Tom Wallis

Several years ago we bought a Sleep Innovations 12" memory foam mattress that comes in a box. I think we got it at Costco but I see that Amazon has them. We have used the same mattress in more than one of our RVs and we love it. As a mater of fact we liked it so much we bought a similar one for home. Ours is a full sized queen and is bout 4" longer than the platform in the MH and it works just fine that way. Just be aware that there are different firmness options to choose from. Nova Foam makes them also and I think we have had both brands.

I have the aluminum roof with the seam down the middle and the aluminum and tar tape. I have replaced the tape on the rear cross seam with 4" ETERNA-Bond tape and painted it with Flex seal. So far I'm very happy with the results. As soon as the weather warms up I plan on doing the rest of it. I hear both good and bad things about Flex seal but I definitely want to coat tape with something. If there's something better than Flex seal I am open to suggestions. The hardest part of the job is removing the tar. I used a heat gun and a vibrating scraper and then finished up with alcohol.

I don't know anything about the electric reel but I thought I'd mention that there is a very long thread about the safety an reliability of the IOTA transfer switch that you might want to look at if you haven't seen it.

We live in Nevada and have had some very cold weather recently with night time temps as low as 5 and sometimes not above freezing even during the day. I have never winterized my motorhome. I have a wifi thermostat controlled 500W heater in the wet bay that's set at 40. Inside I have a 1500W heater on the same kind of thermostat also set to 40. On the nights that the temps go into single digits I set the furnace on 40. I filled my water tank the other day in preparation for an upcoming trip an it was 10 degrees since then and no problem. I have traveled in similar temps and found that as long as the furnace is set high enough for living in the motorhome, no supplemental heat is needed in the water bay. It seems that the ducting in the floor provides enough heat in the basement to prevent freezing. However, there are some big differences between motorhome designs so here is my disclaimer: "Individual results may very."

I won't consider deep cycle RV batteries the best choice for chassis batteries. They can work but won't give the best performance or life because they're designed for a different purpose. Hooking up your small charger backwards briefly is not likely to have any negative effect on them but it seems they do have a problem. Also, charging them while hooked in parallel is not a problem but you will need to separate them in order to test them. Since they're sealed you can't use a hydrometer. Once they're separated charge them one at a time and see if the voltage comes up. A 15 amp charger is pretty small for those large batteries especially when they're hooked together but individually they should be much higher than that after 12 hours. You should also disconnect them from the chassis while charging just to make sure your not fighting any parasitic loads. Ideally I would want to charge them with a larger 3 stage charger until the go into float mode. Then let them sit a few hours until the surface charge is gone. If at that point they're not at least 12.6v then they're not likely any good.

Here is one way to do it if the motorhome is plugged in and has wifi. Go to the back of the refrigerator and add a wifi smart plug between the cord and the outlet. Now set your refrigerator to AC mode. The display will read an error but when you turn on the smart plug with your phone the refrigerator will start working on AC.

You can hard wire it to the truck safely by adding a diode of the appropriate amperage to the positive wire. That does 2 things. It prevents any current flow from the generator battery to the truck and it will drop the charging voltage by 1/2 volt which helps prevent it from overcharging.

If the interior of the coach is heated it doesn't even have to be turned on.

I agree with all of that. However, I have been to campgrounds where the faucets have heat tape on them which makes it possible to use the heated hose. I find it's not worth the trouble though unless you're in for a long stay where it's very cold. Then you can add a heat tape to the hydrant or if you turn it of at night you don't have to put water hose away but just turn it back on in the morning.

The plastic sleeve in the battery fill hole is there to indicate the full level. The slots allow it to breath even when full. Unlike regular batteries, deep cycle and golf cart batteries have more room between that sleeve and the plates so they are more forgiving about low water. You should never let the water get below the top of the plates. I don't have any special caps and I only check my golf cart batteries every 4 to 6 months and they are never down to the plates.

I agree with Bruce. I think Costco is good as it gets for price. I have four 6v golf cart batteries from Costco, they're 5 years old and going strong. I personal am not as fan of the AGM unless you just want no maintenance. I believe that's their only advantage and they're more expensive. If you switch to AGM you need to change the charging voltage.

I'm not sure there's any advantage to a timer. The optimal thing for the batteries is to have the built in multi stage charger on all the time. It will maintain the batteries properly and give them the longest possible life. If it's power consumption that concerns you I don't think charging is the problem. If the batteries drain while the power is off the charger will use more power when it does come on. When my motorhome is plugged in and charging in float mode it uses less than 50 watts of power. If you're using a lot more than that I would look for parasitic loads on the 12v system and or find out if there are other things drawing 120v. Even with the inverter on, if there are no 120v loads the power consumption should be insignificant.

Changing a drag link is not a big job but separating the tapered ends from there socket is tricky if you don't know how. Probably using a pickle fork is the easiest but it's not available to everyone and you shouldn't use it on any joint that you intend to reuse. Without a pickle fork, loosen the nut but don't take it clear off. Position a bar between the 2 sides so you can apply some separating pressure then hit the end of the tapered eye with a very large hammer. This is also easier done with 2 people. They can be a bear and it may take a lot of prying and a lot of hitting before they separate.

Checking steering linkage is best done with 2 people. With the engine running and wheels strait ahead on a hard surface, one person turns the steering wheel back and forth through all of its free play plus a little more, just till you notice the wheels start to turn. The other person gets under the front and observes all the connections. Sometimes the play is hard to see so the person turning the wheel can try faster or slower movements. Also, try putting your hand on both sides of the connection and you can feel how much play there is.

Personally, I think keeping your rig hooked up to shore power is the best way to maintain your batteries. The multi-stage charger in your motor home will do an excellent job of maintaining the batteries without over charging them. In 20 plus years of RVing and 4 different RVs I'm always plugged into shore power unless I'm driving or dry camping. My current set of lead acid batteries are going on 5 years old. Regarding the water tank, I don't know what best practice is but I drain my water tank after every trip just because I prefer the quality of the water from home to some that I add elsewhere. I don't know what's best for the frig but I do know that the cost of running it all the time can add up.

If you are using one or maybe two adapters to plug your 50 amp cord into a 20 am outlet, I would check to make sure power is coming through the adapters to both legs. You can use a voltmeter at the 50 amp side of the adapters to see if you have 120v on both sides.

I'm not sure why a 2000kw generator wouldn't work for you. I would guess that the oxygen concentrator is about the equivalent of your refrigerator. I run that and charge the batteries at the same time. During the day we use all the normal stuff on battery, things like lights, coffee maker, fans, Starlink, computer etc. The Champion generator doesn't even run at full load usually.

I use a Champion 2000 inverter generator when dry camping. My wife uses an oxygen concentrator at night and it will deplete my batteries by morning. Where ever possible I start the Champion before we go to bed and let it go till it uses up it's one gallon of gas, usually 7 or 8 hours. In the morning my batteries are full and handle most of our needs through the day. Obviously, if AC is needed we will run the Onan. The advantages of the Champion are, it uses much less gas, it is quieter, we never get any fumes from it and in some cases we can locate it a little way away from the motorhome. It only weighs 48 pounds and only cost a bit over $500.

I'm not sure what broke. If it was the lever then you should be able to turn the wheels to the right and back and cancel the signal. If it was the internal latching mechanism then you should be able to turn it off with the lever.

I used to buy them on Amazon but they haven't been available for about 4 years now. Here is the link to the Atwood brand right side and it gives the Winnebago part # also. They come up as "CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE". I would definitely be interested in buying a few. In the past when I had one missing I would put a piece of black electrical tape over the hole to stop the noise. It's a good temporary fix and very inconspicuous. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00ODIMHZQ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Ditto to what Myron said. Ours arrived yesterday also and the story is very similar. Last night I cleaned the arms on 4 upholstered kitchen chairs. I used the small triangle tool wrapped with a microfiber cloth and we were amazed at how much dirt was picked up by the cloth. The chairs look really good now. Then I went and did the shower floor and was really happy with the results there also. This morning the sun was shinning through our sliding glass door and it looked pretty bad so I used the squeegee tool and cleaned it. The sun was still shinning through it when I finished and of course that is the acid test for clean windows and it passed with flying colors. This afternoon I headed for the motorhome with it and took on the carpets and the kitchen floor. I had the carpets professionally cleaned last year and I think they look just as good this time. One thing I learned from a Youtube video is to spot the carpet first with ammonia or hydrogen peroxide. I used Awesome that I buy at the dollar store, which has ammonia and is great for cleaning just about anything. So far I'm very happy with this cute little machine and I've got plenty more thing to try it on.

I live in Nevada where temperatures can sometimes dip into the single digits at night. My motorhome is parked in a pole barn that's open on one side. I never winterize it because we use it to often. I have a 200 watt heater heater in the water bay that's thermostat controlled and I monitor from my phone and I have a 1500 watt heater inside the motorhome that's controlled the same way. The water bay never gets below 40 degrees and the inside never gets below 35 degree. I have lived in the motorhome for 3 months in these same temperatures with no heat in the water bay but the furnace running regularly and still had no problems

I'm not familiar with the Smart Wheel and it's wiring but some of the suggestion on checking it are probably good. If you don't find it there however, don't overlook the dimmer switch. Sometimes fog lights are wired to only work on low beam so if you loose low beam and fog lights the dimmer is another place to look.

Well Bob, you're a pretty good salesman. I just ordered one from Amazon.com for $175. If it works half as good as you say it will be worth the money. It gets 4.5 stars from over 16,000 reviews so it must be pretty good.

Agreed. No reason to fuse the ground wire. It has to go to the positive post. As a matter of fact you can read BAT on the fuse next to that cable. That woulds always be positive.