Ask The Sabre & Silhouette Factory

[TURBS]

Originally Posted by herk7769

I just click on his name in the previous post and the second pick is "send him a PM."

Yeah that's how I did it tonight but today it wouldn't allow me to.
Glitch?

[Jambr403]

Just did my spring shake-down trip with our 2012 320FQDS. The trailer seemed to survive winter and my first attempt at winterizing seemed to be effective since there are no leaks and all the plumbing appears to be working!

There were 4 issues however:

1. Shortly after plugging into shore power after brining the trailer home, all 4 20 AMP fuses on my WFCO 8965 converter blew.
Couple of questions - glancing at the WFCO manual seemed to suggest those 4 yellow 20 AMP fuses should actually be 30AMP fuses? I had my shore power extension cord plugged into another extension cord and it rained . If water got into the connection between the two power cords, would that cause a short blowing the 4 fuses? It seems that should have blown the fuses on my home circuit not in the trailer. Any ideas?

3 minor problems:

2) Grey Water t-handle broke - one broke in the fall as well. Replaced with Valterra metal t-handle.

3) Hook for drapes broke in bed room. Need to order replacement for that:

There should be a little U-Shaped hook at the end and it just busted off.

4) Weather stripping on inside window coming out. Need to replace it with something.


Considering the brutal nature of our winters up here in Canada, the trailer survived remarkably well through the winter storage season. We had -35C temperatures, severe winds, lots of snow, etc. I was expecting more problems so was pleasantly surprised to only have a small handful of minor issues.

Thanks again for your help Sabre Sam.

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Jambr403

1. Shortly after plugging into shore power after brining the trailer home, all 4 20 AMP fuses on my WFCO 8965 converter blew.
Couple of questions - glancing at the WFCO manual seemed to suggest those 4 yellow 20 AMP fuses should actually be 30AMP fuses? I had my shore power extension cord plugged into another extension cord and it rained . If water got into the connection between the two power cords, would that cause a short blowing the 4 fuses? It seems that should have blown the fuses on my home circuit not in the trailer. Any ideas?

While I am certainly not SabreSam, I believe the yellow fuses are reverse current fuses. They protect the converter from the user hooking up the battery backwards.

This would damage the converter if they did not blow. It only takes an instant for this to happen. You may or may not have seen a spark at the terminals. You may not have realized you had a problem immediately since "some" items work just fine (lights and such) with the battery connected in reverse. What can be damaged is the furnace and the refrigerator.

[NeilM108]

Originally Posted by Jambr403

Just did my spring shake-down trip with our 2012 320FQDS. The trailer seemed to survive winter and my first attempt at winterizing seemed to be effective since there are no leaks and all the plumbing appears to be working!

There were 4 issues however:

1. Shortly after plugging into shore power after brining the trailer home, all 4 20 AMP fuses on my WFCO 8965 converter blew.
Couple of questions - glancing at the WFCO manual seemed to suggest those 4 yellow 20 AMP fuses should actually be 30AMP fuses? I had my shore power extension cord plugged into another extension cord and it rained . If water got into the connection between the two power cords, would that cause a short blowing the 4 fuses? It seems that should have blown the fuses on my home circuit not in the trailer. Any ideas?

3 minor problems:

2) Grey Water t-handle broke - one broke in the fall as well. Replaced with Valterra metal t-handle.

3) Hook for drapes broke in bed room. Need to order replacement for that:

There should be a little U-Shaped hook at the end and it just busted off.

4) Weather stripping on inside window coming out. Need to replace it with something.


Considering the brutal nature of our winters up here in Canada, the trailer survived remarkably well through the winter storage season. We had -35C temperatures, severe winds, lots of snow, etc. I was expecting more problems so was pleasantly surprised to only have a small handful of minor issues.

Thanks again for your help Sabre Sam.

Jambr403, in my opinion your Sabre should easily survive -40 -- weatherstripping and all. Over the past 40 years, I've had RV's spend the winter in Alberta and Sakatchewan with zero problems. If the weatherstripping has screwed up, get it fixed under warranty.... They should be built to take Canada since they're sold here.
Enjoy our short summer!
NeilM

[Jambr403]

Originally Posted by herk7769

While I am certainly not SabreSam, I believe the yellow fuses are reverse current fuses. They protect the converter from the user hooking up the battery backwards.

This would damage the converter if they did not blow. It only takes an instant for this to happen. You may or may not have seen a spark at the terminals. You may not have realized you had a problem immediately since "some" items work just fine (lights and such) with the battery connected in reverse. What can be damaged is the furnace and the refrigerator.

Good advice. I have in fact hooked the battery up backwards before. I noticed when the landing gear started retracting instead of extending when I pressed the extend rocker switch However, I hadn't flipped any of the breakers on and no fuses blew. (This was shortly after taking delivery of the trailer last fall). No I'm super careful to get the polarity correct when hooking up.

My father suggested that it could be the fact I had the 30AMP power cable plugged into a regular 15AMP extension cord? I've forgotten the physics, but would that up the voltage and drop the amperage leading to the fault?

[Jambr403]

Originally Posted by NeilM108

Jambr403, in my opinion your Sabre should easily survive -40 -- weatherstripping and all. Over the past 40 years, I've had RV's spend the winter in Alberta and Sakatchewan with zero problems. If the weatherstripping has screwed up, get it fixed under warranty.... They should be built to take Canada since they're sold here.
Enjoy our short summer!
NeilM

Thanks for the reassuring note. I'm trying to fix these minor issues myself since going to the dealer is usually a major ordeal... Drive there, drop trailer off, wait 3 weeks, go to pick up, find items not fixed, etc.. Rinse and repeat. The trailer will be off warranty soon as well, so I'm thinking it's good to learn how to handle these issues.

Happy camping to you as well!

[JDWeir]

Jambr403,

As far as the curtain hook goes, one of ours broke as well. I just took both hooks off of that window and used a brown elastic hair tie to keep the curtain bunched. Looks just about like the original and I dont' have to worry about the plastic hook. I can provide a photo if you want. If you decide you still want the hook and can't find one, PM me and I can send you my extra one.

Jim

[Herk7769]

Originally Posted by Jambr403

Good advice. I have in fact hooked the battery up backwards before. I noticed when the landing gear started retracting instead of extending when I pressed the extend rocker switch However, I hadn't flipped any of the breakers on and no fuses blew. (This was shortly after taking delivery of the trailer last fall). No I'm super careful to get the polarity correct when hooking up.

My father suggested that it could be the fact I had the 30AMP power cable plugged into a regular 15AMP extension cord? I've forgotten the physics, but would that up the voltage and drop the amperage leading to the fault?

I do this occasionally myself. I have never had a problem with the fuses.

[SabreSam]

Originally Posted by Jambr403

Thanks for the reassuring note. I'm trying to fix these minor issues myself since going to the dealer is usually a major ordeal... Drive there, drop trailer off, wait 3 weeks, go to pick up, find items not fixed, etc.. Rinse and repeat. The trailer will be off warranty soon as well, so I'm thinking it's good to learn how to handle these issues.

Happy camping to you as well!

Dear Jambr403,
I read your post above. Are you asking me to help you with something or just letting me know what you found?

[LGreeves]

SabreSam,
Got home with new 34TBOK last night and noticed when unhitching the kingpin was riding on the jaws not the plates of the sadle and hitch riding together. I use a B&W companion so my question is the issue with the pin or hitch?
The parts counter had closed before we had finished paperwork so I didn't get my friction pad which will be on the next hitch up, the friction pad will add to the stack up and it looks as though it will be the remedy. So a second question maybe to direct me to a B&W expert(or you if you know) on adjustments there or is there adjustment at the pin?

[TURBS]

Was it hitched right?
Of all the pins I've seen I have never seen different lengths or adjustments within the pin.

[LGreeves]

The bad part of the hitching was that I verified that the lock arm positioned correctly but did not look at the saddle for contact. I will get my friction pad and do another hitch up tonight to see if there is a problem for sure.

[SabreSam]

Originally Posted by LGreeves

SabreSam,
Got home with new 34TBOK last night and noticed when unhitching the kingpin was riding on the jaws not the plates of the sadle and hitch riding together. I use a B&W companion so my question is the issue with the pin or hitch?
The parts counter had closed before we had finished paperwork so I didn't get my friction pad which will be on the next hitch up, the friction pad will add to the stack up and it looks as though it will be the remedy. So a second question maybe to direct me to a B&W expert(or you if you know) on adjustments there or is there adjustment at the pin?

Dear Customer,
I'm sorry about your problem. Who installed your hitch? I'd start with the installer. There are a lot of customers using B&W hitches. I don't have a contact for B&W, but if you can't get the issue resolved I will try and locate one. If you can, please post a picture of your issue and maybe a member will be able to help.

Let me know if you need me to try and locate a B&W rep.

[wechoosethislife]

Originally Posted by ret2006

I had the same problem with my 2012 31 RETS-6. Cable worked fine using the Satellite connection (it has NO splitters, just a direct cable). There should be a splitter behind the amplifier receptacle which splits the cable signal going into the amplifier and out to the bedroom & basement. Check all the connections, make sure they are tight. I replaced the splitter with another one and it solved my problem. Probably has a couple of splitters on the cable line, hopefully they are where you can get to them and check them. Will look like this.

We replaced the splitter, looks like that was the problem. We won't know for sure until we are in a rv park with cable hookups.

Thanks for the help.

[SimchaSabre]

SabreSam,

I got a little too close to a tree branch last weekend and damanged the burgandy striping decal in a few small spot on the corner of the front cap of our NEW Sabre.

I checked with the dealer and all he can do is replace the entire decal so I'm looking for a less expensive "DYI" fix.

I'm trying to locate something I could use to "touch-up" this up...either some scrap decal that I could use to make a patch out of or maybe a color matched piant pen. Do u have access to anything like that or can u get a paint code that maybe I could match up.

The damaged area is pretty high off the ground and pretty small so I think I can get away with something less that a perfect fix.

Thanx

[Jambr403]

Originally Posted by JDWeir

Jambr403,

As far as the curtain hook goes, one of ours broke as well. I just took both hooks off of that window and used a brown elastic hair tie to keep the curtain bunched. Looks just about like the original and I dont' have to worry about the plastic hook. I can provide a photo if you want. If you decide you still want the hook and can't find one, PM me and I can send you my extra one.

Jim

Thanks for the excellent tip and the offer to send me the hook! I'll try what you have suggested and take both hooks off and use the hair tie. My wife leaves those lying around our house so I'll just snag a couple.

[Jambr403]

Originally Posted by SabreSam

Dear Jambr403,
I read your post above. Are you asking me to help you with something or just letting me know what you found?

Thanks Sabre Sam. I think the other forum members have answered all my questions, so no input required on this one! Thanks again for all your help present and past.

[SabreSam]

Originally Posted by SimchaSabre

SabreSam,

I got a little too close to a tree branch last weekend and damanged the burgandy striping decal in a few small spot on the corner of the front cap of our NEW Sabre.

I checked with the dealer and all he can do is replace the entire decal so I'm looking for a less expensive "DYI" fix.

I'm trying to locate something I could use to "touch-up" this up...either some scrap decal that I could use to make a patch out of or maybe a color matched piant pen. Do u have access to anything like that or can u get a paint code that maybe I could match up.

The damaged area is pretty high off the ground and pretty small so I think I can get away with something less that a perfect fix.

Thanx

Any chance you can post me picture of the damage. This way I can see which decal you would need. I'm not sure that I would use any type of paint due to the paint being left if you ever remove the decal. Send me a picture and we can see what we can do. It's pretty easy to remove the decal and install a new one. You might be able to do it your self.

[Don and Elaine]

SabreSam, I live in the Lower Hudson Valley area of NY (Fishkill NY) and the closest dealers are either in 2+ hours east or west of us, Why aren't dealers interested in carrying this great line of RV'S? The wife and I love the 34reqs (I saw it at the Rockland RV show in February 2012 without the wife) but she would like to see it in person and both dealers east or west of us dont have this model on their lot ! Any ideas...and can a dealer who does not carry this line order one? Thank you for any help!

[SimchaSabre]

Originally Posted by SabreSam

Any chance you can post me picture of the damage. This way I can see which decal you would need. I'm not sure that I would use any type of paint due to the paint being left if you ever remove the decal. Send me a picture and we can see what we can do. It's pretty easy to remove the decal and install a new one. You might be able to do it your self.

SabreSam,

I've attached 2 pics of the damaged decal. I now see that it is only involving one decal so maybe with a little instruction I could replace it my self.

Thanks for the help and thanks for participating in this forum