mxcrock1112@yahoo.com Report post Posted January 11, 2010 Hi all, I'm doing research on RVs and was wondering if there is any special sort of device that keeps the water tank, or waste tank, level while driving. Also more generally looking for unique features/technologies that RVs use that the average person would be interested in learning about. Is there anything really cool that makes RVing possible? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wolfe10 Report post Posted January 11, 2010 Hi all, I'm doing research on RVs and was wondering if there is any special sort of device that keeps the water tank, or waste tanks level while driving. Also more generally looking for unique features/technologies that RVs use that the average person would be interested in learning about. Is there anything really cool that makes RVing possible? Welcome to the FMCA forum. No, there are no "leveling devices" for tanks while driving. They are firmly bolted in place. Just as in fuel tanks, many are baffled to reduce sloshing. There are several types of leveling devices once you are parked, including jacks and air leveling. Brett Wolfe Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tbutler Report post Posted January 12, 2010 There are lots of cool things that make RVing easier. RVing is possible without any of these. When we got our current motor home it had a lot of nice features that made life easier and more convenient on the road. Here are just a few... We have air leveling which is automatic. No jacks to worry about sinking into the ground or breaking up the asphalt. I press a button twice, once to determine the state of level and the second time to activate the automatic leveling. This starts by dumping all the air out of the air bags so we will be at the lowest level (reduces the height of the step above the ground when you exit). When we get a little out of level (maybe a wheel sinks into the ground a little or the waste tanks get a little heavier, it never notices when I move from the rear to the front of the coach ) then the system automatically re-levels. It checks every half hour and adjusts as necessary. Now I consider this real sweet. I used to carry a set of boards to keep the jacks from sinking in on soft spots. I would get down on all 4s to position the boards and occasionally have to add boards as the jacks pushed down into the ground. When we are ready to move, I press the "Travel Mode" button and wait for the air pressure to come up. Bring in the slides and we're ready to go. Life is easier now. Once upon a time I set up a satellite dish manually, aiming it manually at a satellite (this is the very definition of tedious) and connecting it by cable to the input on the coach. Now I have an automatic dish. Flip a switch to activate the search and in a minute or two we have satellite television service. It is so convenient that we often stop at a rest stop and pick up satellite signal and get the latest information, news or weather while we have lunch. Our first motor home had no slide outs so much of the travel was one way only. We still have a traffic jam at the refrigerator but with two slides we can easily move around most of the coach. You can have three or four slides for even more room and they make a full wall slide that takes out a large section of one whole side. Some floor plans are eliminating the refrigerator traffic jam by putting the refrigerator in a different location than ours. We have a generator as we did with our first motor home. The inverter (this is a must have item in my motor home - AC current 24/7 keeps DW happy) with this one has an auto start function that takes care of keeping the batteries charged when we aren't hooked up to shore power. When the battery charge drops below a preset level the generator comes on to charge them and then goes off once they are charged. It can even start the generator when the thermostat calls for the air conditioners! Like all great inventions, this one has given us some trouble. I'm still struggling to get this to work properly after we upgraded to a true sine wave model with greater capacity. I thought I was getting something better but it hasn't proven to be so yet. I love the power cable reel in this motor home. Beats handling the heavy power cable by hand, lifting it into a bay when finished. We have a macerator for the sewer that give us flexibility in how we handle emptying waste tanks. I use the macerator for long distance runs instead of keeping long sections of the 3" stinky slinky around. Slide trays in the storage compartments make it easy to access the "stuff" in the center of the storage compartments, especially in pass through storage compartments. I have installed tire pressure monitors on the motor home and the toad. This is a peace of mind thing. I know that I should get a least some advance warning of tire problems before it becomes critical. We have power door locks on the house door and the compartment doors. One button locks and unlocks all the compartments. Both of our motor homes have had back up cameras. I wouldn't have such a large vehicle without one. I usually have guidance from DW but it is reassuring to know that I can also see what is going on. Now, our coach is not the top-of-the line for conveniences; there are much fancier coaches with other great conveniences. It is just a matter of how many you feel you want, need and/or can afford. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
