Europa tips, tricks and mods

Europa 31SS Shock(s) Installation Day (Seat and Chassis)

Adding to the ToDo lust / list.����
 
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Both of the upgrades below were long overdue, for us. We have 45,000 miles on our Europa and finally decided to take the leap.

National Seating SK-582-10 HP III SHOCK KIT: The seat shocks compliment the ones already installed by the factory. They significantly reduce the amount of air needed to eliminate bottoming out on bad roads. Since the seat no longer needs to be raised as high it allows for better visibility out the window. They also reduce the bounce in the air seats that I always found a little anoying.

99B-3209 FRONT KONI EVO SHOCK: The stock Sachs shocks never were great but after 45,000 miles they just weren't cutting it any more so I installed the Koni EVOs.

The installation for the seat shocks and the Kona EVOs took me about an hour. After the installation I went for a test drive seeking out pot holes and rough bridge transitions/dips and the improvements are even better than expected. :thumbsup:

Just did the seat shocks. Definite improvement. I tend to ride low in the shock travel and my wife has a large butt dog always letting air out of hers. We needed a little more shock. Would not have thought of this.
Great mod.
:trink39:
 
Just did the seat shocks. Definite improvement. I tend to ride low in the shock travel and my wife has a large butt dog always letting air out of hers. We needed a little more shock. Would not have thought of this.
Great mod.
:trink39:

Need to figure this out as well, the current shock I can't even figure out which switch position is supposed to do what, it seems to make zero difference to the seat which position it's in, so I'm somewhat suspicious they're just broken.
 
Macerator Toilet in 31SS

Anyone put a macerator toilet in their 31ss? Recommended model? We have routinely gotten clogs in our toilet on trips after 3 to 4 days (2 adults 2 kids). We've tried different toilet paper. More water etc. I think what is happening is that the black tank is somewhat shallow and we build up a bit of a cone under the toilet pipe into the black and it eventually grows tall enough that it backs up into the pipe.

Anyone else experience this in the 31ss?

Thx

So back in August this question got posed. So I investigated, spoke to manufactures and the factory. Here is what I came up with. Dometic Masterflush 7640 (7600 series - 40 indicated white). It is designed to replace gravity toilets. Fits the existing flange. And only requires 12vdc/20a. Since I have worked out the bugs it could be done in a few hours. PM me if you want to know more about this upgrade.
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I'm going to try again when we take the coach camping (finally!) this weekend both modes and see if I see it starting out in 2nd all the time, or 1st at all.

One other thing I Just noticed, i know it was discussed somewhere but I went to put the slides out the other day, and the coach was plugged in to 50AMP service, and key was in, the batteries were showing fully charged and I went to run the slides out. The motors were very week and would only move the bedroom slide, and the larger forward slide only a small amount. I had to start the engine in order to actually power the slides out. Starting the engine they went out just fine. So I guess the engine does need to be running for enough current to be generated.
We have the same issue with our 2022 Europa 31ss. Engine needs to be running. So we turn engine off and level then have to restart engine to move slides. Weird
 
On mine, key is in run position. Engine does not need to be running.
 
We have the same issue with our 2022 Europa 31ss. Engine needs to be running. So we turn engine off and level then have to restart engine to move slides. Weird
I think this is not model year dependent, instead has more to do with the battery set up (AMG vs Li vs etc., and how much energy storage). As BClemens shared, when running the engine, the chassis Lead Acid batteries are added to the energy equation, as is the alternator. In our 2 identical AGM house battery setup, with shore power, we can always run out and in both slide w/o running the engine. Another approach is to try slide in/out on Generator vs engine running to see if the results vary. If issues on generator too, then the health of the AGM house battery (if original) may be worth exploring (assuming no house battery upgrades).
 
I think this is not model year dependent, instead has more to do with the battery set up (AMG vs Li vs etc., and how much energy storage). As BClemens shared, when running the engine, the chassis Lead Acid batteries are added to the energy equation, as is the alternator. In our 2 identical AGM house battery setup, with shore power, we can always run out and in both slide w/o running the engine. Another approach is to try slide in/out on Generator vs engine running to see if the results vary. If issues on generator too, then the health of the AGM house battery (if original) may be worth exploring (assuming no house battery upgrades).
It is model year dependent. The jack and slide suppliers have differing needs for lock outs.
My goal, is to have E-brake be enough. You come in, engine on, set E-brake. Level, then slides, then shut engine off. No beeping as long as E-brake is set.
 
It is model year dependent. The jack and slide suppliers have differing needs for lock outs.
My goal, is to have E-brake be enough. You come in, engine on, set E-brake. Level, then slides, then shut engine off. No beeping as long as E-brake is set.
My response was to the comment (#285 which in turn was on #138 a while ago) that the statement that the batteries/shorepower alone were note enough to get the slides to move was not our experience. I was not commenting on (or intending to comment on the various lockouts across models - just the energy to move a slide assuming all lockouts are set properly).

We can easily move slides w/o engine running on our '22 Europa and talking with other owners over the past years, many of them also move slides w/o engine running, yes engine key on, but engine not running (Shore power and or Gen yes). So while engine running is one option, it is not required on our '22 to move the slides.

Yes the level beeping when key on is annoying, but so is seatbelt alarm, smoke detector when cooking, etc. :) .

In my thinking, the need to dump air for the rear before leveling tends to lead to not running the engine as I don't dump air with the engine running. So restarting the engine after leveling (yes need to move the key to ON regardless) is an extra step if we are going to use shore power or Generator while parked.

Sorry if that was not clear in my reply.
 
I asked a while ago if anyone had figured out how to run some cables through the roof after construction as the cable from my HDMI Switcher to the outside TV got compromised during build in the wall, and I wanted to replace it, as well as getting a cable from the internal WiFi Router out to the bays to connect a starlink (I replaced the one that came in my Europa with the Osprey which works much better)

So far I haven't figured out the first one, but the cable from the Osprey to the compartments it occurred to me since the Osprey sits directly below and is connected already via cables to the Winegard 360 dome on the roof I could likely run a cable up there, and out the side of the dome along the roof to maybe the fridge vent and run it down into the underneath through there. I figure if I use some Eterna Bond tape where it sits on the roof it'll probably be okay. Anyone have thoughts for or against this?
 
Gremlin, where is the matrix on the 31ss, still in the cabinet over the door? How about going down instead of up. Run it over to the floor to ceiling cabinet to the left of that and down the inside corner of that cabinet, drill out to under the coach, run it back to the outside TV and up into that cabinet. Use plastic wire loom under the RV to protect the ethernet cable and drill, grommet, and seal the holes through the floor. I am on the 32kd so I can't crawl under and see where everything is. Just and idea.
 
Gremlin, where is the matrix on the 31ss, still in the cabinet over the door? How about going down instead of up. Run it over to the floor to ceiling cabinet to the left of that and down the inside corner of that cabinet, drill out to under the coach, run it back to the outside TV and up into that cabinet. Use plastic wire loom under the RV to protect the ethernet cable and drill, grommet, and seal the holes through the floor. I am on the 32kd so I can't crawl under and see where everything is. Just and idea.
It's a good thought, but my recollection is that the cabinet over the door is not in contact with the cabinet to the left of it facing out the door, which is connected to the cab over bed etc... I believe there's a gap between them. The only thing I can figure for now is to either put a wireless transmitter in, or to run a cable through the cabinet behind the TV and the one over the oven to the refrigerator then down, I could maybe hide it with one of those angle molding things and run it tight against the ceiling
 
It's a good thought, but my recollection is that the cabinet over the door is not in contact with the cabinet to the left of it facing out the door, which is connected to the cab over bed etc... I believe there's a gap between them. The only thing I can figure for now is to either put a wireless transmitter in, or to run a cable through the cabinet behind the TV and the one over the oven to the refrigerator then down, I could maybe hide it with one of those angle molding things and run it tight against the ceiling
Yes, there appears to be a small gap, just run the wire between the two and if it bugs you put a small piece of crown trim up there to hide the wire (was my thought). I would worry about interference from all the RV stuff going on with a wireless but there are a lot of different options to try too. I added the bunk TV to my RV and ran the cable inside the cabinets, Used plastic computer cable cover inside the back top of the cabinet to hide it when the cabinet is open.
 
I will consider this might be easier than going through all the cabinet, Have to figure out how hard it will be to get into that cabinet and down, not sure if I'm lucky enough that it would just drop.
 
Since we do a lot of desert boondocking, I added a diesel heater for the bedroom. On our 32KD there is space below the cord reel and the cord can still come in and out around the duct hoses. I had the inside part temped in this past weekend for testing and the results were excellent, so I mounted the remote panel, reversed my water heater interior access door, and drilled the vent holes in the door. For now I have the included fuel tank next to the generator, but may tap into the main tank later depending on consumption. The fuel pump is mounted to the propane tank bracket under the coach.

My son runs one of these in his motovan in Oregon so I have experienced his install results. This model has a thermostat to set the temp. Now we can close the bedroom door and only heat that area at night and don't have to listen to the loud Suburban furnace cycle all night. This thing is very quiet, just the fan noise and that is down below. You cannot hear the fuel pump under the rig. It uses very little power and used less than a half gallon of fuel over two nights. It quickly kept the temp in the bedroom at 74 while the rest of the RV was at 50 with an outside temperature of about 40.
Two thumbs up.
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Had a customer last night show me a picture of the GE heat pumps running (keeping the coach at 72) and it was 19 outside. Pretty crazy.
 
Had a customer last night show me a picture of the GE heat pumps running (keeping the coach at 72) and it was 19 outside. Pretty crazy.
The GE heat pumps are impressively effective even at low temperatures. What they are not, though, is quiet. When sleeping, we find running just the front unit tolerable. When boondocking, and thus also running the generator, it would be quite a bit of noise and vibration cycling through the night. If that diesel heater is that much quieter that the furnace, it would be an interesting addition.
 
Extremely quiet and efficient, you will find a lot of installs and write ups by van-life guys. The biggest complaint about noise is from the inline fuel pump, which tick tick ticks as it functions. Sometimes they add insulation over them, but from our bedroom it was not at all audible since it is located all the way under the coach and forward.

They also do not like high altitudes, but some models have compensation for that. You are also limited by diesel gelling in extreme cold, but I have heard there is an additive for that.

The one I purchased is a 8KW Vevor. A 5KW would also be fine. My son runs a 3KW in his Mercedes Metris cargo motovan.
 

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