Southern Oregon AS Newbie

[charging7]

Hello all! We're down on the Southern Oregon Coast and just bought our first AS, a 23fb Intl Serenity; we call her Abilene. We're very happy with the layout of our trailer, although it does take some adjustment to navigate such a small space compared to a house. The biggest problem we've had so far was a clogged up black tank. All efforts to unclog said tank were fruitless so I decided to pull out the big guns and construct my own high pressure jet stream implement so if we ever get in that tough position again, I'm more than ready to handle. I think I know what happened: we bought our 2018 AS as a consignment from a dealer here in Oregon. I'm guessing they didn't bother flushing out the black tank so whatever was in there from the previous owners had time to settle in and get plenty hard, hard enough to resist flushing despite my best efforts. It didn't make matters any easier or better that I was given advice to leave the black tank valve open while hooked up...horrible idea as the solids remain solid and don't flush away! Anyway, all good now and I just open the valve once we're at 100% full. We're looking forward to our travels with Abilene! Just me, my wife of 30 years and our 2 dogs enjoying being out of the city!

[dbj216]

Welcome from snowy Colorado. And Welcome to the Airstream owner's community. You picked a very nice sized trailer for getting out into the mountains or even longer trips. It will be easy to handle.

Maybe the seller could have prepared the trailer a bit better for you. Black tank management is basic but important to avoid such clogs. We always keep about 25% water in our black tank while traveling, and like you, only empty it when it is good and full. Adding a little soap can also help clean while traveling. Camping stores do sell garden hose wands that are sometimes effective. Sounds like you rigged up your power washer.

Anyway, use these Forums to learn all about your trailer and traveling with it.

David

[CruizinDux]

Hey neighbor, no shortage of threads on bw tank maintenance and/or additives. FWIW, when we changed the pods we use in our home dw and noticed how clean the copper pots were. Now i toss in a dw pod after about every 3rd dump and add about 2-3" of h2o then hit the road. At the next stop. ..fill, dump and start fresh...normal additives.

Normal d 2 d maintenance is calgon liquid water softener with brand x detergent w/oxi-clean. I should also say we don't boondock much which may affect additives used.

Btw does your rig have a bw flush connection? Ours is just below the cw connection. When ours on a trip to the keys failed (the vac br/ck failed) i bought a camco bw flush wand. Does wonders.

Happy trails...go dux & Beavs

Bob