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rv basics : open range users manual for fifth wheels and travel trailers

Last updated on October 20th, 2012 at 09:27 pm

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This is PARTLY a test post, and partly a post for all Open Range owners. This is the PDF of the 2010 Open Range users manual. There is nothing super specific about any one particular unit, but there is a great deal of useful information in this users manual. Open Range does not make it downloadable, but I think it is a good idea to have online.

What do you think? Did you find this useful?

RV Basics : RV Shower Caddy

Last updated on June 10th, 2019 at 08:58 pm

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If you live in an RV, like Sheri and I have many times over the years, you are always very sensitive to space. The shower in our RV (we can’t speak for other folks) does have some molded areas for soap, shampoo, but they are small and really do not work. Also, if you think about it, the corners of the shower could be used for a little bit of toiletry storage.

RV52.com has SUBSTANTIALLY MORE information on the RV52 BIG RV HOW-TO section and more plumbing articles written in the RV52 RV Plumbing How To Section.

I also wrote a really neat article about installing a really nice RV shower surround instead of accepting some of the terrible wallboard only showers.

What we have been using and has worked VERY WELL so far, is a little spring loaded shower caddy which we purchased from Bed Bath and Beyond. It took maybe 15 minutes to assemble, is held in place by spring tension, can be adjusted to be 1 or 2 feet taller if required and holds lots of soap, shampoo, scrubby things that women like, shavers, and so forth. It has been a great, lightweight, and useful addition to the RV. It only cost us about $10 new.

rv shower organizer caddy
rv shower organizer caddy
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RV Basics : Fruit Flies, Gnats, and Flies

Last updated on June 21st, 2019 at 06:34 pm

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Recently we have been having a few fruit flies in our RV.

There is only one problem though. We don’t have any fruit lying around. We freeze all of ours. Sheri uses it to make me 100% fruit smoothies – more on that later – I’ll post her recipe. I actually feel better when I drink them.

So they aren’t fruit flies.

How to identify RV drain flies

  • They are about the size of fruit flies.
  • They seem to be congregating in the bathroom.
  • They even seem to emanate from the bathroom.
  • That ain’t fruit in the bathroom Dorothy!

Oh oh.

So before I go further, I have to digress.

People have to live.

They eat, drink, and breath at a minimum.

As a direct result of those eating, drinking and breathing, we pee, we poo, we sweat, and we exhale. Yet, we are so hung up on stuff we fail to really talk openly about a couple of the things that are about 1/3 of the major operations of our bodies. The rest of this article has to discuss things on the poo/pee side.

You’ve been warned!

Back to those flies.

  • I did a little research on the web and I’ve found that there exists such a thing as ‘drain flies’. They don’t seem that uncommon. Here is what I’ve learned in the following bullets.
  • People don’t think you should leave your gray water valves open (black should always be closed) even when connected to a septic or sewer. It seems some people think you can.
  • I saw mention that if you put a trap (a loop in your drain hose) such that there is no direct AIR path that will keep drain flies out. However, I saw one place that said that the drain fly larvae think traps are ridiculous and can swim.
  • I saw mention of insecticides, but nothing very conclusive.
  • Someone said drain flies are dirty and carry germs although they probably don’t know. However, knowing where they have been, I really don’t want them flying around my face.
  • People in many places spoke about RV toilets with overflow returns having them live in those areas.
  • Drain flies can get in your RV if your black tank is vented. Ours is not. Honestly I wished it was. Send me an email if you wonder why it matters.

Here are some links to articles on the subject:

Here is what I did…

How to eliminate RV drain flies

  • I drained the black tank immediately.
  • I then filled it up and had a modest amount of bleach in it ( I do not use this often as I think it is bad to put in the septic/sewers ).
  • We allowed this to sit for two or three days and filled up the tank even more.
  • I now keep the gray water valves closed as well as much as possible.

Here is what I’ve noticed.

  • Flies are gone.
  • Flies have never came back.

Here are my conclusions.

How to prevent RV drain flies from your RV

  • Bleach is bad for flies (although I can’t say this was the primary thing that took care of them)
  • Draining the black tank often is good
    • I can’t rule out that bleach killed the flies
    • you SHOULD drain the tank often
  • Keeping the gray valves closed is a good idea. (Again, it might be better black tank management that is keeping the flies gone)

Here is one belief I have which I cannot prove : You can get drain flies from the RV park septic. This makes sense to me and I can’t help think it is true.

RV drain flies insecticides and preventative chemicals and sprays

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RV Financial : RV Insurance Claim for an Awning

Last updated on September 4th, 2016 at 10:46 pm

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RV Awning insurance claim - how did it go
RV Awning insurance claim – how did it go

If you are looking for rv insurance, or curious about the cost of an rv awning repair, then this article might be helpful.

Our rv awning was recently damaged by a very sudden, very brief, and very gusty little storm. We are staying the La Hacienda RV Park in Austin TX [ I’m going to do an updated video and make it much better than one I’ve linked, but for now… ].

It turns out that near Lake Travis winds can be very gusty. Maybe that is why at least one part of the lake is called Windy Point.

It is true that I have written several articles on securing the rv awning and had I actually secured my awning after we had retracted it recently instead of being lazy, we would still have an awning (and the $500 insurance deductible). But I’m out both and I’ll update you so you can learn from my experience.

First, here is a list of the articles I’ve written that explain to me that I know better:

We insure with Geico (see my list of well known insurers for RV insurance).
First, what was damaged : The awning was flipped up onto the roof. The arms of the awning (which was made by Dometic and is a 12 foot awning) were bent and the fittings were either bent or broken off the RV. The awning itself, which is heavy bumped the air conditioning cover and knocked a hole it the cover. It also bent our radio antenna. The awning was also tugged from the RV itself so it would not be secure against water anymore.
What we did after the damage : We called TWO RV repair services. One came out after two days and pretended to care and told us he could do it for $200. Another came out when we called and he said it would be $1400.
Who did we pick to do the repair of our RV awning? We took the guy who cared even though his bill was going to be $1200 more. We believe that there is discrimination against travel trailer people – which is what our RV was at this time.
After we received an estimate we then called GEICO, our insurance company for our RV.
GEICO has a separate RV insurance department that runs seemingly independently from the rest of the company. However, they do combine our bills and provide a discount.
GEICO sent out an insurance adjuster within two days of us calling. The adjuster himself attends training regularly and is an expert in RV’s. He asked me to get the repair quote faxed to him which I did. He called me late in the day and told me that he ‘locked in the GEICO claim amount’ before he saw the quote.
It turns out the GEICO adjuster was $100 over the quote. But the long/short of it is that both the estimate AND the insurance company were within 8% of each other with no communications whatsoever.
GEICO then deducts the deductible from the total and sends the balance. It is as easy as can be.
Anyway, this is all a true story and is accurate as of August 2010 and it is about us and not just something I made up (like so much of what you find on the web).
Hope this helps! Cheers.

RV Basics : Secure the Awning Better

Last updated on October 20th, 2012 at 10:04 pm

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Sheri and I took some pictures of how we secured our RV Awning.
In this picture you see that we took our aluminum support brace and removed it from the mount on the side of the RV.  By doing this we can get a better mechanically sound setup for the awning. You can see the red strap… That is a tie down for a truck with a mini-winch. You can find those at Home Depot or Lowes and many, many different types will work. This strap will pull the awning tightly down and the wind will take a GREAT DEAL of power to lift the awning. 
In this picture we show two key things. We use a 8 inch long tent stake to fasten the aluminum awning strut to the ground. It is actually still very easy to pull UP, but it makes it so that the strut cannot slide around very easily and is a very very strong connection. The tie down straps then fasten to one of the those screw in dog leash tie-downs and makes a very strong connection to the ground.

Finally to keep the wind from vibrating the awning and doing damage a little bit at a time we used these things called de-flappers. In an earlier article, we warned against the Camco de-flapper, but I think there are many good varieties you can find. When we find a good substitute we’ll post about it.

The dog leash tie down I picture next just so you can see what they look like. They screw right into the ground and they are amazing.