Freedom Elite 30FE Mods

[LandKO]

Originally Posted by Cpd

What did you do with the heat under the sofa.
The mods are beautiful but you lost a lot of storage....

The heat duct is still behind the seats. There is plenty of room behind the sest backs and the wall and some under the seats for air movement. I don’t anticipate much restrictions of airflow. I’ve thought of routing the duct thu the bottom of the center console but that would void the Recpro warranty. I may do that later.
I never used the space under the sofa for storage and the storage I lost when I deleted the forward dinette bench was a sacrifice needed to gain a functional recline for the passengers seat back. So far, lack of storage hasn’t been a problem. We had less storage in the TT we had before this.

[Cpd]

Originally Posted by LandKO

The heat duct is still behind the seats. There is plenty of room behind the sest backs and the wall and some under the seats for air movement. I don’t anticipate much restrictions of airflow. I’ve thought of routing the duct thu the bottom of the center console but that would void the Recpro warranty. I may do that later.
I never used the space under the sofa for storage and the storage I lost when I deleted the forward dinette bench was a sacrifice needed to gain a functional recline for the passengers seat back. So far, lack of storage hasn’t been a problem. We had less storage in the TT we had before this.

We're thinking of getting rid of the other bench. Just need to figure how/ what to do with the sensor and outlet. I hate to give up all the storage as we are living in it full time.

[LandKO]

Originally Posted by Cpd

We're thinking of getting rid of the other bench. Just need to figure how/ what to do with the sensor and outlet. I hate to give up all the storage as we are living in it full time.

I decided to keep the aft bench because of the outlet, CO2 sensor and the posts for the seatbelts. In addition, you’ve got wires coming up out of the floor. I keep a couple of plastic crates under there to store small items.

[Cpd]

Originally Posted by LandKO

I decided to keep the aft bench because of the outlet, CO2 sensor and the posts for the seatbelts. In addition, you’ve got wires coming up out of the floor. I keep a couple of plastic crates under there to store small items.

Thanks. That may change our minds for sure

[LandKO]

Completed the do-it-yourself portion of my front suspension mods today.
I had previously installed the Roadmaster RSSC Reflex Stabilizer but afterward still had issues with the front end wandering in traffic and in winds.
I chose to install the Sumo SSF-106-47 springs and the Roadmaster RM-1139-176 front sway bar.
In preparation for these Mods I purchased 2, 6 ton jack stands and one 8 ton bottle jack at Harbor Freight. I jacked one side, placed a jack stand and then jacked the other side and placed a jack stand.
The Sumo springs were fairly easy. The only minor problem was getting the threads on the spring to start straight in the threaded hole. I did use loctite on the threads.


The new sway bar is quite a bit beefier than the OEM one.

Replacing the sway bar started out easy except for removal of one of the 18mm bolts. It fought me all the way out.
Installing the new sway bar was also easy except for that one bolt. I think part of the problem is that it took me so long to fully tighten the bolt, the Loctite supplied with the sway bar had already set up.
The reason it took me so long to tighten that one bolt is I stripped out the 16 point 18 mm socket I had. I had to go to Lowe’s and buy a 18mm impact socket, thinking my impact wrench would make short work of tightening that bolt.
Wrong!
The impact wrench would not budge the bolt either to tighten it or to loosen it.
I ended up using a trick I learned in the Air Force. I used an 18” breaker bar with a 2’ long steel pipe extension (Cheater bar) and was able to snug down that last bolt. Didn’t have to worry about torquing that bolt 😊.
The end result.



Hope to get the front end alignment next week.
After that I’ll see how it drives before I decide to do the Sumo Springs and sway bar on the rear.

[LandKO]

Just completed two more Mods.
Getting good TV reception with the OTA antenna in areas where channels are marginally far away or too few in quantity has been an issue with me.
The basic Winegard panel w/amplifier

works well when there are plenty of channels however in other areas it’s a hit and miss exercise trying to point the antenna towards a good signal.
I bought a Winegard Sensar Pro signal strength meter to replace the existing panel.


This meter has the built in amplifier like the existing panel, but it also helps in pointing the antenna by showing signal strength.

The second Mod for today was the addition of a ScanGuage in the dash.

I installed this to be able to monitor engine parameters and it also shows instant gas mileage. I’ve yet to learn all of its capabilities.
That’s all for now.

[Popfla]

Question re: the dinette seats...We recently bought a 2019 30FE. We found that the plywood "lids" of those seats and the ones in the bunk area are screwed shut, even though they have finger holes - presumably for lifting those pieces. We asked the service advisor about that, as we used those areas for storage in our previous rig. He said they can't be used for storage "because they're not strong enough without having the lids screwed down". I've got a hunch he was full of.....stuff. Were the lids on yours screwed down, and do those areas seem sturdy enough with unsecured lids? {BTW, that service advisor was fired not long after I dealt with him.}

[LandKO]

The aft dinette forward facing seat panel was screwed down. I didn’t ask, but I suspected the reason for that is because there are wires routed underneath. I removed the screws but haven’t stowed anything under there. The forward dinette seat panel was not screwed down. There are wires under it too, but I stow a crate with stuff in it under that seat.

[Pete'sMH]

My Freedom Elite 26 HE seats were screwed down but I u screwed them to see what was underneath. One side was full of electrical stuff and the other was the fresh water tank. Only thing I ever stored was two gallons of the pink stuff in the water tank side. I never put the screws back and they worked fine for us.

[Cpd]

I store under both. Just nothing heavy where the wires are and use a bin to avoid them.

[Popfla]

Originally Posted by LandKO

The aft dinette forward facing seat panel was screwed down. I didn’t ask, but I suspected the reason for that is because there are wires routed underneath. I removed the screws but haven’t stowed anything under there. The forward dinette seat panel was not screwed down. There are wires under it too, but I stow a crate with stuff in it under that seat.

That’s what I figured. Did you do anything with the seats at the lower bunk ?

I mounted s 24” TV on that panel in the bedroom the same way. Still have the 32” outside.

[Cpd]

I use every inch of storage possible�� including the ones in the bunk. Again , you have to be careful under one as it has electric. It's a great place for light things.
We put a TV on the panel as well.

[Popfla]

Thanks, guys!

Guess what my screwdriver and I will be doing tomorrow ?

[LandKO]

Originally Posted by Popfla

That’s what I figured. Did you do anything with the seats at the lower bunk.

No, I use the seats in the aft dinette for our fur babies hutches. I guess you could say it’s their bedroom.

[LandKO]

Originally Posted by Cpd

I use every inch of storage possible�� including the ones in the bunk. Again , you have to be careful under one as it has electric. It's a great place for light things.
We put a TV on the panel as well.

If I used every inch of storage space available, I would definitely be overweight.
I weighed my rig a couple of weeks ago and found I was only under GVWR by a few hundred pounds. That was with a full gas tank and empty water, grey and black tanks. If I carry 15 gallons of fresh water, that’s another 125 lbs.

[Cpd]

We've weighed and have been okay. We're fulltime so I'm talking tissues, tp,paper towels in bulk. We hit Costco and stock up. We're not carrying bags of rocks ��

[Jevad]

Originally Posted by LandKO

For the light strip on the passengers side slideout, I used an outlet in the bedroom, behind the panel the TV is mounted on.
For the light strip on the driver’s side slideout, I added a new outlet on the panel behind the microwave. Since the light strips are low current draw, I wasn’t worried about loads on the existing circuit breakers

Suggestion. Since most of those Color strip lights are 12v, you could have directly wired it to the current 12v house wiring (without needing to use inverter/generator/110v source, to convert back to 12v.)

[LandKO]

Originally Posted by Jevad

Suggestion. Since most of those Color strip lights are 12v, you could have directly wired it to the current 12v house wiring (without needing to use inverter/generator/110v source, to convert back to 12v.)

Yep, you are correct, I could have done it that way. But, at the time it was easier to use 110v.
Thanks for the suggestion.

[Elite Washington]

Originally Posted by Cpd

We've weighed and have been okay. We're fulltime so I'm talking tissues, tp,paper towels in bulk. We hit Costco and stock up. We're not carrying bags of rocks ��

What weight did you come in at?

[Cpd]

Been a while since weighing so couldnt tell you with any accuracy