I gave first glimpse of our rights over on the pixel thread. This question was posed and I thought it a good idea to start a thread about our rights and what was do to it. I am a member of other forums that have build threads (I am a model railroader too), thus the inspiration for starting this.
We really are happy with it. However, there are a few things we don't like (all can be easily remedied) no TP holder, no towel rack. I had to get creative in my mounting of these because the bathroom wall is super flimsy. No paper towel holder, this was an easy install. The bed is really firm. We are going to get a 2 or 3 inch topper. No grill included - our old PUP had a hang on the side unit that we grew to love. No bathroom mirror.
Things that we love - virtually no setup time. We do a lot of cross country and coming from a PUP with 30 to 40 minutes setup and same for teardown, we are at about 5-10 with this. Hot water! Clean shower, clean bathroom. No more traipsing across the CG to use the facilities. Space for the kids to have separate beds. Gobs of storage space (and enough extra carrying capacity to actually use it). It tows really nicely.
Methinks I'm going to start a My Rig thread with everything we do to upgrade it. We do have a list of other niceties that we want to add just to make it more "ours"
Electric water heater add-on, electric space heater, electronic thermostat for propane heater. Privacy curtains for the bunks.
Another note, we looked at similar models from other manufacturers (KZ, Keystone, Gulf Stream, and Wolf PUP by Forest river). We preferred the build quality on this one over some of the others, and also appreciate the wider body over the narrower ones.
KATY&EMIMOM wrote:
Are you enjoying this particular camper? The reason I ask is we are looking at the exact model.
We really are happy with it. However, there are a few things we don't like (all can be easily remedied) no TP holder, no towel rack. I had to get creative in my mounting of these because the bathroom wall is super flimsy. No paper towel holder, this was an easy install. The bed is really firm. We are going to get a 2 or 3 inch topper. No grill included - our old PUP had a hang on the side unit that we grew to love. No bathroom mirror.
Things that we love - virtually no setup time. We do a lot of cross country and coming from a PUP with 30 to 40 minutes setup and same for teardown, we are at about 5-10 with this. Hot water! Clean shower, clean bathroom. No more traipsing across the CG to use the facilities. Space for the kids to have separate beds. Gobs of storage space (and enough extra carrying capacity to actually use it). It tows really nicely.
Methinks I'm going to start a My Rig thread with everything we do to upgrade it. We do have a list of other niceties that we want to add just to make it more "ours"
Electric water heater add-on, electric space heater, electronic thermostat for propane heater. Privacy curtains for the bunks.
Another note, we looked at similar models from other manufacturers (KZ, Keystone, Gulf Stream, and Wolf PUP by Forest river). We preferred the build quality on this one over some of the others, and also appreciate the wider body over the narrower ones.
I bought some room darkening shades from Wally World. These are 63 inch panels in Taupe.
I am not sure if I should hem these up an inch or two, since they hang slightly in front of the furnace. The entire blower vent is uncovered tho.
I am not sure if I should hem these up an inch or two, since they hang slightly in front of the furnace. The entire blower vent is uncovered tho.
We also decided that it would be nice to have a place to hand our towels in the bathroom. I'm not a fan of hanging heavy things on doors, as it is likely to cause issues with the hinges. The bathroom is so small that only leaves one logical place (for me) to hang a towel rack. The flimsy wall that I just put the TP holder on. Shoot. I figured there had to be some sort of support on that wall, but where? The entire panel presses in, and I don't really trust that same little 1 x 2 to hold a family's worth of towels.
I wondered how that wall was really constructed, so I turned to the opposite side of it - the side facing the bunks. I took the lower bunk mattress and platform off to look at the back side of the wall from inside the under-bunk storage. Lo, and behold, I didn't even have to drill in to or open up that wall in any way. I could clearly see the 2x4 base of the wall. I found true dimensional lumber - a real stud to work with! I surmised that if the base plate was 2x4 construction, the top plate would be as well. Back in the bathroom, I used a couple drywall screws to mount an over-the-door style towel rack to that top plate.
I figure that should be enough to hold all our towels, and also an extra chamois to dry the shower out - something I feel I have to do to keep the mold and mildew away. Post-shower, I wipe down the walls, tub, and the shower curtain. The chamois should be able to perform this task once a day after we're all showered. I still want to do something about the ridiculously long and wide curtain - it's six feet wide, so it bunches up real bad and is hard to get dry. Mostly thinking about folding it back on itself so there's not as many "folds" in it when "extended" to close the shower enclosure.
**Edit** Added the following
One more thing on the topic of showers - I hung a couple command hooks in the shower for hanging really wet stuff - shower sponges, and I figure can be used to hang swim suits when we have the opportunity to use those.
I wondered how that wall was really constructed, so I turned to the opposite side of it - the side facing the bunks. I took the lower bunk mattress and platform off to look at the back side of the wall from inside the under-bunk storage. Lo, and behold, I didn't even have to drill in to or open up that wall in any way. I could clearly see the 2x4 base of the wall. I found true dimensional lumber - a real stud to work with! I surmised that if the base plate was 2x4 construction, the top plate would be as well. Back in the bathroom, I used a couple drywall screws to mount an over-the-door style towel rack to that top plate.
I figure that should be enough to hold all our towels, and also an extra chamois to dry the shower out - something I feel I have to do to keep the mold and mildew away. Post-shower, I wipe down the walls, tub, and the shower curtain. The chamois should be able to perform this task once a day after we're all showered. I still want to do something about the ridiculously long and wide curtain - it's six feet wide, so it bunches up real bad and is hard to get dry. Mostly thinking about folding it back on itself so there's not as many "folds" in it when "extended" to close the shower enclosure.
**Edit** Added the following
One more thing on the topic of showers - I hung a couple command hooks in the shower for hanging really wet stuff - shower sponges, and I figure can be used to hang swim suits when we have the opportunity to use those.
I'm pretty sure everyone uses TP for one reason or the other. I don't know if it's normal across all manufacturers and all models, or if it's due to the fact the Oasis is a low end model, but ours didn't come with at TP holder. I was struggling to find a suitable support for one in the bathroom, I was hoping to not have to mount a holder behind me whilst seated, nor did I want it on the "shower" side of the bathroom; a soaked TP roll isn't my idea of a good time. Wall opposite the shower is SUPER flimsy - it doesn't appear to be attached anywhere in the plane of the wallboard, only on the edges. I decided to do a little investigation by taking off the light switch and was delighted to find a piece of wood back there - I think it's a 1 x 2.
Using this new-found knowledge, I decided that would be an acceptable location. Having read elsewhere on the forum that mounting the TP vertically helps prevent unraveling, I went ahead and placed the template vertically, drilled my pilot holes. one pilot hole for each leg of the holder went into the lumber, and one just into the wallboard. Four screws later I ended up with this. (Again the product is from Wally World)
Using this new-found knowledge, I decided that would be an acceptable location. Having read elsewhere on the forum that mounting the TP vertically helps prevent unraveling, I went ahead and placed the template vertically, drilled my pilot holes. one pilot hole for each leg of the holder went into the lumber, and one just into the wallboard. Four screws later I ended up with this. (Again the product is from Wally World)
The coat rack got a little mores interesting, because I had trouble finding a stud to screw into. I am pretty sure I got one with the left screw, it tightened up nicely. The right one on the other hand was loose so I went ahead and used a molly.
I employed similar process to hang our key rack. I chose to center this below the control panel, again carefully drilling pilot holes into the cabinet cleats, and hand-tightening the screws to hold it in place.
Next order of business, a place to hold the paper towels. My wife picked up this ratcheting paper towel holder from Wally World I think. Its product name is Kamenstein Perfect Tear Horizontal Paper Towel Holder, if you're interested. It has a ratcheting action so the roll won't unravel while underway. I chose to mount it right above the sink, similar to our setup at home. I was careful to drill my pilot holes into the cabinet cleat rather than just the side panel.
On our maiden voyage, we failed to throw out the trash at one of the campgrounds. Unfortunately, the trash can subsequently fell over, spilling the trash all over the inside of the trailer. That was a terrible mess, with coffee grounds ending up all over the place.
To combat this problem should we forget again, I devised a way to keep the trash can upright. 2 eye hooks and a bungee strap later, we're good to go. I had to be cautious to not just screw into the paneling. I located a "stud" inside the outside storage bay which I could secure into. So I have one hook in the cargo bay stud that is adjacent to the wall, and one about 16 inches away.
To combat this problem should we forget again, I devised a way to keep the trash can upright. 2 eye hooks and a bungee strap later, we're good to go. I had to be cautious to not just screw into the paneling. I located a "stud" inside the outside storage bay which I could secure into. So I have one hook in the cargo bay stud that is adjacent to the wall, and one about 16 inches away.
the second mod I did was to replace the crappy merc-switch thermostat with a digital/programmable one. 2-wire hookup Red & white wires go to R&W terminals on the thermostat. 2 screws hold it in place. Nothing special here, didn't take pix of the process because I think we've all seen this a ton of times before.
