HINDSIGHT : What item(s) were later considered waste of money - RV-Dreams Community Forum

DEWhit · RV-Dreams Family Member

HINDSIGHT : What item(s) were later considered waste of money

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Well, we did not really like the built in vacuum...

DEWhit · RV-Dreams Family Member

I can understand that. It just seems to me to be more piping and cutouts and wiring.

Do you actually use a fireplace option that much or is it mainly to have for resale consideration ?

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

our dealer told us that the tripod stabilizer was a must have. it's now for sale.

igotjam · RV-Dreams Family Member

WRT fireplace....best thing ever. You will usually need some type of supplemental heat....might as well be built in.

suse1023 · RV-Dreams Family Member

what does WRT mean?

Lucky Mike · RV-Dreams Family Member

I use an Electric wood stove type.......can take it from coach to coach....yup looks nice/ heats /

cherylbrv · RV-Dreams Family Member

suse1023 wrote:
what does WRT mean?

With Regard To

sdman · RV-Dreams Family Member

We wouldn't have the roof mounted sat dish. We would prefer one of the portable automatic ones.
Roof mounted cons:
- High Cost
- Only position with rig
- Stuck with just one sat coumpany
- roof cutouts
- complex wiring
Pros:
Easy to use.

The amount of money for these is not worth it for us, but we have it and we use it.

Mark

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

Everyone is different - I LOVE the fireplace and would not be without it. It effectively heats our coach down into the 20's. And it actually looks pretty nice. Especially at night.

On the rooftop dish - again, I love it. For DTV there is not automatic portable solution and the rooftop works well almost all the time. Under trees, even. Unless they are dense. A portable on a tripod covers the rest of the time. I'd not be without the convenience of push button HD TV.

D and M · RV-Dreams Family Member

I agree with Jack....keep the fireplace, lose the central vac

Cindy T · RV-Dreams Family Member

We love our fireplace, use it often & we always use the central vac. I like not having to find the space for another vac.

Our rig has a large "display" cabinet in the living room area, with a glass door. I think it's really a waste to have a display cabinet. So I use it as a second pantry & "display" our extra food in it!

igotjam · RV-Dreams Family Member

Cindy T....In our Elite we got some clear film with patterns on it at Home Depot to cover the inside of the glass/plastic panels in the doors. (It comes in rolls about 18" wide and can be cut to fit....goes on easily with water) It makes it difficult to see into the cabinet so you don't have to "display" what is inside.

DEWhit · RV-Dreams Family Member

This may be another question but how did you choose the number of slides on your units ?

I realize that more floorspace is probably a good thing, but isn't that more parts and tracks and motors and wiring and places for water entry ?

What are your experiences in slides that have the kitchen appliances in the slide ?

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

We love our central vac and use it a lot. For us it is the fold down bunk bed And the sleeper sofa.

2riker2go · RV-Dreams Family Member

We love the fireplace and rooftop satellite. Just bought a vacuum because we find the central vac hard to use. Got rid of the recliners and sleeper sofa that came with the rig and bought our own recliners that are much more comfy. If/when we trade up we will get the new rig without the furniture and buy our own.

Hdrider · RV-Dreams Family Member

For us the built in vac was a waste. As far as the rooftop sat. we love the ease of use but would not do the dome again. And the fireplace really is a nice feature and we use it a lot on the cool mornings.

Cindy T · RV-Dreams Family Member

IGOTJAM - great minds think alike! I did get a roll of that film from Home Depot, just haven't installed it yet. Glad to know that you used it & had success putting it up. I'm sure that cabinet will look a lot better when our canned goods are not displayed!

Alie and Jims Carrilite · RV-Dreams Family Member

We use the dustpan part of the central vac. Its actually in a convenient location for sweeping the kitchen floor and entry way.
For us the dishwasher would go. Its nice to say we have one, but its an expensive storage cabinet for us.

Jack Mayer · RV-Dreams Family Member

If we had a smaller unit our dishwasher would not be something we would want...I'd rather have the storage. But with a 44.5' 5er there is plenty of storage and room for a dishwasher as well...So, sometimes the value of something depends on the size of the coach. Everything in an RV is a tradeoff.

TRAILERKING · RV-Dreams Family Member

Splendide 2000............................Don't need, don't use. I fired it up this weekend at the campground because there was nothing else to do but watch movies and bake cookies with the Granddaughter. I wanted to see if it still worked. I think it's a waste of good space. Could do a larger load in the campgrounds washer/drier for a couple dollars.
Could put a nice wine fridge in its place.

NWescapee · RV-Dreams Family Member

One décor item I would choose differently is a few less glass doors on cabinets. We've eliminated the "pretty but not practical" items that I used to have in the cabinets with the glass doors, and now I see my stack of reusable Gladware storage or Rubber maid containers through the glass doors in the kitchen, my "stack" of work related stuff in the cabinet behind my computer and some of the extra rolls of paper towels, napkins, etc. in the corner cabinets in the living room. Really don't find that attractive, would be just as happy to have it all hidden behind wood doors.

laurly · RV-Dreams Family Member

Love our fireplace, use it a lot for the chilly mornings or rainy days.
Tolerate the central vac, takes up no space, works pretty well.
Very happy we went with the bigger refrigerator (double doors). Can fit a week's (sometimes two) worth of groceries inside.
Wouldn't go without the DirectTV rooftop satellite. A few times had no signal due to trees, but we lived through it :)

CJSX2fromCT · RV-Dreams Family Member

Splendide 2000....Have to agree here, Was installed new by previous owner and I believe they never used it. We used it once and is now for sale for $1000.00 obo located in CT.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

CJSX2fromCT wrote:
Splendide 2000....Have to agree here, Was installed new by previous owner and I believe they never used it. We used it once and is now for sale for $1000.00 obo located in CT.

A brand new Splendide 2100XC, the newest model with more capacity than the 2000, is $999 from PPL - http://www.pplmotorhomes.com/parts/rv-pumps-water/splendide-washer-dryer-xc.htm. We love ours and use it most days.

CJSX2fromCT · RV-Dreams Family Member

I dropped it to BEST REASONABLE OFFER in classifieds

HighwayRanger · RV-Dreams Family Member

This is a great thread for those of us getting ready to select options for our fulltime rig. Please keep posting lessons learned!

Thanks,

Roy

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

Items we skipped that salespeople pushed on Newmars are the water filter canister in the wet bay, solar prep, and chrome mirrors. The canister is plumbed with small PEX, so it restricts flow. We use a two canister set from the RV Water Filter Store using real water hose, which does not restrict the flow and gives us more choices. The solar prep, like the one most manufacturers do, uses undersized wiring, so anyone adding solar ends up running larger wires. The chrome mirrors were over $1000 extra and not worth it for most who added them.

Our first motorhome came with a small inverter wired in to run the TVs. We replaced the converter (a cheap and useless one) and the inverter with a larger inverter/charger and a couple more batteries.

DEWhit · RV-Dreams Family Member

To; B Joyce and all others,

You mentioned the water filter set up on your Newmar and I have questions.

> Does your water filter set up just work on the potable water for kitchen sink or is it for all fresh water taps thru out unit ?

> Is fresh water pump unit always plumbed in between holding tank and water lines or is it ever plumbed in between sink faucet on just the one single line ?

> Are any units plumbed for holding grey and black water together and are any units plumbed for drawing grey water to flush toilets ?

Thanks.

The Bear II · RV-Dreams Family Member

DEWhit wrote:

This may be another question but how did you choose the number of slides on your units ?

I realize that more floorspace is probably a good thing, but isn't that more parts and tracks and motors and wiring and places for water entry ?

What are your experiences in slides that have the kitchen appliances in the slide ?

At the time we bought ours the slideouts were fairly new to the industry. Alfa was the only model with a superslide (4ft deep and 14ft long) in the living area and a bedroom slide at the time. We chose it for the space.

If we ever decide to replace the 5th wheel, I would go with at least 4 slides. Actually I would go with the 5th wheel that offered the best floorplan with the most amout of square footage under 42 feet in length.

We did add a hot water tap at the kitchen sink and used it often but now with our Keurig Coffee Maker it has a hot water function we now use. The hot water tap stands idle.

I really like our electric fireplace and always use a tripod stabilizer on the king pin. I built the tripod out of square steel tubing, it will hold the weight of the 5th wheel if I raise the landing gear. I find the tripod not only makes the bedroom area rock steady but it has come in handy a couple of times when working on the landing gear.

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

DEWhit wrote:

To; B Joyce and all others,

You mentioned the water filter set up on your Newmar and I have questions.

> Does your water filter set up just work on the potable water for kitchen sink or is it for all fresh water taps thru out unit ?

> Is fresh water pump unit always plumbed in between holding tank and water lines or is it ever plumbed in between sink faucet on just the one single line ?

> Are any units plumbed for holding grey and black water together and are any units plumbed for drawing grey water to flush toilets ?

Thanks.

Our water filter goes between the hose and city water coonnection. Our water tank fill uses the same connection, there is no separate fill, so all of our water goes through the filters.

Fresh water pumps can be plumbed only from the tank or inline and all the ones I have seen are full house. Ours is inline, so if we turn the water pump on and the city water pressure is low, the pump will help. If we switch to fill the fresh water, the pump runs trying to push air upstream, so it has to be turned off. In our previous motorhome, a Dolphin, the pump was just on the fresh water and did not affect filling the tank.

There are RVs out there with only one holding tank, where grey and black are together. They are not as common. Grey water can have particles in it, so I would not recommend using it for flushing toilets since it could clog the toilet inlets. This is different than catching the water in a bucket and using it to flush the toilet, which is what some boondockers do.

Billy Bob · RV-Dreams Community Member

suse1023 wrote:
our dealer told us that the tripod stabilizer was a must have. it's now for sale.

We sold ours about 1 year after we bought it

The Schweitzers on the road · RV-Dreams Family Member

When we bought our used fifth wheel, it came loaded with options, one of them a 6*6V battery bank, equipped with a push-button automatic water fill system with overfill protection. The battery compartment was tight and packed so there was no way to actually check the water level in the batteries. We relied on the water fill system and pushed the magic button every couple of weeks. You could hear a pump working, so we were happy and didn't give it much thought.
That changed when we noticed to have weak batteries in less than a year of use. Taking the batteries out to check them wasn't very appealing, so we kept pushing the button. But we had no idea where the water would come from. Isn't a battery supposed to be filled with distilled water? The water supply shouldn't come from the freshwater tank. There must have been a separate tank somewhere. Months later we discovered a tank behind the wall of the large compartment under the nose. Empty of course. We filled it with distilled water and pushed the button until the tank was empty again.
However, without knowing where the water was actually going, it didn't fill the batteries. The whole system was just junk and converted the batteries to junk too. They had to be replaced a few months later. We put in only two new ones, which we now can check and maintain the old fashioned way.

Whenever anything is claimed 'fully automatic', 'maintenance free' or the like, be suspicious and only rely on it if you can access and control it - that's our lesson learned.

Bernd&Erika

bjoyce · RV-Dreams Family Member

You must not boondock if you were happy to go from 6 batteries to 2.

BiggarView · RV-Dreams Family Member

Agree will Bill but I'm more curious about the "push button automatic water fill system with overfill protection". That's new to me. Experts chime in. Not that it will matter for us when it comes time, we'll either have Lithium or sealed AGM's so the refill aspect won't matter... nonetheless, it might matter to others.

The Schweitzers on the road · RV-Dreams Family Member

bjoyce wrote:
You must not boondock if you were happy to go from 6 batteries to 2.

well, we actually do boondock quite a bit. We have two solar panels adding up to 230 watts, which is a good match to 232 amphrs of battery capacity. They replenish the batteries each day even when it's cloudy, because we do not consume much power when of the grid. It is just the lights (all LEDs), the computers and once in a while a few kitchen gadgets like toaster, steamer, blender all run by our Magnum 2000W inverter. We don't watch TV, use the internet instead. So far we have not had any shortages in battery power. Our longest stay off the grid was 6 days in a row so far. (Don't know if that is considered boondocking already?)

We weren't really happy to go down to two batteries, but the setup turns out to be just fine for our needs.

Bernd

The Schweitzers on the road · RV-Dreams Family Member

biggaRView wrote:
Agree will Bill but I'm more curious about the "push button automatic water fill system with overfill protection". That's new to me. Experts chime in. Not that it will matter for us when it comes time, we'll either have Lithium or sealed AGM's so the refill aspect won't matter... nonetheless, it might matter to others.

I guess this automatic water fill system was an Alpenlite or Western RV exclusive. The brochure claims so. I didn't find anything like it with any other brand when researching for our purchase or in the aftermarket when trying to find some information about it. We would not have opted for this, but it already was installed on the 5er when we bought it.
Basically it was a tank where you would fill in the distilled water with a small rubber hose running to the batteries and back. The hose ran through the battery caps, so water could get into the cells (at least that was the concept). The little water pump at the tank was engaged with a push button in the compartment where all connections are. The overfill protection was nothing more than a float gauge or float lever (not sure if this is the right word) to shut off the cap when the water level inside the cell would be sufficient (again, that was the concept).

I believe it didn't work because the water pressure in the lines wasn't high enough to actually distribute the water to all battery cells. Also the float gauges seemed to be stuck, shutting off the battery cap despite lack of water inside (I found that out when dismantling the whole thing).

By the way, thank you for the warm welcome on the 'introduce yourself thread'.

Bernd

SoonToTravel · RV-Dreams Family Member

What type of pattern did you get. Been wanting to do that with our glass door cabinet.

Cummins12V98 · RV-Dreams Family Member

NWescapee wrote:
One décor item I would choose differently is a few less glass doors on cabinets. We've eliminated the "pretty but not practical" items that I used to have in the cabinets with the glass doors, and now I see my stack of reusable Gladware storage or Rubber maid containers through the glass doors in the kitchen, my "stack" of work related stuff in the cabinet behind my computer and some of the extra rolls of paper towels, napkins, etc. in the corner cabinets in the living room. Really don't find that attractive, would be just as happy to have it all hidden behind wood doors.

I was just thinking the same thing. If we order a new MS it will not have any glass in the doors. Also they can eliminate the lights for those cabinets.

jengle · RV-Dreams Community Member

Great topic. We are still a ways off before full-timing, but hope to chime in about the Splendide (we have one). I'm referring to this thread when evaluating add-ons. It's been interesting to read about the roof-mounted sat. dishes. We have one, but I think there may be two issues with the roof-mount - one the age of the unit itself (having issues talking with the sat receiver) and that you can't easily move it to find a signal.

Wish I could figure out a decent place to put a wall fireplace in my '08 Journey 39z. I thought that it would be a good addition, but I'm having problems figuring out where I would put it.

This thread has me thinking though... thanks for starting it.

Diana and Jim · RV-Dreams Family Member

We have three small cabinets that had smoked frosted glass in them. I opened one earlier this year and the hot melt glue that held the insert in place let loose, sending the glass to the floor....where it shattered. There was no matching it, so I ended up buying three pieces of mirror and replacing them, using our hot melt gun. Now our rig looks bigger!

We love our central vac. We also suggest ordering without furniture and getting your own. Same with the mattress. We chucked ours and bought a Sleep Number mattress. Our tripod is also never used. We have JT Strongarms on our rig. They really do the job.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

We out the frosted glass on the mirrored cabinets ...LOVE it. Can't remember the exact pattern but Home Depot had lots of choices on hand to look at. Trying to think of some thing we bought and don't use. I bought a canning set because I've always wanted to try canning but after my first couple of forays not sure that will last long. Not much else yet but we haven't done the first big post on he road purge.

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

How do you guys stop the cabinet contents from breaking the glass? I have a lighted cabinet I'm thinking of putting some wood on the inside.. kinda kills the lighted thing though..

Selah · RV-Dreams Family Member

I guess we're in the minority in that we really like the central vac. Perhaps it's the brand that makes the difference but ours works very well. The small bage needs changing fairly often but MUCH better than trying to store an upright or canister.
Same with dish washer, love it and use it frequently. Washing a full load uses less water than washing them individually. Pluse it makes a wonderfull place to store those loose decorative knick knack things when traveling.
Fireplace is a must as is heated floors if you can get them.
In motion satellite is a waste for us. It came with the coach. It's still there but we have never used it. We added a Winguard Traveler when we picked it up. Also hav a Pathways portable for when we are in the trees. Some sort of portable is a must if your going to use satellite.

Diana and Jim · RV-Dreams Family Member

What are the downfalls of just having a portable satellite? I see people getting them to ensure against trees blocking a permanently mounted dish. Seems to me a Tailgater would do the trick from the get-go.

One other thing we are wishing for lately is a convection oven, instead of a gas oven. Darn gas ovens are WAY too hard to light the pilot.

Camper Chronicles · RV-Dreams Family Member

The Junkman wrote:
How do you guys stop the cabinet contents from breaking the glass? I have a lighted cabinet I'm thinking of putting some wood on the inside.. kinda kills the lighted thing though..

Our lighting in on the top of the cabinet so it still works

TheNewhalls · RV-Dreams Family Member

Diana and Jim wrote:
What are the downfalls of just having a portable satellite? I see people getting them to ensure against trees blocking a permanently mounted dish. Seems to me a Tailgater would do the trick from the get-go.

One other thing we are wishing for lately is a convection oven, instead of a gas oven. Darn gas ovens are WAY too hard to light the pilot.

We have a Winegard Pathway X1 and haven't found any downside other than the possibility of theft. We store it in the toad when traveling. Even with a portable you can have problems getting a signal at some sites, and we have 75' of cable. We've started asking for satellite friendly sites. When possible we'll drive through the campground a choose our own site. If we're camped somewhere for a while with good roof visibility I'll put the X1 on the roof.

We don't have an oven in our home we use that space to store our pots and pans.

The Junkman · RV-Dreams Family Member

Downside for the automatic portable SATV dish is you don't get HD when using directv.. And that's a deal breaker for me..

Just had a brandy new swm dish "kit" sent in from ebay for like $140.. also bought the newest version birddog refurbished for like $180 ( can't remember ) .. That will help align it for me..

Will just store it all for now.. but have it, if I can't get service on the traveler..

btw also bought a rg6 cable tester/tracker to try to ID how drv wired this rig for satv..lol.. so I will be able to figure out how to connectect to the genie dvr and the 2 mini's..

-- Edited by The Junkman on Sunday 26th of October 2014 09:53:29 AM

Talensnana · RV-Dreams Family Member

Selah wrote:
I guess we're in the minority in that we really like the central vac. Perhaps it's the brand that makes the difference but ours works very well. The small bage needs changing fairly often but MUCH better than trying to store an upright or canister.
Same with dish washer, love it and use it frequently. Washing a full load uses less water than washing them individually. Pluse it makes a wonderfull place to store those loose decorative knick knack things when traveling.
Fireplace is a must as is heated floors if you can get them.
In motion satellite is a waste for us. It came with the coach. It's still there but we have never used it. We added a Winguard Traveler when we picked it up. Also hav a Pathways portable for when we are in the trees. Some sort of portable is a must if your going to use satellite.

We also love our central vac. Never used it in our last RV but we also just did weekends or vacation trips. In this RV we use it daily as we travel with 5 parrots. I can't push a regular vac with my health problems, but I can use the central vac. I don't think I ever want an rv without it again.

we also have a dishwasher in this one. I thought it was a waste of money but it was installed by the previous owner. Once I starTed using it, I grew to love it. i use less water than hand washing and it has a eco mode.

We love our in motion Satelitte, but that is because our feathered kids watch their shows while on the road. If it wasn't for them we wouldn't use our in motion.