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Old 09-24-2014, 10:43 AM   #1
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Join Date: Jun 2014
Posts: 93
Twin Lakes Shakedown

Well, me an' DW went for our first trip in the TT this past weekend. We had planned two other trips that fell through but we decided we were going on this one, unless it rained. (thin skinned, I know)

We went to Twin Lakes on Lake Hartwell (SC). It is a really nice COE CG and we had a great site on the point. (#77) The thing was we could only stay ONE night. I know, you may not think it was worth it, but I was eager to see how the TV did pulling the TT and It was also our first camp in a TT. We moved from tent>popup>TT. We didn't have a boat this time, just not enough time to mess with that for one day.

My observations:

TT was great. It's a '07 Surveyor SV291 (30'). Two of our grandsons stayed the night with us and one of our granddaughters. They had a great time and there was plenty of room.

Microwave. Don't forget to take out the glass plate. Ours is now broken and I'll have to find a replacement. This is even after I read the posts about others breaking their plates. I didn't have it on the checklist, but it's on there now.

Under stove cabinet. We packed the camper before leaving with the slide in. My wife looked at the cabinet under the stove and since it had plenty of space, she put the pots and pans under there. When we put the slide out we heard a snap, crackle, pop... then the cabinet door came off and the frame cracked. Seems the cabinet is only about 3" deep with the slide out. So, just something I have to fix. It even bent the frying pan. We laughed about it and you can bet we won't forget that one. It too, is on the list.

Black tank. The PO must not have known how to work the black tank. It constantly shows full so there must be some *stuff* on the probes. Anyway, I could never get it to dump completely and attempted to flush for a long time. I did put GEO method stuff in it before we traveled to the site. I also bought one of the clear 45deg flush attachments, but, the drain has a 90 deg elbow so it isn't straight in. Regardless of how much I ran the flush, I'd still get some black chunks out. I'm going to have to get a wand and let it do its magic. Then, if I can get all of the *stuff* out of the tank I think I'll mount a couple of flush nozzles in the tank and plumb it out to the side of the camper. When I bought the clear flush valve I went ahead and joined the good Sam club so I can now dump for free. It's about 10 miles from the house so not too far. I do plan to build a dump station at the house one day.

TV. I'm pulling the Surveyor with a '99 Silverado 5.3l with the tow package. I bought this camper specifically because it's supposed to be super light weight (~4500lbs dry) and I did not want to have to buy another truck. I was surprised that the TV struggled as much as it did. I'm not too happy about that, although it is a 15yo truck with 198kmi. I am now working on DW to get a diesel, used of course, <200kmi, preferably F250 7.3, probably in about a year. Until then, the Chevy will do. I had the tranny rebuilt on the Chevy almost 2 years ago and it did really well so no complaints there.

Camping. Although we only stayed one night, we REALLY enjoyed it. It was so nice having all of the home like amenities on our campsite. Especially good that you didn't have to cart the little ones to the shower house every time they had to pee. We are ready to go back and camp just the two of us. I'd better get a couple more stabilizers.
But, after the one night camping I was shattered. Since it was our first trip, I spent 6 hours after work on Friday, then another 5 hours Sat morning getting ready. Then about 2 hours to the site, set up, then beer.
I was pleased with how easy it was to set up though.

So, punch list for next time:

Fix black tank.
Fix under stove cabinet.
Check out furnace. (we didn't need it this time)
Check out stove and oven. (didn't cook much. warmed up stuff on the trusty old coleman)
Check out water heater. (just didn't have time for it. kids took shower in the bath house)
Fix TV antenna (need one for digital, the one that's on there wouldn't pick up anything)
Fix/replace/do something about radio (CD works, radio doesn't)
Plumb fresh tank drain vavle to side of camper. ( I don't like having to crawl under axles to get to the drain valve.

I'm sure there will be more.

Overall, we are tickled with the camper and the experience.
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