Electrical items found inside the RV
In this video, I install a Drok AC Amp/Volt Meter into my 2011 Keystone Cougar fifth-wheel trailers power distribution panel. Disclaimer: Working with electricity is dangerous. The following installation mod I describe should be performed by a qualified RV technician or electrician. Doing it yourself could cause you serious injury or death and may void … Read more
I finally bought myself a Kill-A-Watt meter. For me, it will be an additional tool for my RV product reviews testing arsenal. If you haven’t heard of it before, it’s an inexpensive but handy gadget for checking how many watts or amps a particular appliance draws. Extremely useful when trying to figure out how much … Read more
In this video, I conclude my initial review of my new Lion Energy Safari UT 1200 lithium batteries. I have 3 of their 12V 90Ah batteries wired in parallel to produce a 270Ah bank. They are replacing 4 Interstate 6V golf cart batteries we have used for the last 3-4 years. So far, I’ve published … Read more
For a while now I’ve heard hear folks rave about an RV kitchen gadget called the Instant Pot. The Instant Pot appliance is an all in one multicooker. It’s mainly a pressure cooker but also can be a rice cooker, steamer, slow cooker and even a yogurt maker. In pressure cooking mode it dramatically speeds … Read more
While visiting a fellow RVer friend of mine recently I helped him out by diagnosing and fixing his motorhome entrance steps. They were stuck in the out position unable to retract. In the video, I show you what was causing the entrance steps to be stuck in the out position on his Travel Supreme Motorhome. The culprit … Read more
Soon after receiving our new Cougar fifth wheel I purchased a 1000W Pure Sine Wave Inverter to be able to run our 21″ iMac computer and 32″ LCD TV while off the grid. I wanted a pure sine wave inverter to give our sensitive electronic items clean, stable, and safe power. The unit has performed … Read more
What is Wrong with the OEM Converter? I’ve always suspected that the manufacturer installed power converter in our Keystone Cougar fifth wheel did a poor job when it came to charging our batteries. They never seemed to pack the punch I felt they were capable of. This suspicion was confirmed when I installed a Trimetric … Read more
RV Solar Upgrades So, if you have been following my blog for the last while you will know that I have upgraded the RV battery bank from two six volt golf cart batteries to four. And just last week I added two more Renogy 100 watt panels to the roof for a total four. Now … Read more
That #[email protected]*ing Fan is Driving Me Nuts! Our Keystone Cougar 276RLS trailer came equipped with a Dometic model DM2652LBX refrigerator. It does a pretty good job of keeping our food cold or frozen but has one annoying little quirk that drives me crazy at times. In the backside area, between the cooling unit piping is … Read more
Introduction Recently I removed the small end table at the rear of our Keystone Cougar trailer to replace it with a custom built computer desk. The new desk is awesome and I love it but it’s created a problem with storing the RVs long power cord. In the previous arrangement, it would be fed through … Read more
Two Simple Upgrades In part three of my summer RV renovations, I tackle a couple very simple upgrades. First up is the installation of a light fixture in the under the bed storage area. This has been a long asked for addition by my lovely wife. Since a happy wife equals a happy life, I … Read more
Upgrading a 12 Volt RV Lamp Fixture Recently I updated our Keystone Cougar Fifth Wheels lighting systems to new LED bulbs. While installing the new bulbs, one of my fixtures was damaged. Due to the heat produced by the 12-volt incandescent bulb the bulb holder became very brittle and the bulb actually fused to the … Read more
Introduction I’ve been looking to swap out our fifth wheels OEM incandescent light bulbs to the more energy efficient LED lamps for a while now. As luck would have I got an email from a high-quality LED lamp manufacturer asking if I would like to try out their LED lamps for the RV. The company … Read more
Using Lux DMH110A to Update RV Thermostat I previously wrote a blog post describing my upgrade mod to my RV heating/cooling thermostat and posted a video on YouTube detailing the install. I used the Hunter brand model 42999 and it works great in my RV. The other day I received a comment on the video … Read more
Our Keystone Cougar 276RLSWE Fifth Wheel came equipped with a Coleman-Mach Analog Thermostat to control temperature when using either the Airxcel Air Conditioning or the Suburban LP Gas Furnace. I noticed a problem right away with trying to maintain a comfortable temperature in the rig. It seemed like there were large swings in temperature between … Read more