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.

[Artum_Snowbird]

There is such a heat shrink wrap. I don't know about smaller sizes, but when I worked as an industrial electrician we would sometimes have to splice cables that were connected at both ends hundreds of feet away. The shrink wrap wrapped around the splice like a slit plastic tube with two turned back edges, and had a metal "zipper" that slipped over the edges and held both sides together as heat was applied with heat guns to shrink the product onto the wires beneath.

Likely the company, RayChem makes smaller sizes for smaller cables.

[cheeze1]

Hey Burl,
Sounds like a reasonable repair. I tighted every screw in sight, including the ones loose in my head when I buttoned down the renovation of a near debacle. I wonder if there is a product like a heat wrap that you could wrap around a cord split and then heat with a hair dryer to make a nice seal? I've only seen tubular electrical heat wraps so if there's a big plug in the way, one must find alternatives.

[burlmart]

From conversation of 6/28/09...

cheeze1 wrote:
Burl, your breaker/fuse panel should be under your rear dinette seat right next to the sink cabinet. You need a torx bit (#10?) to remove the front panel. There is another panel held with 2 normal screws that surrounds the breakers. Remove that and you will find the buss bars. In addition, under the rear dinette seat (if the cover doesn't lift remove the screws) you will find another buss bar screwed to the floor. That's where I found one loose wire. The ones on the melted bar were too far gone for me to determine if any of those were loose/causing the problem.

Finally got to tightening all loose screws:

These two busbars were where you had a meltdown


* on the two bus bars you pictured in a link showing your problem meltdown - I had little looseness on maybe two screws,
* and one needing a 1/4 turn on the other bus bar under the seat where all wires were white.
* Note. though you did not mention this, I found several wires were 1/8 turn loose at the terminals of the 6 or so pull-out fuses next door to the two busbars that melted on you (to the right of what you see in the pic above)

Also, we had discussed my power cord head-to-wire separation. I bought a replacement 30A plug (for the cg power pole) at Home Depot (Leviton No. 830 T) for $10. It is 2 piece hinged plastic w/ good instructions of how to strip the wires and which go where. I will keep it in the RV, but for now as a backup.

I bridged the 1/4" gap from the plug head and the cord outer black sheathing by forming a 1" long barrel around the cord (using a 1" wide by 2" long piece of thin plastic cut from a old soft butter container) working one end of the barrel up into the plug head and wrapping it all over w/ elec tape. Plugged the cord into adapter and house outlet and ran the AC - there seems to be no noticeable heat issue.

I will monitor the plug heat at a cg.

If I do determine a 'cool' plug at cg power stations, I will be inclined to guess that the cord pulls away from the plug due to all the uneven 'bunching' that might occur when winding and unwinding all or partial lengths of the 25 ft. powewr cord. Maybe not related to heat at all. Will let you know.

[jeanniewes]

Thank you bulmart and cheeze1... I was worried I had caused havoc here... 😞

This forum has been a help too me especially when we were having problems with the TV antenna which seems too be working after all the suggestions that were given. Parking under trees is when the reception is really bad.

Anyway we didnt get our motorhome for our Pet (which turned into 2 pets lol) but it sure is easier too take them places. There are only a few motels that let us bring them. We have done that twice with our Ellie.

We have met a different class of people by having a motorhome. We 'mingle' with people more with a motorhome. (MY HUSBAND NEVER meets a stranger!) Perhaps because he is a nurse. I dont know... We always have someone coming by and asking how we like our B+ . Once when we were looking an the different types of camping things we found a neat slide in truck camper with a slide out for more room. The man we spoke to actually invited us in too see the difference in room space.... lol STILL WE LOVE our B+ the best. The reason my husband likes the size of our motorhome is because he can drive it in and out of most places. That is not too say I WISH we had a HUGE motorhome. However we would probably never come back home... lol

[TMBLSN]

The occasional off-topic 3-4 posts is not the issue. However, when Artum Snowbird posted "It would be an interesting poll. Are your pets and their cages secured in case of an impact?" (sorry, I didn't mean to pick on you), it seemed that this thread might head way off topic.

Also, these forums are A LOT easier to read if you go into your preferences and increase the number of posts per page to 20; I only show 112 pages to this thread. (I noticed that someone indicated that the thread was 223 pages)

[cheeze1]

Do not apologize. I do not think the topic went very long, and we normally talk about our pets here because most of us travel with them, some of us got the RV's FOR them, and we do have more than just an impersonal, "stick to the topic" thread. I have been a member of this forum for a long time now, and it's very obvious how helpful this has been for so many people.

[kellymisty]

Hi, Gene,

Re: Security for portable surge protector -This universal lock hasp is made by SurgeGuard, but supposedly fits other devices. You have to supply your own padlock. Camping World has it on sale for $19.95.

Fully agree with addressing the unique needs of B+ owners who take pets along, because of our limited storage capacity. We travel with our diabetic cat. His hard-shell carrier fits under the dinette, and when it's turned sideways, the two of us can still sit comfortably. The dinette leg is our only "security". When we're travelling, litter box goes under the sofa (the single slide) on a non-slip mat. When we're stopped, it sits in the cab hump area. The cat prefers to be outside the carrier, so he most often lies under the sofa during transit and is caged only at border stops. Our dear departed dog would lie quietly in the aisle, even though she wasn't thrilled with rides, just with the new smells at the destination.

Best regards, Kelly

[burlmart]

Jeannie,

There is no need to apologize or to cease bringing up your pets when discussing B+ motorhomes. Bursts of pet talk come up here all the time. Lots of forums on RV.net get into pet discussions from time to time.

To say we cannot talk about our pets in our RVs (which many of us bought only so that we could bring our pets along) would be like saying you cannot bring up religion at a Bible study.

I thing TMBLSN was kindly noting that there is a designated RV Pets forum available and more appropriate for extended-length pet talk.

I also agree that Christine described this B+ thread quite well.

[jeanniewes]

Sorry.. I guess I was the one who started it. I know it's a motorhome thread but it's like sitting in a living room and just chatting about anything you want. I noticed this particular thread lays dormant for days on end. Anyway I will not speak of pets again... once again sorry..

[cheeze1]

Agree with all Gene said. I'm going to install a hardwired unit.

[Gene_in_NE]

kellymisty wrote:
Hi, Burlmart,
Re: surge protectors
I think the two most recommended are the Progressive Industries one and the SurgeGuard, though I don't think the latter, in this model, has polarity tester. I know people have found them at better prices than on this site, so it might be worth looking around a bit.

Regards, Kelly

Sure do like the "Progressive Industries" concept and the price is affordable for what you are getting. It has the correct specifications to keep the smoke in the wires.

One last thing to figure out - how to keep it from getting legs and walking off with a better looking rig. 😉

birdbybird (christine) - You very nicely summarized this 223 pages.

[happyjack2]

This sub forum does cover a lot of topics about our compact coaches and how the owners adapt them to our various needs. Although we don't have any pets at this time it has been interesting to see how the owners who do transport their furry cargo. I tune in every few days to catch up and see what topic is being discussed. As a source for new and veteran small "C" owners this sub forum is invauable and I hope we never loose it for the wide range of items we cover. Just my .02.

[Artum_Snowbird]

Well said Birdbybird. I totally agree... most of the side topics just either die, or they become part of the subscribed thread..

We are a slightly different breed, and I enjoy that!

Mike

[birdbybird]

Well after 223 pages of topics......those of us with our more petit MH just like to share with one another. It all has to do with our MH's and our travel. :=) It has worked for us! Like a small fraternity within the larger campus...... it is our home place......

[cheeze1]

Motorhome just had an article on surge protectors and I think a small inverter, unless it was a different magazine. I think I'm going to install both, but I need to research them more.