3820FK Improvements

[BandBmalin]

Hamlej, our king to queen change made a HUGE difference in space. I can't imagine trying to do laundry in that space with a king. Wow, more power to you!! I just went and measured: With the queen, there is 18 inches between the mattress and the closed doors for the W/D closet. (With the king, we had to either move the mattress or compress it to open the closet doors.)

[Hamlej]

Janine, I decided to go with a 42” 12v dc ceiling fan that weighs just under 6 pounds. I built a 6 inch square by 2 1/2 inch deep box that was cut to conform to the 2.2 inch degree slope of the ceiling. Attached this box to a roof rafter and then then mounted the fan on the box. I couldn’t build the box any deeper due to the fact that the fan blades need to clear the 2 slides. For power I fished 18/4g wire across ceiling and down the wall to pickup power from ceiling light switch. Then mounted switch above the thermostat. The fan has made a significant difference in air flow, totally loving it.

[D&PMac]

Janine. You mentioned several inconveniences of the FK that I recognized as well. If I can upload some pics here, I will show you what I did to address the issues. (Terrible day to take photos cuz my "home" is a mess....but)

First, before we even got the trailer off the lot in Nov. 2016, we took out the dinette. Have replaced it with a counter high table and chairs so we can actually see out the the awesome front window. Found a nice small cabinet that fits next to the fridge and is out of sight and not in the way of seating. Also, found great heavy duty "drawers" for every shelf under the slide-out cabinet. We, too, could not see how we would access items in the lower cabinets in the back. (drawers installed Jan 2017) I tried turning the pics every which way to get them to upload rightsize up, but, like BandBmalin, it wouldn't load right....so, hope this helps anyway. Sorry...

[D&PMac]

BandBmalin, see the pics I posted in reply to Janine and the modifications we did to our FK. The dinette comes out easily and in about four or five big pieces. We have them in storage in case we ever want to sell our "home".

Also, here are some pics you requested about the piano hinges we put in the bedroom. You can see we moved the center-ish closure attachment on the near door to the one side of the cabinet so it closes securely using the two original closures. I'll try to upload some pics, but they will probably be sideways....can't seem to get them upright no matter what I do. Anyway.....

[Carl n Susan]

Cell phones automatically rotate the native picture when doing a display for you. But it uploads the native orientation as it doesn't know what you are going to do with it.

You can:
1. Upload the picture to a PC where there are tools to fix the orientation before subsequently uploading it to the MOC.

2 In your case, take all your pictures in Landscape mode and upload those.

[Jim Homer]

Great idea about removing the vent covers for better air conditioning. I was beginning to wonder if the air worked. Now works like it should.

[kc8lvy]

Thanks for starting this thread. I am going to use some of yours for sure.
Here are some of my 3820FK Mods.


We are full-timers in southern Florida so some of my mods may work for you and some may not so keep that in mind. Some of these mods may work for other models also.


1 Under bed storage to outside storage mod
Under the bed there is lots of storage but what we did not like was that you could still get to it from the outside. So I installed a nice board to separate the inside storage and outside storage. DW keeps extra bedding and clothes in totes under the bed and I keep my Karaoke & DJ Equipment in the outer storage. I used a melamine shelf board that I bought from Lowes or any other lumber yard. You can use what ever you want but I thought the melamine shelf board looked nice and was just about the right size and cheap.


2 Under bed support mod
On our SOB our plywood under the mattress started to warp so I had to get it supported and try to unwarp it. (Lots of clamps, wood, glue and lots of screws) So the first thing I did with our new rig was to make a support wall under the bed. I made it out of cheap 2x3 boards and made a wall down the center of the storage area of the bed. I used short screws and small corner brackets to attach it to the bottom as you do not want to have the screws stick out the bottom of the bed. Remember the bed is on a slide so you do not want the screws to stick through and snag the carpet or even worse screw it to the floor. (That would really screw it up)


3 Outside tv mod
The one thing we did not like about this model was the outdoor storage area. Our SOB and lots of others out there have a large storage compartment that you can put a large tv in. (We like to watch sports outside with friends) As you know the 3820FK only has a small storage compartment and my 46 inch TV was not going to fit. I thought and looked for ideas on how to mount a TV in that compartment. I finally came up with a bracket that slides out then swivels. I had to put in a couple of 2x3 boards in behind the bracket so it cleared the door. I now have a 32 inch TV mounted there. I can’t go to much bigger or it will not fit. (Plus I already had it.)
It is a Morryde Sliding TV Mount, Model # TV40-002H
I found on sale at Camping World but it is available at lots of other places. I paid about $180 for it during Black Friday sales.



4 under sink water filter mod
In Florida our water is not the best taste to drink and water bottles get expensive after a while so
I put a drinking water filter on the cold side of the kitchen water faucet. It was easy to install and I only have to change it about every 6 months. I still have a outside water filter installed also, to get the contaminants out of it and the under-sink filter will get the rest out. It came with everything to install it.
We still buy some bottled water for when we are on the go but when we are home we use the filtered water. It is a GE Model# GXULQK. I am sure there are lots of others out there that are just as good.

5 Outside water filter and softener mod
I have a whole house water filter and rv water softner hooked up


6 Hard piped sewer pipe
We were able here to hard pipe our sewer so I put a trap in it and made it so we can go back to hose anytime we need to


7 Velterra waste gate for grey water mod
I installed a waste gate and drilled lots of small holes in it to let the grey water go through and keep out sewer flies and what ever else is in sewers. (YUCK)


8 Shower Mod
Easy one, installed a new shower head Oxygenics. A lot better...


9 Air Conditioning Mod
Installed 1 1/4 “ PVC pipe in AC ducts and zip tied up wires in AC unit


10 RV Fridge Mod
Installed 2 extra fans to keep it cooler and put on longer drip hose to drip outside verses in drip pan. Lots of humidity here so it was over flowing.


11 TV Splitter mod
We have cable here so I installed a zero loss splitter to keep reception good.



12 Awning over slide out mod
Easy one. With the awning touching the slide out I was always afraid of it tearingon the slide out corners so I put some pool noodles on the top of the slide out.


13 Security Cameras
This is something that you usually don't think about but this is our home and it is nice to keep an eye on it when we are not there. They are wireless and easy to install.


14 Cat litter box mod
We have 2 cats and needed a place that wasn't so noticeable for the litter box.
We put it under the bathroom sink cabinet. I took off the cabinet door and installed a small spring rod and put some rings with clips and clipped on a dish towel like a curtain.

[Janine]

Good stuff.

[BandBmalin]

kc8lvy,
Would you mind posting some pics of #10 for me/us along with a bit more info about the fans and how you wired them in? I've done a bunch of reading because when camping, my fridge is set to "9" and it is cool in the refrigerator, but ice cream is really soft in the freezer. Living and doing most of our camping in central FL, I may need to consider the drip line mod as well.

[BandBmalin]

D&PMac,
Thanks for the pics. I may have to "borrow" that mod for our fiver as well. Looks great and really helps allow access to that closet. Great idea!!

[kc8lvy]

Originally Posted by BandBmalin

kc8lvy,
Would you mind posting some pics of #10 for me/us along with a bit more info about the fans and how you wired them in? I've done a bunch of reading because when camping, my fridge is set to "9" and it is cool in the refrigerator, but ice cream is really soft in the freezer. Living and doing most of our camping in central FL, I may need to consider the drip line mod as well.

I will post some pics tomorrow when I get some time. They were easy to install and there was a 12volt source near by.

[DanandBrenda]

Does anyone remember the fan fix for the 3820FK refrigerator that goes off when you turn on the fantastic fan. Someone rewired the fan and posted directions on what they did. I have looked but can't find it

[FloridaFlockers]

It was posted by jjfleck on 04-05-2019 titled "Easy Fix For The 3820FK REF/Fan Problem." Tried to cut and paste it here but couldn't figure out how to do it? Pretty certain you can find it using the search. Good luck, Joe

[Carl n Susan]

Here is a link to the original post by jjfleck

http://www.montanaowners.com/forums/...ad.php?t=77281

[kc8lvy]

Sorry it took longer than I planned to post the pics of my extra fridge fans.
Actually i went out to take the pics and seen that one of the original fans was shot and ones that I installed was about to give out. Amazon to the rescue. The original fan blew straight up and was only about half the size of the one I replaced it with. The other one is the one I installed and it is blowing in. I had a third one I did not install at this time.
The first Pic is the one I installed with just a couple of L brackets and 2 zip ties.
The second Pic is where the original fan was mounted but I only used one screw to hold it as my new fan was twice as big. It seems pretty solid.

[BandBmalin]

So you put the fans OUTSIDE on the back side of the refrigerator? A lot of what I read talks about people putting the fans inside the fridge. Do you have to run the fridge on "9" or does this allow you to actually run it on a lower number and still get cold temperatures? Does your freezer actually freeze hard things like ice cream. We can make ice and keep ice from melting, but ice cream is always "soft serve" style at best. Also, would you mind posting a pic from further back from the trailer so I can get a better view? I'm sorry for all of the questions, but I really want my fridge to do what it's supposed to do and get excited with ideas that work behind the scenes, so to speak.

[Janine]

Hubby got tired of putting the cable thru the back window to the Wally, so he found where the cable comes up thru the closet slide and pulled the hard hoop out and pushed the cable up behind the drawers. Drilled a hole down toward the drawers near the wall inside the closet where the already existing wiring is and pulled the cable up and over the railing and into the Wally. No more cable thru window. AWESOME! I'd attach the pics but having trouble.

[FloridaFlockers]

BandBmalin, what size (length) screw did you use to mount the magnets to the convince center door? Assume they were SS? Mostly concerned about the length of screws into the side wall vs the door. Want to use long enough screws to provide a solid hold, but not too long as to go through anything. We are also in a 2017 3820 FK, already did the kitchen vent noodle mod.

[BandBmalin]

FF, good guess on the stainless. Length was 3/4 I believe. Most important step, however, was using some silicone adhesive. The magnets will have to resist being pulled off the trailer every time I use them and those screws, plus what we screwed into, is not designed for this type of force so "glue" to the rescue! I also wanted to be sure that the holes I pre-drilled into the trailer for each screw (always pre-drill and don't go too deep!!) wouldn't become a source of water intrusion down the road.

Have you noticed the difference after adding the pool noodles?

[FloridaFlockers]

Thanks for the info. Got to thinking about what you said about god force required to break the magnets apart. I might go with a "T" style door latch now vs the magnets. Considering one for the back door too so it doesn't slam shut when we are able to leave the door open in the cooler months.

I think I can feel increased airflow from the kitchen vents? But not really certain. Those ducts extend a full 2 feet forward of the vents.