# 97 coleman sun ridge



## djrascoe (Mar 9, 2011)

Hello everyone, im new here. We just bought our first camper and im curious to know if we actually bought a decent one. Does anyone have any info, (good or bad) on it? Its a 97 coleman sun ridge pop up. A few other questions I have are..... what is the battery on the tougue actually for? How do you winterize, when the time comes (it was already winterized when we bought it) Do I need to do anything before i fill the water storage tank (not sure if chemicals are added to winterize) and will there be a tank that I need to drain due to it having a sink, or does it drain on the ground. Im sorry if I sound dense, but Im used to tent camping, and the wife and I decided It was time to buy a camper for us and our little ones to enjoy together. Thank you for reading this, and for any input or info you may have


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## Gerry (Jan 24, 2011)

Don't know much about pop up Colemans but I googled in the name and came up with some exterior and interior shots. I see it has a sink so it's got fresh water and therefore a holding tank. All fresh water tanks on RVs that I've seen have a drain, usually close to the tank which should be clearly visible from underneath that probably has a little hose the size of your finger with a little valve on the end or a cap to remove to drain. It's a good idea to pour maybe a cup full of Clorox in the fill for the tank, then fill with clean water. If you could pull the trailer a bit to slosh that around good then drain it and that should sanitize your tank. It might be a good idea too to run that mix through your pipes to clean them before draining the tank. As for the need for a battery you probably have 12volt lights, maybe a refer and if the unit has brakes most rigs have a break away feature that applies the trailer brakes if the trailer should happen to disconnect while going down the road. There may also be something else run off 12volt. If you join some of the other RV forums you'll probably find others that have that or similar units that can give better answers. I believe RV NET has a section just for pop ups. And then someone here might offer more help too. Anyway welcome and happy camping, Gerry


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## artmart (Sep 21, 2010)

I had a similar popup many moons ago and for several years, but they haven't change that much. Your Coleman will serve you and your family well with proper care and maintenance.

The battery is for everything that uses 12 volts. The water pump, the overhead lights, in fact most lights and maybe a furnace thermostat if equipped. It gets recharged if you have properly wired the trailer plug to the vehicle when you drive, otherwise you will need to find a way to keep it charged AND conditioned when stored. If you are connected to shore power, there is a converter that will charge the battery for you but then you must make sure it doesn't get overcharged. When plugged into shore power you will also be able to use all the 110v outlets and maybe an additional light or two.

The fresh water supply is typically seen under the drop down galley. It is only about a 10 to 15 gallon fresh water tank. To clean out the tank, put 1/2 cup of bleach into a gallon of water, then fill up the fresh water tank about halfway with fresh water. THEN put this bleach solution in there to ensure pure bleach never goes into the tank by itself or you'll never get rid of the bleach odor or taste. Then fill the rest of the tank until it's almost full. You should be able to tell when it's full by looking under the galley at the translucent tank. Now drive the trailer around the streets for about 30 minutes to slosh this water solution around the tank then park for about 4 hours. With the trailer connected to a 110v outlet (garage or wherever), run the pump to drain all this bleach water out, then refill with fresh water and do this several times until there is no more bleach odor. You might have to repeat this several times. This can take a while so another thing you can do it is drain the tank under the trailer (look for the fresh water tank drain plug under the trailer). You'll still need to refill the tank with fresh water several times to get rid of the bleach odor. Now your plumbing should be sanitized. Drain the tank before any long term storage to keep it clean. In fact you might need to keep a gallon or so to keep things from drying out, just remember to drain this standing water and put in all fresh water. This is ONLY needed if you do not have a water source. If you are at a campground that has a water (and electric) hookups, then you'll never need the tank. I NEVER used my tank since I always had at least water (and used a filtration system) and electric (for 110v and keeping the 12v system charged) for my popup.

For your size tank I would not ever use more than 1/2 cup of bleach to 1 gallon of water, then add this to your tank.

After doing this I highly recommend you use a water purifying filter on the hose inlet whenever you either fill the fresh water tank and use the pump, or if you just connect the water inlet and filter to your "city water" connection (maybe with a pressure regulator too. The point is to filter all water going into the popup to keep this water as clean as possible with no chance of outside contamination.

For winterizing the fresh water tank should be drained until it's completely empty. Then blow out the lines to remove any standing water (or disconnect the lowpoint drains and remove any water. You can search the internet for more details on winterizing your rig - just remember your popup will probably not need as much work since the plumbing is much simpler.

I don't think your popup has a gray water tank. If so you would need a hose from the galley and this would go into a large container that can be disposed properly elsewhere. Black water (if equipped with a toilet) is a different story. I'll only cover this if you have one. Let us know.

The last word of advice I will tell you is to NEVER EVER store the trailer with the walls have been wet. If you have to, go ahead and pack it down to get home, but as soon as you can, open the whole trailer back up to give in an opportunity to dry out completely. Even if you live in an Association neighborhood, you should be able to set it up for a day to dry it out. Do let the association know, so that they know you are trying to be considerate of the by-laws.

Let us know if you have any other questions. By the way, since the popup we graduated to a travel trailer, and now own a behemoth Fifth wheel as our only RV. I still have a truck bed tent (the wife won't sleep on the ground any more, and also use a large ground tent for tailgate camp grounds and even a small backpacking tent for backpacking jaunts in my camping repertoire. I just about got it all covered.


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