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General Water system and refrig questions


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Hello all, bought my 1978 sunrader last fall and took it on a 2.5 month winter trip. The little toy did great(although definitely a little slow in the mountains!)

Now it is time to get the water systems going for the first time. My toy did not come with any manuals. First of all, how do I fill the tank? I know there is a connection for a hose on the back end. There is also some kind of slide out hole thingy on the passenger side that looks like it could have something to do with the water system. How do you know when it is full, etc.

The system also has some rv antifreeze in it, I'm still searching the forum for the answer but what is the best way to get this all cleaned out?

Any gotcha's I should be looking for as I start using the water?

On another topic my 3 way refrig is missing the igniter for the ignition. I think I found a place to manually light this on the back of the frig but I never had any luck. Any tips or ideas on this one?

Thanks for any help,

Stephen

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the hose hookup you use in a full hookup camp use a pressure reducer on the fawcet before the hose good to pressare test all plumbing at home the other thing is the waterfill for the tank some have fancy gauges for the tanks myn has none i just fill up tell it wont take any more turn on pump flush it all out you can get an adapter screw on hose to stick in water fill makes easer my tank is clear i lift up the seat check level with a flashlight after you flush out some people put a little bleach in to disinfect the system then flush out allsystem the real small friges light frm outside with a push button ingter

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As 5Toyota says;

The hose connection connects your plumbing directly to your city water, via the hose. Buy and use a regulator on the hose, else face possibility of blowing out your plumbing due to high water pressure. (they're less than $15 )

The little slide out thingy is where you fill your fresh water tank. You can probably stick the hose in there and it simply gravity fills the tank. You know when its filled as water will run out. ( I added a valve to my City Water connection so I can fill the fresh tank from the city water connection, not a big time saver, but a little more convenient)

For your first hook up, I would hook the hose up to the city water, (through a regulator of course) and then turn the water on. Make sure someone is ready to turn the water off. if you discover a water leak.

Watch for leaks. You may have a couple Winter Drain valves that need to be closed.

Run all the faucets and flush the toilet until you get a good stream of continuous water, no air. through each faucet. Turn everything off and then check everywhere for leaks. (you should be under City water pressure)

When everything is OK (no leaks), Disconnect the city water hose and cap the fitting. Fill the fresh water tank about 1/2 full using the slide thingy. Turn your pump on and check for leaks around the pump, etc. ( you'll need to turn a faucet on to get initial water to flow through the pump)

When you happy and no leaks, dump about 1 cup of Bleach in the fresh tank, then fill it the rest of the way with water.

Turn your pump on and run each faucet, one at a time (hot and cold) until you get a strong odor of bleach in the water. (don't forget the toilet)

NOTE - If you have a hot water heater, this could take as much as 6 gallons to fill)

Leave this sit for 1/2 hour.

Turn on the pump and goto the farthest hot water faucet, turn it on and run the fresh tank empty.

Refill the fresh tank and then go around and run all the faucets again to get the bleach out of the lines, goto the farthest Hot water faucet and again run the tank empty.

Fill the fresh tank again, and your ready to go.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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Thank you for a very easy to understand primer - I'm going to copy it and keep it in a binder along with other how-to information. Needless to say, you will fill your gray and black tanks doing this. Where do you drain the tanks? Are the neighbors likely to freak if I drain the tanks into the street?

brad

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Thanks so much for the information. Off to the store I go for a hose so I can get this done, happened to find a regulator in a box of stuff that came with it today as I was cleaning things out! What a treat it will be to have water....until I have to start repairing leaks of coursedry.gif

Stephen

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Brad;

I live out in the country and have a septic tank. When we repaired the septic tank cover several years ago I installed a riser that comes up to the surface and has a cover on it.

I can remove the cover and drain my Toyhouse directly into my septic tank.

If you know the water in the black and gray is clean, I wouldn't have any problems dumping it on the ground. but only do this if your absolutely positive the tanks are clean.

Steve

Everyone uses their Toyhouse a little different. We haven't used the shower or the hot water heater, although they both work. We mainly use the fresh water tank tocook with, flush the toilet, and wash dishes. We use bottled water for drinking and our morning coffee (Mr Coffiee plugged into 1500 watt inverter)

John MC

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

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  • 3 years later...
Guest Cossack

As 5Toyota says;

The hose connection connects your plumbing directly to your city water, via the hose. Buy and use a regulator on the hose, else face possibility of blowing out your plumbing due to high water pressure. (they're less than $15 )

The little slide out thingy is where you fill your fresh water tank. You can probably stick the hose in there and it simply gravity fills the tank. You know when its filled as water will run out. ( I added a valve to my City Water connection so I can fill the fresh tank from the city water connection, not a big time saver, but a little more convenient)

For your first hook up, I would hook the hose up to the city water, (through a regulator of course) and then turn the water on. Make sure someone is ready to turn the water off. if you discover a water leak.

Watch for leaks. You may have a couple Winter Drain valves that need to be closed.

Run all the faucets and flush the toilet until you get a good stream of continuous water, no air. through each faucet. Turn everything off and then check everywhere for leaks. (you should be under City water pressure)

When everything is OK (no leaks), Disconnect the city water hose and cap the fitting. Fill the fresh water tank about 1/2 full using the slide thingy. Turn your pump on and check for leaks around the pump, etc. ( you'll need to turn a faucet on to get initial water to flow through the pump)

When you happy and no leaks, dump about 1 cup of Bleach in the fresh tank, then fill it the rest of the way with water.

Turn your pump on and run each faucet, one at a time (hot and cold) until you get a strong odor of bleach in the water. (don't forget the toilet)

NOTE - If you have a hot water heater, this could take as much as 6 gallons to fill)

Leave this sit for 1/2 hour.

Turn on the pump and goto the farthest hot water faucet, turn it on and run the fresh tank empty.

Refill the fresh tank and then go around and run all the faucets again to get the bleach out of the lines, goto the farthest Hot water faucet and again run the tank empty.

Fill the fresh tank again, and your ready to go.

John Mc

88 Dolphin 4 Auto

Thanks now i know how to do this. As my 21ft Rader didn't come with any manuals.

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Some of the city water connections in Toy homes already have a water pressure reducing capability built into them. My Sunrader which still has its original 1980 fitting has one of those types meaning its nothing new. No point in spending extra bucks if you already have what you need so do figure out what type you have before you rush out and buy something you might not need.

Here is an example of one of the types of connections with built in water pressure reducing.

http://www.amazon.com/SHURFLO-183-029-14-Chrome-Filler-Regulator/dp/B002OUPFOU/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1434041756&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=shurflow+rv+city+water

51esMIyEaaL._SY450_.jpg

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Thank you for a very easy to understand primer - I'm going to copy it and keep it in a binder along with other how-to information. Needless to say, you will fill your gray and black tanks doing this. Where do you drain the tanks? Are the neighbors likely to freak if I drain the tanks into the street?

brad

They were referring to flushing the fresh water tanks and lines, not the sewerage tanks. :greedy:

The water you are draining is no different than washing your car or watering your lawn.

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Before I discovered this board I went to camping world and they had several books on RV'ing. I got The RV handbook and it's great, there are many others thou. Not too much $ for a lot of information. Good luck.

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  • 1 month later...

I am still having trouble figuring out where my water pump goes, seeing as how I bought it missing and also another piece, some people saying an inverter, or something else I went to Camping World and they had no idea and were not very helpful at all, anyone know or have any pictures of the hosing and hookups for electrical and water for a 87 dolphin ( I think mine is the 500 series)

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I'm a little confused if you knew it was missing you might have known where it was missing from! OK the previous owner told you. Some times the manufactures were pretty clever at putting them in spots that were not at all convenient usually they are close to the fresh water tank hopefully the water lines are still there, there should be two. The electrical part most likely is the converter/charger. It should be near the breaker or fuse panel or even inside of it now would be the time to replace it with a modern one. To me Camping World is the Wal Mart of the RV industry. I don't buy any thing from them and they are less than 10 miles from me.

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I acquired the dolphin on lein sale so no luck gaining any knowledge of what the owner was previously working in (including a lot of unfinished re-wiring, missing hoses, and a multitude of other missing broken items, I have had a couple of people try and help me figure out some of the plumbing and electrical but they do not know to much about the older models of rvs so they told me I was for sure missing a couple of needed items they just didn't know where the appropriate place was since I am missing hoses and wiring from both sides of the rv

post-8222-0-61915800-1438313932_thumb.jppost-8222-0-47205500-1438314133_thumb.jppost-8222-0-79449500-1438314319_thumb.jppost-8222-0-86522600-1438314523_thumb.jppost-8222-0-16097900-1438314732_thumb.jppost-8222-0-03258800-1438314918_thumb.jppost-8222-0-06676800-1438315160_thumb.jp

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pict no 6 is where the rv deep cycle goes a group 27 will fit in there. pict no 5 is where shore power cord to the converter should be. for the water pump look at the water tank there should be a gravity suction port somewhere on one end or side of the tank . the water pump is most always mounted very close to the tank.

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