# Beginner's Questions



## Eric&Lesley (Jul 26, 2006)

We are taking our new '06 29BHS this weekend for the first time. We've never owned a TT before and I have a few quick questions?

1. Curious about the oven. Several people that I've talked to say they never use their ovens. They say is gets so hot inside the TT, and it's hard to cook evenly. I hope that is not always the case. I'd really like to use the oven from time to time.

2. About how long does the hot water last in the shower? Can you take a decent quick shower and get your hair washed? Do most of you go to the bath houses instead?

3. Must everything, including A/C, be turned off when a hair dryer is in use?

4. When our TT is back at home and not receiving any power should I leave the refridgerator/freezer doors open? I've heard that even a clean, empty fridge will smell if left closed up.

Thanks so much!!!


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## kbrazielTx (Apr 29, 2004)

Eric&Lesley said:


> We are taking our new '06 29BHS this weekend for the first time. We've never owned a TT before and I have a few quick questions?
> 
> 1. Curious about the oven. Several people that I've talked to say they never use their ovens. They say is gets so hot inside the TT, and it's hard to cook evenly. I hope that is not always the case. I'd really like to use the oven from time to time.
> 
> ...


You and your family are going to have a great time.

We use our oven at least once a trip for cookies or biscuits. It does cause some heat but if you use it early in the morning or in the evening we have seen no problem.

We are able to shower all four of us and never run out of hot water. Make sure you only use as much water as you need to shower or bath and turn on both gas and electric on the water heater.

Turn the Water Heater on Gas only and make sure nothing except the A/C is running. The only time we have problems is if we are watching TV, have a fan going and may have something in the Microwave and my DW forgets to tell me she is about to dry her hair.

If you are going to shutdown your fridge then always leave the doors open.

Have a great trip and lets us know how everything goes.

KB


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## egregg57 (Feb 13, 2006)

Eric&Lesley said:


> We are taking our new '06 29BHS this weekend for the first time. We've never owned a TT before and I have a few quick questions?
> 
> Congratulations on your 29BHS! And Welcome to Outbackers.com! I am sure there will be a number of us chiming in to help! I'll offer mine now.
> 
> ...


YOUR WELCOME!!


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

Eric&Lesley,

Now the real fun begins!









In response to your questions...

1. The oven works great, but I would recommend getting a pizza stone to put on the bottom shelf. This will help dissipate and even out the heat in the oven. Works great! As far as the oven heating up the trailer, that - like in your home - will depend on your local conditions.

2. The water heater works fine for showers as long as you conserve. Turn the water off at the shower head while you are soaping up, etc. Then back on to rinse. I also turn on both the gas and electric sides of the heater while showering and that really helps the heater keep up. The bigger concern, unless you have full hookups - is how fast you will fill up the gray water tank.

3. The more you turn off the better when using any high wattage appliance, but the A/C and hairdryer should be able to run concurrently.

4. When storing the trailer with the refrigerator off, we always leave the doors wide open. My DW also puts folded up towels on the floor of the refrigerator and freezer to help absorb moisture. As a practical matter, we leave all the cabinet drawers and doors open when in storage to help keep things aired out.

Hope this helps!









Happy Trails,
Doug


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## campmg (Dec 24, 2005)

Not much to add to whats already been said.

I haven't used the pizza stone and my cookies came out fine. It didn't build up much heat but wasn't in use too long. And yes, I made cookies.









My fridge came with two little plastic thingies you put into the fridge and freezer handles to keep them open when the camper is stored.


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## biga (Apr 17, 2006)

Welcome and congrats. Your questions have been answered, but I will add that you may want to check at a camper place, or possibly Wal-Mart (if you are feeling lucky), for a volt meter (similar to this). With your equipment running, you should stay between 110 and 120 volts. Outside of that range, you are flirting with damaged equipment.


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## mjatalley (Feb 2, 2006)

Welcome & Congratulations on you new Travel Trailer.

Seems you have pretty good answers already - just wanted to add that we got an extension where we can plug in our TT to a normal 110 plug at home. This cannot run everything, but will keep the refrigerator running where you can leave your condiments and such in the refrigerator and not have to reload for each trip. Then at the end of the season - we clean ours out.

Happy Camping!!!


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

If you can't find a pizza stone a few ceramic tiles will also do a good job of dispersing the heat (look for one large one at Home Depot/Lowes)


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## HootBob (Apr 26, 2004)

Hi Eric& Lesley
1 put a pizza stone in the oven will help even out the heat

2 I can take about 5min shower with no problem

3 No just watch what you have plugged into the rec. outlets so not to have to much hight output stuff plugged in

4 The only time mine is off is during the winter
leave open and put a towel on bottom and a dish of Baking soda in both can help also

Don


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## dancinmon (Oct 5, 2004)

Campmg mentioned the little plastic thingies that come in the fridges owners manual bag. I looked at these for along time and finally read the owners manual. They fit in the fridge and freezer door handles and snap onto the latches. They hold the doors open about an inch or two so they don't swing or shut by themselves.


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## GoVols (Oct 7, 2005)

Eric&Lesley,

As you see, advice is not in short supply here! There are a lot of ways and opinions on doing things as you will see. My 2 cents worth:

1. The oven does tend to heat up our camper quite a bit. I wish Keystone had vented the hood to the outside; suppose they left that to us to do -- if you are brave enough! We don't use the oven a lot, and tend to use the outside stove







for cooking for the same reasons.

2. We will use the bathhouses if they are in good shape. As mentioned earlier, turn on both the gas and electric heaters to speed recovery time. Most of the time you'll be fine with one or the other. But be mindful of amps; you've got 30 to work with, and the electric water heater draws 12 amps I believe (someone verify please).

3. Again, be mindful of your amps. For example, the air conditioner draws 16a on startup and about 11a continuous. If you have the air conditioner on and the electric water heater, you have used up anywhere from 23 to 28 of your 30! Add a hair dryer or microwave to the list and you are asking for a tripped breaker! Get to know the usage of the appliances in your OB.

4. The refrigerator manual packet should have come with 2 blue plastic thingys (technical term). They slip over the latches on the doors to hold them open.


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## Eric&Lesley (Jul 26, 2006)

Oregon_Camper said:


> We are taking our new '06 29BHS this weekend for the first time. We've never owned a TT before and I have a few quick questions?
> 
> 1. Curious about the oven. Several people that I've talked to say they never use their ovens. They say is gets so hot inside the TT, and it's hard to cook evenly. I hope that is not always the case. I'd really like to use the oven from time to time.
> 
> ...


You all have been so helpful! I'm so glad that we chose an Outback if for no other reason than to have this wonderful resource as new campers. Thanks so much!


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Eric&Lesley said:


> You all have been so helpful! I'm so glad that we chose an Outback if for no other reason than to have this wonderful resource as new campers. Thanks so much!


While I enjoy gabbing/posting on this board, it is comments like the one you just made that really make it great coming back to this site day after day.









Please and Thank You....we all learned those statements early in life, but it is sure nice to see them used by adults.


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## aplvlykat (Jan 25, 2004)

Sounds like they have it covered but there are two other things on the refrige you need to look at. When the door is open make sure the switch at the top is off and use a rubber band or pony tail tie to shut off the light. Kirk


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## BoaterDan (Jul 1, 2005)

Eric&Lesley said:


> We are taking our new '06 29BHS this weekend for the first time. We've never owned a TT before and I have a few quick questions?
> 
> 1. Curious about the oven. Several people that I've talked to say they never use their ovens. They say is gets so hot inside the TT, and it's hard to cook evenly. I hope that is not always the case. I'd really like to use the oven from time to time.
> 
> ...


1. We also use the oven once a trip. We really like biscuits in the morning. I have the pizza stone but you still have to babysit it. I think the problem is the proximity of the burner to the shelf given the limited size of the oven overall. I have an oven thermometer in there and the control is actually pretty accurate. It's just that the bottoms of whatever we're cooking tend to burn. So I've just become used to cooking biscuits for half the recommended time and then flipping them over.

2. The hot water heater has a very fast recovery time. When I have full hookups I just shower away with the water running and have never had a problem. My wife did the same thing last weekend including shaving her legs and never ran out of hot water. You can also run the heater on both gas and electric at the same time for super duper quick recovery.

3. We've found that basically you can't run 3 big things at once. The a/c and the microwave are ok. A/C and hair dryer are ok. I have an electric hotplate thingy I like to use in the camp kitchen since I've already paid for electricity, but a/c + hotplate + microwave will blow the circuit breaker.

4. Yes, leave the doors open when you shut it off. My wife left it closed the last time she emptied it and when I went to turn it on 2 weeks later it not only smelled but there was mildew starting to grow in there. I considered leaving it running on gas in the storage area so we didn't have to empty condiments, etc. and I think somebody here calculated out it was about $1 a day to do so.


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## JonesFamily (May 15, 2007)

As a newbie, I was searching the forums and found that Eric and Lesley asked several questions I was wondering about.. especially the hot water/shower issue.

I was wondering if there is someway to empty your gray (shower water.. right??) tank while camped somewhere without hooking your TT up and hauling it to the dump station. Sorry if this is a silly question, we don't actually take delivery of ours till this Friday and I'm nervous as an old Hen about how all of this works! (who am I kidding, I'm a worrier by nature lol)

Thanks in advance!!!

Lisa

p.s. Anyone know of a book called something like "TT for dummies" ? lol


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## Insomniak (Jul 7, 2006)

JonesFamily said:


> As a newbie, I was searching the forums and found that Eric and Lesley asked several questions I was wondering about.. especially the hot water/shower issue.
> 
> I was wondering if there is someway to empty your gray (shower water.. right??) tank while camped somewhere without hooking your TT up and hauling it to the dump station. Sorry if this is a silly question, we don't actually take delivery of ours till this Friday and I'm nervous as an old Hen about how all of this works! (who am I kidding, I'm a worrier by nature lol)
> 
> ...


You can use a "tote" that's sold at many places like Camping World. Basically it's a plastic container with wheels that you attach to the sewer outlet on the TT and dump water into it. You then drag it off to the dump station, or hook it up to your tow vehicle and pull it.

Gray tanks are notorious for springing leaks in the middle of the night - especially if there is a nice grassy patch or field nearby. Nobody's quite sure how it happens, but the tank always seems to be empty in the morning.....


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## BoaterDan (Jul 1, 2005)

I've heard about that gray tank leak problem mentioned by Insomniak. Of course, I would never actually dump the tank on the ground, , as it is illegal here.









I've noticed a book at Walmart that may be what you're looking for. I've thumbed through it and it is pretty basic stuff, which may be just what you want. I've seen the book in the RV stuff by the hitches - separate from the general camping stuff.


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## JonesFamily (May 15, 2007)

LOL! You guys crack me up!! Your humor and understanding and help makes this the most amazing forum , that I am VERY grateful for!!

I will check that out at Walmart!

Thanks guys for answering so quickly!

I'm trying to figure out with two teenage daughters if I have enough brain cells left to work this whole TT deal!! LOL



Lisa


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

JonesFamily said:


> I'm trying to figure out with two teenage daughters if I have enough brain cells left to work this whole TT deal!! LOL
> 
> 
> 
> Lisa


If you re dealing with two teen age daughters, the TT thing is a piece of cake


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## Lady Di (Oct 28, 2005)

Pizza Stone in the oven. We had one that was too big, so DH cut it down with a cheap wet saw that we had bought for doing some tile floors.


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## ziggler (May 14, 2007)

The air bake cookie sheets work well, you know the kind that are 2 layers with a air space between. We cooked up some biscuts on our maiden voyage and they cooked in the normal amount of time and were not burned at all. I think you would have less warm up time than with a pizza stone. I'll try cookies next time and report back.


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## BigBadBrain (Aug 26, 2004)

If you decide to get a ceramic tile for your oven (we did and don't regret it) you may find it will break in the middle after a couple uses. Don't sweat it - it is doing the same job regardless of being one or two pieces. We use the ovens when the weather is cool. I don't recommend using it if you are already running the AC - doesn't make sense. We take a BBQ for most of our cooking on hot days (or resort tot he microwave - although that will generate quite a lot of heat too at times).

Happy camping!


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