My 29.5 BHDS Mod Thread

[mitch8628]

Long time listener and first time caller here on these forums. I'm a long time forum user on a bunch of other forums.

My wife camped most of her life prior to college in her parents pop up. Once we were married we said we wanted to get a camper. July of 2020, my uncle decided to sell his 2003 Jayco Jayflight 31BHS. We ended up buying, thinking we would just paint and install new flooring. We ended up finding a ton of water damage front and back and rebuilt the lower portions of the front and back walls/corners. We also pulled it with our 2006 F350 CCSB 6.0 (Loved the truck)

We ended up ordering a new F-350 6.7L Last June and it arrived last September. We also ended up selling the 2003 Jayco Last September and brought home a 2017 Jayco Eagle HT 29.5 BHDS. The biggest reason for the changes: We are leaving in 4 weeks for a trip to Disney (From Wisconsin) and a 5 night stay at Fort Wilderness.



My hope is to chronical some of the mods I am doing with the rig as we prep for the trip in a few weeks. I have already upgraded the analog thermostat to a residential Honeywell thermostat.

Plans for upgrades include:

• New Good Year Endurance Tires

• New 6V GC batteries

• TPMS

• Kitchen Counter Extension

• Hinges/upgrade door to water pump

• Hinges for access door to Water Heater

I have scoured the other threads for mods for this rig and have gotten a ton of ideas. Hoping I can pay it back for others with showing the work I am doing.

Currently in progress: I removed the wheels last night and have an appointment with Discount tire tomorrow to install new tires (5 of them).



I have also started modding the basement/battery compartment to make access for installing the double GC2 batteries. Once the batteries are in, I'll document it.

Here's to happy RV'ing!

[F350guy]

Nice! We've got 2 seasons on our GY Endurance with about 10K miles and no signs of wear. I had them balanced just recently because I forgot to do it when we first got the Pinnacle. Not sure it does any good but makes me feel better.

We have 2 6 volt Trojan batteries. We don't do any dry camping so really all we ask of them is to keep the Whirlpool fridge running while going down the road and work the jacks when needed. No problems with them. They always seem to have plenty of juice. Had the same set in our previous fifth wheel and they lasted 7 years. They were still working but I just didn't want to push it.

[mitch8628]

Originally had my Discount Tire appt set for tomorrow at 4 pm. They called me and said they could get me in early. I am super busy with tons of things so I said OK and ran the wheels to DT and had them switch them out.

Got home this evening and got them put back on the rig. The ice storm from last weekend makes maneuvering a little slippery but I am happy that the rig is off it's stilts.

[mitch8628]

Little bit of work yesterday. I upgraded the vent under the rear bunk with a vent that contains a damper. Previous threads listed a vent that no longer is available. I originally purchased a vent that is readily available on all RV parts and sales and the damper was terrible. Picked up this one from Amazon and it is much better! I will actually be able to shut the majority of flow off with this 4" round vent with damper.

https://amzn.to/37v5S0x




I also added hinges and a handle to the water heater access.

[mitch8628]

Been a busy week. Another task to tackle was the water pump area and the noisy pex when the water pump was running. I removed the thin luan panel to expose all of the plumbing in the basement. What a mess. They assembly people sure cut corners to speed things up.



I also noticed that the heat ducting has major leaks. The flexible duct is what sends heat to the bedroom/bathroom area.





Spent the afternoon today cleaning up the plumbing. I cut most of the lines and re-connected them using crimp rings instead of cinch rings. I moved some of the pipes around so they are in better positions, mounted some of the longer runs, and added pipe insulation to minimize any vibration noise from the water pump. I also had on hand some semi flexible 4" duct so I removed the flexible duct to make the plumbing work easier and replaced it with the semi flexible duct which should also provide better flow. Hope there are no leaks!

The water pump originally was only mounted with two screws. I added two more screws and four washers to make the water pump mount more secure.

[mitch8628]

Also have been working to upgrade the batteries. I picked up two Duracell (DEKA GC25) golf cart batteries at 6V 235 Ah each. I targeted the US Battery versions but nearest dealer was out of stock and no idea when he would get some. Trojan was too far.

I also ordered a Century Plastics GCE double battery box to house the batteries.

To gain access, I cut open the wall in the basement so I could gain access to the stock battery storage compartment. I framed the portion I cut out so I could re-insert and make it removable but also function as a wall. I also had to cut about 1.5" from the top of the box with the table saw to make it fit through the opening and also be tall enough for the batteries.

[mitch8628]

Batteries are now in! I picked up the Victron 712 ( i wasn't going to then decided it was best) and installed it. Glad I got it, install was very easy. I mounted the gage inside above the thermostat where the factory sticker for the solar controller was.



To get the wire to the front battery compartment, I fished it through the wall, and inside the bathroom vanity, I cut a hole which allowed me to fish the wire into the basement alongside the plumbing.



With the larger battery box, the Power Cut Off Switch Was in a bad spot. I pulled off the panel the switch was mounted to and moved it up about four inches. Added the 500A shunt and wires and the new batteries. Fits like a glove!

I also cut the vent mount from the hold battery box and mounted it to the top of the lid of the new battery box. The size of the box and lid vs the opening makes it just so I can slide the box in first with the batteries in and then slide the lid in second.

[F350guy]

Looks good. I have tackling the wiring and plumbing mess behind the storage bay on my list. Where did you get the battery box?

[mitch8628]

Originally Posted by F350guy

Looks good. I have tackling the wiring and plumbing mess behind the storage bay on my list. Where did you get the battery box?

Yeah, it wasn't something I was expecting to do. Just wanted to add pipe insulation to make it quieter. But once I opened it, something had to be done. It still is a mess and I see ways to make it better, but I only have so much time.

I got the box here: https://allbatterysalesandservice.co...atteries-gce-g

[mitch8628]

Yesterday I upgraded the bathroom vent to a Maxxair power everything vent. It is really nice when new. Hopefully it stays that way! I'd like to put one in the bedroom vent too.

I used a heat gun to warm up the old Lap Sealant and that made it really easy to clean pretty much all the way down to the roof material with a plastic scraper.

[mitch8628]

Finished up the basement. I am also working on building cabinets for our house and had a spare piece of 1/2" UV Prefinished plywood in the shop. Found a piece that fit perfectly over the water pump access hole. Added some 3/4" pine on the back side of the panel, some hinges, a knob and latch and we have a functioning door!

[mitch8628]

Picked up a pre-assembled Edge Glued poplar panel from Menards, cut to size and stained/poly'd. After reinforcing the cabinet wall with some 3/4" plywood and with some hinges from amazon, turned it into a counter extension!

[mitch8628]

Constructed a new water filter from some GE whole house filters from HD, some brass fittings, and some left over pine. I think it should work decently. Plan to park it underneath the rig when parked.



Also picked up some Hanger hooks and some sinch clamps for wires from the electrical section at Ace. Attached the hooks to the aluminum frame in the basement and now I am able to hang hoses in the basement.

[F350guy]

I can see you are my kind of guy. I really enjoy making things work better. I'm going to tackle some of plumbing and wiring tangles hopefully starting this afternoon. I like things simple and it looks a bit complicated behind the sliding doors in the storage bay.

How are you liking your truck? I have had a number of trucks thru the years and our F350 is my favorite. A great towing machine and a really decent daily driver.

[mitch8628]

Truck is awesome! I never ever expected I would be in a position to order a brand new truck, but I am glad I did. The used market last May when I ordered was crazy and it didn't pay to buy used. So ordering I did and I am so happy. I got everything I wanted with the truck and couldn't be happier. I had the 6.0 F-350 before and this new truck is so much quieter, smoother, and the comforts way better. Wish it had a bit more payload, but I could get that with the LB. Didn't think I would be getting a 5er when I ordered, but I did have the forethought to at least get the 5th wheel prep!

It's certainly been a learning experience to get the rig modded, but it's well worth it. We get to learn the inner workings of it and understand how they are built. Essentially, the RV's are super simple. Very basic systems that are hard to get at! I'm never one to pay somebody to work on my stuff, so I try to do it all!

[F350guy]

I'm retired, my time is free so fixing or mod'ing is much cheaper if I do it myself. The up side is I learn a lot about how it works so if something does break I may have an idea of where to start.

We've pulled heavy fifth wheels for years and our last 2 trucks have been duals. I wanted to downsize somewhat and the long bed was the only way I could get the payload I felt I needed. Ours has 4054 pounds of payload capacity which fits our Pinnacle well with it's 3120 hitch weight. I thought there wouldn't be much difference between driving it and the previous duals but not having the extra width in the rear makes a huge difference in how it maneuvers. I really like the 48 gallon tank it came with.

[mitch8628]

Needed a spot to keep the propane torch. I had some spare 4" schedule 40 PVC so I picked up a floor drain and screwed that to the Basement floor. Then screwed a short section of the PVC pipe to the floor drain. Fits the torch perfect.

[mitch8628]

Preventative Maintenance Time. I decided to get rid of the 2200 lb springs and upgrade to 3000 lb springs. While in progress, upgraded the shackles and bolts to the Morryde heavy duty shackle and wet bolt kit. Based on the springs alone, it appears I'll get an inch or two of lift from this. I was a little nose high before, this should be perfect now.