Last_Train
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Re: Where have all the members gone on this forum?
This was a good thread to stumble upon . . . Wondering what ever happened to a particular forum member from Ontario: SoundGuy. I would run across his posts fairly regularly when we first joined after we bought our 2016 Freedom Express 192RBS. He had the same rig, though one year older and had posted a catalog of photos of interesting mods he had made. He always seemed up for a bit of an "intense discussion" when challenged! But I would often skim through those argumentative discussions to see if there was anything I might learn. Aside from SoundGuy, without trying to list them, I want to give a tip of the cap to many of you folks who have dispensed tons of great knowledge borne out of experience. It was a great help to us when we were starting out, and now with several years of RV experience ourselves we've had the privilege to pass along some of the stuff we've learned here. So kudos to those who have paved the way!630Views0likes0CommentsRe: New and looking for a generator
Partsbob wrote: I don’t see that anyone has mentioned WEN brand inverter generators, so I’ll throw that suggestion out there to consider. I did a lot of research for over a year before buying my 3800 watt WEN unit for our 32’ TT and couldn’t be happier. Granted the unit does weight 98lbs, but it’s very well built, super quiet, has more than enough power for our needs (with 15K AC for our pup in the Summer) and we caught it ON SALE for well under the Champion 3400 watt I had originally considered! Even when not on sale, it is priced below most and ships free when purchased directly from WEN. I had also considered buying (2) of the WEN 2300 watt units with parallel cables, allowing me to use a single unit in Spring & Fall or both during the Summer months, but ultimately decided to just go with the single 3800 watt for less maintenance. Plus, the 3800 unit already has the 30A outlet built-in, so no adapters needed like on the Predator and some other brands! Similar story as above. We also ended up with the WEN 3400/3800 genny. When shopping our comparison spreadsheet that analyzed similar models eventually steered us toward this unit, and we have been absolutely delighted. As to an important comment above on real world use (altitude, etc), our relevant experience was an all-nighter in Santa Rosa, NM at the Pilot/Flying J. Altitude is 4,600' and our WEN ran our 15,000 btu Dometic A/C without a hiccup - all night long. With fuel to spare in the tank. Unrelated to RV'ng, but as a testament to the endurance and efficiency of this unit, during the recent really hard freeze in Texas, we set the WEN up in an outdoor courtyard at a safe distance from the house (which had lost power) with power cords from both 15 amp/120V outlets plus a 6 ga extension cord from the 30 amp RV outlet (with an adapter for household current) all running through a window gap - that in turn had a 3-way splitter outlet for more access to power . . . Well, we ran our home's fridge, a 50" plasma TV, stuff for 'net access, various lamps as needed and the same ceramic heater we carry in our travel trailer - all for 3 days or so. Funny thing: we decided on this WEN as a dual use machine - mostly for our RV needs as necessary . . . but also in case we needed to get through yet another Gulf Coast HURRICANE! But it ran happily while surrounded by 3" of gradually melting snow! That said, I appreciate the excellent Champion (& Predator) units out there. There is surely a reason that one can read so many favorable comments about them. But we surely can affirm this WEN unit.1.1KViews0likes0CommentsRe: FINALLY 1st trip in 192RBS
philh wrote: 600 miles in multiple trips for service. Untold number of mods made on a brand new trailer. What an almost perfect weekend. 1st site we parked at, besides being an absolute PITA to unhook from as the truck front wheels were 12" higher than the rear wheels, the post did not have 30 power available. Also discovered, that not having a cover on the front vent was NOT a good ideal as the sun hit us in the face and woke us up. Other than that, and a LOT of rain, we had a wonderful weekend. This really is a couples trailer. X2 on the suggestion for the dark vent covers. My wife is really sensitive to early light waking her, so our pair of Maxxair smoke tinted vent covers were a great investment - and easy to install. Plus they allow for an additional source of air circulation - even while traveling down the road. And those vent covers have kept the interior dry even in heavy thunderstorms - like the one we endured in Santa Rosa, New Mexico just last Thursday. It's a couple's camper, for sure. But, on the other hand, we typically are quite fine with our typical 3 week+ trips for the two of us. It's been big enough for neither of us to have committed a major felony while on one of our camping adventures! But seriously, one of the advantages of the 192RBS is that it seems to strike a good balance between sufficient space for a couple's camper and yet small enough to offer very good maneuverability. For example, just the other day we arrived at our RV park in Red River, NM (just under 10,000' ASL), and it turned out that our reserved space required that I back through a tight area to get to our site - all due to a road closed for construction. That experience has been repeated in lots of tight fuel stops, as well. Be interested to hear of your service issues and mods you've had done. Hope you enjoy your rig as much as we have.315Views0likes0CommentsRe: Westinghouse 2500 with MicroAir EasyStart
SoundGuy wrote: Nor am I aware than Coachmen is installing anything but a 13,500 BTU Brisk II A/C on the 192RBS. :h Our 192RBS (2016 model) came installed with a 15,000 BTU Brisk II A/C (verified with model # from Dometic). Of course, we live in the Houston area - once known as the "World's Most Air Conditioned City." For good reason, I might add. I wonder if Coachmen changes their configurations based on final shipping destination. That is totally uninformed speculation, on my part. But certainly glad that our unit has that capacity, however, as we make good use of it when camping in warm/hot weather.518Views0likes0CommentsRe: Our new Freedom Express 192 RBS
SoundGuy wrote: jfkmk wrote: I've added shelving to all the cabinets except those over the couch and it's really increased storage space. Still thinking about what to do with the grill space, as we will never use the built in grill. The supplied grill would only introduce greasy cooking smells into the camper when in the stored position so I replaced it with a Coleman 2-burner stove and instead used our Weber Q for grilling. This grill discussion reminded me of a whimsical exchange SoundGuy and I had a few years ago . . . Something about meeting somewhere in between Houston and Ontario for a "grill-off," or whatever. He's right about the introduction of greasy cooking smells via a typical grill - including the one that Coachmen supplies with this rig. We immediately replaced that one with a Timber Creek model that we had previously used for years when tent camping. It offers a grill burner/grate on the left side and a single stove top burner on the right. We get the best of two worlds for grilling/cooking. But the great part is that after cool down, it is an easy cleanup and wipe down to remove those greasy cooking smells. We bought this unit at Academy Sports & Outdoors here in Texas. I don't know about it's availability elsewhere, but we do use it quite a lot due to its flexibility. So it does offer an alternative. jfkmk wrote: I did ditch the heavy table for a walmart fold up table. Much easier to lift out of storage, can easily fold up to make more room at night, and is actually bigger than the original. Same here - never used the heavy table that came with the trailer and instead used a couple of easy to store light weight folding TV tables anytime we wanted to eat inside. We're TV tray people, too. The fold up table that Coachmen supplied for under the bed storage has for a few years now served quite well for my wife as a sewing table inside our house. Besides, Coachmen did provide an additional dining table that is suspended from the ceiling frame of the pass-through. If we need a dining table for inside or out, that's the one we use.862Views0likes0CommentsRe: Our new Freedom Express 192 RBS
Congratulations on your new rig. I hope you have at least as much enjoyment with yours as we have had since we brought our 2016 home in August, 2015. This past summer on the way back from a camping trip to the Midwest, we looped up to Elkhart, IN and took a tour of the Freedom Express plant. FWIW, having been around other factory assembly lines (mostly general aviation aircraft), the tour left me feeling pretty good about the way our TTs are put together. Sure, there are jillions of quality complaints from all over the map, but I didn't see any red flags that would give me pause about the manufacturing process of the 192RBS. Ours has been essentially fault free with my only real complaint being the OEM tires supplied with the trailer. Those tires didn't make it to 12,000 miles . . . started seeing blown internal belts upon our return from a trip to the Black Hills. I replaced them with a set of Goodyear Endurance tires that have been great. So watch those OEM tires (we've put almost another 6,000 miles on those Goodyears and they hardly look worn at all). Final thought is that the 192RBS has been comfortable and functional enough for us to be on the road for almost a month at a time as well as those short, 3-4 night trips. Got one of those longer trips coming up in May to the southern Rockies in New Mexico, and I promise that we will have no problem enjoying every day while we are in our home on wheels. We really do look forward to planning and carrying out every trip. Hope you do, too.862Views0likes0CommentsRe: Finding the right trailer for a couple
BB_TX wrote: Since this is your first, I would visit as many dealers as possible with large TT inventories looking at all the variations you can. And there are a lot. You really need to spend some time in multiple units of different sizes and floorplans to see what will work for you. When you narrow it down to what you like, then you can start a search for similar used units in good condition. This is the way to do it. Also like was said above we, too took over a year of patient searching to arrive at how "we" would live in our home on wheels for various periods of time. Think about what things you want to do when camping and then sort of role play how you would live/function inside for sleeping, dressing, cooking, cleaning, etc. We also were blessed by having four friend/couples who were mature, experienced RV'rs, and we drove them nuts with questions. We ended up with a delightful rig: Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS (as has been noted above). It works great for us and our 47 lb dog. We only camp about 5,000 miles per year, but we take a number of 3-4 night trips during the year and then one trip annually on a larger scale. Examples of our longer trips from the Houston area: ranged up to the Arkansas Ozark Mountains - about 2 1/2 weeks; Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore area - 3 weeks; Illinois, Indiana & Ohio - 3 1/2 weeks. I mention these trips since it may be important to you to know if a rig this size is tolerable for more than just a few nights. For us - absolutely. For someone else - maybe not. Size wise, this TT comes in at 4,600-4,700lbs on the CATScales when fully loaded for a trip - though we typically carry minimal fresh water. Holler if you have any questions.518Views0likes0CommentsRe: First look at travel trailers today at Camping World
breeves2245 wrote: Looking to buy a travel trailer and was thinking 16-18ft would be about right. Just me, so only need one bed. Never stepped foot inside of a travel trailer so I had no idea how it "felt" inside in terms of roominess, etc. Went to Camping World at lunch today for a quick look see. The 16/17/18 were fine but the 23ft felt exponentially larger and felt more livable. I can figure which layout makes sense for me based on how I will be using it, but what I can't know is how much different does a 23ft 4,200lb trailer with twin axles tow vs a 17ft 3,000lb single axle. Have a 1/2 ton Silverado with towing package, so no concern there either way with 8,200 lbs towing capacity and 1,000 tongue weight. I gravitate to the smaller ones because I envision it being so much more nimble to tow and get in/out of gas stations, etc. If I had to buy today, it would be a 17ft Casita/Scamp/Escape. None of which were at Camping World. Lots of great advice for you in this thread, but I will chime in with perhaps another consideration . . . i.e. for any given trip, how long you will be "living" in your rig? How you "felt" as you explored the interiors of the 16/17/18' TTs is only a hint of what it would be like to be traveling for an extended period of time. How long is that? Only you can answer that question. Took us over a year of research back when we bought our 2016 Coachmen Freedom Express 192RBS (it's a tandem axle) for the wife and I and our dog (~46lbs). Each year we have towed only a little over 5,000 miles, consisting of a number of smaller scale ventures of only 3-4 nights and one larger scale trip annually that lasts as much as just over 3 weeks. Our first year we were up your way in the Ozarks (Devil's Den State Park south of Fayetteville and a private park in Eureka Springs). In that region you need the ability to maneuver in some tighter turns both in and out of parks, and our truck and tandem axle trailer were great. That trip lasted only a little over two 1/2 weeks via multiple parks in Oklahoma and Texas before getting back to the Houston area. 2017's longer trip was to the Black Hills/Mt. Rushmore area - just over 3 weeks on the road. And last year's longer trip was to the Midwest; i.e. Illinois, Indiana (Brown County State Park was spectacular!) and Ohio (Zanesville area). That trip was almost one month. In each case we have felt comfortable and not come anywhere close to committing murder on these longer trips! We think we have found a happy balance between ability to maneuver and comfort while traveling. So think about how you will actually use your home on wheels while on the road. You might not need to be on the road more than a week or so. If that is the case, a smaller TT just might suit you fine.524Views0likes0CommentsRe: Just booked a new adventure...
That's part of what makes RV'ng fun! Have a great time. Sounds like you are prepared for what you will get in to. But even if not, it can still be a bit of an adventure. Eg. a couple of years ago we decided at the last minute to set up just north of San Antonio in the Texas Hill Country. We knew it would be cold, and our Freedom Express 192 RBS is not rigged for really cold weather. Turns out, as will sometimes happen in Texas weather, temps got lots colder than forecast for where we were - for two successive nights we had 15 & 16 degrees overnight. We were prepared for some freezing temps, but not that low! But we scrambled over to a nearby Home Depot and grabbed some additional needed gear & made some common sense decisions for inside and outside . . . and nobody died! We actually had a great time and now have a story to tell. Still love the blessing of being able to go just about whenever and wherever we want. Hope you enjoy your trip this time.178Views0likes0CommentsRe: Quality Travel Trailer
SoundGuy wrote: I'd say Coachmen is typical of what the RV industry as a whole produces ... adequate but nothing special in terms of quality despite the manufacturer's claims otherwise. They're basically all the same so sadly getting a "good one" is more a matter of luck than anything else. :( Yep, probably a lot attributable to luck. We have the same TT as SoundGuy (although two newer model years) and have used it for 3+ seasons and towed it for only ~17,000 miles. Functionally only 3 issues: (1) the OEM China made tires failed prematurely (since replaced by a set of Goodyear Endurance); (2) a slightly misaligned bathroom door (easily corrected); (3) an even less slightly misaligned cabinet door under the galley sink (not worth messing with). Quality wise, we just balanced expectations for the hobby vs. economics. It's a heck of a lot better than a tent . . . But it ain't an Airstream, either.401Views0likes0Comments
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Prefer to camp in a travel trailer? You're not alone.Mar 05, 202544,027 Posts
