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Hammerdown

RVF Newbee
Joined
Jun 4, 2020
Messages
3
Recent divorce landed me on a very nice 5 acres owned by my father. Has well and septic. I bought a 2015 Royal Travel By Design 40' RV. RV is not a park model. It has storage tanks. I realize a park model would probly have been better for what I'm needing but the price was right on this and it had the amenities I needed such as a washer / dryer.

I have already set the trailer in its permanent location. Stabilized it included jacks and with concrete blocks every 3 feet around it before letting most the air pressure out of the tires to make it nice and solid.

Its plumbed to well, septic, and a 500 gallon propane tank.

My question is about the fresh water tank. Obviously I'm always gonna use the well. This RV Is gonna sit here for probly 5 years or more. Im done owning homes til i retire. I want cheap living.

1. Do I need to drain everything out of that freshwater tank and if so how do I do that? I don't see a drain on it. I have ran pump and ran the faucet to dry. I'm just concerned about whatever's left in the tank getting nasty and contaminating incoming well supply.

2. On the sewer, I'm leaving the Gray tank open all the time. On the black tank, i keep it closed and once a week i use a properly placed screwdriver to hold the pedal down on the toilet to fill the black tank all the way up before I open it flushing everything out. I also make sure I run a lot of water with the toilet so there's always plenty of water in the black tank.

Should I be doing anything else for the longivity of the system? As anyone ever converted one of these to a park model?

3. I've already put a big car port over this RV, 24 x 36 with 12 ft as a doorside overhang with the intention of building a big deck underneath that the length of the RV. Should i do the skirting before or after the building of the deck?

4. Is there anything else I should be considering for the long term placement this RV to maximize its life? I have already spent $300 recoating the roof with dicor, as its a metal roof.

Thanks in advance!
 
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Welcome to RVForums @Hammerdown - great to have you with us. I'm sure others can assist you but I wanted to just welcome you to the site.
 
Welcome to RVF, @Hammerdown; glad to have you here. Lots of experience here that should be able to help you find answers.

Here are a couple of observations. First, it looks like you are certainly headed in the right direction. I don't see anything you are doing wrong, but there may be a couple of things you can do better.

On your fresh water tank, there is almost certainly a drain. It might be called a low-point drain, tank drain, etc. Unfortunately, RV manufacturers don't always make them easy to find. In some cases, they might be a valve and in others, they may just be a tube extending down through the floor and capped with a plastic screw-on cap. Look under the water tank for such a tube. It will probably be under the road side rather than the curb side. If you find just an open tube, follow it up and look for a valve. Otherwise, remove the plastic cap to let the tank drain.

If you are not using water from the tank, just don't fill it. I would, however rinse it out every month or two.

As for the black tank, there should be a tank rinse connection somewhere near the sewer dump valve area. Connect a water hose and, after dumping the contents, run water into the rinse connection. I close the black tank valve briefly to let water build up a little and then dump. Do this 3-4 times and you should have a pretty clean tank. Caution: do not let the water run into the tank rinse inlet without monitoring it, and for not more than 2 minutes. You can burst a tank if you forget and let the tank fill beyond capacity.

Good luck.

TJ
 
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