Salem Hemisphere 282RK

[Uncle Buck]

Originally Posted by Teamfour

Our 2014 has the air mattress. It is a pain but soooo comfortable.

The 2016 has the pull out hide-a-bed, no air mattress.

[HalfBubbleOff]

Originally Posted by jimmy54

Uncle Buck...Congrads on your purchase.
Here are some tips and recommendations to have your dealer add before you take delivery:
1. Add a battery disconnect switch on the negative battery connection. This will avoid battery draining from parasite circuits while in storage!
2. Add roof vent cover to the bathroom vent. Can then leave vent open when raining.
3. Add "T" valve at the water pump to make it easier to winterize. ( if applicable)
4. If you plan to travel a lot....Consider having spare mounted under trailer instead of rear bumper to reduce rear end weight and sway. Not sure what this costs, but think it would be worth it.
5. Be sure to get a weight distribution hitch with sway control as 35' is a long trailer.
6. Get water pressure valve for hose connection and surge protector for power.
7. Get wheel jocks and be sure always chocked before unhitching!
8. Add AC outlet below kitchen counter.
9. If you have outside kitchen with bar fridge & sink...ask if drawer or cabinet can be added.
10. Get a 100' coaxial TV cable as connection is at rear of trailer and a lot of campgrounds the pedestal will be at the opposite end.
Same applies for power cable..25' to 50' extension cord sometimes needed.
11. Spare fuses

Be sure to have dealer show you during delivery inspection:
1. Manual operation of slide, awning, leveling jacks and front hitch jack . (in case you ever lose battery power)
2. Hot water bypass access and winterize procedure.
3. Black and grey water dumping
4. Hitching and unhitchin
5. Check all of the fender support brackets under trailer as have had problem with these breaking. (attaches from frame to fiberglass fenders)

Some of this may seem obvious, but wished I had thought of when I bought instead of discovering on my own. Hope this is of some help.

Why would the disconnect switch be on the negative side and not the positive side?

[retiredcamper47]

This has been discussed before on the forum. I believe the majority have it installed on the positive side. I, for one, have it on the positive side. In my opinion, it makes more sense to do it this way.

Bob

[HalfBubbleOff]

Thanks Bob, to me it will work either way, but if you break the positive, then there is no power anywhere.

Ron

[MIRAIDERFAN]

My wife & I are picking up the 2017 282RK in 2 days and are very excited. We are just getting tired of going with all of our friends and sleeping on their dinette sets, Uhg! This will be our very first camper ever! You should see the long list of items my wife has that she is going to buy to furnish this thing, lol. I just want my NFL Sunday ticket!
I have been in the electrical trade for over 30 years and am very savvy and handy when it comes to all kinds of handy construction type work. I feel very confident in the research that we have done in picking out the right TT for us.
Going through some of these comments sure does help with things that I may want to add right away, but most of them I should be able to handle myself. I really like the X-Chock idea, do they work well and replace the typical chocks? And I could use some tips on how or what’s needed for DirecTV?

I would however like to ask that if anyone has done anything different to their outside kitchen to please post pictures. This was the one part of the trailer that I’m not jumping for joy about. I was thinking I’d like to do something different to it but don’t want to void any warranties. Any ideas?

Thank you, Ronnie!
Michigan

[HalfBubbleOff]

Ronnie, welcome to the 282RK family. We just picked up ours a few weeks ago. One change that I was going to do to our outdoor kitchen is to put the small refrigerator on an inverter. The inverter would be placed by the battery, maybe in the storage compartment by the light, and the 120 volt cord would run from there to the outdoor kitchen and an outlet installed. This way while traveling we can keep cold beverages and fruit available at the rest stops. This keeps you from opening the slide out to get to the inside fridge.

I too have an electrical background.

Ron

[jimmy54]

Originally Posted by HalfBubbleOff

Why would the disconnect switch be on the negative side and not the positive side?

Hi-
I switched the battery negative lead as is recommended practice to always disconnect the negative first followed by the positive lead when working on or removing a battery. This is primarily to prevent the possibility of shorting the positive lead to chassis ground with negative still connected. (i.e. no sparking as there is no current flow to battery negative once disconnected to chassis)
Yes - Switching the positive lead with the disconnect switch will also work for the purposes of breaking the circuit and not draining the battery while in storage; but for the above safety reason is better to switch the negative. This also makes it easier when removing the battery for the winter and general maintenance.

[mguymon]

Ronnie , just curious, can your top pantry door open all the way? We have a 2016 model and our top pantry door only opens about 75 degrees. Had to put my crock pots up there
Also we needed to get cupboard bar for the cupboards
This prevents doors to open while traveling
Good luck and enjoy

[MIRAIDERFAN]

I'm picking my 2017 up in two days. As soon as I do I will update you all on the pantry door. I didn't notice this when we looked at it. Didn't realize there was the issue until I got on here.

[mguymon]

It's not a big issue, but FR told us it would be corrected in 2017. Just a little inconvenient. ALWAYS check doors when putting slide out. The doors will com open at some point.

[MIRAIDERFAN]

So who offers the best extended warranty?

[Seachaser186]

Really love ours. We just upgraded from a 185RB.

[MIRAIDERFAN]

Update one the pantry door! “No” they didn’t fix the issue. When I brought it up to the guy who did my walk through he was well aware of it and just shook his head. Myself, I’m not going to let it get to me.

Here’s what gets to me:
1) Why is it that in 2017 I can’t get a radio with Bluetooth capability?
2) Why can’t I shut any of my A/C supply vents off so that I can get more air pushed to certain areas if I want? Like say the bedroom which gets almost no air at all.

Oh, and they also did away with the central vac system. Over-all we are pleased. I believe I can fix the items above myself and get everything working like I want.

[HalfBubbleOff]

Originally Posted by MIRAIDERFAN

Update one the pantry door! “No” they didn’t fix the issue. When I brought it up to the guy who did my walk through he was well aware of it and just shook his head. Myself, I’m not going to let it get to me.

Here’s what gets to me:
1) Why is it that in 2017 I can’t get a radio with Bluetooth capability?
2) Why can’t I shut any of my A/C supply vents off so that I can get more air pushed to certain areas if I want? Like say the bedroom which gets almost no air at all.

Oh, and they also did away with the central vac system. Over-all we are pleased. I believe I can fix the items above myself and get everything working like I want.

You can get a Bluetooth transmitter and make your radio Bluetooth capable. I recently bought one from Amazon for $28 from Tao Tronics and it works great to Bluetooth some speakers in my bedroom TV with a noisy AC.

[Uncle Buck]

Good ideas! Hopefully some RV manufacturers are reading these posts. After all, why put 2017 on a new trailer if its identical to a 2016, or even 2015?

I like the idea of being able to close vents, our bathroom is cold early in the AM.

Bluetooth is nice but I don't use the radio that much. Speakers in the bedroom would be nice thou. Also have you used the radio for your TV speakers? Had to turn the radio up to 30 to hear them over the AC on low fan.

A 120 outlet in the kitchen (not in the appliance garage) would be nice too.

[mguymon]

I certainly agree with you when you said it would be nice forest River read our post.

[retiredcamper47]

Uncle Buck, did you check for 120v outlets on the bottom side of your overhead kitchen cabinets? Mine has 2 outlets, one on each side of the window.

Haven't experienced any overhead kitchen cabinet doors opening while traveling, but the wife puts a small bungie cord thru the cabinet handles "just in case". So what if the top pantry door doesn't open wide completely, it stores any and everything we use. If you need a door opening larger than what's provided, that is what the pass thru storage bay is for!

Bob

[Uncle Buck]

No outlets over the counter below the cabinets so I made a hole from the appliance garage and ran a surge strip through it.

[Seachaser186]

As far as the pantry door, not sure what they could do except modify the cap molding on the slide. There is only so much you can fit in the width of a rectangle. It doesn't seem to be a issue with us but that outlet in the cabinet on the rear countertop is pretty useless.

[john5646]

Added microwave to our 272 rl, outside kitchen.
Considered the 282 that's rear kitchen correct?
Good luck and congrats.