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04-27-2011, 11:58 PM
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#1
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Montana Master
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: South Shore
Posts: 6,009
M.O.C. #7110
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Things we've learned...
Experience is a great teacher; unfortunately many times it comes with an unwanted price. Here are a couple of things I’ve learned that I will share. Don’t hesitate to post your idea or experiences; it may help someone else avoid a costly mistake or simply make their life better.
The first thing on my list is to always chock your wheels before disconnecting the camper.
Another one of the things I’ve learned is how to take longer showers without running out of hot water. This is fairly obvious but it does work. Many times I’ve had the hot water start running cold and I’ve ended the shower sooner than I wanted to. Set your water spigot so that the water is just more than a trickle but enough to receive adequate water flow for showering. Whenever the water is throttled back the length of a shower can be increased far beyond what is needed. This can also be accomplished by using a regulator on the water supply.
__________________
2011 GMC 4X4 dually CC, 6.6 Duramax with Allison Transmission. Formally 2001 Montana,2007 3400RL Montana, presently 2018 3401RS Alpine.
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04-28-2011, 04:16 AM
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#2
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Montana Master
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: McKinney
Posts: 7,133
M.O.C. #6433
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I am curious if you run your water heater on propane and electric both at the same time. When we first got our Monte, I would run the water to get wet, turn it off, lather up, water back on to rinse off. But after a while, I learned that with the water heater on both propane and electric I can shower just about as long as I want without running out of hot water. And that is even after the DW has just finished her shower. Or after she has run the washer.
__________________
Bill & Patricia
Riley, our Golden
2007 3075RL (recently sold, currently without)
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04-28-2011, 04:37 AM
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#3
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Montana Master
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Englewood
Posts: 3,095
M.O.C. #164
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We installed an Oxygenic Shower Head Conserves hot water and increases pressure no need to go through other procedures. One of our best improvements I think about $30.00 Google Oxygenics
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04-28-2011, 05:13 AM
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#4
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Montana Master
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Land O Lakes
Posts: 2,783
M.O.C. #10246
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Bill-N-Donna
Experience is a great teacher; unfortunately many times it comes with an unwanted price. Here are a couple of things I’ve learned that I will share. Don’t hesitate to post your idea or experiences; it may help someone else avoid a costly mistake or simply make their life better.
The first thing on my list is to always chock your wheels before disconnecting the camper.
Another one of the things I’ve learned is how to take longer showers without running out of hot water. This is fairly obvious but it does work. Many times I’ve had the hot water start running cold and I’ve ended the shower sooner than I wanted to. Set your water spigot so that the water is just more than a trickle but enough to receive adequate water flow for showering. Whenever the water is throttled back the length of a shower can be increased far beyond what is needed. This can also be accomplished by using a regulator on the water supply.
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A very good philosophy...always interesting to hear what the other guy does. Thanks for posting.
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04-28-2011, 06:18 AM
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#5
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Montana Master
Join Date: Apr 2007
Location: South Shore
Posts: 6,009
M.O.C. #7110
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Quote:
quote:Originally posted by BB_TX
I am curious if you run your water heater on propane and electric both at the same time. When we first got our Monte, I would run the water to get wet, turn it off, lather up, water back on to rinse off. But after a while, I learned that with the water heater on both propane and electric I can shower just about as long as I want without running out of hot water. And that is even after the DW has just finished her shower. Or after she has run the washer.
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Sometimes I will use both electric and propane. What I was referring to was with only using the electric. I haven’t actually experimented with the propane by itself.
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04-28-2011, 06:19 AM
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#6
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Montana Master
Join Date: Apr 2009
Location: Murrieta
Posts: 5,816
M.O.C. #9257
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I agree with CamillaMichael and I hope I have the wisdom to follow what the other guys says, or NOT!
Experience is a great teacher, I just prefer to learn from the experienced not be the experienced.
Here's my "experience" to pass along. Speaking of chocks I learned that using scissor Chocks on the tires will not hold the trailer if the angle is severe enough. You should still use the triangle chocks as an extra backup, too. X-chocks are affected by air pressure (temperature and altitude) and as the tires shrink you will experience movement as I did on a hilly site at a campground near Yosemite. Not fun!!! I don't know if Roto chocks or X-chocks would fair better as they have four separate contact surfaces where my scissor chocks only have two.
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04-28-2011, 07:42 AM
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#7
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Montana Fan
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: Naples
Posts: 178
M.O.C. #9521
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I have a slider hitch. I have learned to never place firewood between my hitch and my truck's tailgate. I hate learning things the hard and expensive way.
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04-28-2011, 07:52 AM
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#8
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Montana Master
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: McKinney
Posts: 7,133
M.O.C. #6433
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I made it 3 years with my stock tailgate. Always followed a strict procedure for hooking/unhooking. Then last summer as I was unhooking at a campground, my truck was blocking the drive and another truck was waiting to get by. Well you probably already know what happened. In my rush to get out of his way, I lowered the jacks, I chocked the wheels, I unhooked the cord, I unhooked the breakaway wire, I pulled the release handle, but I forgot to lower my tailgate before pulling out from under the trailer. Expensive mistake.
I hope I learned something from that.
__________________
Bill & Patricia
Riley, our Golden
2007 3075RL (recently sold, currently without)
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04-28-2011, 08:17 AM
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#9
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Montana Master
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Navarre
Posts: 1,527
M.O.C. #9765
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04-28-2011, 11:15 AM
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#10
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Montana Master
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Leona
Posts: 6,382
M.O.C. #2059
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We have always used both electric power and propane on the hot water heater. It just recovers quicker and we can shower one immediately after the other and nobody gets cold water.
Chocks are the first thing out and the last thing picked up. Bal "X"chocks work really well, but if it is going to cool considerably over night, they need to be re-tightened. I have decided that, if the slope is too severe to suit me, to demand another site or go somewhere else.
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04-28-2011, 03:58 PM
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#11
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Montana Master
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Grove City
Posts: 1,357
M.O.C. #5192
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I've learned that if you read almost all the MOC postings, regularly, and see what everyone has done to 'upgrade' or 'fix' the trailer, you will either go broke trying to get everything perfect, get frustrated because you cannot possibly afford to get everything perfect or you will give up on trying to get everything perfect and just live happily with what you can get.
Larry
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04-28-2011, 04:40 PM
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#12
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Montana Master
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Rock Island
Posts: 1,074
M.O.C. #10457
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OK, don't ask me how I learned to double check to make sure the cord is unplugged. I am thankful for color coded wires when reattaching them. Also, I now know the yellow wire in the cord does not hook to anything on our model. Garry
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04-29-2011, 09:23 AM
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#13
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Montana Master
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Oceanside
Posts: 20,028
M.O.C. #20
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Back when propane was much cheaper than today, we'd run propane if we were paying for electricity and electricity if it was included in the park's rate. But now propane is much more expensive than it used to be, so we use the electric side almost exclusively, turning to propane only when boondocking or if we need to run both for a quicker recovery. It's rare that one of us can't wait 20 minutes after the other finished his/her shower.
In our prior Montana the propane side heated the water hotter than the electric side. In this one, the reverse is true. So we "prefer" whichever method gives us the hotter water.
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