Show your mods!!

Popeye -- The panel is 20 x 48. It sits on the ground, picnic table, or wherever else we can find a sun spot! It's not nearly as convenient as a roof mounted panel but it runs at full power for much of the day this way even when the trailer itself is sitting in the shade. (and I'm weird enough to actually enjoy adjusting it when we revisit the camp during different periods of the day!)

I've a full-width pull out storage bin that sits under the sofa at the front of the trailer...you know, the kind that is accessible from the outside of the trailer through doors on both sides? I pull the big bin out the opposite side which gives room for a tray mounted to the top of that compartment to tilt downward -- this upper tray holds the solar panel when not in use. I wish I had a picture -- this is way simpler than it sounds! Keeps the panel out of harms way really well though when it's not being used and I can still fill the storage bin up to full capacity.

Jon,
Do you just leave the solar panel on the ground or do you put it up on top of your Roo? What size is it and do you have any issues with safely storing it while on the road?

We had Dish TV installed, needed a place to tuck the receiver. In our 2010 Open Range 385RLS we had never, not once, used the slide-out desk that is installed under the TV. So we removed the wooden "desk" top slide-out, replaced the hinges with hinges that hold the door open, and drilled a cable/access hole behind the TV to run the cables. We plan on tethering the receiver down with a cable over the top of the receiver to prevent it from shifting during travel.

Wow, what a great bunch of ideas in this thread! Here's a few of my own mods:

Lots of my mods are related to storage such as removing the diagonal divider under the bath sink and strapping the pipes to one side, making more room for towels and such:


Removed another divider in front of the wheelwell which gave probably 4 more sq. ft. storage in one cupboard:


There was a fake front on the top drawer of the kitchen drawers -- it didn't actually open. Fixed that problem, but it could only be half depth because of the sink:


I don't have the before pic but I replaced the HUGE cd player with a car-type cd/radio. I've got a door ordered for the opening that was created:

The area under the fridge was inaccessible -- put a door in where we now store all the shoes!


I've no welding skills so I bolted together some underframe storage for the portable sewer cart and an under-bed type storage container for outdoor sort of stuff. The trays tilt down on the opposite edge of the trailer.


I've some mod's for electronics: The solar panel has adjustable aluminum legs to tilt toward the sun. The "shore" power cord is used to plug the trailer in when power is available or acts to connect my solar panel to the batteries otherwise. Gives me about 25' of play to position the panel directly into the sun where possible. There's a switch barely visible to isolate each battery individually or tie them together or cut them completely off. The trailer only came with one battery tray so I had to mod that as well to fit two batteries.

Here's our latest mod...
At the end of our trips we did the "magic wand" flushing of the black tank.
We added a second city water hookup below the outside shower and attached a small length of hose with a shutoff on it under the sink cabinet.
Now we attach a water supply outside at the last campsite with full hookup or at our home dump station, attach the "magic wand" to the hose and give things a quick flush out.
No hose through door, no one even knows what we are doing!

I really like the Antennapoint idea! With the new digital signal your antenna has to be position pretty precisely, this will help do that!

Great job as usual Leef-Peeper! Looks like a nice set up!
You always give me new ideas!!! I think that is a good thing?

Here’s our LCD TV/DVD setup for dry camping


It's not as big a TV as some would like, but it suits our needs just fine. Doesn’t take much space, or use much power. We really don’t watch much TV when we’re camping. But if we can, the wife (and myself too) like to watch the news before we go to bed (like at home). Maybe I might even catch a glimpse of Mary Anne from a re-run of Gilligan’s Island.


We didn't go with a wall mounted TV setup. I felt the needed structural integrity wasn’t available given the foam-cored wall construction of the Roo. We’ve grown accustomed to the old-fashioned, eye-level height the bedside table/counter offers while laying in bed or while sitting on the sofa. The TV nestles up to the wall with these foam blocks and straps when the camper bounces down the road.


The foam blocks are held in place with Velcro when the TV is stored, removed and stored in the cabinet below when we’re setup.


The foam blocks remove & replaced easily, store below inside the cabinet when not used.


This switch powers a small quiet 70-watt inverter, the LCD TV/DVD and the TV antenna amplifier. Total combined amperage draw according to our Trimetric meter is around 2.1 amps. When we’re done watching the news before bed, this single easily reached switch (from bed) powers everything down to save our battery power.


Tucked up under the cabinet, it receives 12v power via the switch that also provides power to the TV antenna amplifier, this small quiet inverter provides dedicated power to our TV/DVD.


The center section of this plastic protractor was removed and mounted to the TV antenna area on the ceiling. Four small screws (not tightened) locate on the inside diameter of the protractor and allow it to be rotated. The red knob is located at “zero” degrees and is used in conjunction with a compass to orient the protractor to “north”. Antennapoint.com is used to provide the locations (direction in degrees) of television broadcast stations where we go camping. The antenna is pointed to the desired location using the numbers on the “inner” circle on the protractor.


Haven’t yet found a State Park in the northeast with a cable TV hook-up. With over the air antenna reception, you need to have your receiving antenna pointed towards the direction of the television broadcast antenna. We use Antennapoint.com to get a listing of the closest TV stations and the direction heading in degrees. The compass is used to orient the “zero degree” (north) position on the protractor for the TV antenna.

something i did awhile ago, but added to fans to draw the heat from the venting area for the fridge to help in droping the temp to cool the fridge better.the fans where part of a blow up santa used during xmas,sorry santa.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trksid=p3907.m38.l1313&_nkw=keyhole+camera&_sacat=See-All-Categories

I got the one with the ir lights around the outside. Find a guy that sells the screen and extension cables too. The cable screws together at the bumper or you can get weatherproof connectors.