New 365 Saq owner

[Rufinit]

My last camper was a 1995 29' prowler bumper pull so this is quite a upgrade. I've always had gooseneck trailers but this is my first 5th wheel. I have the B&W with Companion.

I went and picked this up from RV Wholesalers in Ohio which was 1800 miles from my home. So my 1st night coming home I park at the truckstop and realize I can't turn on the furnace because I can't put out the slides so no heat. The other thing I notice is I can't find the kitchen light switch for the 12volt lights, why isn't there one by the door? Really it's in the command center cabinet? Seriously? So I guess I will be adding a switch to the cabinet for the command center so you find it in the dark.

The 2nd night I parked at Walmart so I could have heat. I turned on the heat and it was barley blowing and was not warming the unit. So I turned on all 3 stove burners and got it up to 60. The furnace was not able to maintain that and it ran non stop for 8 hrs. I can't believe there is only one vent per room, especially the living room it is huge. When I got home and plugged it in and the fan was blowing much harder so I think the 1 battery that came with it was not up to the task. To be fair is was 18 degrees in Spearfish.

Other than these issues I love the camper, I have noticed there are no 12 volt plugs anywhere. I will have to add a couple to the entertainment center for device charging. Does anyone know if the 12 volt lights in the living room and bedroom are led? I tried pulling one out in the bedroom but it felt like I was going to break it. I'm going to have to add a inverter and 4 6volt batteries to operate everything , we mainly dry camp. I was pleasantly surprised by the Fall package that had the memory foam King sized bed. The upgraded hitch was great although I have nothing to judge it against. The hydraulic jacks work great although I can't add the stabilizers to them. Does everyone recommend adding legs to the lower flip up bunk?

This thing was a dream to pull even though it is 13' tall. I mainly drove 65-70 and avg 8mpg's with a pretty steady 15-20 mph head wind. High was 9.7 and low was 6.9 man am I sick of the wind!! This thing looks huge next to my house. I can't wait to get out and start camping.

[Wiscampsin]

Congrats on your 2013 365 SAQ. A word of caution and safety, NEVER use your gas cooktop as a souce of heat. Last thing we want is to lose a FROG member . You might want to take off the heat registers and use a mirror and flashlight to try to see if there is anything blocking the heat vents.

[Rufinit]

I know it's not approved but I was desperate. I only left them on for about an hour.

[supercab79]

Ruf the battery thing is a major set back, if you plug in while operating anything 12volt you can here what I think is a huge bump in power once the invert-er kicks in. This I know is normal but with one battery and a smaller one at that, the difference in power is huge compared to all my old dual battery units. Second climb into your basement from the passenger side and remove the carpeted panel from the back of the water control panel. That's where the furnace is located all the feeds are 4 inch silver dryer vent hose and they do a totally crappy job installing them from the factory. I had to drastically shorten all of mine the worst one I cut out almost 4'of kinked twisted hose the 2 others a good 2 feet and the 4th maybe 18 inches but it helped with flow a lot and cleaned up the inside of that service area a bunch. And yes that damn kitchen switch is just plain ridiculous inside a glass door-ed control panel. Dont have one too many and stumble you'll cut your arm off falling into the cabinet trying to turn the lights on. (kidding) Its a damn shame though we are having a ton of little B/S problems with ours and our dealer !!!!SUCKS!!!! but as many on here have said this floor plan is awesome. If Forest River just spent a few more mins on quality control they would seriously have the market cornered with this unit. Did you get the 6k or 7k axles on your unit?

Good Luck Marc

[Rufinit]

Mine has the 6k axles. Here is the weight slip of it empty except for the full lpg tanks. I will look into the routing of dryer hose. I already have those panels removed and i'm impressed with the room under there. It will be easy to add the 12volt outlets.

This floor plan is awesome I'm willing to do some work fixing things because I hope to have this along time. Is the front floor where the batteries sit strong enough for a 150lb generator? Or do they reinforce it with the gen prep package?

[Lynkage]

This!
Also you can partialy block the shorter runs to force more air down the longer runs. I think this is a problem with ALL new units.
Hope all goes well and Congrats!

Originally Posted by supercab79

Ruf the battery thing is a major set back, if you plug in while operating anything 12volt you can here what I think is a huge bump in power once the invert-er kicks in. This I know is normal but with one battery and a smaller one at that, the difference in power is huge compared to all my old dual battery units. Second climb into your basement from the passenger side and remove the carpeted panel from the back of the water control panel. That's where the furnace is located all the feeds are 4 inch silver dryer vent hose and they do a totally crappy job installing them from the factory. I had to drastically shorten all of mine the worst one I cut out almost 4'of kinked twisted hose the 2 others a good 2 feet and the 4th maybe 18 inches but it helped with flow a lot and cleaned up the inside of that service area a bunch. And yes that damn kitchen switch is just plain ridiculous inside a glass door-ed control panel. Dont have one too many and stumble you'll cut your arm off falling into the cabinet trying to turn the lights on. (kidding) Its a damn shame though we are having a ton of little B/S problems with ours and our dealer !!!!SUCKS!!!! but as many on here have said this floor plan is awesome. If Forest River just spent a few more mins on quality control they would seriously have the market cornered with this unit. Did you get the 6k or 7k axles on your unit?

Good Luck Marc

[Campnfireman]

Originally Posted by Rufinit

Mine has the 6k axles. Here is the weight slip of it empty except for the full lpg tanks. I will look into the routing of dryer hose. I already have those panels removed and i'm impressed with the room under there. It will be easy to add the 12volt outlets.

This floor plan is awesome I'm willing to do some work fixing things because I hope to have this along time. Is the front floor where the batteries sit strong enough for a 150lb generator? Or do they reinforce it with the gen prep package?

Rufinit,
So this is your actual dry weight? I'm looking at the same camper and we have a deposit down on it but I'm kind of nervous about the weight, length, and height lol. That weight makes me feel a lot better. What are you pulling with?

[Rufinit]

This was totally dry with a full tank of diesel and just me. I have a 2006 dodge mega cab 5.9. I'm over the gvw but inline with chrysler axle ratings. I do have air bags. I was running 30lbs in the airbags in that photo I will try 40lbs and see if I get a little weight moved forward. This thing tows very nicely.

[Campnfireman]

I know the brochure says dry weight of 12,800 and honestly that has me a little nervous. I'l be towing with a 2006 F350 SRW. Ive already checked on airbags for just for some added peace of mind. The truck will not be overweight its just that I dont want to be that close to my max. We never dry camp so I will only be carrying minimum water in the fresh tank for a emergency roadside stop. I just like your weight pics a lot more than the numbers they put out. Thats really the only thing that has been holding me back.

[Rufinit]

My dry weight was 12638 according to the sticker which was pretty close. I would definitely upgrade to the 7k axles.

[Campnfireman]

Well the one we have a deposit on is sitting on the lot. It has the signature package which has all the upgrades we were wanting. So as it sits right now it has 6k axles and I dont think they will swap them out

[Rufinit]

This is option list on mine. I'm not to worried about the 6k axles but I would get them if I could.
Color: Saddle
Options:
12V Deep Cycle Battery
Signature Package: Serta Mattress w/Memory Foam, Leather La-Z-Boy Recliner (where available), Docking Station w/By Pass, High Gloss Gelcoated Fiberglass Exterior, Surround Sound System, Jensen 32 inch Television, Jensen AM/FM CD/DVD Player, Fantastic Fan in Bathroom, Tri Fold Hide-A-Bed, One Touch Dometic Electric Awning, 15K Air Conditioner, Wire and Brace for 2nd AC (ducted), Residential Pullout Kitchen Faucet, 10 Gallon G/E Water Heater W/DSI, 16 inch Spare Tire Kit, Aluminum Wheels, Washer/Dryer Prep, 10,000 Gallon Water Filter System, Wood Plank BeauFlor, Aerodynamic Fiberglass Front Cap

Fall Bonus Package: Hydrolift Landing Gear, Equaflex Suspension, Roto-flex Hitch Pin, Painted Front Cap, Rear Electric Stabilizer Jacks, Friction Entrance Door, Dual Zone A/C Prep, Central Vacuum System
Solid Surface Countertops
King Bed In Place of Queen
All Weather Exterior Kitchen
Second Air Conditioner in Bedroom
R-38 Radiant Insulation Package
Dealer Prep - FREE!
RVWholesalers Nationwide Service Network
MSRP was close to 58k I paid $37471 out the door. Just for comparison.

[Campnfireman]

That is exactly all the options ours is coming with. Right now the dealer has us at 38,500. Im hoping he will come down on the price. Im not very good at negotiating, our camper we have now was bought from some friends at a steal so no negotiating went on. Ours does have the mocha interior instead of the saddle. All the negative comments about the axles not being up to par have us a little gun shy on it.

[bodzcampers]

Have a 34'TT (Cherokee). Light switches very convenient by doors, entranceways, etc. BUT (isn't there always one?).....the slide button is right next to the living room light button. No difference in feel, so once in a while I inadvertently start closing the slides. Thinking of putting a bubble top over that button that requires you to lift up the bubble to access the slide button to avoid that mishap. Ironically, learned of this at work in a hospital. The Code button was right next to the bathroom light button. Many Many false alarms until they installed the bubble caps over the code button.

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Campnfireman

Rufinit,
So this is your actual dry weight? I'm looking at the same camper and we have a deposit down on it but I'm kind of nervous about the weight, length, and height lol. That weight makes me feel a lot better. What are you pulling with?

It looks like his dry weight is very close to the advertised weight. The axle weight from the second scale was 10-thousand-something. You then need to determine the pin weight (by subtracting the two drive axle weights unless there is weight pushed to the front axle - in which case, add that in). That was 2,300 or so. Adding the trailer axle weight plus the pin weight gives you something in the high twelve-thousand range - which is fairly close to advertised. (Sorry for the generalizations on the numbers- I'm on my phone and can't switch to the message to see the actual numbers.)

If you want to find out if you'll be ok and within the ratings of your truck- lately there have been a few great threads on payload capacity and how it works together.

[golfmedik]

Congrats on the 365s! As we have found, some of them are coming in close to what is advertised, however once options are added, the weight adds up quickly. Some of them as we all know, are way over the advertised weight. What is bothering me a little now, is a couple of forum members have PM'd about the quality of workmanship in the newest of campers. There have been several that stated with a little supervision at the factory, they could stop 90% of the complaints with workmanship. Here at home, we've had problems with a couple of slides being out of adjustment that the dealers are being very cautious of adjusting. What is even more funny is the fact that some of the 365 owners around here are finding that they are not getting any satisfaction at the dealer they bought the rig from, so they are going to other dealers that do warranty work on FR products to have the work done. One of the members here that had some work done in the axle department, came home without the frame and parts not even being painted. Things like this are driving people nuts. I wonder if the popularity of this unit has gone up so much that they are building them too quickly at the expense of quality control? I know we will all have something that we will have to have repaired at one time or another, but some of the reports are concerning. I know of two more in the SE in the last couple of weeks that have been ordered with 7k axles due to several options being added.
Overall, I still believe these are very good rigs. All makers will have a few problems, but several of these should be caught at the factory. My advice to the ones that have weighed these units while dry, FR stated they make them with an 1800 pound cargo carrying capacity, so watch your empty weights. Also, realize that these units are made to sleep several people, and each of those people carry things to camp that are not in the camper all of the time. So when loaded to camp, weigh it then so you will know where you stand. Good luck your 365s as I still believe it the best floor plan out there right now. You can tell that by how many have started to copy it nowadays!

[Campnfireman]

Originally Posted by ependydad

It looks like his dry weight is very close to the advertised weight. The axle weight from the second scale was 10-thousand-something. You then need to determine the pin weight (by subtracting the two drive axle weights unless there is weight pushed to the front axle - in which case, add that in). That was 2,300 or so. Adding the trailer axle weight plus the pin weight gives you something in the high twelve-thousand range - which is fairly close to advertised. (Sorry for the generalizations on the numbers- I'm on my phone and can't switch to the message to see the actual numbers.)

If you want to find out if you'll be ok and within the ratings of your truck- lately there have been a few great threads on payload capacity and how it works together.

Thank you for clearing that up for me. Still learning all these things. Makes more sense now. Ependydad do you have a 365saq, if so what do you pull with?

[ependydad]

Originally Posted by Campnfireman

Thank you for clearing that up for me. Still learning all these things. Makes more sense now. Ependydad do you have a 365saq, if so what do you pull with?

I do not. I have a Sabre that is the same length and ballpark weight. There were some things on the 365 that we weren't crazy about. But- I do like the floorplan with the kitchen reversed better than mine.

I pull with a Dodge Ram 3500 dual rear wheel truck. It has a long bed and the 4.10 gears for the extra pulling power.

I recently took it to the local scales to get an idea of our weights and to ensure that I was within all my ratings. It was a very enlightening experience:
http://learntorv.blogspot.com/2013/0...at-scales.html

I also posted about that here and there was some good discussion. This blog post came afterwards and partially summarizes what I learned.

My recommendation is that you need a 350/3500 truck to pull this and even strongly suggest a DRW truck. But, there are folks pulling with less and making educated (I hope) choices to do so- it's just not for me.

[Rufinit]

So I figured out I have 20 watt g4 light bulbs. Has anyone found a good led replacement for them?

[Rufinit]

Well I have been busy customizing the new camper. I bought a 4 battery box and drilled a hole in the lid to utilize the stock vent. I also cut in a lower hole to tie into the lower vent hole.

The next thing that drove me crazy was the light switch was in the cabinet with the control panel. There was a switch on the wall that controlled the light above the tv. I 1st pulled the panel in the cabnet and then pulled the 110 volt receptacle out of the the wall and pulled the 12 volt light switch. There is a stud between the 2 holes so I drilled a 1/2 hole through the stud and pulled a double wire from the control panel down to the 110 receptacle and through the hole to the 12 volt light switch. On the negative wire I put a male spade at the switch and a female spade at the control panel. On the positive wire I put and male spade at the control panel and a female at the light switch. I then unplugged the non blue wire from each switch and put my double wire inline with the wires. Now I can use the light switch in the wall to control the main lights and the switch in the panel controls the Tv light.