CONNECTING TO A CAMPGROUND CITY WATER SPIGOT

 What would just connecting to a city water spigot in a campground need an article for? After all you take your hose and attach to the spigot,  connect the other end of the hose to your city water connection on your Roadtrek - and turn on the water. Right? Well almost right.

 There are two things to do before what is simply described above. The first thing to be aware of is that many of these spigots are close to the ground and in many campgrounds there are dogs and other animals wandering around the campground during the day - and at night.  The dogs, especially, find these low down city water spigots a favorite thing to lift their leg against and cover the spigot at its opening and and the screw threads that you are going to attach your city water hose to. Yuck! This common.  

The most suggested way of disinfecting the spigot is to mix a solution of bleach and water in a spray bottle and spray that into the spigot opening and allover the outside of the spigot.  We did this when we first got our Roadtrek. We would mix up a batch in a spray bottle and keep it from trip to trip. Then we found out that the bleach loses its effectiveness over time - and especially mixed like this in the heat of the summer.  So we started mixing it just before we would use it - and wind up discarding more than we sprayed - and it was a pain to do this when you are trying to get through hooking up. 

I recently found out about a better spray to disinfect a campground spigot for this reason from an RV TV streaming show.  They said to spray hydrogen peroxide and that it was available already in spray bottles.  As long as hydrogen peroxide is kept in its brown bottle and kept closed it lasts for a very long time. I went out looking for hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle and found out that it is sold in Walmart stores in the pharmacy department.  

This bottle is very inexpensive and it is easy to store in the outside cabinet on the side of the Roadtrek with your hoses. Spray the inside of the spigot hole and all around the spigot head. Let is sit for five minutes and then turn on the water to flush out the spigot before you connect you city water hose. 

There is just one more thing to always do when you are connecting a city water hose to your Roadtrek. You MUST attach a Water Pressure Regulator. The best place to attach this is between the city water hose and the campground spigot. After you spray the spigot with the hydrogen peroxide - attach the city water connection to the spigot and then attach you city water FRESH hose (yes there is a special hose to use on an RV - these hoses have no lead in their connections and they are usually white hoses or a white with a blue stripe hose, or a blue hose. The hose is labeled on its packaging as "drinking water safe" or "safe for potable water".

Water pressure regulators for RVs come different ways. The one above has the max pressure it will limit through it permanently set to 40 psi - which is the most pressure you want in the Roadtrek or any RV plumbing that will not burst the pipes.  There are other preset city water pressure regulators that have an analog meter attached to see the water pressure - which is not really necessary. Then there are water pressure regulators that you set to the allowed pressure. They also have an analog meter attached to see what the water pressure is - which for this type of water pressure regulator is very important. This might seem like the best to get, but if you forget to set it or it has moved off the setting you set it to last time, you will damage your Roadtrek's plumbing.

RV accessories retailers online have all of these. Many Walmart stores have RV accessories in their Auto aisles in a section of their own on the shelves. They have the water pressure regulator shown above in the photo. They may also have a water pressure regulator that looks the same but is made of blue plastic. I do not recommend buying the plastic one - get the brass one. Plastic too easily can break or get a small crack and the pressure will be effected. 

So hooking up to city water is a little more than just connecting the hose - but it is just as easy when you add these few steps.

Also - if you are concerned about the water that comes out of a city water spigot at a campground, you can buy a filter that is attached to your city water hose and it will filter all water going into your Roadtrek (even when filling the fresh tanks through the door openings).  This is a thick walled plastic cylinder about a foot long and maybe two and a half to three inches in diameter. I have a four foot fresh water hose that I put between my pressure regulator and my long city water hose and the water filter is attached between.  We also have a regular Brita kitchen sink water filter - the same that goes on kitchen sinks at home - on the kitchen sink faucet in the Roadtrek.  This lets you know when the filter needs to be changed - and then you just take out the old cartridge and drop in a new one.  The hose filter is also found at Walmart in the RV accessories section and the Brita water filter can be found in most places that sell household items.

THE VERSATILE POOL NOODLE AND ITS MANY USES IN A ROADTREK!

 I know - some of you are saying as you read this - "What the heck is a pool noodle?" Pool Noodles start showing up in stores as Summer approaches. It is a swimming float made of molded foam plastic. 

The photo is a section of pool noodle. They come in different colors and they come in a few diameters. The size I find that is best is two and a half inches in diameter. The length is six feet when you buy it. They cut easily with a razor blade knife. The center of the pool noodle is a hole. The easiest way to cut it is to insert the blade of the knife into the foam and turn the pool noodle holding the knife in place to cut all around to get a section of the length you want to use.

BUT WHAT AM I GOING TO USE IT FOR IN A ROADTREK?!

Here are things we have used a pool noodle for in our Roadtrek - and I often find new ways when I need to figure out what can I use to ?

A POOL NOODLE IN THE MICROWAVE:

As the Roadtrek drives along there is a lot of vibration inside from the tires on the road surface - bumps, and bounces as you go along. Inside the microwave as you all know is a glass plate that you put what you are going to cook in the microwave on top of. That glass plate just sits inside - and it bounces a lot. Aside from the noise sooner or later if you don't protect it, it is going to break. When we first got the Roadtrek Meryl made a cushioned cloth case for the plate using two quilted placemats and a towel that she stitched into a pouch and put a Velcro closure on to put the plate into. She also made a case for the wheeled plastic rack that sits under the plate to rotate the plate while cooking. She attached the two pouches and they go into the bottom of the microwave. But as we drove the plate was still bouncing around and there are enough noises inside the Roadtrek  to not need this one so we needed to fix the plate into place so that it would not move. What did we do? We used a section of pool noodle!

The section of noodle was cut just a little longer than the height from the plate to ceiling of the microwave. The pool noodle will push into itself and act like a spring when pushed into a space that is just slightly shorter than it.  Don't make it too long or you could push the inside of the top of the microwave too much. This works perfectly in our Roadtrek!

NOODLES IN THE FRIDGE - POOL NOODLES THAT IS!

We want to have cold soda with us when we are traveling, especially when the weather is going to be hot. Soda cans on the shelves in the door of our fridge in the Roadtrek rattle around  a lot. There had to be something that would prevent them from moving.  AS it happens - the two and a half inch diameter pool noodle is about the diameter of a soda can. I cut sections of pool noodle the height of a soda can.  We may fill a shelf with soda cans but as we go along and use up cans the shelf gets emptier - and the cans rattle more - so a  pool noodle section takes its place. And one always joins the cans from the start to stop them from moving along the shelf.

No more rattling cans!  There are other places in the fridge that you can do the same thing. 

A POOL NOODLE TO STOP THE FRONT TABLE FROM BANGING INSIDE ITS CABINET:

Some Roadtreks have table top that is placed on a leg and it stands in a post in a hole on the floor. Our 2011 Roadtrek 190 Popular has a front table that is on a sliding hinge that goes into a cabinet just a few inches wide and it pulls out when in use and sits on a support that slides out from the side of the wardrobe cabinet behind the driver's seat. The table on its hinge bangs and hits the two side walls inside the cabinet. Talk about loud! So a section of pool noodle to the rescue! 

There is also no latch on this door - never was since it came from the factory, and on sharp turns, before the noodle took its place standing guard, the table would hit the door and open it - sliding the table out, which at 60 miles an hour around a highway curve can become very exciting - the kind of excitement you don't want! No more since the pool noodle was pushed into place! 

MOVING OUTSIDE THE ROADTREK!

A POOL NOODLE WHEN THE MOUSE HOLE GOES BAD: 

New owners are going to say - "First its noodles, now its MOUSE HOLES?!" The mouse hole is an RV term for the hole between where the shore power cord is stored and brought outside without having to leave the outside storage cabinet open. It is a hole - with a snap cap on the outside, looks like a cartoon mouse hole in a wall BUT the name is twofold because since the cord is smaller than the opening of the hole to get the large 30 amp socket out with the cord, mice have enough room to walk on the power cord outside, up the cord to the "mouse hole" and walk right into the outside storage cabinet - and from there find their way inside your Roadtrek. (EEEK!)  When the Roadtrek comes from the factory the mouse hole unit comes with flaps to take care of that. Over time, however, the flaps fold out of place - no longer close together to keep anything out - and because Roadtrek in all its wonder, riveted everything instead of installing with screws (yeah - rivets don't come loose - but they also prevent easy repairs requiring drilling  out the rivets). Ours went bad. I thought so what. Nothing is coming in (and nothing has) BUT Meryl said we need to close this! I thought about it - and, of course, what better than a pool noodle!

When doing this you have to get the pool noodle around the power cord - there is no end to just slip it through. I sliced along one side into the center hole of the pool noodle. It just gets pulled open and slips around the cord and is moved into the mouse hole around the cord filling the hole. It has to be slid back - and taken off when pulling the cord back in - and you do not put the noodle on the cord to put in the mouse hole until all of the power cord you need is outside the Roadtrek. Again, the two and a half inch diameter pool noodle is perfect for this - it fits just right - and does need to be squeezed into the hole to fill all gaps and stay in place.

A POOL NOODLE FOR YOUR FRESH WATER HOSE:

When at a campground, the ground can get muddy and you never do know what dog or other animal just came by and added some biological moisture to where you will be dragging your fresh water hose as you stretch it out to empty it of any water when you put it away.  I just did not like the idea of the end of the hose dragging along the ground in the mud - and what else. So I cut a pool noodle section and when we are ready to get the water out of the hose as we wind it up to put it away, the pool noodle goes on the threaded end of the hose. Simple - and I know where the inside of the pool noodle touching the hose end has been. 

SO - there you have the versatile pool noodle - every RVer's friend! I am sure you will figure out other uses for them.  You may even want one to go swimming with! 

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