Posted 2010-03-27 8:16 PM (#118063) Subject: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 489
I am currently in the market for a 4 horse trailer with an 8ft short wall LQ. My daughter shows horses, the vast majority of the shows we go to are open or 4H shows, it will be a rare occasion that we sleep in the trailer. I have a Special Needs son and grandma and grandpa come to a lot of shows so it will be nice to have some place that my son and grandparents can get out of the sun and use a bathroom without a 100 yard hike across the fairgrounds. While I have owned many stock trailers in my life the closest I have come to a horse trailer is my stock combo with a 4 ft tack area. How difficult are the LQ trailers to maintain? A few specific questions:
1. Once summer starts we will be going to a show most every weekend, one of the things that keeps it fun for us is that we keep our trailer organized and ready to go, as soon as we get a little bit of warm weather we will clean the tack room and get everything in its place and the night before the show we will bath and clip and maybe put a saddle pad or two on the trailer but other than that we are ready to go. No stress on Friday nights wondering what we need to get on the trailer and what we need to do. Never having used an LQ trailer I am wondering what would need to be done every weekend, do you need to fill the fresh water tank every weekend, empty the toliet every weekend, anything else that would need to be done everytime the trailer was used?
2. If the fridge runs on propane can you leave it on all week or will I go broke buying propane?
3. It appears that some trailers have invertors, is this standard but not always mentioned? If I have a generator that is an invertor is this important? This may have to do with the 12 volt batteries supplying power? Will the 12 volts run the trailer all day...watching tv, running lights, playing the radio or will it be neccessary to always bring a generator?
4. Several of the trailers that I see pictured on the site seem to have some sort of control panel or monitoring system? Not really sure what it is?
Posted 2010-03-27 8:31 PM (#118068 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Elite Veteran
Posts: 792 Location: East Tennessee, USA, Planet Earth
You only empty the black tank when it's full. I would suggest that you look at some of the RV sites for more info.
I haul with an RV...when I get home, I plug my fridge into the outlet and run it that way. Not sure if you can do that do with a LQ fridge.
Convertor turns 120-volt AC into 12-volt DC...which is how an RV is wired. Not sure how LQ are wired.
Invertors turns the 12-volt DC into 120-volt AC.
Gens provide 12-volt DC.
You can buy small invertor that plug into your cig lighters to run...say radios, PC, TV's etc.
No...a 12V battery will not run all those things all day long. You use the gen to charge the batteries. There are some places that you can NOT run a gen from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM. So, you will not have air unless you are plugged into a land shore.
Also, if your LQ has a heat strip...be aware that it does not produce much heat in cold temps or much coolness in hot temps.
I am sure the LQ experts will jump into this discussions and give you more pointers.
Posted 2010-03-27 10:45 PM (#118074 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Regular
Posts: 93 Location: Newnan, GA
4. our monitoring system shows battery level, water tank level, gray and black tank levels. depending on the size and use of your toilet, is when you will want to dump your tank. you can buy a good holding tank deodorant at walmart. many rest areas and truck stops have dump stations. we can usually camp for a long weekend with 2 people and have never filled the black tank up but usually try to dump on our way home so that we are ready to go on the next trip.3. inverter or converter? your batteries will run all 12v systems - we have 2 batteries on our trailer that run the house - radio, water pump, lights etc. To run the tv or microwave, a/c we need to plug in or crank the generator. Again I have used my batteries for a day or two with lights running and some radio use and have kept a pretty full charge.2. propane runs our fridge for a long time. longer than i ever have to worry about it. you can put a gauge on it to make sure that you don't run out. and/ or just plug in at home or when you get to where you are going if possible. lp also runs our hot water heater (we have a choice to use electric) and our furnace - and again, with 2 tanks, we have never run out or come close.1. we use a lot of water and have even put in an extra tank. you can cut down on water use by supplying wet wipes and not using water to flush whenever possible. at some campgrounds we let our gray water tank drip so that it doesn't get full before we leave and can dump.relax, have fun, it will all be good! and find a handyman that doesn't charge $100+an hour to fix things when they break;)
Posted 2010-03-27 11:05 PM (#118076 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Expert
Posts: 2453 Location: Northern Utah
I dump the holding tank on the way home. I have to drive past an RV place that has a free dumping station. So it's convienent to stop and empty it. I just never was a fan of letting it sit full for any period of time.
The control panel that most LQ talk about. just gives you one place to look and see how full everything is. Water, batteries, black and Grey holding tanks. It's not difficult to figure out.
I usually top off the water the night before I left on trips. But I only drained it at the end of the season. So filling or topping off the tank wasn't a big deal. Just depends on how much water you will use during the day. Since you are doing day trips, I doubt there will be much use of the shower, So water consumption shouldn't be very high.
I left my fridge on all summer. Keep water and pop in there so I had a cold drink during or after a ride. My propane would last all summer on one fill up. I would occassionally plug the trailer into the house when I got home. So some of the fridges power cold came from electricity not propane.
Posted 2010-03-28 1:42 AM (#118079 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Veteran
Posts: 233 Location: Pataskala, Ohio
We do a 6 day vacation every year with no services. Over the last few years we have learned a few things.
We have a 100 gallon water tank in the trailer and a 65 gallon tank that goes in the truck. Water does not last long with 4 showers a day and dishes, we can make it about 4 days on that amount of water. We are legally allowed to dump gray water where we go so no eco-cops please.
Black tanks stink after that long. If you are able, dumped the black tank after every trip.
Well water will eat an anode rod fast. If you need hot water and are on a well with hard water like we are you will need to empty the hot water tank after every weekend.
The two, 20lbs propane tanks last a long time. For the entire trip, water heating, cooking, heat and running the refrigerator we did not use one tank. I think you will be able to run the refrigerator several months on a tank, but you would save money if you plugged it in when you get home. I keep our trailer plugged in most of the time just to keep the batteries up, I turn the fridge off if we have no plans to go anywhere.
If the trailer is equipped with a generator everything is there, inverters, converters. If you are using your own generator and your trailer is fairly new everything should still be there.
The 12 volt system will last only so long. We don’t have a TV so I cannot comment on those things. After 4 days of lights at night, showers and running the heat at night, I need to run the generator for a few hours to get the batteries charged. Our trailer has 2 deep cycle RV batteries; I am told that we are well setup for a 12 volt system.
Our control panel has a switch for checking battery charge, fresh water, gray water and black water levels, a switch to turn the fan on over the stove and a switch to turn the light on over the stove. It has a place to turn the generator on if we had on installed, we will have one soon.
Every summer we take a big vacation to Colorado from Ohio. We take our Jeep and it rides in the back, it thinks it is a horse and I have not told it any differently. We have a 4 horse with a 10’ SW LQ. This year we took our then 6 month old daughter with us. A trip like that would have been impossible or at least very difficult without the trailer. When she was done with riding in her car seat we would stop at a rest area and I would start the generator that was in the bed of the truck and we could use the air conditioner to stay comfortable. The trailer also makes for a great place to change a diaper and there was always fresh food and milk in the fridge.
Over the summer we keep the trailer stocked but in the fall when it is time to winterize anything that can freeze must be removed.
My biggest challenge has been water. From the hot water tank to the black tank, water is the most demanding. I have learned a few things from friends, drain the hot water tank as soon as you get home. Also Pine sol in the black and gray tanks keeps the odor down. To keep the black tank clean when it is about half full add a cup or so of Borax and drive for a little while of longer, I am told it will keep “stuff” from sticking to the bottom and will clean the sensors.
If you have specific RV questions I have learned a lot from www.rv.net
I hope this helps
Posted 2010-03-28 6:17 AM (#118080 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Extreme Veteran
Posts: 489
Thanks for all of the answers, you guys have been very helpful. I am assuming grey tank is shower and sink and black tank is toliet?
Also from reading the replies it appears that the one thing that is a must do every trip is to empty the hot water heater. On the day trips we won't be using a shower and we could do just fine with only cold water at the sink, is it possible to just keep the hot water heater off?
Posted 2010-03-28 8:53 AM (#118088 - in reply to #118074) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Elite Veteran
Posts: 792 Location: East Tennessee, USA, Planet Earth
Originally written by fastguard on 2010-03-27 10:45 PM
you can cut down on water use by supplying wet wipes and not using water to flush whenever possible. at some campgrounds we let our gray water tank drip so that it doesn't get full before we leave and can dump.relax, have fun, it will all be good! and find a handyman that doesn't charge $100+an hour to fix things when they break;)
If I am on a long camping trip and am boondocking, I conserve my water. HA! When I shower, I plug the tub, and scoop up the water to use for flushing. When I wash my dishes, I save that rinse water ...also for flushing. And if the soapy water is not greasy...I also save that for flushing (you don't want to put greasy water/stuff into your black tank, I also save the water that is running while I adjust the shower water.
If I watch my water use and conserve, my 20 gallon tank can last me ...5 days.
I bring drinking water bottles.
I think it's rude to let your gray tank drip onto the campground site. And in most if not all campground it's against the rules.
PLUS...when dumping, you want to dump your gray tank last, and that cleans your dump hose out.
Posted 2010-03-28 10:25 AM (#118092 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Regular
Posts: 85 Location: Galahad, AB, Canada
I personally would dump my black water after each use, unless you make a policy that the toilet is for urinating only! I've traveled too much in an RV to appreciate the small factor that occurs otherwise! No, your toilet/black water probably won't smell when it's sitting quietly, even when it's full. But I've found that when you drive down the road with a full black water tank, it aggitates and slops around, and this does create quite a smell! So our policy is - empty the tanks after each weekend. We use our local RV site, which has free service, and the process takes us only 5 minutes, so its worth doing.
It's interesting how people are warning you about emptying your hot water tank each time, and I'd never heard that before. We own a 13 year old holiday trailer that has NEVER had it's hot water tank emptied until the end of the season, and we haven't had any problems. And I live on a farm with VERY hard water - our sodium and calcium are very high. We quickly get calcium build up where water sits, and yet my hot water heater is problem free in both my house and in the RV. So I'm not sure if the extra work of emptying the hot water heater in your trailer will be necessary or not. I guess you'll have to see how time consuming it is, and go from there.
We normally unload our fridge after each trip, but if you are going out every weekend it would make sense to keep it running. It will save time if you don't have to haul supplies back and forth each time. Plugging in the trailer will make the fridge run on electricity, which will be cheaper than propane.
You won't need a PhD in RV to enjoy your trailer. You're wise to be doing your homework now, and you'll learn as you go along. New trailers come with instruction manuals, take the time to read yours. Also, look online or talk to your dealer, he can give you alot of information on trailer care. On our RV the amount of time spent on trailer care is minimal. We empty our holding tanks after each use. We add water each time we go out, and we occasionally drank the entire tank if we aren't using it for a few weeks. At the end of the season we blow out our system so it won't freeze. In live in Canada, and it can get to -40C here, so we need to take care that way, but with experience we've learned to simply blow out the fresh water tank and we don't put in the antifreeze there - it takes forever to get that taste out. We've never had anything crack or break with blowing out the fresh water, we do put in antifreeze into the traps. We never drain our hot water tanks until fall. So besides the basic cleaning it takes us very little time to care for the RV. I think you'll find it quite manageable, too.
Posted 2010-03-29 2:06 PM (#118150 - in reply to #118063) Subject: RE: Do I need a PhD in RV?
Veteran
Posts: 229
blackcows, I also do not drain my water tank until the end of the season. One of my LQ trailers is an 05 and I have not yet replaced the anode. It's getting a bit eaten and I think that I'll replace it next year. I'm just a bit lazy and would rather just buy a new anode. (the anode is a rod that is part of the drain plug). If you don't blow the air out of the lines for winter and instead pull the anti freeze through your system, don't let the anti freeze go into the hot water tank. Most trailers have HW bypass valves to prevent this from happening. You just need to make sure that you switch the valves back and forth from winterizing to unwinterizing. All trailers are a little bit different. Have the seller go over everything with you to show you how it works, both so you can get an understanding of your systems and also so that both you and the seller can verify that everything is operational at time of purchase.
Do I need a PhD in RV?
