98 Georgetown water/electrical questions

[RollingBlunder]

Does anyone know how to get water into the fresh water tank without using a pressurized line (city water hose).

I've read on some RV's there is a switch to draw water from a non pressurized source like a bucket using the water pump but I don't think that works on the Georgetown, The tank and pump are under the bed in the back.. it looks like it comes directly from the tank so I can't see how it could be used to pump water into the tank.. also there is no switch in the water bay.

I also can't find any way to pour water into the tank.. it appears sealed.

We need to sanitize the lines.. we've bought a camco hand pump.. It's for winterizing but it's the only way I can figure to get bleach water into the system.

also does anyone know what size tank came on the 303?
It's not marked and the manual that came with the RV is very generic.


As for the electrical
Does anyone know if there is a chassis battery disconnect? and where?
I've read a lot of RV have one but I can't find it for the Chassis.
We've had it sitting for about a week while supplies and parts came in the mail and the chassis battery went flat.

We've had it plugged into the house but apparently that does nothing for chassis battery and to make things worse it seems like the steps, lp leak detector and (probably) generator runs off the chassis battery.

How do people keep their chassis battery from going dead when parked but the rv is in use?

Also why don't they just wire the leak detector to the house batteries?
I think that is what the main battery drain was.

Does anyone have an electrical schematic for this motor home?
Im constantly scratching my head as to why the things are wired the way they are, it's almsot like they engineer these things for problems.

Thanks guys/gals.

[Freds342]

My 2000 had a 70-gallon fresh tank, so yours probably does.

To get water in the tank, you'll have to buy an RV water pump, mount it on a board, and suck water out of portable tanks. I use the collapsible ones from Wally Mart. You'll have to kludge up some hoses to the pump, but once done, it's done. I carry mine in a little Harbor Fright black bag. One of the handiest "mods" I've made.

[Krazymace]

I get bleach in the system by pouring it down the hose before I connect to MH. Doesn't take much

[cjd10]

The GT I traded in on my current coach was a 1998 303.
The only battery disconnect on mine was the one by the front door and it did not disconnect the chassis battery. However, as long as it was plugged into shore power all the battery's would charge. If I left it unplugged for any length of time I would physically disconnect the chassis battery. The generator started off the coach battery's and would not start if the disconnect switch was off.
I want to say the fresh water tank was 60 or 70 gal. but not sure on that. Definitely bigger than on the newer models There was a paper stuck on the inside of one of the cabinet doors above the couch that had a listing of some of the items installed and I believe the water tank is listed there. Only the one way to fill it that I know of. There should be a valve and a hose next to the water pump under the bed for winterizing.

[Cornelius]

To add bleach to the water tank, I attach the hose to the tank fill connector and pour bleach into the hose using a funnel. Then attach the hose to the water faucet and fill. If you don't have access to a pressurized water supply, you could try one of these: 12 Volt Marine Utility Water Pump

[RollingBlunder]

Thanks for the replies, much appreciated.

@cjd10
That's just it it's been sitting for a week hooked up to house AC while I waited for parts and what not.. you should see the monster water regulator I built lol.
The RV came with almost nothing.. only a dump hose and a 25ft water hose.. so had to order a ton of stuff.

Anyway even though it's been hooked up 100% of the time to house AC and the only appliance running is the fridge, the chassis battery went dead, we had to use battery boost to get it started.. I wonder if a relay or something is messed up.

was your manual also very generic?

There is a taped page on the cabinet above the sink with appliance SN's.. did'nt give it a lot of thought but I will definitely check it for tank size.

as long as I have ball park that's good enough.
everything I've read has said you want 1/4 or 1/2 bleach per 15gal supply.. So I wanted to make sure to measure it out.. im afraid if I just pour it in the hose first I wont get enough into the system.

Putting in an accessory pump for this tasks seems like a good idea, I'll look into that down the road, for now I guess I'll just use the winterizing hand pump to get some solution into the system before filling... shouldn't be to big a deal but it would be a pain to try and fill the tanks using a hand pump.

anyone happen to know where I can find a schematic for the electrical?
I know that's probably a tall order.

oh also cjd10 did you run on AC with your house battery off?
I've read this is good at least on some RV's because it can save your house batteries from being overcharged by the converter.

[cjd10]

Not sure why the chassis battery isn't charging while connected to house AC if the battery disconnect switch is turned on. Might be the previous owner disconnected it somewhere as I know I had problems with the chassis battery overcharging occasionally.

I did have to have the coach batterys turned on to run the air conditioners. The thermostats on the wall had no 12V without it. Not sure if it came that way as the owner before me had the bedroom air condioner added after he bought it and that might have changed how it was wired.

Never had any wiring diagrams but the central location for all of the connections on mine were at the beaker box under the bed. The tranfer switch was just behind the box and the converter was mounted directly below the breaker box. There was a junction box under the couch where the AC from the generator fed up and then back to the transfer switch. I did not have slides or jacks on mine so I cant say how or where those would be wired.

Is your MH on the P30 chassis with the auto park system? If so there are some things you need to be aware of .

[RollingBlunder]

Originally Posted by cjd10

Not sure why the chassis battery isn't charging while connected to house AC if the battery disconnect switch is turned on. Might be the previous owner disconnected it somewhere as I know I had problems with the chassis battery overcharging occasionally.

I did have to have the coach batterys turned on to run the air conditioners. The thermostats on the wall had no 12V without it. Not sure if it came that way as the owner before me had the bedroom air condioner added after he bought it and that might have changed how it was wired.

The AC is mounted roughly middle of the MH, just 1 ac, it has a ducted system, you can either get a lot of flow directly from the AC or a little flow all the way thru the place.

Originally Posted by cjd10

Never had any wiring diagrams but the central location for all of the connections on mine were at the beaker box under the bed. The tranfer switch was just behind the box and the converter was mounted directly below the breaker box. There was a junction box under the couch where the AC from the generator fed up and then back to the transfer switch. I did not have slides or jacks on mine so I cant say how or where those would be wired.

ya the main breakers and converter appear to be mounted in the bed frame.. I did not see any junction box near the couch but i'll take a closer look nice time im out there... the Genny is located roughly about where the couch is.

Originally Posted by cjd10

Is your MH on the P30 chassis with the auto park system? If so there are some things you need to be aware of .

No it's a ford F53.. weird they had more then one chassis for a given model / year?

This all started when we could'nt get the steps to pull out, we thought it was a sensor problem on the door.. then we noticed the LP detector light was very dim..

Eventually we decided to disconnect from AC, and start the MH, thats when we noticed the radio's LCD back light came on but that's it, no time, or anything wouldn't work, we tried to start it and got nothing, we got it started with battery boost and steps and everything started working..

right now im thinking wiring the LP detector to teh house batteries and putting a disconnect on the chassis battery might be a quick solution.. I know it's really bad for normal lead acid car batteries to get drained flat like that.. don't take to many times of that kinda abuse to ruin one. and it happen in about a week so that could end up begin a serious problem.

[RollingBlunder]

cjd10, Checked under the couch, there is a junction box it's in the upper left hand corner where the kitchen counter and wall meet, It's completely enclosed but does have wires coming either into or out of it headed towards the rear of the MH.
The power station in back is a Magnetek 6300 (series)
Need to research this what kinda track record it has.

EDIT: Oh also I tried switching the house battery off while on AC.
I heard the vest fan change speed so I guess the converter must not be very strong.. only thing I had running was 2 vent fans, no lights.

Had a crappy day yesterday.. finally got down to bleaching the lines..
Looks like the check valves are going bad on the intakes, they trip a little bit.. the fill tank line being the worse of the two, probably not an expensive fix I just hope I can get to it by unscrewing the flashing around the connectors and don't have to take a bunch of stuff apart to get to it.

Also the water tank apparently has a leak.. it was dented in on one corner.. we knew this before hand it looked like it had been patched.. the guy told us it did not leak.. but he probably didn't know and didn't make him fill the tank ALL the way up just enough to check the pump.

Anyway does anyone have an idea on what to use to patch a plastic water tank? i'd normally just hit it with some good 2 part epoxy but since this is fresh water it's gotta be non toxic.. any ideas?

Oh ya.. also chassis battery went dead.. again.. even though we have'nt had the LP detector on and the steps have only been moved in or out like 3 times.. no radio use, im not sure where the drain is coming from.. perhaps the battery is just bad.. im gonna disconnect it and take it to the auto store for testing..

I don't think it was bad when we got it.. it started right up.. and I know from exp a bad battery usually will not crank a engine.. but we'll see.. since it's be flattened twice recently it may very well be bad NOW if it was'nt before.

The generator seems to start off the house battery, so thats good, but did not seem to charge the chassis battery.. I gave it a minute or two and checked the steps and leak detector, So I went over and held the battery boost down for a minute.. the detector came to life, steps moved..

Im thinking of calling forest river and picking their brains.. but my first thought would be to install a disconnect for the chassis battery, and a toggle switch to link batteries.
that way could protect the chassis battery from draining and also link them for charging, or for powering the steps, detector when the chassis is disconnected.

anyone else do mods like this?