A couple of notes on full-timin.

[DickWells]

Talk looks to be a litte thin on the Trailer Forum!

Jean an I have been doing a little renovating on the inside of our Mountaineer TT, this Summer. It ain't done yet, but here is a little break-down on what has been done, in the hopes that someone might have some interest in it.
Took out the carpet from the front kitchen-LR area, back some months ago, as the edges were getting ragged. Like most trailers, the linoleum runs right though, under everything, so that when the carpet has been pulled, there's not much of a mess left. Just pull the little staples, and wait for the day that you replace the linoleum. Now, the front twelve-foot slide was carpeted, too, and the front (inside) edge, or binding on it was evern worse than the rest of the carpet. So, we just put down new one-foot tiles on the main floor, without any carpet. Worked out nicely.

That slide! The jerks at Keystone had driven the huge self-tapping counter-sink screws up into the aluminum slide frame, through the 3/4 inch flooring, some of them at a tilted angle, so that they dragged on the flooring when the slide was powered in, or out! Gouged the heck out of things, including that thick nylon wear strip that go's across, under the inside edge of the slide. NOT NICE! I had to crawl under there and remove a couple of brackets, back out those big 1/4 - 20 screws, and counter sink them up into the flooring, so that there won't be more gouging going on. We'd been throwing down a couple of carpet remnants to slide on the old flooring, and now, I'm a-gonna glue some to the bottom of the slide, and (still) plan to use a couple of scatter rugs, on the floor when we power the slide in or out. The rear slide (bedroom) is on carpet and rollers. Another story. I replaced those rollers a few years back, with 2.5 inch, 300 lb rollers, when one of the original 3/4 inch ones broke. You know, the one's rated for 40 lbs! Every trailer I've ever looked at has had issues with shoddy workmanship and materials, and my own trailer is near to the worst of the lot.

Anyhow. We now have new carpet in the front slide, which necessitated flipping our double love-seat recliner out of the way, and removing the dinette set. Pulled the old carpet and all the staples and installed a new carpet (better quality), with the bound edge on the visible side, and cutting the back side and using a Bosstitch air stapler.

Jean had re-upholstered the dinette, and made new curtains a little earlier, and with the new carpet and vinyl flooring, the old trailer's beginning to get a fressher look to it, inside.

I've been replacing fasteners with SS, all over the rig, ever since we bought it in 06, at two years old. Far from done, there, but, oh, what a difference. Just my luck, we'll get into a wreck, or a big wind, or something, and all this effort will go down the tube! Still, the experience is rewarding, and you learn something new, every day.

I put in a porcelain vanity in the bathroom, last Winter ($35 at Lowe's in Brownsville), and we had put in a porcelain flush the Summer before.
($50 take-out from a new 09 trailer which was put in a permanent spot, with a full-size tank-type flush installed. No more stains on plastic!:D

Got two 6volt golf-cart batteries on the trailer. Got American Eagle 16 in wheels with BFG Commercial TA LT tires, LR-E's all around. Carry two spares for the thing, and have Smart-Tire sensors in the tires. I don't sweat rusty rims and flaking paint any more, and I don't ever see myself putting another trailer tire on a trailer, either!

Gotta stop the current ramble, but I thought that it wouldn't hurt to pass a little of the full-timing experience from my point-of-view along for WIW.
There's a lot more that I haven't mentioned, but these are some of the high-lights that come to mind, tonight.

Take care, and have a good evening.

[Robyn]

The same companies that make/made travel trailers, in many cases also make/made manufactured homes.

Some good friends of ours have a mid 80's double wide and the same sort of Gooooofs are present in those too.

Our triple wide here at the ranch is beyond the camper/travel trailer technology stage and has 6 inch exterior stud walls and such.

The concept of placing the vinyl flooring down under everything is still there though.

The small bathroom has the vinyl go completely under the walls and into the next room a good foot or better.

They did stop using the plastic sinks and toilets, thank gawd. ;)

The dealer gave me a real "deer in the headlights" look when I told him that they were going to set the home on a full daylight basement.

HUH ?????????? was what I got.

It came out well though, despite their crews total inability to follow my intructions.

Once things started to go askew I had to stay on site every day they were here to be sure stuff got done they way I wanted it.

Yessssssss, I fully appreciate what your saying about how stuff is made.

Some is due totally to poor design and other bits and pieces are simply sloppy workmanship.

Glad its all coming along OK

Missy

[a5150nut]

Dick,

Don't know how you fair for insulation, but I am thinkig of putting that foil buble wrap insulation under the padding in my bedroom and bath in my fifth wheel. Had a problem of cold coming from under the bed. Put some of that foil buble wrap insulation under the matress and it made quite a difference. I had to open the underside of the nose on mine and found there was no insulation under the bed. Instaled foiled ridgid foam and that helped, but the foiled bubble wrap under th matress did the trick. That even with the storage area under the bed full of spare blankets and cloths. I think the bubble wrap under the carpert will work fine. Just wont be able to wear my high heals up there!!

Another spot I had to improve the insulation was behind the couch. There is about 10 inch deep storage behind the couch with a door that opens from the out side. Was getting a cold draft from behind the couch so I sealed all the seams from the storage side and added 2in ridgid foiled foam insulation to the wall behind the couch.

Made a couple covers for my sky light too. PVC, black iron pipe, pipe insulation and smoked fiberglass sideing panels. Gotta find and upload pics.

[DickWells]

I understand that a more suitable full-timing trailer can be had, but. ...... The tariff is gonna be steep. The economy down-turn saw some good products go away. One was the Alpenlite, made (I think) in the N. West. Had a roof that you could dance on! Funny thing, though, our neighbor in the Brownsville park, every Winter, has one, and the dang thing has a rear kitchen and a chronic rear lighting problem, and no way to really get at the wires for the tail-stop-back-up lights. The whole rear facia is one molded piece of fiber glass and the wires all come up from somewhere around the frame and into the wall, behind the kitchen cabinets! The grounds are all hidden, when you take out the lenses, since there's no framework right there to ground to. I've offered to open up the bottom and take out the fixtures and fish new wires up or down and have the junctions down where they can be accessed, but the owner has resisted, so far, and has gotten by with a couple of dim light and cross-feed issues. Poor guy has a bad heart, and a lot of pride, so he hates to be beholden to anyone. Lets hope that we can persuade him to get it done, this Winter.

Two years ago, this coming Winter, we got into renovating a widow's permanent mobile home, there in Cactus Cart (Brownsville). New kitchen cabinets, etc. Vinyl, through, underneath everything ain't nothin, compared to cabinets that are nailed onto the walls from the outside! Yup, pull those old cabinets down, you've got screws and corrugated nails sticking into the room! They put those cabinets onto the walls, through those 1/4 inch walls and 1 inch studs, and then put on the 1 inch glass insulation and alluminum siding. Hard to believe what they'll do to save their time and money.

[rustyk]

Don't know how you fair for insulation, but I am thinkig of putting that foil buble wrap insulation under the padding in my bedroom and bath in my fifth wheel. Had a problem of cold coming from under the bed. Put some of that foil buble wrap insulation under the matress and it made quite a difference. I had to open the underside of the nose on mine and found there was no insulation under the bed. Instaled foiled ridgid foam and that helped, but the foiled bubble wrap under th matress did the trick

I would feel your pain, but can't. My bed is over the engine compartment (diesel pusher); the manufacturer (Barth) insulated it well. The insulation in the walls, roof, and floor is an odd one, but it works very well. It's sad that some manufacturers build to a price point when for a bit more they could build a unit with far fewer shortcomings.

[DickWells]

Ho-ho. Here we are in Brownsville, TX, and it's been an interesting trip. You ever hear someone say; "If something can go wrong, it will."? We left home about 11 AM last Wednesday. On Thursday morning, the furnace quit. The high for Thursday, coming through KY and W.V., was 44F and it rained coooold water all day. Used the range to get warm in the evening and bundled up and were comfortable all night, then fired up the range for a few minutes in the morning. Found the left-side fender skirt missing that night. Not a big, big deal, as I still have the right-side to use as a form, for molding a new fiber-glass one. The right side is already formed with about five layers of F-G. The left one was stock, and so thin, it only had one side!:rolleyes: Friday morning, and we came out of a McDonald's and Jean looked up and saw that the awning for the 12ft kitchen slide had come apart on the rear end and the whole thing would have gone on the road if she hadn't seen it when she did. Four or five bungies took care of that for the duration of the trip. That night, the slide-out pump moto stopped working, with the slides part way out, and I got under with a drill motor and ran them back in, and we came the rest of the way in without running them out at night. Saturday forenoon, the HIVAC in the pickup refused to adjust right, and we could only get HOT air coming out the center vent, and cold air on the sides. It stayed that way for about three hours, and it was MUCH warmer through TN! Ran with the windows open for that time, and then... low-and-behold, tried the AC for about the 4th time, and it's been working fine ever since. Top the whole deal off with the fact that I forgot that I had the cap clamped down, and, wanting my tools for a stab at trying to fix the slide problem, I (stupidly) tried raising the cap with my electric jack, and ripped the little arm right off my lift mechanism! My cap tilts up 90 degrees, on hinges on the left side to give me access to my Spyder, and my two tool boxes under the right side, doncha know. Nice! I was tired. And disgusted. And old! And that was before I forgot that the cap was clamped down!
Well, we're here. Got in about 6PM, last night. It's pleasanly warm, and I slept in this morning, and took that arm out of the pickup and got it welded, with a new brace added for strength, for just $10, and the cap is back to opening like it should. I ran the slides out, last night, with a drill motor, after removing the disabled awning, which needs a new fabric, anyway. Things are gradually returning to normal. I'll get to the furnace in a few days, so that when the inevitable cold days arrive, we'll be warm. Someday, we'll hit the road again, and I'll just bet we can find a whole new set of issues to make the full-timing experience interesting.

[DmaxMaverick]

Glad to hear you made it, Dick. The trip didn't sound too bad...Sure could have been worse (I hate it when people say that).

About your mechanicals.....
The electric motors are easy to repair. Yourself or a local shop. However, the usual suspect is the weak relays and breakers. Jumper cables from a battery to the motor poles on the relay should tell which end to talk to. The motors are available from Lippert, but at near the cost for a new power unit. A local motor/generator shop can handle anything inside, for cheap, and better.

My furnace quit, once (probably the same/similar model as yours, I have an 05 Mountaineer 5'er). Turned out to be those EPA (and all the other 3-letter's) approved LPG couplers and selector valve. The pressure got uneven (one bottle lower than the other, with one on the "sun" side), and it shut the gas down to a trickle. If the furnace doesn't get full flow, it cycles, then shuts down. At the same time, the range burners seemed to work fine. I disconnected the bottles and bled the pressure from the system, cycling the selector until it was neutral. Hooked them up and opened each tank valve a crack. Once the pressure came up even, it worked again. If the furnace doesn't come on at all (or at least try), suspect the fine craftsmanship in the thermostat, or the ignition generator (must be really good, as they cost accordingly). Cheer if you don't have the Dometic furnace. They're great at cooling, but really suck at heating.

[cowboywildbill]

Glad to hear you made safely. I used to work part time for an RV Dealer. It is amazing what they get by with when building them.
We have a Bison Stratus all aluminum 40ft long LQ Horse trailer with a 12 ft slide and for the most part it is well built. It was made by Holiday Rambler under Monoco. I did have an issue with the gooseneck on the right side starting to flex and was popping the aluminum skin off. They took it back to the factory and tore it all apart and found that they did not install all of the stuctual members and a critical brace on that side.
They fixed it and did a bunch of ugrades all under warranty and delivered it back to us. We had a gremlin with the lights and water pump, intermitent of course. I finally figured out it was a ground problem and had to run a new ground from midway back to the front. There was no way to fish the wires so down and under along the frame and back up we went. It is always something on these things.
And always things to improve on. We bought it in OH at the Quarter Horse Congress 5 years ago we traded in a Fifth Wheel camper and a Sundowner Gooseneck Horse trailer on it. We pulled it home to MD. And then the first time we used it to go camping a week later "when it was still brand new and never slept in" we filled the 100 gallon fresh water tank up and hit the road. And I mean litteraly hit the road. The tank is located under the front of the trailer underneath at the front of the floor. We got 2 miles from our house and the tank fell off onto the road. We had to get a couple of lasso's that we used for roping out and get them around the tank and pull it out from under the trailer. Not fun when you consider the tank weighed 834 lbs. We drained it and put the tank in the horse comaprtment in the rear.
They had secured the frame that holds the tank to the trailer frame with about 20 self tapping srews. The only problem was they only hit the frame of the trailer with 3 of them????? The factory paid me to reinstall the tank. I couldn't find an RV shop that wanted to do it under warranty. Even the Monoco Dealer was giving us the run around. Biso was good paying for the parts we needed and luckily the tanks wasn't damaged.
We reinstalled it and drilled and bolted the tank frame the the trailer frame and insulated it it also. Moral of the story what the RV industry doesn't engineer as well as it should isn't as bad as shoddy workmanship at the factories. OH well didn't mean to ramble. Take care.

[DickWells]

It's a never-ending story with these RV's. Just here, in this little park, where there are usually no more than 10 units that winter over, there's always something to fix on someone's rig. Wiring diagrams are non-existant. Wires are run, before the skins are put on, making access impossible, in some cases. Fasteners are guaranteed to rust; I replace all of mine with SS as I can, or need to.

Pity the poor RV'er who isn't mechanically inclined! They're a victim, just ripening for the picking at the most inconvenient, and costly, time.

[a5150nut]

Dick,

On the road when the heater wouldnt work, were you on battery power? Might have bee low voltage not spinning the fan enough to get the "sail switch" to work. Or just a bad sail switch.

[DickWells]

Not too likely, but possible. My two 6V golf-cart batteries have been giving good service. Most times, when I check it, the voltage is 13.6-13.8. Fact is, though I'm supposed to clean the furnace every heating season, it's never been done, and the unit is an 04!:o There were issues before we left, while we were on shore power, and I did a quick vacuum in the areas where I could reach, and wiped off the only optical sensor that I could get to, and that got us going for about a week. I'll get to it, one of these days, and let y'all know what I find out.

Thanks for the advice.

[DickWells]

Took the furnace out, last week sometime, and have had it in and out of the trailer, onto the fold-up table,and scrubbing and blowing, and probing, whenever the urge took hold. Just yesterday, I got around to hooking it back up, on the kitchen floor, with no gas going into it. Still no joy, as the blower wouldn't kick on as it should. Got a faint click, from the motor relay, whenever I hit the on-off rocker switch. Hmmmm. Thumped the top of the relay with the handle of my open pocket knife. Nothing. Reached out and pinched the little box and twisted it. Whoosh!!! Blower comes on, and I couldn't make it fail again.:D Dis-mounted the PC board for the third time, and looked at the connections on the back side, under the relay, specifically, and with a big magnifier, I could see the bad 2002 solder joint! Chipped off the lacquer coating and scraped up the little fillet, got a good, solid touch-up on the connection, with rosin core, and we're in business. That PC board is $165, plus tax, at the local RV store, so I've got about 170+ $ that I can plan on to go over to the candy store (Harbor Freight), and buy toys.:)

The low, last night, was 75 F, so I don't know why I want a furnace, but it's there again, if we ever do need it. It's 82, right now, in the shade, at 11:15 AM, and the AC is still working, so we're in good shape, here in good-ole Cactus Cart RV Park. Hope Y'all have a great day.

[SoTxPollock]

Wow Dick, you must have been in a hurry to get to Texas without stopping and taking the time to diagnose and fix some of those problems encountered on the way down. I have found it better to just go right away to some Camping World place and talk to their technicians about the problem, often the service writer will give you enough information to fix it yourself because he or she knows they are going to be the ones selling you the replacement parts you need to do the fix. At least so far it's worked for me.
Yes it's too bad that some of the things one finds in RV construction could be improved so much with just a little more thought on being able to work on it later. The designers are always looking at some cost saving measure for them to manufacture it cheaper and faster, but personally I think they shoot themselves in the foot, because we will always remember what gave us the most problems and will try real hard to not make that same mistake again.
I just got our 2011 5er back from the dealer where it has been since the first of August to fix all of the things that I could think of that resulted from our Alaska trip, granted that is probably the most gruling test one can put a trailer through. Those so call highways in the Yukon that can tear up anything and a few of the less traveled ones in Alaska, like at Chicken that caused one expensive motorhome to roll over I was told. No I didn't take my trailer down that road and I was on some roads with just the truck that I thanked God I didn't have the trailer behind me as I drove through them. It took $2900 worth of work to fix all the things like screws that backed out of the frame and went through the vynal flooring. It took forever for Forest River to furnish a replacement floor vynal for the floor, but it's an exact match of the original and the guy that installed it told me he epoxied the screws in so they won't ever back out again on their on. I told myself that I was going to make sure when we got back home that we were going to return the trailer to like new condition since this was it's first major trip which lasted 2 1/2 months. I had to spend about $550 for new brakes out of my own pocked, they wouldn't warranty those. The said I overheated them. Well I wouldn't argue that point at all. If you decend down into Death Valley Calif. on a 9% grade you're going to probably overheat the brakes. I applied them for 10 seconds and released them for 10 seconds for cooling, but apparently that didn't help too much. The shoes were cracked with many cracks across and parallel to the shoes so I just told them to put on completed brakes from the backing plates forward, all they had to do was hook up the wiring. I'm not going to risk the safely of my rig because they wouldn't warranty out he brake job. I'm glad to finally have the trailer back. Thanks for the tips you have given, I'm going to check out my slides etc. and be sure nothing is happening like it did for you.
One example of shoddy workmanship, the lower storage area of my trailer the front wall came loose from the floor, when I checked it out they had used screws that were to short and had spaced them like 2 feet apart. The dealer removed all of those and put in longer screws and more of them and resealed the wall. I think it's good from now on. I made them remove all external carbon steel screws and replace them with stainless steel or I would't sign the deal for the trailer, so they put their guy to work and did what I requested. I will not tolerate corrosion on my trailer. I even got under and repainted the frame and any exposed metal they missed to be sure it started out life right. I don't think I will regret that.
I'm just so thankful that all the slides continued to work and all the appliances did and no plumbing leaks. Of course the made in China shower head tube cracked and came apart by the time we got to Nevada on the way out so I bought anothe one a Camping World and installed it and it's so much better a shower head than the original. I can't understand why they skimp on the small things like the did on that.
Hope you are enjoying the balmy Texas weather in Brownsville, keep us informed on how safe you feel in that city. With all the drug wars going on down in Mexico I have gone out of my way to stay away from the border towns. Don't be in the wrong place at the wrong time and keep your eyes open and be aware of you surroundings while you are there. Not trying to scare you just wanting to give a caution to anyone not familiar with what has been going on at the Texas Mexican border. When I say keep your eyes open, I mean if you go across the border, take a cab, don't drive your vehicle. A lot of folks are unsuspectingly used to smuggle across the border and they geo tag your vehicle and when you park back on the Texas side they come find your vehicle and get the drugs you smuggled across for them all without your knowledge so a word to the wise. Don't be paranoid just be aware.

[DickWells]

Thanks for the come-back.
Yes, it's nice to be in the balmy S. TX weather. Last night, the low was 77, night before, 76, with upper 80's, both days, for highs.
Alaska is great, isn't it? Well, the whole tour, really. We did it in 07, and it was spectacular, all the way, for some 50+ days.
We had one flat, on the trailer, in B.C., and that was it for issues. I had two spares, and replaced the one that I mounted, immediately. I found the roads to be far better than I expected, and, yes, I drove up through Chicken, to Dawson, YK, and it sure could have been much worse. I'd do the whole thing again in a heart-beat.
I wouldn't take my rig accross that border for anything! We go over to Progresso for stocking up on Zithro-Max, and a few other things, but we do it by just walking over the bridge, by the guards with the 25mm machine gun, doing our business, and getting out in a hurry. Wouldn't go to Matamoros if you paid me! I feel so sorry for the Mexican people. Great folks, who don't deserve to have their country falling appart around them like it is.
Gotta go play Hand And Foot. So . . . later.:)