Ok, I'm very green when it comes to campers. Just bought this 15ft 1978 Sunline and am the first one in my family to ever go camping, I actually haven't been yet. Since manuals for these are hard to come by, I am trying to figure out how to work/prep it. To use the toilet, I know you fill the water tank from an outside valve near the door, under the stove. Now there is a valve to empty out what I guess would be the toilet waste on the bottom of the camper around the other side. There is also that pipe that stores into the back bumper and I assume would connect to that. Now my questions are, Is filling up the water tank the only thing I need to do to have the toilet operational? Do I just empty it through that side pipe to clear it up once it's full? How do I know when it's full and how do I clean it up, let's say after a trip? I'm trying to figure out how to work it since I don't know much about these things and its an older model. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks!!
Filling the water tank is just the first step. The toilet (and kitchen/bathroom sink for that matter) use the water pump to pressurize the system and allow the water to flow. This of course is only if you aren't hooked up to a city water hookup. The switch to turn the water pump on/off is probably by the entry door. You will want to get in the habit of turning this switch off when you're done with the water so that if you do have a leak, it won't keep pressurizing the system.
When you are done using everything, yes, you'll have to drain the holding tank for the toilet. The coach actually has three holding tanks total- one for the fresh water, one for gray sink water, and one for black toilet water. The toilet tank and sink water tank both drain from the same large port on the left side of the trailer. Look close, there should be two valves over there.
The fresh water tank should have a small drain valve close to the tank outside, and it probably has a small drain tube. It may be underneath the trailer, so you might have to get down and look under the general area of where the tank is.
There's no precise way to measure how full the tank is. They later came out with tank level monitors, but yours wouldn't have it. You'll just have to watch down the toilet pipe when you have the valve open...if you start to see stuff, you'll want to empty it soon.
It's also important to clean the tank. RV dealers sell a little pipe thing that goes down into the tank through the toilet and hooks to a garden hose to clean it out. You can also use ice cubes in it and drive it around. Of course this all needs to be done when the tank is empty. The key is to run lots of water through it and watch what comes out. You can buy a clear elbow piece to go between the trailer and your drain hose so you can see.
It's also a good idea to run some toilet chemicals through also. Dump them in a freshly cleaned tank and it'll help break down the stuff you put down as it comes in. You can get that from an RV dealer, Wal-Mart, etc.
Jon
