Keystone Bullet Premier

Thanks Virtual, I did contact Dometic and they were no help at all, they say they will not comment on installing any after market thermostat with their AC systems, very disappointing to say the least.So needless to say I am hoping someone out there will be of some assitance as I am not sure I want to be brave and start experimenting myself and risk damaging the AC unit or furnace and then be out the $$ to get it repaired.For now I will have to satisfied with the Dometic one.

VirtualGarage - did you haul your Premier from home over to Eastern WA? How was the drive? Did you go East from Sedro Wooley??

We do that trip every summer and are wondering how our new trailer will fair the trip this year!!

Thanks in advance!

I use a 6 gal Porter Cable Pancake air compressor I bought from Amazon. In fact, it's selling now for more than $20 less than what I paid last year.

I mostly got my information from this video from Keystone RV: Winterize Your RV's Water System.

The biggest difference from the video from what I did was I had to put the plugs back on the hot water tank and the low point drains before enough air pressure built up enough to clear the water at the taps.

Also, re-watching the video, I realized that this time I used more than the max 30 psi stated in the video. In the past when I used 30 psi, I could not feel any air coming out of the taps when I opened them up. Because the adapter I bought from Camping World said max 45 psi, I used about 40 psi to blow out the pipes. This time air and water shot out just like in the video and I'm more confident that I got all the water out.

VirtualGarage wrote:
There is a risk of freezing starting in October so I bought an air compressor so that I could winterize the RV more easily than using anti-freeze every weekend we went out.

Thanks for your report, it's still months before we can take ours out. We will camp a few times in early spring when there will be possible freezing temps. I've also thought that between our few trips to use the air compressor technique. Did you use instructions from a certain site that helped explain just what to do?

Come on spring!

EDIT: Which air compressor did you use?

Good luck with your search for info, kainen. It's sometimes annoying having to deal with having the latest technology, but it's the effort from people like you who help the rest of us who follow.

Now that I've finished my first weekend of 2011 in the Premier, I wanted to debrief my first winter RVing experience in the North Cascades, WA.

1. We used our RV on the weekends much later in the year than we normally do. Our last trip was mid-Nov.
   
2. There is a risk of freezing starting in October so I bought an air compressor so that I could winterize the RV more easily than using anti-freeze every weekend we went out.
   
3. Arriving on the last trip in November, when I was de-winterizing the RV for use, I forgot to turn off the hot water bypass and had the electric hot water run dry for about 30 min before I realized. Doh! I thought the electrical element was burnt out for sure. Luckily the electrical element was more robust than what I was lead to believe on the Internet and there seems to been have no damage at all and hot water heats up just as well as before on electricity.
   
4. After a couple of months of non-use and stormy weather, I had visions of falling tree branches and leaking water all over the place when I returned on Friday. That was not the case and everything was working great... except when I turned on the city water connection and heard water coming out somewhere from the back. The outside shower head handle had cracked from freezing and water was spraying out of it. No other damage was found, thank goodness.

It wasn't until Sunday when I realized that I had been winterizing the RV incorrectly, and that's how I suffered the damage. When I got the air compressor, even though I had closed the hot water tank, I didn't close up the low point drains to build up the air pressure enough to blow water out. I was very lucky not to have suffered more damage! Know I know better and I bought a $2 showerhead from Walmart to replace the outside showerhead (which we've never used, anyway).

I'm very glad it was a cheap lesson for me to learn! This past weekend should be the last time I'll need to winterize this season :C

Still awaiting confirmation that my 31bhpr has started production. The wait is killing me even if it is 16 degrees outside........

that is pretty!!! but i still like the red/marroon better.

If anyone is interested in the full body paint on the Premier, Keystone ia also featuring a blue graphics paint. Looks pretty nice... See link below:

http://keystone-premier.com/index.php?page=Blue-Graphics

Thanks Virtual, I think you are right about what Comms stands for and I opened up the hatch inside the trailer to the AC last night and traced the 3 wires going back into the Electronic control box and then wires coming out of it that appear to go the furnace. What I have so far found online is this is Dometic's new electronic control box that replaces the old analog one that you and alot of people have in their units that is why I have a different thermostat and only 3 wires so I am thinking my next step is to maybe phone Dometic to see if there is anyway to make this work with a programmable thermostat but I have a feeling they are going to say I would have to revert back to the old controller box and go from there.I will let everyone know what I find out and I hope it doesn't mean it is going to be problematic down the road for people to add their ownn programmable thermostat. I don't understand why RV maunfacturers do this kind of things and call them an upgrade but don't go all the way and make it a fully programmble thermostat.

I have no electrical background and I'm just thinking out loud but my guess would be that "COMMS" might stand for "Communications" than "Common". A communications wire would allow you to control the functions with a single wire (assuming the other two wires are 12 volt positive and 12 volt negative).

Perhaps it's a new "smart" system that can be controlled like that. The other wires that have not been stripped and are unused may just indicate the RV is pre-wired for the traditional system. There's no way of knowing if the other end is connected without physically checking or testing it, I don't think.

Maybe what I'm saying is total rubbish. If you don't have a copy of the owner's manual, you may be able to search the model number and find it online.