I have now lived, fulltime, in an RV for over 10 years. You would think I would know everything there is to know about my rig. But you would be wrong.
Example #1: I have been without power for 4 days and have taken some very cold showers since I got water service back on Friday. It occurred to me last night that I don’t need electricity to produce hot water – the water heater in the RV is dual mode: electric and propane. This morning I flipped the switch to use propane and was able to enjoy a nice, warm shower. I knew the heater was dual-mode but in the 7 years I have owned this 5th wheel I have never used the propane side of the heater.
Example #2: I discovered yesterday that my attempts to recharge the RV battery using the truck via the umbilical were futile: the battery went dead even after hours of running the truck. I had believed for years that the RV battery would be charged via the umbilical while traveling. I switched to using booster cables from the engine to the RV batteries and that did the trick, so I was beginning to think that my understanding of the truck/RV relationship was incorrect. But this morning, with the assistance of my kind neighbor, Todd, I learned that my understanding was correct but that the fuse that controlled the recharge pin on the umbilical (which I didn’t know existed) had blown. Don’t know when. Could have been years ago and it could explain some of those mysterious “refrigerator didn’t stay on” problems that I had encountered. What I do know is that I wasted about $40 in diesel fuel doing nothing but fouling the air.