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Old 09-11-2014, 12:19 PM   #1
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Post First time RV/TT Owner wants to modify SLX 184BH

This is my first foray into camping. I finally got tired of listening to friends and relatives brag about this and had to jump in with a nice small starter unit! Dragging around a mini-house on vacation sounds very appealing, and your own clean bathroom too

I bought a barely used 2012 SLX 184BH for over $2000 less than book. Being a basic trailer I like to change a few things to make it easier to camp in.

First one is propane. How long does a 20lb last? If anyone knows the various BTU usage numbers on all the appliances that would help me figure it out. I've been assuming that while boondocking that my black tank will fill up faster than the gas is used up. My thoughts were putting a 30lb on, rather than two 20s since it doesn't really seem like two would fit right. I know the Baja version has a 30 so at least Jayco deems it safe/possible. Anyone tried it?

The battery. I imagine this is hard to calculate and mostly depends on experience, but how long could you dry camp on it? You cannot drain it more than 50% without damaging it right? I've got an inverter generator (Champion) that will always be with me anyway, but it would be nice to avoid using it if possible. I have a bigger battery box, and the biggest deep cycle you could buy at Walmart left over from the boat I sold. Would that be a drop-in replacement?

The bunk mattress. Weird sizes, but I did find someone on ebay selling mattress pads for 50 bucks. Anyone tried these? I'm probably going to do the cheapskate route and buy a pad from Walmart then cut to fit. I figure at the very least I need to get a fitted cover sheet to make it look nice.

Fridge. Doesn't work like the one in my house, outside temp makes it vary a bunch, although the freezer can easily make it's way down to -5 !!! There are fan kits to buy for the outside venting which I've figured out will solve the problem because we tested using a small AC fan placed inside there.

I'll probably find more as it's used but for now these are what I thought of.
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Old 09-11-2014, 12:33 PM   #2
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Matt, Welcome to Jayco and the forum.

I can't answer all of your questions, but here is my take on a few of them.

1. Propane.. That is really going to vary with use.. We live in Texas so as you can imagine we don't do a whole lot of freezing weather camping here. I do have twin 20# tanks on mine. Both were full January 1 of this year and we have been out 5 times (2 days each time). We did run the furnace last January, Feburary and March and use the gas stove each time and 4 hot showers each night.. As of right now both tanks are about 3/4 full..

2. Bunk Mattress. I have never heard of anybody liking the stock mattress that comes with their TT, just go buy a nice 3 or 4 inch foam topper from Walmart, or Kmart or someplace like that and cut to size..

Good luck and enjoy the new (to you) TT...
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Old 09-11-2014, 02:56 PM   #3
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The leftover boat battery will make a good backup battery, you could carry it in the bed of the truck, fully charged and swap it out, or wire it up in parallel if in good shape. Do your research on setting batteries up in parallel as they need to be in the same overall condition or the weaker battery will drain the better battery quickly, and you are then not in any better shape.
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Old 09-11-2014, 03:41 PM   #4
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Welcome to the gang! And congrats on your new trailer!

I'll chime in on the propane usage. Like was stated by Tex1961, YMMV with your usage. I bought my trailer with 2 full 30 lb cylinders back in September of 2013. I still have gas in the first (main) tank. I haven't even tapped into the second tank yet. Now granted, it's just two of us camping in Texas, so usage may be lower than most, but we run the fridge on LP while traveling, we both take showers every night and I use gas at that time for quick recovery while using electric at all other times, we use the stove for most of our meals including perking a pot of coffee each morning, and we had to run the furnace twice (once for about 30 minutes to burn off the manufacturing oils, and once to keep the coach warm, but it was supplemented with a space heater so it didn't run much).

Battery: Down here they put on one multi-use marine/RV deep cycle Interstate Grp 24. It's not really a very good battery for this purpose IMO, but it's cheap, so that's what they use. I have never tested it, but I would be surprised if it lasted one night in my RV. I know my rig is considerably larger than yours, but the basics are pretty close (fridge electronics, lights, various safety devices, radio etc.). If it wasn't totally dead by morning I would be very surprised.

+1 on the mattress toppers. I got mine at WM, but I've heard Kohl's has pretty good deals to look for. One JOF member decided to put his 4" memory foam topper under his mattress and reported excellent results. I haven't tried it yet because my topper is structured more like a mattress pad, it is sewn into a fitted sheet, so I couldn't really do this easily, but I may try next time I have the rig home just to see how it feels.
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Old 09-11-2014, 03:46 PM   #5
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Speaking of the propane, what is the best way to see an accurate level in the tank? Do those little screw in-line gauges work?

I suspect mine is the same battery too, it appears they all have green interstate 24s. Based on the size I think my big one is a 29 marine batt.

I bought some LED lights from china off eBay to replace the halogens since they get VERY hot and I assume that has got to be just sucking power since my converter fan runs constantly when just three are on.
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Old 09-11-2014, 04:51 PM   #6
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Welcome!
I have heard mixed reviews on the propane gauges. One way to check it, but may not be convenient when camping, is to pour hot/warm water over the propane tank. The empty part will feel warm, the propane will feel cold.
Not sure if you have dual tanks, but I just run one til its empty then flip the switch to full one. Then I go fill the empty one.
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Old 09-11-2014, 06:12 PM   #7
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WELCOME TO JOF!!!!

If your TT is stored at your house, or a place where you can access it, and you want to know how long your battery will last while you are dry-camping.... try dry-camping on your driveway.

Check the battery water level, charge up the battery, turn on the lights you think you will have on, turn on the Tv and monitor your batteries voltage until it hits 12VDC. This will give you an idea as to how long the battery will last you. You can use a volt meter to monitor the battery voltage.

RV/Marine batteries are not TRUE deep cycle batteries, but depending on how many things you use, you could make it through the night, but not much more... that 50% or 12VDC battery level comes fast on one 85/100Ah marine battery.

Another point is that you should never wire 2 batteries together that are not the same Mfr, make, model, Ah rating, they do not charge the same and you could do more harm to the batteries than good.

Just my thoughts,
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Old 09-13-2014, 02:14 PM   #8
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Just a few things I'd like to add. The mattress pads are fine for my two boys. We did find college dorm size sheets work best on them.
One way to cut down some battery usage is to install LEDs in your lights.
The holding tanls are small. For boondocking I picked up a portable waste tote.
I do use a Champion 2000 inverter. It isn't loud and will provide a good amount of power.
Welcome and enjoy yourself. Some of the best memories camping will be unexpected circumstances.
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Old 09-13-2014, 08:20 PM   #9
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We just purchased a 2012 184bh in July. We've camped in it three times already and are very happy with it! I don't have any advice or info about the propane or battery, but we did try to leave the fridge running on battery for a few hours and came back to warm stuff. We realized we should have put it on propane instead, perhaps.

We haven't found it very practical to camp without hookups unless restrooms and showers were available. Our grey tank filled after 1 day of hand washing and one reasonably short shower, and our black tank filled pretty quickly as well (leading to the new rule that we use the campground restrooms except at night unless we have sewer hookup). We still are learning the best ways to manage all of this.

We have two boys sleeping in the bunks, and they don't mind the mattresses at all. Regular twin sheets work fine. For the dinette bed, I bought a full size mattress pads and sheets since that seemed to match the dimensions best. I bought a cheap pad and already decided we will definitely upgrade before next year! We are also thinking about pulling out the table and putting in thick boards to keep the bed more stable. We decided we don't care to set up the table while camping since we mostly eat outside or can eat without a table.

Hope you enjoy your camper as much as we have. We still have plenty to figure out, but it's already been a fun adventure.

*I just realized I replied to the last post instead of the OP. Sorry!
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Old 09-15-2014, 08:46 AM   #10
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I bought the in-line propane gauge and they aren't very useful. Since they work on pressure they will show low on a cold morning even though you have plenty or show as full as the first time after a fill when the sun is beating down on it. Just my 2 cents.
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Old 09-15-2014, 12:35 PM   #11
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On my 184BH we have dual battery and can easily go 4 days being conservative. Propane is totally based on heater use. The fridge, stove and water heater only use a small amount. Personally we turn off the heater at night and add some extra blankets. If it gets really cold (last week it got to 24 overnight in Yellowstone) we get up and flip it on. It is fairly loud so w like to keep it off if we can.

The #1 limit we have is our black tank. Much over 2 nights and we are getting to a dumping point.
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Old 09-15-2014, 12:50 PM   #12
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The only thing I would add (maybe someone else said something) but I personally would stick with the 2 - 20lb tanks vs 1 - 30. I live in MI and I rarely, about 1 time per year on average, have to go fill one of my tanks. I have 30 lb tanks, and we do a lot of off season camping and run the furnace a lot. Stove and fridge barely burn any propane. You could run for a couple years on a tank if you didn't use the furnace. Nice thing about dual tanks is that if you only open one at a time, when it runs out you know you have 50% propane level overall. Then you switch to the other and continue on and refill the empty one when you get around to it. If you have a single tank or two and leave both open, then if you need it, you HAVE to get it filled very soon. Those gauges don't seem to work. Mine never moves from green until its empty then it drops. Also, you will have to check it every couple of days to know. I used a guage and still ran a tank dry in the middle of the night hours after peeking at the guage.

Moral of the story, guage sucks, and dual tanks with one on at a time works the best IMO.
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Old 09-15-2014, 01:43 PM   #13
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We live in a much colder climate than you and have a hybrid. We barely go through two 20 lb tanks of propane per season. And we use the heat a lot. We don't boon dock anymore however so I can't tell you how much the fridge uses. Two tanks will fit, and the mod is fairly easy, but you'll need a different base. I did this conversion on a pop-up many years ago. Most likely yours is bolted down and it easily replaceable. You'll also need a dual tank regulator. Keep in mind that this will also increase your tongue weight.

Some who boon dock replace their single 12 volt battery with two 6 volt batteries. They say they last longer without needing a recharge. I'm not sure you have room for that, but I've seen some clever mods where they put them under a seat inside or similar.
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Old 09-15-2014, 03:44 PM   #14
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Argh! Took the camper out twice this weekend. Had a rough road going to the place on night #2 and I must have grazed the ground. Bent the crap out of the freshwater low point drain bracket!

On that subject, the Jayco "universal" manual states you can fill the fresh tank using the city connection, but looking at the plumbing it doesn't appear possible. Unless of course there's a way to run the water pump in reverse...

I do already have a new 20lb propane tank that I used with my Mister Heater big buddy, because you quickly discover that even with two smaller propane tanks connected that it sucks the gas out so fast they freeze up, plus little ones don't last long on high. So anyway I'll take that with me in the future until I find out how to do that bracket mod.

First pair of LED lights from china arrived today, will report back with how they are. The specs say 8 lumens each, so with 36 LEDs that means about 288. Not sure how many the stock halogens are.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/180754222465
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Old 09-16-2014, 08:31 AM   #15
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The LEDs are great! Not as bright as the factory halogens but they are probably 90% there. Plus the converter fan stays off! I have 48 LED panels coming too so we'll see the difference in brightness. Oddly enough the 48s were cheaper, but the listing does not state how many lumens. Here is a link to that listing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200751678998
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Old 09-16-2014, 08:47 AM   #16
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You'll love those cheap LEDs. I put them in not because I was concerned about wattage, but because of the heat the standard bulbs put out. For the price you really can't go wrong.
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Old 09-16-2014, 09:59 AM   #17
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You'll love those cheap LEDs. I put them in not because I was concerned about wattage, but because of the heat the standard bulbs put out. For the price you really can't go wrong.
Yes exactly! I probably won't be doing any serious boondocking to need the electricity, but those stock bulbs make the fixtures so hot!
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Old 09-16-2014, 01:29 PM   #18
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You'll love those cheap LEDs. I put them in not because I was concerned about wattage, but because of the heat the standard bulbs put out. For the price you really can't go wrong.

That's exactly why I'm switching to LED. Here in TX, I have enough heat, I don't need to generate more!
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