2017 Rockwood 2306 Upgrades

maccve · 03-20-2017, 09:56 AM

We purchased our 2306 about a year ago and used it as-is all last year. After reading a few threads on different upgrades the last few months, I decided to spend a little money doing a few more upgrades to ours. I put a bike bunk on the front of ours last year and have a thread about that if interested...

http://www.forestriverforums.com/for...-a-114794.html

Anyway, my plans for this spring are the following:

Progressive Industries EMS-HW30C electrical management system
New Kitchen Faucet with Retractable Sprayer
New Bathroom Faucet (High enough to be usable)
New Queen Mattress
New Shower Sprayer

I found the EMS-HW30C for a good price on Ebay and started the install this weekend...a separate thread will follow.

Thanks to some lighting deals on Amazon on some cheaply priced Chinese made plumbing fixtures over the last month, I have acquired all of the above listed fixtures. I didn't want to put a ton of money in the camper with really nice Moen fixtures or something as we may sell it for a bigger camper sometime in the foreseeable future. I may start the plumbing install tonight after de-winterizing the camper.

The mattress was acquired from Overstock.com...I read quite a few reviews on it on different forums and thought it was the best bang for the buck, but there are a ton of options out there.

Anyway, I hope this thread helps people out in some way as I sure appreciate all of the threads I have researched over the years with our original pop-up and now this travel trailer!

maccve · 03-20-2017, 10:04 AM

As a quick side-note, this is the kitchen faucet/sprayer that I originally purchased to put in the camper. As you can see, it is NOT in the camper. It was a little too tall...I had previously installed a paper towel roll above the sink and this thing was almost touching it...thus, decided to put it in our house kitchen! It is really nice and was very easy to install.... I got it on an Amazon Lightning Deal and a cover plate for about $64.

maccve · 03-20-2017, 10:27 AM

I started installing the EMS over the weekend, but had limited time due to being crazy busy. I had originally planed to purchase one of the EMS's that plug into the outside campground outlet, but thought that would be a VERY easy thing to steal and decided it would make more sense to hard wire one in on the inside.

The electrical enters the camper underneath the storage area between the stove and bunks, so I unscrewed the door from the lower area and looked inside. As your can see from the picture, there is a single orange 10-2 wire. It had a loop in it with some extra and my first thought was to cut it and install the EMS inside the space, but that is a VERY TIGHT space.

I decided to go to the hardware storage and purchase a few feet of wire and unscrewed the plug from the outside and attach the new wire to it and made sure it was long enough that I could work on the EMS from inside the camper.

The second picture shows hooking up the new wire input and the existing camper wire output. I hooked it all up and tested it and it worked! Tonight, I hope to attach the box to the inside of this area...I will probably try to put it up on a wall just in case there would ever be a plumbing leak.

FYI...If I ever sell the camper and want to keep this for a new one, it would be really easy to unhook it and just hook the original wire back into the exterior plug. Also, this thing makes a humming noise...hopefully it will be somewhat muted when inside the enclosed area...of course, a lot of times the A/C may be running and you will never hear it, but I was surprised how loud it was. Also, the display is pretty cool...it shows any error codes, the amperage being used and the Line frequency!

andymil · 03-20-2017, 05:18 PM

Probably a good idea to keep it off of the floor if you can.

You might want to use some stand-offs when you mount it so air can circulate around the EMS box. The relay gets warm.

maccve · 03-20-2017, 09:21 PM

I de-winterized the camper before finishing the EMS installation since I had a nice sunny and warm evening to work. Plus, I am going camping Wednesday thru Friday of this week so I needed to get it ready anyway. I decided to take off and go to Bennett Springs here in Missouri and do a little trout fishing.

I had to get the cover off of the camper to begin with and since I had to get the ladder out to get up on top of the camper I decided to clean the roof since I did not do it last fall before covering it up.

The dealer said I should clean it at least twice a year and recommended I use the cheap stuff they sell at Dollar General...Simple Green I think...anyway, got a bucket full of hot water, the soap and a scrub brush and got to work scrubbing...glad I did as it really needed it! Here is the finished product...almost needed sunglass as it was so white and bright in the sun!

maccve · 03-20-2017, 10:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by andymil

Probably a good idea to keep it off of the floor if you can.

You might want to use some stand-offs when you mount it so air can circulate around the EMS box. The relay gets warm.

Thanks for the advice, however, I did not listen...

It was a bear to work in the little space and the wooden side walls are so thin, I was worried about putting it on those, so decided to put it on the floor.

The unit is a solid plastic box and the only holes are where the wires go in and out which are a good inch or two above the floor. The cover on top is actually held on with 6 screws and has a rubber seal around it, so I thought the odds of it getting wet were somewhat slim and decided the water would have to get really deep in the camper to get into the unit.

As for the heat, I tried to center it in the open space and it should have pretty good air flow, so I feel pretty comfortable for now...I can always move it if I see any issues.

As for the remote monitor, I placed it below the access door to this area. I drilled a hole just big enough to get the wire through and placed it in the upper right corner. This location cannot be seen unless you are laying on the floor.

I have attached a few pictures!

clintbonnie73 · 03-21-2017, 03:03 PM

For us dummies and don't have a clue for EMS will do for you..found this and copies from Amazon;

Progressive Industries Portable Electrical Management Systems (EMS) provide full RV protection against all adverse power conditions. You will feel secure with multi-mode surge, voltage, polarity and lost/open neutral protection. Each unit includes a digital display, scrolling continuously through the power source information: Voltage(s), current, frequency, error code, and previous error code (if applicable). Replacement parts are simply plug-and-play, making repairs quick and easy. As with our portable models, the computer is driven by state of the art microprocessors. Should the software ever change, EMS owners can receive a free upgrade at no cost.

maccve · 03-21-2017, 03:25 PM

Thanks for the information Clintbonnie73! Just a little background on my history with RV electrical protection. I had a very nice pop-up camper for a couple of years with an A/C on the roof and I never used any sort of surge protection. Luckily, I never had any problems.

When we decided to purchase our Rockwood, I thought I should do a little more than nothing, so I purchased a Camco 55310 (Power Defenderâ„¢ Voltage Analyzer - Camco)
It would analyze the circuit to ensure it was properly wired and would provide some protection against a power surge, but that was it. We used that on all of our camping trips last year.

My research over the winter showed that one of the biggest problems which can damage RV's is a voltage drop. A surge protector does not protect against that. I found the Progressive Industries EMS units...it protects against about everything you could have a problem with. I decided it was a worthwhile investment to protect the sensitive electronics in our Rockwood. I went with the interior hard-wired unit to minimize the risk of theft and have one less thing I need to pull out and hook up at the campground.

clintbonnie73 · 03-21-2017, 03:52 PM

Sounds like a great idea .. will be purchasing a unit soon.. thx..

Tbates · 03-21-2017, 04:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clintbonnie73

Sounds like a great idea .. will be purchasing a unit soon.. thx..

I have upgraded to a 50 amp unit, so I have a Progressive Industries EMS‑PT30C Portable Surge Protector 30 amp unit for sale.

maccve · 03-21-2017, 05:42 PM

Semper Fi Tbates! I was in from '88 to '92!

Tbates · 03-21-2017, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maccve

Semper Fi Tbates! I was in from '88 to '92!

73-77 here Semper Fi

maccve · 03-21-2017, 06:07 PM

Well, the UPS guy delivered the Mattress today! Hard to believe a queen size mattress comes in this little box! Here is the mattress I purchased...FYI..I got it for $222 as it was on sale the week I purchased it. There are a lot of overstock coupons out there to get better deals.... Here is a link to the mattress:

https://www.overstock.com/Home-Garde...m_medium=email

Anyway, very impressed with the mattress so far. One thing I noticed is there is no smell...I looked at about 8 different mattress on Amazon and all of them in the reviews people complained about the smell of these memory foam mattresses...I may think differently tomorrow morning after it has sat in there all night.

I will be sleeping in it tomorrow night, so will have a review as to how it sleeps. It will probably expand a little more, but it immediately expanded to almost the full size!

53flattie · 03-22-2017, 07:48 AM

I look forward to hearing how you like it. We have a 4" topper on the bed in our 2306, and it's comfortable. But it makes latching the Murphy bed in the upright position a little tough and I don't like the prolonged pressure on those little latches.
(Not to mention its pretty heavy)

maccve · 03-22-2017, 04:57 PM

Just had to share a quick story! I arrived at the campground around 2pm this afternoon for a few days of camping and fishing. I pulled into my camp site, got everything set up and hooked up and another purchase I made this spring was a Valterra Water Pressure regulator. I pulled it out and hooked it all up and turned on the water and NOTHING.... Come to find out, the campground does not have the water turned on yet. I have been camping in RV's for 4 years now and have never used the tank and pump, as I have always stayed at campgrounds with full hookups.

Of course, I did not have my tank sanitized and ready to use...I did briefly consider doing that at home when I de-winterized the camper...but I did not. Anyway, there was a water spigot about 200 feet away. I briefly considered going to walmart and getting 200 feet of water hose and running it over to my campsite to fill up the tank, but that would not take care of sanitization. So I finally decided to head to Walmart and get some bleach and then back to the campground to hook up the camper again and take it over to the water spigot...1 1/2 hours later I had a nice full clean tank of water!

It was a good learning experience...should always be prepared to use the tank!

maccve · 03-25-2017, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 53flattie

I look forward to hearing how you like it. We have a 4" topper on the bed in our 2306, and it's comfortable. But it makes latching the Murphy bed in the upright position a little tough and I don't like the prolonged pressure on those little latches.
(Not to mention its pretty heavy)

After sleeping on the new mattress a couple of nights, I am happy to report that I am very happy with this purchase. I was a little concerned at first because when you first lay on it it feels kind of "squishy." The top layer is a little softer/squishier foam, but underneath it is pretty firm and it slept really nicely!

With the factory mattress, I would toss and turn all night because an arm would fall asleep and it would wake me up and then I would roll over and a little while later I would wake up again and roll over again... Two nights on this mattress and the only thing that woke me up was my alarm or my bladder! I even took a three hour afternoon nap one day which is very unusual for me!

The whole family is going camping next weekend, so I will see how it does with both the wife and I in it... As you can see from this picture, my dog loved it also! The front window has become his new favorite spot to oversee the campground!

maccve · 03-25-2017, 09:38 PM

Back to the other upgrades in the camper. This afternoon, I started working on the replacing the bathroom faucet. The first picture shows the ridiculously small factory faucet. I was reminded how un-user friendly it is when camping this week and trying to brush my teeth and such.

I think it was made completely of plastic. I guess that is good to hold down the weight. It was easy to remove. I did not need any tools as everything unscrewed by hand.

After removing, it was evident that the new faucet stem connections were much shorter than the factory ones. This created a problem because with the black plastic holder nuts on the new one, there was not enough threaded stem left to attach the pex plumbing.

So a quick trip to Menards and I purchased a stem extender set. When installing these, I quickly found out that...looking at the third picture....that that black plastic drain pipe that sticks up is in the way of the cold water. Also, the stem extender came with two inserts, one for each extender. One insert was not enough to bridge the gap for each stem extender, so I made a command decision to only use the stem extender on the hot water side and tighten the hold down nut only on that side. It holds the faucet in place really good... Then I attached the cold water side without any hold down nut or extender and so far so good.

I had a little bit of leakage on the first try, but made few adjustments and seems good now. I pressurized the system and will leave it over night to see if any leaks develop. As the last picture shows, this faucet is much higher and more user friendly! This is the unit I purchased on Amazon... https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Nurek · 03-26-2017, 02:32 AM

Looks like you're following all the things that I did.

maccve · 03-27-2017, 09:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nurek

Looks like you're following all the things that I did.

Yes, your thread of upgrades was very influential in my decision to do these!

maccve · 03-27-2017, 09:48 AM

I finished installing the new kitchen faucet yesterday afternoon. Then went to my in-laws for dinner and left the pump on to keep the system pressurized to check for leaks. Happily, no leaks on the kitchen faucet, but the stupid bathroom faucet keeps leaking around the stem extender...going to go to Lowes this evening and see if I can find something of a little better quality to replace what I have...

Anyway, back to the Kitchen Faucet install. After installing a similar faucet in the house kitchen, I thought this would be pretty easy. For the most part, it was...as you can see from the second picture, I had to drill a center hole.

The biggest issue I had was the big plastic nut that holds the the faucet to the counter was close to impossible to get on. It was such a tight fit that you had to have it perfectly aligned to get it to start screwing on the faucet. I even pulled it all out again to make sure it works...after an hour and finally getting my wife out to hold the faucet perfectly straight upright, we got it!

After that my next challenge was how to attach the new faucet to the existing plumbing. I knew that I would have to cut off the existing PEX tubing down lower to attach the new connectors. I decided to get some push on fittings with shut off valves and connect to the PEX tubing. I have had good luck with these push on fittings...even installed a new water heater a couple of months ago using these to re-plumb for the different size heater.

Everything looks great and I know it will be nice having that sprayer when doing the dishes! Here is a link to the faucet I purchased on Amazon (another Lightning Deal) for comparison. It seems like pretty good quality...

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

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