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RV Doctor ColumnRV Doctor #308 Dear RV Doc, I have a 2001, 30' Montana Mountaineer. I was washing it yesterday getting it ready for a trip. It was plugged into a power supply to charge the battery and cool the refrigerator. While I was washing it, I touched a window frame and received a very mild shock. I got my voltmeter out and measured 25-volts AC between any metal on the RV to the wet soil I was standing on. I began turning of power to certain sections of the RV to see if I could isolate the drain. When I turned the breaker off for the GFCI the voltage measurement to the soil dropped to 10-volts AC. Turning off other circuits only had modest changes but it never dropped below 10-volts AC. Any ideas? Stan Moss, (Winston-Salem, NC) Stan, the first thing to do whenever you experience an electrical shock when touching any component on your RV is to unplug the unit from all sources of electrical power. This is a potentially dangerous situation and should be checked by a professional as soon as possible. If your coach has an on-board generator or a DC to AC inverter, refrain from employing those devices as well. Obviously there is some type of electrical leakage to ground. There could be a short in one or more of the circuits or an open or floating ground condition which renders the entire system hazardous. Professional technicians can perform what's called a hi-pot test or insulation breakdown test, among a host of others, to determine where the problem lies. Avoid attempting such electrical diagnosis yourself. Leave this one to the professionals. I certainly would not want to hazard a guess without actually inspecting the RV and taking careful electrical measurements. Wish I had more encouraging news, but this is one area where safety is the utmost priority. Repairs for such symptoms may or may not be costly; it simply depends on the actual cause. Get a written estimate before authorizing any repair. You will have to pay an inspection and testing fee, but remember, your safety is more important. Dear Gary, we just opened our RV for the season; a 1990 travel trailer. The carpet is light blue and I noticed large stains on the carpet. It didn't look like mold and there were no signs of water damage from the walls or ceilings. At first I thought it might be fading of the carpet, but most of the shades were drawn and the stains follow no pattern. I did place dryer sheets all over the place to keep the mice out. That does seem to work, but I was wondering if maybe the dryer sheets might have done something. The stains are the color beige and they are sporadic. Do you have any idea what could be causing these stains? Mary Annicchiarico, (Nashua, NH) Mary, I'm certainly not an expert on laundry issues, but I've got to believe those dryer sheets contain some form of a chemical softener or similar additive so it can do what it does in the dryer. And the stains weren't there beforehand, right? I'd begin by recommending you contact the maker of those dryer sheets and ask for an MSDS form for that product. This document will detail exactly what is in those sheets and it may provide some clue as to what may have happened. I've not heard that dryer sheets are good for keeping the mice population down. Needless to say, I'd opt for another method next season. Perhaps the stains will fade and disappear over time. Anyone else have this happen? Dear RV Doctor, we have a motorhome that we just got from our dad. We just moved and don't have a place to dump the sewage from the holding tanks. Can we put the sewage into the septic tank of our house? We have been using this blue liquid in the tank, but there is no label on it to tell us what it is, but I assume that this would not be good to put in the septic tank. If we can dump, what should we be putting in the tank that will allow us to dump into the septic tank and also keep the smell down? Lisa Vignerot, (Stafford, VA) Lisa, it is permissible to evacuate the RV holding tanks directly into any 3-inch inlet to a septic system as long as your tanks do not contain harmful chemicals such as formaldehyde. Some blue liquid chemicals in fact do contain formaldehyde so your concern is well taken. Until you can verify that the "blue" additive you have been using does not, I would avoid any connection into the septic system. In some locations the practice of dumping RV tanks containing formaldehyde is banned altogether. Rather than masking odors from the holding tanks with chemicals, I recommend using a biological additive, one that employs live bacteria to literally eliminate the odor-causing molecules themselves. Many suppliers have now produced such an enzyme-based additive. You'll find a large selection at any well-stocked RV supply center. Avoid using any chemical in the holding tanks, especially those that contain the aforementioned formaldehyde. Additionally, household detergents and some ammonia products may damage seals in the termination valves, so stay away from those as well. Contrary to what even I have expounded in the past, also avoid home brews. Stick with the commercial brands common to the RV industry. Realize suppliers spend lots of money on R&D, so why risk the integrity of the RV waste system or the eco-balance of a septic system for the sake of a few dollars. Once you switch over to the live "bugs," use of other types of deodorants and/or detergents will simply kill the good bacteria and defeat the purpose. As for evacuating the tanks, many RVers completely close the black water tank and evacuate when it approaches full capacity while leaving the gray water valve fully open so bath and kitchen water freely drains the entire time. The drawback to this method is that obnoxious odors can and will proliferate and emanate from the gray tank quite rapidly. I support the method of keeping both container valves fully closed and evacuating each (black tank first, then the gray), when almost full and using the live bacteria additive in each tank. This will also help eliminate erratic monitor panel readings from the gray tank.
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