steve68steve
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Re: Help with Travel Lite camper
I'm sorry to hear of your problems, and I hope they get fixed for you. We also have a Travel Lite TC. I apologize in advance if this is insulting - it's not meant to be: Are you sure you've ruled out the easy stuff (like making sure the TV is plugged IN before calling the repairman)? I struggled with our water system until I took the access panel off in the bathroom so I could see how everything was routed. It was NOT intuitive from the little part you could see without removing the panel. None of the lines anywhere are labeled on ours, so I had to trace them out and scratch my head a few times. Even the water tank drain required experimentation to figure out which way was closed after winterizing it (my bad memory it to blame for that, but still...) Electrical issues: there are things that don't make sense to me, but I've been too lazy to sort them out. Instead, I've been just doing work-arounds. Our fridge won't start on AC power. I have to start on gas/ battery and let it cool down a bit before switching to AC, after which it will run indefinitely. Our air conditioner is erratic, too: it refuses to shut off sometimes. It will say "off" on the display and then randomly kick on 10 minutes later. Again, there's probably some simple answer I haven't bothered to investigate - I just shut off the breaker to the AC if it frustrates me. The battery won't charge if the shut-off is engaged. That might be standard, but the first time trying to conserve power and speed charging, I shut the battery off and plugged the TC into AC power overnight thinking I was charging the battery... I wasn't. My wife called out the window once that something was 'running' in the TC. I went out to find the sink cover, when closed, can push the spigot enough to turn it on a trickle. Over 15 minutes or so, this caused the water tank to be drained via the pump pumping it thru the closed sink, overflowing our grey tank on the bathroom floor. Point: there's a lot to learn, Travel Lite doesn't make it easy (by labeling stuff), and there may be some little idiosyncrasies which are counter-intuitive. I agree TL / the dealer should respond and correct any issues. Maybe you could provide some specifics of what you're finding wrong and people here could help with simple diagnosis. Just a thought - again, apologies if this seems I'm talking "down" to you - not my intent at all.345Views0likes0CommentsRe: Removing Furnace
RoyB wrote: ... I want to remove mine as well and replace that area with a Hydronic Heat Registers giving off heat from my hot water heater. Will look something like this in my OFF-ROAD POPUP trailer.. That's an interesting option, and I've never heard of it before. I wonder how well a strategically-placed "gravity" radiator (no fan) would work. I'm the opposite of the OP: the furnace has saved my bacon a few times, but I rarely use the water heater. When we remodeled our kitchen, we put cabinets on two walls where baseboard radiators were installed. I put in an under-cab hydronic unit like the one pictured. The fan noise was mildly annoying, but that one 24"-ish wide unit replaced 20 feet of baseboard and heated the kitchen just fine.521Views0likes0CommentsRe: Adding A Couch to Our Lance Camper
Full disclosure: I'm a TC couch lover. Whenever I hear this "couch makes you stare at the wall" or "stare at the bathroom door" thing, I picture someone sitting bolt upright, staring straight ahead. Minutes turn into hours, the image of the featureless wall burns itself into the sitter's consciousness. It's like a train wreck - they can't look away. Their brains stewing in boredom, their eyes glazing in atrophy. It's that wall... that DAMNED WALL! I HATE you, wall! But hark!! Salvation!! They have but to rotate their body 90 degrees: a enjoyable leisure activity once again replaces the unblinking hell that was facing a different direction. Instead of that featureless SIDE wall, they can finally enjoy the bliss that is... staring at the BACK wall.. or - be still, heart - could it be? ,,, the side of the fridge!?! That view kicks the PANTS off staring at a door. I've spent some hours on my TC couch. Usually watching a movie, sometimes looking out the window, laying down lengthwise, reading, etc. Thankfully at no point my gaze became locked on the wall opposite me - it's a living hell I've thus far managed to escape. ;)604Views0likes0CommentsRe: any truck......
The only thing I don't love about my truck was the sticker shock.... the door sticker, that is. I thought trucks were made to HAUL.. you know, they have beds designed to put stuff in. I didn't realize that changed to them being designed to TOW. This is my first HD truck, first RV. I bought an F350 naively thinking it could haul anything. But everything I liked/ wanted/ chose about my truck kills its hauling capability: the extended cab (for dogs), long bed (to fit more firewood), diesel engine (for power, fuel economy), 4WD (it's my snow commuter). Each choice individually makes sense. Collectively it eats so much of the payload that I'm surprised they still put beds on these things. Or maybe the problem is that the campers have just gotten way too heavy.428Views0likes0CommentsRe: Reasonable Negotiation of MSRP
I used to fret over whether or not I was getting the best price when I bought something, but I decided to not care anymore. Get what seems like a good deal to YOU. Some will tell you got ripped off, others will say you got a great deal. I think a lot of this is an ego issue: Getting the best possible deal shows I'm smart. If I'm a sucker, I'll get ripped off and pay more than I have to. Ego demands you prove how smart you are. Self-esteem limits how much 'error' you cope with. But there's other stuff in the equation: how quickly do you want to own the thing, how long do you want to jack around going back-and-forth with a salesman, on commission-based sales, do you want to reward good service and a salesman's time and attention (or punish bad service by not leaving much commission)? You paying less means someone else is receiving less. I wonder if the people most militant about getting the absolute best rock-bottom price when they buy something are the same people who over-price and don't budge when they're selling something.286Views0likes0CommentsRe: Dinette Benches or Sofa
We are die-hard TC sofa evangelists. We have a no-slide 9.5' camper with the sofa-as-dinette staring at the kitchen wall, window to our backs. We sit in the camper: 1. eating food 2. for short stretches - winding down before bed, talking/ planning... 3. for extended stretches - watching TV, reading, playing games... because it's raining. We often don't even eat in the camper, and when we do, we're not eating elaborate meals requiring serving bowls. That leaves lounging and killing time - both better addressed by a couch we can stretch out on, put our feet up, change positions, etc. Dinette seating is not a comfortable place from which to watch a movie, IME - especially not for 2 people. We have no interest in a TC without a couch. Having said all that, I'm big and tall and can't sit up in our overcab bed. I'm also not a "lay around in bed" person. I don't read, eat, or watch TV in bed at home. If I was more of a "bed" person, a dinette would probably be more appealing to me.108Views0likes0CommentsRe: Brand new Travel Lite needs new roof
This is terrifying to read since I own a 2013 Travel Lite - AND I'm total RV noob. Having said that, I've read enough online to know that water damage is a leading cause of death to RV's, and re-caulking is really important. The day we picked up our TC, I told the guy I was a noob and asked how often I'm supposed to caulk it. He said, "oh, once every year or so and you'll be fine." There was another worker within earshot who heard that and interrupted, "no, you should get up that roof at least four times a year! A small leak going for a few weeks or months could be a disaster!" So, we walked thru a few acres of tightly-packed brand new RV's on their lot sitting out in the weather year round. Some of them have been sitting out for more than a year, some two or even three years. I wondered how they get on all those roofs to maintain them every few months. ;-) We were offered a discount on 'last year's model' and opted to pay the few extra bucks for exactly this reason.654Views0likes0CommentsRe: "Shocking" discovery in my AF
As often as I see it talked about here, I can't resist weighing in about "quality", specifically "QC". I've been in QA/QC for decades in manufacturing lots of different stuff (electronics, semiconductors, military hardware, machine shop, motors, etc). The vision some of you seem to have of a company (particularly a smallish one in a niche market) paying someone to inspect the work of everyone else at each stage is unrealistic. In many cases, that's just now how it works. Companies can't afford it. More than likely, there are low-paid workers given cursory training, and then set loose on the job. After they've been there long enough to reliably keep work moving past them, they are training the new guys. If there IS inspection, it comes close to the end and focuses on appearance and function - because that's what the customer sees. No one is tearing apart a camper to verify the wiring is routed properly, or the joinery is not half-a$$ed. Building codes don't apply, so there's no gov't inspection agency looking over their shoulders... no one to "keep them honest." It just has to hold together for a few years until the first owner sells/ trades it, and most owners aren't full-timing in TC's anyway. Pride of workmanship and the notion of not wanting to 'put your name on something' that's not good has been replaced by maximizing short-profits/ earnings per share in a big company; and meeting expenses to stay alive for another month at the mom-n-pop. IME, anyway.190Views0likes0CommentsRe: BOV ????
The main themes have all been hit already, but a few random thoughts: I think those who prep may look down their nose a bit at someone who hasn't planned 'seriously.' We have no kids, no parents, and little to lose. If I had a crop of offspring or had relatives relying on me, I'd take planning more seriously. OTOH, if I were an 80 year old widower in poor health, I probably wouldn't really give a damn about planning. We all lie at different points between. I also subscribe to the 'lifestyle' approach.., and I also put a lot of stock in adaptability, common sense, etc. After Sandy, I was making my morning coffee on a camp stove or the wood stove. Open coffee places had lines around the block. I remember thinking how sad it was that people couldn't boil water without electricity. Local news interviewed a guy crying the blues because FEMA hadn't come out to repair an 8' x 4' hole in his wall. He had his heat cranked for weeks while waiting for someone else to do something and was complaining that it didn't get up above 65deg because of the hole. In several weeks, the guy didn't attempt to cover the hole - no plastic, no blanket, no sheet of plywood (or anything else). Then he cranks the heat.... then complains because it only gets up to the temp we heat to in the winter anyway. The real SHTF issue is that there are ARMIES of people like that, and they will get to "desperate/ nothing to lose" pretty quickly. I think if anything happened, my TC wouldn't be a resource, but a casualty.197Views0likes0Comments
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Prefer to camp in a travel trailer? You're not alone.Feb 06, 202544,025 Posts
