I have a long list of posts to make, but life this winter has been anything but conducive to sitting down and writing – until now. This post takes us from the Gulf Coast, to single-digit temperatures in north-central Wisconsin. We would normally winter somewhere in the southwest, where, though it might not be especially warm, is usually dry. Instead, we chose to stay on the gulf coast, central in this country, so we could make a run to the ancestral home if we had to. One of my brothers was quite sick with cancer.
We spent over a month near Gulf Shores braving the clouds, fog, rain – with just a few days of sunshine. Then we headed west to Galveston Island in hopes of a little less fog and a little more sun. By chance, our GPS headed us through the Bolivar peninsula – headed for the Ferry. When we first realized we were headed to a ferry with our 34-foot Class A and Toad, we pulled over and mulled whether we should turn around and take “the long way around”. A phone call informed us this ferry could handle us easily and was free and likely saved us a couple of hours and a lot of traffic over going the long way around.
Galveston Island is a pretty nice place, with lots of beaches – far enough west, some you can even drive on. We were in a nice park – albeit a bit far from town on those days when we needed to go shopping or “touristing”. There were plenty of good grocery stores – even a Costco within driving distance (1+ hours away). We had our bicycles and our metal detectors and made use of them.
Meanwhile, we monitored conditions in Wisconsin – and decided to leave Galveston with a week to go into February. We took two days to get to near Champaign, IL where we live part-time. We had been studying the weather in Wisconsin and starting two days after our intended arrival, they were forecasting temps down into the 5 to 8-degree range – for three nights. We hadn’t experienced anything like that in this RV. In fact, the lowest temperatures we had experienced, was 24 degrees and 20+ mph winds in a Walmart parking lot halfway between Galveston and Champaign. The furnace ran almost continuously, and we had no other source of heat. Temperatures in the right water bay went down into the lower 30’s. The plan was to stay in Illinois for a few days to collect supplies for the cold siege and get a couple of other errands done. The COLD plan – pick up some heavy tarps in the garage and pre-cut them for installation up north. Before we left Texas, I ordered three rolls of 3M outdoor no-residue tape (delivered home) so I could tape the tarps to the RV and hope they came off cleanly. I also picked up a couple of 20-pound propane tanks from the garage and the external tank adapter I had previously purchased for the RV and got installed. I also collected the heaviest extension cords and all the electric space heaters from the garage. Lastly, we picked up a couple of 1-inch thick pink board 4 x 8 ft sheets. We planned to bring the main slide in on the coldest nights, but to wrap the sides of the bedroom slide with the foam. I measured, pre-cut and stored them in one of the pass-through storage areas. Lastly, we picked up a pressure mounted curtain rod and heavy insulating curtains. We would use this to provide a barrier between the front driving area and the main room of the RV. So, went the plan.
The drive up was uneventful. Mom’s place has a 600-foot-long uphill driveway. We asked mom to have it sanded before we got there – and we made it up without difficulty. Turning around was fun, but a few sawed off branches and we made it, backing in next to the garage (barn) where there was an outside 15-amp socket. Placing the tarps started in earnest the next day and was finished the day after that. It might have gone quicker, but there were other things with my brother that took priority. The tarps didn’t go as well as I hoped. I had planned to use Velcro between the sections – but the stuff I had didn’t stick well in the high 30-degree temps I was working in. So, everything got taped and every bit of the three rolls of a special tape got used and then some.
As I was about to place the last pieces of tarp the second day, I saw a field mouse attempt to run out from under the RV – but ran back in. Crap! We do carry some mouse traps, so after that last tarp went on, 4 baited traps were left inside. The next morning there was one clean untriggered trap and three victims. I cleaned and rebaited all – and got a fourth mouse, but none after that, so the tarps were doing that part of their job. I was pretty sure the RV was mouse-proof as I had gone over very carefully – but one can never be entirely sure.
So, I need to diverge a bit. Propane tanks on RVs are always in unsealed compartments so any leaks can disperse. My main tank would be inside the skirts. When I installed the external tank adapter, I very carefully checked ALL the fittings on the tank to make sure nothing was leaking. Most of the time there, we used the external tanks, saving the internal tank in case we couldn’t refill the portable tanks for some reason. There is one issue with the external tanks. All propane tanks store as a liquid – which boils off to gas for use. That liquid to gas conversion absorbs heat, cooling the small tanks. The lower the propane gets, the faster the tank cools. One morning early, the furnace was “missing” or “flaming out”. The 20-lb tank was about ¼ full and wasn’t generating enough pressure to make the regulator keep up with the furnace. I didn’t take the thermometer out that morning but other times I measured tank temps down as low as -18. I’ve read you can buy tank heaters, similar to water pipe heaters, but I didn’t have time to catch up to any of them.
Since we wanted to move the main slide in/out and we had to have the engine running to do that – when the skirt got around to the engine exhaust – I wrapped it with some fiberglass insulation and taped around it – and to the skirt. I also checked the temperature with the engine running – and it wasn’t very warm at all. We did the same with the generator in case we needed power that we couldn’t get from the garage but never needed it.
We also took a couple of smaller tarps up to the roof and bungee’d them over the Air Conditioners.
Lastly, the steps retract when the engine starts – with no easy way to turn them off – so the tarps had to go over the steps so they could move in/out and still seal. That ended up a pain in the end, but there was no good way to seal the tarp to the frame underneath. I did tape a couple of doormat pieces to the steps so they weren’t too slippery, but there were still a couple of near falls. For future functionality I’m going to find a way to completely disable the steps.
When the temps got down to 5, we were using the furnace, the electric fireplace (on low) and a space heater in the bedroom. The furnace also kept the water bays above freezing. We were only plugged into a 20-amp circuit, so we also put an AC amp-meter on the line and had Deb turn on each electrical appliance so we knew what we would be drawing. One good thing – the 3000-watt Victron inverter we installed has an assist mode. I programmed the max amount of current for it to draw from the outside power and it used the lithium batteries to supply the rest of the current demand from inside appliances.
Did the skirt work? Sure did. When it was 5 degrees outside and 20mph winds, it was a good 15 degrees warmer inside the skirt, thus the entire bottom of the RV was only seeing 20 – and no wind.
Was it absolutely necessary? Don’t know. We might have survived without it, using multiple circuits from the garage and several space heaters. Might have.
Would I do it again – hope never to have to. We did look at a skirt kit – one where they give you stick on mounts and the material and you cut and install it – but it’s expensive ($1k+) and it was unlikely they could have shipped it in time. I think our Tiffin 32SA can probably do better in the cold than we thought it could, but I think I would never take the chance willingly. We expected to have to stay for weeks, which we did and bailing because it was cold wasn’t really an option.
As it turned out, we lost our brother. It wasn’t unexpected, but it did happen literally without warning one morning,
This page will be a running record of the changes and upgrades we have made to our Tiffin Allegro Open Road 32SA. They are in roughly reverse order – most recent first. We expect you’ll never want or need to do all of these things, but I expect you will find some of them quite useful. Current update is 12/21
These next two items aren’t really Tiffin specific – they could happen with any RV manufacturer. I include them here because they might not be so obvious.
Bathroom Sink Drain
Our bathroom sink always drained slow. I think I knew it wasn’t adjusted right, but I just never got around to working on it. After all, we just mostly brushed our teeth and washed our hands. Well, eventually it got so slow that I just had to do something with it. I reached underneath and unscrewed the lever entry that raises and lowers the stopper. I then pulled the stopper out – which had a huge accumulation of gunk on it. Apparently, as the stopper never raised very far, lots of soap settled out onto the stopper and made the situation worse. In the end, the problem was that the stopper had been installed backward. The tab at the bottom of the stopper is offset and that offset should be toward the front of the sink, away from the stopper actuator. This ensures the most movement of the stopper, thus allowing water to flow out of the sink at a reasonable speed. Just a minor misstep at the factory.
UPDATE: The “chrome” drain ring has started to rust, leaving a nice rust stain in the bottom of the sink. I purchased a new drain with lever/plug and went to install it. Ususally, these go pretty simply. Just remove the old one, clean up any sealing surfaces and install the new one with some plumbers putty where it meets the sink. Thus I did and of course it all leaked. The nut that you screw up from underneath has a big rubber seal that is supposed to seal to the bottom of the sink – which had a nick in it – so more plumbers putty needed to supplement the seal. Also – I had to remove the J-trap to get everything in position – and its connection to the drain pipe leaked too. The original installers had added plumbers putty there too, which I had to clean off and add my own. Never before have I had to go through all that to replace a drain. – Update – the new drain also rusted. I found a drain that used a solid, full chrome cover drain. Hopefully this one will last more than a few months.
Black Tank Flush
Black tank flush sprayer
A bit more of a confusing and problematic issue. Last year, our black tank flush became plugged. Over the months before, we had done some dry camping. That meant, at times, having to move the RV with a partly full tank to a dump station and not always having a flush hose available. We were going through Red Bay for another reason, so we had them look at it. They chose to just replace the sprayer. It was difficult to get out because the bottom screw was actually below the top of the freshwater tank, but the tech managed to get it out. Looking at the sprayer, I thought – maybe it should be flipped so the flat side is down, making it easier to install/remove. I convinced the tech to do that, which was WRONG! The sprayer has holes at the end and bottom – so now it was spraying the top of the tank AND anything that splashed into the sprayer holes tended to stay. Six months later, it has hard plugged again. I pulled it out, cleaned thoroughly, and re-opened the plugged holes. Then I realized the problem. The sprayer had been installed in the WRONG place. The flat side is intended to line up with the top of the tank. Mine was over 1.25 inches below the tank. While that doesn’t seem to be a lot, the tank is only 7″ tall on this end, so that is a full third down. Our tank had never been more than 2/3 full according to the tank monitors (yes, doesn’t mean a lot), but with the sprayer this low there were certainly times when it was soaking, not just getting some splashes due to moving the RV. When I can find the appropriate materials, I’ll be patching over this hole and moving the sprayer up and over just a bit to the top of the tank. UPDATE: haven’t moved it yet, but I have pulled and cleaned out the holes twice….21
Forgetless flushing
When flushing “they” say to always leave the black tank valve open. That’s so you don’t overfill the tank Many people say its ok to close the valve so long as you only let it run for a couple of minutes; the idea being, it will drain better if its got a few inches of water in it when you open the valve. The problem with this method is interruptions. The neighbor walks over and starts a conversation. Your kid starts to scream bloody murder on the other side of the RV. Bigfoot walks by. Whatever the reason, you forget to turn off the flush or open the valve. Your tank fills up and starts to turn into a round tank in a square hole. Dirty water backs up in or under your toilet and if pressure gets high enough, it starts spilling out on your roof. I’ve seen a black tank (not mine) blow out the bottom of a trailer as well as flooding the inside. So I installed a “dead man valve” on my rig. I have to hold it open to flush. I even put a different quick connect on (no other hose has one that will fit), so if someone else ends up dumping my tanks they are at least “encouraged” to use the valve. In case you think this would never happen, it did happen to us when I had a medical issue, my wife and a son ended up processing the tanks when I was out of commission.
COOLLLDDDD weather propane
Because we were headed to very cold temps and would be stationary for some time, I installed a two-port external propane adapter onto our propane tank. This allows me to either feed propane to an external grill/appliance (one with a regulator) or to feed propane in from an external tank(with appropriate adapter hoses). When we were in northern Wisconsin for a couple of weeks this winter (early 2020), this came in very handy as we would have used up our main propane tank long before it was time to leave. I had two portable tanks, thus could swap them out for refill.
Water Expansion
I noticed a water connection under my bathroom sink weep occasionally. I finally traced the issue to 130+ PSIin the water system after taking a couple of showers. Apparently, cold water filling the heater, then expanding as it heats up with no place to go creates tremendous pressure. I installed an accumulator that provides a place for the expanding water to go as well as allows the water pump to cycle less often. These are inexpensive, can be installed almost anywhere in the water system, and relatively easy to install. Note, I was under a time and parts availability constraint when I installed this – so this installation looks truly ugly. While I was at it, I also installed a separate pressure gauge that lets me see the pressure inside the system, independent of the city hookup pressure regulator. UPDATE: we purchased a fancy, electronically controlled, variable speed pump – that should have been quieter. Its not quieter. It normally runs around 60 psi, but some days, for no reason, it runs up to 80 or so. We can tell because its even noisier than usual. Someone at support at the company tried to tell me not only did the resevoir mess it up but the guage would cause it to not operate correctly. Go figure. Gauge and expansion chamber continue to work.
Damaged CB coaxNearly folded CB coax
Communication Radios
We often disconnect a short way before an RV park or boondocking spot, and we sometimes caravan so having a working CB is something we wanted. We even bought the “preinstall” from Tiffin when the RV was ordered. It never worked right. I had discovered the cable was mangled with pliers while installing and the CB end connector was bad. shortening the cable, and reinstalling a good connector only helped a little. Thus, installing the CB became part of the cabinet install. We ended up replacing the entire CB cable and the antenna to get it all to work. We also installed a newer, better CB. Unfortunately, we weren’t happy with the CB when caravanning.
Update: In the end, we installed console GMRS radios and short (6 inch) upgraded antennas, using the 50-ohm coax that had been run for the CB radios. While they are not perfect, they are far quieter (extraneous noise wise) and work over a far greater range than the CBs ever did. When parking in a site or the rare occasion when we need to travel with our Toads unhooked, our spotters use handheld GMRS radios. We also installed a “trucker” GPS antenna to improve XM radio reception.
Sub-basement lights
We installed a set of AC powered strip lights under the RV. They were plain white and so bright it looked “like someone left the basement lights on”. Eventually we replaced these with some RGB led rope lights that allow us to choose colors or color-changing patterns. Not near as bright. The picture to the right is the original lights.
A never-ending story. When Rover was Pulling up a steep hill – the engine noise is a bit more than we’d like. More than some other gas Class A’s we’ve ridden in. So we decided that if we had the chance, we’d add some additional sound deadening under the front cab area. We also found plans for a wooden cabinet to replace the plastic junk Tiffin attaches to the top of the doghouse cover. Not wanting to pull the cover more than once, we planned to pull the cover, add insulation then build and install the new cabinet.
Staples galore
So, with all supplies ready, I started removing the carpet – as the 6 inches of carpet around the doghouse was one and the same as the carpet on the doghouse. If I had had trouble on the road and a mobile mechanic needed to get in there, it would have taken a hour just to get the cover off. First, pull off the dash access port – find the 4 screws that lock the bottom of the dash plastic to the plastic cabinet. Then take apart and remove the plastic cabinet from the doghouse. THEN… either tear up the carpet around the edge (50+ staples) or take a sharp utility knife and cut the floor attached carpet from the doghouse carpet. Finally, there are 6 screws – three in front and three toward the back that hold the doghouse in place. They are buried in the carpet and can be hard to find. I chose to pull the carpet off the floor as it had become quite dirty and generally unsightly. Under the carpet were large gaps as Tiffin didn’t run the tile all the way to the doghouse. We installed cove base over the floor for now. When I get back home to my spare floor tiles, I’ll fill in closer to the doghouse frame and install some smaller trim. We built the cabinet with a drawer and installed metal cupholders with LED lights in them. Then we added some rubber cup inserts. Much nicer looking, way more useful. And the engine seems quieter as well.
Update: The cove base has worked surprisingly well – I have no plans to replace it at this time.
Bathroom Carpet
Debbie doesn’t like cold floors for those midnight trips to the bathroom, so we installed carpet in there. I started with pieces of cardboard I laid down, trimming to size and taping together. I ended up with one “piece” the shape fo the floor. I laid that over a piece of carpet and cut just outside the lines – making sure the door entrance ended up where there was the edge tape sewed on the carpet. I started there, working around, trimming the carpet with a sharp blade. Just to make sure, we added some of that waxy tape to the floor to help hold carpet in place but probably didn’t need it. Every 8 or 12 months, we buy a new carpet square and use the old one as a template. It takes me less than an hour, start to finish.
Gally Vallance
The Tiffin “valance” around the gally window was quite a small hole, plus it took up at least 4 inches of the countertop. We removed the valance (which weighed something like 60 pounds as it was real stone tile) and tossed it. I reversed the window shade to put the shade closer to the glass. Then I built a lightweight wood valance that sloped toward the window at the bottom, saving lots of counter space. Currently, it’s painted white, but a future project will apply some sort of other finish to it.
Terrible Valances
RV manufacturers as a class, all go overboard with the wood trim and glitz. We desperately needed some color in the main room. The valences that extend way down also tend to get in the way. We pulled them down, removed the lower extensions, and re-covered the valences with a nice sky/cloud print material. I purchased a set of color-changing LED strip lights (Menards?). We bought some ¾ wide quarter-round PVC trim that turned out to be an exact match for the living space cabinets. We command-strip-velcro’d that to the bottom of the cabinets and added the LED strip to the back of that. Now the valence print looks completely different depending on what color the strip is set to.
Knobs, who needs these knobs?
We really didn’t like the doorknobs and drawer handles that came with the rig. The ends stuck out and would catch on clothes. Eventually, we found a set Deb liked and two Home Depots later, we had enough to replace every bit of hardware in the RV. I’m still trying to sell off the old set on eBay. The original knobs were T shaped and constantly caught on things and would constantly come loose. I did install the new ones with lock washers.
Kitchen Fan
The MaxFan that came in the RV kitchen area could be opened and turned on from the Spyder control panel in the kitchen. But other functions such as fan speed, thermostat, etc could only be controlled by getting on a stool and pushing buttons on the fan itself. We replaced the fan with a remote-controlled unit. We only hooked up the “Fan” wire from the Spyder system, that we leave on, and control all functions with the remote control. I wish I knew if there was a way to reprogram Spyder functions.
Cooler AC
We read that white Air Conditioner covers run much cooler than the black ones installed by the factory. I don’t have specific numbers for the difference, but in order to get the most from our units, we ordered white covers. While we were swapping them out, we checked and sealed any air leaks in the “cold side” and added an extra layer of insulation on the main cold box using Reflectix and aluminum tape. We also insulated the cold refrigerant line that runs from the evaporator to the compressor. They do seem to be more effective on a sunny day. Later, we added soft start modules to both ACs, hopefully allowing them to run on lower current circuits.
Medicine cabinet shelves
The medicine cabinet is quite tall and has but one shelf (plus the bottom). We sometimes travel with three people. I pulled the cabinet off the wall, moved the one shelf (parts from the kitchen cabinet), and added another. Now we have three shelves and can utilize the space much better.
There is a small storage cabinet above the toilet. It had no dividing shelves. I added a shelf in the middle to make the storage of towels and wash clothes more efficiently.
Mirror, Mirror on the wall….
The bathroom had a mirror on the medicine cabinet door and one on the right wall. I presume the thinking was to provide two angles for the wife. But both mirrors were close to the corner and just plain inconvenient. We tore the mirror from the right wall and placed it between the medicine cabinet and the window. The mirror was GLUED and STAPLED to the wall – so a nice picture was placed to cover the mess left by removing the mirror.
Really, no towel rack?
There was no towel rack in the kitchen. Nor was there any place on the cabinets to easily hang a couple of towels. We are currently trying the refrigerator door. Yes, the door and no we didn’t drill holes. I attached the mounting plates with VHB tape, then attached the rack to the plates. So far it is holding. Update: I found some magnets at the hardware store designed to hang hooks from metal racks. I tapped the hole in the steel magnet cover, then epoxied a bolt into the base. Once hard, I added a nut and threaded the magnet on till it was just flush with the base. Works great.
Shower power
We added a soap tray via waterproof command strips, and across the shower, up high, we added several command strip washcloth hooks. We replaced the original showerhead with a better one and a valve that shuts off completely. We also replaced the stiff hose with a flexible one and removed the hose from the ring that limited its movement. Part 2: putting the soap holder right below the shampoo shelf turned out to be an open invitation to knock the soap or entire tray on the floor.
UPDATE: We moved it over between the door and the rail the shower sprayer was mounted on – haven’t knocked either down since.
Paper Towels are a must in the kitchen
Even big expensive RVs don’t seem to come with paper towel racks. We used the same one we had in our last RV – it has just enough resistance to allow one to easily tear-off sheets and we installed it under the kitchen cabinets behind the sink.
Better Cooking Light
The microwave came with a built-in light over the kitchen work space. It came with a puny incandecent bulb. Being almost useless, we found an LED bulb that was brighter, but even that wasn’t good enough. We found a flat LED light that we velcro’d under the microwave which provides really nice light.
Who’s there?
We installed a Ring doorbell outside and a Ring Camera inside. Both connect to our protected WiFi which connects to our hotspot. I installed a 24V transformer so the ring stays charged. This lets us keep an eye on the doggies when we are away and keep an eye on our site as well. The Ring is set to detect motion and save vids to the ring server and notify us when we have the Away setting turned on.
Everyone needs Internet
Since we planned to boondock a lot and since most campground WiFI networks are poor and/or overloaded, we wanted better Cell/Internet connectivity. We purchased an AT&T hotspot as a part of our family cell plan and a WeBoost cell booster. For the outside antenna, I purchased some PVC pipe connectors, screw clamps, and an extensible painter’s pole. I have two sets of PVC connector mounts – one down low for travel and one up high for maximum vertical reach. Update: When we first installed this, I used what cable I could get quickly – 75-ohm coax designed to cable nets. The booster really wants a 50-ohm low loss cable, which I have purchased and installed. I also got a directional antenna to try to provide a bit more boost in some situations. When there are nearby cell towers, the directional antenna seems to make little difference as the tower decides what power everyone should talk so the additional gain seems to get quickly offset. I presume it would make more difference if we were miles from a single tower.
UPDATE: Since we were going to be out and about again this summer, hopefully boondocking, we chose to add a second cell vendor. To facilitate this process, we bought a PEPWAVE Max Transit Duo router capable of using two cell vendors at the same time. We added an exterior (roof mount) antenna to provide better access.
PEP MIMO/WIFI/GPS antenna
Our second vendor choice was a bit limited, we picked up a T-Mobile BYOD sim from Nomad Internet. Throughout the six months we had it we managed to get about 2 months or working service. After the fourth sim stopped working correctly, I insisted on a refund (we had to pay 12 mo in advance). I received a partial refund which I reluctantly accepted and moved on. I then ordered an FMCA router, also T-Mobile which seems to be working fine. It’s not quite as fast as the ATT tower at our current location but it lets me use both providers through my PEPWAVE.
Couch Mods
The provided sleeper/couch is, in theory, quality construction. But the vinyl upholstery was too slippery for our little dogs. We purchased a coarse cloth and made covers for the cushions. BUT the seats were also rock hard. Ten minutes into sitting in them and they were terribly uncomfortable. Pressed for time (leaving for warmer climes), we purchased some foam locally and refilled the cushions. Now they are just a little soft. Update: We still had the original foam, which I split down the middle and added the soft foam on top of the half-thickness hard foam. Now the cushions seat much better. On one of our trips, we were going to be having a guest – sleeping on the fold-out sleeper built into the couch. It uses an air mattress to save space and weight. But the thought of blowing up an air mattress and letting it out every day seemed like a hassle. It is a fairly thin air mattress and getting the air pressure “just right” is key to a good night’s sleep. We opted to give away the mattress and buy a good quality foam mattress that would still fold up – and that worked well.
Power, more Power, Solar Power
We decided early, that between the residential fridge, all the accessories that used AC power, plus computers, that the factory provided batteries weren’t going to be sufficient. They required long charging cycles with the generator. While we were out at Quartzite – Battle Born had a tent sale – and we picked up four 100 Amp-hour lithiums. They make a big difference. Once we got back home, we added 800 watts of solar, with a system designed for 1600 watts. 800 still doesn’t quite keep up with our needs, but it reduces generator time, so long as we aren’t shaded. At the same time, we weren’t happy with the 2000 watt inverter. We had to be careful what appliances we ran at the same time – we overloaded it a couple of times and had to perform a manual reset. Since we had also installed a Victron Battery monitor, and a Victron solar controller – we added a Victron Color Control Console and a 3000 watt Victron inverter. So all our battery systems could be watched under a single monitor and via the Color Control Console or an app on our phones, even remotely. More on the solar etc install can be found here: Solar Installs
DC components w/labels
UPDATE: I have designed a “replacement” for the Tiffin/Lippert DC distribution panel. It is all based on discrete components and thus takes up a lot more room. It is amazing just how much stuff, tiff stuffed into that tiny panel – and not amazing why parts of the original panel failed so often. I have come accross other tiffin 32SA owners that have had the inverter switch fail and one whose panel caught fire (he was outside and managed to put it out before the fire spread). I have one addition to this configuration that is coming. When we started out with the lithiums – I never saw the batteries charging from the engine more than 90 amps. I believe this is because the lithiums were never mostly discharged. We often used the generator when boondocking rather than the engine to charge. One night we spent parked behind a restuarant. We hit the road in the morning, still dark out after running the batteries down to about 40%. I looked at the charging rate and it was 120 amps. Plus headlights and anything else – thus pushing the generator on the engine to its limit. I’m about to install a DC to DC converter. This will limit the engine to house batteries to about 40 amps, which is fine because we rarely need to charge up the house batteries quickly with the RV engine. It should keep me from pushing the engine alternator so hard.
Hindsight
The Tiffin provided rearview camera looks straight down the back of the RV. This might be great for backing up, but provides no view down the road behind. There are side-view mirrors of course, and turn cameras as well. But 50 plus feet back, it becomes hard to gauge distance in the mirrors and harder in the turn video, especially at night. We purchased a set – monitor and 4 cameras. I ran three cables to the rear of the RV and mounted one camera at the top rear to look back into traffic. It is fed to the new monitor and provides a full-time rear view. We are discussing having two side cameras that watch the rear tires (like many of the diesels have) and possibly putting the fourth camera on the rear air conditioner – looking forward to watching for branches and such in campsites. Update: During one of the CB/GMRS/XM radio work sessions, I added a video cable going up to the front air conditioner. Now we have a forward-looking view with the camera mounted right at our maximum height. We did use this a couple of times to check clearance at a gas station and a decorative sign in a small town.
Dash electronics need a base
Rover’s dash had a plastic access panel in the top middle of the dash. It was flimsy and had a texture that would make it difficult to attach devices. I removed the cover and used it as a template for a nice piece of 3/8ths plywood. Stained and with four screw holes and it provides a good platform to mount the dashcam, TPMS, GPS, and monitors. In addition to the camera and GPS, we have a rearview camera and our combined Brake/TPMS/Level monitor.
We have dashcams in all our vehicles. Rover wasn’t to be an exception. I created a camera mount on the side of the TV box and ran power. Later we decided to move it to the center of the dash. I couldn’t find Ignition power up by the TV box – so we had to manually turn it on and off. I think the dash mount provides a better view and access to Ignition power.
Shelf instead of slide
Paltry Pantry
Next to the microwave, was a small pantry with a pull out drawer with two side accessible shelves. It was all made with 3/4 lumber, making it space inefficient and heavy. Worse, it had three slides to support it – nice they tried to support it well, but since the slides were just as misaligned as the rest of the drawer slides in the RV, it was very stiff to pull out. I tried several times to realign them. Finally, frustrated, we realized just how inefficient space utilization was. Only 40% of the cabinet space was available on the slide-out drawer. I pulled the slide-out and disassembled it. I installed a single shelf, then used the slide front as a cabinet door. We still don’t use all the space, but it’s nice to know it all is actually usable if we wanted to.
Screen doors need love too
We found it tremendously useful to have an additional handle on the inside of the screen door on all our RVs. It was one of the first things we added.
Screen door inside/outside handle: when the main door is latched open and only the screen door is closed – the latch is OUTSIDE the door. One has to slide a panel open to open the door from the inside. We found a little lever that allows one to open the screen latch from the inside without sliding the panel. It’s not entirely natural, but it is easier to use. This one cost $5. Why would Tiffin cheap out on such a small but terribly useful addition.
End Tables
Our main couch was mounted several inches from the rear slide wall. It was wasted space and there was no place to put a cup, poor Alexa or anything else. The empty space wasn’t enirely square so I measured carefully, cut a nice piece of oak – added three legs, stain and filled in the space. I cut the shelf board so it would be a snug fit all by itself. The three legs were just thin trim strips of oak, held in place by 90 degree brackets. Mostly, they just support any weight on the shelf. We still store the sink covers a stool, etc below.
.
We also made a fold-down table for the forward end of the couch. There are two aluminum flats that slip in between the couch and the back of the dinet seat. The flats are screwed to a piece of oak, to which is screwed a hinge and the top on the other side of the hinge. If we want to use the fold out bed, the shelf can be pulled up a bit, then folded up out of the way. Its hardly perfect, but it does work. UPDATE: this arrangement would never stay level. I pulled out the hinge and installed a right angle bracket. The shelf is sturdy, stays level and doesn’t really need to flip up as we don’t use the fold out bed. If we did, the shelf could be flipped around and hang over the dinette seat.
Organizers and accessories
TV remote holders – Debbie found a couple of leather “holsters” that we command-strip-velcroed to the wall.
12V port by bed – We planned to boondock a lot and I wanted to use my CPAP with a 12V adapter instead of 115V AC. Its more efficient to convert 12 to 24 than convert 12DC to 115 AC and back to 24DC. Twelve volts was already present in that cabinet for the USB port so it was just a matter to drilling a hole and paralleling the new port.
Dumping and Filling
Yet another “old man comfort” item was a foldable stool I keep in the water bay. Being under a slide, and having to access controls that are quite low – being able to sit down is amazingly useful. Besides, with the kinds of things that happen out there, you really don’t want to be kneeling in the dirt next to dump hoses. Speaking of which, I also keep a spray disinfectant to hit my shoe bottoms with just before I return to the RV.
Knees need love too
Nearly half the storage doors are under slides. All of them can end up on gravel, wet grass, sand – you name it. I saw these carpet squares (waterproof backs) at the Quartzite tent and bought a hand full; cut them in half and put one in each storage bay. Thus I can kneel on them, keeping my knees clean and the rocks off my arthritic knees.
phone holders, both sides
Phone Holders
One of the first things we did to Rover was to add a couple of phone holders on each side for the driver and passenger. While neither of us is using our phones all the time on the road, it is a convenient place to keep them. I added a 12V socket for phone charging on the driver side. Adding charging ports on passenger side is on our todo list.
Black shades are Bland!
We have swapped out the black shades on several of our windows for printed shades (using a secret proprietary process). The long galley shade, the slide out end shades and the bathroom window shade are all printed with pictures we have taken. The shade by the dinette contains a US map for reference. We still plan on replacing the shade behind the couch.
DISH Traveller
Our RV came with a Wally Dish Receiver but no antenna. We purchased a Dish Traveller antenna and bracket and mounted it on the roof. With the bracket however, we could quickly disconnect it and use a cable to connect to the RV via a port in the water bay and place the dish antenna somewhere on the ground where it can get a view to the southwest or southeast. So far, we’ve not had to move the dish receiver. We did replace the Wally at one point as the original one was getting quite flakey.
Weather Station
We purchased a weather station (temp, wind, rain) and installed it on the pole we used to use for the cellular repeater. It shows us wind speed and direction as well as temperature, humidity and precipitation. Its connected back to a server so we can monitor conditions when away from the RV. I have to take it on faith that the rain gauge works – we’ve been here for two months and have no had enough rain to trip the rain gauge.
Hitch Doubler
We originally carried our bikes on the back of the pickup truck. That not only made our overall rig longer, but we didn’t always want them on the back of the truck. So I picked up this hitch doubler – a 10k pound capable version. I also picked up the “u-bolts” to help keep the play out of the system. The bike rack itself has some play in it that I need to figure out how to remove so the bikes don’t rock back and forth. We much prefer the bikes not being on the back of the truck all the time.
Spice and Oil Rack
Spice rack in kitchen
This is the spice rack I built for the kitchen. Its on the right wall of the countertop (next to refrigerator). There is a similar rack in the bedroom for essential oils.
Kayak Rack on Bluebird
We carry our two person kayak on the top of our pickup truck – with custom built slides. We unstrap from the racks and slide backwards over the bed and down to the ground.
Get the latest edition of my bookhere! See our 100+ Tiffin Open Road updates and upgrades here! Need Social Media Graphics, business cards, more or even an entire branding package? Go to Designs On The GO! Or on Facebook
As I was about to place the last pieces of tarp the second day, I saw a field mouse attempt to run out from under the RV – but ran back in. Crap! We do carry some mouse traps, so after that last tarp went on, 4 baited traps were left inside. The next morning there was one clean untriggered trap and three victims. I cleaned and rebaited all – and got a fourth mouse, but none after that, so the tarps were doing that part of their job. I was pretty sure the RV was mouse-proof as I had gone over very carefully – but one can never be entirely sure.
so any leaks can disperse. My main tank would be inside the skirts. When I installed the external tank adapter, I very carefully checked ALL the fittings on the tank to make sure nothing was leaking. Most of the time there, we used the external tanks, saving the internal tank in case we couldn’t refill the portable tanks for some reason. There is one issue with the external tanks. All propane tanks store as a liquid – which boils off to gas for use. That liquid to gas conversion absorbs heat, cooling the small tanks. The lower the propane gets, the faster the tank cools. One morning early, the furnace was “missing” or “flaming out”. The 20-lb tank was about ¼ full and wasn’t generating enough pressure to make the regulator keep up with the furnace. I didn’t take the thermometer out that morning but other times I measured tank temps down as low as -18. I’ve read you can buy tank heaters, similar to water pipe heaters, but I didn’t have time to catch up to any of them.
engine exhaust – I wrapped it with some fiberglass insulation and taped around it – and to the skirt. I also checked the temperature with the engine running – and it wasn’t very warm at all. We did the same with the generator in case we needed power that we couldn’t get from the garage but never needed it.
When the temps got down to 5, we were using the furnace, the electric fireplace (on low) and a space heater in the bedroom. The furnace also kept the water bays above freezing. We were only plugged into a 20-amp circuit, so we also put an AC amp-meter on the line and had Deb turn on each electrical appliance so we knew what we would be drawing. One good thing – the 3000-watt Victron inverter we installed has an assist mode. I programmed the max amount of current for it to draw from the outside power and it used the lithium batteries to supply the rest of the current demand from inside appliances.
