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.

[Gene_in_NE]

happyjack2 wrote:
.....and the DW is saying "that's all you every do is talk on rv.net":)

I can sure relate to that.:B:B

[happyjack2]

I had read in another post about a guy breaking off the barbed fitting on his water pump when trying to remove the line from the FW tank to winterize so I was a bit skittish when I started. That is why I was surprised when the WP fitting just unscrewed off easily and solved the problem of removing the barbed fitting from the hose. I saw the hex head fitting on the FW tank but it never crossed my mind to unscrew that. That is what I really enjoy about this forum. It's like standing under the shade tree in your home town discussing the best way to soup up your '68 Chevy with your gearhead friends but in reality you are at the PC and the DW is saying "that's all you every do is talk on rv.net":)

[markopolo]

cheeze1 wrote:
I I have a small clear hose and funnel setup for adding water, which also entails a flashlight and mirror. No matter what, T/L definitely dropped the ball on this one.

Get a Qwik-Fill battery filler from Camping World.

It's easy to use - attach the bulb pump, put the pick-up tube in your distilled water bottle and pump the bulb until it is firm. Then detach the bulb, drain the excess water back into the bottle.

The manifolds stay on the battery permanently and are safe to leave on in the winter.





g1g recommended it to me - I'm really happy with it.

[Reno3]

Happy Jack2. I more or less do as you do but I use a piece of "clear" plastic tubing and just force it over the suction side of the pump and then put the other end in the antifreeze bottle. When through I put the regular hose back on the pump and save the plastic hose for next year.

[Gene_in_NE]

happyjack2 - I do a slight modification to your procedure. I merely loosen the clamp on the fitting that enters the tank. Then take a 7/8" open end wrench and unscrew the male adapter from the tank. Then plunge that hose and fitting into the RV antifreeze. After getting the solid, not diluted, pink stuff at all the faucets, I screw the fitting back into the tank and tighten the clamp. This is all under the dinette seat. By the way when the tank is completely empty, it is very light. So...I slipped a web strap underneath it and tied a bow on top. Now I am able to lift up the end of the tank away from the drain and get "all" of the water to drain.

[happyjack2]

Burl-- Didn't mean to confuse anyone. I drained the WH tank by removing the plug and opened the two pull ring low point drains under the sink that drain the hot and cold water lines and the one under the dinette sink that drains the line from the FW tank. I don't have a air compressor so I needed to add RV antifreeze after I closed the drains an the two WH by-pass valves under the sink and opened the third. I wanted to add anti-freeze on the suction side of the water pump and leave the FW tank empty. The white water hose that goes from the FW tank to the pump did not want to come off at either end on the barbed fittings. I unscrewed the fitting on the suction side of the WP and once I had it off the water hose pulled off the barb without breaking. I then put a longer length of tubing on the barbed end and screwed it back on the WP. Put the new hose in a gallon of anti-freeze and turned on the pump. It pumped the antifreeze thru the system. First time for me but I think it went okay.

[burlmart]

HJ

I am not following your description. I have yet to drain the WH or FW tanks down here, but would like to go see relatives in Philadelphia this winter if I thought we could winterize enough to do so.

I thought there is a plastic drain plug that you unscrew and the water comes out (hopefully missing some heater wires and components just below).

Are the little pull rimgs the way to drain the FW tank; there is one right by the tank hose under the dinette? There is one (maybe 2) more on the cabinet floor under the kitchen sink near the hoses in fron of the WH.

Could you add more info on Philly and the drain questions?

[happyjack2]

Used info from forum and winterized today. Anybody else have to remove fitting on water pump to safely remove water tank hose from barb on pump? I'm sure it would have broke the barbed elbow if I kept pulling while it was attached to the pump. Attached longer hose to the barb and hooked it back on the pump and used two gallons of antifreeze in lines. Seemed rather simple. We've only had a few nights in the high 20's and I had a ceramic heater running but it will get colder soon and I needed to winterize.

[Gene_in_NE]

MichaeleH wrote:
Hi...I started looking at Class C 29' Itsaca and then Class A 34' Allegro and now Class B R-Visions but after reading about 35 pages in here I don't think you could give me a R-Vision thanks for the warnings posted here...I am a 100% disabled veteran and can not do many repairs of any kind so maybe RVing is not for me. This is so sad that the RV industry does so many underhanded things to the public Thanks Michael

First of all, Thank You for serving our country. As to your observations about quality or usability of construction, I think you will find that all of the manufacturers have some issues. Friends of ours bought a $200,000 diesel pusher and have had more problems (and expensive ones) than we have. I would not give up on your search. Most of us that have bought the R-Vision feel that we got great value. By that, I mean that we paid many thousand less and received better construction than most. For that savings, we could afford to hire out to fix problems or we could fix ourselves. It seems that most that post here elect to fix it themselves. If I were you, I would buy right from a responsive dealer that would fix those things you find wrong.

[MichaeleH]

Hi I have been reading, talking, and going to RV dealers for more than 1.5 yrs now. I started looking at Class C 29'Itsaca and then Class A 34'Allegro and now Class B R-Visions but after reading about 35 pages in here I don't think you could give me a R-Vision thanks for the warnings posted here. Now its back to Class C I quess. I am a 100% disabled veteran and can not do many repairs of any kind so maybe RVing is not for me. This is so sad that the RV industry does so many underhanded things to the public Thanks Michael

[burlmart]

I like the idea of a gel battery, if anyone knows what size, brand(s), and where to get. The small RV access door is no good for filling the battery and it led me to a problem...

About a year or so back, I had a lot of posts and advice from here about cleaning my battery support and tray after seeing how my overfilling had allowed acid to do some ugly corrosion. Baking soda let to dry and brushed off, sprayed w/ Krylon Hammer paint to fix the corroded stuff. Martha reinforced the flimsy strap that was coming undone.

At nearly 3 years now, I'll bet the battery could be needing to be replaced.

I asked about gel back then, and am not sure anyone knew a lot about them, does anyone have any info about them today? Or maybe what about maintenance free deep cycle?

[cheeze1]

HJ, I would love to know more about it. Turns out it took a lot of water, and now is working well. My battery tray is held by what looks like 1 1/4 x 3/16 strap. Trouble is 2 of those supports are welded to the frame and 2 are bolted. I was trying to think of a way to cut them and add pieces that would allow me to lower the battery enough to see what I was doing.

[happyjack2]

I looked at that little battery access door all summer every time we went traveling and decided that a bigger door could replace it and the propane access door. Saw a thread on here or on the R-Vision campers site of someone installing a larger door on a TT, so it is possible. It's on my list of mods I want to do.

[cheeze1]

I I have a small clear hose and funnel setup for adding water, which also entails a flashlight and mirror. No matter what, T/L definitely dropped the ball on this one.

[Gene_in_NE]

cheeze1 - Your battery is the problem either the level or the ability to take charge. I found on mine that removing the battery was almost as easy as trying to check the electrolite level. Mine had a poor setup for a strap hold down, so I removed it and replaced it with a ratcheting strap. Just cut off the strap you do not need and use a match to seer the end to keep it from unraveling. Undoing the ratchet strap and 2 wing nuts does not take long. I lay a cardboard on the ground and sit right next to the battery.