New to RV's and the forum

[willi4nd]

After years of tent camping the wife and I decided to buy our first travel trailer. We picked up a Heartland Trail Runner last week and took it out for the first time this past weekend....was so nice to wake up warm and dry on a cool dewy morning.

I have found many "little" things wrong with the RV, most of which I fixed, I am a building engineer (maintenance) in a high rise building.

Most of the things I found would have been pattern installs at the factory, if it was wrong on mine, it should be on all of them. For instance, the brackets that secure the kitchenette table to the side wall was 3 inches off.

I realize RV's arent built similar to autos with robots doing the welding and are mostly built by hand.

Is it normal to find so many things wrong with a new RV?

By the way, my name is Jody, I live in Northern Kentucky, married and an "almost" grown son.

[Jayco-noslide]

We toured the Winnebago factory and it's pretty interesting and they provide 100's of free camping sites. Of course it's hard to tell if you aren't an expert but they do a pretty good job of convincing you about quality.

[willi4nd]

Thanks Pete, it has been fun 🙂

[petendoll]

Welcome to the forum. You will find any questions you have answered here. This is my first go to if I am researching a problem of some kind. Have fun with the new RV. (repairing things is part of the fun for me)

[willi4nd]

Dutchmen, you can call me Willi...or my real name, Jody 🙂

Thank you for your reply, I am actually using the same TV I had used in the RPod, had almost 40 channels in the RPOD and 6-7 in my new Trail Runner. I am maybe 15 miles from downtown Cincy. Of the 6-7 channels I can't get NBC, which is about the closest of all the antennas downtown.

[willi4nd]

Thanks for the welcome!!

My antenna doesn't have a signal strength meter, only a plate with 2 coax and a power button for the amp.

I don't plan on watching much TV but would like to be able to watch my Irish play.
Looking at the Winegard Sensor. Taking my TT to the dealer Saturday, if replacing all the coax barrel ends doesn't fix the issue I will get a new antenna.
Investigating the installation, not digging the idea of messing with my roof.

[DutchmenSport]

willi4nd,

We are able to park our camper on our own property. We live in the country about 40 miles North and East of Indianapolis, about 30 miles from Muncie, 25 miles from Noblesville, all in different directions. (Indiana).

We also use our camper at home (a lot) all year round too. The batwing antenna on our camper, with the booster "on", will pull in about 60 channels (if you count all the "dash" channels).

We recently canceled DISH TV and went back to over the air in the house. In our house we have those square all directional antennas that hook up to the back of your television and you hang them on the wall.

We have a television in both living rooms and each bedroom and the master bath room. No 2 televisions pull in the same channels (in the same house).

When moving the antennas around, the results are still pretty much the same. When moving the televisions around, they seem to get the same channels no matter where they are positioned in the house.

I started adding boosters to each antenna and now we are getting almost all the channels on all the televisions. One room, no matter what I did, could not get anything to come in. I finally installed an antenna on a pole outside the house. Still nothing. I even ran the wire from the camper to that bed room, and some stations came in, but not good.

It turned out the be the television itself. I put a different television in there and attached to the outside antenna, and now it's picking up everything just like the camper. It's actually the best in the entire house now.

So it's possible, it the television itself, and nothing wrong with wires or booster in your camper.

We have two televisions in our camper. The one that came with the camper picks up less than the one we bought for the bed room. I tried this by attaching the same wires (both locations) to both televisions. We are now considering getting a new television for the living room of the camper.

I read (in the past), that manufacturers do not put the best quality television in campers, and the failure rate for those televisions is pretty high. After having had our current camper that came equiped with a television, I have to agree.

So, over this winter we will be replacing 2 televisions. The one in our bedroom in the house (it hangs on the wall), and the one in the camper living room (which is attached to a frame that slides up and down in a cabinet).

I suggest attaching a known "good" television from your house to your camper antenna wire and see if you have the same results. I bet you'll have more channels. If so, it's the television, nothing wrong with the camper.

[2112]

I had a poorly crimped coax connector on a previous camper. Once I found and reworked it the TV woke up.

The signal strength meter is something like This or This

[retiredtravele1]

Yeah. I was on this forum for a year or two before I purchased a pop up. DW and I are long-time tent campers too. I enjoyed the pleasures of quality workmanship on my (then) new popup. Brand new Jayco. I was trying to play with everything on the unit (as instructed on these forums) before going camping and found that I couldn't use the manual fill for water. I'd put in only a cup or two of water and it would keep splashing out. I did the 'insane' thing and kept trying to put water in, over and over, hoping for a different result.
Went inside, had to unscrew some wood trim, and found the filler nozzle was tipped outward, not allowing water to flow into the tank under the unit. Had to do some minor carpentry and cutting. And don't get me started on the caulking..............

[willi4nd]

Peg Leg wrote:
Welcome to our addiction.

Is the amplifier turned on for the antenna? Once you get a channel check for a on screen signal strength meter. Adjust the antenna for the strongest signal for that station and scan again. The digital signal is very touchy. Along the Ohio River near Madison we get signals bouncing off the hills and sometimes the antenna isn't pointed at the actual source.

Good luck with the TV. Just remember now that your infected there is no known cure.

Peg Leg, the amp is powered and the antenna is up. I dont have a signal strength meter? I have an Antenna Tek MOD 550 antenna. I have adjusted the direction and rescanned in just about every notch, no change.

Madison! I love riding my motorcycle there..great ride down 42 on the KY side and 56 Indiana to home. We camped at Little Farm on the River this past weekend.

[Peg_Leg]

Welcome to our addiction.

Is the amplifier turned on for the antenna? Once you get a channel check for a on screen signal strength meter. Adjust the antenna for the strongest signal for that station and scan again. The digital signal is very touchy. Along the Ohio River near Madison we get signals bouncing off the hills and sometimes the antenna isn't pointed at the actual source.

Good luck with the TV. Just remember now that your infected there is no known cure.

[willi4nd]

ugh wrote:
I agree that they don't build it using some kind of good standards. I was watching a show on how they build one. They would screw in the doors to the cabinet just by eyeballing it. No level was used nor did they use some kind of rig to ensure it all lined up. Then they install a light fixture, even on TV, I saw that it was not leveled. Again, no tools were used to ensure it was install straight and level. They just put it together as quickly as they can.

When I bought mine, I found few things wrong. I could fix it because I am a handy man, but I decided to leave it alone.

Ugh, I think I have the TT you saw being built 🙂

My kitchen drawers look like something in a Dr.Suess movie

[ugh]

I agree that they don't build it using some kind of good standards. I was watching a show on how they build one. They would screw in the doors to the cabinet just by eyeballing it. No level was used nor did they use some kind of rig to ensure it all lined up. Then they install a light fixture, even on TV, I saw that it was not leveled. Again, no tools were used to ensure it was install straight and level. They just put it together as quickly as they can.

When I bought mine, I found few things wrong. I could fix it because I am a handy man, but I decided to leave it alone.

[willi4nd]

Thanks Icanon!

Thanks Jayco, it is ironic, the car-RV comparison. Can you imagine if you had to fix misplaced brackets, repair speakers that didnt work and all of the other stuff that goes on?

Still no regrets, enjoying the heck out of it. My only disappointment is we purchased it so close to the end of the season.

[Jayco-noslide]

Yes, I think it is normal, unfortunately which is why I don't buy new. If cars were made as poorly as RV's today we wouldn't stand for it would we? There may be brand differences. Our 2003 Itaska, made at Winnebago seems to be pretty good quality. Yes, an RV is great. Many of us love to "camp" but want to be warm, dry and have a good bed.