B+ motorhomes

[Daniel_C_]

I just bought a Trail Lite B+ 211s with 8.1 Chevy
engine. This is my fifth motorhome (others range
from an old 20' Vagabond, and three Winnegagos, from 19 to 32'. This vehicle is fantastic. I am
using it as a mobile office (and sneaking in a fun
journey from time to time). It gets about 9.5mpg
and I believe I could pull a bus behind it if I wanted! I paid low $40's which is about what I had expected to pay for a five or six year old Chinook with a nicer interior, but fewer features
(slide). I am delighted thus far.

[richardkaren]

Birdbybird,
We have a 21 ft. BT Cruiser and really love it. It is so easy to handle and my wife is very comfortable driving it. Plenty of space for two but three would be a crowd.

[CharlesOK]

Burl- cheeze1 is right on, just need to wait a bit to do the work. Chemicals react pretty slowly in low temps, including acids. I would buy a spray can of acid neutralizer from an auto parts store or Wally-World. Spray the whole area it will come out yellow and turn pink in the presence of sulphuric acid. I have done the same thing on an earlier rig and overfilled the battery by mistake. Then the converter charges the unit till the bubbles force out some of the acid. May be a good idea to buy a specific gravity checker and remove some of the electrolite. After spraying the neutralizer, let it sit per the instructions, rinse with copious amounts of water in an area where you are not worried about the affects of the run-off. Let the whole thing dry, repeat the process more than once if necessary untill the neutralizer does not change color. Baking soda will neutralize the acid, but spray on neutralizer will give a positive reading if it is all gone. Don't forget the cables and any straps or tie-downs will probably have to be replaced. When your sure it is all clean and dry, wire brush any remaining corrosion and spraypaint the area before re-installing the battery. I think Sears has acid resistant battery box paint available, at least I saw it a few years back. Good luck.

[birdbybird]

Though my husband doesn't quite understand, I have been looking to trade in my 2004 class C (25 ft Jayco) for a the short BT Cruiser 6211. I will take a money hit but after driving the unit for two years I realise that losing three more feet in length and the bit of width would make the decision to pick up and drive around come a lot faster. Though I had been checking in the class C threads regularly, it was only tonight after reading through the last few months of your chats......that I know that there are others that value something about the RV experience.....and it isn't all size and glitz. Practical, useful, stuff....now that I can get into.

Hannah

[biker_1]

I removed the frame and original TV set. While I had the TV out, I shortened all the wires in the upper compartment, wire tied them all and stuffed insulation around them. Then I boxed in where the old TV had been to make a cabinet where we now keep our sleeping bags and bedding. I moved the plug and TV amplifier from the right compartment into the middle compartment, installed a piece of paneling that matched the paneling of the motorhome on the inside of the frame, outlined the screen and controls of a 15-inch flat screen TV on the paneling and cut openings with a saber saw, installed the new TV from the inside so just the screen and controls showed from the outside, and hinged the original face frame at the top with three hinges matching those on the rest of the motorhome interior doors.

[cheeze1]

Hey Gene, that mount shown on your last post looks like the best. The trouble with so many of those paralellogram brackets is stability and ability to hold weight. I plan to do a similar job to ours like Burl, but I will mount the tv directly to the cabinet door hopefully in a manner that will not allow movement. I was thinking of a bottom hinged door, probably using a substantial piano hinge, and the LCD would be mounted to the back(interior) of the door, so it would fold up into the cabinet when not in use. I still have to figure out the head bump factor tho'.
As for your battery tray, Burl, is it made of steel? If so, the best thing is a full renovation if it's still in good shape. I would remove it, treat it liberally with baking soda, get it thoroughly dry and use a few coats of a rustproof paint. I did that with my '85 LandCruiser and it held up well for as long as I had it.
It's real good seeing the regulars still here! Can't wait to get our big baby on the road again!!

[Gene_in_NE]

burlmart - Just read another topic and found someone mounting an LCD on an articulated hinge. Might be the answer to your first question. Credit goes to WinnietoGo for finding it.

[Gene_in_NE]

burlmart -
Q1: Does anyone know what to call these swing hinges, and where to get them? I'm also at a loss. Someone on this forum should be able to answer that. I know my dinette table acts a little like that where you hook it in a raised position and then drop for making into a bed.

Q2: Anyone know the right treatment to stop this corrosion? Is it too late for baking soda alone? Here is what I would try, use the baking soda to dissolve the corrosion, rinse with water, and then lightly coat with grease to prevent the return.

Q3: If I am so lucky, what type of bulb do I need to get to replace this one - has anyone ever had to go up and replace one of these? I have been lucky and have not had to replace mine. My guess is that they would use the same type of bulb in all the clearance lights.

[burlmart]

Some questions to perhaps help get our winter brains thawed...

A friend who does some woodworking is in the process of getting storage shelves made to go where the 24" RCA used to bounce. A 23"x30" door is nearly complete that is planned to be hinged from the side. It will match our light maple finish.

Still working on ideas for replacing with flat screen LCD - probably 20". An ideal mounting system would be to find some parallelogram swing hinges like the system used on the coffee table in the camping world catalog whose top lifts up and swings over to brcome a greater height table. If the TV replacement door were attached with these type hinges (and not the planned side hinges), the new LCD TV could be mounted on the door and you would pull it out towards you and it swings down to sofa/dinette eye level just behind the two cab seats.

Q1: Does anyone know what to call these swing hinges, and where to get them?

Examples of a couple parallelogram swing hinges.

http://www.campingworld.com/browse/skus/index.cfm/Outdoor-and-RV-Accessories/Inside-Your-RV/Bedding--Furnishing/Furniture/Swingup-Coffee-Table/skunum=31683

http://wwhardware.com/catalog.cfm/GroupID/Specialty%20Hardware/CatID/Spring-Assisted%20Pop-Up%20Table/showprod/1

http://www.rd.com/content/openContent.do?contentId=18137&pageIndex=3


Next. I noticed lots of corrosion on the outside botton (and probably inside) of coach battery box as a result - I guess - of acid spilling due to over filling the battery several months back.

Q2: Anyone know the right treatment to stop this corrosion? Is it too late for baking soda alone?


Finally, the far right (passenger side) running light (one of 5 across front roofline)atop the fiberglass bullnose cabover is out. I am hoping I did not pull its wire loose when removing the TV...

Q3: If I am so lucky, what type of bulb do I need to get to replace this one - has anyone ever had to go up and replace one of these?

Any help would be great.

More later...

[cheeze1]

I still have a 'all in one' cb that fits in a small plastic case. Magnetic antenna, and cigar lighter plug. Sounds like maybe it's not worth carrying even for an emergency anymore.

[CharlesOK]

In the late 90's, I had a CB installed and liked listening to the chatter as we went along and listened for info from the truckers. Then we stopped RV'ing for 6 years and when I set up the RT 210 in 2005, I installed a CB again and used an bent steel mount on one of the front fender bolts near the Radio antenna on the cab-portion. By 2005, the CB world had changed dramatically. Not much info anymore, no one monitoring the RV channel #13, and more profanity than I care to remember. Sorry, I would not bother installing one again. We carry a Cingular Cell phone and have been able to get out from almost everywhere except some of the remote areas. Truckers are all satellite and Cellphones now. I'm not to sure how they talk as they go now.

We also carry the laptop now and check for access when we go. A good place to get free access is in the parking lot of most public libraries and most towns have one and they usually have a free parking lot.

[cheeze1]

I'm many years out of the CB loop, however, 'back in the day', the metal vehicle body was needed to serve as a ground plane(?) for the antenna to work properly.

[Gene_in_NE]

richardkaren - I don't have a CB installed in my unit, sometimes wish I had. Cell phones are wonderful if you know who to call while away from home on the road. If I recall, the metal of the vehicle adds to the range of the antenna. Might try posting in the technical forum and then bring the answers back to this topic for specific ideas on how to implement their suggestions.

burlmart - Fortunately, our TV sits quietly in it's little cubby hole. Nothing rattles (yet) in the upper bunk area. I might consider purchasing a 15" screen laptop, connecting a tuner for watching TV, purchasing a WiMax card for internet access. Now you have a small TV to put on the dinette or place in the cubby hole. You can also place it in the cab area and use it for accessing road maps on the internet. My wife has a laptop she uses for work and it has spoiled us when on a trip. There are many "hot spots" to check email etc. WiMax cards allow you to access the internet every place you can get to a cellular tower. A small inverter can keep the laptop battery at full charge.

[burlmart]

Richardkaren, anything with leverage like a long stiff antenna would really need a FIRM mount base. I do not know what the antenna looks like, but if it is possible to attach to yout STEEL trailer hitch assembly, which also might make running wires to radio via the under the chassis. Or, if a car radio/CB antenna combo could replace the antenna on your cab?

Charles, you were smart to have them do your cabinet work w/o TV. Cheese1, I very much remember your TV story, and as I recall, it was not even the heavier 24" RCA screen like with our unit. Do either of you hear annoying squeaks of the wood-to-wood or wood-to-whatever type from your overhead that are worsened w/ bad roads?

Do you feel that the heavy set, even if made quiet, gradually weakens/loosens the wood cabibetry of the entire overhead structure? Without seeing how it was mounted, I had actually feared that it would shake loose the fiberglass bullnose-to-roof connection, and even after seeing some of the construction from behind the set, I am unclear as to how the wood cabinetry is attached to everything.

We are now looking at notebooks, PC monitors, and flat screens TV options for TV replacement. We are somewhat mindful that HDTV could make some choices obsolete in 2009. But in electronics, that is an eternity.

Are also generating ideas for TV cabinet space overhaul - baskets at Pier 1 Imports generate some ideas for storing blankets and pillows and the like. I was also thinking of something that would pullout and allow access to the wires, etc.

With my low vision and the hieght above eye level, we would like for the new viewing screen to be much lower and closer to the sofa and dinette for easier viewing, but where to put it is the big question; even where to set a 15 or 17" notebook screen poses problems, since a scissor-legged TV tray support is easily knocked over by us or the mutts...

[richardkaren]

Happy New Year Fellow RVers,
I have a 21 FT. BT Cruiser and would like to install a CB antenna, but can't locate a place to put it. Can you mount those things to fiberglass?

[cheeze1]

Hi Gang, Burl, I hope you got that idea from me!!! Anyway, I went thru the same situation with the noisy tv. I was amazed that something so big and heavy for it's location was not fastened down. In fact, after some hard bumps, it once jumped that piece of wood! I complained to my dealer about the noise and the 'jump'. They took it apart and applied some kind of strap to hold it down.
However, my long range plan is to remove that tv, and get a 17-20" flat screen.I will then make a box to fit that space, including a door with heavy hinges of some type, and mount the flat screen to it.
While you have that space open, you can CAREFULLY feel around inside and either silicone glue or 'Great Stuff" many areas that contain wires that also make a racket.I say carefully because there are the 'other' ends of mounting screws that will surprise you.
Lemme know how you make out.