RV Camping; Tips, tricks & repairs

[AndyL]

I think it's the guy behind you on the other side of the island filling up that becomes the issue

Not saying it's a massive issue, never seen a rash of.summer gas stations burned to the ground on long weekends (I always lit my RV fridge in the camper)

[SOAB]

my fridge is never turned off in the summer.

when i'm parked at home, it's plugged in to shore power. when i'm driving, its running off propane.

[ExtraSlow]

Well, just because I needed the aggravation and sore neck, I rewired my trailer brakes completely today. You may recall I replaced all four of the brake assemblies a while ago. Had braking on only the rear axle. So awful working around the axle tubes on my back. Would take ten minutes to wire up on a workbench, but was more than three fucking hours under the trailer.

This shit better work.

[Tik-Tok]

Le sigh... Anyone know if you can use just one weight distribution bar? It's not a requirement for my setup, but can feel the difference without it.



Also, to beat a ded horse, for the love of god people buy an appropriate sized trailer for your truck. 36*C on the Coquillhalla today, and not less than nine 1/2 tons hauling heavy ass bump out trailers, pulled over with hoods up.

[ExtraSlow]

Jesus, no idea if you can use one bar instead of two. I will say that I routinely see trucks similar to mine towing larger trailers, however, I never find those same people in the campground. Where do they go?

- - - Updated - - -

In an emergency, I would use no. Wd bars instead of just one.

[Tik-Tok]

Yeah, after thinking about it, it would torque the trailer frame in a strange way. Probably not great for a 45 year old aluminum trailer, lol.

[ExtraSlow]

Too much tongue weight is pretty predictable and each to handle at moderate speeds.

I'll need a post about my fucking trailer brakes soon. They are a disaster.

[cancer man]

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Too much tongue weight is pretty predictable and each to handle at moderate speeds.

I'll need a post about my fucking trailer brakes soon. They are a disaster.

Just text me or let me know i'll help ya.

[ExtraSlow]

Thanks cancer man. I can't get my head around these trailer brakes. Currently have only one of the four grabbing with any force. I had thought it was a wiring issue, but the more I thought about it the less sure I became. The brake that does grab well is the third in the sequence that the wires go to.

I have adjusted and readjusted the star wheel on all four several times, so I feel like that's not the issue.

I would love a hand with this, but will need to wait a while, and the trailer is parked for a month now.

[Tik-Tok]

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The brake that does grab well is the third in the sequence that the wires go to.

Possible grounding issue on the other three? Current following the path of least resistance, which could be the one grabbing?

[gcoap]

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Thanks cancer man. I can't get my head around these trailer brakes. Currently have only one of the four grabbing with any force. I had thought it was a wiring issue, but the more I thought about it the less sure I became. The brake that does grab well is the third in the sequence that the wires go to.

I have adjusted and readjusted the star wheel on all four several times, so I feel like that's not the issue.

I would love a hand with this, but will need to wait a while, and the trailer is parked for a month now.

The brakes are usually setup in a series so if its open on one brake none of them work. I would check adjustment on the other three. I set them so that with the wheel off the ground you get some slight rubbing. If they aren't grabbing right away run around the block with the brakes activated with the manual control and see if that helps sometimes they just need to be bedded in. If your not getting lockup when you pull the breakaway you might have excessively worn shoes or magnets. Anything smaller then an 8k axle its usually more cost effective to replace the whole brake assembly instead of doing shoes and magnets. They are super easy to change out. A few bolts holding the backing plate to axle then two wires to splice plus bearings.

[nzwasp]

Im slowly finishing the renovations of my small boler camper - ive chosen my battery setup but my wife wants the ability to convert (or invert - not sure) the 12 volt voltage to run things on the 120v. I presume this is a fairly common setup - do you guys have this and what type of convertor would I buy? Things we would plug into the 120volt circuit would be phone chargers / electric kettle / small desk heater.

[nzwasp]

Oh and my tip is - if anyone is thinking of going camping this week / weekend while the fire ban is on - you should pick up one of those propane fire pits from canadian tire for $149 - I went camping for 3 days in kananaskis this past weekend and having no fire was a bit meh really. Roasting smores on a hotpot stove is not great. We called the canmore canadian tire and they had none in stock. Cochrane had 60 but it was too far to drive at the time we realized.

[Kavy]

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Oh and my tip is - if anyone is thinking of going camping this week / weekend while the fire ban is on - you should pick up one of those propane fire pits from canadian tire for $149 - I went camping for 3 days in kananaskis this past weekend and having no fire was a bit meh really. Roasting smores on a hotpot stove is not great. We called the canmore canadian tire and they had none in stock. Cochrane had 60 but it was too far to drive at the time we realized.

+1

I picked up this https://www.amazon.ca/Outland-Firebo...opane+fire+pit
and use it during fire bans. It is a bigger then the other ones I have come across which is a really nice change. FYI a 20lb tank lasted me 3 days using it at night only from 9pm-12:20am (ish). I am guessing this will go about 10 hours. I picked up a 10ft hose and just put the tank under a chair.

FYI on prime it showed up in 1 day.

[Thaco]

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Im slowly finishing the renovations of my small boler camper - ive chosen my battery setup but my wife wants the ability to convert (or invert - not sure) the 12 volt voltage to run things on the 120v. I presume this is a fairly common setup - do you guys have this and what type of convertor would I buy? Things we would plug into the 120volt circuit would be phone chargers / electric kettle / small desk heater.

i use this one, got it from costco, probably a little overkill but i found it was way better than my old mastercraft one, this one puts all its power to each outlet, mastercraft had each port limited so it wouldn't run the wife's tassimo

https://www.amazon.ca/Schumacher-PIF.../dp/B00AMPXPSM

[Kavy]

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Im slowly finishing the renovations of my small boler camper - ive chosen my battery setup but my wife wants the ability to convert (or invert - not sure) the 12 volt voltage to run things on the 120v. I presume this is a fairly common setup - do you guys have this and what type of convertor would I buy? Things we would plug into the 120volt circuit would be phone chargers / electric kettle / small desk heater.

The heater is going to be the big draw and ask for a decent inverter. Most reasonable ones are about 1000-1500 watts. For $331 what Thaco posted is an amazing deal. Its important to look for continuous power like Thaco mentioned. This one I believe also does the same https://www.amazon.ca/POTEK-Inverter...0J762TM2AM5FYG

[Tik-Tok]

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Things we would plug into the 120volt circuit would be phone chargers / electric kettle / small desk heater.

Wth? Why would you invert 12V-DC to 120V-AC, then back to 5V-DC? That's just a waste of energy. Install a couple of automotive cigarette/auxiliary sockets, and use car chargers. Also, a heater (and I presume the real reason... a hair dryer) is going to murder your battery.

[spike98]

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Oh and my tip is - if anyone is thinking of going camping this week / weekend while the fire ban is on - you should pick up one of those propane fire pits from canadian tire for $149 - I went camping for 3 days in kananaskis this past weekend and having no fire was a bit meh really. Roasting smores on a hotpot stove is not great. We called the canmore canadian tire and they had none in stock. Cochrane had 60 but it was too far to drive at the time we realized.

I bought one of these and was very impressed with the flame. The crappy tire one goes on sale to $99 so watch for the price match.

To speak the inverter question, i can tell you that it will kill your batteries if you want to use anything that creates heat ie space hearter, hair drier, ect. You need high amps for a long period of time. IF you insist, get a normal crappy 3000w eliminator from crappy tire when they go on sale to $159. No need for a nice pure sine wave one.

[Thaco]

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I bought one of these and was very impressed with the flame. The crappy tire one goes on sale to $99 so watch for the price match.

To speak the inverter question, i can tell you that it will kill your batteries if you want to use anything that creates heat ie space hearter, hair drier, ect. You need high amps for a long period of time. IF you insist, get a normal crappy 3000w eliminator from crappy tire when they go on sale to $159. No need for a nice pure sine wave one.

the crappy 3000w eliminators will not power his heater, they're limited to 1000w per outlet, its totally shady that they can even advertise it as a 3000w (or 2000w, or anything over 1000w), that's the exact reason i switched to a different brand.

[nzwasp]

I dont think we need the heater - my boler gets insanely hot inside. If i need to power the heater i will just run a extension cord off the sites power feed into the trailer.

I think camping in one of those canvas tentik things this weekend it got very cold inside and we were using a kerosene heater got her thinking. Also when we were camping in these vans in new zealand they gave us one of those tiny desk heaters to keep warm at night and it seemed to be ok off the car battery.

My battery setup is 2 x 12v in series that have a 210 amp hour setup. Anyway I thought about the cigarete lighter thing after I posted this so I will definetly do that. On our last camping trip we just made do with using our portable battery packs

For $331 what Thaco posted is an amazing deal. Its important to look for continuous power like Thaco mentioned. This one I believe also does the same https://www.amazon.ca/POTEK-Inverter...0J762TM2AM5FYG

The reviews arent steller on that, one 5 star and one 1 star - the walmart.com has 1.5/5 stars. Are there any brands people recommend - I had an eliminator for my car once and it also started smoking but I might of tried to put too much juice through it.