Cardinal RV Club

Just returned from my first big trip(Colorado) in the bird. 5er did great except for the shower. The lift lever to engage the shower would not stay up. We finally put a clothes pin under it to hold it up. The water flow out of the shower wand did not put out much of a stream. I took out the inside piece in the wand but it didn't help much. I finally went to wally-world and bought another wand and installed it. It performed better. Does anyone know how the tank heaters work(not the hot water heater). I couldn't find anything in my literature. I don't know if it is heated by air or electric current. Thanks

Jerry & Sue
06 30' WBLE, 2 slides
03 Powerstroke

tank heaters are electric on the 12 volt side just like the water pump.
The plumbing in the basement however is protected by warm air from the furnace.
Where the shower head screws onto the valve body is another flow limiter that you should remove.

We also had water pressure problems to the shower so Larry built a pressure guage. We searched RV.net and found a device that a gentleman built to keep the pressure at a constant level into the trailer and it cleared up the problem with pressure to the shower. We had tried to remove flow restrictors, replaced the water filter, removed the water filter and nothing seemed to help, however, the water pressure contraption works great. I cannot tell you how to build it but if you want information send Larry a private message and he may can tell you or possibly find the web site he found the device on. It cost us about $50.00 for all the parts at Home Depot but it was worth EVERY PENNY. Our shower works great now!!!

Remove the OEM water filter and get one that has a greater flow ratio. It won't filter the water as well, but who cares if the commode water is filtered. Better yet, just take out the on board filter and pressure will improve significantly. I've done that and am also going to take the entire filter assembly out in the next week or two. If I need to filter, I'll put a filter in between the city water input and water source. I also use a PUR water pitcher for drinking water.

Hopefully you still enjoyed your first big trip despite a few technical difficulties. We had the same thing in our unit - the button wouldn't stay up because of low water pressure. We replaced our OEM filter with one that has a greater flow and haven't had a problem since then. Scott did remove the other restrictor in the shower head also, but not sure if we would have needed to do that or not if we had replaced the filter first.

The tank heaters are electric, and I believe they work similar to a small heating pad, although we've never actually had to use them seeing as we don't get to freezing for much longer than about an hour down here!

I also replaced the OEM filter with a sediment filter (less restrictive), which helped a lot. I also find a 5/8 in drinking water hose to the campground water tap helps the flow over the more common 1/2 in hose.

I too replaced the OEM filter and that made a big difference.

Rob