Bought the 5th Wheel, what do I do now!?

cowgirljessi33 · Mar 25, 2016

WE DID IT!!!

My partner and I bought a NuWa Hitchhiker II and have almost completely moved in to it. We have been living out of it for a couple weeks now, but it's just been parked next to his dad's house. Safety. Security. All the comforts of home.

We live in CO, so of course it has snowed three times since we moved in. And once we found out that the vents had not all been shut. And we've already burned something out on the electrical board for the water heater by trying to run it while the water hose was frozen and therefore inoperable. So here's to a steep learning curve!

We are moving on Monday, provided there's not too much snow.

Wanted advice, we seemed to fill up all our tanks and then some of the water backed up into the shower. Now there seems to be water in one spot on our floor...soaking the carpet. But it's just in one spot. I don't even know where to start to look for the leak...or is it not a leak but because we over-filled our tank capacity?

We are...what do we do? I'm working my way through the manual but feel like such a newbie.

Thanks all!!

Cowgirl

rvwandering · Mar 25, 2016

Hmm.. I'm trying to figure out how you got water backing up in your shower from filling your fresh water. The only way that should happen is if you hooked up to flush your gray water tank (not all RVs have this option) and you had the sewer closed. When the gray tank filled it would back up to the lowest spot which is the shower. I may be misunderstanding this though. Did you fill up your gray tank by using water for showers and washing dishes and then it came up in the shower? That will happen if your tanks are matched closely but it shouldn't make your carpet wet.

Where is the carpet wet? Since it's been so cold you may have a broken water line. Or you could have a break in the caulking along one of the outside seams that is allowing water into the walls then along the floor.

rvwandering · Mar 25, 2016

Thinking about this a little more, if the drain lines in the shower are not tightened enough when the water backed up it may have leaked out under the shower and soaked your rug. If that's the case it should dry out in a few days. If you have a small portable heater use it to dry the carpet as quickly as possible to avoid problems with mold, mildew and warping.

highdesertranger · Mar 25, 2016

when you say "we filled all our tanks" what tanks did you fill? you should only fill one tank, your fresh water tank. but like T and K said you might have froze a line. highdesertranger

TMG51 · Mar 25, 2016

If something burned out on your water heater due to a "frozen line," then that was almost surely the element. If you turn an electric water heater on with no water in it, the element burns out almost instantaneously.

As for what to do now? Fix the water heater, maybe slap a solar panel on the roof, throw all your maps out the window and hit the road.