Oh yes I did....

[loganmartin]

Originally Posted by D-mo

Lots of confusion here cause lots of TT contributing to this thread ...
Anywhoo ... no .. a 2000 watt honda gennie will not power your overhead AC units ... period. Our A-frames have a 10500 btu cool cat .. which takes much less power .. and can be powered by 2000 watts. This is good to know for me .. as i have one sitting in my basement .. never used .. and will be a necessity when we travel down south this fall.
As for the water, I had basically the same thing happen to me last summer, where i was sure the tank was filled, but it was not, due to the large amount of pressure provided by the water fillup hose thingy at a particular campsite. I would suggest going low and slow ... take your time and burp the tank at the end. My FW tank and pump have real issues if you try to fast track the filling process.

d-mo

Thanks d-mo. I was heading in the low and slow direction for my next filling. How do you "burp the tank" so to speak?

LM

[D-mo]

just let it fill up, you will get a rush of water out of the spout of the tank no matter how slow you fill it .. then let the water pushout .. and it will receed down the fill spout. I seem to remember somewhere on these forum where people were discussing the lack of hookup between the little air hose thingy that provides air to the FW tank coming into play with filling up the tank. In my 2005 Coachman .. when filling, i would hear a rush of air coming out of the air passage, but with the Aframe, i hear nothing of such ... therefore .. i think some of ours have not been correctly installed. i will check once the camper is out of the garage ...

d-mo

[loganmartin]

Originally Posted by D-mo

just let it fill up, you will get a rush of water out of the spout of the tank no matter how slow you fill it .. then let the water pushout .. and it will receed down the fill spout. I seem to remember somewhere on these forum where people were discussing the lack of hookup between the little air hose thingy that provides air to the FW tank coming into play with filling up the tank. In my 2005 Coachman .. when filling, i would hear a rush of air coming out of the air passage, but with the Aframe, i hear nothing of such ... therefore .. i think some of ours have not been correctly installed. i will check once the camper is out of the garage ...

d-mo

Gotcha....sounds like the system is just a little finicky. I'll have to just pull up a chair the next time so I can massage it a little..lol.

LM

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by D-mo

Lots of confusion here cause lots of TT contributing to this thread ...

Guilty

Be safe out there!

[backpacker3]

The talk about venting the FW tank reminded me that on my A Frame, I noticed that the tank wasn't venting when filling it, so I crawled under the camper and found the vent tubing had a kink in it thus not allowing it to vent the tank. I un kinked it and I can now fill the FW tank to the top. May be worth taking a look see under your A Frame at the vent line.

[loganmartin]

Originally Posted by backpacker3

The talk about venting the FW tank reminded me that on my A Frame, I noticed that the tank wasn't venting when filling it, so I crawled under the camper and found the vent tubing had a kink in it thus not allowing it to vent the tank. I un kinked it and I can now fill the FW tank to the top. May be worth taking a look see under your A Frame at the vent line.

Forgive me, but what am I looking for? Where on the FW tank is the vent tubing? Is there an an open end to the vent tube?

Sorry, this IS my first rodeo.

LM

[TURBS]

go to your rv store and buy this !
you'll have a lot easier time filling .
as the hose goes down your fill tube a ways and seems to help a lot

[loganmartin]

Originally Posted by f1100turbo

go to your rv store and buy this ! Attachment 11717
you'll have a lot easier time filling .
as the hose goes down your fill tube a ways and seems to help a lot

thanks!...btw, from your earlier post about filling the wh first...I had assumed that the water heater would automatically fill when filling the fw tank..is this not the case? Is filling the water heater a separate task altogether?

LM

[OldCoot]

You have to either put water in the fw tank and use the onboard pump or hook up the city water connection and go to the water heater and pop the releif valve until there is no air coming out. Then go open the hot & cold water faucets (all of them) until they have a steady stream of water. Then, fill the fw tank. This way, all the lines will be full as well as the water heater.

[TURBS]

yes! first you need to open the relief valve at the top of hw heater then turn pump on and let the hw heater fill while your filling fw tank .
then when water spits out the top of the hw heater then you can close it .
what I do next is go around and open faucets on the hw side and bleed out the air .

[gregory]

Originally Posted by loganmartin

Forgive me, but what am I looking for? Where on the FW tank is the vent tubing? Is there an an open end to the vent tube?

Sorry, this IS my first rodeo.

LM

The screened hole on the left is the vent. Gary says that it makes a noise (whistling?) as the air moves out of it. The vent hole is pretty small and can't keep up if the water goes in too quickly and that is when you can get a water rush back at you.



You can see where the tubing bends and I imagine that is where backpacker3 had the kink. The ribbed hose is the water inlet, clear tubing is the vent and the cross hatch tube is the city water inlet hose. Of course the copper tubing is the gas line.



This is where the vent tube goes into/out of the holding tank.


hth,
Deb

[gregory]

Originally Posted by herk7769

Guilty

Be safe out there!

Eh, no worries. We are all so ready to get the camping season started and also excited to answer questions from loganmartin, who is not new to camping, but is new to Aframes!

btw, Here is a pic of the drain adapter with the little cap to prevent insects from building nests in it. Gary puts our cap in the shower door for safe keeping while the drain is in use.



Deb

[loganmartin]

wow! thanks Deb for pics of those lines. Pics really do help. I'm going to get to crawling here today and check it out. Thanks again

LM

[loganmartin]

Originally Posted by f1100turbo

yes! first you need to open the relief valve at the top of hw heater then turn pump on and let the hw heater fill while your filling fw tank .
then when water spits out the top of the hw heater then you can close it .
what I do next is go around and open faucets on the hw side and bleed out the air .

Ok thanks Ron. I will try this. My tech at the walk through said I didn't need to fool with the relief valve which didn't make sense to me at the time. I just figured the valve automatically worked on it's own. It would have been helpful to know there was a seperate process for filling the hw heater. I'm assuming that all rv fw/wh systems function the same and require this process you explained?

LM

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by loganmartin

I just figured the valve automatically worked on it's own.

Logan, using the relief valve is not a requirement. The HW heater will fill on its own provided you do not turn it on!; open the winterizing valves; close the bypass valve; and open a hot water tap.

However, using it will fill the tank faster; ensures the tank is full before you fire up the heat; checks that the valve has not corroded closed; and seats again, sealing the port.

[loganmartin]

Originally Posted by herk7769

Logan, using the relief valve is not a requirement. The HW heater will fill on its own provided you do not turn it on!; open the winterizing valves; close the bypass valve; and open a hot water tap.

However, using it will fill the tank faster; ensures the tank is full before you fire up the heat; checks that the valve has not corroded closed; and seats again, sealing the port.

Ok...there is that common theme popping up again of "there's more than one way to skin a cat" with these systems. Since I have no water level indicators, I am probably better off using the pressure valve when filling so that I have tangible evidence that it is filled rather than just assuming it is filled.

Thanks again everyone. I am looking forward to the day I can take the training wheels off.

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by loganmartin

Ok...there is that common theme popping up again of "there's more than one way to skin a cat" with these systems. Since I have no water level indicators, I am probably better off using the pressure valve when filling so that I have tangible evidence that it is filled rather than just assuming it is filled.

Thanks again everyone. I am looking forward to the day I can take the training wheels off.

Yes the whole skin the cat deal!
I have used the pressured relief valve method for over 10
years and it works for me so I'm happy!
have fun man that's all that counts!

[D-mo]

ok ... thanks for those pics .. they are great ..
But am I the only one that is noticing a flaw here? Should not the air vent be way towards the top of the tank??? that way bleeding the tank of unwanted air, instead of pushing water up the air tube?

d-mo

[Herk7769]

The perspective is a bit funny, but that port is at the top of the tank; just mounted on the side. I assume the logic is that if they mounted the vent on the top and you hit a hard bump; it could break off.

[D-mo]

ok .. i see that now... thx for clearing that up.

d-mo