First Night, First Impressions

[nosticks]

Picked up my new 324RLQ Mountaineer Saturday after a very thorough indoctrination with the dealer. The tech spotted a few things I didn't and corrected them on the spot. One slide was very noisy extending and retracting, and that was fixed. The bracket I mentioned in another post rubbing the hydraulic lines was also fixed.

So on to a campground a few miles up the road for the first night. I spent hours trying to debug the tv reception problem, which is the bedroom tv works flawless on cable of antenna. Yes, I remembered to turn off the antenna amplifier when going to cable. The lr tv picture was total snow yet you could tell the stations were there, just not anywhere near watching, as if there is a bad connection somewhere between the entry point and the tv. Now that I'm home I'll pull the plates and see if any connections were botched. Did it work during the walk through, on one channel it did, but that was one of the WWJD type channels that boomed in with a million watts and could be picked up with out anything attached.

The next problem was I want to know who filled the mattress with river rocks or marbles. It has to be the most, I mean most uncomfortable mattress ever produced. I'm still picking splinters out of my shins from the plywood base under the bed, needs a little rounding off with a finish sander. If that mattress cost $99, Keystone got ripped. It goes, I'm still feeling the flechette wounds in my back and hope they heal before next weekend. I wouldn't even donate it to charity unless I could drive by an toss it off the truck.

Other than that I love my Mountaineer.

[H. John Kohl]

Ref trouble shooting the TV in living room. The first thing I would do is get a 50 feet piece of coax with connectors and run it from the bed room to the living room TV to make sure the TV works. I am sure it will. Then you can start disconnecting coax at the antenna power control and find which coax goes to the front TV. Then get a barrel and start in the area behind the tv. I would get new COAX connectors and replace the ones used by Keystone. Finally under the slide is an electrical box and close too it is the coax cables into the entertainment center. They should have a barrel splice to help with the trouble shooting. Again replace the connectors. I use the same type that EXNAVYDIVER uses which is the ones used by Direct TV.
Good luck

[Trailer Trash 2]

As far as the TV in the rear of the trailer goes, mine was a mess from the factory not being hooked up properly.
As John said get a 50 foot wire and do what he sugested.

[nosticks]

Good advice guys, I appreciate it.

[Art-n-Marge]

I also found that my specific Televisions in the LR and BR can be configurable to select a cable setting or a TV setting from where to get its signal to display. Have you checked this? I ran into it long time ago when using the remote and going through the menus and trying to debug poor displays on the tube.

I don't remember the selections that work the best, but I do remember that depending on what was selected could make a difference.

[cdaniels]

If you think the sleep comfort is bad in the master bedroom try sleeping on the old pull out couches before they put the air mattress in them. Not pretty! I actually feel bad for our over night guest, I guess that keeps from staying to long and wearing out their welcome for sure! Most people either get new mattresses or add foam toppers to the existing mattress.

[exav8tr]

Check out www.Bearbeds.com we will be going to one of these this winter....

[nowinter]

I did a posting a week or so ago regarding reception problems with the living room tv. I could only get one or two channels on my LV tv and was receiving about eight on the bedroom tv. I had checked the connections for tightness and everything appeared correct. I was just about ready to purchase a new living room tv when DW suggested I do a better job checking the connections. Therefore, I removed the living room tv and replaced the splitter and two sections of coax cable with cables from Radio Shack. Problem solved, both tv's now bring in the same number of channels. In my opinion, the factory cuts and crimps connectors just the right length to keep costs down and do not check or verify each connection. My connectors were loose and one just fell off the cable. I used a higher quality splitter also.

[7.3Ford]

quote:Originally posted by nosticks

The next problem was I want to know who filled the mattress with river rocks or marbles. It has to be the most, I mean most uncomfortable mattress ever produced.

Not sure what mattress they put in the Mountaineer, but on our Montana, we add foam pad, and sleep better in the Monty than the bed at home.

[nosticks]

Here is what I found so far on the LR TV connection. At the rear of the coach, covered by an aluminum sheet, is a wiring bundle. This bundle is in split wrap wire loom and leads to the slide containing the TV/Stereo. In that bundle are three RG-6 cables joined by barrel connectors. Everyone of them on the coach side was very loose, perhaps only a thread or so started, like some buffoon on a lunch break came back to work and forgot where he left off. It was hastily wrapped in black electrical tape which was pealing off when I found it. I tightened all of them, then wrapped them in outdoor quality marine self vulcanizing tape making the connections water tight.

Since I do not have electric at my storage area, I was not able to check the TV, but the stereo started to pick up more stations that I'll ever need. I get my little Honda Generator end of this week, so I'll be able to test the TV set.

[jdvier]

We will pick up our new 3400RL the middle of Oct. I am replacing the factory matress with my tempupedic foam. I will not sleep on anything else.
Reading all the posts makes me want to leave today and pick it up.
Has anyone made a DVD on the system operations yet for the owner?

[Art-n-Marge]

As soon as that DVD is put together things would change for the next model rendering the DVD obsolete - even dumping the tanks changes with sewer booms, macerators, etc.

However, Youtube has many short videos even from RV experts on many common system operations. There are also videos for addons and extras for RVs. You'd be surprised how many of those CLASS A videos apply to 5ers or Trailers. Enjoy the hunt. There are many many snippets to look at.

Beware. Viewing these snippets won't lessen your eagerness.

BTW - Are you familiar with the term PDI (Pre-Delivery Inspection)? If not done so, the MOC recommends you get a copy of that checklist and take it with you to use BEFORE you pick up your unit. It helps identify problems to address BEFORE you pick up your unit. There is a belief this gets the dealer to address the issues to get the unit off their lot in working condition, versus you picking up the unit, then good luck getting these things addressed after it's in your possession.

I think a more thorough PDI for television operations would have helped "noticks" with this problem. Don't let the dealer or tech rush you through this inspection. There must be some but my technician did not have a checklist to guarantee 100% coverage but allowed me whatever time I felt I needed to wring things out and we still missed a few things (door didn't latch correctly in the "locked" position and minor things like that).

Enjoy them rigs... We still love ours even with the little nits we've had to deal with. And I still continue to add little things to improve its usability.