BROADCASTS.com

Season 2 Episode 58
11/13/20
Picked up the rig and drove to a campground about an hr away. On the way, I noted the gas gauge was at less than a quarter tank and there was no water in the fresh water tank not a fresh water hose.
The turn signal cameras and the radio weren't working. AND there was no heat coming from the dash.

We spent the 1st day getting gas, buying a 7pin to 4pin adapter for the toad, fixing the cameras and radio which was checking all the 12v fuses and finally resetting the radio with a paperclip.
Then we visited the Yankee Candle store in Deerfield Ma. Wow spent an hour. Then had dinner GiannaFig also in Deerfield. We walked around town a met a local guy and his wife and chit chatted for a good half hr. We went back to the campground and got the tow bar installed on the rig.
The next day we headed home and worked on a bunch of small fixes. Lubricated the slide, awning, front sliding windows, basement and front door locks, and engine lid. It seemed like none of these things were maintained at all.
We saw there was going to be a couple of nice days so we booked a site at Promised Land State Park in Pa. .
The list of modifications and things to fix continues to grow, but alas it is an RV. So when we got home, I dug in and started doing modifications. The big one was ripping out the jack knife sofa and putting in a Rec Pro reclining loveseat.
We changed the shower head to a higher pressure and low gpm. We also did the same for the bathroom faucet.
The next thing i did was took out the living room TV and put in a fire TV. And then we ripped out the TV on the outside, painted the compartment, out in some wood and polypropylene padding, some glass holders and viola... we now have an outdoor bar lol !
We have a gas grill connection on this rig. But the gas flow was minimal I made some modifications to the gas line and made a video explaining what I did and it's on YouTube on the relax RV page.
But as the list of things to do to the rig grows, we saw that in a couple of days the weather was going to warm up a bit so we planned a day to take a break from the rig fixes and take a hike.
I find that if I don't get a day to enjoy nature it affects my mood. Now taking a day off isn't easy for me. I also have to force myself to do it, but once I do my patience is higher, my sense of humor returns and I feel better about myself. We went to the Ashokan Reservoir and rode our bike for 9 miles then walked another 4 miles. This reservoir feeds NYC drinking water.
The following day it took out the small ineffectual entrance step light that Thor had mounted and replaced with a motion detector brighter light.
We put dimmer lights over the headboard of the bed for reading. Then I took the original Puck lights that were over the bed, which had not enough button on each light, and put them over the dinette in the living room. because Thor in their infinite wisdom put the on/off switch for those lights over in the kitchen.
Installed the backup camera for the Garmin GPS that we use.
We installed a privacy curtain behind the cockpit area so when you walk into the rig the curtain will be on the right providing a little bit more temperature control from the cab area and it really accentuates living area.
The one of the first things we noticed with the rig is the ceiling light switch is on the side of the cabinet as you come in the door so you have to stand on either the edge of the stairwell or in the stairwell and try to reach this light switch which is one of five switches period so I picked up some wire and another switch and moved it down a good four feet so when you enter the rig the switch is right there.
The next project was heated tanks. When we saw this rig advertised the brochures showed that the 2017-29.4 theories had heated tank pads and heated tanks. I looked and looked and I could not find any switches for the heating pads so I called Thor they ran my VIN number and told us this rig did not have any heated tanks at all. We were crushed. one of the things that we knew that we definitely wanted was heated tanks. We love to Winter camp. So I did some homework I found a set of three rec pro tank heating pads and it came with lighted switches so that when you turn the pads on the light on the switch lights up. I'm going to take some reflectix and secured to the bottom of the tanks covering the heated pads this way that heat will definitely radiate back up into the tanks.
Next big project is I want to heat the water lines that run through the basement. Our last RV Thor 27.1 had heated tanks that were heated with vents coming from the furnace. so in order to have heated tanks you had to run your furnace which can get really expensive on a cold winter's night using all of that propane. Almost 3 years ago we went to old forge New York for a weekend and went down to -5° F. In those three nights we went through 26 gallons of propane. So what I am planning on doing is pull out the water lines that go from one side of the rig to the other side wrap them with heating tape put foam wrap around it and reinstall the water lines.This rig has a 1000 watt inverter that was put in when they made it. This inverter runs two outlets one is the outdoor refrigerator and the second one is the outlet by the passenger front seat in the dashboard. So I figured we will never be turning on the outdoor refrigerator in the winter so I ran an electric line from the outlet at the outdoor refrigerator which is wired to a 3 prong plug I then ran the line underneath the rig to the basement compartment where the plumbing lines are. At the end of the electric line I put in a outlet to plug in heating tape. Insulating the pipes is going to have to wait because drum roll please .....
We had bought the rig on Oct 2nd and it took 6 weeks to get into DMV.
So we are planning a short trip to parts unknown in the next week or 2. We also have an appointment at Ford to get our dashboard heat fixed.
I made some videos about the improvements I mentioned and I posted them on YouTube. You can find links to the videos on the relax RV page on Facebook or by going to relaxrv.org click on the videos link.
Or copy and paste this address into your browser
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzwH6GhSMBDJ7qKxsLng-TA
And here's a link to the Relax RV facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Relax-RV-277623782811787/?view_public_for=277623782811787