Archive - Aluminium Camper Forum

Nice... I have to check out the Polk, they make some nice audio equipment. I hadn't thought of the speaker extenders, didn't see them listed on Crutchfield Audio when I was looking around. They do make smaller sound bars these days. We are buying a larger flat screen to put on the sink counter with sound bar for evening TV watching. It should help drown out the A/C fan noise, those fans are pretty noisy. 
Thanks for the ideas. Peter

Poor radio reception and sound. I started digging into antenna wiring. Over the refrigerator the antenna wire coupling was loose. The antenna amp connection system over the TV, I found the radio was plugged into center connection instead of TV2. That fixed the receiving issue. I  unscrewed and dropped every speaker and found the backs full of loose insulation, and metal flakes. Used a vacuum and small acid brush to remove it all from around the speaker cone. I might put in better 5 1/4 shallow well speakers, and hook up a sound bar for watching TV.

I have a 21 BHS and have done some mods for better storage and it's rather simple to take things apart on these campers and make it to fit  your needs. If you unscrew the black trim pieces the panel pieces have a thin double sided tape that holds it to aluminum frame work. I have used a stiff paint scraper to get behind the panel and carefully run the scraper along the aluminum frame to separate the tape glue from panel. It's also easily to cut with a sharp razor blade. So you could cut along the aluminum frame edge of the panel and then use the material to make a new flat panel door, with some aluminum from Home Depot or Aluminum metal shop.  A good place to see the panel is the front panel of the hot water heater. I have the exterior storage on the slide out and have two folding tv trays, small two burner stove, awning tie downs and few other small items and it doesn't effect the slide out.

I tried to add a photo but it's too large.

Thanks Doug,  We ran the tow numbers on the truck before we purchased it, as we knew when we got the trailer we would need a new tow vehicle. Next time I'm loaded up I'll check the measurements and see how close I am to the bumpers. I find towing with the Ram a breeze and have had no issues.

Peter 

Ammobob, Thank you for the advice. I have a Jason camper topper on my truck, I also packed as much of the heavy weighted items that go into the bed of the truck forward of the axle. I'm going to look at the air bags and give them a try.  I opened a Pinterest account and still trying to figure out how to post pictures correctly. The photo transferred in as huge. The 18' surf ski's on top weight 35 lbs each and that's spread out as the balance mid point of the ski's is at small epic sticker so very little weight on rear saddle points. Other sporting good gear in the back.  It's down a bit in the rear and maybe a slight down pitch on the trailer. Next time I'm loaded going to get some better measurements and level reading.

djsamual, have you notice if the yellow frame bumpers hit the rear axle when your loaded up with trailer and gear (if your truck has coil spring) ? This is my first truck with coil springs and towing a 21' trailer so I didn't think to look at them before with the trailer hooked up and loaded. After the last trip and doing some research to see if the truck squat was excessive or an unsafe condition as some say the truck should be close to level along with the trailer. I think that can be unrealistic depending on set up and load placement. So far towing the camper even through West Virginia mountains I felt safe towing with no weird sway or bounce.  I'm going to take another look at my measurements the next time I'm loaded for a trip. It seems to me the truck can handle the load as it's a light trailer in comparison to others on the market. 
Thanks, Peter

Hello Ammobob, I have a 2014 Ram 1500 towing 21 BHS and I get about a 2" squat in rear end with everything loaded up. I do not have weight distribution, as it was not recommended when we purchased the LL and was towing it with an Ford Explorer prior to purchasing the RAM truck.  I was looking at air bags and or Timbren SES suspension bumpers, replacing the yellow ones that sit over the rear axle. http://timbren.com/timbren-ses/  I wonder how the airbags hold up and any issues to look out for.  Did you have to change your receiver set up  drop or height measurement with and with out the air bags?  I need to recheck my receiver measurements too to see if I need a little more height.  We had no trouble towing with our current set up during our trip to FL, no sway passing or being passed by semi's at 65 mph. At one point I hit 70mph not paying attention and the trailer was towing fine, didn't feel any changes in tow effect.  The squat is a bit of a concerning and I read WDH are the best way to remove it, but I'm not comfortable with stressing the aluminum frame with the force from WDH. I spoke to a Ram 2500 truck owner, who's towing a steel frame xtra lite toy hauler and he said he has 3" of squat, that's with leaf springs. If you have any thoughts let me know.

Peter

I tried to upload a picture but I can't figure out how to get it to work.


 

Has anyone modified or replaced the steps on 21 BHS so that the first step out of the camper is around 7-8 inch drop? I was looking at Torklift aluminum 3 step as it might fit? http://www.torklift.com/index.php/products/steps-handrails/glowstep

My other thought is to cut off the Bottom short leg of L bracket, then bolt in new bracket to move a set of steps closer to the floor, reducing the first step drop. Then install a 3 step fold away step.  

Mitch, when I checked my wheels on my 21BHS I heard brake noise when rotating. I looked up Dexter Axles on Livin Lite's website under warrany and on Dexter Axles website and followed the Instruction sheet for Hubs /  Drums / Bearings. It says the bearings should be lubricated every 12 months or 12,000 miles for grease packed type bearings. They also list the appropriate grease to use with the bearing type.    http://www.livinlite.com/pdf/600-8K_DexterAxleServiceManual.pdf 

The Dexter Axle service manual is really well written and easy to follow, I used it to readjust my wheel bearings and to make sure everything checked out before a recent long trip. 

Pete

I haven't had a chance to hook up the truck and trailer to tow it to a level parking lot so that I can take some measurements to check the hitch height. With my short driveway and sloped section makes for some inaccurate measurements. I'm a bit concerned about installing a WDH as the LL dealer did not recommend using one when I purchased the camper. 
Pete

Hello, we have a 21BHS and have really enjoyed camping in it. We did two long camping trips this year and it was a lot of fun and we had no issue at all. I've been looking at some of the post and this is a great resource of informaiton about others experiences. A great site

Thank you, 
Pete

Hello Mike, Welcome to the group. I too have 21BHS and last winter I forgot to disconnect the toilet flush valve and drain. At the begining of this season after turning on the water the flush valve was cracked spraying water everywhere.  It was an easy fix to pop the valve off cut the band straps and install new valve with removeable hose clamps. A lessons learned by a new RV owner as I missed the winterizing part of the toilet valve. We have had our camper for a year now and it's really nice set up. 

Pete

Paul, here's a few pictures of the cabinet door frames flipped over to open downward on the two over the bed and the closet door now opens to the right. As you can see the hinges are so tight that doors just hang with no problem. I haven't seen any adverse effect on the hinge or the frame work with the doors installed this way. The doors don't weigh anything so I do not see it as a problem. On the closet door I noticed the hinge frame work flexing, but I think that's from the piano hinge being a bit tweeked. I still want to drill out the rivits and reinstall the hinge to see if it takes the pressure off the frame and opens easier. 

Pete

When I purchased our 21BHS our tow vehicle  a 2000 Ford Explorer Sport 4x4 the dealer recommended installing Road master active suspension system. I had already replaced the original leaf springs from a single leaf to a multiple spring pack. That alone helped with the rear sag in the SUV. The Roadmaster Active suspension took the S bend out of the leaf springs and raised the rear of the SUV a couple of inches (unloaded / no trailer hooked up). http://www.activesuspension.com/ Once the trailer was hooked up the overall stance of the truck and tailer was much better than with out the Roadmaster suspenaion. Granted with the short wheel base of the two door Explorer is not the ideal tow vehicle for 21ft as I could feel the trailer moving around when semi's passed. The roadmaster active suspension does work but it does stiffen up the rear suspension when your not towing a trailer.



Pete



 

I have 21BHS, I looked for ways of proping open the cabinet doors with little success. I decided to remove the doors and see if I could flip them over. The screws that hold the frame are only on 3 sides. No screws at the hinge side. I took out the mounting screws and flipped the entire door and frame over. Both doors now open downward and with the tightness of the hinges they just hang open. The door weight it nothing compared to the tighness of the piano hinges, so the door just hangs there. I also flipped the closet door to open towards the bed away from the wall. This gives some more room to load and to not run one's arm the door closer mechanism. I might drill out the hinge rivits and reattatch as the hinge seems to be binding when opening (always been that way from date of purchase). I also purchased shorter bolts for all the door locks and adjusted them useing a single nut to lock the bolt down. This keeps from running into the end of the bolt that was sticking out when reaching into cabinet.