New owners of Arctic Wolf 287 BH

[jmorris4371]

Hi,
We are new owners of an Arctic Wolf 287 BH. Its our first RV ever. I have so many model-spefiic questions!

We are planted on a seasonal spot for the rest of this year so we can learn, fix, and settle in.

[aceinspp]

Welcome to the forum and the world of RVing. congrats on your purchase of your new Arctic Wolf 287 BH. Enjoy and Later RJD

[geeman53]

Welcome from SW Ohio ,enjoy your Arctic Wolf 287BH TT !

[spicercars]

Welcome from northern MN.

[Bond_008]

Awesome!! We also have the 287BH. How is your airflow in the bunkroom and does your unit cool down well?

[jmorris4371]

Originally Posted by Bond_008

Awesome!! We also have the 287BH. How is your airflow in the bunkroom and does your unit cool down well?

The bunk room does "ok" for airflow...it stays pretty warm though. The rest of the trailer cools fairly well. Key for us is leaving doors open whenever possible.

What do you think of the 287BH? So far, with a couple of minor issues, we love it. Some of the placements are weird...like the outdoor shower not being accessible if you're plugged into 50A power.

[Bond_008]

Yes, I agree. We had dealer add the second a/c in bedroom - non ducted. The outdoor shower makes zero sense and I think is useless given it's placement. We have scheduled to take ours back to dealer for airflow issues as the bunk room is not useable. We were really excited to upgrade to the 287BH - however, I'm really missing my Jayco we sold for many reasons, mainly, the Jayco A/C worked great for the entire coach!

[jmorris4371]

Originally Posted by Bond_008

Yes, I agree. We had dealer add the second a/c in bedroom - non ducted. The outdoor shower makes zero sense and I think is useless given it's placement. We have scheduled to take ours back to dealer for airflow issues as the bunk room is not useable. We were really excited to upgrade to the 287BH - however, I'm really missing my Jayco we sold for many reasons, mainly, the Jayco A/C worked great for the entire coach!

This is our first rig, so we don't have a frame of reference. I'm already trying to come up with a winterizing plan!

[jmorris4371]

Originally Posted by Bond_008

We've owned 6 from pop-ups to TT - this being our first 5th wheel. I like the floor plan and overall design but the bunkroom has one vent that has virtually zero airflow and the second vent has very very little. Very very disappointed in the cooling aspect of this unit thus far.

As for winterizing, tube/pump is behind partition on driver side. Close water heater bypass so winterizing fluid doesn't go into HTH. Drain HTH. Turn valve to use pump, stick hose in winterizing bottle, pressure up system and run EVERYTHING including outdoor shower and spray port until you see pink. Pour pink stuff down pea traps and in toilet and you're good to go!!

I assume hot water tank bypass is accessible from the rear passenger side compartment?

[Bond_008]

Great question....and NO! It is accessible by removing the bottom bunk mattress and the plywood is divided into two pieces. Ours has two screws on the half toward the back of the rv, one screw holding either side (why they didn't use a hinge I'll never know). Remove two screws and remove plywood and it sits under there - ours is a valve on hot water side and a second valve on cold water side.

Having said that, I removed partition from the adjacent storage area, used boxknife and straight edge and notched out a nice cutout so I can open storage area door and simply reach in to turn bypass valves on/off - so, in that regard, YES it is accessible if you make it accessible

[Bond_008]

Here is my access to hot water heater from storage compartment

[Fun finders]

Welcome from Winnipeg Manitoba

[jmorris4371]

Originally Posted by Bond_008

Great question....and NO! It is accessible by removing the bottom bunk mattress and the plywood is divided into two pieces. Ours has two screws on the half toward the back of the rv, one screw holding either side (why they didn't use a hinge I'll never know). Remove two screws and remove plywood and it sits under there - ours is a valve on hot water side and a second valve on cold water side.

Having said that, I removed partition from the adjacent storage area, used boxknife and straight edge and notched out a nice cutout so I can open storage area door and simply reach in to turn bypass valves on/off - so, in that regard, YES it is accessible if you make it accessible

Thanks, that's exactly what I meant by accessible. For the water pump, I removed the panel and affixed self-adhesive velcro so I can take that panel off/put it on multiple times without stripping the wood cleats that it screws into.

I like your idea of putting a notch in the panel for the hot water bypass. I will be stealing that idea!

[Bond_008]

Very nice....and I'll steal your velcro idea for the panel to access the water pump valve. I don't walk around with a screwdriver/drill in my hand so easy access to these components will be nice.

[JPTHIRY]

Hello,

We purchased an Artic Wolf 287BH new last year, its a 2020. The door to the bunk room in the back does not latch shut anymore. It seems as if the wall has shifted and is no longer straight. Has anyone else had this issue? If so will Forest River warranty the fix?

Thanks in advance!
Justin

[Semperfi24]

For the access to the water heater, we cut an opening in the bottom bunk (plywood) and put an access panel in its place. Cant tell the difference if you are laying on the mattress. Fun to see the varying solutions that others have come up with for the same problems that we all encounter.

We too added the second A/C in the front bedroom. The bunk room was almost unusable because of the heat, but we went up into the vents and added the foil tape where ever we could to seal it up real good (especially at the unit in the living room). There was a lot of cold air loss at the vents, and a lot of cold air loss at the unit (because the warm air was mixing with the cold). The air was only about 4 degrees below room temp by the time it got to the vents in the bunk. After all that, we are about 16 degrees colder at the vent. The other thing we did that was very effective in keeping it cooler, was adding "mirror" tint to the windows. From the light side (outside during the day) it looks like a mirror. It cuts down on the amount of heat that enters the trailer through the large windows (especially the dining/living slide). Wasnt expensive on amazon, and fairly easy to install (having a second set of hands is highly recommended).

[BriaBeck]

Originally Posted by JPTHIRY

Hello,

We purchased an Artic Wolf 287BH new last year, its a 2020. The door to the bunk room in the back does not latch shut anymore. It seems as if the wall has shifted and is no longer straight. Has anyone else had this issue? If so will Forest River warranty the fix?

Thanks in advance!
Justin

Let's start with an easy thing first...


Is your TT all leveled out? If it is and you cannot close/open the door, something might have moved.


If it is not level, if it is sitting on uneven ground, etc.. it's possible that the TT might just be "in a twist" for lack of better explanation. It could be sitting where the whole structure is in a bind, and this is not letting the door close. Once you get it leveled out and the uneven stresses on the structure relieved, the door should operate normally. These TT's have to be somewhat "flexible" (strong enough to bend) otherwise they would break in half doing what they were made to do.


We stopped along the side of the road one time and much to my DW's horror, the entry door wouldn't open... the camper was in a bind. I pulled forward probably 100 feet, tried again, opened right up.

[Dkimsey]

We found a mountable bottle opener inside the ice machine. Where do you mount it?

[Dkimsey]

Originally Posted by Bond_008

Yes, I agree. We had dealer add the second a/c in bedroom - non ducted. The outdoor shower makes zero sense and I think is useless given it's placement. We have scheduled to take ours back to dealer for airflow issues as the bunk room is not useable. We were really excited to upgrade to the 287BH - however, I'm really missing my Jayco we sold for many reasons, mainly, the Jayco A/C worked great for the entire coach!

Where they able to fix the airflow?