RV

An RV has different technologies installed. We had to learn a lot to manage these technologies. Our wish to ship the RV to America creates some special requirements. We like to record this knowledge here on this page. The different subjects are:

• Electric system

• Gas system

• Water system

• Satellite TV

• Shipping the RV to America

• Worldwide valid Assurance for the RV

Electric System

The electric power system in the RV supplies 12V. This power is delivered by a battery. This battery is loaded by the running motor of the RV, from an external power line when the RV is connected on a camp ground and from the solar panels on the roof of the RV.

When the RV is branched to an external power line we can run our devices (coffee machine, tea pot, computer), which need 230 V.

In America the power lines supply only 115 V. In order to load our battery and run our devices, which need 230 V we need a voltage converter. They are available for about CHF 300 - 400.-.

When there is no external electric source, all electric power comes from a 12 V battery. In order to keep our computers running, we need a voltage converter from 12V to 230 V. Such converters are availbale for about € 60.-. Unfortunatelly they have only a limited power of about 250 W. It is enough to load a computer, but not to run a coffee machine, which need about 1400 W.

Gas system

Our RV has a cabinet for two gas tanks. Each country has their own gas tanks. Therefore its necessary to always have full tanks when driving to foreign country. Since we want to travel in other countries for months, this doesn't work for us.

There exists another gas system. There are permanent installed tanks in the RV. These tanks can be filled from outside the RV at a gas station. Such gas stations do exist in all countries all over the world. But here too the connection at the gas station are different in each county. To solve this problem different adapters exist. With such a system we shouldn't have any problem with gas on our trips. Therefore we installed such a system.

Water system

Our RV has a fresh water tank of 100 liters. It can be filled from outside of the RV. In the first days this tank emptied by itself two times. It took some time to find out what the reason for this is. The water system has a valve, which opens automatically when the outside temperature gets lower as about 5 °C. This valve can be opend manually too. The valve was manually opened. After I closed it the water didn't run out again.

With this water we can operate the shower, flush the toilet, cook and wash things.

To have hot water there is a boiler in the RV. This boiler is operted by gas. If the boilr is not on, there is no hot water in the RV.

The used water is called gray water and is collected in the gray water tank. From time to time this tank has to be emptied.

To load fresh water and flush the gray water there are service stations on most camp grounds and elsewhere.

Satellite TV

Our RV has an Oyster Satellite TV system, which consisting of a motorized satellite dish on the roof, a receiver and a TV screen. When we used the system the fist time we could receive all channels, except the Swiss ones. We found out the the Swiss channels are encoded. One needs a decoding card. For the Swiss channels this card can be bought at the Swiss Television company for CHF 60.-. This card must be but intio a plug-in-module, which can be inserted into a slot at the receiver. This module can be bought at any TV shop for CHF 99.-. After we but the decoding card in the plug-in-modul and this combination into the slot in the receiver the Swiss channels couldn't still be received. Further studied learned us that the Swiss channels just on 16. May 2016 changed to high definition (HD) prodcasting. Our receiver was not able to receive HD channels. We had to bux a HD receiver. For this our old receiver had to be sent to the producer and we got a HD version back after 4 weeks and CHF 600.- of costs. Now we can receive even the Swiss channels.

There are different satellite dishes available. We have a flat dish, which is qite small. With this dish we have the problem that we can't receive the Hotbird satellite, with procasts the Swiss channels in the south of Portugal and Spain. The channels on the Astra 1 satellite were always receivable. Therfore I would buy a larger dish with a diameter of 60 or even 80 cm next time.

With our dish we have problems too when there is heavy rain. The rain disturbes the reception. I read on internet, that even with bigger dishes there are such problems. But I think the bigger the dish the better the reception, even in heavy rain.

There is a possibility to connect to the internet over the satellite system. For this it needs an other dish, with two way connection and another receiver. These two things cost over CHF 3000.- to install and a contract with a provider for internat over satellite, which coist about CHF 30.- per month.

Worldwide assurance for the RV

The seller of our RV recommanded us the AXA Winterthur Assurance, since he had the best experiences with it. When we signed the contract with AXA at the day of the take over of the RV we found out that this assurance is only valid in Europe. Since we like to travel to America and Australia we need a worlwide valid assurance. By accident we fond out that the Mobiliar Assurance offers such an contract. Therefore we will switch from AXA to Mobiliar after the first year.