With the popularity of RVs, the use and gameplay of RVs are gradually being discovered. When everyone was about to show their strengths and strengths, they found that there was a big mountain in the middle of the road ahead, which was the problem of “water” in the RV.
Every winter, the north wind takes away the last trace of temperature from the northern land. The waterway in the caravan is also gradually freezing in this cold winter, and the caravan also loses its original vitality. Water seems to be the biggest obstacle restricting the travel of RVs in winter. To understand the reason, we must first understand the waterway system of RVs.
Water system structure
The waterway system of the RV is divided into four links: storage, transportation, use and wastewater treatment. Take American RV as an example:
Storage: A 60-200 L food-grade water tank is generally used, and the location is generally under the floor in the middle of the RV.
Delivery: The water is delivered by the water pump or the water pressure of the campsite through the pipeline to the various water units (faucets, toilets, etc.) of the RV for use.
Use: slightly.
Wastewater treatment: Used wastewater is stored in black water tanks (toilet waste water) and gray water tanks (vegetable sinks and bathrooms) for discharge.
cold question
For the RV waterway system, all links except the use link will be affected by low temperature. Because the insulation layer of the caravan is significantly different from that of the house, even if the caravan is well heated, there will be a temperature stratification phenomenon of 30°C above the interior of the car and only 10°C on the floor surface when the outdoor temperature is low. As long as the RV waterway system loses the protection of temperature, it will freeze in a very short period of time. Once this phenomenon occurs, it will be destructive. This is an important factor for the inconvenience of using the RV in winter.
When the author first came into contact with the RV, due to lack of experience, the shower, water pump, water heater, and several water pipes of his RV were all frozen and cracked. There are three ways to solve this problem: 1. Completely drain the water in the RV. 2. Add an appropriate amount of antifreeze inside the waterway system. 3. Migrate south.
And these three seemingly ordinary solutions are all difficult to implement. First, completely drain the water from the inside of the RV. Drainage is easy, but complete emptying is difficult. How do ordinary players who don’t know the structure of the RV know where there is still water in the waterway system of the RV. Not to mention that some RVs require tools such as air pumps to complete drainage. Second, add the right amount of antifreeze. European and American car owners do do this, and the method is very simple. Just add antifreeze to the clean water tank, then turn on the water pump, and wait for all the faucets, shower heads, and toilets to flow out of antifreeze. The difficulty is that this antifreeze is food grade, and this product is not sold in China. Finally, it migrates southward to spend the winter in the warmer south. Whether it is time or money, it is not a small cost. How many of the many players can get it?
Refracted Weaknesses
The seemingly simple problem of using RVs in winter reflects several weaknesses in our RV industry – weak basic knowledge of RVs, imperfect supporting facilities and unformed RV culture.
And these are the problems that the domestic RV industry urgently needs to solve. This is both a problem and an opportunity for practitioners in the entire RV industry.
The difference in the environment is destined to form a unique RV culture in China. This unique RV culture can guide it at the beginning of its formation, thus affecting the final result. Both the formation of culture and the construction of infrastructure are inseparable from the efforts of practitioners, and this effort is still in a chaotic mode at this stage. This can be seen from the “RV winter” guide articles issued by various media and manufacturers every winter. What each company says is different, and even contradictory.
The waterway system of the RV is only one point of the entire RV industry, but it reflects the weakness of the industry from another aspect. The premise to solve these problems is to improve the professionalism of practitioners in the RV industry, which obviously cannot be achieved by a single individual or enterprise. According to the author’s understanding, the training mechanism of the RV industry is still far from perfect at this stage, and there is a lack of information. Under such conditions, there is a long way to go to improve the quality of practitioners and influence the industry.
