I disconnect the water supply hose from the RV and drain the hose, run off on-board water for the night.  All the water plumbing is within the insulated and heated interior so they are fine.  One exception is the outdoor shower,  it is in an outside compartment that is only protected by the plastic door.  There may be enough heat from the interior to keep that faucet from freezing, but I usually will put a small towel or crumpled newspaper inside the door to help insulate from the outside temps - so far no problems.

Make sure the waste tank heaters are on.  Keep the waste tank valves closed and run the macerator pump to drain as much water out of the pump as possible.

Also, we keep an electric heater running all night so that the noisy gas furnace does not need to be used at night.

This has worked for us in lower temps than you are expecting to see, good luck and have fun,
Bob

Barry and Sue,

Thanks for the great info, having the shade that is made by the awning maker looks to be the best way to go.

We didn't think we needed one until this past winter when we spent 6 weeks in Arizona.  At a couple campsites, we were oriented such that the afternoon sun was setting directly on the awning side of the RV.  There isn't much shade out in the desert so I hung a tarp I had from the awning.  It looked really bad and we (my wife) decided that we needed to carry a better looking awning shade.

Thanks, Bob

Barry and Sue,

I know this is a year old post, but I now have some questions about your experience with the Patty O'Shade.  We decided to get an awning shade and are looking at the Patty O'Shade and the Carefree brand.  I like your comment that the Patty O'Shade coffee color matches your awning, we also have the Classic Umber exterior and our Dometic awning is probably the same color as yours.

The Carefree brand is 6 feet tall where the Patty O'Shade is 4.5 feet tall, it would seem that 4.5 feet would give plenty of extra shade without having another 1.5 feet of material to deal with.  In extreme cases I could lower the outer edge of the awning to get the shade closer to the ground.  Do you find the 4.5 feet to be plenty of shade material?

Our awning is 16.5 feet long, the Patty O'Shade comes 10 or 15 feet long.  I am considering going with the 10 foot one and sliding it along the awning roller as necessary, again to have less material to deal with.  Which do you have, any thoughts?

I have read that some roll their awning up with the Patty O'Shade installed, they do this only when stationary in camp at night or when windy, they all remove the shade when traveling.  What do you do?

Thanks, Bob A

Good job, Aimee, now the ads match the quality of a Phoenix Cruiser RV.

Thanks, Bob

  So when I come off external camp electric I need to turn on the switch at the door for the batteries.  I guess that goes for the water pump too.  I do have it on auto but did not check on the switch on the door to see if it stayed lit.  OH well...

Just have to get used to the change from prior MH.

Thanks 

Also, the batteries will not be charged when on shore power unless the switch is on.

Shipper:

My 3100 fully loaded with fluids and two adults and 80 lb dog tipped the scales at 13,600 lbs, 4460 on the front axile and 9140 on the rear, I did not get individual corners done.  That leaves me with approx. 900 lbs of extra stuff.

Shipper:

The 13,600 lb GVW was the coach completely loaded with all the gear and food  I would need for a week on the road plus myself and my wife and dog.  The holding tanks were empty.  I was  looking for a little more capacity but 900 lbs is not bad compared to say a Sprinter that is about max before you load anything.  I do not know exactly what the weight of the dual pain windows might be but the 3100 does have a fair number of windows and glass is not light so it would have to be at least 100 lbs that takes fuel to move down the orad.   Enjoy the 3100!

Ragoodsp,

The weight distribution on your 3100 looks pretty good and falls in line with the Ford Bulletin Q-18 R5 "Gudelines for Modifying Ford Light Truck Wheelbases".  An excerpt from that bulletin:

II. COMPLETED VEHICLE WEIGHT ANALYSIS
Ford requires a weight analysis to be performed on the complete vehicle. Some considerations
for such analysis are as follows:
• The Maximum Vehicle Loading should include the Unloaded Vehicle Weight (UVW), 150 pounds
for each passenger in all designated seating positions and sufficient payload capacity for reasonable
assumptions of cargo and trailer tongue weight. The maximum vehicle loading shall not exceed the
OEM chassis Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR), nor the Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR),
as identified on the front cover of the "Incomplete Vehicle Manual" (IVM).
• Avoid rear frame extensions or vehicle configurations that may allow the customer to distribute the
vehicle load so that significant front unloading can occur. Ford recommends no less than 35 percent
of the total loaded vehicle weight be maintained on the front axle for most vehicles included in this
report. The E-450 should be no less than 32 percent. The F53 with a GVWR of 20,500 pounds or
more should be no less than 34 percent (or 30 percent for any F53 with a tag axle). Inadequate frontend
loading could adversely affect the steering and braking characteristics of the vehicle.
• A road test should be conducted on a completed vehicle with a payload representative of the user’s
likely worst-case application. This test is recommended to qualify the ride and handling
characteristics and support the weight distribution analysis.


For the E-450, the bulletin recommends no less than 32% on the front axle and your front axle is at 32.8% with the front weight 540 below the 5000 limit and the rear weight 360 below the 9500 limit.

My 2551 fully loaded for a trip weighed 4400 front and 8000 rear, 35.5% on the front axle.

Apparently, having less than the recommended weight percentage on the front axle would affect handling.  It is interesting that Ford recommends the E-350 to have no less than 35% on the front axle vs 32% for the E-450.

The Ford bulletin can be found here: https://www.fleet.ford.com/truckbbas/non-html/Q18.pdf

Bob A

I replaced the carpet in our previous pc (2010 2350).  The vinyl flooring does cover the entire floor.  The carpet was attached by a LOT of staples along the edges, and you'll need to remove them.  There were no tack strips anywhere in the 2350.  There was no finished edge at the step down to the cab area.  Removing the carpet was fairly simple.  I installed laminate flooring over the vinyl flooring, and that wasn't complicated if you've ever installed laminate.

Were the holes left by the staples easily noticeable, could they be filled with a vinyl patching material?

I like the laminate flooring approach, but I don't think there is room under the refer in the slide to accommodate the extra thickness.

Thanks

Well, after 3 years and 25,000 miles, I am thinking about removing the carpet in my 2010 2551.  Has anyone done this?  I understand that the vinyl flooring covers the entire floor.  I know there must be some staples to hold down the finished edges, are they small enough to be ignored?  What about along the edges at the bed bases, are there the typical carpet tack strips with larger nails?  What about the 2 inch step down to the cab area, is there a finished edge already there or will I have to install one?

Thanks for any help, Bob A

The info below is from an earlier post I did regarding using a satellite dish.  The problem is that the satellite cannot be used with the splitter/booster installed in the RV.  The splitter/booster takes input from the outside cable connection and the roof antenna and directs them to the front and rear TVs.  When you hook up the satellite dish to the outside cable connection, the satellite dish cannot receive 12v power through the splitter

So, you have to bypass the splitter/booster when using the satellite dish hooked up to the outside cable connection.  The description below is how I do it, it has worked great for me.  I have since run a component cable from my satellite receiver to the rear TV so we now get satellite reception there.  Also, I like that with this setup, we can switch between satellite TV and local stations off the roof antenna without changing any connections.

Hope this helps, Bob A

I have had success in using the outside cable jack for a satellite dish, I tried it in my driveway and it worked!

The issue is that the satellite receiver can't go through the amplifier wall plate because it blocks the dc voltage that the receiver sends to the dish.  I bypassed the amplifier wall plate for satellite dish use as follows:

The back of the amplifier wall plate has three RG6 coax cables attached, from outside cable jack, from roof antenna, to second TV in bedroom.  I removed the coax coming from the outside cable jack and installed it on the back of a feed-through coupler next to the wall plate.  I then attached a short coax cable to the amplifier wall plate where I removed the one from the outside cable and ran it through the wall so I could hook it to the newly installed coupler feed-through as shown in the photo.

So now the RG6 coax from the outside cable jack comes to the newly installed feedthrough coupler, I can either attach the coax going to the amplifier wall plate (as shown in the photo) so both TVs can use the roof antenna or park cable via the outside cable jack as normal, or I can connect the new RG6 coax (shown disconnected in the photo) going to the satellite receiver thereby bypassing the amplifier wall plate.  This is a simple direct way to get the satellite dish to the receiver, a regular spiltter won't work as it doesn't allow the 12v dc to pass through, a more complex diplexler would work, but I went the simple way.




I cut a hole in the cabinet where the receiver will go to run the RG6 coax and the HDMI cable to the TV, the power cable will go there as well.



One problem doing it this way is that I don't get Satellite reception to the rear TV, will have to work on that. 

I seem to have made this sound a lot harder than it actually was to do.

Bob

Glad to hear that there are other PCs here in the southwest, I will keep watching out for a sighting.  We are now in the Tucson area for two weeks staying at Catalina State Park, no PC s here yet.

Bob

I SAW ONE!!!!

3 1/2 weeks in Arizona and finally saw another PC.

Got a quick look at it leaving the campground yesterday, I think it was a 2350 on a Sprinter chassis.  Sorry I didn't see it in time to meet the owner, they must have been in another campground loop for only one night I think.

Still have 3 weeks to go here in Arizona and will keep looking.

Bob

Bob

I have a picture showing the rear of the old seat. The hinge pin on the left side is the one I replaced, the right side is the oringal hinge pin sticking out. These pins move as the seat cover is open and closed.

When we were travelling to Maine in the 2551, on Rt. 84, Judi noticed that the seat was crooked. She didn't realize that the pin had fallen into the toilet. The pin was later located in the macerator pump. Stopped the macerator--kind of a messy job!

George 

The toilet seat on my 2010 2551 is different from the picture, there are no metal pins, the seat has molded plastic tabs that snap into holes on the toilet.  Guess I don't need to worry about this issue, thanks for the info.

Bob A

As some may remember, on our 2551, we had a problem with the toilet seat hinge pin falling out and plugging the macerator. While at the Tampa RV Show, I spoke with the Thetford service rep. I explained the problem with the hinge pin falling out on both our 2551 and  with our new 2013 2910. He said that Thetford has, as of June, changed the hinge pin design. He suggested to call their customer service number with model and serial number and ask for a replacement. The new seat arrived today.
The serial number is on the back of the toilet. I used a digital camera to take a photo so as to read the info.

George

George,

This sounds like a problem that I would like to avoid, thanks for the heads up.  However, I checked the toilet in my 2010 2551 and I don't see a hinge pin for the seat that might fall out into the bowl.  Could you provide more details so that I can see exactly what the problem is.

Thanks,
Bob A

We are only 90 miles south of Quartsite with our 2551 PC.  We steer clear of there in January.  AND when we were driving down 32nd street there was a pretty PC on the for sale lot of RV Peddler.  Were in a hurry and didn't stop to see what model.  Outside of that we have never seen another PC ourselves.

Anne & Bob
2013 Model 2551 PC

Hey, bobander.  We probably just missed each other.  We went through Quartzsite Jan 16 on our way to Cambria, CA, and back through Quartzsite Jan 26 on our way to Mesa, AZ.  You're right about all the activity in Quartzsite.  Seems like every inch of the BLM land around there has a rv on it.  Too many people and traffic for us to stop for the rv show - maybe next year...  We did see another pc stopped on a turnoff by the Joshua Tree NP turnoff, and another around San Luis Obispo.

Glad to hear that there are other PCs here in the southwest, I will keep watching out for a sighting.  We are now in the Tucson area for two weeks staying at Catalina State Park, no PC s here yet.

Bob

Anyway, I haven't seen another PC yet, I guess there are many more in the east than out here.  I see that there is a dealer now in Las Vegas, I may stop by on my way home and say hi and maybe see some new models.  Oh, wait, maybe I shouldn't do that, I see where others have ended up buying a new one that way.

Bob

Maybe those of us that have bought a second or third one think you should stop by the new dealer or just call Stuart, he will take care of you.
 

Guess I better get busy if I want to keep up, I need a second PC before I can get a third!   

I started this thread last October after our 5 1/2 week trip from California to Kentucky and we saw only one other PC.

Now we are two weeks into a six week trip from the Northern California mountains to various places in Arizona, getting out of the snow and cold temps.  We spent a week near Quartzsite, AZ, there were RVs everywhere, all the RV parks were full, they were parked as far as I could see in the open desert, and there are always many to be seen while driving on the road.  There are so many, I fear that if they were all pointed in the same direction and hit the gas at the same time the Earth's rotation would be affected!

Anyway, I haven't seen another PC yet, I guess there are many more in the east than out here.  I see that there is a dealer now in Las Vegas, I may stop by on my way home and say hi and maybe see some new models.  Oh, wait, maybe I shouldn't do that, I see where others have ended up buying a new one that way.

Bob