rtguy007

Hey Fort peeps. Been a while since I have been able to post. Been on and off lurking the past few months. Not sure if you all remember but last I was on we were getting ready to start building a house. That whole thing turned into a disaster as far as the start. Because of that we have rescheduled our disney trip 4 times. Well we finally got into our new house about a month ago, ran into some issues with schedules and sure enough had to reschedule the fort trip we had setup for september to may of 2017 (originally scheduled for November 2015).

In the mean time we decided to try and squeeze in a quick trip to the smokies before the kids went back to school. About 2 weeks ago we scheduled a trip for Aug 6-14 to stay at elkmont in the park which is one of my feels like home places. Got our camper to the house and started cleaning it up and found out we acquired a leak over the winter and I had a leaking front seal. After a lot of experimentation I was able to find a good sealant to fix the leak and also an easy way to remove the old sealant. Got the leak taken care of yesterday and pretty much finished up the cleaning yesterday.

As I was packing up our towels/washrags/making the beds I was listening to some music on youtube trying to get into the mood for a week away from work. Pretty much everything that was auto playing from youtube picks was classic rock and out of no where the Carl Rae Jepsen remake of Part Of Your World came on as I was putting the last few things away and it hit my disney soft spot. At that moment I pretty much said enough was enough. Closed everything up, went into the house, got on MDE and found out the Ft had premium sites available the 6-14th. Called up the wife and told her I had lost my mind and said we were going to disney instead of the smokies. After a short back and forth she agreed to the change in scenery and we will now be at the fort next weekend. Can't wait.

Is anyone else going to be there during this time? Is there a chance I could get "spiked" even though I never got to order my official fortfiends sign (remember that being a requirement before)? Anyone have any tips on how to hang my wooden ft wilderness sign? I may break out the mickey head light I made if I can figure out a base for it by the end of the week.

Ryan

The kiddie pool is fenced in. We have been in there and had issues with older kids getting in there and playing with the younger kids. The lifeguards on duty have been pretty good about keeping that area isolated to children under a certain height which is posted. Been a while since I have been there so I don't remember what that height limitation was

Oddly enough mine is a picture of me when I was a kid sitting on my bike by a bench by the settlement. Only problem is my parents refuse to let me have it. They have it in an old photo album.

I have heard from multiple people and some online research that escape windows are required for rv's. However I have seen mixed guidance on how many, location in unit, size, height from ground, etc.

in our hybrid there was an easy way out. Our travel trailer is a little different. The rear escape is really big. The middle window to escape is big but in the slide out over the couch. I could see issues trying to get out of it. The front room has nothing in it as I expect the plan to get out of there is the door in the middle room. We have a Rockwood 8312ss and I am pretty sure if I needed to get everyone out quickly I could between the 2 doors and 2 fire escapes. If I had issues you better believe there would be some windows being kicked/smashed out.

Reading this is really making my cabin fever worse. We used to do what my BIL calls a hobo pack. It was similar to the #15 but was more like a meatloaf slice with potatoes and green beans around it. We have started getting into the cast iron over the campfire the past 2 years. Made some really good pot roast a few times. Wanting to try chili when we are able to get back out.

On 2/4/2016 at 0:54 PM, ependydad...Doug said:

Call Georgetown's warranty manager directly. Explain to her/him your issue, upcoming trip, and concern over the speed of Camping World's service department. If you're willing to front the money, you can likely get reimbursed for a different repair facility/mobile RV tech (though, often times with mobile techs- the cost of the service visit is on you but the manufacturer will pay for the repair and parts).

Done this myself one time when we had the hybrid. Our awning arm piston got stuck while coming in and bent one of the arms causing the other one to jam and lock up. Called Forest River who put me in touch with Coachnet which Forest River provides free of charge for one year. I paid for the tech to come out and cut the whole awning off and remove the arms. Bill was around $350 which included his 2 hour round trip to get to me. Faxed the invoice to Forest River and had a check in 2 days for reimbursement. They were good to deal with.

The dealer on the other hand to get it fixed....3 weeks to get it in. They had it for 4 months after that. Since then that dealer was bought out by CW and they have my sisters TT now. Funny thing is that they have had it since September and it still isn't fixed. They are calling again monday on a status update.

9 minutes ago, GrizzlyBear22 said:

We went by there today and all the swings were back up.

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Hell hath froze over..

Now I want to get my smoker out. Nothing like what you describe but a smoked brisket sure sounds good right now.

Yeah the flash os a pain in the rear. I saw hook up the controller and see if it works first. If it doesn't then inquire at the dealer. I am not an instructions reading type person but my instructions did say on the first page that a dealer reflash was required along with the code. Maybe your install instructions will have the answer. I agree it is annoying. But I am like you, not drilling joles in my brand new truck. For me, the flash was done when I took it in for a recall (which was to flash the computer for another issue). They didn't charge me for mine. My brother in law paid $50 for his flash and it was charged at a half hour rate.

Never happened to me but I would probably move unless it is one of the few sites I really want. At that point I doubt that my diesel would have a problem relocating them. :D

Swimmarz,

Not sure on the ford but dont be surprised if you have to have a dealer flash the truck to recognize the brake controller completely. Had that happen with my 13 RAM using the factory brake controller. Not sure if ford adopted the same or similar system. On the RAM it would work but you couldn't see where things were set and that it was working without the flash.

Congrats on the new truck. Although I want to know if it is a coincidence that there is a cop in the background of your picture? Were you racing home in excitement to tell us about your truck and they followed you there for the ticket? :D

Do you get any incentives from an employer discount? Where I work, we get discounts at the big 3. Our Chrysler discount is the best at 1% under factory invoice plus all current factory incentives at the time of purchase. Saved me 15k on my 2500 with the Cummins. Just something to look into if you have that option.

Otherwise, now that the 2016 F150's are our and we are in 2016, any remaining 2015 they will probably start pushing deals on. I agree, wait until after the 4th and see what happens. If that have 50 on the lot, you still have time to find one there with the right discount.

Another thing to consider, not knowing what you are pulling, but if you are considering upgrading your trailer during the life of owning your new truck, you may want to look at the 3/4ton. That bit me in the rear and is now biting my sister in the rear. I upgraded this past summer and they have been looking for a few months now. Both of us had our half tons less than 2 years when we realized we needed the stability of the 3/4ton. We were at our capacities.

Anyone notice the sign includes Disney quest? Didn't they get rid of Quest or is it still open? Been a while since I heard anything about it.

Second on the equalizer. Once properly setup it is hard to beat the price. The Hensley and Pro Pride are great hitches. Just a little rich for my blood.

Late to the game on this one. I am glad we moved our trip based off of what I read. We were supposed to be there on the 22nd and requested 1310 or 1312. I would have been torqued to have a crappy neighbor complaining about that site. I would have kept it because that is what I wanted and waited 2 years to get it. Not sure when we will be down now with the house. Hoping within the next 6 months.

Late to the game on this one. I am glad we moved our trip based off of what I read. We were supposed to be there on the 22nd and requested 1310 or 1312. I would have been torqued to have a crappy neighbor complaining about that site. I would have kept it because that is what I wanted and waited 2 years to get it. Not sure when we will be down now with the house. Hoping within the next 6 months.

Also, if you get into dry camping a lot, look for a good inverter generator for running your AC if you absolutely must have it. They are quiet and lighter than a conventional generator, use less gas, and give you the ability to quickly recharge those batteries (unlike small solar units). My sister uses a Champion 3100 inverter generator and it will run her AC and TV with no problems while the fridge is on gas. I have a pair of 2000's with a pairing cable to do the same thing. Both setups work well. I know honda and yamaha make great units as well.

OK I am really done now. Let me know if you have any questions on dry camping. I could go on and on for hours since we have done it for years as a family. I could give you the "tips and tricks" we have learned.

Nacole,

You will probably get a ton of good advise on here but I wanted to give you my experiences. I have dealt with batteries for a while and the biggest key is to getting a good long lasting battery is proper maintenance. It really isn't hard but it also depends on the type of battery you get. The different type of batteries (Flooded Lead Acid, AGM, and Gel) all have different recharging requirements. Depending on your onboard charger, you probably won't be able to use it to charge a Gel battery. It seems that from my research that there is a 50/50 chance your onboard charger will properly handle an AGM without either drying the internal cells out or repeated under voltage charges (reducing the amp hour capacity). Personally I would stick with a flooded lead acid battery. The maintenance is really not that hard and only needs to be done once every month or so (at about 10 minutes worth of work total).

If you are hunting for a new battery, if it doesn't have an amp hour rating on it, then it is not a true deep cycle. If it has a reserve capacity rating it is a hybrid deep cycle/conventional battery. Either will work but a true deep cycle really is better for RV's when possible. Never use an automotive battery. Based off of the model number you put in here, you have a true deep cycle. I have the same battery except I put a second one on my RV as well because we dry camp at a few places and the extra battery power at night helps with the fantastic fans we run when it is hot.

If you are going to be doing any dry camping, you are going to want a higher capacity battery. There are some options with this as well. You will hear to grab 2 golf cart batteries and add an extra box to your trailer if you can do that. I am not a fan of the golf cart battery option because if you lose a cell in one of the batteries you do not have 12v. On top of that, you will have to replace both (as you should with any dual battery setup). If you had a pair of the same battery you have now, you will be able to get a lot more "run time" than what you are used to. If your existing battery was properly maintained, you will get double the run time on it. Another option is to remove your group 24 battery that you have now and the box and add a group 31 battery/box (only if you need a little more run time before charges).

So I see 3 options.

1) Expand to 2 6v golf cart batteries and run them in series (giving you 12v and around 180-200 ah of capacity with a good set of batteries)

2) Keep your existing 12v that is rated at 80 ah of capacity and add a second one to it if you have space to (giving you 160 ah of capacity)

3) Replace your existing 12v group 24 battery with a 12v group 31 battery (giving you 115 ah with one battery)

I went with option 2 using the same battery that you have. A 3 amp draw will run for 8 hours but the batteries were pretty low in the morning after we woke up. Every day we ran them down that low we recharged them fully when we were allowed to run our generator (and using a real battery charger and not the one on the generator).

I could go on for hours about batteries and selection......with that said....MAINTENANCE  :D

You have to properly maintain a battery. This is the reason I say stick with standard lead acid deep cells (of the flooded type) and not an AGM or Gel. The different types of batteries require you charge them to a specific level to be full. Here is the kicker, all 3 types require a different max voltage for charging. To make it worse, the charger in your camper is probably keeping you from fully charging your batteries (regardless of what the monitor in the unit says). For standard lead acid batteries, they have to reach a minimum of 14.4v during charging. Most RV chargers only charge to 13.8v. Even though that is over 12v the problem is that under charging the battery will get you into a situation where your batteries only last a year or two at the most. A properly charged battery can last you over 5 years if maintained correctly.

Undercharged batteries or "charge depleted" batteries have the same effect. There is a bunch of technical stuff that I could explain but do not let your battery fall under exactly 12v charge EVER. Realistically never under 12.3v but that is a good safe point to know that you are not harming the battery itself. Both undercharged and not fully charged batteries have the same impact....loss of longevity.

Notice the only thing here is proper battery voltage. That is 90% of the challenge to proper battery maintenance. The last 10% is making sure you keep those flooded cells properly filled (if it is not a maintenance free battery). Once a month or so, pop the vent cap off of each cell bank, make sure that the water/acid level is not lower than the top of the metal plates. It can be over but not under. I keep mine with plenty of "extra" water in it but not to the point where it is coming out of the top of the vent hole. Just fill the cell up with DISTILLED water and you are good to go. I let one of my cells fall under the top of the plates and that battery is working but no where near where it was. It doesn't hold a charge as well as it used to.

Using a battery tender is a good option to keep a battery charged but never use one for charging. I would recommend a good charger like the NOCO 15000 (which is what I have). I also have a deltran battery tender plus for my lawn mower and atv batteries and it works well to keep them topped off. Never skimp on a battery charger as it will save you money in the long run.

Personally, i don't use the onboard charger/converter to charge my batteries, i let it maintain them but deep cycle charges are recharged with the NOCO.

This is the site I learned the most about batteries and charging (http://www.batterystuff.com/kb/articles/battery-articles/battery-basics.html). If you read up there and then apply that info to your RV batteries, you will be good to go and enjoy those long lasting batteries.

OK I am getting off of my soap box.  :bravo:

As I walk away from my soap box, don't forget those small things that always pull on your batteries (even in storage if you don't disconnect them). Those are:

Stereo, clocks, CO2 and Smoke detectors, any accessories you may have added. Add the values of these running to whatever you will run when camping to get a realistic understanding of your power draw.

Safe travels. Sorry we missed you. We had to reschedule our turkey day trip

Agree with Dave. We used to do earyly ro mid february and hitting snow was horrible. We hit black ice one year on Jelico and slid into the ditch pretty close to a dropoff on the side of the mountain.

If you do it, be careful.

Nope, the evil folks are the ones that crank up their diesel at 5am in the morning to "get on the road" while us normal folks are trying to sleep in

 

Count us among the "evil folks."  No matter where we are, we always crank up the diesel and leave by 4:30 a.m.

I would as well if the wife allowed it.

I have been using it for a while. I hate it compared to the full site. It's is OK when you just want to check in but overall it socks compared to the full site.

Has any others made their reservations for 2016 except for me and my son

We have. Don't recall the dates but it is the last week of October and first week of november.

Nacole,

Setup on a wdh is critical for proper towing. I am not familiar with the setup on the p3 but am with the equalizer. I can tell you if you add to much weight to the bars on an equalizer, you get exactly the reaction you describe. The added tension causes the bars to stick when maneuvering and adds to the bouncing effect.

When I finally stopped letting the dealer adjust it and bought the tools to do it myself, I discovered that my dealers service department way over tensioned the bars. Took about 45 minutes to tear the entire setup down, readjust per the manual, and torque everything back down. Now rides smooth as silk down the road. There are still some areas I have to slow down on but they are few and far between.

You may want to call pro pride. I have heard they have great phone service. They may be able to tell you what you are experiencing is normal or something out of adjustment.

Kenny The Pirate's usually stays on top of all the characters and this is what he said this week...

 

 

Stitch will be leaving the Magic Kingdom at the end of his set Saturday.  He will then only be available at ‘Ohana character breakfast with Lilo, Mickey and Pluto.  He could return to Typhoon Lagoon next Spring, but nothing has been said about that yet.

http://www.kennythepirate.com/2015/10/01/final-day-coming-for-duffy-and-stitch/

That's sad. My kids love stitch. Good thing I love ohanas overpriced breakfast.

Just like Carol, I carry the same amount of water hose and 30 amp cords. My only addition is a 45 gallon water bladder that we use to bring water to us when there is no hook up. Added a small 300gph 12v DC pump to pump it out of the bladder into the fresh tank. Big blue added to haul away the grey only. Great when boondocking or in a CG when all the full hookups are full.

The bladder folds down quite a bit and takes up next to no space. Big blue on the other hand stays in the bed.