RV problems for new RVers
RV Problems? WHAT problems? Oh, those problems...
We have officially been full time RVers for 2 whole weeks now, and it’s been quite an experience! We had never traveled in an RV or lived in an RV until these past 2 weeks. Talk about BRAND NEW to the whole RV thing!!
As newbies, we knew we’d have a lot to learn. We have relied on the wisdom of our more seasoned full time friends as well as a LOT of YouTube! We thought we’d share some of the issues that we have had to figure out…and some that we’re still stumped about!
Issues that have arisen and been FIGURED OUT! (Praise the LAWD!)
When we got to our first destination, it was dark, so we spent night one without water or sewer hookups (plugging in our electricity hookup was quick and easy, so at least we had power!).
Hot water heater: Did it work? Yes. Did we know exactly how to turn it on? No. We didn’t figure out how to get the hot water tank turned on until the end of the second day! (We can thank a slightly confusing bypass knob for that confusion)
We didn’t get our new washing machine hooked up until the end of the first week. We had some issues with the hose connectors spraying water everywhere and had to buy a few extra parts.
Gray water tank was jammed open, meaning we had no way of stopping our used sink/shower water from draining out of the RV. Not a problem when you are hooked up to sewer lines. Major problem you are driving to your next destination or boondocking! One trip to Walmart, another trip to Lowes, and two hours later, problem fixed.
We couldn’t get the built in DVD player to work. I know, #firstworldproblems right? But when you want to spend a cold evening together on the couch watching Nacho Libre and you can hear but not see your movie…major frustration. (It took over an hour of Youtubing, trying every combo of wires, TV inputs, and unmounting the TV and built in DVD player from the wall, but we eventually solved our problem, which was that the entertainment system wasn’t plugged in correctly to begin with!)
On our first night of boondocking, we hadn’t cleaned our fresh-water holding tanks yet. So we had to use gallons of water for everything from flushing toilets to brushing teeth and washing dishes. Also, due to time, we didn’t have our generator ready yet. This was not as big a deal, because we had batter power for the overhead lights and propane for the fridge, heat, and hot water heater. The only thing we didn’t have was power to our electrical outlets, so we woke up to dead iPhones (those #firstworldproblems are reeeeaaally starting to add up).
Things that we have yet to figure out:
Why our main overhead master bedroom lights stopped working?! We still have two reading lights that work. The main lights still come at at the most dim level possible (barely noticeable). They worked fine while we renovated the RV, but now…. we’re stumped.
Why our automatic leveling jacks started showing an error message and won’t work. Something to do with the LF (left front) jack. Luckily we can still move the jacks up and down, but we can’t get rid of the error beeping noise, and we have had to drop the jacks and level it manually the last two stops.
It’s just been a lot of learning and figuring things out! We’ve been frustrated at times, but nothing too serious! We still are LOVING this lifestyle and haven’t regretted it for one second!