60+ day maiden voyage in a 21, newbie thoughts and tips

If the water in the tank has been standing more than a week, I may add a small amount of bleach for sanitation once in a while.

I don't worry about a week or maybe two, but if beyond that, I usually just drain the tanks and refill. I will do a good bleach rinse as needed, should we (read wifey) think the water has any off taste to it, though it has been a couple years now.
 
We use bottled water from vending machines to drink at home as our water is so hard even though it is muni- but still from wells- that we need two Culligan exchange tanks each month. Our daughter prefers the home fridge water that has a built in filter, but we prefer the vended water. Don't like RO units under the sink.

Jim you may be right about the mpg with the Yukon, but I sure notice the difference in handling when towing empty; it sure feels lighter. Our last trip(3400 mi) averaged 13.4.

We don't always buy our drinking water; in places like Glacier or Mt. Shasta where the water is great we just use it too. But at a lot of places you don't know the source. One campground had signs stating the water was not suitable for drinking.
 
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What does "RO" mean? Reverse osmosis? Just curious.


Yes. Reverse Osmosis. A good one will set you back a chunk of money, and we wouldn't put one in the trailer. We love our home unit. The water is better than any bottled brand we've tried. Sure makes a difference in cooking and in coffee.
 
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Reverse osmosis uses pressure to force the liquid thru a semipermeable membrane which captures the contaminants, not sure your pump can operate a set up in your trailer.
 
Don't believe anyone suggested it for a TT; just mentioned it as to why we use bottled water with refillable jugs both at home and on the road. I don't like RO units under my kitchen sink at home as they take up a lot of space and need maintenance and have heard of them on occasion malfunctioning and running a lot of water into a septic tank.

We feel more comfortable using a 3 gallon jug we fill in front of grocery stores or inside stores like Walmart and then fill a single one gallon jug from it for convenience. Both sit in front of the bed during travel and don't move.
 
I believe today is actually day 61, have to check... Thoughts



  • Followed a guy in smallish SUV towing ~24 foot stickie trailer down the west side of the Coq. Without getting the tape measure out, he was likely at most a foot higher than my 21. On a normal day, on flatter ground he would have been fine as he had tow mirrors and a wd hitch. He was travelling at about 10 under the speed limit over all. Today however, there was a strong cross wind in the mountains. For every mile, he crossed the white lines on either side at least 4-6 times, usually in the corners. I started counting. Perhaps he didn't have his wd bars set, or his trailer loaded properly, or maybe he should have just plain slowed down. I don't have the experience to answer that. I do know the tail was wagging the dog and also that he freaked out at least three vehicles passing him. The other side of the coin is that he had the barest of minimums for his tow mirrors, that I imagine did not allow him to see even the whole length of his trailer. Be safe people.
 
I wish I were still there Bruce, following you as you meander your way home, I really enjoy Canada and BC.
 
For us, we paid a lot for the plumbing, water pump, fresh water tank, etc. I don't see not using it for drinking and cooking. Usually the water in campgrounds is good so we hook up with an in line filter and use it directly. When leaving we top off the fresh water tank, also using the in line filter. When there is no water hook up we use water from the fresh tank.

Before hooking up to water we taste it though. Sometimes it's not good, likely not harmful but poor tasting. In this case we use water from the fresh tank.

If we have bad tasting water, or no hookup, for some time we can re-fill the fresh tank. We carry a 6 gallon tank to be filled at a coin-op dispenser. Pretty cheap and good water. Then back to the trailer where I use a 12V transfer pump to fill the water tank. A couple of trips at most and we're fully functional again. By the time we've used that much fresh water though it's time to find a dump station, but if the potable water there is not good tasting we have a solution.

It's your tank, use it as you want to.
 
I believe today is actually day 61, have to check... Thoughts


  • Followed a guy in smallish SUV towing ~24 foot stickie trailer down the west side of the Coq. Without getting the tape measure out, he was likely at most a foot higher than my 21. On a normal day, on flatter ground he would have been fine as he had tow mirrors and a wd hitch. He was travelling at about 10 under the speed limit over all. Today however, there was a strong cross wind in the mountains. For every mile, he crossed the white lines on either side at least 4-6 times, usually in the corners. I started counting. Perhaps he didn't have his wd bars set, or his trailer loaded properly, or maybe he should have just plain slowed down. I don't have the experience to answer that. I do know the tail was wagging the dog and also that he freaked out at least three vehicles passing him. The other side of the coin is that he had the barest of minimums for his tow mirrors, that I imagine did not allow him to see even the whole length of his trailer. Be safe people.
Usually have to watch out for the other guy; defensive driving 101. Wish you a smooth trip home.
 
We use the tank or campground water for everything but drinking and maybe brushing teeth. Probably a holdover from being overseas so much. We will likely get one of those in-line filters. Don't know if that will change our habits.
 
Hi Hugh- to each their own as they say; some here are professed "coffee snobs" and of course good water matters there. We use the house tank for flush & showers and maybe brushing teeth. Otherwise it's bottled water. I don't trust a lot of things with the house system from the tank to the unsecured fill cap- so, call me paranoid or ?? But as Andy Grove wrote "Only The Paranoid Survive".
 
We drank water from an old rubber hose as kids, and it tasted like, well, rubber. Rubber taste I can tolerate, but not a mildew taste. Kind of what Hugh said: we taste the water, and if its tolerable, we drink it. The fresh water tank only got used twice on our recent trip, and emptied in between uses, so no mildew there yet. We'll probably adopt the method others have suggested, to use chlorine to sterilize the tank if it develops a mildew smell or taste.
 
I realize I didn't cap this with a denouement.

So here goes::: currently in the middle of moving and all the fun that entails.

Standing here watching box after box of memories getting loaded into the truck, let alone the boxes and boxes of essentials, I couldn't help but think of how little I needed in my "little 21" during this spring/summer excursion I was on. I like "stuff" don't get me wrong, but man, it sure is humbling to realize 80% of it could be gone and I wouldn't truly miss it.


Have fun on the road everybody.
 
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21 fill black tank before emptying trick

Looking through pics of the trip, found this tip to help fill up black tank on hand flushers. I hadn't seen it mentioned before elsewhere here.

Glenn uses a large plastic bottle to hold open the water valve, but no go on the 21 as it has too much space between wall and toilet.

A rubberized clothes line is used with plastic clips on the ends. This one's clips work great with my toilet handle amazon ca link
 

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One year(+) followup.

- had a local mechanic check bearings and brakes. I kept having to reduce the brake controller gain and it was getting to be a concern. Good thing I got it checked as he said there was a lot of dust inside the bearing housing.

- have gotten used to not using the Anderson, but was happy to have it on during a strong cross-wind area.

- Reace fixed cracked door where latch is. No real idea how it got damaged but at least now it's fixed.
 
Post #1000, might as well blow it on news of my first mod. Well, involving power tools any way.

Did the hole and pin mod in the escape hatch arm. Don't know who to credit, but thanks for the idea. Will be great to be able to lounge on that side without knocking the window back to close.

Also replaced a fridge plastic shelf that got abused from overloading this summer. Saved a bit of agro and got it direct from ETI. $140 all in. Ouch. I guess my next mod will be some sort of strengthening sheet on those $helves. Or dusting off the cooler.


...

Lightning is washed and winterized in the garage. I think she can't wait for Spring and some more adventures.
 

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