Memorial Weekend Camping Trip

[Dam Worker]

Well we are getting excited to take our 3160 RL LE on its second camping trip. We will make a five night trip out of our Halliday weekend. We will be going up to the Tucanon canyon in the Blue mountains. It will be boon docking with a bunch of our friends. Weather report seems to be improving.

Hopefully the dealership will have addressed some of our list of issues with our new unit.. It sat there for six days with nothing being looked at or done, because they thought the dead bolt was locked. I was in Westport WA halibut fishing when I got their voice mail when we got cell service so I could not reply that it was not locked. Got to the dealership after work on Wednesday and went out with a service writer to unlock the deadbolt. He watched me unlock the door lock and then open the door without ever touching the deadbolt. The look on his face was priceless. he mumbled something about a stiff door and that it was their fault that the warrantee work had not been started.

Tom &Lynne Marty

[DQDick]

Hope the trip goes well for you and the dealer has done their job.

[commish]

Enjoy and happy camping for you. Mike & Karol.

[Dam Worker]

Well I am down from very mad to just really bummed out. Went to the dealer last Tuesday after work to pick up our 3160 RL LE. Of course they forgot to have it outside the lot and ready for me. Lucky I had called on my way to make sure it was ready. They did get it out for me to pick it up without service being there. That part was nice.

We loaded up the rig Tuesday night so we cold leave Wednesday after lunch.
We were just ready to take off and I was making my last walk around before leaving. That is when I noticed the big gash in my front end cap. You can probably guess how I called upon finding it. Of course my dealer knew about it and just thought that I had been notified of the little incident. I let him know that of course I had not been notified. He implied it was no big deal as their techs had happened to notice some paint blemishes in the front cap and had already talked to Keystone about fixing it. You know some touch up paint at a local body shop. My guess is that somebody on their forklift hit the edge of my unit with the mast as they were going around the front of it.
Has anybody else had to get something like this repaired. I am not happy with a brand new unit needing body work and paint.

Tom & Lynne Marty

[Dam Worker]

Well a little bit of learning about boon docking in our new unit. First thing is that the cheap dealer only put one battery in our unit. Even running the generator the single battery does not always last overnight. It depends on how many times the heater comes on during the night along with the fridge vent fan running almost continually. One night I shut the fridge off and we still had enough battery left to wait a little while before starting the generator. Two mornings I had to plug in the truck and let it idle just to get enough power to start the generator. I already knew I was going to get another battery but now I am thinking about two or three house batteries and a separate battery just for starting the generator. Also might invest in a solar panel or two. I already have a small inverter and will probably also install my 1000 watt inverter hooked to specific circuits.
Another thing we learned was that the generator gets quite hot and we get quite an odor in the inside of the unit. I think it needs a vented door for better airflow/cooling instead of relying on just ventilation through one spot in the bottom of the generator pan. Also want to say the advice I got on here is accurate as you will go through a lot of propane. It will take a little while but I plan on going from 30lb bottles to 40 lb bottles as some other members have done. A lot of our trips will have good power sources available but I want to be able to not have to rely on that.

Tom & Lynne Marty

[Dam Worker]

Well now to a happier reply. My wife actually said that overall she is happy with our new 3160 RL LE. :-) I also am pretty happy with the size and lay out. It is more aerodynamic than our old Vanguard although it is a bit longer and heavier. I did stop at a scale and weigh the individual axles. It weighed about what I had expected as we were around 21,500 lbs. The truck handles the combination quite well. I do need to lower the air pressure in the air bags a little to get the trucks rear end down about an inch or two. I did not have airbags with the old fifth-wheel as they were installed while I was carrying a Arctic Fox 990. Even without airbags the truck sat very well with the old fifth-wheel. I will compare axial weights between the two when I get around to digging up the old information. If I remember correctly our old unit was about a thousand pounds lighter than this one.
We feel that we made a goods choice with this brand and this unit and I guess the near future will start to tell us if we were accurate. It will be nice when we get the issues resolved and can mainly just enjoy our time camping in it. Next trip planned will be at a nice RV park called Harmony RV Park on Mayfield Lake.
Here's to happy camping.

Tom & Lynne Marty

[jcurtis934]

I would not be happy with the dealer for damaging it. Single battery doesn't even work for booning unless you don't use fridge or heat. Fortunately, there are many here to guide you on how you should setup to do this. John