Picking up new 3051S next Friday

[Creativepart]

In May we were camping in our Travel Trailer and spent a few days in Albuquerque. One morning I needed some small part, so we went to Camping World. As is our habit, we stopped in the parking lot to look at motor homes.

We had been looking for a new TT for about 8 months and not found anything we liked. We thought about a 5th wheel, but no, not for us. And, we knew that there was no way we'd buy an RV. We actually were leaning toward gutting the interior of our TT and remodeling it completely to make suit us better.

At first we didn't see anything new in that CW parking lot... until we went into a just arrived Forester 3051S. The slide was even in. But, for the first time in all our looking my wife and I BOTH liked the same RV. That never happened before.

Then another thing that never happened before happened. My wife said "I think we should buy one of these."

CW wanted too much for theirs but, with months of looking we found a new one identically optioned at a price $11k less than CW. And today we became Forester owners.

I have a biz trip planned so I can't pick it up until next Friday. The dealership is 250 miles away, so we will inspect it, pay for it, pick it up and take it camping that night before the trip home.

Walking into that RV in the CW lot on our way to buy a part for our travel trailer really shook up our previous 13 years of travel trailer camping in a blink of an eye.

[n-e-d]

Congrats on new motorhome and joining forum. Best part of which are the stories good or bad but all making us a community sharing

[jgahlhoff]

Congrats!! Great story and welcome

[ourflat]

Congrats! See you down the road...


Frank
KM4FVI

[michael621]

Wow that's great! Fun times ahead! 😀

[sonny bransom]

we had a new 26'itasca spirit and put almost 5000 miles on it and was pretty happy with it until trip to florida with 2 grandkids and daughter. next weekend went to my dealer[mcclains in Burleson tx]and traded it on 3170ds [with bunks]and double slides. never been happier .love my fr. quality is so much better and much roomier.about 2 years I will be class a shopping,,,,,,

[CJnDD]

Welcome! Congratulation on your Forester!

[Rocket City Gary]

This is pretty much the same story as my wife and I. It was one we agreed on immediately upon seeing. She loves to cook and like the expanded kitchen area. We have put 21k miles on our 2014 in less than 1.5 years. We love it and have had virtually no issues. We do have to watch our weight. We weight out before we cube out. And don't park it on an incline with the refrigerator full and running. It doesn't like that. LOL

[SkipnTerri]

Congratulations! Really interesting story -- amazing how that works! Things happen for a reason . . . See you down the road.

[aceinspp]

Nice story. Welcome to the world of MH camping. Later RJD

[bclemens]

Originally Posted by Creativepart

Walking into that RV in the CW lot on our way to buy a part for our travel trailer really shook up our previous 13 years of travel trailer camping in a blink of an eye.

Obviously ecstatic to hear it. Welcome to the family.

[Creativepart]

Well today is the day. We' picked up our new RV this afternoon. Went over everything. Only two very tiny issues that were easily corrected. Outside of about an hour of useless waiting... why are RV dealers so unprofessional? We headed out to a nice State Park 10 miles from the dealership. That way if there are any problems we can be at the dealer first thing in the morning.

After setting up, having dinner, showering and watching part of a movie on the bedroom DVD we're ready for bed. No problems yet.

Tomorrow we get more organized, read manuals and test everything.

Our only complaint? Air condoning that is struggling to cool everything down in the 90 degree Texas heat.

[SkipnTerri]

Originally Posted by Creativepart

Well today is the day. We' picked up our new RV this afternoon. Went over everything. Only two very tiny issues that were easily corrected. Outside of about an hour of useless waiting... why are RV dealers so unprofessional? We headed out to a nice State Park 10 miles from the dealership. That way if there are any problems we can be at the dealer first thing in the morning.

After setting up, having dinner, showering and watching part of a movie on the bedroom DVD we're ready for bed. No problems yet.

Tomorrow we get more organized, read manuals and test everything.

Our only complaint? Air condoning that is struggling to cool everything down in the 90 degree Texas heat.

Good to hear everything is working well so far. Do you have 13.5k or 15k a/c? We use a windshield sunscreen and run a fan which helps keep things cooler. We also insulated the a/c unit itself.

[SkipnTerri]

One more idea. I've talked to a couple of people who have removed the vents and found insulation and styrofoam scraps which block air flow. Also the last portion of ducting just goes into the front cap, so they put a piece of styrofoam in to terminate the path and say the air output increased greatly. Also did the same thing to the air outlet above the bedroom. I'm going to try this myself today.

[Creativepart]

Here it is noon after our first night-not only did everything work, we had a HUGE thunderstorm with maybe 3 in of rain and NO LEAKS. Yeah!

Around midnight the A/C finally shut off when it finished cooling and ran normally. Today it seems to be keeping up OK. I should add as spoiled Texans we like it between 69 and 70.

So far everything is roses and branch water.

[Creativepart]

Originally Posted by SkipnTerri

Good to hear everything is working well so far. Do you have 13.5k or 15k a/c? We use a windshield sunscreen and run a fan which helps keep things cooler. We also insulated the a/c unit itself.

We have the 15K A/C. An outside window cover for the truck cab is first on our list for Monday.

[Rocket City Gary]

The one 15K A/C will always struggle in the summer in 90 plus heat. You will only be able to make small improvements to your cooling function, like those suggested above. Parking in the shade of course is the biggest difference maker. You do know that your fan has 2 speeds, Lo and Hi? I run the A/C fan continuously on high during the day and low at night. I never set the fan on Auto using the A/C. I only use the Auto function with the furnace during the winter.

[Creativepart]

I'm not aware of the two speed fan. Perhaps I'm just seeing the "AU" for auto and not attempting to cycle through other settings. I'll take a look.

We have the RV in our driveway for the past 2 days, adding some items to the interior and it's been 91. We have a 30 amp plug installed in our garage so we have the RV plugged in and the A/C running. The first day it was very slow lowering the temp but today, it's 90 again and the A/C is keeping up just fine. I was just in there and it's 70 degrees according to our inside thermometer.

The A/C mostly seems to not be able to cool the RV down very quickly.

Our previous Travel Trailer was an Arctic Fox and they are super insulated for winter travel. The 13.5 btu A/C could cool that thing down in 2 hours. Of course it was about 4 feet shorter.

[Rocket City Gary]

Mine will only get down to 70 at about 3am. On a hot day it won't get lower than 80 inside. On my 2014 3051 you cycle thru the fan speeds with the control on "Fan" setting, not "Cool" setting. That speed then is used for all 4 choices" fan, cool, furnace, heat pump, until I reset it to another speed.

[RamblerGuy]

To help reduce the heat load when we arrive at a campground in hot weather, I raise the engine compartment hood. The engine heat can go out there instead of through the poorly insulated doghouse and firewall.

Also, I flip the overcab bed down and hang a blanket behind the seats. This helps reduce heat from the cab. I do the same during cold weather. It looks tacky but it makes a difference.

If it's really hot, you can run the coach A/C with the generator in addition to the cab A/C as you drive to your campground to have a head start on cooling it down.