2006 29BHS Mod Projects and Repairs

[northwindone]

Command release strips have to be one of the most useful items ever invented. I use them in the TT to hang almost anything from key hooks by the door. (Gift from my parents, you can guess where they live.)


To a coat hanger on the other side of the door. (hung with three of the largest strips they sell, and has not failed yet.)



We also have a Purell hand sanitizer dispenser by the door mounted with command release and the clocks/thermometer shown earlier are hung with velcro command release. As I'm sure a lot of us do we also have hooks all over to hang various items such as oven pot holders, hand towels, or robe hooks on the back of the bathroom door, all without making holes in the walls.

[northwindone]

Our trailer is 10 years old, but thanks to the constant sunshine the plastics look nice and yellow. I decided to paint some of them in place, remove some of them, and replace other ones. The worst ones were the range hood vent, and the water connections as they were facing south at the storage yard where the PO had it parked.



I masked everything off in the area and prepped it for spray painting.



I removed the power hatch, the cable jack as they needed resealed badly and were easier to remove than mask. I also removed the bathroom vent cover off the roof to paint it as well.

I replaced the luggage door latches as they were inexpensive and easy enough to replace. Honestly everything I painted could have been easily and cheaply replaced, but I didn't want to have to break the seal on everything and redo it with the new items. Everything will still get fresh caulking, and the removed items were installed with new butyl tape. It was re-assuring to see that the removed items were not leaking and the butyl tape was still soft. Sorry for the foggy look on the last photo, my lens must have had some condensation on it.



I still need to do the frame around the window of the entry door, and I'm part way through replacing ALL of the vinyl trim. It isn't easy to work with when it's cold, but it makes a huge difference. Once that is done I will finish re-caulking everything else. With the bright white bathroom vent cover installed, the A/C cover looks beige, which is sad since it was one of the whiter pieces of plastic on the trailer besides the wheel well covers and fridge roof vent...which oddly still look great. Just shows how much trouble they could save future owners if the RV industry would use UV stabilized plastic on ALL the plastics and not just some of them.

[northwindone]

Our 29BHS came with a "TV shelf" in the bedroom. It normally gets used to hold a fan when it gets warmer. We started keeping a TV on it recently though and we got annoyed very quickly having to take the TV off the shelf and put it on the bed every time we moved the TT.

Wall mounting would be ideal, but the wall between the bedroom and kitchen is only 1" thick and no vertical studs could be located centered on the foot of the bed. I did however find that the height of the lower shelf of the cabinet over the sink was about the perfect height for a TV to be mounted. In order to re-enforce the mount though I decided I better use some kind of plate or board on the back and decided to use a plank of oak inside the cabinet, which matches the cabinets perfectly.



I put a matching piece on the bedroom side and basically sandwiched the wall between them with 2.5 inch long bolts.



The mount feels very solid and I think the viewing angle of the TV is great where it is. Now I just have to do some cable management and we will be all set!

[northwindone]

The faucet that came with our TT had some cracking in the riser, though it didn't leak. We have gotten used to having a pull-out spray head on our faucets though and decided to replace it. The install was fairly easy, the hardest part being removing the existing faucet as the retaining nuts holding it onto the sink deck were very tight and, as anyone who has done this can tell you, very hard to get to.



I also had to convert the connections from the factory 1/2" FIP that connected directly to the faucet to 3/8" compression. Fortunately I have already made this conversion before in our house and had the tools and even some spare parts so I didn't have to buy any additional parts or tools. (I plan add a silencing kit and pressure tank and move the pump to the floor, at that time I will tidy up all the plumbing under here.)



So here is the new faucet.



Also added the soap dispenser. Was easy to drill a hole in the plastic sink with a wood spade. I figured it would be one less thing to throw into the sink so it doesn't migrate to the floor in transit.



We keep our Keurig on the counter to the right of the sink when on hookups, so just like in our house, we can fill the Keurig water tank without even removing the tank. Plus it's nicer for rinsing dishes, cleaning the sinks out, or filling large containers.


Maybe next month I'll replace the bathroom faucet with a riser faucet that actually gives you room to wash your hands.

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by northwindone

Maybe next month I'll replace the bathroom faucet with a riser faucet that actually gives you room to wash your hands.

I was joking when I said this...but it did sound like a good idea.

Here is the old faucet, probably looks familiar to a few of us:



Went ahead and installed a new Moen faucet on the bathroom sink. Installation took about 5 minutes since I didn't have to modify the plumbing or replace the drain/stopper assembly.



Much nicer for washing hands since you can actually get your hands under it, even my daughter commented that she can now wash her hands without touching the back of the sink.

[northwindone]

It has been too hot at home to do many mods lately. I'm sure most of you are dreading the end of summer; meanwhile as our camping season is in the fall through spring around here I'm looking forward to the end of summer so I can enjoy some boon docking with some cooler weather. As it's approaching quickly I figured I better start getting the camper cleaned up and make the mods and repairs I've been putting off.

I headed out to install a new under sink water filter on Saturday morning, even though it was only 8 am, I still had to turn on the AC just to avoid working in an oven. I went with an under the sink filter as I didn't think I need to filter ALL the water and didn't want to mess with a filter each time I hooked up.



I decided to use the hole for the soap dispenser for the time being to make sure I liked the setup. Just had to expand the hole a little bit, but it will still be covered by the soap dispenser if I put it back.

Hooking up the water lines was very easy as you simply remove the water line from the valve and insert a t-fitting. This would have been even more involved if I hadn't recently installed a sink that required the smaller water line connections instead of the factory NPT fittings.

I'm definitely going to have to re-inforce the mounting of the filter cartridges as the divider board they are on (the furnace and water heater and behind it) is way too flimsy. I may remove that board completely are replace it with real plywood with easy to remove screws for servicing.



I hooked up the water and gave it a try. The water out of the faucet tasted like it had been sitting in the sunbaked hose for 2 months...which I guess it had. The water out of the filter had little to no plastic taste in it. So I would call that a win. I'll have to see how well it removed chlorine taste as we are on a well. I can now take the pitcher filter out of the fridge as it took up lots of room. Though I might still keep a jug of water in the fridge since cold water is always a bit more refreshing.



As was mentioned in the faucet install. I plan on tidying up the under sink area when I re-mount the pump on the floor on an isolation pad and add an accumulator tank as well.

[bdreinv]

Nice job!

[SkyBound]

Great thread! I enjoyed reading about all the mods especially since we have the same trailer. I am very intrigued about how to wire up an inverter so that the AC outlets can work off battery power. Can you give me a bit of info as to how you did it?

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

Great thread! I enjoyed reading about all the mods especially since we have the same trailer. I am very intrigued about how to wire up an inverter so that the AC outlets can work off battery power. Can you give me a bit of info as to how you did it?

Glad you enjoyed it. Part of it was to document it for my own reference and part of it was to hopefully help someone else out like I've been helped by others on this site.

Right now I just use a small 500 watt inverter connected to the batteries with clips and stretch the 30A cord to the battery box up front. As you probably saw, they tied the standard outlets (non-GFCI) and converter to the same breaker. This meant my converter would try to charge the batteries if I turned on the breaker that powers my TVs and any other non-GFCI outlets.

Fortunately the breaker panel has room for an additional double 15A breaker. I just went down to the hardware store and picked one up, can't remember the brand or type, but as long as it matches the existing ones you should be good. After determining which lead went to the converter and which went to the outlets I moved one of them to the new breaker and labeled them accordingly. Now when I plug into the inverter I simply turn on the main 30A breaker and ONLY the circuits I will be using. Specifically I leave the AC, water heater, converter, and fridge breakers off to avoid accidently turning them on and either overloading the inverter or draining my batteries more quickly than necessary.

Hopefully this helps you a bit. Let me know if you have more questions though and I'll try to help.

[SkyBound]

Thanks. I had a look today and fortunately the utility outlets are on their own dedicated 15A breaker. I'm thinking this is going to be fairly straight forward. I just don't know how or where to mount the inverter so it's out of the weather.

I have twin 6V batteries on the tongue for a total of 225AH - I want to run 3 fans that draw 1 amp total for about 12 hours at a time and I'm having a hard time doing the AC to DC conversion to see how much of a hit my batteries would take.

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

Thanks. I had a look today and fortunately the utility outlets are on their own dedicated 15A breaker. I'm thinking this is going to be fairly straight forward. I just don't know how or where to mount the inverter so it's out of the weather.

I have twin 6V batteries on the tongue for a total of 225AH - I want to run 3 fans that draw 1 amp total for about 12 hours at a time and I'm having a hard time doing the AC to DC conversion to see how much of a hit my batteries would take.

For now mine is kind of out in the weather. I plan to eventually mount a permanent one in the pass through, but i will probably still just plug the 30A cord into it, but at least the inverter will be out of the weather even if the pass through door is cracked. (Won't matter much for drafts at least., thanks to that earlier project I did.)

Also, 1 AMP at 120VAC is around 11 AMPS at 12VDC, of course that doesn't account for the losses in the inverter.

I picked up a 12VDC fan for the bedroom and a couple of USB (5VDC) for the bunkhouse. We only use the inverter for watching TV and charging the laptop, everything else we use is 12VDC. Our TV is actually 12V, but haven't gotten around to making the adapter to plug it into the 12V plug. But as we camp where there is no broadcast TV, it would be pointless unless the DVD player was 12VDC as well....one of these days.

[SkyBound]

So that means that running 1 amp of AC for 12 hours would equal drawing 132 amps of DC? Which means that would pull down my batteries below 50%?

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

So that means that running 1 amp of AC for 12 hours would equal drawing 132 amps of DC? Which means that would pull down my batteries below 50%?

Correct, because of that you may be better off getting some 12V fans instead.

Of course 2 issues that that too. Not sure about the newer ones, but my 29BHS only has 1 12V outlet, which I plan on fixing with a 12V outlet on each side of the bedroom and 1 in the bunkhouse. Secondly, although more efficient for our needs, 12V and USB fans can be a bit noisier than household fans. I did find a good size 2 speed USB fan for my girls though that is almost silent at Home Depot.

6 in. USB Fan-ME6606G-TACL - The Home Depot

[SkyBound]

Thanks for that info. Everyone in my family tends to like the bit of background white noise from fans when we sleep, as well as the air circulation. It's surprising just how much DC it takes to make a sliver of AC power. I figured twin Trojan T-105s would be more than enough to spin fans overnight considering we have camped 4 days without needing to recharge, but I suppose the difference was we were pulling small quantities of DC directly from the batteries and not converting anything to AC.

All great info, all great thoughts to ponder. Really nice to see an older truck still looking good and pulling hard, and an older trailer still rolling strong!

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

... Really nice to see an older truck still looking good and pulling hard, and an older trailer still rolling strong!

Thanks! My Super Duty only has 90k miles on it, I bought it a few years back with very low miles on it. Was going to get a 05+, but I was looking for a V10 with a crew cab and I had been looking for months. My wife found it, it was too old, but after test drive I decided to go for it. The '99 V10s only have 275 hp, so it isn't the fastest on the hills, but otherwise it pulls great and hasn't given me any serious issues.

The 29BHS still looked new inside when we picked it up last year. Was also going to pick up something newer after owning a '77 Layton. But it was exactly the size and layout we wanted, was impressed by the condition, and the seller had it in a storage lot only 8 miles from home. Other than some sun fading and such it has been the perfect TT for my family. I'm very glad I went with a Jayco even if it was a bit older! As a bonus, I didn't realize until I went to pick it up, that the white with silver on the bottom almost exactly matches the Ford.

[northwindone]

Mostly finished this up a while back and just haven't updated this thread yet. I put thicker luan on the pass through side of the partition to allow enough strength for tool hooks and clips to be mounted to it eventually.

Also attached a foam window A/C seal to the underside of the bed to create a seal at the top of the partition. I used this as it was the largest thing I could find and they went on clearance at Walmart for $1.50 each at the end of summer. I also put window/door seal foam on all the gaps to create a better seal. It also had the added benefit of making the bed platform not slam as hard when it closes.

The foam board was all held in place under the bed platform and nigh stands with Liquid Nails and most of the rough edges on the foam board were covered with foil tape.


Window A/C foam attached to underside of bed


Foam seals around lift and around night stands, no more losing items into pass through such as ear buds or even glasses.


Close-up of window A/C seal


Seal in closed position


Under night stand detail

I have already noticed a huge difference in the drafts that come through when it is windy. We haven't tested it in very hot or cold conditions with wind, but I'm positive it will make a huge difference.

(Excuse the mess under the bed and pass through, I'm in the middle of trying to get everything organized to make the next trip easier to find things. Nothing like losing your flashlight and lanterns when you pull into a campsite after dark.)

[SkyBound]

This is on my list for next year. I already insulated the rear storage bay underneath the bottom bunk and it made a big difference. Looks good. Are you going to put some subfloor/luan over the insulation to protect it?

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

This is on my list for next year. I already insulated the rear storage bay underneath the bottom bunk and it made a big difference. Looks good. Are you going to put some subfloor/luan over the insulation to protect it?

I need to insulate under the bottom bunk next.

I will probably cover some of the insulation with luan, such as under the bed to protect it from damage. But areas such as under the nightstands are unlikely to be damaged so I probably won't bother covering those areas.

I'm sure I will want to cover more of the foam board under the bunk when I do that as I store a lot of items under there that could easily damage the foam, such as folding chairs and a table.

[SkyBound]

Yes that's exactly why I did mine. I tried one quick trip without the covering and quickly realized the need. Plus it looks cleaner too. I made it easily removable with a few screws so I can still access the shower drain plumbing to check on things periodically.

[northwindone]

Originally Posted by SkyBound

Yes that's exactly why I did mine. I tried one quick trip without the covering and quickly realized the need. Plus it looks cleaner too. I made it easily removable with a few screws so I can still access the shower drain plumbing to check on things periodically.

Great idea as I forgot the shower plumbing is accessed through a panel under the bunk on that wall the bunk shares with the bathroom.

Do they still have the lowpoint drain access right under the outdoor shower back there as well on the 2013s. I find it really fun to reach them when winterizing without crawling under the bunk and/or removing everything to get to it. Speaking of which, if your outdoor shower is still back there, how did you handle that when insulating? I was just going to make a removable panel over it, similar to the factory one for the bathtub, but insulated.