1994 Fleetwood Southwind

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

Well I guess you will have to start the generator to use reverse then No inverter? My cat is the same way, thinks hes a dog... Open the door to let the dogs out, cat goes too. Will steal your bacon. Period.

In reply to wae:

These guys are what we used on the interior, the color and brightness are almost identical to the bulbs we took out. You can dig and find even cheaper than $1/pc but they tend to have considerably worse reviews or only be the harsher bluish color.

In reply to java230:

So far it seems that the inverter only goes 120v>12v to charge the batteries, if there's a way to make it power the 120v outlets purely from 12v I haven't figured it out yet. The controls for the various systems on this thing are not exactly intuitive, there's fuse boxes and switches scattered all over the place, hidden in cabinets, etc.

Hmmm odd, unless its a charger only it should feed 120V also. But its possible its charge only.

A Fleetwood of that age would be very unlikely to be equipped with an inverter. You can add them by either putting them in conjunction with or replacing the converter, but I'd go to at least 4 6V golf cart batteries to handle the load.

For entertainment, I replaced my CRT TV with an LCD model that had a built-in DVD player and was AC/DC. It was pretty cheap on Amazon and so far so good.

In reply to wae:

Agreed. Plus, I believe there's a fair amount of complexity in the distribution to make sure certain receptacles/items can run off an inverter and some don't.

In reply to wae:

Honestly, the only things that need 120v are the TVs, the microwave, the coffee maker, and the roof AC- I think we'll be fine without most of those, and can run the generator if we really need something.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

Thanks for the tip on those bulbs! I'm going to order some up.

I'm with you on the lack of need for the inverter. It probably makes more sense if you're going to be boondocking for long periods of time and have a good solar setup, but most campsites have electric and the generator will only burn about a half gallon per hour.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

There is the Central UP Rally though ;-)

Very cool rig! I too am freshly married and am thinking about a similar type road trip. I'm looking at smaller van-based vehicles.

In reply to Lof8:

So were we, a Class B would be just right but they're expensive for what you get- the price is what landed us in something this big, the only budget friendly way to go small seems to be a conversion van or something like a LeSharo; the former is too small, and the latter is made out of rare and unreliable parts.

paranoid_android74 wrote: In reply to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯: There is the Central UP Rally though ;-)

I probably need to go to this. We are running a rally of similar scale in Texas and I should probably really pay attention to the nitty gritty of the event and how things are out together.

In reply to ¯_(ツ)_/¯:

I've been casually following the class-B market for a number of years and any example - regardless of age - that is ready to go will run at least $10K and probably closer to $20K. You can find them cheaper, but by the time you fix everything you'll spend about the same.

A friend used to have a LeSharo. Definitely an odd beast. Hers was more like a really nice tent since it had no bathroom facilities, which IMHO is more than half the reason for getting an RV.

Last week we got the new tires mounted, so now hopefully none of them will blow up. On Friday, we had our first test sleep in the RV- it was cold, we should probably have run the furnace before turning in for the night, but it was otherwise comfortable and the animals seemed OK with it:

Then I went to make sure the tires were all fully aired up- between the six tires, spare, and two front air springs this thing has 9 separate things to add air to! The inner DS rear tire was low, so we'll have to keep an eye on it, and the outer DS rear wouldn't take air but we could read pressure- what the berkeley? After fighting it for a while, I realized there was a valve stem extension screwed to it that wouldn't allow the valve to fully open- everything went perfectly after I removed it, I have no idea what the point of this piece of E36 M3 was but it wasted an embarrassing amount of my time. The double bird was not sufficient so I got an assist for the triple:

We later smashed it with a hammer and melted it with a blowtorch.

Then it was time for water- the lower fitting on the fresh water tank leaked when we bought the thing, so I epoxied it in. Made a new ground for the water pump, filled the tank, and we have no leaks and water to all of the fixtures inside!

For a while, I couldn't get any hot water to come out, but then I found an unlabeled water heater bypass hiding under the sink in the bathroom, which doesn't even have a knob, turned it 90 degrees with pliers, and we have hot water- success!

In addition, now that we have fresh tires on two of the wheels, I'm thinking seriously about replacing the other four. They're seven years old and showing some cracking now that they've been driven around a bit

Probably a good idea. I'd replace the spare as well.

Yeah I already said berkeley it and ordered four more- 19.5 tires aren't cheap but I never thought this was going to be a financially reasonable adventure anyway

The spare is the old LR inner, it looks good enough to get us to a tire store if we need it to.

Depends... how much do you trust the nearest tire store you find to have a 19.5 tire in stock? How much are you will to risk waiting out part of your trip in said tire store in the middle of nowhere out west for a new tire to arrive?

I don't know... sometimes I think it's better to just say "berk it" and know for sure the spare will be good. Of course, I say that after driving the Mini for 3.5 years with a spare tire that didn't hold air....

In reply to Ian F:

I'm not sure what difference it makes, since if we have to use the spare in the middle of nowhere we'll still need to find somewhere to get the blown tire replaced so that we have a spare for the rest of the trip- the only difference would be that we'd be on a newer tire until then, and the spare we have now looks good enough that I probably wouldn't have replaced it if it were just me on this trip.

Well, took it for another test drive after work and was getting some pretty alarming pulling in the steering- got it back in the driveway and the front right caliper is seized! Yelled "I just bought you tires you berkeleying piece of E36 M3!" and went inside to order more parts

That's the issue with trucks that don't get driven.... Mine did that too, except it was both fronts, on the way home from getting an emissions test so it could be registered.

This made me lol!

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ wrote: Well, took it for another test drive after work and was getting some pretty alarming pulling in the steering- got it back in the driveway and the front right caliper is seized! Yelled "I just bought you tires you berkeleying piece of E36 M3!" and went inside to order more parts

How true, how true.

I guess I'm lucky it's a front caliper, since the back end of this is even heavier. Hopefully I don't find other issues when I get it apart.

One thing about heavier vehicles - damn do they go through brakes. I'll be replacing the pads and rotors on the minivan for the second time - possibly third since I had my mechanic replace one of the calipers about a year or so ago.

In your case, I'd probably order both calipers. If one went, they other probably isn't far behind.