Westfalia Trip Checklists

Archival info.

*****
The RV.net board has tons of checklists. For Westfalia, try at least
this:

IN TRANSIT OUTSIDE:

1. Walk around outside Westfalia to make sure everything is
disconnected and put away (water hose, electrical cord, sewer hose
(valves closed), cable tv) and all doors/windows are closed
(especially the skylights).

2. Make sure propane tank main valve is closed (and stove and water
heater valves in closet are closed too).

3. Vehicle Maintenance--Tire pressures, fluids check (brake level,
washer fluid level, oil level), light works (headlights, turn
signals), etc.

IN TRANSIT INSIDE:

1. Look around inside to make sure everything is closed and put away
(upper bed locked up, table put away, bathroom door closed, closet
door closed, cabinet doors closed, appliances off, etc.).

2. Turn off water pump.

3. Skylight shade should be at least partially open (to prevent heat
build-up; use the insect screen for partial ventiliation).

4. Fridge can remain on (better to cool it first when plugged in and
use cold food); fresh water tank topped off.

First Trip Prep:

1. Water tanks:

a. Get a water filter to catch minerals/junk when filling fresh
water (or when hooking up to water supply).

b. Get a water pressure regulator (or just make sure not to turn on
water faucet full-blast)

c. Get white fresh water hoses (couple of lengths; short ones are
useful just to fill from fresh water source and two short ones to
allow water filter to lie on ground)

d. Sanitize fresh water tank. Get some bleach--1/2 cup should be
plenty--and toss into fresh water tank with water--drive around/slosh
it around--run through all faucets both hot and cold (kitchen
sink/bathroom sink)--then drain fresh water and black/gray tanks.

2. Fridge/Batteries:

a. Plug in Westfalia into outlet. You can use 120 volt/regular
household outlet by buying a little adapter for your power cord.
This will supply enough power to run fridge and recharge batteries--
NOT to run microwave or A/C. If you possibly can, it's good to plug-
in periodically to charge house batteries to max.

b. Let fridge get cold from household current. Make sure food/drink
is cold before putting into fridge.

3. Propane:

a. Hot water heater. The hot water heater may take several attempts
to light (waiting 5 minutes between tries). The more infrequent the
use, the more likelihood it'll take a couple of tries to get lit.
There's a valve in closet and the main propane valve. Get a lighter
with long stick for this manual lighting.

b. Stove. Test stove. There a valve in closet and main propane
valve. No lighter needed as stove has red button ignition switch to
push.

c. Generator. Test generator. Run at least several hours a month.
For break-in, use at 1/2 load (whatever appliances add up to that--
don't know).

4. List of Things to Get

Tape a piece of paper on a wall and everytime you think of something
to get for the RV, write it down (heavy duty sewer hose, sewer hose
adapter connections (various types), disposable gloves for sewage
duty, water filter, drinkable water hoses of various lengths, heavy
duty extension cord to plug-in from longer distances, 120 volt/15 amp
adapter for plugging into household current, cable-tv extension cord
for cable hook-up, phone hook-up cords (and phone), etc.).

5. Vehicle Prep

Check tire pressures (IMPORTANT), fluid levels, lights work, wipers
work, etc.

Buy those little parabolic convex mirrors on top of regular mirrors.

Little quirk: If passenger side seatbelt is pulled out all the way,
it will only retract (safety feature for holding junk in front
passenger seat).

6. Other

Forgot to mention on other reply to make sure that the rear seat is
fully locked into place (doesn't slide back and forth) when ready to
go.

Among the million of other warnings/stickers, apparently you're not
supposed to use the rear seat little table (and cupholders?) when in
transit.

Just make sure that everything is securely fastened down to
something.

Ashtray makes a good place to stick cellphone and plug-in adapter.

Get emergency triangles. If take outside of the plastic box, you can
stick 3 of them in the little storage area next to the sliding door
step.

WARNINGS

Yes, definite overkill. And the stickers all over the place are very
distracting (besides which they'll fade and be hard to get off later).

PROPANE

1. Many RVers leave the propane on as their absorption refrigerator
runs on propane (Westfalia uses a compressor fridge so NO propane;
actually nicer bec. don't have to park perfectly level). BUT, they
turn them off when refueling bec. of the open flame issue.

2. The water heater is supposed to automatically shut off the
propane if the pilot lights goes out. You really don't need to leave
water heater on that long--once a day to heat up the water seems to
provide enough hot water for the day--unless running a bunch of
showers (and you'd be out of water anyways).

3. By using the two propane valves in the closet, you can just shut
off the stove and hot water heater (2 sources of open flames) while
still leaving the main propane tank open so the generator is
available for use. (The valve positions are not intuitive as the
propane lines make a jog--on is horizontal and off is vertical (at
least in mine).)

4. As a safety precaution, I think it's good to turn off the propane
tank at its main source (in case of an accident, a propane line
breaks/gets disconnected, etc.). In any event, even if you leave
propane on normally, ALWAYS turn-off propane before entering a
gas/fuel station. Besides ferries, some tunnels require propane to
be turned off as well.

Of course, the location of the propane tank is not the best when
getting T-boned by a car (remember the old pickup trucks (Chevys?)
where they mounted the gas tanks outside the main chassis rails--
causing lots of people to get burned in accidents (rather than
mounting the gas tank inside the main chassis rails for protection).

In one instance, I had turned the main propane tank off for driving--
found a nice camping spot and turned the propane tank on--for
whatever reason, the high pressure connection for auxillary
accessories had become loose and propane leaked out fast from the
connection point (white vapor and cold)--so luckily the main valve
had been closed while driving. I never used that auxillary accessory
connection valve before or since, so for whatever reason, it became
loose on its own accord.

Then there's the idiot on Maximum Exposure or some show who stored
some propane tanks in his engine compartment of his car--which
exploded and caused a nice car fire.

5. Tip--I think you're supposed to turn on the main propane valve
gradually--something about not allowing a huge pressure change to
trigger some safety-off switch in appliances--or something like that.

WATER PUMP

The water pump stickers to turn off water pump when not using water
were something that Airstream started plastering on the closet door
and inside the stainless steel top area where the water pump
switch/main electrical shut off are located. The thinking by
manufacturers/RVers is to prevent (i) unexpected water leaks from
damaging the vehicle and (ii) the water pump from running when
there's no fresh water (damaging the water pump). Hope that switch
is nice and sturdy.

I used to leave the water pump switch on all the time until Airstream
plastered the additional labels earlier this past year (the location
is not that convenient). Luckily, the Westfalia water pump operates
off switches rather than pressure--so if the water pressure drops,
the water pump doesn't pump more water--instead, you have to turn the
faucets on/flush toilet before water runs.

Also, when connecting to a water supply hook-up, turn off water pump
as it's not needed--water pressure from hose bib pipe drives the
water supply. Luckily, there's a nice redundant switch in the black
cover for the water hook up which turns off the water pump as well.

Same tip re turning off the hose bib hook-up when leaving the RV
alone--lots of stories about huge water leaks/damage.

ELECTRICAL RECHARGING

The battery monitor on the central console will often show the
battery at full (10 little bars) when the batteries can actually take
more charge and has more capacity to fill. You'll note the different
in available capacities when recharging after a long, long
drive/household current versus a short drive--both showing full 10
little bars.

The Westfalia manual recommends hooking up to household current
periodically--once a month I think--for 2 days or so when not
driving. Using the generator would take too long.

Some folks recommend not allowing the battery voltage to drop below
12.4 volts to extend battery life (at 12.4 volts, you usually have 4
or 5 bars of battery capacity). Batteries have so many
charge/discharge cycles, and deeper/fuller discharges wear out
batteries more (?).

Turning off the electrical with the main 12 volt switch is also
recommended to save battery life, but it's annoying if you programmed
in the time for the heater on the central console.

You can unplug the tv and turn off the power booster tv antenna to
save some electrical.

Same with turning off the GFCI circuit breaker in the kitchen cabinet
and then turning it on after hooking up the external electrical
source--don't know what the point of that is.