newbie with new Thor Four Winds Class C- questions?

Question

Just bought a 2015 Thor Four Winds 31W.... out for our maiden voyage, which just happened to be a 3 week 3,000 mile trek. (not optimal but it was that or stick with the pop-up and we were too excited to wait).

I have a couple of questions....

BG- it has a residential fridge (18 cu ft,) and an inverter, and two batteries (I think 12 volt not 6? but not sure). It has an auto gen start feature that I haven't been able to figure out how to turn on.

1) how long should I run generator in evening before shutting it off? I ran it for one hour stopping at 8:00 pm, and the battery status light read full, and turned down the fridge to low, but by 3:00 the inverter read 11. something and was beeping, so I turned it off. Should the fridge draw that much that the batteries won't last through the night while dry camping?

2) the auto levelers are wonderful. But at one campsite it was I guess a little too off- level, and the level got it mostly level, and then said "unable to complete leveling". Should I worry about opening the slide under those conditions? Should I have wooden blocks to place under the leveler jacks to get it close enough to level?

3) under the water pump, both the outside and inside shower seem to have very little water coming out of them. Is that normal and I'm not use to RV showers?

Ok... those are my first most burning questions.... if anyone can help or direct me to a thread that helps... I would much appreciate it!

jim-linda · Answer

I believe I would have the dealer go thru a walkthru, demonstration, explaination, etc. If there are issues, they should correct them.Jim

bikendan · Answer

doubravsky wrote:Just bought a 2015 Thor Four Winds 31W.... out for our maiden voyage, which just happened to be a 3 week 3,000 mile trek. (not optimal but it was that or stick with the pop-up and we were too excited to wait).I have a couple of questions....BG- it has a residential fridge (18 cu ft,) and an inverter, and two batteries (I think 12 volt not 6? but not sure). It has an auto gen start feature that I haven't been able to figure out how to turn on. 1) how long should I run generator in evening before shutting it off? I ran it for one hour stopping at 8:00 pm, and the battery status light read full, and turned down the fridge to low, but by 3:00 the inverter read 11. something and was beeping, so I turned it off. Should the fridge draw that much that the batteries won't last through the night while dry camping?i'm wondering why you would've have chosen a residential fridge, if you plan on dry camping or boondocking a lot.:h if you only have 2 batteries, then yes, the fridge can suck the batteries down fast. and nearly all campgrounds have limited generator hours, so you can't usually run it after 8. 2) the auto levelers are wonderful. But at one campsite it was I guess a little too off- level, and the level got it mostly level, and then said "unable to complete leveling". Should I worry about opening the slide under those conditions?  Should I have wooden blocks to place under the leveler jacks to get it close enough to level?i have never had these so can't answer.3) under the water pump, both the outside and inside shower seem to have very little water coming out of them. Is that normal and I'm not use to RV showers?new RV's almost always have debris in the water lines that gets trapped at the outlet end. take off the shower heads and look for plastic debris.Ok... those are my first most burning questions.... if anyone can help or direct me to a thread that helps... I would much appreciate it!i'm wondering why some of this was explained during your PDI. an example of another poor PDI by a dealer!:Si would've also recommended a couple of nites of Driveway Camping before you left on your trip.

tenbear · Answer

If the battery was discharged it takes much more than an hour to recharge it. Actual time depends on your converter, that's what converts your 120vac to 12vdc to run the 12v systems and charge the battery.

The idiot lights are not a good indicator of the state of charge. When a battery has just been charged there will be a surface charge which will dissipate in a few hours or faster if the battery is being used. This can fool the idiot lights.

doubravsky · Answer

Thanks for the replies... unfortunately we're 1000 miles away from the dealer for the next 2 1/2 weeks....

We bought the RV with the residential fridge because we really liked all the other features... size/ storage/ size of slide/ levelers and auto gen start included. The salesperson indicated that by charging it up with generator early in the evening, we would have no problem going through the night and then running geerator in morning, and then explained that the auto gen feature would automatically take care of that par to fit and you could set evening hours for it to be off. I should have done a little more researc. Still, We're coming from 15 years of a pop-up trailer, and so I don't know that we'll be boondocking a tremendous amount.

doubravsky · Answer

What's the best way to determine if the battery is full? I'm not well versed on electrical stuff and know I need to learn it. I looked at the number on the inverter switch, which starts to beep in the mid 11's. When I'm charging with generator the number goes up to 13.7, but then once I turn off gen it goes down to about 12.7 .... but seems to start lowering pretty quickly. I'm wondering if this is from the "surface charge" that you mentioned.

Forum Discussion

newbie with new Thor Four Winds Class C- questions?

About RV Newbies

Related Content

Newbie Questions

Newby questions

Newbie Question

Newbie has questions

Wind question