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Old 03-28-2015, 02:40 AM   #181
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The Fantastic Vent covers mount onto stainless steel brackets that are installed into existing screw holes, (once you scrape off some lap sealant). They do not mount on the plastic of the existng fan. So there is no chance of damaging the plastic.

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Old 03-28-2015, 04:59 AM   #182
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Gosh, I am surprised about the plastic frame vents. The ventline vents on my coach (they have metal frames) are already pretty cheap, and cost about $30. They must have found something a few pennies cheaper with plastic frame vents.

I can't imagine plastic frame vents would last very long - especially since the idjits at the factory tend to over-torque screws with those air drills they use. For example, the furnace on my coach has an all-plastic frame, and it is cracked in about 8 places due to over-torquing the screws during installation.

Frame integrity of the plastic frame roof vents might be something to put on your punch list to inspect annually.

For most vent covers, you have to drill a hole into the side of the frame to mount them. And if the frame is made of plastic, I can see where that would fail. So yea, I don't think that would work well.

However, as suggested above, the Fantastic brand vent covers mount to the roof rather than the frame. They use four brackets that mount by temporarily removing four of the screws that hold the vent frame to the roof, putting the screws through the brackets, then re-screwing the screws to the roof. It "sandwiches" the base of the frame to the roof. I suppose though, you could crack the plastic frame base if you over-torqued the mounting tabs.

Fan-Tastic vent covers will work with most vents, not just those made by Fantastic. I installed them on my RV as they allow the vents to open fully.

I have two Maxxair vent covers sitting unused in the basement that I originally bought for the vents. I bought them at a really good price, but they would only let my particular brand/model vents open about 50%, so I did not use them.

The Fan-Tastic vent covers are more expensive; but I bought mine last year when Camping World had them on sale for about $50.
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Old 03-28-2015, 04:35 PM   #183
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Same here as pkh. Installed 2 large pivoting maxxair covers over the entrance area vent and one over the bedroom vent. Installation was easy with drilling a few holes. They are necessary here in FL to vent while in storage during the summer. No room for a cover on the bathroom vent due to the shower roof bubble being to close.
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Old 04-02-2015, 12:48 AM   #184
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Really? From looking at my Axis it would appear that the battery can come out the front?
I've had my doghouse off:

The red arrow at the right shows the oil filler tube that is plumbed to the front of the engine so that you can add oil from the front (I haven't changed my oil: I just had a local shop do it and I'm pretty sure they didn't disassemble the dash at all).
Hello Jamie, my insulation arrived today. I removed the doghouse and I see there is already a layer of insulation in place. You mention that you doubled the layer of insulation. Does that mean you added another layer on top of what is already in place or did you add two more layers on top of that?
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:02 AM   #185
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Shower mod 2

Here is a pic from the other side. Plexiglass is attached with three bolts thru the cabinet at the top and three screws thu the shower pan along with liquid nails at the bottom. The plexiglass is attached to a 1"X1" at the back and glued to the wall. Then siliconed all around with a bead at the front edge so the water does not run down the top of the shower pan and on to the floor. Another similar bead where the sink cabinet from edge meets the shower pan.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:04 AM   #186
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Shower mod 3

Finally, moved the shower head to the side of the medicine cabinet above the sink so it points towards the back wall and not the shower curtain.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:09 AM   #187
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Whoops. Sorry, 1st post in the shower mod series went up in the bathroom mod thread in maintenance. Oneilkeys
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Shower mod 1
Here are some pics of my shower mod. Added a 72" X 18" piece of 1/4 " plexiglass between the toilet and the shower. For some reason I only seem to be able to load one picture at a time, so I will do it in three posts.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:15 AM   #188
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House Battery Disconnect Switch

Here is a pic on the house battery disconnect switch I installed in the external storage compartment to the right of the entry door. Cut one round hole and it gives access to the two batteries beneath the stairs.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:22 AM   #189
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Inverter and battery monitor

Installed an inverter and VCR along with a digital battery monitor in the cabinet above the sink. Now I can watch Movies thru my apple computer on battery as well as charge 120v stuff while driving. Ran the wiring thru the TV space and down the wall behind the molding piece to the battery disconnect switch and negative battery terminal.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:33 AM   #190
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Clean Dump Installation

Final mod was a Clean Dump install in the waste dump cabinet. Everything fits except being able to turn the 3” pipe from the discharge to the pump. To make that turn I had to cut the end off of the compartment (below the on/off switch and circuit breaker). I bought a small storage container and fastened it to the end of the compartment to make the compartment long enough for the hose to turn. The hose detaches with a half turn and I cut a hole in the compartment below the attach point so if I have a pump failure, I just have to unattached it and I can use a regular hose. I have been using on of these systems for four years and have never had a problem.. I wired it to the battery cut off switch thru a 20amp breaker and a redundant on/off switch. No more messy hoses. Open the valve, turn on the pump and empty your tanks in a few minutes.
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Old 04-02-2015, 01:35 AM   #191
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Clean Dump Install 2

Here's a pic of the hose coiled in the box.
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Old 04-02-2015, 02:44 PM   #192
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These are great modifications.
A rookie question here, is there a reason why you installed an inverter? I asked the dealer if I should add an inverter to watch TV and run the AC while driving, and he said you can just run the generator to do that while driving and it won't have any impact on the generator's efficiency.

What do you think?

Not planning on going to any sites that do not offer electrical hookups.
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Old 04-02-2015, 02:53 PM   #193
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These are great modifications.
A rookie question here, is there a reason why you installed an inverter? I asked the dealer if I should add an inverter to watch TV and run the AC while driving, and he said you can just run the generator to do that while driving and it won't have any impact on the generator's efficiency.

What do you think?

Not planning on going to any sites that do not offer electrical hookups.
I installed an inverter to run the refrigerator while going down the road. It also gives me the option to power small A/C items without running the generator if dry camping.
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Old 04-02-2015, 03:21 PM   #194
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These are great modifications.
A rookie question here, is there a reason why you installed an inverter? I asked the dealer if I should add an inverter to watch TV and run the AC while driving, and he said you can just run the generator to do that while driving and it won't have any impact on the generator's efficiency.

What do you think?

Not planning on going to any sites that do not offer electrical hookups.
My prior coach did not have an inverter so I either had to run the Dometic refrigerator off the generator or propane when running down the road. If I used the generator everything worked fine. If I used propane the furnace fan was 12 volt however AC was not. In that coach the televisions were 12 volt so that was not an issue.

In the current coach the refrigerator is a Whirlpool residential unit so I have to have 110 volts for it to operate. The inverter is setup to supply power to limited circuits and does not power everything (e.g. the passenger's 110 power outlet is not fed off the inverter) so I still find myself, from time to time, using the generator while driving.
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Old 04-02-2015, 03:35 PM   #195
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I also only camp where I have electrical hookup and have often wondered what the objections to running the genny while going down the road were? (the only two I could think of: reduced mpg and noise--especially if you were in a residential area but going down the highway the genny just adds to the din already present.)

Oh and the Cummins tech said try not to run the genny in the rain on the road because on the Axis it is right behind the drivers side wheels: It could suck up some water from the spray from the wheels.
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Old 04-02-2015, 04:20 PM   #196
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So if I should not run the genny in the rain, I pretty much have to have an inverter to run the TV or AC
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Old 04-02-2015, 05:19 PM   #197
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Inverter

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So if I should not run the genny in the rain, I pretty much have to have an inverter to run the TV or AC
Interesting comment on running the Genny in the rain. I had not heard that but it makes sense. I installed an inverter because we dry camp, mostly in National Parks, about 60% of the time and you can only run the generator for a limited time. I don't run the Genny while driving unless it is really hot and the A/C can't keep up. The gas mileage is bad enough without running two motors.
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Old 04-02-2015, 06:15 PM   #198
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The gas mileage is bad enough without running two motors.
I run the genny pretty much all the time and go reasonably fast (70 mph or so) and get around 8.5 mpg. I really haven't noticed much difference in mileage between running the genny or not (the genny is a really small engine).
I'm sure I could get closer to 10 if I slowed down to 65 and didn't run the genny (but I don't burn any gas in my daily driver so I figure I'm even).
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Old 04-02-2015, 10:08 PM   #199
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Hi, I had the same problem with the battery draining it turned out to be the radio, if you notice the radio on the axis will not turn off from the ignition and only turns of when you put your leisure battery into store mode, so if you don't turn off your leisure battery and not plugged in your batteries will drain overnight, to rectify this all I did was install a little switch connected to the live feed to the radio, so when we wild camp I just turn the radio off from the switch and all is well. hope this helps
Thanks for the info on the radio. Installed a switch in the B-7 wire and solved the power drain. Great fix!
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Old 04-02-2015, 11:16 PM   #200
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On my Vegas, the cabinet door struts all came loose from the pivot point where they are attached to the cabinet wood. the screws just move so much when you open and close, and because there is a lot of tension inside those struts. I had to put a small piece of metal on the cabinet wood, and a nylon spacer between the strut and the metal strip, and a larger screw to solve a stupidly designed problem. The struts were in direct contact with, and abrading the wood.
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