I'm new here-need help with shower questions

[jthoni]

My husband son and I just upgraded from a 1988 strarcraft to a used 2004 Starcraft Centennial. OK, I've had a few things to look over and figure out how to work. I'm hoping someone can answer a few questions. The manual is not really that helpful. I'm testing things for our first trip.

I can't get water to flow out of the shower.  I've gotten the water to flow through the sink with the tank and electric pumps and by hooking it to the city hook up (with a pressure regulator).  Does the hot water heater have to be lit and working for water to flow through to the shower?  We had trouble getting the pilot light lit although the stove and 3-way fridge work fine on gas. Shouldn't cold water flow through regardless of the hot water heater?

Second question, how often do you replace the brakes on the trailer? The original owner said he took it out 2 times a year from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. We figured out we needed to add a break controller to our vehicle in order to talk to the breaks on the trailer but that's as much as I know about breaks on the trailer.  My last small starcraft didn't have breaks it was so light weight!

Janice

[OC Campers]

I am sorry I don't have an answer to your questions but I wanted to welcome you to PUT.  Are you from Northern California?

Jacqui

[jthoni]

I am sorry I don't have an answer to your questions but I wanted to welcome you to PUT.  Are you from Northern California?

Jacqui

Thanks for the welcome.  I'm from Northern California - the Bay Area.

[wavery]

My husband son and I just upgraded from a 1988 strarcraft to a used 2004 Starcraft Centennial. OK, I've had a few things to look over and figure out how to work. I'm hoping someone can answer a few questions. The manual is not really that helpful. I'm testing things for our first trip.

I can't get water to flow out of the shower.  I've gotten the water to flow through the sink with the tank and electric pumps and by hooking it to the city hook up (with a pressure regulator).  Does the hot water heater have to be lit and working for water to flow through to the shower?  We had trouble getting the pilot light lit although the stove and 3-way fridge work fine on gas. Shouldn't cold water flow through regardless of the hot water heater?

Second question, how often do you replace the brakes on the trailer? The original owner said he took it out 2 times a year from Sacramento to Lake Tahoe. We figured out we needed to add a break controller to our vehicle in order to talk to the breaks on the trailer but that's as much as I know about breaks on the trailer.  My last small starcraft didn't have breaks it was so light weight!

Janice

Water should come through the shower regardless of the water heater being on or off. Probably a plugged hose.

There is no way of knowing if the brakes are OK without bulling off the brake drums and checking them. I would advise servicing the wheel bearings no matter what. The brakes can be checked at that time.

Wear & tear on brakes has more to do with the way that the driver sets up the brake controller and the terrain that the trailer is used in. Time & mileage has little to do with it.

Actually, the same thing is true on your family car. When I was service manager for a car dealership, I used to have customers that would only get 10K miles out of a set of brakes while other people would get 40K miles on a set of brakes on the same model car. It all boiled down to how the car was driven.

[jthoni]

Water should come through the shower regardless of the water heater being on or off. Probably a plugged hose.

There is no way of knowing if the brakes are OK without bulling off the brake drums and checking them. I would advise servicing the wheel bearings no matter what. The brakes can be checked at that time.

Wear & tear on brakes has more to do with the way that the driver sets up the brake controller and the terrain that the trailer is used in. Time & mileage has little to do with it.

Actually, the same thing is true on your family car. When I was service manager for a car dealership, I used to have customers that would only get 10K miles out of a set of brakes while other people would get 40K miles on a set of brakes on the same model car. It all boiled down to how the car was driven.

Thanks for your feed back on both items.  I noticed you are from southern California. Where do you usually like to camp? I'm not as familier with southern California.

[wavery]

Thanks for your feed back on both items.  I noticed you are from southern California. Where do you usually like to camp? I'm not as familier with southern California.

We mostly beach camp but we camp A LOT with the group from this forum called "SCCAMPERS". Heres a link to our forum where we plan rallies......lots of rallies:
http://www.arveeclub.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48

Please feel free to join us on the rallies as they come up. We camp all over the place.

OH YA..........Back to the shower for a second. Maybe you don't realize that the shower head has a shut-off built in to it. Some of them are a push button, just below the handle and some of them have a knob or lever casted right in the handle itself. That's so that you can control the water flow while showering......you know......wet down, shut off water, soap up, rinse off.

[PattieAM]

Wishful thinking - your shower should have a shut off on the hand-held shower head....maybe that's in the shut off position and the reason for no-flow.

As to the pilot light on your water heater blowing out....you might want to be sure to purge the air from the propane line by boiling a pot of water on your range before you try to light the pilot light on the water heater.  Once lit, continue to hold the button down for a minute or two to allow the thermocouple to heat, then turn it to 'on'.