we hooked it up to an extension cord and turned on the propane; the lights inside work the heater fires on, and the stovetop works also. Where I am confused is that we are not sure how it hooks up to the truck. There is a 4 prong coming off the front of the camper (that I am assuming powers the outside lights on the camper) and there is a regular 3 prong outlet on the side of the camper but we cannot find a battery inside of the camper. Were these older campers only powered by an extension cord to regular power? The 4 prong cannot use the truck power to do all the electrical inside the camper and then would use the truck battery when the truck isn't running. I guess in a perfect world we would have the truck charge a battery when we are driving and have that battery power the camper when we are away from power. Any recommendation on how to make that happen or advice on what we should do? We do plan doing mostly backcountry skiing and there will likely be no hook ups. On a separate note, can you tell us how to sanitize and flush the water system? Thank you for all of your help everyone.

 

[Rene T]

As far a sanitizing. You need to figure out roughly how many gallons of water your fresh water tank is. Then add 1/4 cup of bleach for every 15 gallons of water. Then using your onboard water pump, pump this solution through every faucet in rv including the toilet and the water heater. Then I would add another 1/4 cup of bleach and top off the tank with fresh water. Let it set for 3 or 4 hours then drain everything. Then fill the tank with fresh water and run the pump to flush out the solution. You probably won’t get all the bleach smell out but it will disappear in a few days.

 

[Alicia and Mike]

As far a sanitizing. You need to figure out roughly how many gallons of water your fresh water tank is. Then add 1/4 cup of bleach for every 15 gallons of water. Then using your onboard water pump, pump this solution through every faucet in rv including the toilet and the water heater. Then I would add another 1/4 cup of bleach and top off the tank with fresh water. Let it set for 3 or 4 hours then drain everything. Then fill the tank with fresh water and run the pump to flush out the solution. You probably won’t get all the bleach smell out but it will disappear in a few days.

Thank you so much! We really appreciate it!

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Where I am confused is that we are not sure how it hooks up to the truck. There is a 4 prong coming off the front of the camper (that I am assuming powers the outside lights on the camper) and there is a regular 3 prong outlet on the side of the camper but we cannot find a battery inside of the camper. Were these older campers only powered by an extension cord to regular power? The 4 prong cannot use the truck power to do all the electrical inside the camper and then would use the truck battery when the truck isn't running. I guess in a perfect world we would have the truck charge a battery when we are driving and have that battery power the camper when we are away from power. Any recommendation on how to make that happen or advice on what we should do?

My experience with truck campers is limited, but typically it would have a 7-pin connector just like a travel trailer would use, and that would plug into the truck's towing power outlet. That would provide 12v power to charge the camper battery while the engine is running, and there would be either an auto or manual isolator/shut-off so that the camper only used its own battery when the engine is off. That of course means there would be a battery somewhere, usually in a small (group 24 battery size) compartment with a door on the outside of the trailer. I've not seen one without a battery compartment, but anything is possible.

 

[Alicia and Mike]

These seem to be the only three electrical components that we can find. I'm going to check out the wires tonight and see if the wiring is behind the power centre for the battery because there is a space behind the drawers, but I didn't see a battery. Is there a chance that there is not a 7-pin connector?

 

[CharlesinGA]

Well, your power centre has a power converter on/off switch and fuses plus a volt meter for 12v DC. How about give us some pics from both sides and some of the interior. There is a battery in there somewhere (or a place for one).

I see your 4 pin boat trailer light connector hanging down in the middle pic, is that all you have for exterior lights/taillights?

The bleach for sanitizing does not need to be exact. DO NOT use the "no splash" bleach, it will foam up the system! Don't ask me how I know. I buy a gal jug of Home Depot 8% sanitizing bleach.

Charles

 

[John From Detroit]

RV owner's manuals. Cover the floor. Ceiling. Walls (inside and out) and sometimes the roof. Sometimes not.. You know how to care for all those already Same as your car and house.. Roof is a Kitchen Floor for cleaning purposes (Spic and span. I used a long handled "Van wash" brush instead of a mop and rinsed with a garden hose and sprayer).
Everything else. Battery controls. The Door. Fridge. Water heater. A/C. Power converter.. all this stuff is 3-rd party supplied and you can find the ID plate
(IT shows the make and model) google

Make model Manual

And you will very likely get lucky.
One alt.. Dometic Microwaves ... Mine I had to change "Dometic" to "LG" Not sure if they are all that way or if Dometic relabels multiple makers.
Google did that for me (Explains why the OEM microwave did not work till I did some work in it. .Thankfully I'm qualified to do that kind of work.. one bit of machining and change an LG part for a GE part (Superior) and it worked fine)

 

[Alicia and Mike]

Well, your power centre has a power converter on/off switch and fuses plus a volt meter for 12v DC. How about give us some pics from both sides and some of the interior. There is a battery in there somewhere (or a place for one).

I see your 4 pin boat trailer light connector hanging down in the middle pic, is that all you have for exterior lights/taillights?

The bleach for sanitizing does not need to be exact. DO NOT use the "no splash" bleach, it will foam up the system! Don't ask me how I know. I buy a gal jug of Home Depot 8% sanitizing bleach.

Charles

Thanks for responding. I'll take pictures of everything today and put them on here. There is a regular 3 prong outlet on the outside which I'm assuming is for shore power but the only other power is that 4 prong. I hooked up a 7 prong to four prong adapter on my truck and plugged it in to the camper 4 prong and I get power for everything inside feeding off of the truck battery. I haven't been able to get the exterior lights to work but I'm assuming they just need new bulbs since everything else works. I feel like I looked everywhere inside and cannot find a battery or any wires that are loose to connect to one. If I trace the wires directly from the back of the Power Centre, they directly go to that 4 prong and then elsewhere to the water pump and refrigerator.

 

[John From Detroit]

I think I know that power center.
The switch is not an On/Off it's a "Battery/Converter" switch the "Converter" delivers unfiltered rectified DC to power lights and such...

When I said it "MIGHT" need an upgrade.. 100% sure it does.
(Believe it or not Progressive Dynamics made one like this in the 70s.. near exact duplicate.. I added some electronics so it worked as a slow-charger in addition to as it was designed but ... Well that was in the 80s... But I Do recall the design save for one thing I'm not sure of.
Above I said "Rectified AC I am not sure they rectified it it might send pure ac in "Converter" mode.