Just upgraded to a "new to us" travel trailer

shawn474

Hello all,
I know we have some camping people in here and am looking for a little advice.
My wife and kids (ages 7 and 4) have been camping for a couple years with our 1995 Dutchmen pop up.* It has been great but we have definitely outgrown it and we wanted something that we could take on longer trips.* I found a semi local 1985 nomad by skyline 24' travel trailer.* Emailed back and forth for a few days, negotiated on price and drove 3 hours to pick it up today.* Everything checked out and towed it home.* Here is the fun part; got no,e, parked it, unhitched and opened the door.* The smell that came out was the most awful smell ever.* The previous owner did not empty the sewage and it was splashing around on our 3 hour trip home!!!!* *I ripped out all the tile, sprayed liberal amounts of Clorox, cleaned the crap out of it (literally).* Being new to the travel trailer scene and not having a toilet in our pop up I am ignorant how to drain the tanks.* So in an effort to get the stench out I shop vacced the tank out after removing the toilet.* Poured Clorox and filled with water, shop vacced again and then put more Clorox and am letting it soak overnight.

My questions are:
1.* Does anyone know where I can find a manual for the trailer? I have looked everywhere and can't seem to find one.
2.* Any tips on how to care for, empty and fill the sewage tank and freshwater tank?* I had a 5 gallon tank in the pop up with a lo boy pump faucet.* Without the owners manual I am flying by the seat of my pants and don't want to ruin anything.
3.* Any advice you can give to first time travel trailer owners that would help.* I plane on searching the forums and sticking around to help where I can but I a, looking more to learn at this point.
4. Got the prodigy p2 brake controller for my truck (2005 Nissan Titan le crew cab 4x4). Anything else to get? I have been reading about weight distribution hitches and sway bars. Any thoughts nmthem?
Thanks so much in advance for any help / advise you all can give.

Take care,
Shawn

jbooker82

There should be a sweage outlet with a cap on it. You take that cap off. Then put the flex hose on it. (looks like a slinky). On older campers they are usually stored in the rear bumper. The bumper end caps are rubber / plastic and they should pop right out. Any way put the hose on it then stick it in the hole at the sewage drain station. Then there should be two drain valve levers. One is for Black water (toilet), and the other is for gray water (Kitchen Sink, and Shower). Pull the black water drain then rinse the tank out. Close the black water drain valve, then repeat for the gray water tank.

Most every RV park as a sweage dump station. Some gas stations do too if they are close to a state park.

Dont forget to buy more chemical for the tanks. It is also a good idea to use special RV toilet paper. It will be less likely to plug up or get traped in the tank.

jbooker82

The fresh water tank should have a drain valve some where. Almost like a 1/2 or 1/4 turn valve on a big tea jug. It is usually pretty close to the fresh water fill. Get you a rubber washing machine hose and cut one of the ends off. Then screw that on to your garden hose. It makes for a nice filler hose to stick down in to the fresh water fill recptical. If you hook up to High pressure water (hydrent) then I would recomend getting a pressure regulator. Some times city water can be pretty high pressure and it can blow some of the lower pressure lines off inside your camper and make for a flood.

Also dont forget to drain everythiing for the winter, and make sure to use RV antifreeze.

shawn474

jbooker82 wrote: »

The fresh water tank should have a drain valve some where. Almost like a 1/2 or 1/4 turn valve on a big tea jug. It is usually pretty close to the fresh water fill. Get you a rubber washing machine hose and cut one of the ends off. Then screw that on to your garden hose. It makes for a nice filler hose to stick down in to the fresh water fill recptical. If you hook up to High pressure water (hydrent) then I would recomend getting a pressure regulator. Some times city water can be pretty high pressure and it can blow some of the lower pressure lines off inside your camper and make for a flood.

Also dont forget to drain everythiing for the winter, and make sure to use RV antifreeze.

Thanks for the info. I am learning slowly but surely. Been cleaning for the past couple days and it has definitely gotten better. We are looking forward to using it very soon if i can get it inspected abd registered.

jbooker82

The toilet should have two pedals. One runs water with the gate / flap shut. And the other will open the gate (flush the toilet) and run water. I don't quite see how sewer came back up the toilet. There should be a gate that seals the toilet off. The only time it should be open is when you flush.

shawn474

jbooker82 wrote: »

The toilet should have two pedals. One runs water with the gate / flap shut. And the other will open the gate (flush the toilet) and run water. I don't quite see how sewer came back up the toilet. There should be a gate that seals the toilet off. The only time it should be open is when you flush.

When I removed the toilet, there was no gasket to seal it to the flange.

steveinaz

Get a "clear" elbow for your black/gray tank drain pipe, so you can see that it is running clear after dumping/rinsing. ALWAYS DUMP YOUR BLACK TANK FIRST. This allows your gray tank contents to clean the sewer hose. DO NOT leave your black tank drain valve open, even when hooked up to a sewer (you can leave the gray tank valve open). Allow your black tank to get to 3/4 full before emptying, otherwise you'll come to know the meaning of the term "pyramiding"...it ain't pretty. The idea is to ensure there is enough waste water to assist the poo-poo in draining properly. If you must drain your black tank for whatever reason, and there's not much waste in there--pour buckets of water into your toilet until you reach the 3/4 mark, then drain/clean as you normally do.

There's a number of excellent youtube videos showing proper draining/cleaning/maintenance of your black/gray tanks. Also see videos on using chlorine to clean your fresh water supply tanks annually. Always use white (drinking water only) hoses for your freshwater side, and different dedicated hoses for black/gray tank chores. Make sure to use a pressure regulator on your city water hook-up, so you don't potentially blow your RV's plumbing system. FWIW. when your hooked up to the city water inlet, this does NOT fill your freshwater tank, and it does not use you RV's 12v water pump for pressurization--the pump is only used for stored fresh water.

shawn474

Steve,
Thanks for the info. I have read up on that issue for sure. I think I am going to fill and drain after every camping trip. Last thing I think I want is waste staying in that tank and marinating for weeks at a time until we next go camping. I know its probably overkill but my wife and kids have very strong noses and very weak gag reflexes!!!! I have the potable water hoses from the pop up. I think even if city water is available, I will use the stored tank. I have cleaned it once with clorox solution buty think a few more rinsings couldnt hurt. The new bathroom tile will go in tonight and I will paint some and repair some minor things in the camper. Then I need to get it registered. Hopefully we can be ready and camping the first weekend in september. We are anxious to get out and enjoy it.

steveinaz

It's a good idea to drain clean each trip---just make sure you top off the black tank with water if it's not full enough, before draining.

Enjoy your TT! We're still trying to decide on a new model ourselves...