Baby Steps

Every day I try to learn something new about my rig. As you can see, last winter I dealt with snow. My water came through a hose, which I kept under an insulated box kept warm with a light bulb.
After I built that, I never suffered frozen pipes again.

Now, as I plan to head south, I'm trying to figure out the fresh water holding tank. According to the owner's manual, these guys need to be sanitized on a regular basis. Hummm, well. I've owned it nearly two years and have not sanitized anything yet.

Wow. So, after opening the side door to the holding tank, I prepared a solution of 1/4 cup bleach to one gallon of water. Got out the funnel and poured it in. As expected, it leaked out beneath the motorhome. You see, I figured there must be a drain at the bottom of the tank, but where?
Turns out, the drain is positioned directly over the spare tire. Stupid, I know.
I crawled under. How do you plug this drain? Now, quit laughing, you experts. My fingers got wet as I felt for a plug.Water sprayed out, no plugs. I considered shoving gum up in said drains.
But, I didn't. Instead I asked my son-in-law, who owns a slide in truck camper what to do. He showed me how his system was rigged then asked me, "Wasn't there some kind of outdoor water faucet thing under the bed?"
"Under the bed?" I replied, skeptically. "I don't remember. How do you remember that? We looked at 33 campers, 2 years ago."
"Try looking."
I did. It was there, sure enough. So, I crawled inside the box that supports the bed, turned the knob until it quit turning and crawled back out. Then, I added another gallon of water to the holding tank.
Voila! It didn't leak.
Holy guacamole. I did learn something today.
Now, tomorrow, I will follow up and flush this system.
Stand back, you might get wet.