Carly arrived this afternoon, home to her well prepared parking space.
The PDI went very well. The tech had thought of most things on my checklist. The only thing I had to get on them about was the placement of the velcro for the add a room. It was, he said, only the second they had done and the first for his assistant, who did the actual install. It would have helped if the installer had read the manual, but he's a guy, so.... Anyway, because of the posts many of you have made about the add a room, I knew to where to look and in the end is was correct.
When I arrived the camper was plugged in and the AC on. After the external orientation, we went inside to enjoy the cool and look at the inside. I only found one minor cosmetic blemish in a ceiling panel and let that pass. He fired up the heat pump then the furnace until the camper got toasty. I liked the climate control thermostat.
The stereo worked and I remembered to bring a patch cord and played some music from my iPhone. It is unfortunately a Genesis 2, the one without the DVD and bluetooth. Thinking back on what some others had said, I asked him to turn the water pump on but it already was, so no leaks. The water heater lit up with no trouble.
We had fits taking down the add a room. The manual was better on set up than tear down. But it came down eventually and with some effort the zipper closed on the bag.
She fit nicely into her parking space, a bit further back than my old Coleman. The longer distance from hitch to axle was also apparent in the towing. I got up to 70 mph and jiggled the wheel several time with increasing motion. I couldn't induce any sway. Carly just slid back into her place behind my truck. The torsion bar suspension and radial tire gave her a smooth ride.
One thing that was new to me, it the dead bolt lock that is individually keyed. Another is the separate key for the outside shower, compared to all the other access locks. I can't figure out a reason for it and my initial thought is to replace the lock with a standard lock so I need one less key. I bought two blanks for the dead bolt, so I can get them cut and put on my super secret key ring.
Another puzzle was the tongue jack. It is a center mount not a swing up. The tech pulled the wheel off during hitch up and recommended I do so too lest the wheel strike the pavement and ruin the jack. That seems like a pain to me and one more thing to keep track of. Did anyone else get that recommendation?