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Catatron Prime posted:That does answer so many questions... everything you've posted in here and your AI thread has been tremendously helpful, thank you! Honestly of all the stuff I've looked at over the past year or so here, the trips, thoughts, and feedback you've posted have been some of the most helpful and influential. I somehow missed this post and update but CONGRATS! That is extremely awesome and it sounds like you will have a really well built trailer! I can't wait to see photos and updates. The Bean "community" is pretty active and fun on instagram and there is a owners group on facebook that can have some helpful tips and things posted. My update is yesterday I connected the Bean to calibrate my new brake controller and to test my new tow vehicle now that it is "adventure ready" after three plus months of maintenance and updates and upgrades. I found that I am slightly pitched upwards and that is causing some wind noise above 40 MPH. My gut says it is coming from the roof tent having air going under instead of over. I have ordered a hitch that lowers 2 more inches and hoping that solves this. I don't even feel the Bean now. It will be so much nicer to have more pulling power and to feel less taxed to journey longer distances.  I am so drat happy Spring finally showed up this weekend. It is time to get out.
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Apr 9, 2023 20:47
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Anybody in here got experience dealing with a sagging inside liner and insulation in a Scamp or other fiberglass camper? I found a pretty good looking 1995 model, and the interior liner is the one thing that will take some work. Looks like I can access panels of it separately, which should make it an easy job, but I've never done it. I remember my dad trying to fix sagging headliners in old hoopty cars when I was a kid and never really getting it right.
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May 14, 2023 22:08
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Another question about fixing up a Scamp: This thing smells like other owners. Not like mildew, water damage, mold, etc, just other people and old material. Given that the walls and ceiling are completely lined with this carpet type stuff, would an ozone treatment kind of reset the smell? I've never used ozone but hear it's great for upholstery. I'll probably crosspost this to AI too.
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May 15, 2023 16:22
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:Another question about fixing up a Scamp: I have an ozone generator for when cars come in with smoke smell. They are great and often on sale Amazon for $50-60
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May 15, 2023 18:56
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Ozone seems like a great idea, I picked a cheap one up awhile back but never wound up using it and just lent it out to someone that said it worked really well in their new apartment. Since it's that carpet material, you might also try a carpet shampooer, eg: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0016HF5GK Ozone will kill the bacteria, but I'm not 100% whether it might degrade certain plastics. With the insulation decaying I don't know about reattaching the liner, I've never had luck with that, but potentially you could poke a tiny hole in there, use spray fabric adhesive with a red spray can nozzle straw to shoot it up in there, repeat in a few places, and hit it with a roller to flatten up the sag? Maybe even inject a thicker adhesive and use a paint roller to spread it around by rolling the lining underneath to push it around the void and press the lining up against it. How to hold it in place till the adhesive dries is a great question... possibly a rare earth magnet above the camper and one below depending on the shell thickness, to pin it in place in a few places? That may be a really dumb idea, just spitballing. If you really wanna go hog wild, strip the interior of the camper, pull the lining off wholesale, maybe add insulation, and then reline with peel-n-stick wallpaper. Could be pretty neat, though probably a pain to do E: The googler says a steam cleaner and paint roller might work to re-melt the original aggressive and roll it back into place as well Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 23:33 on May 15, 2023 |
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May 15, 2023 21:22
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Catatron Prime posted:Ozone seems like a great idea, I picked a cheap one up awhile back but never wound up using it and just lent it out to someone that said it worked really well in their new apartment. Some posts in the AI stupid questions thread are steering me away from ozone and toward good old cleaning by hand plus airing out. A buddy told me he keeps a couple dehumidifier cannisters in his popup with good results. WRT the liner, it's fortunately installed in several sections, and not sagging throughout. Seems like it's mainly one panel. Poking around on the Scamp and fiberglass rv forums turned up some solutions pretty similar to what you describe. The most involved method, which I'll likely do just so it's the best chance of long-term success, is to remove the sagging panel entirely, clean up any residue, re-glue it, and then brace it up with some plywood or something and 2x4s. Actually, the PO deleted the toilet and took out a semi load bearing wall, and put in some conduit columns that would work pretty nicely I think. I'd like to not have carpeted walls at all, but as you point out it would be quite a project. Wiring is run thoughout the ceiling, and as far as I can tell, is uncontained. So there would be a bundling and routing project as part of the whole thing. Interestingly, campers in this price range seem to be potential investments. Scamps from the 90s are going from $10,000 to $15,000+ depending on level of renovation. They've been steadily holding value or increasing for about 3 years now. We got our 1993 Jayco popup in 2019 for $2100 and I sold it last year for $3500. It was probably $900-1000 cash profit, though all the rest was lost on the lovely amount of work I had to do. The newer and more expensive a camper is, the less likely it is to appreciate, the older and better condition it's in, and under that ~$10,000 range, the more likely it is to appreciate by a few hundred bucks. Which is a pittance over a few years of ownership, but makes it feel a little more affordable of a hobby if you're ok with not committing to any one particular trailer. I'm getting better at working on stuff like this quickly and cheaply, and selling toy vehicles is less of a hurdle for me than it used to be.
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May 15, 2023 21:37
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I’d be interested and maybe others would be sharing why ozone would be a bad idea? I’d honestly take any info. I’ve used it in dozens of 90’s Japanese vehicles and it hasn’t affected anything g, but if it has potential to then I’d not use it in higher end or rarer vehicles I get.
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May 15, 2023 21:51
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Here's what Leperflesh said in the AI thread. Leperflesh posted:Also don't breathe it. Ozone is harmful to breathe in. It's criminal that they sell those things to people to "improve the air quality of their home" without making it clear it does that while you're not home and it needs to be turned off and the air cleared out when you and your pets are home. I'm reading through the EPA article as I have time today, and also other stuff online. Seems like it's probably only likely to be damaging or harmful in very high concentrations, and when not thoroughly aired out. But I live in a region with crazy high ozone for most of the year, lots of radon, and high prevalence of childhood respiratory issues, on top of working with formalin daily. So while ozone might work just fine and be relatively safe, I'll just take the safer route and not add one more potential danger to the stack even if it is a minor risk.
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May 15, 2023 22:07
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Yeah I wouldn’t run it in my house, but in a vehicle I can let it run for 2 hours on timer then leave it sitting overnight and open the doors the next day I don’t see the harm
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May 15, 2023 22:10
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I own a CPAP machine and those used to be cleaned and disinfected using ozone. Machines needed to be recalled last year because it was discovered that some inner linings were getting degraded by the ozone and getting inhaled by the user.
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May 15, 2023 22:34
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Got a Scamp! This 1995 16-foot came up for a good price sort of locally. We thought we wanted a 13-foot, but after seeing how small this one is, a 13 was right out. Anyhow, I've been cleaning for days now and finally getting it into shape. The smell is actually fine after a good vacuuming, laundering of all the upholstery covers, surface cleaning, etc.      It's got a few things we weren't interested in, like a heater and fridge, but again, the price was right and they work just fine. The PO took the toilet and booth out, and put in an air conditioner that she routed out the toilet hole in the floor. Probably will take that space as storage, since this thing is pretty limited in that regard. I'm honestly kind of surprised about a couple of the features in this thing, given it's from 1995. The water pump has an auto shutoff, so you turn it on and it primes the faucet, then keeps itself off till you turn it on. Also the inverter charges the battery both off the vehicle while it's running, and when connected to shore power. Finally, it's got electronic brakes. Definitely did not expect that. PO threw in a wireless brake controller, which I need to figure out. Towing it home mostly empty behind the Tacoma it was just fine, but I'll sure be happy to have brakes on it. A few things on the docket to fix: tires are in good shape but 6 years old, so they'll need a replacement. Bottom edge of the door has a pretty big gap, so I need to figure out how to add some seal to the threshold. Maybe just a pool noodle for now. I need to glue up the liner and paint the inside of all the cabinets with Killz as well. Probably a new thermostat. And a good bleaching of the water system. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 17:05 on May 25, 2023 |
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May 25, 2023 17:02
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Anybody got a good LP gas detector to recommend? I've got smoke/CO and standalone CO but figured I'd round it out.
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May 27, 2023 19:12
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Get whatever atwood that matches your interior. They age out in 10 years. It'll let you know. The speaker carpet stuff can be reattached with 3M's 90 or their headliner adhesive. Try some trial runs on something inconsequential at first. Nice scamp. Those do hold their value, don't kid yourself calling it an investment.
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May 30, 2023 18:14
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Catatron Prime posted:Should be ready here by July, and I've been poring through maps to string together a trip to head cross country, pick up the trailer, pop down south through Bryce & Zion over to Big Sur (with stops in Sequoia & Death Valley), up the California 1 to Redwoods & Columbia River Gorge to North Cascades, over to Yellowstone and Grand Teton, and back home through Badlands. If I had just another week or two I think we could quite possibly hit almost half the National Parks in the US on this single trip, but being realistic about time constraints of keeping overall mileage under 300 a day with a zero day at least once a week means that we have to make some tough choices to straighten out the route (the first victim of which is probably going to be Glacier National Park even though that's probably something we should prioritize sooner rather than later). Is it July yet? Finally had a free weekend and we were able to get in a quick outing. Spectacular views. Once parked we saw a total of two people who came to a hiking trailhead while we were there.    First time using the room for the awning and even setting it up. We put it on backwards (oops) but we were rushing to get it on because there were a billion gnats trying to enter every hole on your face and swim in your eyeballs.   heading out    The roads were mostly graded, but there are sections that were just slabs of sandstone with shelves that had to be climbed up or down. Lots of small culverts as well (both natural and groomed) which made for a very slow trip in/out. This was about 14 miles from where pavement ends.
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Jun 7, 2023 22:02
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Nothing like a good breakfast of eggs, sausage, and Warsteiner! My wife and I got one last trip in to Dead Horse Ranch State Park in AZ before the summer. Probably going to move to the area once I retire in 5 years. It's so nice there. Mainly posting this because I've been through like a dozen different grills over the MANY years of tent and camper trailer camping and this Blackstone I bought last January is incredible. It can do drat near anything. I have it hooked up to the quick disconnect of the house propane line but it will also do the little bottles or adapter to large tanks.
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Jun 8, 2023 02:51
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How does that pack down? I would love a tote-able flat top grill like that. Does it heat evenly across?
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Jun 8, 2023 02:53
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Ours is this little guy but plenty big for a meal for 4 people easy. It's just my wife and I most of the time and sometimes some friends come along and I rarely have the thing loaded up. https://blackstoneproducts.com/products/17griddle-hood-stand It has a telescoping leg base to be stand alone. I just have it folded up sitting on a table in that pic. I bought a swing out mount for the back bumper of the trailer to mount the grill on for future trips. It heats very evenly I think and I love squirting water on the hot griddle while it's cooking to keep things moist and make all the neighbor campers hear and smell the awesomeness. The hood is a must for even heating and maximum sizzle factor when splashing water around the food IMO. The upper part with the hood separates from the burner lower part for easier transport and you can also separate the legs from the bottom like I am now for using it with the swing out grill mount for the back bumper of the camper.
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Jun 8, 2023 03:10
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Anybody have advice for pricing/selling a camper? I need to get rid of my parents' 2005 HiLo Towlite 17T within the next few months. It's clean inside, no water damage, etc, but it has been sitting in a driveway for the last 15 years. The awning is torn to shreds and the climate control unit on top is busted. I need to get in there and make sure the pop-up mechanism still works. I had always assumed it was worth about $2-3k but prices for similar models online are in the $6-10k range. I don't know where to look and see what they've actually sold for. I've never even sold a used car, so I'm pretty out of my element.
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Jul 16, 2023 15:03
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Somewhat Heroic posted:Is it July yet? It is July yet! After 10+ years of wanting an RV, I'm the proud owner of a Mean Bean!  I'm still sorting through photos and I'll post some more once I do, but my wife and I just got back yesterday. Absolutely loving the trailer so far, and I can't wait to take it out more this fall and winter! This was the first trip in a long time that I didn't get the itch to come back home after awhile... if anything, I'm honestly bummed that it's over. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about what it would take to be on the road for several months at a time, though ultimately it would probably have to be a different trailer to bring the cats along and have a good space for working remote. Like any good adventure though, we ran into a few hiccups along the way. An old guy towing his speedboat backed the propeller into my car at a gas station in Vernal, but thankfully it was just a dent in the hatch. Once we got the trailer, we had a few initial struggles with the LiFePO4 battery running out in the middle of the night, then showing 100% the next day in the Victron monitor app. Took some head scratching, but eventually I noticed the positive wire from the solar port had come loose from the distribution block, and figured out the monitor had been configured to reset the state of charge to 100% when it died. So, the bit of solar in the morning + a few amps from my portable battery pack only got it up enough for me to think it was charging throughout the day, but the monitor wasn't allowing it to fully charge due to not remembering the SOC on reset. Think I've everything set up properly and reconnected now, and I'll do a deeper dive here soon. Let's see... we also had someone try to jimmy the door lock while we were camping at Lewis Lake in Yellowstone. Middle of the day while we were visiting the park too. Which just sucks because they busted up the lock cylinder pretty good, so I'm going to try to contact Bean and see if they can point me in the direction of a replacement. I think it may have been a youth group camping in the site next to us, based on some snippets I overheard later that evening. And also the fact the solar panel hadn't been stolen, despite being unlocked and laying atop the roof rack while we were gone.  All in all, minor stuff thankfully. We also had a pretty bad storm hit us with golfball sized hail at Sheridan Lake, but thankfully nothing was damaged (including the solar panel, and it was honestly a welcome relief from the recent heat wave. Which, as a side note, I'd be curious how good some of those portable AC units are, because that would be pretty great for hot and humid nights. Overall, relatively minor stuff, at least until my Outback's transmission decided to transmit its last right outside Peoria at about one in the morning a few nights ago. The indicator lights went nuts out of nowhere, so I pulled off to the side of freeway, did some research, and was thankfully able to limp to the nearby exit and safely park at a nearby Motel 6. Got a room to figure things out, but was initially a bit skeeved by the full service prostitution and dealer ring operating right beside where I had stupidly decided to park. I don't think I've ever seen so many people hopping in and out of windows and hanging around a parking lot till the wee hours of the morning, but they were probably just as freaked out by me being there, at least judging from the nearby rooms' lookouts opening and shutting their blinds every time I glanced over. Honestly, the room was nice and clean, the AC worked great, the staff was really nice, and despite my initial misgivings, we had zero issues whatsoever. I'm truly grateful it worked out as well as it did and we were able to safely get off the freeway and find a place to stay. The next morning I arranged for the car to be towed to a nearby transmission shop, though after they opened up I found out they don't work on Subarus due to licensing cost of the software. But they were incredibly nice about the whole thing, and eventually I was able to find a broker to arrange a long haul vehicle delivery to get the car home later that day. Then I got even luckier and found a Uhaul pickup truck rental to tow the trailer home. Now I just need to rent a vehicle dolly, tow a working car back to Peoria, drop off the rental truck, and drive back home tomorrow (about 11ish hours round trip).   Tl;dr, despite some headwinds, it was honestly an incredible trip that I'd do again in a heartbeat! I'll post up some more pics once I sort through things. 
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Jul 30, 2023 04:47
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Catatron Prime posted:It is July yet! After 10+ years of wanting an RV, I'm the proud owner of a Mean Bean! Still better than tent camping?
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Jul 30, 2023 07:13
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CarForumPoster posted:Still better than tent camping? Absolutely! It's everything I was wanting to get back outdoors more, and the convenience factor from the Bean is fantastic. Being able to leave the screen door open, shut out the bugs, and crank the fan in the evenings is serendipity. Plus I can't tell you how much I love having a galley and fridge that's quick and easy to use. And the whole setup barely takes 10-15 minutes to pack up and hit the road, so much quicker and easier than packing up camp. My favorite aspect is just being adaptable in where we travel, while still having our own space. Honestly, my only real complaint was having to come back home  Anyways, I just thought I'd share a few pics from some of my favorite stuff along the way! Rocky Flats:  Stanley Hotel (grabbed a drink at the bar and went on the evening tour):  Rocky Mountain National Park:   On the way out of the park we drove through Granby, which I kept thinking sounded super familiar. Wasn't until we had left that I remembered Granby was where Marvin Heemeyer built the Killdozer and razed a couple of businesses owned by people who had been abusing their positions in local government to slowly cut off access and utilities to Marvin's shop so as to acquire the land for a concrete plant. I very much doubt there's any sort of monument or memorial, and everything has been rebuilt and seen an influx of growth since then, but it was at least interesting to have seen the place. Continued on through and stayed for a few nights in Steamboat Springs:   Highly recommend Storm Peak Brewing and How Ya Doin Pizza! Visited Dinosaur National Monument:   Stayed in a Tiny Home AirBnB in Salt Lake City:   Finally picked up the trailer!  Soda Springs (naturally carbonated captive geyser):  And the carbonated spring you can fill up your own bottles in:   Also really recommend stopping in Henry, Idaho and visiting the general store out there as well if you're in the area! Visited Grand Teton NP (camped at Colter Bay)     Next we moved up to Yellowstone NP, and camped at Lewis Lake and Madison Campground):      Highly recommend getting dinner at the Lewis Lake Boathouse - they have pretty good tacos and a fantastic view!  I really enjoyed the Yellow Bus tour at Yellowstone as well, and just being able to kick back and let someone else drive for a bit:   The Old Faithful Inn was a pretty neat stop... I love the architecture of those old lodges, and the lunch buffet was a nice way to take it all in without a previous reservation. The nearby shop and service station also had a pretty great diner style breakfast. After spending a few days at Yellowstone, we drove up through Bozeman, got dinner at Montana Ale Works, and stopped at a KOA a bit outside town. Then headed over to Butte to see a few things there. Orphan Girl Mine at the World Mining Museum:  Berkely Pit Superfund Site:     Interestingly, some algae and bacteria have mutated to survive in the toxic slurry, which has shifted the hue of the water from a deep red to cyan blue over time. While in Butte, also went and paid my respects to Frank Little:   Traveled on to Missoula, and granbed some beers at Imagine Nation Brewing and some great pizza at Biga, followed by some more beer at Cranky Sam Public House while waiting for the pizza. Decided to avoid the KOA inside Missoula after reading through the reviews about the new owner, and stopped for the night at Granite Peak RV Park, which was excellent. The next day we visited the National Bison Range (now back under tribal ownership!):    Afterwards stopped at the Ronan Brewing Co-Op, which was probably one of my favorite breweries of the trip, highly recommend if you're in the area! Also pretty neat in the area, Flat Head Lake is a great microclimate for growing cherries, so we picked some up from one of the roadside stands. From there we made our way to West Glacier and camped at the Coram Hipcamp outside the park, and got dinner at Backslope Brewing, which had pretty good food (though the beer was solidly ok).  Even though we'd missed the window for vehicle passes to Glacier NP (mistakenly bought the Vehicle Entry Pass for the park in advance, not the Vehicle Reservation Pass to actually enter the park  ), I was able to book a Red Bus tour for Going to the Sun Road and still enter the park that way. Plus the tour was a neat experience!Since we were on a condensed time schedule, we lucked out and were able to get a great breakfast at Lake McDonald Lodge, with an incredible seat right at an open window overlooking the nearby stream:          Would've like to have had more time there, but with the heat wave we decided to keep pressing on to a KOA near Billings. Along the way stopped at the Little Bighorn battlefield, which was pretty sobering to walk through and get a sense of events on a human scale. I'm also really glad to see more perspectives being brought to the forefront at the visitor's center. The next day we traveled on to the Bear Lodge National Monument (Devil's Tower) and stopped for two nights at the KOA there, which was nice to have a break from driving:    The KOA is situated on where Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed, so they show that every night there, which was pretty neat Also the Prairie Dogs outside the tower did a meme!!  Mount Rushmore was really underwhelming and even smaller than I'd thought, but hey, finally ticked it off the classic american roadtrip list:  I knew the carvings were essentially defacing a sacred site, but while there I also learned that nobody even asked for it to be built, just some dude with delusions of grandeur swindled some money from the government so he could hire people to do all the work for him. I'd probably skip Deadwood altogether next time around, it was more Casinos and shops catering towards Sturgis attendees, which I totally get, everyone gets by however they can. The Broken Boot Gold Mine was a nice little quick tour to pop into on the outskirts of town:   Custer State Park and the town of Lead were definitely my favorite things we saw while in the Black Hills (especially Dakota Shivers Brewing in Lead):   Sheridan Lake Campground was a fantastic spot to camp (even with the late night hailstorm which thankfully didn't damage a single thing!):  Also camped at Cold Brook Lake (near Hot Springs, SD):  Visited Wind Cave NP:    Don't have photos, but Wall Drug was a great stop as well. Badlands NP:  Minuteman ICBM in its silo:  One of the Rangers that works at the Monument is an Airman who worked in the launch command center (incredibly the same person as in the photo right behind him, which he apparently only found out very recently)  Apparently he was only twenty miles away from Damascus when the Titan II ICBM detonated inside the silo after a dropped socket punctured the rocket. The people on alert had no idea what was happening and thought the explosion was an earthquake at the time. Absolutely incredible to have been there and had the opportunity to listen and ask questions! Dignity: of Earth and Sky was another fantastic stop on the way back, and there's a lot more I want to go back and visit in the area:  And the last interesting thing we visited was The Corn Palace (which was everything I wanted it to be and more):  Apologies for the long post, we just lucked out and were able to see and do a bunch of stuff in such a short period of time! Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 12:10 on Aug 8, 2023 |
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Aug 7, 2023 17:50
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That's quite a trip, nice.
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Aug 10, 2023 04:51
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Epic post and trip! How long did it take? Were you working remote or taking it easy?
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Aug 11, 2023 01:54
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Fatal posted:Epic post and trip! How long did it take? Were you working remote or taking it easy? Thanks! It was a hair over three weeks... I had a bit of extra time off work banked up from last year so I just took off the whole time to try and knock out as much as possible. It's weird, I haven't had that long of a break in over fifteen years, and I can't honestly say I missed work all that much Now to figure out the next trip with this thing!
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Aug 13, 2023 02:23
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Catatron Prime posted:Finally picked up the trailer! That is a legendary trip as your initial run! It looks like you specced out the trailer really nice too! I love the color choice - striking and fun! I am pretty sure I saw them post it on their socials. Last week I took three days off of work. We headed into the mountains and found a great spot. We were about 8400 feet above sea level. While the day temperature was absolutely perfect the evenings were extremely cold - dipped into the 30's. Our mornings we were met with everything covered in frost. It was cold but I loved it and actually slept pretty well. We saw a lot of deer, including a buck that walked right by our camp. Some chipmunks that were really playful and funny, some cool hawks, I saw a bat in the evening and one big fat pot gut/gopher thing.     
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Aug 15, 2023 05:56
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Catatron Prime posted:Thanks! It was a hair over three weeks... I had a bit of extra time off work banked up from last year so I just took off the whole time to try and knock out as much as possible. Regarding your dead Subaru transmission, was it one of the years that was covered by the stealth addition of 40k miles to the warranty, bringing the warranty period to 100k miles? We were notified by a single letter that looked like junk mail. Might be worth checking out if you were between 60k and 100k when it transmitted its last.
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Aug 16, 2023 21:36
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Looking to rent a camper van on my holiday to new Zealand next year. Anything I should look out for/recommendations/any stories from experience?
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Aug 17, 2023 11:28
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I'm at a site that my SIL booked and there is absolutely no way I can maneuver my camper into this stall. There just isn't enough room. It's insane that the state sells this site as hospitable to a 20' trailer. E: I ended up getting the OK from the ranger to go the wrong way through the loop so I could back in and I got it handled. Apparently this entire camp site flooded a few years ago and the approach for all of these sites is way smaller than it used to be as a result of the new culverts and stream diversion they put in. DR FRASIER KRANG fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Aug 19, 2023 |
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Aug 19, 2023 02:40
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Cat rear end Trophy posted:Regarding your dead Subaru transmission, was it one of the years that was covered by the stealth addition of 40k miles to the warranty, bringing the warranty period to 100k miles? We were notified by a single letter that looked like junk mail. Might be worth checking out if you were between 60k and 100k when it transmitted its last. Funny enough, it is exactly one of those years... I actually just reached out to Subaru to see if there was anything that they could do given that fact, because now that I'm looking more into what happened, it seems that the common problem with CVTs of that era are pressure control solenoids failing, which matches the symptoms I experienced as well as the OBD2 code I pulled (P0795). Which... jfc, that's a 1200$ part to just replace the entire valve body assembly, and after watching a video of how to do it, an incredibly easy repair. Remove air intake hoses, unbolt from the top of the transmission, replace a few gaskets, bolt back in. All easily accessible from under the hood. No need to drop the engine or transmission or do anything even remotely complicated, which stopped me from even trying to figure it out to begin with. I just assumed transmissions were too complicated and cumbersome for me to even try to work with. And I let the dealer tell me that they don't troubleshoot or service the CVTs and just send them back for rebuild, which I just figured meshed with what I'd seen with no other shops wanting to touch CVTs... holy poo poo I am dumb. Before I was resigned, now I'm kinda livid. RV related question... anyone have recommendations to prevent condensation/moisture accumulation under the mattress? I was looking at something like this, but curious if there's anything else I should look at before hitting the buy button.
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Aug 19, 2023 21:30
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Catatron Prime posted:RV related question... anyone have recommendations to prevent condensation/moisture accumulation under the mattress? I was looking at something like this, but curious if there's anything else I should look at before hitting the buy button. I don't have any better suggestions, but thanks for that link. Once I finish up my teardrop, I was planning on storing it with a few pool noodles stuck under the mattress to allow some airflow. Wouldn't help during a long trip like yours though, might have to look into that.
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Aug 22, 2023 03:36
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Not sure if this is the right thread but… I have a Thule box that is secured by these power lock g3 feet. One of them totally came apart and I’m not mechanically smart enough to get i back together again. I have all the parts. I think I’m just not getting it in the right order or missing something conceptually. Can anyone help? 
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Aug 22, 2023 22:17
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Proust Malone posted:Not sure if this is the right thread but… Oh man... I think I see how it all goes together with the parts you have there. Springs attach to the clamp arms, clamp arms held in with the pins inside the bracket, with plastic grips facing up and out like a v, and it just seems like the locking faceplate sits in the center with the hole inside the pin extending down from the thumbwheel through the center hole, and the whole assembly slides back in to the retainer. I am not sure from the photo whether the D shaped assembly goes on top of or below the flat plate with the hole for the hooks to latch onto, nor am I sure of the order to which that assembles inside the main assembly before it slides back into the housing, but I bet you can look at the wear on the surface to get a better idea what actuates where. Hopefully some of that was helpful... if not, you could always buy a new PowerClick Clamp: https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/Thule/1401467300.html Cat rear end Trophy posted:Regarding your dead Subaru transmission, was it one of the years that was covered by the stealth addition of 40k miles to the warranty, bringing the warranty period to 100k miles? We were notified by a single letter that looked like junk mail. Might be worth checking out if you were between 60k and 100k when it transmitted its last. Update on the whole transmission debacle--this was an excellent suggestion to reach out to Subaru! I explained what happened, they looked at it for a few days, and offered to cover a bit less than half of the repair cost since it was done at the dealer. I'm honestly shocked, I wasn't expecting anything, and all things considered, I'm actually pretty content with this outcome. Knowing what I know now about the pressure control solenoid being the failure mode, and that it's a relatively easy part to replace (if a bit pricey when you add the relearn process in), and the fact that I should hopefully be able to squeeze at least another 100k on this reman transmission before having to worry about it again, I'm fine chalking this up to poo poo happens.
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Aug 24, 2023 15:24
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Thule was super helpful and are sending me a new one free of charge. In the meantime I got it back together. I had one of the parts backwards. It took me a couple times but I figured it out.
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Aug 24, 2023 15:30
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I've been looking at options to more easily move a small teardrop trailer down a long and narrow driveway as well as potentially bring along to scooch around campsites, and I was wonder if you guys had any thoughts on what would work best. The trailer itself is only 14' long, and about 200 lbs tongue weight/2000 lbs overall. I can move the tongue left/right by hand pretty easily to center it over a hitch, but it would be nice to be add a wheel to the front jack and be able to roll the whole thing around. This Parkit360 Scout trailer dolly looks pretty promising -- seems like a fairly compact option that basically adds a wheel and a handle. I'd like to take this camping to move the trailer more easily around a campsite, and the single wheel seems like it would be more packable than everything else in seeing. I was also looking at front wheel jack, eg a Curt boat trailer jack. That would be cheaper and lighter, but I'm guessing I would probably have to swap out the existing front jack for this, and I don't see a braking system other than a dimpled jack pad to set the wheel in, so stability would suck I assume. It would probably be kinda dumb and add too much weight on the tongue to have two jacks, or to pop it on/off during setup/teardown, right?
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Oct 17, 2023 03:21
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I move a lot of trailers (mostly boats) around with a harbor freight dolly and they all have those Curt jacks. Most of the moving I do is in gravel. Even the best new curt jack is a pain in gravel, but having a wheel on the jack is pretty necessary and that one does the job. It's fine on concrete. Pneumatic wheels like on the harbor freight dolly are really nice for gravel, and two wheels is nicer than 1. I'd think with 1 wheel on the dolly it'll constantly be keeling over as the ball rolls in the hitch. But I've never used that one. Replace your stock jack with the wheeled one anyway, you won't regret it. Just get some rubber chocks, also harbor freight. HenryJLittlefinger fucked around with this message at 05:11 on Oct 17, 2023 |
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Oct 17, 2023 05:07
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Catatron Prime posted:I've been looking at options to more easily move a small teardrop trailer down a long and narrow driveway as well as potentially bring along to scooch around campsites, and I was wonder if you guys had any thoughts on what would work best. How long is the driveway and how lazy/rich are you? https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Dolly/Trailer-Valet/TVRVR3-BB225.html
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Oct 17, 2023 16:26
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I have this one for use around the house since it came with the camper, but it's way too big and heavy to travel with. Works great, especially with the 1800ish lb Scamp.
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Oct 17, 2023 17:45
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HenryJLittlefinger posted:I move a lot of trailers (mostly boats) around with a harbor freight dolly and they all have those Curt jacks. Most of the moving I do is in gravel. Even the best new curt jack is a pain in gravel, but having a wheel on the jack is pretty necessary and that one does the job. It's fine on concrete. Pneumatic wheels like on the harbor freight dolly are really nice for gravel, and two wheels is nicer than 1. I'd think with 1 wheel on the dolly it'll constantly be keeling over as the ball rolls in the hitch. But I've never used that one. Thanks!! I'll try the jack wheel first, I just really like the idea of not having to bother trying to bring the dolly if I want to move it at camp. Though the single wheel dealie seems pretty clever -- the ball hitch has a locking mechanism where the collar is tightened up under the hitch receiver to lock it in place vertically, but still be able to rotate and turn the wheel on the dolly. Are any of the off-road jacks worth the premium? And do any of them have a wheel lock mechanism? I thought that would be pretty standard but can't seem to find any Atticus_1354 posted:How long is the driveway and how lazy/rich are you? Catatron Prime fucked around with this message at 02:23 on Oct 18, 2023 |
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Oct 18, 2023 02:19
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Catatron Prime posted:
I've never used an off road trailer jack, but I wouldn't bother for a lightweight and well balanced teardrop. Just seems like more bulk on the tongue and there's enough poo poo up there already assuming you have propane, a battery, trailer brakes, safety chains, and the pigtail. I've never seen a locking jack wheel either. Chocks under the wheels are really all you need, and when it's parked keep the jack wheel perpendicular. Plus put down the stabilizer jacks on the camper and it's not going anywhere.
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Oct 19, 2023 06:31
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Figured I'd do a bit of a dump of trip photos/reports and other happenings with our camper since it's been a while and I'm having a lazy afternoon thinking about camping. Our trips have all been pretty short so far, just one or two nights to places within a few hours, but it's real nice to be able to just decide to go camping on Friday or Saturday and peace out without any real plans. In late May we went for a quick trip north a couple hours to Lake Davis in the northern Sierra; booked a campground spot which ended up being the only even moderately busy campground we've stayed in so far. The lake was pretty, especially after a big snow year:  While we were hanging out by the fire that night, a deer came real close and alerted our dogs. The deer then ran _towards_ us, and tripped on some low fencing lining the campground loop, eating poo poo face first about 10 feet away. The next day, we drove north out of the campsite onto some forest roads, and quickly entered a burn scar from 2019 (Walker fire, ~55k acres)   Next trip was a two-nighter a week later, early June, down to Mammoth (where I'd never been despite being an avid skier and living in California for the better part of two decades). Awesome spring skiing spot with a camper, there's plenty of places to just pull off the main road within a few miles of the hill and dispersed camp. Stopped at Walker Burger on 395 on the way down. Good milkshakes, I can't remember the last time I'd had crinkle cut fries at a restaurant.  First night we pulled a few minutes off of 395 to the east (Mammoth is just to the west), got there pretty late after dark so didn't spend a lot of time there. Get to the right parking lot at the right time and you've got a real nice spot to hang out and get out for some skiing  This would not be my preferred spot to relax  Instead, after skiing we went to Benton Hot Springs for the second night. Each camp site has a tub. It was very nice, though a little buggy with biting gnats, and a loose dog wandering around the campsite bothering other dogs.  Had a good view of Boundary Peak, right on the CA/NV border, highest point in Nevada at just over 13k feet  The next morning we stopped by Hot Creek   The eastern sierra is real pretty.  Swung around June Lake on the way home, stopped for lunch at June Lake Brewery and a stop to throw rocks and whatever at Grant Lake on the same loop road 
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Jan 21, 2024 01:22
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