Pimp my 19RR!

[rodcop9405]

Originally Posted by rkswyo

.

The bad thing about it is that after time it will probably settle out from vibration and you will loose the R-value. I was shocked and disapointed also, along with a few other things they did to save costs. I do however really like the trailer. Great floorplan for my needs. I looked at many others and kept coming back to the 19rr. Nice trailer for the money.

Fiberglass batting was a good idea. I never thought of that!

All in all we are very happy with it also. It is a perfect match us and our needs. We upgraded from an A-liner which also had it issues. I think all manufactures cut corner in order to be competitive with out researching the end results.

[rkswyo]

The bottom line is everything they leave off or cut corners on is another dollar in their pocket. I knew when I bought it what I was getting for the most part so I can't complain too much. I tend to re-engineer and rebuild most things I buy regardless if they are new or not! My son asked me one day," Do you ever buy anything and not rebuild it?" I had to laugh! Nope son, I guess I don't.

[hd87sportster]

Originally Posted by rodcop9405

I did run into one surprise and disappointment while working on my unit. I had the stereo on and noticed a rattling noise coming from one of the speakers so took it down. What I found was piece of scrap wire that was laying on the back of the speaker, no biggie. The surprise and disappointment was that I found roof space was filled with shredded upholstery material and chunks of foam for insulation.

Has any body else found this?

DAMN Rod...I'm kind of afraid of lookin any farther now.
As for your pix, I think you're limited to 3 maybe 4 pix per post. Knock em back a little and repost and go from there.
That last pic you posted though is more than disconcerting however!

Sportster
...kinda skeery but not surprising

[heytomgraywolf]

Originally Posted by rodcop9405

I did run into one surprise and disappointment while working on my unit. I had the stereo on and noticed a rattling noise coming from one of the speakers so took it down. What I found was piece of scrap wire that was laying on the back of the speaker, no biggie. The surprise and disappointment was that I found roof space was filled with shredded upholstery material and chunks of foam for insulation.

Has any body else found this?

I too realized I was buying an inexpensive trailer and love the 19RR floor plan, but why do they do this stuff. It would almost be better if they didn't stuff the ceiling with scraps. Kind of like those "pillows" that came on the bed, it was just the pillow sham stuffed with scraps of material. I mean, I would rather just have found the shams folded up on the bed and I would realize that I needed to furnish the pillows.

While I don't expect my 19RR to be a 4-season, full-time live in trailer like the 5th wheel I would like to own when I retire, but I did a little research on just what Cherokee-Grey Wolf claims they insulate their trailers to.

Here is what is on their website:
CONSTRUCTION FEATURES

• 3/8" Walkable Roof Decking
• Radius Truss Roof Rafters
• 5/8" Tongue and Groove Plywood Floor
• 2" x 3" Floor Joists
• Powder Coated, Rust Resistant Frame
• R7 Fiberglass Insulation
• Linoleum Front to Back
• Roto Cast (Seamless) Holding Tanks
• 12" on Average Side Wall Stud
• Galvanized Steel High Wind Bands

So, do we feel the ceiling/roof is "R7 Fiberglass Insulation" or are they talking the walls? Maybe they mean "Chunks of R7 Insulation" are dispersed throughout the ceiling!

[hd87sportster]

I don't want this thread to turn in to a bitch session. (I think there's another thread for that) We bought it for the price point and the floor plan. It meets our needs almost perfectly and its an easy pull down the road. It was a great excuse to go out and upgrade from a 6-cyl Explorer to the F-250 PSD we got now. (big boy toys)

I'm in the middle of extending the bed inside the trailer by roughly 10" so a conventional mattress will fit on it without sliding off the bottom end. This requires removing the bed frame that's screwed to the floor. The construction is 1x2's, a "bracing" 2x2 on each side and the thin sheeting veneer. Really? For a bed frame that is rated at roughly 350lbs they use 1x2's?
That said - short of rebuilding the entire frame and adding my own veneer, I'm adding reinforcement to their frame so it will be sturdier. (I'll post pics)

The foam RodCop found in the ceiling gives me pause to say the least. That said, short of ripping off the top skin and adding the reflective roll insulation they sell at hardware stores, I gotta take what the factory gives on this one...at least til one of us learns how to skin the damn thing out and post pics! (which I don't think is too far off!)

My problem is the rest of you dang DIY upgraders on here. STOP already with the mods!!! When in hell's name am I supposed to have a beer and enjoy my trailer for cryin out loud! SHEESH!!! After I finish the bed/underbed storage, my wife has me doing the sewer hose storage upgrade and the speaker upgrade in the ceiling/outside. After that...STOP!!! YER KILLIN ME HERE!!!!

Sportster
...for the love of pete...give it a rest already

[hd87sportster]

The above whiney a88ed post was meant as a tongue in cheek (completely) rant against absolutely nothing or anybody in particular. As I said in a previous post, we're really geekin out over this trailer!

Ya'll have fun - Its Polski Day here in Kansas City, Kansas so I get the day off from slavin in the "house in a box" as my wife calls it.

Sportster
...kialbasa n beer...yeah buddy!

[essness]

Allright then I wont post the speaker, sub woofer, and stereo I upgraded today.

Aww, who amI kiddin....





And the sound is outdtanding

[rkswyo]

Originally Posted by essness

Allright then I wont post the speaker, sub woofer, and stereo I upgraded today.

Aww, who amI kiddin....





And the sound is outdtanding

Looks good. Give us the specs on your new setup!

[essness]

Nothing real special, it's a Pioneer AVH-P1400DVD, so I still have my DVD functions and the fade function takes care of the inside/outside speaker switching.
It has a touch screen and much better volume control than the "Touch Audio" unit that came with it.

As you can see, I painted the mount black cause I didn't want to try to match the wood color with stain, but the mount is made from a piece of 1x8.

[WolfWhistle]

Scot,
Great tip on the white fence post. I've been debating what I should do to hold the assembled Rhino hose. I was thinking of mounting it closer to the side so crawling is not easy anymore!
Thx, Clint

[essness]

Originally Posted by WolfWhistle

Scot,
Great tip on the white fence post. I've been debating what I should do to hold the assembled Rhino hose. I was thinking of mounting it closer to the side so crawling is not easy anymore!
Thx, Clint

Thanks Clint,
I stole the idea from someone else But, I really like it. It's honestly not inconvienent where I have it mounted, the picture may make it look that way.......

[heytomgraywolf]

Sportster - I totally agree. We don't want this thread to turn into a gripe session. That's not why I started it. We all came together on Campin' Queens thread and with all the "Pimping" I was doing, I did not want to over run her thread with all these mod's. I think we all love our 19RR's for what they are and they are made that way to keep this a very afordable trailer compared to many others the same size and light. We'll keep posting those ideas. Sportster, you will just have to keep your wife from reading this thread so she doesn't give you too many "honey-do's" and you can enjoy your "House-in-a-Box".

That said, I will next post the Mod I did this morning

[heytomgraywolf]

FROM: hd87sportster:

Here's another look at our countertop over the stove...just cuz I'm kinda proud of it!

One thing we are going to do to eliminate the power strip there behind the sink, (water/electricity...yeah. not good.) is to try and add a gfi outlet either up under the oven or along that back wall by the stove. Gotta find somewhere to pull power from though.



Well thanks goes to Sportster for getting the mental juices flowing and giving me reason to once again start cutting into my 19RR for another Mod. Many of us have made removeable counter-tops for our stoves to give us more places to prepare things in the kitchen, but seeing this picture of the coffee maker and power strip caused me to think that Lucille and I are still setting up both the coffee maker and toaster to the right of the sink where the outlet is and I have not made one of those flip-up counters to the right of the sink I have been seeing lately. Sportster mentioned getting power from above in the microwave/optional Range Hood area, but I was concerned in how many obsticles I might run into in the outer wall of the trailer. I realized the wall to the left of the stove houses the fridge and there is an outside access hatch for the fridge to get to the back side of this wall. So, let the cutting begin! (note the extra hole on the top... drilled first one too close to the corner where the cover plate for my new outlet would not fit... at least the cover plate "covered" my mistake):


With the outlet mounted and cover plate on, it looks like this:


Then from the exterior fridge access panel, there is already an outlet box that the fridge plugs into. I had to relocate this outlet up some to allow clearance for one of those 3-way grounded cubes since this new outlet was going to plug into the side of this cube. While I had the outlet loose, I looked inside to see if I could just hardwire my romex into this outlet, but it is not a typical household outlet and uses insulation displacement spades and only has room for the two pieces of romex already going into this box). So this is what it looks like once the outlet is moved up some:


I will let you know after we go camping Memorial Day weekend if using the blender or coffee maker on this outlet the same time the fridge is running causes any breakers to flip, but I think it will be fine compared to the microwave or A/C current draws. That's it for now!

[heytomgraywolf]

I have a question that I am hoping some of you can check for me. From the picture above showing the exterior fridge access, see the small blue wire in the picture? Does your fridge have this same wire (I have a Dometic Fridge and not sure if the newer 2012 use a different brand). Well I found this wire with nothing connected to it (up near my new plug in the picture you can see some black heat shrink on the end of this thin blue wire and it looks like it would slide onto something). I am hoping this was always disconnected and I did not pull it loose from something moving that outlet around (my luck!). If anyone can check their's carefully and see if that blue wire is supposed to be connected to something I would really appreciate it. It might keep me from having fridge issues this Memorial day if this is for some kind of thermostat or something. Thanks! (so, did I just scare everyone out of doing my mod now since it requires moving things in this fridge area?!?)

Tom

[jusme]

The factory told me if I put the spare on the cargo door it would void the warranty. I have a rack that goes underneath the frame on the 19 rr. It works great. Locks in place and you don't have to crawl underneath to get at it. I will post some more pics as soon as I can get at it. One pic on post will rzr fit page 3

[annamarie]

Originally Posted by rkswyo

I finished some of the cabinet mods today. I still have to add the door for the underbed storage and I will be complete. So far I added a shelf in the medicine cabinet, Installed a door on the entertainment center and replaced the cargo net with cabinet doors on the overhead cabinet.

The cargo net you replaced with the cabinet doors look great. It seems like that should've been done as standard at the factory.

[rkswyo]

Originally Posted by annamarie

The cargo net you replaced with the cabinet doors look great. It seems like that should've been done as standard at the factory.

Thanks. It made it much nicer, and I agree, they should do it that way from the factory. I have really enjoyed doing all the mods I have done to this point.

[rkswyo]

Originally Posted by heytomgraywolf

Sportster - I totally agree. We don't want this thread to turn into a gripe session. That's not why I started it. We all came together on Campin' Queens thread and with all the "Pimping" I was doing, I did not want to over run her thread with all these mods. I think we all love our 19RR's for what they are and they are made that way to keep this a very affordable trailer compared to many others the same size and light. We'll keep posting those ideas. Sportster, you will just have to keep your wife from reading this thread so she doesn't give you too many "honey-do's" and you can enjoy your "House-in-a-Box".

That said, I will next post the Mod I did this morning

Sorry guys if I sounded like I was bashing. That was not my intention. I do believe though where there are deficiencies there is nothing wrong with pointing them out. Could be helpful to someone down the line. Like I said before, I looked these units over thoroughly before I bought one, so I knew pretty much what to expect. For the money it is a very nice trailer and good value. The floor plan really sold me on it. My mods have just made it that much better!

[hd87sportster]

Originally Posted by rkswyo

Sorry guys if I sounded like I was bashing. That was not my intention. I do believe though where there are deficiencies there is nothing wrong with pointing them out. Could be helpful to someone down the line. Like I said before, I looked these units over thoroughly before I bought one, so I knew pretty much what to expect. For the money it is a very nice trailer and good value. The floor plan really sold me on it. My mods have just made it that much better!

====================
You're good - 100% good. We need to know this stuff so we can go get it fixed if need be. Someone else on another thread talked about the welds on the frame rail. I plan on taking the "house in a box" up to a local welding outfit I trust to review and inspect the welds as mine are already starting to rust and in some cases separate. Not cool.
I would just as soon do my own re-do than pitch a bitch about the corners that were cut in the mfg process. The end result, with posted pics here, helps everyone with a stronger trailer and hopefully a much longer lasting product!
No...constructive bitchin is all good! No offense intended. As long as there's a solution posted up here -we all benefit.

The down side: If I (we) do all these upgrades, I ain't turnin loose of this trailer for love or money!!!

Sportster
...constructive criticism is most welcome

[essness]

Originally Posted by heytomgraywolf

I have a question that I am hoping some of you can check for me. From the picture above showing the exterior fridge access, see the small blue wire in the picture? Does your fridge have this same wire (I have a Dometic Fridge and not sure if the newer 2012 use a different brand). Well I found this wire with nothing connected to it (up near my new plug in the picture you can see some black heat shrink on the end of this thin blue wire and it looks like it would slide onto something). I am hoping this was always disconnected and I did not pull it loose from something moving that outlet around (my luck!). If anyone can check their's carefully and see if that blue wire is supposed to be connected to something I would really appreciate it. It might keep me from having fridge issues this Memorial day if this is for some kind of thermostat or something. Thanks! (so, did I just scare everyone out of doing my mod now since it requires moving things in this fridge area?!?)

Tom

Tom,
I went out to take a look, my inverter is under my frige and the access for my furnace is next to it.........I really didnt want to get in to all that today Sorry.
When I pull some of that stuff, (cause I want an outlet there) I'll take a look for the blue wire.