Outlets

[bamagrad1992]

Reading another post got me worried. Ordered a 2017 FR3 29DS, rolls off line April 5th. First RV so there are a ton of details I did not catch. Wife and i loved the layout (and king bed) which is why we bought.

How many outlets can I expect to find in my RV? Got the x package of 50 amp upgrade, second AC, and full home size fridge.

Trying to plan for our electrical devices like dehumidifier, wifi range boost, Kureg, phone/computer and the like. Will be living out of RV full time for eight months.

And can we use or so recommend and outlet expander that gives more outlets like used in a home? Assume it all depends on what I plug in and don't exceed the 50amps.

Thanks!

b

[5picker]

Most all the R/V's I've owned had plenty of outlets.
They may have not all been placed perfectly where I thought they should be but all within reach.

[BooBoo23]

You can always add a power strip to plug in multiple low draw appliances, get one with a charger port.

[clr]

You will have to go through the outlet search when you receive your new RV. Congratulations by the way. Many RV AC outlets seem to be in odd places until you live in the camper a while. I would suggest looking on the bottom of all cabinets and along side the bed and above a shelf some are well hidden but work well. I use one of the plug in adapters behind the main TV that takes you from 2 out lets to 6 to accommodate things that I added later. Good luck and enjoy!

[Luannr]

Congratulations on your new Motorhome! We also have a 2017 29DS, we bought it off the lot in August so it doesn't have all the upgrades like yours.

Found an outlet by the passenger seat and under the bed as someone else posted.

FYI it doesn't come with any exhaust fans or vent covers on the roof, we installed our own. Also the bed is rock hard so be prepared to add a mattress topper. I wish there was room on the side of the bed it's so hard to get into.

We chose the 29DS over the 30DS mainly because of the bathroom setup, I prefer the shower in the bathroom.

We haven't really had a chance to use it simply because it was at the dealer for a ton of warranty repairs from October to February, planning a long trip this month. We love ours

Happy Camping
Luann

[bamagrad1992]

there are a ton of great posts on here...

but thank you Luann! yours was my favorite! its still 4 weeks or so before we take delivery and have so many questions...

bed? i was planning on using my home mattress. its 74" wide x 78" long. floorpan says 72 X 80. will it fit? or is the width so tight the extra two inches won't work?

i got the dealer to throw in a fan in the bathroom. would i need a fan for the living room too? or just a vent cover there? i hope with 2 AC units, we will have good air flow. for sure i need to order vent covers. do you know if exhaust fans normally come with vent covers?

we like the 29DS for the bathroom (shower co-located), the ability to have the toilet outside the bedroom, king bed...and we liked the "couch" set up across from the dinette so conversation with others is straight ahead of you and not to the side; if that makes sense.

one last concern - black water flush pipe is outside the coach and not in the storage bin? does that cause issues? afraid it will break from kick up from the back tires.

we have 100 things on our amazon list to get -- surge protector, extra black lines/sewer hose support, extra water hose, wi-fi extender, dehumidifier, ice maker, compact washing machine. anything that is a solid recommend? i have gotten most of our "must have" ideas from this form and u-tube. my military background makes me very OCD and never go into the unknown without a plan...

thank you all for the fabulous wealth of advice!

b

[Luannr]

About the mattress, you do know that it folds up to accommodate the slide when it is closed. When we bought ours I never looked at the bedroom, my mistake. I don't think you're home mattress would work it is tight, but you can try it, when the slide closes you have to walk sideways to get in the bedroom, I would actually like to swap our king for a queen short, just to give us more room on the sides.

We put a fan in the kitchen because the fan in the microwave doesn't vent out. We bought the fans and vent covers for the roof separately on amazon.

We had a problem with our couch the dealer never showed us how to lock it in and it would pop open every time we drove it, the dealer fixed it for us.

I will ask my husband about the black water flus pipe, we also picked up a surge protector. We have a verizon wireless router for our home internet so we are going to take it with us and see how it works.

We are going to add an extra outlet on the drivers side to plug in the gps and brake control for our tow vehicle.

I would check out the outlets for you but our RV is buried in snow.

Where are you going to put the washer?

Luann

[bamagrad1992]

i live in south central florida. what is all that white stuff on the ground next to your RV??

getting a compact portable washer. not really a dryer but it has a spin cycle. in our research, this one is at the top of our list...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JB7PSCW...78VOLQFE&psc=1

i will add a fan to the kitchen -- and getting the Maxxair vent covers. assume that is the same type covers y'all bought?

would love your solution on locking the couch kick outs. that would bug me bad

good idea on the outlet. we have a brake controller too - the patriot one. i was going to get this for the solution:

https://www.amazon.com/3-Socket-Ciga...+power+adapter

or is the plug too far away from the driver?

thanks again for all the info -- we are going from south florida to Fairbanks Alaska and back. taking 6 months to do it. taking off in july - getting RV in May. so hope we have enough time to identify all the kinks. thanks again for all the info!!

b

[KansasFR3]

Bama, What sort of WiFi extender are you going with? If your handy with computers, you should check out Ubiquiti products. We just installed a Ubiquiti Picostation on our roof along with a Ubiquiti AirRouter in the cabin (<$125). So far, it picks up signals from about 1500ft down our road from what I can tell. If you go with a more directional antenna instead of the Picostation like a Nanostation, you might get more range. We'll be going out in 2 weeks for a test run to see how it works. We also added a hard-drive to be connected to the network to play all of our digital movies over Plex App on our TVs via Amazon Fire Stick. Might do a write up later after a few trips are complete.

[Luannr]

Yes we have a lot of snow in upstate NY

I can't imagine going to Alaska, the farthest we have traveled is Disney and Texas in our old 99 Winnebago.

Yes we got the Maxxair vent covers, need the fan for when you are cooking.

As far as the black water flush pipe we have had no problems, but we only took 3 short trips with it before it went back to the dealership for warranty repairs.

As far as the couch it probably was just our unit that had the problem, if you read the forums all RVs have problems straight from the factory.

Some of ours were the ac leaked into the cab, steering wheel was crooked, heating vents were crushed, some of the molding had to be replaced, leveling jacks had to be aligned, the seal had to be replaced on the main slide, and a few minor things.

The cigarette plugs are in the center , not sure if there is one on the drivers side, the cigarette lighter splitter is a good idea.

There is a separate thread on the forums for customizing your RV, great ideas.

Luann

[bamagrad1992]

One more stupid question. How many vents in the 29DS? Bathroom and kitchen I remember seeing. Any more?

I found a wifi extender on amazon we were looking at will post up link tonight.

Thanks all!!

[wayne and sherry]

Originally Posted by bamagrad1992

i live in south central florida. what is all that white stuff on the ground next to your RV??



getting a compact portable washer. not really a dryer but it has a spin cycle. in our research, this one is at the top of our list...



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01JB7PSCW...78VOLQFE&psc=1



i will add a fan to the kitchen -- and getting the Maxxair vent covers. assume that is the same type covers y'all bought?



would love your solution on locking the couch kick outs. that would bug me bad



good idea on the outlet. we have a brake controller too - the patriot one. i was going to get this for the solution:



https://www.amazon.com/3-Socket-Ciga...+power+adapter



or is the plug too far away from the driver?



thanks again for all the info -- we are going from south florida to Fairbanks Alaska and back. taking 6 months to do it. taking off in july - getting RV in May. so hope we have enough time to identify all the kinks. thanks again for all the info!!



b

Be sure to do the CHF before you hit the road on your trip to Alaska. Also check the rear sway bar mounting bolts at the rear axle to be sure they are there and that they are tight. On my very first trip with our 2015 FR3 30DS from Minnesota to Moab, Utah and back the RV drive so so bad. When l got under it to do the CHF l saw the rear sway bar at the axle mounts were missing. Calling Ford was a joke, Ford just said they won't fix or cover missing parts. I bought the rear sway bar mounting parts and used grade 8 aircraft locking nuts with blue thread locker and since then (6,000 mi) it has not come apart. And doing the CHF made the RV drive 200% better.

[bamagrad1992]

Originally Posted by wayne and sherry

Be sure to do the CHF before you hit the road on your trip to Alaska. Also check the rear sway bar mounting bolts at the rear axle to be sure they are there and that they are tight. On my very first trip with our 2015 FR3 30DS from Minnesota to Moab, Utah and back the RV drive so so bad. When l got under it to do the CHF l saw the rear sway bar at the axle mounts were missing. Calling Ford was a joke, Ford just said they won't fix or cover missing parts. I bought the rear sway bar mounting parts and used grade 8 aircraft locking nuts with blue thread locker and since then (6,000 mi) it has not come apart. And doing the CHF made the RV drive 200% better.

Great advice. Thank you! After your post I started researching CHF and seems like a no brainer must do. And seems easy enough I can so myself with tools, flat surface. and loc tite. Blue. I assume I can use my leveling jacks to create more work space when I change the mounting locations on the sway bar for the CHF.

That research led me to wanting a safe T plus steering control stabilizer too. You think both CHF and steer stabilizer would make it double better?

Excellent inputs and thank you again!!

[drivmsafe]

Originally Posted by bamagrad1992

Great advice. Thank you! After your post I started researching CHF and seems like a no brainer must do. And seems easy enough I can so myself with tools, flat surface. and loc tite. Blue. I assume I can use my leveling jacks to create more work space when I change the mounting locations on the sway bar for the CHF.

That research led me to wanting a safe T plus steering control stabilizer too. You think both CHF and steer stabilizer would make it double better?

Excellent inputs and thank you again!!

I've done both the Safe T Plus and CHF (front & rear). Makes a world of difference.