RE: Replacement question for Concertone
CountryGirl2 writes "Now I'm plain sceared, we are getting our new rig tomorrow and all my bubbles have been burst on the surround sound I was so looking forward to it. What a piece garbage! They should be made to fix it right or sell something that works properly!!!!!! I'm angry already."
GDE says, it is a shame but many folks want it all for very little, the truth is to get it all you must pay more. Many folks get hung up on the surround thing when what they are really looking for is good quality sound (good highs,mids and bass which is the subwoofer. A good car sound shop can build a custom system for you that would cost a little more than the junky stuff that is put into the RVs.
Personally I am not keen on Jensen, just never impressed with sound quality but I am picky. It is hard to duplicate my home system with a old school HK at an honest 90W per channel going into home built cabinets and hand picked speakers plus a 1,000W (250W RMS into 8 ohms per channel) Carvin amp to power the whole house system.
I would recommend Crutchfield for top notch DIY help, they have great service, have LIFETIME support on the items you purchase from them. The prices are on average with most retail stores, but they just plain excel in the service side. Shipping is two to three days for most states.
RE: My new leveling scheme
If you place the jack DIRECTLY under where the springs and axle are together should not be a problem. If the axles can't take that then they technically shouldn't be under the trailer.
That is exactly how I change the tires or check the brakes. Been doing that for 8+ years and never had a problem with damaging the axles.
What the manufacturers are talking about is jacking anywhere towards the middle of the axle tube, just not designed for that.
Torsion types I would not suggest trying that anywhere but you could jack up on the frame in front or behind the torsion tubes.
RE: Replacement question for Concertone
That Jensen doesn't look like a bad option. There is other car stereos that also have DVD built in, but even if they have a TV tuner (NTSC) they will be worthless at the end of Feb '09 when nearly all analog TV broadcasts are turned off (doesn't affect low powered or translator stations at this time).
For TV you will need a ATSC (digital) TV tuner box, not really sure if you will find these built into car stereos for some time.
RE: My new leveling scheme
Jacking wouldn't be too bad, although I would suggest putting blocking under the wheel.
Why is that you ask?
Answer: hydraulic jacks tend to creep down over time. I personally wouldn't bet my life under a jack. Nothing wrong with your idea, the pipe actually creates a very stable way the reduce falling off the jack but over a period of time the jacks will creep down.
For long term a sissor style jack might be a better choice.
RE: Cummins Onan inverter generator
TEXAS writes "If I remember correctly Robin/Suburu now makes units for Onan."
Not exactly, Cummins Onan non inverter portables are exact copies of the cheap Chinese clones but with Onan price tags.
Northern Tool Onan Portables
RE: Are all HDTV signals going to be in the UHF band?
Original plan by the FCC was to migrate all VHF stations to UHF via digital broadcast. Then auction off the VHF spectrum, that HAS changed, the stations will be allowed to chance back to their original analog frequency in DIGITAL broadcast once the analog transmissions cease.
It is up to the broadcaster to decide if they wish to move back or not, I know of one of my local stations that is not planning to move back to VHF, they are staying UHF since they determined that UHF will go through buildings a little easier than VHF.
UHF broadcasts come at a very large cost, it takes many times more power to broadcast on UHF than VHF to keep the same broadcast foot print. Because of this fact I would expect most all will go back to VHF.
RE: 70 Terry travel trailer bolt pattern
That bolt pattern most likely is the "star" pattern, this pattern is obsolete. While you most likely won't find any new wheels you should be able to find some used on ebay, craigslist.org, and so on.
Now if you are lucky the axles may be made by Dexter (aka Phillips Dexter). You can find this by checking the drums, if the original drums are on the axles you will find Dexter molded into the drums.
If Dexter, you can call them and give them the numbers that are on the drums, they will be able to cross over to current axles. My trailer had these and they crossed to 3,500 lb axles, I was able to change the drums to standard Ford 5 on 4.5 pattern.
You can see a picture of the rim I had in my RV HINTS AND TIPS document.
There are several other manfacturers that used the same pattern also but they are no longer in business.
RE: gearing up for interior remodel/repair...cabinetry question
fieldsoldier,
Your best bet is to make your own cabinets and doors, you need to think light weight but strong. Most low cost and even high end premade cabinets from a home center tend to be very heavy, made from chip board (MDF).
Home cabinets also will be deeper than RV cabinets which will take away your living space.
I would suggest before demoing yours to study and take pictures, this will give you a good reference to use to build your own.
I even made my own custom cabinet doors and drawers, it is time consuming but the results are worth it!
You can view a sample of my cabinets in my rebuild document
REBUILD LINK
RE: UPGRADING our INVERTER? How? Where? What? What else?
Really depends on your plans, if just to power TV and DVD then shouldn't need to upgrade if current inverter is working.
If planning to power Microwave, hair drier and such you will need to up size to 2,000W and upgrade your current batteries.
Also then would want to upgrade converter/charger, possibly add solar and so on.
Get a plan of what it is you would like to power then the answers will get more helpful.
RE: RV Generator frequency question
Try running a motorized 120V clock (alarm clock or wall type) would be a rather simple test of frequency if it keeps time for an hr or so then the frequency is correct then your digital meter is not reading the waveform correctly.
In this case since the genny is an inverter (Ti is inverter I am assuming) type the digital frequency meter may be having a hard time with the waveform.
The best way would be to scope the output but a clock should tell you if it is in the ball park.
RE: replacement furnace
wwest writes "Why not convert the roof A/C to a heat pump and free up space for more cabinetry..?? "
Keep in mind that heat pumps tend to not work very well once outside temps drop to 40F or less. OP is from UK, I'm not sure about how effective a heat pump would be there.
Besides, the furnace area he is talking about would be not much bigger than 1.5ft wide 1.5ft deep by maybe 10-12inches tall. Not sure that would create a whole lot of extra storage.
Sundowners, you could try contacting
RVSURPLUSSALVAGE.COM LINK
even though they are in the USA. I bought a refurbished Atwood 34K BTU from them about 2yrs ago for half price of new. They buy up "left overs" from many RV manufacturers when models change.
I see right now their website is only showing new Suburbans but I would suggest giving them a call anyway, they may be able to get what you want at a good deal. I have done this for some other items I needed and it wasn't listed on their website.
RE: Deep Creep
Harry, I had read your post about the repair, the products that you mentioned in this post will not fix the dirt that was found in your carb.
I had simular problem when I had dumped the remainder that was at the bottom of the gas can. Cleaned dirt out of the carb and a spark plug to fix the genny.
Now to prevent future issue with dirt in the carb, I bought a small engine gas filter (see through pleated paper type) and connected between the tank and carb. You can find these filters sometimes at Lowes, Home Depot were they sell lawn and garden stuff. If all else fails check with a local small engine shop, they should be able to find a small filter that would work.
RE: Power Distribution Panel Question
phurley, I am glad you found the connection. It is sad that RV manufactures just slap the electrical systems together. My 1984 Komfort had the negatives hidden INSIDE the walls, under one very large wire nut! All of the wires were corroded, needless to say that mess is no more.
RE: My New-To-Me Genny (Questions)
SETenn, the good side, it was free and I assume that it makes power?
The problem stems from much of the sound doesn't all come frome the exhaust. A lot comes from the intake, a lot comes from mechanical noise from valves and other parts banging around inside the block. The block design isn't optimised for quiet running, often on quieter gennies the block is designed and reinforced to reduce the noise vibrations.
Several things you can do, find a quieter muffler, check out golf cart mufflers. While you are at it, gas engine golf carts often times also have a muffler for the intake. A four sided box with an open top will redirect some sound up into the air, just be sure to give enough space for genny to breath, overheating=not good.
The downside is the cost of the mods, most likely you will spend a fortune and lots of time. You will have to determine if it is worth it.
All though if the folks who opposed your genny just because it wasn't a certain color (and expensive) if they didn't have power (think large are power outage) and you camped beside them (and they didn't have a generator), they would be begging to plug in, no matter how loud your genny is.
RE: Inverter powering refrigerator - anyone have this setup?
Wolfe10 writes "The other remaining issue is whether the refrigerator will run on that inverters "less than sine wave" output. "
I really don't see an issue with a "less than sine wave" output (meaning a MSW inverter), the OP has a FACTORY INSTALLED INVERTER for the fridge. Regardless if it is PSW or MSW that is completely nothing to worry about. The factory would have used what ever they felt would work.
The OP has now discovered #1 that there is an inverter installed and #2 that there is 4 batteries of some type connected.
That brings us to the point of now how long will 4 batteries will run the fridge? At this point in time my magic crystal ball is not working so I can't really say for sure. I would guess how ever that most likely three days as long as the batteries are supplying only the fridge.
One could how ever try a test to find out... Put some cold items (suggest some water bottles) in the fridge and some ice in the freezer, this would simulate having some cold mass in the fridge.
Then unplug the shore power and see how long it will run. I know, this isn't a scientific way to figure it out, just trying to find a simple way for the OP (which may not have all those great electrical wiz bang techie testers on hand) to be able to get an idea the actual run time.
Chances are that your friend may wish to have a generator to take along camping if planning to boondock for more than 2-3 days.
On edit, wwest, the Tripplite PV1250 HAS a 60Hz transformer BUILT INTO the inverter. You can go to Tripplites website, choose HEAVY DUTY INVERTERS, they have plenty of info there. No I would not recommend for anyone to try using a 1:1 isolation transformer on the low cost MSWs, most likely that would let the smoke out of the inverter.
RE: question about roof repair...
fieldsoldier, for the floor stuff you will get a break, the screws should be from the top down.
You should be able to find the screws holding the cabinets to the floors by looking at the cleats at the bottoms of the cabinets. The walls are this way also but to get to the screws you have to remove one side of the paneling.
Note, sometimes the screws will be hidden in the cleats, sometimes when they drive the screws they go below the surface of the wood.
Since you are not worried about the floor cabinets you can have at it with a crowbar and hammer. I personally like the flat wonder bars. Sometimes just busting off the paneling from the cleats will show the locations of the screws.
RE: Power Distribution Panel Question
The frame technically is not used as a ground or negative, the 12V negative is connected to the frame via a #4 bare copper wire from the power center. Additionally the Tow Vehicle negative and the battery negative will be connected to the frame via a #8ga or #6ga near the front of the trailer. This is more of a bonding thing.
I find making good quality connections to an exposed piece of steel out in the weather to be problematic at best.
Personally I wouldn't but its your dime, suit your self.
RE: 12v interior lighting problem
You may need to remove every light fixture. The wiring runs from one light to the next, many times a bundle of wires may get seperated or corroded (water damage).
The only way to find the problem is to remove the light fixtures and see if you have good connections.
RE: Power Distribution Panel Question
No, you don't want to connect to the 120V AC buss, that would be a bad idea.
You will need to put on your detective hat. Follow the +12V DC wires out of the fuse panel, chances are that they will meet up with the negative connections somewhere outside of the fuse panel. You should see a heavy gauge white wire running with the +12V DC wires, that should be the negative for the 12V. Most RV manufacturers are rather cheap on the wiring, they often will connect all the 12V negative wires in a bundle under one very large wire nut (this may occur INSIDE the wall).
Hint, all 120V AC wires should be Romex style wire (12/2 with ground or 14/2 with ground). All 12V wires should exit the panel as individual wires. Always test with a meter to be safe though, never assume a wire is "safe".
However, when working around 120V (open panel) please disconnect the shore cord! Don't wish to hear about you getting killed.
RE: Hole in RV Entry Door
You know that the outside skin is simply GLUED on to the door.
Check with your dealer, you just may be able to buy a new door skin, should be far cheaper than a new door or having a body shop fixit. I would have to agree that a sticker will well just show the mess underneath it after a while.
Accidents happen but with a relatively new RV you may as well get it fixed right the first time. Other wise the hole will haunt you every time you go to open the door.
