Initials Camper Information Made Easy

Initial camper information

all right here we go lesson number one we're getting started here down at the bottom of this lesson you're gonna see a couple of downloads now these downloads were included in the zip files that were in the welcome lesson but just for your convenience again they're down at the bottom you can download my essential starter items list as well as my advance starter items list ok so these are the first 15 things you do now one last comment you're not gonna probably understand everything that I cover especially if this is your first time through so go ahead and watch it through and then when you watch the rest of the orientation you'll be able to understand what it was I was asking you to do or instructing you to do so don't panic if I tell you to do something but I don't tell you how to do it alright easy easy peasy not a problem ok so here we go number one before you leave the dealership get the accessories that you need to get everything that is on that list at least the starter the essential starter items at least have those if not everything with the advance starter items as well ok before you leave the dealership we'll get those items get them at your delivery when you pick it up or if you've already got it and you're at home ok go back and get them you need those items so that's step number one get that list of items alright number 2 get the trailer home I'm assuming you're going home wherever it is you're going get the trailer home level it and then chock the wheels we don't want it rolling away on us so go ahead get it home back it in level it chock the wheels that's step number two okay number three the third thing that we want to do turn on the propane go ahead head up front there turn that propane on and what we're looking for is any obvious smells hissing leaks anything like that just turn the propane on that's step number three step number four get out there and make sure that the gray and the black tank valves are closed closed we're looking for closed on the grain black tank valve now some of you are going to have to grate ank's so you're actually going to have to grey tank handles just make sure that however you've got clothes the gray tank clothes the black tank that's step number four okay number five we're gonna close the freshwater tank drain so it may be a valve it might be a cap that's hanging out from a hose underneath the RV go ahead and screw that cap on also cap your low point drains screw those caps on and screw in the plug that goes to your hot water heater all right now if you don't know where these caps are they're going to be often they are in the hot water heater panel outside so open up that hot water heater panel oftentimes your plugs and your caps are gonna be stored in there if not hunt them down find them but you need to cap all the water systems and all the water drains right now that's that's this step all right number six number six we're gonna exercise all the DC powered components now that means battery-powered 12-volt components okay at this point though just keep in mind there's a few things that are not gonna work your AC power components are not gonna work that is your air conditioner that is your microwave you will not see lights on the microwave dial that is also the plugs that go into the side walls all those normal household plugs that were used to seeing that's not gonna work either okay so any of those AC powered components they're not gonna work so we are looking at the lights turn on every light turn off every light okay we are looking at the slides open every slide close every slide all the way and it's normal to hear some clinking and clanking and Rocking that kind of a thing when it gets all the way up and you're gonna hear it wind down kind of like [Music] that's all normal all right make sure you also do this on the outside check all the lights on the outside we also want to open the awning all the way close the awning all the way alright then don't forget let's test the furnace out so go ahead and turn the heat up all the way and let's listen for that furnace to kick on you're gonna hear it and then the blower is gonna kick on and you're gonna feel or at least be able to sense hot air starting to come out of the the furnace vents there a lot of people don't use the furnace a lot of people won't use the furnace for a year or two so let's test the furnace while we're still under warranty right let's get that done also if you happen to have any other components test the stereo turn that on you know listen to the music if you have a ceiling fan by any chance any other component the ceiling fans that are the fantastic fans in your bathroom go ahead and turn those on and turn those off so anything that moves runs on power anything we want to turn it on turn it off and we want to move to the trailer methodically as we do that that is testing the DC power system all right we're number seven almost halfway through number seven we're gonna partially fill the freshwater tank so go find the tank fill put the hose in it we're gonna put a little bit of water in that don't hook up to the city water yet we're not hooking up the city water we're just putting some water in the tank fill and I'm talking ten gallons you know just enough that we can at least pump some out while we're doing our testing but the point here is that we don't want to be dealing with fifty gallons of water if we have any leaks or any problems to deal with I'd rather be dealing with five or ten gallons so put a little bit of water in there okay then we're looking for leaks we're looking underneath we're trying to see if we're leaking out of our freshwater tank drain valve we're looking at our low water point of drains just look for any water leaking anywhere before we do anything that's where we're gonna start all righty number eight now it's starting to get fun we're gonna test the water components all right so head inside and we're gonna turn the water pump on that's usually going to be near control panel turn the water pump on you should hear it kick on that is a DC powered component by the way you should hear it kick on and then it'll turn off after about five or ten seconds maybe a little longer the first time but you'll hear it kind of and then it'll shut off now if it doesn't shut off after a while we got something else going on that's a troubleshooting issue you need to deal with but let's assume that we're working we're gonna turn that water pump on and then you're gonna hear it turn off as soon as that happens the water system is pressurized so what we're gonna do is we're gonna go to the kitchen faucet and we're gonna turn the cold water on cold water okay once that turns on you're gonna get some hair kind of spitting out of it a little bit of water a little bit of air alright then it's gonna start coming out full screen alright as soon as we do that we know that we have led the air out of that particular system so turn that off head into the bathroom we want to do the same thing with all the other faucets on the cold water side in the rest of the trailer don't forget the shower try the cold water on the shower wait for that to prime and I'll get empty or get the air out then we also want to do the toilet okay number nine now we're gonna do the same thing we just did except now we're gonna move to the hot water faucets now the water is not going to be hot we shouldn't have done anything with our hot water tank yet so go to the kitchen turn on the hot water side of the faucet and wait for the air to purge this might take a little bit longer because now we're filling a six to ten gallon water heater so go ahead and leave that that on for a while and I should have mentioned earlier whenever you turn the water on you should hear that water pump kick on obviously so when you're on the hot water side turn that hot water on we're waiting for that water to come through once we have a full stream of water we know that our hot water heater is full of water go ahead and do the same thing in the bathroom same thing in the shower test all of that out now there is one caveat to what I'm saying we I'm assuming that the hot water bypass valve has been open disengaged put it that way I'm assuming that it's been disengaged if the hot water bypass valve is engage then that means water is not going into the hot water tank hot water heater and we do that for winterization sometimes the dealers will do that for various reasons but it's often winterization and pretty to protect the system so it's a good thing but when you pick the trailer up depending on the time of year and depending on how it was prepped it may not have had the bypass disengaged the best way to test for this is after we get hot water running through the faucet go outside and loosen up the the plug to the hot water heater and if you start getting water dripping out well you got water in the hot water tank otherwise we need to switch over the hot water bypass that is another lesson on another video but right now we're assuming that we've got water in that tank okay number 10 we're getting there number 10 go turn on the hot water heater we want to use the gas side not the electric most of you are only gonna have gas hot water heaters anyway some of you will have gas electric but go ahead and go turn on the gas part of the hot water heater that'll be located at your control panel now as soon as you turn that on go ahead and head outside and look we want to look at the flame we want to make sure it's burning properly and we don't have anything weird going on it's gonna take you in 10 to 20 minutes to get some hot water so don't expect hot water to hit right away we're just wanting to make sure that that flame is burning properly that's this that's the step all right number 11 now it's time to plug it in to our power source for many of you this will be at your house you'll be home you're gonna need a dog bone to step you down from probably 30 amps to 20 amps 2015 amps now for the most part our house is at home our 15 amp circuits once in a while you might have a garage circuit that's 20 amps but most of us if you don't know you can assume that you have a teen amp circuit at your house that's gonna come into play here in just a little bit when we talk about AC appliances but for now go ahead and plug into your power source so whether that's your house whether you're at a park or if you have a generator we're gonna go ahead and do that at this point also I want to say something about surge protectors okay it is my personal opinion never ever ever ever ever ever plug into a power source without a surge protective whether it's your home power park power generator power whatever it is don't do it without a surge protector and here's why I say that these RVs of course have sensitive electronics all right that you've got your stereos and your microwaves and your fridge and those are very expensive to repair just as is but repairs in an RV repairs in an RV are a little different than repairs at home it's a little more expensive it's a little trickier you can't always get to the electronics or the wires or everything that you need the point being it's not worth it it's not worth having the troubleshoot an electrical issue in an RV if you burn a wire or heat something up just it's a mess it's it's tough you don't want to do it and it's so avoidable so my personal opinion and that's why this is on my essential items to start with my personal opinion don't plug in just ever without a surge protector enough on that okay enough on that alright number twelve now it starts to get interesting we're gonna exercise the AC power system now AC power of course is the house power the power that's coming from the shore cord we want to start with let's start with the microwave okay we want to see that the little flashy thing on the microwave is going and of course don't set the clock on the microwave I'm not gonna be worth it so we're gonna test the microwave we want to go ahead and get a light or an alarm clock something and we want to plug into every power outlet in the entire trailer inside and out top and bottom test them all at this point alright another thing we want to work on power let me say something about air conditioning your air conditioner on average if there's an average is gonna peak at 20 amps just on startup and it might rest at about 14 15 amps that's what I've seen living in mine now if you are on a 15 amp home system if you have a dog bone and you step down to a 15 amp system to plug it into your house go for it try to turn your air conditioner on you might get away with it more likely than not you're gonna blow a breaker at the house I'm gonna have to go check the breaker in the garage all right if you're on a 20 amp system I have run a single air conditioner on my 20 amp system as long as I'm not running anything else in the coach that runs on AC power so if you have less than 20 amps then you can't do this step but if you're at 20 amps or higher go ahead and test the air conditioner turn the air conditioner on make sure that your fans work make sure that it blows cold air you should have already done this at the dealership when you picked it up but basically test the air conditioner if you can at this point okay so now we can also turn on the electric switch on the water heater if you happen to have one you'll either have one and in the control panel inside the trailer it'll be gas on one side and then it'll be a switch next to it that says electric for the water heater so go ahead and turn the gas off on the water heater and turn the electric on on the water heater we just want to see that that's working we don't blow any breakers nothing weird happens so at this point go ahead and do that also turn the auto mode of the refrigerator on so we're gonna take it off of gas and put it on auto and what that should do is turn the gas off because the fridge will sense that it now has power coming from the shore cord and it'll use that power to run rather than burning gas ok number 13 let's get back outside and look at the tires check for proper tire inflation so 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 for tire inflation a lot of things can happen at the deal between the dealership and your house there's a lot of reasons you may not have the right tire pressure by the time you get home check the tire pressure it's your responsibility keep in mind that the max higher pressure on the sidewall may not be the correct tire pressure for you there's a lot more that goes into making sure you've got the right tire pressure so check your tire pressure make sure it's proper at the same time check the torque on your lug nuts it is recommended that you do that pretty much every time you move the trailer anytime you go on a trip or go anywhere check the torque on those lug nuts they do work themselves loose that's a real thing so check that at this time all righty number fourteen I'm gonna tell you to check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals check your seals get on the roof and check your feels 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 all right please people check your seals walk the roof get up on the roof and walk it or pay someone or send your eighteen-year-old kid up there to do it walk the roof the dealer would have already done this for you but this is now your trailer 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's such an easy thing to do that's why people neglect it it's so easy they don't do it and then they develop a hairline fracture from an old seal that got hard and cracked lo and behold you've got a water leak at the next rainstorm because we didn't check our seals have I said it enough check the seals on your roof check the seals throughout your RV that's a very important maintenance item to do so just how that in the back your head it's the number one thing that you can do to protect your RV it's the number one thing you can neglect to destroy your RV check your seals enough on that alrighty number 15 this is my favorite one number 15 sleep in it go get the family and get some popcorn and get a movie sleep in it spend two nights in it three nights in it when I got mine I camped out in the front yard for I don't know how long it was at least three days had my kids in there we're watching movies making pancakes dude just get in it have some fun it's a very exciting time it's a lot of fun and you know what a way is a way even in your driveway we're away I'm spending time with the family I'm loving it and that at the end of the day rule number or point number 15 that's what it's all about so go get in it sleep in it spend the night in it it's so exciting that is my list for the first 15 things to do to get that trailer home safe exercise it make sure it's okay avoid a lot of common problems you're gonna be happy if you do this 15 things alright we made it through the first lesson pretty exciting we're about to go into more detail but already you're getting to the fun faster