New RV training - First 15 things to do!

Alright, here we go, lesson number one, we're starting here, at the end of this lesson, you'll see a couple of downloads. These downloads were included in the zip files that were in the welcome lesson, but only for your convenience. Again, they are at the bottom. You can download my list of essential starter items as well as my list of advanced starter items. Well, these are the

first

15

things

you do now. One last comment, you probably won't understand everything I cover especially. If it's your

first

time, go ahead and watch it and then when you see the rest of the guidance, you'll be able to understand what it was that he was asking you to do or telling you to do, so don't panic.

If I tell you to do something but I don't tell you how to do it, okay, easy, easy, no problem, so here we go, number one, before you leave the dealership, get the accessories you need to get everything in it. list at least the starter item, the essential starter items, at least have those if not all, with the advanced starter items as well, okay before we leave the dealership we will get those items, get them at the time of delivery when the pick up or if you have it you already have it and you're home okay go back and get them you need those items so that's step number one get that list of items okay number 2 get the trailer home.

I guess you're going home wherever you are. We're going to take the trailer home, level it and then chock the wheels, we don't want it to fall on us, so go ahead, take it home, level it again, chock the wheels, that's step number two, okay, number three, the third thing we want. to do that, turn on the propane, go ahead, go to the front, turn on the propane and what we're looking for is any obvious smells, hissing, leaks, anything like that, just turn on the propane, that's step number three, step number four, get out and make sure. that the gray and black tank valves are closed, we are looking for the black tank valve closed in the grain.

Now some of you are going to have to grate the ankles, so you're actually going to have to use the gray tank handles, just make sure that however you have clothes, the gray tank dresses the black tank, that's step number four, okay, Number five, we're going to turn off the drain on the fresh water tank, so it could be a valve, it could be a cap hanging from a hose under the RV. go ahead and screw on that cap also plug your low point drains, screw on those caps and screw on the plug that goes to your water heater right now if you don't know where these caps are they will often be. on the water heater panel outside, so open that water heater panel.

Many times your plugs and covers will be stored there if you don't look for them, find them, but you need to cover all the water systems and all the water drains right now. that's the step, okay, number six, number six, we're going to exercise all the DC powered components now, that means the 12 volt battery powered components are fine at this point, although keep in mind that there are a few

things

which will not work with your AC. the electrical components are not going to work, that's your air conditioner, that's your microwave, you won't see lights on the microwave dial, as well as the outlets that go into the side walls, all those normal household outlets that you were used to seeing, that won't work either.

Okay, so any of those AC powered components aren't going to work, so we're looking at the lights. Turn on every light. Turn off all the lights. Okay, we're looking at the slides. We open each slide. We close each slide completely and it is normal to listen. some jingling and metallic noises and that kind of rocking when it goes all the way up and you're going to hear it calm down, that's normal, okay, make sure you do this outside too, check all the lights on the Outside we also want to open the awning all the way, close the awning all the way, then don't forget we're going to test the heater, so go ahead and turn the heat all the way up and let's hear if that furnace hits you.

You will hear it and then the fan will turn on and you will feel, or at least be able to feel, hot air starting to come out of the furnace vents. There, many people do not use the boiler very often. People won't use the oven for a year or two, so let's test the oven while we're still under warranty. Let's do it too, if you have other components, try the stereo, turn it on, you know, listen to the music. If you have a ceiling fan, by any chance, any other component, the ceiling fans, which are the fantastic fans in your bathroom, go ahead and turn them on and off so that anything that moves is powered, anything that we want to turn on, turn it off. and we want to move to the trailer methodically while doing so, that's testing the DC power system.

Okay, we're at number seven, almost halfway through number seven, we're going to partially fill the fresh water tank, so find the tank filler, attach the hose. In it we're going to put some water that doesn't connect to the city water, but we're not connecting the city water, we're just putting a little bit of water in the tank and I'm talking about ten. gallons, you know enough that we can at least pump a little while we do our testing, but the point here is that we don't want to deal with fifty gallons of water if we have any leaks or any problems to deal with.

I'd rather deal with five or ten gallons, so put some water in there, okay, so we're looking for leaks, we're looking underneath, we're trying to see if we're leaking down the drain of our freshwater tank. valve, we're looking at our low water point in the drains, just look for water leaks anywhere before we do anything, that's where we'll start, okay, number eight, now it's starting to get fun, let's test the components of the water, right? so head inside and we'll turn on the water pump which will usually be near the control panel. Turn on the water pump.

You should hear it light up. It is a DC powered component. By the way, you should hear it turn on and then. It will go off after about five or ten seconds, maybe a little longer the first time, but you will hear it and then it will go off now, if it doesn't go off after a while, we have something else going on. It's a troubleshooting issue you have to deal with, but let's say we are working, we will turn on the water pump and then you will hear it turn off as soon as that happens, the water system is pressurized, so what are we doing?

What we are going to do is go to the kitchen faucet and turn on the cold water faucet. Well, once it opens, you'll get some hair spitting out some water. of air, then it will start to appear in full screen, as soon as we do that, we know that we have taken the air out of that particular system, so head to the bathroom, we want to do the same with all the others. faucets on the cold water side in the rest of the trailer, don't forget the shower, try the cold water in the shower, wait for it to prime and I'll empty it or blow out the air, then we want to go to the bathroom too, okay?

Number nine, now we're going to do the same thing we just did, except now we're going to move on to the hot water faucets. Now the water will not be hot. We shouldn't have done anything with our hot water tank yet, so here we go. In the kitchen, open the hot water side of the faucet and wait for the air to bleed out. This may take a little longer because we are now filling a six to ten gallon water heater, so go ahead and leave it on for a while. and I should have mentioned before that every time you turn on the water you should hear the water pump turn on obviously so when you're on the hot water side turn on that hot water we're waiting for the water to come out once we have a full stream of water we know our water heater is full of water go ahead and do the same thing in the bathroom the same thing in the shower try all that now there's a caveat to what I'm saying: I'm assuming the bypass valve hot water has been on and disconnected, put it that way.

I assume it has been disconnected if the hot water bypass valve is on then that means the water is not going to the hot water tank of the water heater and we do that. for winterization, sometimes dealers do it for various reasons, but often it's winterization and it's nice to protect the system, so it's a good thing, but when you pick up the trailer, depending on the season of the year and how it was prepared, it may not be necessary. If the bypass is disconnected, the best way to test this is after the hot water is running through the faucet, go out and loosen the plug on the water heater and if it starts dripping water, you have water in the hot water. tank, otherwise we need to change the hot water bypass, that's another lesson in another video, but now we're assuming we have water in that tank, okay, number 10, we're getting there, number 10, turn on the hot water. heater we want to use the gas side not the electric most of you will only have gas water heaters anyway some of you will have gas electric but go ahead and turn on the gas part of the water heater that will be located on your control panel now, as soon as you turn it on, go ahead and go out and look, we want to look at the flame, we want to make sure it's burning properly and nothing strange is happening.

It will take you about 10 to 20 minutes to get hot water, so don't expect the hot water to come right away, we just want to make sure the flame burns properly, that's step, okay, number 11, now it's time to plug it in. . our power source for many of you this will be in your house you will be in house you will need a dog bone to bring them down from probably 30 amps to 20 amps 2015 amps now for the most part our house is our house 15 amp circuits Occasionally , you may have a 20 amp garage circuit, but most of us, if you don't know, can assume you have a teenage amp circuit in your house that will come into play here in a moment. when we talk about AC appliances, but for now go ahead and plug it into your power source, whether it's your house, you're in a park or if you have a generator, we'll go ahead and do that at this point I also want to say something about surge protectors, it's okay, it's my personal opinion, never, ever, never, ever, never, never, ever, never connect to a power source without a surge protector, be it the power generator of the electric park Your home, whatever it may be, can't do without a surge protector, and here it is.

Why do I say that these RVs, of course, have sensitive electronics? Okay, you have your stereos, microwave, and refrigerator, and those are very expensive to repair as is, but repairs on an RV are a little different than those on an RV. home repairs are a little more expensive, they're a little more complicated, you can't always access the electronics or the cables or everything you need, the point is it's not worth it, it's not worth fixing a problem electric in an RV if burning a wire or heating something is just a disaster it's hard not to want to do it and it's very avoidable so my personal opinion and that's why this is in my essential articles to start with my personal opinion, don't just ever plug it in without a sufficient surge protector on that's okay on that number twelve now it's starting to get interesting let's exercise the AC power system now the AC power, of course, is the house power, the energy coming from the ground wire we want To start with, let's start with the microwave, okay, we want to see that the flashy microwave thingy works and of course, don't put the watch in the microwave, it won't be worth it, so let's test the microwave we want to go ahead and get a light or an alarm clock, something and we want to plug it into every outlet in the entire trailer, inside and out, up and down, test them all at this point, okay, another thing in the We want to work with energy, come on.

I say something about air conditioning: your air conditioner on average, if there is an average, will max out at 20 amps right on startup and might rest at about 14 or 15 amps, that's what I've seen living in mine now yes It has a 15 amp. home system, if you have a dog bone and go down to a 15 amp system to plug into your house, do it, try turning on the air conditioning, you might get away with it, you will most likely blow a breaker. at home I'm going to have to go check the breaker in the garage, if you're on a 20 amp system.

I have run a single air conditioner on my 20 amp system as long as I am not using anything else. The trainer runs on AC power so if it is less than 20 amps then he cannot perform this step but if it is 20 amps or more then go ahead and test the airconditioning, turn on the air conditioning and make sure your fans work, make sure it blows cold air, you should have already done this at the dealership when you picked it up but basically test the air conditioning if you can at this point okay now too we can turn on the electric switch for the water heater if If you have one you will have one and on the control panel inside the trailer there will be gas on one side and then there will be a switch next to it that says electric for the water heater so go ahead and tour. turn off the gas at the water heater and turn on the electricity at the water heater we just want to see that it's working let's not break any circuit breakers nothing strange is happening so at this point go ahead and do that also turn on the mode Refrigerator auto on so let's turn off the gas.and put it on auto and what it should do is turn off the gas because the refrigerator will sense that it now has power coming from the ground wire and it will use that power to run instead of burning gas .

Okay, number 13, let's go back outside. and look at the tires, verify they are properly inflated. It's very important. I can't tell you how important it is. I'm trying to tell you how important it is, but I can't tell you how important it is. Check tire inflation closely. Many things can happen in the agreement between the dealership and his house. There are many reasons why you may not have the correct tire pressure when you get home. Check tire pressure. It's his responsability. Note that the maximum pressure is highest on the side wall. It may not be the correct tire pressure for you.

There's a lot more that goes into making sure you have the correct tire pressure, so check the tire pressure and make sure it's adequate at the same time check the torque on the lug nuts. It's recommended that you do that almost every time you move the trailer, every time you go on a trip or anywhere, check the torque on those lug nuts, they loosen themselves, that's a real thing, so check that right now, all good, number fourteen. tell him to check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals go up to the roof and check your feelings check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your fields check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals okay please people check your seals walk on the roof get on the roof and walk or pay someone or send your eighteen year old son up there to do it walk on the roof the dealership I would have already done this for you, but this is your trailer now. you are now responsible for this trailer. take it into your own hands.

We are responsible for checking the seals on our RVs and it is a very easy thing to do, which is why people neglect it. It's so easy that they don't do it and then develop a hairline fracture due to an old seal that hardened and cracked. Lo and behold, you have a water leak in the next storm because we didn't check our seals. That being said, check the seals on your roof, check the seals on your entire RV, that's a very important maintenance item, so in the back of your head, it's the number one thing you can do to protect your RV. , is number one. you can forget about destroying your RV check your seals enough on that good number 15 this is my favorite number 15 sleep in it go find the family and buy popcorn and watch a movie sleep in it spend two nights in it three nights on it when I bought mine, I camped out in the front yard, I don't know how long it was, at least three days, my kids were there, we were watching movies, making pancakes, dude, just come in, have fun, it's a very exciting time.

It's a lot of fun and you know what a road is, even in your driveway we're far away. I'm spending time with family. I love it and that at the end of the day, rule number or point number 15 is what it's all about, so get in there, sleep there, spend the night there, it's so exciting, that's my list of the first 15 things you should do To get that trailer home safely, exercise, make sure it's okay, avoid many common problems. You will be happy if you do these 15 things. Well, we made it through the first lesson. It's quite exciting.

We're about to get into more details, but you're already getting to the fun faster.