New owner with some questions.
We will be taking title to a barely used, single owner, 2013 High Country 343RL tomorrow and have some questions before we move it to its new home. For the foreseeable future, this will be parked on a slab behind our business so that our kids have a place to hang out while we are working. We don't currently have a truck, nor plans to camp in it so it may never move and may always be on shore power and city water. We live outside of Asheville, NC so we have moderate four seasons with avg Highs/Lows in July of 83/63 and 46/26 in January.
1. Most winter days are above freezing but we'll get cold fronts where highs are in the teens and lows are in the single digits so I'm trying to figure out what we should do during the winter. What would we need to do if we wanted to be able to have water for dishes/cooking? Year round, the kids can come inside the shop for the bathroom (especially #2 lol) so if there is a risk of things freezing, we could just not use water at all during the colder months but it would be nice if we could insulate it enough to leave everything operational year round and not have to winterize it.
2. Our 343Rl has a single A/C unit. Will that likely be sufficient to cool the bedroom on mid 80's days or will we likely want to add a 2nd A/C to the bedroom? My daughter will likely hang out in the bedroom when she wants alone time so I'm hoping the single A/C is adequate.
3. When we went to look at new 5th wheels to decide if it made sense, the guy at Camping World told us that you should ideally close the slides during heavy rains because "all slides leak over time". It's not Florida rain, but we do get some heavy rainfalls multiple times a week during the Summer so it would be a pain to have to run out and close the slides several times a week so is that really necessary or are these slides built well enough that they don't leak? The current owner has left the slides out for a couple months and said it never leaked. Ours doesn't have awnings over the slides so would it be a good idea to add those if we wanted to leave the slides open? If the kids are only going to come in 2-3 days per week, would it be wise to shut the slides when they aren't there or not worth the hassle?
4. Are the slides strong enough to be left open unsupported for periods of time or would it be wise to wedge some 4x4 posts under each one to help support them if the answer to #3 is, "there's no problem leaving your slides open all Summer"?
5. The roof looks like it's in good condition and they've never had any leaks but the 5th wheel is 9 years old. Should I preemptively do any maintenance to the roof to reseal it?
6. The owner said theirs didn't come from the factory with a generator but they had an Onan installed shortly after buying it. However, the generator hasn't been used in several years and isn't currently working. She said it worked fine the last time they used it but that it needs to be serviced to find out why it's not running. They gave us a huge price reduction for that so I'm not too concerned (especially since we don't need the generator) but am curious what are some things I can check to see why it's not working. I know it's best to run generators regularly so it's not great that this one has hardly ever been used. Are there any good posts or web pages about how to troubleshoot/service them?
7. The inside is immaculate but the outside is dirty/chaulky. What is the best way to clean/buff it to get it looking good again?
Thanks so much for all the help!
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