We traded our first Winnie, our reliable (until recently) travel trailer, for a brand new Thor motorhome. Motor Homes are self-contained houses on wheels with cooking, bathrooms, heat and air conditioning, and a queen size bed. Ours is compact, comfortable, and easy to drive and park.
Choosing a name for our elegant new motor home was not easy. We tried many names, but could not get away from Winnie II, her temporary name. Eventually, she told us her name is Josephine.
Our little rolling home has all the comforts of a larger home. Small preparation area in the kitchen, smaller shower, closet space for a hermit with few clothes, a table with space for 2 people or four kids. Even a smaller fridge with a freezer. But it seems to be working fine for us.
And, it gets nearly 12 miles per gallon of regular gasoline.
Inside Step
Look at the Floor Plan image above. Right in the middle, next to the fridge, it says “STEP UP.” That is THOR code for TRIP HERE. After tripping a few times, I purchased a ramp from Amazon, trimmed it to fit, and installed it at the step. No more tripping.
This turned out to be a different kind of tripping hazard – the ramp ended up in the middle of the stove area, making it a problem to cook. I removed the ramp, added some motion detect lights and reflective tape. We’ll see.
Motor Homes have lots of windows to look at the scenery and absorb the heat. Our first upgrade was to have the driver’s side windows tinted. As we were walking around the Thousand Trails Peace River campground on our first trip, we found Chris Cabral of Mobile Window Tinting. Chris and his friendly dog Duke travel the country from one Thousand Trails resort to the next in his travel trailer and workshop/Jeep. The tinting and factory-supplied drapes will help us sleep and keep cooler while still letting us see the scenery. Now we can drive without glare from the rising or setting sun, more comfortable ad safer.
Contoure 12 Volt Refrigerator
Our two-door Contour 12 Volt “home style” double-door refrigerator/freezer provided just over half the space of our full size home unit. The RV refrigerator is very convenient, with open glass shelves and the ability to see most of the food storage. It uses no propane, presents no real fire hazard, and our twin 12 Volt batteries will keep it running well as we travel.
There is one, minor problem. After driving, we found both doors swinging open and the food warm. The locking handle provided by Dometic is, at best, poorly designed. It swings easily out of the way when parked, but unfortunately has its own mind and swings open seemingly whenever it want.
The same unit is available from RecPro as model RP-RFG-10-22 and would seem to be a ideal replacement for an expired propane/110V Dometic.
Driver’s Door Step
Josephine is built on a heavy duty Chevy truck chassis. Trucks of this size are designed to appeal to men who consider themselves tall, handsome, and young.
Not me! I struggle to get up the distance to the door sill on Josephine. Chevy makes a step that is bolted to the door sill to make entry easy. Our GMC Yukon has such a step. The Thor dealer, manufacturer and local Chevy truck dealer do not list a step for this frame so I struggle to get in and out each time I buy gas. I have installed a temporary step on the side wall to help me enter while I look for the “real” step from a willing Chevy dealer or a junk yard.
Shower
There are many best parts to a day of camping. One of my favorites is the end of day shower. I love the feel of warm water after a day outside when it is cold – and I equally love the cool shower after a day of heat.
Josephine is equipped with an automatic tankless water heater that promises endless water at just the right temperature. On the average it does exactly that, varying from scalding hot to tank water temperature in a few seconds. We read the instructions, considered replacing it with an electric water heater, and decided to look for a cure.
The first thing we tried was an Oxygenics CareSpa Brushed Nickel Handheld Shower Head from Amazon for $35. We had a similar unit on Winnie, our previous trailer and enjoyed the low water volume usage high comfort showers.
This shower head did nothing to control the constantly changing temperature. So, we installed a 4 inch Thermostatic RV Shower Faucet Valve similar to the one we used on Winnie. This new unit was redesigned to fit the America RV market so no adaption was necessary. It is available from Amazon for $70.
It was amazingly easy to install. The plumbing exactly matched the unit we removed and the instructions were unnecessary, but clear if you wanted something to read.
In the process of detaching the shower head from the old faucet, we found the actual problem. The OEM fauced is supplied with a water flow restrictor to reduce water consumption as was previously required by Federal regulations, since rescinded. While water conservation is a great idea in most cases, flow restrictors will cause a tankless water heater to cycle, as ours did, making the shower uncomfortable unless you turn on another faucet to raise the hot water flow rate.
We could have just removed the flow restrictor and saved some money – now we have a terrific shower head that holds temperatire even when someone is washing dishes.
