the Smiths finally got a camper! (22' travel trailer)

[theksmith 5,778]

29 minutes ago, jgaz said:

Looks good Kris

Are you able to work on your RV and the same place you store it?

If so, what’s your secret for remembering to take all your needed tools?

 

yes so far they haven't complained about me working on it in storage, but i have mostly been there in the mornings before the office opens.

 

i wish i knew the secret - i have made MANY trips between the house and storage and home depot in the past week!

Edited September 23, 2025 by theksmith

[theksmith 5,778]

last of the mods completed in the past couple weeks...

 

on our first trip we found the back of the jack-knife sofa had really soft cushions with no support, allowing the mattress to sink down in the middle when in "bed mode". my solution was a fold-up platform to bridge that area.

 

 

i built this a bit hastily as we are trying to get everything ready to go camping again ASAP before it gets too cold at the higher AZ elevations this year. it's just a piece of 1/4" plywood, with a strip of 1/2" x 2" wood at the top for stiffness.

 

i first used some regular spring barrel latches to hold it up, with a couple little wood blocks for the strikers to mount to:

 

 

 

but we noticed those latches were going to quickly wear holes in the sofa cushions when laid down on it.

 

so i found these other spring latches meant for an RV baggage door and put them on the back side, then rigged up a quick cable release. these are thinner than the original latches and i'm not worried about wearing a hole in the fitted sheet as much as i was the couch.

 

 

 

when the platform is up, you just pull the cable protrusion on the other side to release the latches.

 

 

"Dove" (grey) in Home Depot's Behr paint matched the factory interior plastic trim well, so i painted all the new wood in that color.

 

 

as i said, all this was all a quick hack job, but it works!

Edited September 23, 2025 by theksmith

[jgaz 750]

“Hack” is the definition of what you’ve already had to fix of the OEM design and workmanship.

 

The worst your current repair could be called is “field expedient”.   And I’m not sure is even that.

Nice work

Edited September 23, 2025 by jgaz

[ob1jeeper 849]

3 hours ago, jgaz said:

“Hack” is the definition of what you’ve already had to fix of the OEM design and workmanship.

 

The worst your current repair could be called is “field expedient”.   And I’m not sure is even that.

Nice work

Agreed Jim...   Kris is just "a teensy bit" too OCD, to let any sort of sloppy workmanship slip through the cracks...   😂

Well Done Kris.   Super craftsmanship...  ;)

[jgaz 750]

5 hours ago, ob1jeeper said:

Agreed Jim...   Kris is just "a teensy bit" too OCD, to let any sort of sloppy workmanship slip through the cracks...   😂

Well Done Kris.   Super craftsmanship...  ;)

Okay Steve,   I gotta admit that I can relate being just a little OCD.   That trait has served me well

[ob1jeeper 849]

14 hours ago, jgaz said:

Okay Steve,   I gotta admit that I can relate being just a little OCD.   That trait has served me well

Agreed Jim.   I NEVER ONCE had concerns or worried about any of the many assignments you were handling over the years we worked together...   ;)

[jgaz 750]

9 hours ago, ob1jeeper said:

Agreed Jim.   I NEVER ONCE had concerns or worried about any of the many assignments you were handling over the years we worked together...   ;)

Thank you Steve.

[theksmith 5,778]

On 9/22/2025 at 5:33 AM, theksmith said:

once everything was buttoned up and the batteries started charging (they shipped at ~50% SOC) from the factory PDC converter/charger, i discovered a problem - the charging kept stalling out! :( that factory charger would output nearly 30A for a while (as expected), but then would seem to go into a trickle charge state of around 7 or 8 amps until i turned it off and back on.

 

 

at first i thought perhaps the charger wasn't auto-detecting that these were lithium batteries and still trying to charge using a lead-acid profile. but after RTFM on the PDC (WFCO WF-8735-AD), i found out it has a 4 hour max charging time-out!

 

"If your application requires longer than four hours (such as a larger battery bank > 200 Ahr), a simple cycling of power will reset the timers."

 

wow, thanks for that helpful tip for overcoming your crappy design decision WFCO. i'll stroll over to storage 4 or 5 times and flip the breaker just to get my battery bank to charge fully after a trip!

 

i've emailed WFCO to see if there is anyway around this timer, but i'm not holding out much hope. so it looks like i'll either be going ahead with my planned Phase 2 (inverter/charger) very soon, or else just temporarily adding a small dedicated charger that doesn't time-out.

 

after some additional research and emails with WFCO support, things are now better with the factory charger/converter situation, but not perfect...

 

the latest firmware, which i already had, extends the timeout to 10 hours when in Lithium charging mode (versus 4 on Lead-Acid mode). so my first problem was the battery chemistry auto-detect feature is junk in these units and mine was still on Lead-Acid. they should have went with a simple mode switch like their competitors do. WFCO support was giving me all sorts of time-consuming processes to convince it to switch to Lithium, but i ran across a post on Forest River Forums about how to make a jumper that would force it into Lithium mode immediately. all you need is an appropriate pitch 2 pin connector and a 1kOhm resistor, both of which were in my electronics supplies.

 

the remaining issue is that 10 hours at a max of 30A still only recharges a fully drained bank to 1/3rd of capacity. the chances of us draining anywhere near the full 900AH at this point is all but impossible. so i'm not making any changes till we do a few trips and i see what sort of discharge level is typical for us.

 

i have a 120/12v 17A Victron charger just collecting dust on a shelf already, so if nothing else i can easily add that into the system as a temporary way of keeping the bank charging after the WFCO 10hr timeout.

 

my future Phase 2 is centered around a Victron Multiplus-II inverter which includes a built-in charger - so if/when we get there, everything will be taken care of. that charger far exceeds the capabilities of the WFCO and i will just disable the WFCO converter/charger once that unit is installed.

 

Edited September 25, 2025 by theksmith

[ob1jeeper 849]

1 hour ago, theksmith said:

 

after some additional research and emails with WFCO support, things are now better with the factory charger/converter situation, but not perfect...

 

the latest firmware, which i already had, extends the timeout to 10 hours when in Lithium charging mode (versus 4 on Lead-Acid mode). so my first problem was the battery chemistry auto-detect feature is junk in these units and mine was still on Lead-Acid. they should have went with a simple mode switch like their competitors do. WFCO support was giving me all sorts of time-consuming processes to convince it to switch to Lithium, but i ran across a post on Forest River Forums about how to make a jumper that would force it into Lithium mode immediately. all you need is an appropriate pitch 2 pin connector and a 1kOhm resistor, both of which were in my electronics supplies.

 

the remaining issue is that 10 hours at a max of 30A still only recharges a fully drained bank to 1/3rd of capacity. the chances of us draining anywhere near the full 900AH at this point is all but impossible. so i'm not making any changes till we do a few trips and i see what sort of discharge level is typical for us.

 

i have a 120/12v 17A Victron charger just collecting dust on a shelf already, so if nothing else i can easily add that into the system as a temporary way of keeping the bank charging after the WFCO 10hr timeout.

 

my future Phase 2 is centered around a Victron Multiplus-II inverter which includes a built-in charger - so if/when we get there, everything will be taken care of. that charger far exceeds the capabilities of the WFCO and i will just disable the WFCO converter/charger once that unit is installed.

 

I have absolutely no clue what you just said, nor what it means....   But the advanced use of literary structure, made it sound about right to me...    LOL....    😂 🤣 🤔

[theksmith 5,778]

we painted the bathroom door with that same "Dove" grey color. there's too much dark wood IMO for such a small space, we want to brighten up the interior.

 

before:

 

 

after:

 

 

also installed a drill operated tongue jack - the manual jack was a PITA! i went this route since i have a dedicated drill with a 3/4" socket driver that i keep with the trailer for the stabilizers anyway (rather than the extra complexity/weight/cost of an electric jack).

 

 

Edited February 21 by theksmith