I’ll admit I was initially a Starlink skeptic for RV usage. Its heavy, big, uses a lot of current, and until recently can’t be used in motion. (While you might be able to use in motion now, you would have to heavily modify the dish to lay it flat). That said, we realized that every […]
I regularly read posts about either being stuck with broken jacks or slides, or, people who travel without either for fear of being stranded. And I’m totally in that camp of not wanting the embarrassment and inconvenience of being stranded if possible. So I wanted to practice retracting my jacks manually. There are several excellent […]
In order to install Starlink in an RV you are probably going to want custom cables so that you can mount and dismount the dish easily and neatly. There are lots of articles on the Internet about this. Since the cable is a standard shielded Cat 5e (with large 23 gauge wire for dish power) […]
Ever since I upgraded to an Isotherm Compressor Refrigerator I have found my outside propane switch even more annoying. I get that its good to have an outside switch – in case of a leak or fire, but couldn’t LTV have also installed one inside also? Even when I had my absorption refrigerator, with hookups […]
June 24 2022 Update: Now that the RV plan came out I switched to RV so I could pause at times. So If you plan to use at home the convoluted instructions below are still correct, but for RV there is no service address and its a simpler signup. That said you may now have […]
We never liked the galley closet in our Unity CB. We already have a closet near the bedroom, and the front closet just filled up with junk that spilled out. So we put in plywood cherry shelves. Now we can at least neatly organize it. Simple project. We bought home depot cherry plywood (special ordered […]
The Jensen JWM9A has to be one of the most loathsome devices in my RV. In case you aren’t familiar with it, JVC took a very low end auto radio, and mated a huge control panel to make it look impressive, and then sold it an exorbitant price. As if that wasn’t enough, this was […]
Once I completed my 3000 watt inverter installation I started looking for a soft start for the AC. While my inverter was capable of starting and running the AC even without it, its kinder on the batteries and everything else not to spike the current. And being able to run the AC more reliably from […]
This is a big project that involves a lot of stuff, but in a nutshell I bought a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter/Charger. This is an inverter big enough to run anything in the RV, including my air conditioner (at least for a little while), off of batteries. There is not much sense to having […]
Read More… from Rewire RV with Xantrex 3000 XC Pro and (3) Renogy 100Ah 12V Bluetooth Batteries
Its been over a year since I installed the Isotherm Cruise 219 in my RV. I just completed a 3 week trip out west and I thought it would be a good time to record some thoughts. So here, in random order, is what I learned so far: Refrigerator Drainage I originally totally missed the […]
Finally! TPMS. And no, you don’t need to install Borg stems! Here is the background: Many people buy DIY TPMS off the Internet, and have their stems crack on the way home or after a short trip. The reason is usually due to either a rubber valve stem, or more often, a dually valve stem […]
Read More… from TST 507 Series 6 Flow Thru Sensor TPMS System with Color Display
My RV came with a propane regulator (Fairview) known for early failures, and sure enough, like clockwork, it failed before 2 years passed. The symptom was propane smell around the rear of the RV; but others report a reduced gas pressure as the first sign. Actually now that I think about it it may have […]
Many people who have switched to Lithium, particularly with more than 200 AH of capacity, have installed a DC-DC charger. But I am not quite ready. They steal some of the efficiency, have relatively low output, require a big chunk of mounting real estate near the battery, and its another item to break and ruin […]
I previously installed a Cradlepoint IBR900 Router. I was reasonably satisfied with it. It wasn’t a perfect experience though. The registration process (required to manage remotely) was chaotic and took numerous calls and trouble tickets to be resolved. It immediately started crashing due to router bugs. Again, resolved through support tickets. It was a firmware […]
This is one of those super trivial upgrades that I almost didn’t write up, except its really useful. My Unity CB had a dual USB socket behind the drivers seat. That was useful. My security cam stays plugged in there. But I really wanted a cigarette lighter plug there as well. I have a backup […]
Just like clockwork, after about two years of ownership I noticed my alternator stopped charging my batteries reliably. Its always a little unreliable on my Lithium batteries. (I count on the solar to top them off.) But in this case the alternator completely stopped charging. (Although sometimes it would). From posts on the internet I […]
When I ordered my RV I made the big mistake of ordering it with 400 watts solar, a costly option. It made sense as it was the most you could get and LTV must install the best, right? Well as I learned in time it was actually awful. The solar controller was a cheap PWM […]
Update September 2021 – Looks like they have a nicer 12″model now, which is similar but has some new goodies including gps. See links at bottom for the new model. For my RV (and most others unless you have a really small van) the rear view mirror is useless. Mine shows a view of my […]
The best way to describe the Venus GX is remote control. It will basically export all your Victron devices to the internet, assuming you have either a router or hotspot in your RV. There are two main reasons i wanted this. First, while the RV is being stored, I can keep an eye on its […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. Its like a domino. Each thing I kick in the RV causes some new deficiency to be noticed, that either wasn’t there before or had escaped my attention. After all my […]
(Pictured on the left is the original Dometic refrigerator. On the right is my replacement.) Also see my postscript article where I summarize the experience once I got things ironed out! My RV came with an industry standard Dometic refrigerator. I won’t spend a lot of time on the deficiencies as they are well known. […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. The solar charge controller still works great, I just moved it around! My new RV came with what I thought was pretty good solar. Only as I learned, it was just […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. A few people have asked me why I didn’t simply purchase a third Battleborn. Answer is: No Bluetooth. This new technology lets you monitor the health of individual batteries – very […]
Note: This is an older post and I have subsequently upgraded to 300 AH of Renogy Lithium and a Xantrex 3000 XC Pro Inverter. So, I will be replacing my refrigerator with a compressor refrigerator (more on that soon). The first step in doing that is to expand the battery life by going Lithium (more […]
UPDATE 21-Feb-2021 The Cradlepoint worked well but I put in a new router and antenna. This article is still mostly relevant for drilling the roof and installing in general. We travel in our RV to get away from the city, and enjoy remote places. That said, I have a job, and I need to be […]
Sooner or later, if you have an RV, you are going to discover that some of the nicest places you would want to camp don’t have any cell service. None. Nada. Now, some people might think that’s just fine. But I have a job, and can take emergency calls round the clock, even on vacation. […]
Note: This is an older post. I’ve upgraded everything since then. Nowadays you also have the choice of a smart shunt from Victron with no display. While that might be tempting because the Bluetooth app is way more convenient, reports are that a very short range Bluetooth is used on the smart shunt, so I’m […]
My Sprinter RV (2019 LTV Unity CB) came with a basic radio and Becker Map Pilot. So to be honest, I only turned it on once. I’m a technology bigot, and as soon as I saw the decades old interface and the lack of any modern features I switched it back off. To be fair, […]
Being new to RVing, all I knew about dump tanks was summed up in movies like Christmas Vacation or RV. I almost skipped getting an RV entirely, over the potential disasters that await. Oh, did I say I was kinda squeamish about this? Back in the day I had a (very) small yacht. It had […]
Update: Jan 2, 2018 Thanks Google! I didn’t think much when I posted this, but this page has been showing up in Google searches for terms like “rv bidet” and the like, actually becoming #1! Turns out a lot of people like having a clean time in the bathroom. One question I get a lot […]