Been doing a few mods this summer. Not in order:
Added battery monitor and phone charging station, wired direct to bat, in control panel
Added usb charger and 12v power port wired direct to bat in bedroom for Cpap
upgraded all light fixtures and swapped to LED bulbs throughout
Added 50W halogen work lights in kitchen
Upgraded to residential kitchen faucet
Added TV to bedroom, garage and outside area.
Switched all exterior light bulbs to LED
Added 2nd battery and battery cut off switch
Added E-trac to garage area
Added LED lights to loading ramp aea
Added rear view camera (still have to wire TV)
Upgraded to HD OTA antanea omni directional.
Added Dish TV with Tailgate automatic antanea
JT Strongarms installed
Future mods:
Second AC for garage
Fantastic fans for kitchen and bedroom
Upgrade shades

 

Scott, how many screws/bolts did you use for the e-track. That is on my list of things to do but I'm not sure how many fasteners to put in. Access to the frame will probably dictate how many (few?) I can put in.

 

The floor is 3/4" so I used 1 1/2" lags and went with every 3rd-4th hole, but I painted them black first. Nothing to frame rails. No problems so far

 

If you haven't yet the "Timk Tent in the Vent" mod makes a huge difference in cooling output of the single 15K A/C.
This works for any of the Dometic units with the "Quick Cool" feature not just Heartland/Torque trailers.
You will lose the use of the Quick Cool but you will increase the duct airflow 30% or more.

 

Carterkraft, I'm guess you tried that mod already? If the improvement is that good I may give it a go. I have plenty of cooling with dual 15ks now, but better airflow from the front ducted system would be nice. My quick cool is useless anyway as it blows right on the thermostat and it kicks the air off way to soon.

 

Yes, I put it off for a couple years because I really thought the only solution would be dual units. I finally did it this summer and I was amazed with the results. The air flow to the garage has easily doubled, likely due to where you place the tip of the /\ in the outlet of the squirrel cage.

It still won't cool down below about 85* in the 100 heat of summer but it has no problem cooling it down to 70* as soon as the sun drops. It just takes allot of BTU to cool that high of a ambient temp.

Here's some pix of mine.



This with the bezel removed from the ceiling. I bent the ends of the wings 90* and ran two screws in to the outer flange of the duct floor.



Top view looking down out of the fan blower.



bottom view looking up into the ceiling with the frame reinstalled.

 

Very cool. Thanx for making more work for me...no, this is great. will work just to make airflow better to all the vents in the main coach and the bedroom. I do plan on capping the vent run going into the garage since it wont be need there. As to the question of the plenum runs going past the last vent, maybe someone with HVAC background can weight in on that.

 

I need the benefit of the group's collective and sage wisdom!

First, some background: We like to go off-grid from time to time. We like to look for national forest campgrounds that are often less crowed, particularly at the beginning and end of the season. Of course, that means no 110 volt hookups, and with our last rig, a 31 ft. Rockwood Roo, we just hauled a portable Honda 2000i generator for power and to charge batteries. However, we like to watch movies and the news in the evening and needed to power our TV and satellite after "quiet time" meant we had to turn off the generator. To solve this we installed a battery bank and inverter in our last RV. It was not a fifth wheel or toy hauler and I just installed a truck box on the front A-frame behind the propane tanks and placed the batteries and inverter in that enclosure. This all worked great. (I've included a pic for reference.)

Now we have a new 43 ft Spartan toy hauler. I am looking to move that previous back-up power set up to the new rig. I've already managed to pretty much fill up the one large pass through storage compartment under the front of the rig. As a result, I'm trying to figure out where to put the battery bank and inverter.

I've been looking at installing the batteries in the "basement" utility area just aft of the pass through storage space. There is plenty of room there, despite the rat's nest of wiring, plumbing and heat ducts. Obviously, that space is not immediately accessible for service as the partition must be removed to access it, but it's not a huge problem when only periodic inspection and preventive maintenance is involved. I could then install the inverter on the ceiling of the storage compartment where it would be readily accessible and convenient for feeding both battery connections and 110v to the rig. The inverter is a Go Power GP-SW2000. I've already checked with tech support at Go Power about mounting it inverted and they said it would be no problem.

So far, so good. Here is my concern, the basement utility area also houses sources of ignition; namely the furnace and water heater. The battery bank consists of four VMAX XTR12-155 AGM batteries. According to VMAX, these are sealed AGM batteries and, as such, they do not vent hydrogen gas. I'm thinking I may just want to put them in a vented enclosure anyway. However, I'm wondering if anyone has experience with similar installations and what the group's thoughts are on my plan.

Sorry for the long post, but I'm a little anxious about this project.

 

If they are AGM then I wouldn't worry about it.
Although putting them in an enclosure is not a bad idea. Even a Rubbermaid tote would provide you with some protection against objects shorting out to them etc.

 

Thanks and great point. I plan on installing the same CAMCO battery boxes and lids that are shown in the picture of my current setup, and install the batteries in those. All connections will be covered and protected. There is always the risk of a water leak in that space.

 

I think you'd be fine with boxes in there. Gases aren't a worry, but still be best safe instead of sorry.

I had a friend with a toy hauler that was open under the garage and he mounted the batteries in there. Longer cables, but worked great.

 

Did the spare relocation today

 

Looks great. Was it up front, under the generator before? Why did you move it or is this an additional spare?
I starting to carry another spare in my truck bed, cable locked but I'd like to mount that spare too. I'll have to climb under and take a look.
Thanks for sharing.

 

It was mounted at the very tail end of the trailer by the two drag points, we haven't been on our maiden voyage yet but I didn't like the location they put it from the moment I saw it. Where I moved it to was where they mount the fuel station on our model.

 

Looks familiar slyhunter! Though yours is mounted a bit more to the right than mine. Definitely a much better location than factory. Be sure to recheck that the tire is tight the first 200 miles. From raising and lowering the winch without weight the cable doesn't spool tight enough. I checked mine at 80 and it was good, but came really loose somewhere between that and 200 miles.