First Motorhome Questions

[kam80500]

Just bought our first motorhome. 1995 Georgie Boy Pursuit. Prior we had a Damon Popup with slide out, nice but too much work to enjoy short trips. Really new to this and know little other than common sense. The hydraulic levelers have a position called air release. can anyone tell me what/when this is for? I am told to keep water freshener in the freshwater tank and chemicals to the gray and black water. Any special instructions? Any other tips would be greata s I am reading through forums looking for anything useful too. Thanks!

[sonny2445]

:cool: :cool: Hello....I use to be an owner of a 1996 GeorgieBoy Pursuit, but I didn't have any levers, so I can't answer that question about your levers. However as to your fresh water tank, there are things you can by to ad to the water, I only use my fresh water tank for flushing the toilet, so I don't carry to much fresh water, cause of the extra weight. As for your gray water tank, don,t need any chems there, but in your black water tank, you need to ad one cup of blue chem to your toilet then put two gallon of water in to keep things loose. I hope this helped........Sonny from De.....owner now of a 1997 36ft Bounder class A motorhome.

[clayl]

If you have a diesel pusher I think there is an air release to dump air from the suspension airbags.

As far as chemicals go you really don't need any. You do need to use a lot of water when you flush the toilet and don't dump the black water tank until it's at least 2/3 full. Flushing the tank after you dump - if you have a flusher - is a real good idea.

Of course you leave the black tank valve closed when you are connected to the sewer so solids don't build up underneath the toilet. You can either leave the grey valve closed or close it a couple of days before you are ready to dump the black. Dump the black first and then the grey so the hose will be somewhat rinsed out by the grey water. I leave the grey open because I have to dump it about every three days but can go for two weeks before needing the dump the black, but some people are afraid of sewer flies getting into the coach from the drain and keep it closed. That very well may be a valid concer. Do a Google on them and you will get a lot of info.

The grey water often smells worse than the black, but unless odor from the roof vents is getting into the motor home there should't be any odor in the coach in any case. The system is sealed and unless something is wrong there will be no odor. You do need to make sure there is water in the traps. It can dry out while a coach is in storage.

There are some vacuum relief devices on the sink and lavatory drain pipes that prevent any low pressure formed when dumping from sucking water out of the traps. They have a flapper that can allow odor out if it doesn't seal properly. They are screw-on devices and usually can be removed and replaced for under $10.

When we get ready to travel I usually put a cap full of liquid Tide in the waste tanks along with a few gallons of water so the sloshing around can help clean the walls of the tanks. Clean tank walls will help keep your tank sensors working.
Contrary to what a lot of people think, dirty sensors do not cause the level sensing panel LEDs to read full. If the sensors are dirty that will shield them from the liquid and they will read empty when there is liquid in the tanks.
Gunk build up on the walls will hold enough water to fake the sensors out and they will read full when the tanks are empty.
This can even happen with the newer non-contact sensor systems like the one I have.

[jdbruhn]

Another thing you can do to keep black water tank from building up solids is to empty an 8 lb. bag of ice into it just before driving. The ice will slosh and remove tank side buildup.

JD