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Old 07-19-2011, 09:15 PM   #1
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Red face Ramblings about our new Roo 233s

Well we got our new camper(2011 233s) home and have a little over a week to go over it and get to know it and had some thoughts maybe some of you can help me with.

First, some of you may have heard I have had some Refrigerator performace issues on the electric side. I retrospec I believe the biggest problem is the heat(amibient) and what I might be expecting out of it. The problem seemed to be when running the on electric it wasn't gettng cold the first weekend we camped in it. This week in the driveway I plugged it in and it eventually got down to 32 degrees inside before the heat came though town. Then with nothing in it, the next day it went back up to 50 degrees. That is not going to cut when camping. The camper is sitting in the full sun, on the west side of the house. My thought or remedies. In hot weather, there is not enough natural draft behind the refigerator to remove the heat built up buy the coils, so I believe i will adding a fan under the vent to help. And I orderded a cirulating fan for inside the fridge. Enough about that still working on that one.

Other things. We really like the layout of this camper and can't wait to spend a week in it to really get to love it. There a some short comings or things I don't understand. With adding the cabinet next to the bath it seems to cut off all chance at cooling the back bunk in warm weather and heat in the cold. Anyone experience this. I have a fix, with moutning a fan to direct to the back but FR should have thought placement of the vent when the cabinet was added. The boys don't complain too much they love it back there. Like there own little get away.

Also I have to wonder why they stuck the outside access to the dinette under the front bunk, it should have went under the back bench as it is hard to get to the space due to the drawer being in the that one. Would just seem to be better use of space. Does anyone know if yo can buy/and or add a latch to that area, that is the same as the front one. I'm condering a mod here, or move the drawer. A front access up by the tongue would have been nice too. oh well, not big issues.

Last, I was wondering if anyone new why and what year FR decided to raise the floor hieght. This doesn't make sense to me, as it does seem it could be lower without effecting the layout of the camper and there seems to be plenty of room for axles, tanks etc. Older Roos are lower. I knew about this going into this but just wondering.

Sounds like I am nit picking, and I am because this is a great camper that suits us well. The whole family seems to love it and we look forward to many great adventures in it.

Sorry I got a little winded thanks for listening to my ramblings.
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Old 07-22-2011, 09:24 AM   #2
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Did you adjust the temp on the fridge ? Ours works great as long so its level
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Old 07-22-2011, 09:36 AM   #3
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The refrigerator we have is a Dometic with the autoadjust temp control the only adjustment I saw was to slide the plastic temp probe holder on the metal fins up and down. I believe this is not much of an adjustment, rather just moves the temp probe. I actually pulled this off the fins and left it lay on the upper rack awway from the fins. Thinking this would make the refrigerator work to get a cold box temp. It did get coldest this way. I left it this way for about three days and evaluated the temp twice a day. Seemed to get cold over night and warmed during the day as our outside temps were in the mid to upper 90s last week. Heading out tomorrow for a 7 day camping trip to wisconsin dells, I see how it works may run on gas or pack an extra cooler, atleast til I can prove it out.
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Old 07-22-2011, 12:52 PM   #4
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Mine is a 2005 and we set it at the coldest and last week camping in a field the fridge worked great at 100 degree out side and 90 degree inside need to work on more reflective material or shade next july camp!
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Old 07-23-2011, 08:13 PM   #5
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I added a another access door to our 2011 233s this spring. I called forest river parts department and asked about it. They just needed the camper VIN number and measurements. It cost about $70. Took about two hours to install. Great extra space now for water hoses and electric cord.
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Old 07-23-2011, 09:10 PM   #6
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To help cool our back bunk I added a air duct. The duct that in the 233s runs in the ceiling goes all the way to the back wall. To verify this I removed the last vent before the closet and used a mirror to see how far it went. I also measured with a tape measure. I then cut some holes in ceiling in the closet as you can see in the first picture. I used a 2" hole saw because that's the biggest one I had. Then I came down about 5 or 6" and made a 5 1/4" round hole in back of closet wall in rear bunk. The wall is hollow so I added some great stuff foam to fill it in around hole. Next I built a duct out of insulation board you can get at home depot to connect the two holes. I bought a 5" vent at local rv store and installed it in rear bunk wall hole. We are trying it out this weekend in 108 degree weather here in Oklahoma.
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Old 07-23-2011, 09:23 PM   #7
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I've got a 2011 233S as well and we also had a refrig issue. It would cool with propane, but not with electric. I took it back to the dealer and they messed with it for a good week. They confirmed the problem and found some fitting that wasn't in the right position for the electric cooling to work. They had to custom a fix, somehow, working with Dometic. Sorry I don't know more specifics. But it would be interesting to find out if our electric refrig issue was more wide spread.
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Old 07-25-2011, 09:14 AM   #8
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This site is awesome, its pretty neat that if you have a problem, some else has been there too and has come up with idea to solve it. Thanks everyone. We are currently camping in our Roo at the Dells. I will definitely be contacting FR about the access door.

This weekend I was looking over the rear bunk for a way to cool it better, but if the duct goes back that far, I look at a mod like jkinger's mod. Thanks for taking the time to post photos.

Update on the fridge, seems to be working better. I did have fuse blow when messing around with it a week ago. It's seems be working better ever since. Ran on electric the day before we left, and while we stocked it for the trip. Then ran on propane for the about 6-7 hours for the trip up and during setup. We are back on electric and seems to be getting cooler everyday. It ran about 42 degrees the first day or two, now it is 36 degrees. I am running it with temp probe on the rack and not on the cooling fin. I will continue to monitor. Well time to get back to vacation thanks everyone for your comments.
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Old 07-25-2011, 11:15 AM   #9
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Love the dells. I grew up about 2 1/2 hours southwest of there. My fridge when working did a great job of cooling. Never took longer then four hours cool down. Last week when getting the camper ready for our next trip I started the fridge. When I went out to check on it the next day it was still warm. Pulled off the outside cover for fridge and found yellow chalk and the smell of ammonia. I could see that it was leaking from a crack were the line is welded to the absorber tank. Cooling unit is getting replaced this week under warranty.

Also rear bunk vent I added worked good this weekend. It was 108 in Oklahoma this weekend. My daughter sleeps back there and she had to close vent during night. I closed the last vent before rear closet to help push more air back there.
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Old 08-16-2011, 08:18 PM   #10
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Just an update, We love this camper, spent 8 nights in it at the Dells and everything went well. The fridge seems to be doing much better. Thinking maybe I hadn't ran it enough in the beginning. I will be doing the ventilation mod jkinger spoke of. I think this will really help. Otherwise we could be happier with our purchase. This thing is huge inside when opened up. But yet not to big, and the kids kind of have their own area. Have added bars above and below the plastic screen door slide, this is a must have. Mounted the towel bar behind the toliet and TP bar inside the cabinet door in the bathroom. I have Maxvents that just showed up but haven't had time to put them on yet. Will great some pixs going when I get time. Happing Camping from Iowa.
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Old 08-17-2011, 10:28 PM   #11
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That's great! I'm in love with our 233s also but haven't taken it out camping yet, next weekend is our big outing. Congrats on ur new unit!
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Old 08-18-2011, 05:11 AM   #12
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Red face

Congrats on your new camper(s) We have been in our 2011 233s for over a year now and absolutely love it. We are a family of six, and routinely have someone else traveling with us. Camped over 30 nights this year, longest stretch was 12. We have slept as many as 11 in the camper and that was without putting the dinette down (cot on the floor). We, too, have noticed that the fridge doesn't really keep up like I would like. I have added the internal dual 12v fans and can't really say whether they've made a difference (inexpensive mod, though). Been looking into mounting a fan in the opening of the rear bunk to help draw in air, however, find that the hottest parts of the day are times there shouldn't be anyone in the bed. It's been tolerable at night...I've slept many, many nights in what my kids call "the man cave" One question for everyone...have you had any trouble closing your slide-out after it's been out for a couple of days? I typically have to go outside and push on it while someone is pressing the button. Been in the shop once...headed in again It's awesome to see so many people with this model now. When I first joined, not too many of us on the forum. I've included some pics of various mods I've done, FWIW...I look forward to seeing your mods, as well. One thing I haven't tackled yet...a TV mounted on the shelf as you walk in...maybe one day
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Old 08-18-2011, 09:51 AM   #13
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I have a 2011 233S Roo. My slide motor was just replaced. The last time it worked I had to help the motor by pushing on the slide out. Then two week late when we went camping I go to move slide and nothing. Checked in-line fuse and made sure battery was fully charged. I cranked it out manually and it moved very easy. Dealer found it was a bad motor. Slide motor aways seem to struggle from day one. Deal said that was normal. I don't have camper back yet so I don't know how new motor works. I'll let you know when I get it back next week.
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Old 08-18-2011, 10:14 AM   #14
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My slide-out only seems to struggle when my batteries are getting low. By struggle, I mean that there is a slight hesitation or slower movement at the beginning part of the retract and then it seems to move normally. Maybe that's normal.
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Old 08-23-2011, 09:25 AM   #15
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Just got my camper out of repair shop. They replaced my slide motor. New motor works great. No hesitation at all. Works much faster then the one the camper came with when it worked.
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Old 08-23-2011, 06:46 PM   #16
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Sorry to hear about the troubles with ths slide motors, haven't had any troubles with it yet, but will keep and eye on it. We had spent another three nights in our camper last weekend and had a good time. Had my in-laws with us one night, 5 adults and 3 kids, and were very comfortable. A question I had about the slideout was do you all travel with the bar inplace or just with the slide run in. The Dealer showed it to me and said "here it is but you really don't need it." Now my brother always uses his on his older Roo. It isn't the easiest to put in, and I haven't been using it. But something in my gut says this is not right, even though dealer said it wasn't needed. What do you all do?
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Old 08-23-2011, 06:52 PM   #17
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Buckeyecmpr, nice mods! Haven't done much to mine yet, however I did install bars above and below the slide on the screen door, and put a hanging shelving unit in the waredobe. I did buy a circulation fan for the inside of the fridge put have tried it yet.
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Old 08-24-2011, 03:13 AM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fx4dugan View Post
A question I had about the slideout was do you all travel with the bar inplace or just with the slide run in. The Dealer showed it to me and said "here it is but you really don't need it." Now my brother always uses his on his older Roo. It isn't the easiest to put in, and I haven't been using it. But something in my gut says this is not right, even though dealer said it wasn't needed. What do you all do?
I don't use it.
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Old 09-05-2011, 07:50 PM   #19
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Originally Posted by jkinger View Post
To help cool our back bunk I added a air duct. The duct that in the 233s runs in the ceiling goes all the way to the back wall. To verify this I removed the last vent before the closet and used a mirror to see how far it went. I also measured with a tape measure. I then cut some holes in ceiling in the closet as you can see in the first picture. I used a 2" hole saw because that's the biggest one I had. Then I came down about 5 or 6" and made a 5 1/4" round hole in back of closet wall in rear bunk. The wall is hollow so I added some great stuff foam to fill it in around hole. Next I built a duct out of insulation board you can get at home depot to connect the two holes. I bought a 5" vent at local rv store and installed it in rear bunk wall hole. We are trying it out this weekend in 108 degree weather here in Oklahoma.
How do you remove the existing vents? Do they screw on? Or are they just pressed into position?

FWIW, I don't think I can do this mod on my 2012 223S. It looks like FR filled the rest of the duct with some sort of black expanding foam. What is odd is that the front vents do not appear to be foam filled toward the front end of the camper.
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Old 09-06-2011, 08:42 AM   #20
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That would be odd that they would fill aft ducts. No place for the air to go. I have the 2011 model.

To remove vent you have to pry off the beauty ring, then you will see the screws that hold vent on.
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