The adventures of Tiggerdad (A collection of camping locations, mishaps, reviews, alterations, food, and whatever else I can find)

[tiggerdad]

@PaHunter inspired me with his thread where he pretty much keeps up with his travels and camper related information. I was intending to do this shortly after the GSP Dismeet, but I've been preparing for board recertification and haven't gotten around to it until now. Now that is over, so I can get back to camping.

Those of you not familiar I upgraded to a new 5th wheel in April. A Jayco 29.5BHDS.

At this point we only have one camping trip under our belt, and this is only myself and the youngest DD. DW and oldest DD have yet to get to try it out. This will change shortly though. We are going to be camping this coming weekend for a short run Friday and Saturday at Lake Lurleen State Park in Tuscaloosa, AL. Also known as Titletown. My father's side of the family live in the very near area of the park and we are going to use this opportunity to visit around and this will give us a close location to visit from. Also, the DW has gone into shopping withdrawals and T-Town does offer multiple places to investigate. Plus, it just happens to be the backyard of probably the most famous Diser of all on the camping forum, @bama_ed . We'll have to try to meet up brother, maybe let me feed you and DW at the campsite.

I'll be adding more this week as I get things ready, I'll also discuss a few things I found during our first trip out in the new rig back in May.

Ya'll come...

 

[PaHunter]

@PaHunter inspired me with his thread where he pretty much keeps up with his travels and camper related information. I was intending to do this shortly after the GSP Dismeet, but I've been preparing for board recertification and haven't gotten around to it until now. Now that is over, so I can get back to camping.

Those of you not familiar I upgraded to a new 5th wheel in April. A Jayco 29.5BHDS.
View attachment 411497
At this point we only have one camping trip under our belt, and this is only myself and the youngest DD. DW and oldest DD have yet to get to try it out. This will change shortly though. We are going to be camping this coming weekend for a short run Friday and Saturday at Lake Lurleen State Park in Tuscaloosa, AL. Also known as Titletown. My father's side of the family live in the very near area of the park and we are going to use this opportunity to visit around and this will give us a close location to visit from. Also, the DW has gone into shopping withdrawals and T-Town does offer multiple places to investigate. Plus, it just happens to be the backyard of probably the most famous Diser of all on the camping forum, @bama_ed . We'll have to try to meet up brother, maybe let me feed you and DW at the campsite.

I'll be adding more this week as I get things ready, I'll also discuss a few things I found during our first trip out in the new rig back in May.

Ya'll come...

You have a very nice camper there, sure DW and the oldest will also enjoy that tankless water heater.

 

[tiggerdad]

At the end of my recent GSP trip I was going through my usual routine of filling and flushing tanks. I knew I had gray tank in front, and a gray tank in rear for outdoor kitchen. Both on separate discharges. I used the kitchen sink to fill the front gray tank and when the kitchen sink was filled with water I went outside to pull the gray tank valve. Only problem was, it was already pulled. I pondered this for quite some time. Why was the gray tank full, but the lever was open. In my head I was fearing the worst, the valve was stuck. Then as I was walking around and looking things over, I made a discovery. My camper does not have one or two gray tanks, it actually has three! Apparently I have a gray tank at front for bathroom. One in the middle only for the kitchen sink. And a third at the rear for the outdoor kitchen. The middle gray tank lever is hidden, back behind the metal siding and at the corner of the slide. I noted it on the picture below circled in green. The red circle is Jessie, the attack cat.


A feature on this rig that I absolutely love is the fact that it has a tankless water heater. As long as you got proprane, you got unlimited water. No more military showers!
I actually is the same size as the 5 and 6 gallon tanked heaters.




The thermostat is located inside the camper, on the wall in the bathroom so you can conveniently adjust it before getting into the shower. This is great because once you set the temp, you only have to turn on the hot water, you don't have to turn on the cold water to get the temp right! You can set it from a low of...


To a max of...


Youngest DD did find out at GSP that it has a timer set at 20 minutes. Anything after that it suspects you might of left it on by accident.

I did discover a design flaw in this camper in regards to the tankless water heater. The door to the outdoor refrigerator opens up in front of the blower for the water heater. This would not have a good outcome if the door was left open.


I'm gonna upgrade it, and change out the factory 3" latch for a longer 6" latch to see if this will give it more clearance. You can see it here that the latch can be longer.


Another problem we gotta figure out is the bunks.


We discovered at GSP that the upper bunk can actually get cold at night because it has two AC vents blowing on it. The lower bunk on the other hand is warmer, and stuffy because there is no air moving on it. None at all. I'm gonna try a small fan on this next trip, set it on the carpet there to the left and use it when the girls are sleeping, otherwise it can be stored. I also have the option of mounting it to the underside of the upper bunk but I'll see which way seems to work best.

Finally, towing wise this camper seems to be a very good fit for the TV. It seems that about 25 psi in the airbags sets it about right at full load to keep everything level. The Anderson Hitch is also doing very well. It is so nice to only have to lift 35# when taking it out of the truck.


Getting her ready to head out tomorrow on another shakedown cruise. This time it'll be the full four members of the family so this will be the trip where DW starts her "organization" and I start losing track of where everything is.

 

[jbrostek]

I am not surprised about the kitchen and bath being on seperate grey tanks. I would have expected the outdoor kitchen to be connected to the kitchen tank, not to add a 3rd. But I guess that's easier than plumbing it all. The new camper we looked at recently at an RV show was a Grand Design 379FL and even with a bath and a half, the only thing I loved was the 3 black and 2 gray tanks all came back to the same outlet. That makes dumping or full hookup easy to deal with, though lots of handles. I think we might get serious in the fall if the price is right at the Hershey show.

 

[tiggerdad]

Site 60 at Lake Lurleen State Park.




I had option for a site where I could see the lake but it was horribly uneven. It was a pull through, but was uphill and downhill. Not good.

Fixing to ride into T Town to grab some groceries and visit family.

I did find out the 4 bike rack that attached to trailer hitch was not up to the task.


Skip that item at Wal Mart. It couldn't handle 3 adult bikes and a kids bike.

 

[jbrostek]

I recently learned that there are RV rated bike racks. It seems the bouncing of the trailer can cause issues for some bike racks. Who knew?!?!?!

 

[tiggerdad]

Yeah, anything behind the axle is subject to violent jerking when you hit a bump. I was watching the bike rack in the backup camera and I was afraid it was having too hard of a time.

Lesson learned folks, go with the heavier 2" hitch. I already ordered an Allyn off Amazon. I found it here in T Town at Academy, but it was $25 cheaper on Amazon.

 

[bama_ed]

Didn't see this till today, tiggerdad.

Tomorrow I'm up in the 'ham all day long but I could ride out to see you on Sunday morning maybe before you leave. What's your schedule for Sunday morning?

Oh and for those that don't know, I'm not inviting tiggerdad to stop by my house on his way out of town Sunday morning because if he came down my street towing that big ol trailer, I could charge admission to watch him try to back it around my tiny cul-de-sac. I mean he is welcome, of course, but at his own risk. I'm not being rude. I actually like the guy.

What is the schedule for Sunday am?

Bama Ed

PS - I could bring the sausage and biscuits....

 

[cruising spud]

Glad you are getting a chance to use the new rv. ,
Question-living in the south, do you get to use your rv all year long or is there a time period where you have to winterize?

 

[tiggerdad]

Ed, no set schedule for Sunday. Figure leaving sometime around 11 or so.

Cruising Spud, we will usually wrap up camping in November and normally don't start back up until March but this is usually because of schedules. However, it seems my neurologist will be out of country for Christmas week and first two weeks of January so I might make a Gatlinburg trip for Christmas.

 

[2goofycampers]

We might be at home for Christmas this year. If so, we would be up for a mini Dismeet.

 

[tiggerdad]

We might be at home for Christmas this year. If so, we would be up for a mini Dismeet.

Will certainly keep you updated! My mom and dad have been taking care of my ailing grandmother for the last three years and haven't been able to go. They were considering a trip up there. They had talked about wanting the kids to see Biltmore at Christmas time too. Will keep you informed.

Our campsite is in the back of the campground up on a wooded hill. It overlooks the other campsites below. This morning this is what it looked like out the back windows.





Headed to T Town for DW to do some shopping

 

[tiggerdad]

A view of camper from below. That's our picnic table on left.


Checked out and walked some trails here as well. Lot of large Oaks, poplar, and pines in the hills.











The lake itself is very nice.








The guy across from me is from Fayette, AL. Thus, he is a local. He tells me it is a pretty lake, but very poor as far as fishing goes. So Denise, you might tell Frank he want to look elsewhere.

 

[2goofycampers]

The guy across from me is from Fayette, AL. Thus, he is a local. He tells me it is a pretty lake, but very poor as far as fishing goes. So Denise, you might tell Frank he want to look elsewhere.

LOL, you read my mind!

 

[bama_ed]

At this point on a Sunday afternoon the tiggerdad family is either headed home or recently arrived back.

I'll take this opportunity to say I DID visit them this morning while bearing gifts of sausage and biscuits. As td said this was the first trip in the new camper for DD#1 and DW and from my observation everyone was settled in well and already adapted to their new environment.

Thanks for putting up with me, folks, and come back to Titletown for a football game this fall. I'll save you a parking spot.

ED

 

[tiggerdad]

At this point on a Sunday afternoon the tiggerdad family is either headed home or recently arrived back.

I'll take this opportunity to say I DID visit them this morning while bearing gifts of sausage and biscuits. As td said this was the first trip in the new camper for DD#1 and DW and from my observation everyone was settled in well and already adapted to their new environment.

Thanks for putting up with me, folks, and come back to Titletown for a football game this fall. I'll save you a parking spot.

ED

Thanks again Ed, great guy as always. You didn't have to bring breakfast, the company is always enough. We'll try for some home games this year. Hopefully my schedule will match up better.

We are just settling down after arrival back home and unpacking. Good run. Found a few things however.

1. The bike rack from Wal Mart is nothing more than a paperweight. Totally unsuited for use on an RV.

2. I have a water leak Everything was fine until I changed the switch from city water to tank fill. After a few seconds I heard water dripping from under the camper. I removed the service panel to get to the water pump, and it seems something has come loose from underside of pump. I'm not sure if it's a filter or what. Hopefully nothing broke. As long as I don't use the pump or tank fill it's good. I'll need to remove the whole panel to get to it, so I'll address that later.

3. This auto leveling is not working right. Most of the time it gives an error and has to be reset in order to work. PaHunter was witness to this when I first arrived at GSP. It is easily reset, but a pain as you have to go inside to the touch screen to reset, then go back outside to finish raising/lowering/leveling so you can see everything.

4. I'm not used to the 2nd AC unit in bedroom. More specifically, I forgot to cut it off so two nights in a row I'm rocked out of my sleep by that thing kicking on. I suppose after some time I'll get used to it.

Unpacking this thing is so much better than the TT. I don't have to get everything out to store like the hammock, chairs, canopy, etc. since I have enough storage space to keep it all inside. MUCH quicker.

 

[2goofycampers]

4. I'm not used to the 2nd AC unit in bedroom. More specifically, I forgot to cut it off so two nights in a row I'm rocked out of my sleep by that thing kicking on. I suppose after some time I'll get used to it.

LOL, you will start sleeping right through it. The first house we bought the gas water heater kicked on during the night all 3 of us jumped out of bed.

 

[PaHunter]

Hopefully the water issue is a quick and easy fix. The auto level system, hope that is not a problem going forward.

 

[SouthAlabama5er]

Just seen your thread good stuff. Shake down trips are always fun, use it hard now and find any problems and have the dealer go through it. Learn from my mistakes! And if not we could get it fixed. Since GSP I've worked on about a dozen things to get our camper ship shape.

 

[Sjm9911]

Good luck with ot and the fixes. You might want to see about a celling mounted fan to move the AC from the top bunk. So battery powered or tap into the 12 volt system. Just another idea. The other stuff is above my pay grade.