Weekend RV Progress

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This Saturday I went up to the RV lot to grab the RV and bring it back to the house to tackle some of my projects. While at the lot, I decided to test my turning angle so backed to about 82° where the RV began hitting the antennas. I inched back slowly, trying to find exactly how sharp I could go, and stopped when what I believed was the antenna hit the truck. I got out and checked, and the trailer had actually met the cab at around 84°. With the dent it left, I could go to 85°. So I ordered a paintless dent repair kit off Amazon to see how that works. Kelly said she didn’t even notice the dent, but it’s fairly sizable and going to bother me as long as I know it is there.

When I got back to the house, I pulled the rear underbelly cover off and began installing the Curt receiver hitch I bought. I ended up drilling four 17/32″ holes in the frame of the trailer on each side (eight total) and bolting the hitch with the supplied 1/2″ bolts through them.  I went through two bits for these eight holes, they seem to wear out fast using WD-40 as a cutting oil, so I need to look at either a sharpener or another oil of some type. I still need to grab a torque wrench to tighten them to spec, but the hitch is installed. The mounting bracket for the freshwater tank interfered with the ideal location for the hitch brackets, and rather than modify them  or the interfering bracket, I decided to mount the hitch about 6″ further towards the front of the trailer and buy a receiver extension.

Next, I installed the Progressive EMS in front of both the generator and the shore power. I mounted the display in the underbody storage for now, though there is plenty of line if I ever decide to move it. It is the only thing I took a photo of, and it didn’t come out very good, but you can see that it is just a little black box with power cords going in one side and out the other.

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In addition to detecting several types of electrical faults, it displays the voltage and current on each leg, as well as any faults, on the panel that I located just inside the storage door. It’s nice to have that information available. Working with the massive 50A wiring was somewhat difficult, but once I found a method to it went pretty quickly.

Next, I mounted the BAL spare tire carrier under the RV. I used five #12 x 1-1/2″ self-tapping screws on each side. Unfortunately, I couldn’t actually mount the spare from my truck on it, as it was too tall. Fortunately, it does a really good job of holding the Barker 32 gallon portable waste tank that we carry, allowing us to move it out of the basement. I used two ratcheting tie straps to anchor it to the carrier.

The next thing I tackled was adding LED lights under the awning. I used 3M double sided exterior adhesive tape for this, and they seem to hold well. I ran the wiring down along the channel for the awning arm and into the vent for the battery compartment, where I mounted the control module. These change colors and pattern according to a RF remote.

We’ve had some issues with the refrigerator cooling properly, so I added two additional fans to move air over the condenser fins. They are controlled by a simple thermostat and kick on only when the needed. I bought this as a kit online.

Last, I started working on the RO system. This included drilling two 1-1/4″ holes in the freshwater tank, one at the top and one in the middle. These holes are used for float switches that work off continuity. They can share a common wire, but each need their own lead running back to the boost pump controller, requiring three wires total. I drilled the holes and mounted the sensors with a ton of silicone. I still haven’t added water yet but am hoping there will not be any leaks. I ran the three wires 25′ to the basement storage and spliced them into the controller. I wired everything up and found the components that needed to be ordered. I should have the RO system mounted and working by the end of Tuesday if everything goes well when the parts come in.

I have a couple small fixes to take care of today; the closet door in the master bath needs to be adjusted so both sides can open and the drawer under the fridge needs to be reinforced because we put heavy pots and pans in it. Other than that, I’m waiting for parts to come in tomorrow and will hopefully be taking it back to the RV lot on Wednesday, to install the brakes over the upcoming weekend.

 

 

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