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Old 04-19-2017, 10:11 PM   #1
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need help with a new to me camper

I bought a hunters special camper. It's in rough shape however the canvas and lift system are great and I have a couple of questions.

There is no sink or the counter that held the sink. I had a previous jayco that had a box with a place to put the stove and the sink. The entire box is gone. Is there somewhere on the internet where someone has made one and posted the specifications? I am not worried about the stove I prefer to cook outside.

I am wanting to add a hot water heater. I have been thinking about buying

EccoTemp L5 Portable Tankless Water Heater - Eccotemp L5 - Water Heaters - Camping World

but I don't know if it would be better then the traditional 5 gallon propane hot water heater that comes in almost every camper, any ideas?

I am looking for where the vin number may be stamped on the frame. Being a camper special the vin plates have been painted over. I am hoping I can find it under the camper any ideas?

The front passenger side of the trailer is coming apart from the side panel. I am hoping that someone has experience fixing this problem and has posted something?

thanks in advance

andy
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Old 04-20-2017, 11:45 AM   #2
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As far as the box goes, they are different depending on floor plan. You don't indicate what the original model was (maybe you don't know if it was all painted over). I would suggest heading over to a local dealer with a tape measure and getting some rough dimensions from something similar on the lot.

Interesting idea on the water heater. I rarely to never use my water heater, so you might consider living without. A kettle gives me all the hot water need with a lot less propane used, but I tend to shower in the CG showers.

Your VIN number should be stamped on a plate attached to a frame crossmember among other spots. Mine was on the the second to last (rear) member. Crawl under and take a look.
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Old 04-20-2017, 12:46 PM   #3
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Here is what you have to watch out on with a tankless system. I glanced at the description on the link but didn't see this. You need to find out what the temp change or delta rating is on the unit. Sure it says it can heat water to 80-150F but that isn't how these systems work. There are a bunch of people that have thankless systems in the motorhomes and they have been complaining about them. I don't have one in my camper but we installed one in our house a little over a year ago. Personally I love it in the house but I don't know how much I would like it in a camper.

The first issue is that temp delta. This is going to depend on the rate of water flow meaning the higher you turn up the faucet/shower the less it can heat the water. It has to do with how long the water is in the heat exchanger. If it blasts through the heater in .5 sec because the faucet was wide open then the heater can effect a change or delta on the water only a few degrees. If the faucet/shower has a pretty restrictive head on it or it is barely open now maybe the water is in the heat exchanger for 1.5 seconds. In this case you get more of a delta on that water. In my home I went with a very large unit so it can do a big temp change on the water even at high flow rates when more than one shower maybe going at the same time as laundry.

The other issue is inlet temp on that water. When camping if you are up north, early in the season like now your water tank may have water at around 40F. If at your given flow rate you can do a delta of 40F on the water, that means you will be taking a shower in 80F water. I normally set my shower to about 105F so that would be a cold shower to me. Some like that, others don't. In the summer your cold water might be 80F so a 40F delta is plenty. This is where the tankless system will struggle in camping. The variation of water temp causes a lot of complaints.

Another issue is a tankless system takes a few seconds to kick in. If you are camping, you probably are conserving water so you might be tempted to turn on the water, get wet, shut it off, lather up, then turn it back on to rinse. While the water in the line will still be hot, the tankless system would have shut down and it takes a second or two before it senses the flow, kicks back in and starts heating water. This means you will be hit by a blast of cold water until you get the hot water flowing.

Many people are coming from traditional tank based water heaters in an RV or in their homes as not many people have tankless systems at their house. Even in the house I read of complaints but it is mainly because they try and use them like a tank system and they are a bit different. Once I educated my family and they got used to it, everyone prefers it to what we had with our old 40 gallon tank system. However many of the issues are not there that a user in a camper would face. We don't shut it off mid shower, we don't have inlet temps that can greatly vary. We have a system much larger than found in a camper. The biggest thing they had to learn is to just use almost only hot water because our temp is set to 122F. This is because our old heater was at 165F and everyone was used to turning on both the hot and cold. Then wondering why it never gets hot. If you just turn on the hot it gets hotter than you need.
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Old 04-25-2017, 09:05 AM   #4
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Thank you for response.

I am nervous about tearing into the campers walls. I have visions of every sitcom home repair project from the 80's. Where a simple just glue it back into place becomes a project with half the house needs to be rebuilt. I am kind of looking for reassurance that won't happen but that may not be avoidable. However, according to my research, by taking lots of pictures you can completely tear a pop-up / tent trailer down to the frame replacing about every part and completely rebuild it and it will work and last for years.

I have a feeling that the water heater is inexpensive one probably with a low delta. I live in East Tennessee where almost every campground has a shower so the hot water heater is mainly for washing dishes, hands,... I think I will look into a traditional hot water heater though.
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