Being new to RV I recently purchase a 2012 Forest River 21RR toy hauler and I want to share what I have done and learned so far and do a review sort of…
I know nothing about RVing but I am trying to learn as I go…
I bought the base model or it has very few upgrades, the price was a major factor in the purchase decision plus it will haul my goldwing and that is what I wanted it for.
I have made a few changes and they are as follows:
On the exterior the drain hose is mounted on the rear underside of the trailer far from the holding tank drain. You almost have to crawl underneath to gain access to it so I made a couple simple brackets from 3/16x2 flat stock and relocated it next to the holding tank drain. It is mounted at an angle so when the hose it returned it drains and it is right there so access is easy.
The battery supplied is a group 24 deep cycle which was replaced with 2 GC2 golf cart batteries in battery boxes. The taller boxes just fit so installation was easy with the exception of the spacing that supports the box. The brackets were spaced too far apart for either battery and they “slip between the cracks”. Adding another piece of flatstock narrowed the gap and the battery is now well supported. Boondocking with the supplied battery would make for a dark night quickly.
Exterior lighting is fine except for the “porch” light… more later.
Crawling under the trailer the battery supply cable goes to a pair of resettable circuit breakers. The lead from the battery was on the post from the breaker but the retaining nut was missing with no sign of it ever being there.
The roof looked fine with no problems and I have added 3 solar panels wired in series with the leads going down the refrigerator vent and to an MPPT charge controller mounted under the stove.
On the interior I noticed all the overhead lights (and porch light) would get too hot to touch after 10 minutes use and I can’t help but wonder is this a safety hazard?
The bulbs draw 1.7 amps each and are now being changed out to a 48 led warm white light mounted on a small panel that sticks to the existing light. These draw .5 amps each
I added a range vent while into everything and found it is not prewired but got power from the light above the sink. Installation was straightforward but terrifying cutting holes in the side of the trailer.
A 1000 watt pure sine inverter was added under the bed storage and I ran the output to an automatic transfer switch which I mounted on the back of the power distribution center. Oddly enough the switch I found is made by the same company as the power center. Since 1000 watts doesn’t power everything, I wanted to heat just the outlets but found the converter, outlets and refrigerator are on the same circuit. I had to add another circuit breaker, run a separate supply to the refrigerator outlet and remove/splice the existing romex at that outlet and now the outlets, converter and refrigerator are all on separate breakers with the outlets being powered from the inverter or shore power via the transfer switch. Works great for watching TV in the middle of nowhere! All penetrations were sealed with one part urathane
At the stereo there is a small storage area above it, put stuff in there make a right turn and it is all on the floor. A simple door cured that (Hey ForestRiver….A simple door!!!)
NO silverware drawer because the sink invades the space where it would go by 1/3 and a blank cover is there. So not being a carpenter and very fortunate I still have all my fingers after I finished I made one 2/3 width with a door that is the same width as the 2 drawers beneath it. Plastic silverware fits perfectly sideways in the drawer and now I can feed 200 without reloading! Couldn’t match the existing pulls but got real close…
COLOR matching on the wood is impossible and must be top secret what it is… MAYBE using readily available colors from a major stain company could be in order ForestRiver????
The linoleum floor is a joke and tore from stopping the bike on my first try loading it.
A rubber coin floor in the cargo area will fix this.
Overall I am really happy with my purchase, I have a half dozen uses on t now and ecerything seems to work well. The factory could have done a few very simple things to make the trailer better (door/drawer) but it is good the way it is.
A friend looked at it and went and bought one for himself. We made most of the same changes I did to mine and he too is happy.
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Brand newbie with a new rv!
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