While the price of motor fuel certainly stings at the pump, imagine the insult to have that precious liquid gold siphoned out of your RV fuel tank?

Some communities, including political center of the universe, Washington, DC, have seen a big increase in gas boosting thieves.  What’s to be done to protect your fuel?

It could be as simple as something as locking your gas filler neck with a locking gas cap. It’s not difficult nor expensive to stick one on your motorhome or your tow vehicle. If you’re not sure of a fit from the “replacement parts book” at the part store, simply take your existing fuel cap in to match one up.

But not all fuel thieves are put off by a locking gas cap–maybe only the “honest” ones. Some brazen fuel filchers will go so far as to punch or drill a hole into your gas tank. With the larger fuel tanks found on motorhomes and tow rigs, RVers could become a more desirable target.

Like a lot of would-be thieves, gas suckers are fearful of the light. It’s likely a diesel weasel will come calling in the daytime, but a night, that’s a different matter. One outfit, Starlights Inc., thinks they have the solution: Equip your RV with a motion detector light to scare off the boogies before they get your goods. For around $100 the outfit will sell you a 12-volt motion sensor light that easily mounts where an existing outside RV light goes. Equipped with a control microcircuit, you can adjust the light to come on when it senses motion within 15 to 25 feet of your rig.

To keep your coach batteries up to snuff, the Smart Light, as the company calls its baby, won’t turn on if the battery voltage drops below 11.5 volts, but a very-low current draw LED will indicate what the problem is. The light is set up with an adjustable angle, so the light will (hopefully) not disturb a camping neighbor should it go off on “seeing” say, a skunk or other camp robber. The whole rig is set up with easily replaceable (and widely purchasable) 1003 automotive bulb.

Sadly, company has few actual retail outlets, but will sell you a unit by mail. Call them for more information at (800) 883-5444.

DVD: RV Safety Features, Tips & Tricks
RV expert Mark Polk walks you through the step-by-step process of understanding the safety features on your RV, and what you can do to enhance your personal safety when using it. Learn all about LP gas, water and electrical system safety, RV fire safety, carbon monoxide safety, RV emergency escape plans…and more!

Holding tanks. We all have them, and occasionally we’ve got to clean them. Blackwater tanks especially can make your life miserable when the little demons of built up crud need to be removed. We’ve seen plenty of occasions at the dump station when some poor shlep has pulled in with a holding tank that just doesn’t want to “let loose,” and they’ve resorted to running a water hose in and out of their black water port, churning and stirring all that evil muck. Yuck!

Now imagine all that evil muck showing up in your drinking hose. Not! You never use a dump station hose to fill your fresh water tank. You’re careful never to use an unknown hose to fill, right? But there’s still a way to get evil stuff in your drinking water: Backflow.

Backflow happens when a fresh water system gets “cross connected” with a source of bad water–or other contaminant. For us as RVers, it’s as simple as a garden hose left in contact with contaminated water, hooked up to the hose bib. Under the right conditions, that water can come back UP the hose, into the hose bib, and in to the fresh water lines of the house.

What are the “right conditions” that favor back flow? Let’s say you’re flushing out your holding tank. You’ve got one of those neat “Hydro Flush” systems that let you hook a garden hose to your holding tank at the same time you’ve got a dump hose hooked up. In the middle of your dump and flush operation, the local fire department cruises through your neighborhood, testing fire hydrants. They pull the caps off a nearby hydrant, crack the valve wide open, and blast water every which way. Unfortunately, this happens at the same time you’re flushing your tank, and the sudden draw down in water pressure allows your black water to pulse backwards up the garden hose and right into your house. The same thing could happen if your private water well pump system went on the blink when you’re flushing a tank.

What’s to prevent this from happening? If you bought a commercial tank cleaning system device, chances are the outfit included a simple backflow preventer to be installed between your hose bib and the garden hose. If a sudden loss of pressure were to set up a ‘perfect storm’ for a backflow, the device steps in and stops the backwards flow of fluids, protecting your household drinking water. But oddly, not everyone sees the value of a backflow preventer. Maybe they consider it a nuisance and simply ignore it.

Ignore backflow to your peril.

A mouthful of bacteria laden water can more than ruin your whole day. But blackwater isn’t the only issue. Consider the harmful affects of pesticides (from using a garden hose sprayer), or automotive antifreeze (from flushing the radiator on the old bus). Backflow preventers are cheap, easy to use, and available at pretty much any hardware store. Use them and rest easier.

Buster Backflow courtesy of American Backflow Prevention Association

Had the old RV in storage for a while, and now it’s time to get over a case of ‘hitch itch’ and hit the road? Give yourself time enough to get ready to go–you may encounter something a lot of RVers find when they’re ready to rock and roll, but the rig isn’t: Dead batteries.

A dead RV battery is always a frustration, and often times a mystification. Why did it die? RV batteries are good for a limited number of use/charge cycles. As we’ve often commented, the ‘deeper’ you draw a battery down, the fewer use/charge cycles you’ll get out of it. We try (emphasize “try”) not to let our batteries get down to less than a half a full charge before we see to it they’re charged up. That’s a big part of the battle right there.

There are “things” that happen, and we’re all familiar with them. Like the time we found our truck camper battery flat for no good reason–until we did a little investigating and found that the clothes closet door latch wasn’t latching right, and the door was open just a skoatch. That skoatch was big enough to allow the closet light switch to activate, illuminating the empty hanger rod until the battery went south.

But even with everything in its place, there are mysterious causes of battery failure. We’re not talking about UFOs landing on your RV roof and taking a jump-start for their warp drive. We’re talking parasites.

Like almost unseen fleas on your dog or cat, these little tiny loads can turn into long-term lifeblood suckers from your RV battery. What are they? The circuitry in the LP gas alarm. That little sniffer, sitting there inconspicuously at floor level, draws on your battery 24-7. What else? Some electronic entertainment equipment may suckle your 12-volt system without you being aware of it. Just keeping the memory up in your stereo radio can chew up the volts. There are all sorts of “little” electrical loads that can slowly deplete the battery in your sleeping RV.

What’s to do? One way of dealing with parasites is to hunt them down and disconnect them. That leads to its own set of problems. Say you disconnect your LP detector–but then forget to hook it up when you hit the road. Then you’re without the protection the detector provides.

Another way is to make sure your batteries are fully charged, then disconnect the battery from the “house” loads. How? Just remove all the wires connected to the negative battery post. When the time comes to hit the road, reconnect the leads and go. Of course, you’ll lose anything in “memory” in electronic devices; you might lose favorite radio “presets.”

You could leave the shore power cable hooked up and hope your power converter will keep the battery charged–without overcharging it. Our fifth wheel converter simply doesn’t keep our battery charged, while in other rigs, the converter may “cook” it.

For us, we’ve found the best answer is to leave the rig unplugged, but put a “smart” charger onto the deep cycle battery. Our smart charger keeps the battery full, but doesn’t allow for overcharging. It also has a pulse system that is said to break up the formation of sulfates on the battery plates–a leading cause of battery failure.

Dear RV Doctor,
I read a lot of articles on how to maintain rubber roofs, but I do not find anything about what needs to be done to maintain a metal roof. What are the things that need to be done to maintain a metal roof? –Joe Wilson

Dear Joe,
Many believe it is easier to maintain a metal roof, though those same people extol the benefits and ease of EPDM rubber also. There must first be an understanding of how the metal roof is constructed.

Earlier and lower priced RVs often had a soft roof composed of batts of fiberglass insulation positioned between wood rafters and covered simply by a continuous length of rolled roofing metal typically made of aluminum and having seams every few feet. This was the most common method of roof construction, adopted from the early mobile home industry. The drawback to this method is that you could not safely walk on or otherwise use the roof area.

Damage to the roof was common especially when a technician walked between the rafters thereby stretching the aluminum at its seams or possibly even puncturing or tearing the soft aluminum causing leaks. Installing components such as TV antennas, roof racks or storage pods was also difficult at best.

When working on a soft roof it is always necessary to use wide walking boards long enough to straddle at least three different rafters at the same time in order to distribute your weight enough so as not to damage the seams while working up there. Then someone got the bright idea to add a layer of plywood across the wooden rafters before rolling out the roofing material; the hard roof was born.

I’m not sure who the first manufacturer was that utilized the hard roof but all owners and repair persons since truly owe a debt of gratitude to them. Though the roofing material was basically the same, the plywood substrate now made it easier and safer to walk on the roof, install components and perform the necessary maintenance. Also adopted from the mobile home industry was the basic color of the roof. At first, the aluminum was simply aluminum-colored or silver. It was cheaper to manufacturer, but not as adept at reflecting the sun’s rays as a white roof.

So, many owners completely covered their aluminum roofs with a reflective, white coating. Then producers actually manufactured the roofing rolls in white which became a valid selling point for dealers. The RV roof has seen many innovations over the years including steel and aluminum framing members, Styrofoam insulation, vacuum-bonded, one-piece laminated roof sections, etc. But the aluminum roof still lives on through all the changes and there are many older coaches out there with impeccably maintained metal roofs that have never leaked.

THE SECRET? Frequent inspections and yearly maintenance. Many rolled roofs are made with interlocking sections using cleats or special seams that allow many sections to be joined and then rolled out in seemingly one piece. Other roofs are just simply one piece of aluminum. But remember, any component attached to the roof; 14-inch vents, sewer caps, refrigerator vent, TV antenna, air conditioner, etc., must also be properly sealed. Any attaching screw in or on the roof is a potential leak waiting to happen. All it takes is time and lack of attention and virtually every roof will, at some point, begin to leak moisture.

And realize there is a difference between roof coating and a roof sealant. The coating, remember, was used to effectively insulate the interior by reflecting the sun’s rays. Roof coating is not a viable, stand-alone roof sealant. Moisture can still enter an opening that may be coated and not sealed.

Here’s what I recommend as soon as you take the RV out of storage. First, carefully clean the roof area completely. Wash all dirt and debris from the entire roof. Take care, wet roofs are quite slippery! Next, carefully inspect each seam, front and rear caps and around each component on the roof. If there are any visible signs of cracking in a seam or around any screw head, etc., apply a sealant to plug the opening. Tube silicone is effective in some of these instances. A coating can then be applied over the sealant. I recommend using white coating to aid in reflection.

If, on a soft roof, a seam has cracked opened over a considerable distance, use a piece of fabric webbing along with the sealant. Apply a layer of the sealant, then embed the fabric webbing into this layer. Finally, add another layer of sealant to smooth out the webbing. Apply enough so that it fully covers it. Be sure to feather the edges away from the fabric. The best scenario is to have the sealant and coating remain flexible as the roof expands and contracts with the weather.

By keeping the roof clean and immediately making repairs when something is found amiss, a metal roof should last many years

Gary Bunzer, The RV Doctor is the author of technical articles, troubleshooting tips, installation guides and owner’s manuals for RV owners, suppliers and manufacturers. He is the host of RV Roadtrips, the DIY Network cable television show. He is one of the RV industry’s most sought after speakers and the host of the popular DVD, Do It Yourself RV Care.

Traveling with pets just seems the natural thing to do. Sharing with Bowser or Fluffy the joys of the highway brings joy to both us, and our quadruped friends. but it does sometimes pose its own set of difficulties. In our case, where to put Ithmah’s–the fur-balled feline’s–sand box.

Our traveling research rig is presently a truck camper–a far cry from the space afforded by our fulltiming fifth wheel. The idea of having a litter box underfoot in those limited few square feet of floor space was just unthinkable. There was, however, a plethora of space available outside the camper–yet still enclosed by the truck bed, in the wheel well area of the truck. The camper manufacturer had made that space available by putting access doors through the sidewall at floor level, but leaving one of those doors open to allow Ithmah in and out only stirred visions of blasts of hot or cold air, seasonally dependent. Tripping over that open portal–espcially during dark night trips to our own ’sand box’ didn’t sit well either.

The solution was waiting at the big box builder center: A small “pet door,” installed in the already existing access door would allow our friend’s access to her powder room, while the clear flap on the pet door would (generally) keep the outside and inside temperatures segregated.

What to do when the truck and the camper were separated? We’ve had some experience in this field–our fifth wheel is equipped with a pet door just under the dinette table; outside that pet portal lies another litter box–but this one, cleverly assigned to our “Kitty Kondo.” The condo is a dismantle able (to lay flat for transport) secure “Arizona Room” with screened walls and rain-shedding roof, almost sized correctly. Actually, the condo was designed for Ithmah’s predecessor who weighed in at a whopping 6 pounds wet weight; Ithmah tips the scales at 17 pounds, so the condo could stand to be a bit bigger. For our “research vessel” we had another, more appropriately sized condo constructed to cling to the side of the camper “box.”

How can this work for you? It may be a matter of stretching your imagination out a little bit. Does your motorhome or trailer have “basement storage” that shares a common wall? Imagine a pet door allowing your feline friend to access his bathroom 24-hours a day without assistance. Or perhaps you travel with a more independent canine companion. Where it’s safe and neighborly to do so, an appropriately placed “doggy door” could allow your hound access to the great outdoors.

Adding a pet door to an existing door is fairly straight-forward, although you may need to add a little thickening to the framing to account for a pet door design. We (if you’ll pardon the pun) had to “furr” out the door frame with some 1 x 2, but that was all that was required. When putting the door through an existing wall, be careful with internals like plumbing and electrical lines.