My wife and I have been camping in a camper we got from her dad earlier this year (I grew up with campers and motor homes, but she hasn't done much camping) and having fun, so we bought a new Winnebago Voyage 2831RB. We love the floor plan and the space, but my truck wishes it was a little lighter. The Silverado actually tows it just fine (32' overall, 11.5' tall, 7460 lbs empty), but it doesn't like to run above about 68 mph, or it will start trying to use 3rd gear more often (at like 4k rpm) when we hit a slight grade, etc. The 190 watt solar panel and regulator kit will be here in the next week or so and I'm finding that this may cost more than building cars (once you buy all the stuff you want to go with it). Now I have to sort out why the rear view camera I purchased won't stay paired to the monitor (the camper is pre wired for this particular camera, I set it up and then when we got in the truck it wouldn't work, I have to see if the camera is bad or the wiring in the camper).

I got the car to two autocrosses this year. Otherwise, I only ran about one tank of fuel through it. I'm starting to think I should just sell it, but it was absolutely delightful on the autocross course and I just can't let it go. I'm finding that I'm spending nice nights out camping instead of driving back roads with the top down. I did put new tires on the car this year (street tires) and I think they have 50 miles on them. lol.

Here's the one we bought. This is a combination of dealer photos and stock photos. It's generally correct, but I think one or two pics came off the winnebago site.

https://www.markwahlbergrv.com/New-Inventor...041676?ref=list

Mark Wahlberg RV is right down the road from me.

That's a huge and gorgeous camper. I grew up with a few campers but moved on once I got to high school. Now that I have a 3.5 year old and a wife that loves to travel (and Covid) it looks like I'll be doing the camper thing again. The bummer is that we found a class B locally that seemed like a great idea until we realized it was only a 2 seater and probably couldn't tow the firebird.... she's been quiet on the camper idea since, but I have a feeling it'll come up again.

The prices of these things new has gotten as bad as new cars... at least they shouldn't have the chip shortage problem, right?

If they tried to do "smart" RVs they would but that's probably going to have to wait for another time.

Thanks, we really like it. We looked at everything (at a pile of dealers all over the area...for months). We found a couple "Alta" campers that were basically twins to this layout and we tried to buy one and it was sold before I got a deposit on it. The Winnebago was the one I wanted, but I didn't want to spend the asking price (or even the discounted price). We actually got a 5 figure discount off of list and then traded in our old camper for a really good total discount. The only negative, it said it has a 100 gallon gray tank (and online, it appears that some do), ours has two tanks. I'm guessing "Covid supplier issues" forced a change when they ran out of tanks, but I'm not sure. A 100 gallon is nice because you can get a couple showers and not have it full right away. Two 50 gallon tanks doesn't help that much. So I'm a little irritated, but overall we love the camper.



Some have smart systems that will tell you the levels in the water tanks and deploy the awning and close or open the slide out from your smart phone. It lists the Winnebago Voyage line as being compatible, but I think they mean the "motorhome" versions of the Voyage line and not ours. I don't see any signs of the "router" that handles everything, so I don't think we have it. The only thing I'd use it for is to close the awning if I had it out and a storm was coming (and I wasn't at the camper at the time). I fear I'd open the slide out and hit a tree or something if I wasn't there to spot it. Or i'd close it and crush something inside the camper. So I'm not sure how useful that stuff is. I don't really care how full the tanks are if I'm at the beach. it's only an issue if I'm about to take a shower or something and they are full. lol.

I did have to buy a 36 gallon "honey wagon" for some of the places were going that don't have sewer hookups. It's one you can tow behind the truck and haul it over to the dump station. Another one of those great ideas that costs "great idea" money. lol.

https://www.camco.net/tote-tanks/rhino-tote...36-gallon-39007

Did I mention that this may be more expensive than cars?

Heh, indeed! We got a 1980 Bluebird Wanderlodge last year, but because of covid, have yet to go anywhere in it. Right now, it's the 'big hole in the shop we pour money into'!

Congrats on the new unit. It looks nice.

1980? Cool! Class A? I'd like to hear more about that one.

Marky Mark RV! Good Vibrations for sure:

1980 camper, that interior should be... umm... 'something' to see!

Hell, the 2008 Salem 30QBSS we traded in was decorated in "Epic 80's", or something close to it. So I can only imagine a true 1980's unit.

We booked most of a week at First Landing State park in VA Beach next year. It's right on the edge of the sand. They have gravel roads so you don't get stuck, but it's basically set against the edge of the sand. It should be a really fun trip and we're meeting some old friends from VA and they are going to stay with us for the week. It's going to be a fun trip towing across the mountains. I've towed 9,500 lb 24' car trailers over that direction, but nothing this large and tall. I think we're going to break the trip in half and stay the first night at my parents (near Summit Point) and then head down to VA for the rest of the week.

Ha yeah, it's getting to the point where if you buy a Chevrolet in Columbus you're probably going to buy it from Marky Mark and his Funky Bunch. He's bought several local franchises including the RV shop.

Yea. I actually bought my truck an hour away. I tried to deal with Bobby Layman on trucks a while back (when I was thinking of trading mine in when it had 22k on it), Bobby Layman became Marky Marks Chevrolet. The last time I talked to them I gave up because they wanted to give me little for mine and go full sticker on theirs. Thus, I'll probably buy my next truck in Circleville too.

Yeah buying cars in Lancaster has always been a flop for us but Circleville has always been fine. And selling them too! Time warp back to the '50s and '60s and my cousin and her husband owned the Packard dealership in Lancaster and Chevrolet in Circleville (both Hannan). Packard was going out of business and didn't tell anyone. They pulled up with all these Packards and told them they had to take them all or they'd pull their franchise. So they took them all and Packard promptly went bankrupt. They got so fed up with the whole thing that they sold the Chevy dealer to Harden (which got transferred to Coughlin when Pontiac shut down) and only sold used cars for the rest of their career.

Remember it was only two years ago that dead mall parking lots all over the country were full of excess new cars that the automakers kept dumping on dealers!

It's not that bad, but we're fine with the '80's look. We have already reupholstered the captain's chairs and the two barrel chairs that are in it. Next up for the interior is to replace the flooring with all wood. There's a guy up east of Dallas who does flooring on these things, and does excellent work. We'll probably take it to him to redo the interior. Since we got it so we could take the pups with us, getting rid of the carpet is paramount.

Here it is parked in it's new home in the shop:



Curb side from the for sale ad:



Inside looking forward from the galley:



This was from the for sale ad, before we redid the seats and chairs.

And this is the bus with the race car. Our hope is to be able to trailer the race car to out of town events. Covid has put a serious crimp in that plan. Heck, we're not even doing local events right now because of Delta:



It has 210 mighty horses of Cat V8 power up front, so while we may not get there in a hurry, we should, at least, get there. 35 feet total length, and 16 tons of road-hugging weight.

Since we're not traveling it right now, we're working on fixing things, they always need fixing, and upgrading things. I've replaced almost all of the lights, inside and out, with LED. This afternoon's project is to replace the headlights. I'm also installing a trailer brake controller, and need to find a solution for the trailer plug. It's half-way up the back of the bus, so I either need an extension, or relocate the plug down low. The extension I have is long and heavy, and relocating the plug may require cutting holes in the body, so I'm still working through that decision forest.

That is impressive, and much better than what I was picturing in my head. I love the 40"+ flat screen with the built in 6" CRT display above it!

The 6" TV is the backup camera TV. It's a 'regular' B&W TV mounted to the overhead panel. It's run off an invertor that powers that TV, and a couple of other outlets on the bus. One of those outlets is in the back, and provides 110v power for the 24v power supply for the backup camera. I have yet to get an image on that TV, so am looking at replacing the kit with a more-modern backup/rear view camera system.

The flat-panel was the POs TV, and it went with them. We have our old flat-panel TV in it now, although it seems absurdly-large for the bus. At least it was 'free'.

Ha, assuming the bed is at the back of the bus I'm sure you'll still have trouble being able to watch it from bed! So is it really too big, that's about 30 feet away!

I bought the Wisight Voyage backup camera that my camper is pre wired for. It was terrible. The resolution was something like 400x272 and my wife said it was awful when we paired it. Sadly, it never worked again, so I returned it to amazon. I then purchased the Furrion backup camera with the 4.3" screen. The other one I had came with a 5" screen that was about 1.25" thick. It was honestly a very clunky thing to have floating around in the truck. The new system is much better looking and the 4.3" screen looks like a slightly wider than normal cell phone. I think it's a much better choice to have to deal with in the truck. I just ordered a switching power supply so I can test it at home and play with it a bit before I drill new holes in a new camper to attach it.

Oh, there's a TV in the bedroom, too!

I've been eyeing the Rear View Safety systems. Not cheap, but I don't want to do it again. I'm also not keen to punching any more holes in the body, although may end up having to anyway. I'd like the option of side views, too. When backing the thing down our curved driveway, I stuck one of our in-car cameras to the body and watched things from our datalogging tablet, and really liked the view I had. You sit out ahead of the front tires, and actually inboard of them a bit, so when going down a two-lane road, things can get kind of 'intense'

Have you seen the kit that has cameras that have side marker lights in them and that powers them?

https://www.amazon.com/Furrion-Vision-Monit...g/dp/B08M9DTRMR

I did look at that, but have wavered on it. We have turn signals on the side of the bus, but no marker lights on a flat surface. I have been concerened that replacing the turn signal lights with these, and just updating the bulb socket/bulb wouldn't provide enough light to make it obvious I'm turning/changing lanes. The side turn signal lights have a pretty good dome to them so they stick out away from the side of the bus. Using the turn signal mounting hole would be advantageous since it keeps me from having to cut another hole in the side of the bus.

I guess a call to Furrion is in order to see if they can fix something custom for us.

Furrion... he he...

Now that's funny, right there!

That's the joke we have been making since finding out their name....lol.

Yesterday I finished installing the 190 watt solar kit. It's now up and running. I don't think we will do much "off the grid" camping, but it's nice to know that the battery isn't going to die or freeze over the winter. And it's handy for those times we need battery power. We lost power for 6 hours at the campground the last time we were out. I didn't know what size battery we have so I wasn't sure how much capacity we had. It's an 81 amp hour marine battery and it should run the water pump, heater (blower and thermostats, the heat is propane of course) and some lights for at least a solid day as long as we aren't too crazy with power use. I can always add a second battery and two additional panels if we want/need.

Winnebago pre wires the campers for this style kit. They have a few versions and it had a decal that was a cutting template for three different charge controllers. I bought the biggest one (how long have you guys known me? Of course I did), it's a 30 amp controller and the panel is 9.3 amps, so it will support two more panels if needed.

https://gpelectric.com/products/overlander-...r-charging-kit/

Oh it gets worse, furry+carrion = Furrion = dead furry

You need just the kind of help we provide here at FRRAX.

I got the new backup camera wired up and installed. It worked 50-75 yards from the camper (as I was leaving the storage area). The other camera only worked once (when we paired it). If you need a rear view camera, don't buy the WiSight Voyage, it's terrible. The Furrion S kit with the 4.3" monitor seems to be worlds better so far.

I tried to install the King Wifi system. The camper is prewired for it. That consists of an antenna (HDTV antenna) with a hollow base that's designed to allow a sealed connector to be installed in a punch out and there is supposed to be an antenna cable under it. The cable runs down behind the TV. I found the cable behind the TV, but when I peeled the sealer off of the roof and took the antenna off, there was no cable to be found. I don't know where they ran it or if they missed it and it's under the base of the antenna or what. I decided I wasn't going to pull the base off of the roof to check for it, I'm going to make the dealer sort it out as warranty work. Considering the cost of this camper, they really should have done a little better job of assembling it. Fixing things is how they are going to learn...I hope.

The Furrion rear view camera is spectacular overall. The image runs a little on the cool/blue side. But the range will work from the trailer storage lot to the entrance to my neighborhood (it's about 300 yards). It works great on the road with the camper in between the camera and the monitor and it's great to see what's behind you. I set it so I can just see the bumper in the bottom of the image and when I parked yesterday, I backed in and stopped 1.5' from the fence by using the camera. My wife no longer has spotter duty to make sure I don't hit the fence or anything behind me.

As for solar. It's neat. It's great when it's sunny. I'm learning that I'll probably add the other two panels in an effort to get decent output when it's not sunny. 190 watts of solar seems like plenty. And if it's bright out, it is. On overcast days I'm seeing much lower charge rates (still decent, but 1-4 amps, give or take). So I believe I'll be adding panels in the spring...if not sooner. And I'm going to pick up another battery today to double our capacity to 162 amp hours. I want to get the battery now so they are likely to be closer in age and charging characteristics.

Now I just have to sort out the wifi antenna and I think I'm going to add an additional HDTV antenna and a cellular phone repeater/amplifier system. This thing is going to wind up as a mobile NASA command center by the time I'm done. lol.

80% of RVs are made in one small town in Indiana (another 10% or so are Airstreams built in a small town in Ohio). They have trouble staffing the place in normal times since not enough people live in that part of Indiana to keep the place staffed. They just do what they can to get the things built and out the door. Honda it isn't.

Yea, we're learning that. The list of things we have for the dealer to sort out is truly impressive. Crazy stuff, but I think they'll take care of it all. Honestly, we love the camper...even with the random issues.

They ran the King Wifi wires inside, but it didn't make it through the roof into the bracket. I'll fix that soon (if the dealer can't).

While not a RV, we have a small solar panel on the flat spot between the rear wheel wells on the Firebird. It does a nice job of keeping the battery topped off during events, even though we have a 120A alternator. When we first got the car, we'd have trouble starting it when hot, and the panel pretty much eliminated that issue.

The plus is we tell people the car is solar-powered when they see the panel in the back.

While interesting, we haven't done anything solar on the bus. We don't expect to boondock, although it would be nice to have enough battery/charging capacity to run the house A/Cs while moving. Right now, the common practice is to just run the generator to power the A/Cs. The Chassis A/C failed a long time ago, and a PO removed the compressor from the engine. They usually don't work well anyway, and with 210 raging HP, any pony sucked from the drivetrain is a major loss.

Do you have room for more battery capacity? That would help relieve 'battery anxiety' when boondocking.

I discovered there's a Furrion 'portable' wireless system that I think I could use with our bus. Looks like the rear view camera could be magnetically-stuck to the old camera mount with the camera lens pressed against the camera window, while keeping the 16-hour battery in a rear overhead cabinet for easy access. I'd add two side view cameras, which look like they'll almost fit where our existing side turn signal lights are. There's ~1/4" difference in size, so may have to find some sort of flat piece of ABS plastic sheet to use as a 'mounting bracket' to cover the screw holes/missing paint, but side cameras would sure be helpful.

Keep us posted on the Internet solution. We're looking now as our bus would be a bug-out vehicle during tropical weather, and I'm in IT, so really need a good connection. Sounds like something close to NASA Command Center connectivity would be 'just enough'.

I have some room. I ordered another identical Interstate SRM-24 marine/rv battery for it. There's enough room on the tongue for a second battery. In bad news it's all "tongue weight" and I have a good bit of that already. The battery should be arriving at the local dealer in the next few days and I ordered spare battery boxes and new hold down straps (the straps I have are hard to remove, like a helmet that you can't get the chin strap to come apart). I should have the battery installed pretty soon.

We aren't doing much "boondocking", but we lost power at the one of our camp sites for 6 hours or so. I'm also learning that the 12 cubic foot refrigerator we have draws like 2.5 amps to hold the propane solenoid open. An 81 amp hour battery would only run that for 32.4 hours. That's assuming you aren't running the heater or lights, etc. Thus, it's not an abundance of capacity. The second battery should be enough for me to feel like we will be ok for a few days without a power source (between the batteries and the solar...once I add the two additional panels).



I'm currently looking at installing the fixed antenna for the King Wifi unit (it logs into camp ground wifi, or your cell phone and shares it with the stuff in the camper through a wireless router) since I have it. I may upgrade and try their 15db gain directional antenna. More importantly, I'm now looking at cell phone repeaters. I think cellular internet is likely to be the more important option for us in most places. The campground we were at in hocking hills last weekend has wifi (barely reaches our site and not enough to log my phone in, but a 15 db antenna may fix that) and cell service was spotty enough that I'd randomly get a pile of text messages as I walked through the camper. Therefore, I think there's enough signal for a high gain antenna to do the job through a cell repeater. That's now moving up my list.

I'm also looking into a DirectTV dish for the top. I already have the service, so maybe I just need the hardware and I can take that on the road. That would be a huge benefit. I don't love our satellite service some days, though it really works well now that they have the bugs worked out. Having the ability to use it for "TV anywhere" would be a nice improvement. Our service was so bad last weekend that we missed the tornado warning at 2:45 am. My father in law was there with us in his camper and they had a few TV stations and they got the alert. We never did.

Those are probably good options. I have read that though many camps say they have wifi, many times, it's a bare minimum service, and everyone gets a portion of essentially the same connection, so service is iffy, at best. You may 'see' a signal, but good luck getting a connection and staying on. We have yet to get out there and see, but cellular with a high gain antenna is probably going to be our solution.

I'm hoping that TV isn't as important as it seems to be here, and over-the-air should be good, but we'll see how that works in practice. If it's a big deal, then yeah, Dish or DirectTV may be the option.

Growing up we camped without AC or a TV. We didn't even have the equipment in the camper. It could be hot and humid and miserable, but we lived. lol. On a recent trip we had three miserable rainy days down in the Hocking Hills (this is where many car magazines test cars, curvy roads, etc) and we wound up inside watching DVD's for most of the evenings (after things closed so we ran out of things to go do). Thus, it's nice to be able to relax and watch some TV when you run out of stuff to do.

I installed the second battery on the camper last night. I'm also learning that despite the name "deep cycle" attached to the batteries, they are recommending only a 50% discharge to avoid damage. So now I basically have the capacity I thought I had in the first place. I'll be adding more solar soon, that should be enough to power most things directly through the day and the batteries should carry through the night. Otherwise, you hook up jumper cables and start the truck to top them off. Just let it idle an hour or so. I really don't think it's going to be an issue. However, if it is, I can look at the LiFPO batteries. They claim you can discharge to 20% and they are lighter. It's a win/win (besides the cost). So maybe I'll put 200-300 amp hours of those on it at a later date. I'll wait until the current batteries prove inadequate or die.

I did purchase an AC/DC clip on amp meter. I'm going to do some testing by turning on one thing at a time and measuring the current (refrigerator, a single internal LED light, then maybe 10 lights to get an average, the heater, etc). Then I should be able to calculate the needed battery capacity to keep things cooking.

Why does everything turn into an engineering project?

Yeah, the big compelling factor for going lithium is the ability to use 'more' of the charge capacity. Unfortunately, there IS the cost of them, and you really need a 'smart' charge-controller, to make sure they don't get charged once at full-charge, or charged when too cold, or too hot. Additionally, the smart charge-controller should at least warn the user, if not disconnect the batteries when they get discharged too much. Getting under about 20% charge capacity can ruin the lithium just as quickly as the lead deep-cycle batteries, only you get to replace expen$ive lithium batteries you just ruined.

On the lithium plus side though, are the weight differences for the same charge capacity, as you note, the ability to charge quickly, use more of the charge capacity, and, it appears, if cared for with a smart charge-controller, longevity. I know of a Youtoober cruiser (SV Delos) who has >10 years on their lithium batteries now, and they're not showing any appreciable loss of capacity.

I'd love to go lithium, but heck, we need to _use_ the damn bus first!!

Yea, the controller for my solar charger system will support those batteries. So it actually is an easy swap for me at this point....besides cost. I'll keep it in mind if I blow up the current setup. I still need $900 in additional solar panels and some other equipment. So I'll sort that out first and revisit the batteries if it's an issue.

Rabbit ears aren't going to work in the Hocking Hills anyway, hell they barely work in Lancaster.

My last camper had a steel whip antenna. I was listening to FM radio from Columbus. The amplified FM/HDTV antenna didn't pickup "anything". I was in the exact same camping spot this time. My father in law was there and their antenna (which is hooked to their TV, mine actually isn't) would pick up 2-3 channels (it's "something").

I need to see if this amplifier has the coax power injector installed. I'm starting to think they forgot to install it.

I took my DC clip on amp meter over tonight and did some testing. I measured the following current draws:

2.44 amps - battery on, nothing extra turned on.
.33 amps - a single led interior light
2.81 amps - 8 cabin lights (on a common switch)
8.73 amps - Heater on/blower running (propane heater)
2.44 amps - refrigerator on, running on propane (electric runs the gas solenoids and logic/control circuits)

Due to freezing temps, we had to cancel our last weekend of camping and winterize the camper. I blew out all of the lines when I tore things down at the last camp site (just in case temps went down in a hurry). So I just had to dump RV antifreeze into the fresh water tank and use the water pump to pump it through all of the lines. I poured in 9 gallons to start and I bypassed the hot water heater (this camper has a hot water tank bypass, though they don't ever tell you that). I never got a good flow out of the bathroom sink. So I went back the next day and put 5 more gallons into the tank and pumped it through all the faucets, the shower, the low point drain and the external shower (careful not to miss anything). We also learned that the fresh water tank drain is a "pull handle" like the gray and black tanks. It dumps water out of a 2.25" hole in the bottom. I expected the typical 1/2" plastic hose with a small valve on the bottom (that takes 3.6 years to drain). I kept looking and I wasn't finding the drain. My father in law rolled under the camper and said "there's a gray handle here", he pulled it and rolled out in a hurry as water started draining at a very rapid rate. It's actually a brilliant idea for a drain. It really flows a lot of water and will drain the tank quickly (the last camper, we just opened the valve and started for home. It usually sloshed all the fresh water out along the route and was mostly empty by the time we parked). So, that's a nice touch.

I also ordered a 3 zone Furrion DVD/entertainment system to replace the Jensen system that came with the camper. I'm going to experiment with it using a 10 amp variable power supply I have here at the house and see what I think before I install it. I don't think it can be any worse than the Jensen, but I'll know more soon.

I didn't even know Jensen was still around. Always stood for '90s mediocrity to me.

Yeah I know I'm making a lot of pot shots in this thread but there's really a lot to learn about campers/RVs and it seems like personal anecdotes are the best way to learn about them (unlike a lot of things). I hate tents so I'll probably get one one day.

Lol. I'm firmly in the "if you can't laugh at yourself camp". I'm not one to get offended....

https://www.asaelectronics.com/

That's the page for Jensen, the Voyage Wifi camera (that sucked), etc. It lists the brands they own and allows you to poke through their offerings. Obviously Winnebago is in a contract of some kind to use their stuff. It's weird to me that a camper at this price (the Voyage line from Winnebago is their top of the line series, and while they aren't insane, they aren't $20k campers either) would sign on to use electronics from what appears to be a lower quality line of equipment. I mean, for what you're paying....charge me $50 more and put a good radio in it. Or, higher JBL, Monsoon, Bose, Infinity, etc and let them build the AV system/speakers. The interior speakers sound about like two children's walkie talkies. Thus, I'm going to change the radio/DVD player and the indoor and outdoor speakers. If they still suck, I'll keep using the soundbar we bought for the other camper or I'll buy a Bose sound bar (I'm not a big fan of Bose, they sound "good", but not "right", however, they make some reasonable impression of bass without subwoofers and I don't have the space to deal with a sub to get decent sound).

As far as learning, I grew up with campers...until about 3rd grade. My dad is familiar with stuff.....40 years ago. My father in law had boats and got a camper and is familiar with them. The best way to learn is to buy one and go make mistakes. The first camper we had (we got a few months ago) was one a friend of my father in law had and he wanted rid of it. So, we got it for free. Decided to see if my bride liked camping. We learned all the fun/hard stuff on that one and then we bought something nicer. And, if you buy one, I'm sure I can help you get started like people helped me. I'm also glad to answer questions if you're trying to decide what you want and what matters (do you need a 50 gallon black tank, or will a 35 gallon do, etc). Or, post here and I'm sure we can have fun discussions. Camper shopping is fun....for a while. We had a hard time getting what we wanted in today's world of production issues. But it's still cool to look and learn.

We just bought a small travel trailer. Our first outing was to the NC Outer Banks in early November. We left early as there was a storm coming in that threatened to flood the roads. There is almost always a steady breeze down there, but we were seeing 30-40 mph gusts as we were leaving.

Somehow I missed this post. What did you get? How do you like it? 30-40 mph is rough wind. We towed back from Hocking HIlls Ohio (about 80 miles) in some nasty cross winds and head winds. It was a rough day towing. Our winds were only in the 12-14 mph range, give or take.

I installed the next two solar panels on the camper today. It now has three 190 watt solar panels and a 30 amp solar controller to go with the dual 81 amp hour deep cycle batteries. I ran some lights and the power stabilizers (and the tongue jack just for some load on the battery) and it appears that the solar panels were basically powering that stuff in real time. The batteries stayed at 100% and the charging was showing as minimal (since the battery is already charged). I think this should about take care of the 12v power for off grid use. Now I'm shopping for a 2200-2500 watt inverter generator for off grid (just enough to power the smaller AC unit and some electronics like the TV or a radio). I wish it wasn't freezing out, I'd like to go camping.

I have new bookshelf speakers (Polk Audio T15 I bought on sale recently) and a new 3 zoned Furrion DVD player/radio/entertainment unit to swap in to replace the Jensen. That's my next project for the off season, I'll rewire the entertainment center, wire the bookshelf speakers to zone 1, the interior original speakers to zone two and the outdoor speakers to zone 3. I also bought a switch and power injector for the roof mounted HD antenna that will allow me to switch between campground CATV (when available) and the antenna (while putting power on the antenna when in antenna mode). I also purchased another FM antenna to hook to the entertainment center. I'll have this thing completely rewired by the time I'm done. And I still need to find the wire under that antenna so I can get the King WiFi repeater hooked to the external antenna, that's my next project on the roof. I "think" that should get me ready for next year and cover all the projects I have had in mind.

We got a 25' Coleman. I haven't done anything much to it yet. The furnace blew a fuse when we used it, and I need to address that. I replaced the fuse but that wasn't the culprit. Otherwise it did okay. I tow it with an all stock '96 Dodge 4x4 2500 diesel.

Odd, the only thing that should be drawing major power is the blower fan. A blown fuse seems odd.

I need more truck. Correction, I want more truck. My 5.3 liter 1500 is rated to tow 9200 lbs. I'm towing about 8500 lbs. But it works a little bit on the hills. I thought the 6.2 liter might be a good option, but the fuel mileage is even worse. That has me considering the new Duramax 6 cylinder in the 1500 series trucks. However, I suspect I'll wind up with a 2500 or a single rear wheel 3500.

I gave up on my dealer and finally contacted the people who made the breaker box/power panel in my camper (a company called WFCO). I sent some pictures and they shipped me a new cover for the breaker panel. The camper had a broken breaker panel door when we bought it. The dealer is still waiting on parts so I started contacting vendors directly. They shipped it and I had it in a day. I send pics to make sure I had the right breaker panel number (to get the right parts) and they sent it right out. I'm very impressed with their service and that's one thing off the list.

Now I have to find "MCS" that makes pull down shades and get a 62" replacement for the one by the dinette that's stuck down now. It's always something.

I thought it was odd. I replaced the fuse, but still had nothing. I need to get in the mood to fix it, but that'll be after the first of the year.

Do you know what brand and model number the heater is? We might be able to find a schematic and start there.

It's an Atwood. Model # AFSD20111, Item # 32855, serial #73292730. 18,000 BTU. I did a little web investigating, and saw a number of people replacing the mother board, but I don't know if it was the same model as mine.

I don't know this company, but they seem to sell rebuild parts and repair kits (there may be other sources). It may be worth calling them to see what they can tell you. Often they will help so they can sell you the parts.

https://pdxrvwholesale.com/products/atwood-...111-tune-up-kit