Bob C

Just wait a couple of weeks, someone will show their latest modification that you just have to have.

Most of these RV's are close to being overloaded if the gas tank & water tanks are full and 2 people are on board. There is no way you have the capacity to add 1300 to 2200 pounds. My Escaper weights 5600 with gas alone. We are overloaded when we put 2 people, a 60 lb dog and all of our groceries and clothing.

You can download the owners manual for almost all of the appliances in your RV. I would strongly suggest printing them all off and keeping them in the RV. The furnace requires good 12 volt power, either from your battery or while plugged in. My water heater and furnace are both direct spark ignition so they light by themselves and do not have pilot lights. After you have read the manuals, people here will be able to answer any questions that you have. My oven and stove top both have to be light with a match. The oven has a pilot light but I light it every time I use the oven and turn it off when I am done.

I would use Command hangers by 3M. They release without leaving residue on the surface. They don't cost very much.

I changed out my taillights and installed some LED lights that I got from fleabay. I also had a problem with the new lights being smaller than the old lights. I made spacers from aluminum diamond plate that I obtained form a scrapper. I will be changing out all of the marker lights when the RV comes out of storage. These lights are much brighter that the originals and since they are sealed in epoxy, I hope that they will last a long time. In the last picture, you can see the cargo carrier that I have mounted on the back of the Escaper. I have LED taillights mounted on that also. At night the back of the RV is very bright.

Would your camp site have been underwater if the water levels were not at such low levels? We plan on being in that part of the country in June, 2016. I have been all over the eastern part of the country, (44 states and 8 provinces) but not NV, CA, WA, OR, AK, or HI. We will be spending 4 to 5 weeks west of the Rockies. I would ask if anyone has any specific places I should try to see but the list would take pages and pages. I guess with 5 weeks available, we just try to see everything, like that is possible.

I have a 100 watt panel & controller hooked directly to my coach batteries. If I need to use the inverter, I hook that directly to the battery. We rarely use the inverter so I never bothered hard-wiring it. We removed the microwave and A/C. We rarely use the microwave in the kitchen at home and the A/C on the RV was so loud that you could not hold a conversation in the RV. We also rarely camp where is shore power anyway.

A couple of years ago I installed a Progressive Dynamics converter. It is a 3 stage charger and it periodically goes through desulfication cycle. I don't know if it does any good but I have not had battery problems since I installed it. I also have a higher end battery charger that has a battery reconditioning cycle. I had a battery in my Dodge truck that would not hold a charge for very long. That truck only gets driven a couple of times a month during the summer and the battery would be low. I connected it to the charger and ran it through the "reconditioning" cycle 3 times. The first time took over a day to complete the cycle. The battery seems to be hold a charge at this time.

34F $1.87 in Baraboo, WI

First you need to buy a volt meter (multimeter) if you don't already have one. With the engine running, use your multimeter and touch the red probe to the positive post of the coach battery and the black probe to the negative post. You should get about 14.5 volts. If you don't get at least 14 volts with the engine running, you are correct in thinking that your engine is not charging the coach battery. I had to replace the isolator when I bought my RV and then that O"Reilly's isolator lasted a very short time and I put in an old school solenoid isolator. I also added a digital volt meter in the cab to check the state of charge of the coach battery. It makes me feel better knowing that the coach is getting power.

I changed out my battery box and dropped in a larger series 27 battery from WalMart. The battery has been in there for 3 1/2 years and is doing good. I believe that you have correctly diagnosed your problem that the battery is not doing the job. There are several possible problems - You could have a bad connection with either a bad battery, corroded battery posts, bad wiring, or a bad isolator. If you don't have a multimeter (voltage tester) I would suggest getting one. I had the exact same problem when I started out. When I bought my RV, it had a bad isolator which I replaced with one that I bought at O'Reilly's. That one last about 3 trips, each about 2000 miles and a week long each and a couple of weekend trips. It quit working and I just ran a jumper wire around the isolator until I could locate a better one. I would connect the jumper when we started driving and disconnect it when we stopped for the day This worked well but was a pain in the tush. I bought an old fashion solenoid type isolator next (a isolator solenoid, not a starter solenoid) and have not had a problem. When I installed the new isolator, I also installed an LED volt meter for the coach battery that is mounted below the dash with a toggle switch to turn it off when not in use. I can now see what my coach battery is getting for a charge off of the converter or from the alternator. If the isolator fails again, I will know it as soon as I look at the gauge. I also installed an additional wire from the solenoid back to the electrical distribution block to carry more power.

I did a search and found aftermarket hinges at reasonable prices. http://www.autopartswarehouse.com/sku/Replacement/Hood_Hinge/T130513-PLK.html Those are about $32 with shipping. That includes left and right side.

I would rather have a kayak and a bike than what they have on the back. I am still considering building a small trailer to carry my 1986 Goldwing behind the RV. I was thinking of a trailer with a 1000 pound torsion axle. That would be light, low, and give the cycle a smooth ride.

I bought my '88 Escaper 3 1/2 years ago with 33,000 miles. I am the third owner. The woman that I bought it from said that she bought it from the dealer that sold it to the original owner. When I went to look at the RV, I doubted most of this. However, the vinyl floor mat showed no wear, the seats looked new, the brake and gas pedal looked new, and the interior of the coach was in excellent shape. With all of this taken into consideration, think that she was telling the truth. The woman had all receipts from when she bought the RV from a dealer. I contacted the dealer and found that he had sold the RV new and had done preventive maintenance on it until the original owner traded it in. With this information, I determined that this was indeed a 24 year old vehicle with 33,000 miles. Fred if right, there are many indicators of very low miles with easy miles. The PO only drove it to a campground (Indian Shores) about 250 miles away (mostly interstate) 4 or 5 times a year, where they stayed for 2 or 3 weeks. No short trips. I stopped at the same campground shortly after buying the RV and the owner even knew the RV by sight and knew who I had bought it from. The RV now has almost 50,000 miles on it and it will get close to 10,000 miles added in 2016.

I saw a big diesel pusher with a trailer behind it. On the front of the trailer was a new Harley. On the lower level was a smaller 4 x 4 truck and on top was a slant rack with a Ski Nautique boat. They raised the boat to get the truck out, lowered the boat to back the truck up to it to remove it. The Harley could come out after or before the boat. Way more $$$ than I want to haul around. I prefer small and simple, maybe my Goldwing on a trailer.

Welcome to the forum. The people here can and will help out with any problem you have.

I would start by checking to make sure that your supply outlet has power. Get your multimeter out and check it. If you are using an extension cord check that next. Keep working you way up to the converter. Check to see if your converter has fuses built into it. Do the search systematically-start at the beginning (supply) and work your way through the AC power. Your multimeter will tell you where the open circuit is. I am going to bet that the connection with the extension cord is not being made. Your 12 volt stuff will continue working from the battery even if the 120volt is not hooked up.

I added a 30 amp outlet near my garage breaker box. I think that it cost me about $15 total for the job. Thankfully I can do that work myself so I don't have to pay $60 an hour to get the job done. The previous owners had the RV plugged into a 14 gauge extension cord with the AC running when I went to look at it the first time. I picked up the cord and asked the owners to touch it. That cord was almost too hot to pick up. I would never run the AC through a 15 amp plug unless I was absolutely certain that nothing else was running. With an automatic battery charger on-board, I would feel very apprehensive about using the 15 amp converter.

Send me a PM with your mailing address and I will drop them in the mail. I'll let you know how much it was. Bob

I had problems with my old turn signals so I installed new led light fixtures instead. One of the lenses is broken as shown in the photo. The rest of the lenses appear to be ok. The sockets are corroded and work sometimes and don't work others. I cleaned them a couple of times and they work for a while. I ordered the led fixtures on fleabay for less money than I could put new sockets in the old one. If someone wants them and is willing to reimburse me for postage, the lights are free. First positive reply will get them. They should fit in a flat rate envelope and will be sent by USPS. Bob

I got a good Toyhouse for a good price. I can and do buy inexpensive cars for my daily driver because I refuse to make car payments unless it is just one payment and done. I plan on keeping my 21' Escaper for many years without major problems so I keep it for vacations and weekend trips. When traveling, I have no problem parking and driving around town. Even my 21' Escaper can do a nice tight u-turn and fit in regular width parking stalls ( I just need end to end stalls.) 8 months out of the year my personal day to day driver is a 1986 Honda Goldwing. It is fun to drive, gets 45 mpg, and maintenance is cheap.

Just south of Rapid City, SD, there is a very long steep hill with a stop light at the bottom. I think I have hit a red light every time I have gone through there with every vehicle I own. The first time up that hill with the Toyhouse, there was a line up of 5 semis and a dump truck (loaded) at the light. I pulled up in the left lane at the light. My wife asked me why I was in the passing lane. When the light turned green, I actually passed 5 vehicles in a row. I probably should not celebrate passing a fully loaded quad axle dump truck going up a steep hill from a dead stop, but I did.

The daughter felt bad about the gas mileage that she got on that tank of fuel. We were traveling with theRV and a car pulling a pop-up. At 55mph the Mercury Grand Marquis was getting 21 mpg with the pop-up. On that 100 mph section I checked that vehicles mileage and it dropped to 17 also. It convinced everyone that I was right about the mpg being the inverse of the mph.

Welcome to the group. WHEN you have questions, feel free to ask. There is an incredible amount of knowledge around here. Everyone has helped me with my projects. I hope that you enjoy your Toyhouse as much as my wife and I do.

I count on 200 miles before I start to worry. If I don't find more gas by then, I dump in my spare 5 gallons. The only time this did not work out was when my daughter was driving while I took a nap, I did not know that she was driving through western Montana with her foot smashed to the floor for the 100 miles I was sleeping. I woke up and she told me that we had been doing over 65 mph the whole time. We topped off the tank at about 120 miles and we only got 9 1/2 mpg with her driving She was very surprised at that. I drove the rest of the trip.