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General Discussion / Praises to Phoenix Cruiser

« on: January 29, 2015, 09:33:56 am »

We more or less have our heart set on a Phoenix Cruiser....
But over on the Motor Home Magazine Open Roads Forum, they had been talking about other good units also....like Coachouse, and Nexus, in a addition to PC's..
So, we were down in South Carolina yesterday, and happened to be going by a Camping World...
"NOT" my favorite place to visit, to say the least...
BUT, they had a 24' Coachouse we looked at, and from the outside, it seamed quite nice....
A 2007, Platinium edition with a convertable sofa bed, and dinette in a bed also...
For the cabinetry, they use some form of compressed foil laminate for the doors, and drawers..
WELL!!!  The foil laminate was delaminating on all the doors, and drawers faces...
The salesman said the 7+ yr old unit originally probably sold for $140K...
The color of the laminate was deep red, similar to PC Cherry cabinets...
MY Comment is...
     PRAISES TO PHOENIX CRUISER FOR USING THE REAL THING, AND NOT SOME FAKE STUFF AND NOT CHARGING $140K  FOR THE UNITS THEY MANUFACTURE...


 

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General Discussion / Re: Rattling vent cap......

« on: January 26, 2015, 09:45:06 pm »

Greetings David;

The problem you are seeing is with a plumbing  fitting called a Studor Valve..[aka AAV]
it's used instead of a vent to the out side...
There is a spring in it, and it could rattle...
Depending on the make or model of the valve it could unscrew or disassemble..
It's important to keep sewer gases out of the cabin..
You can find them at Home Depot for less than $10...
Take Care
Tony

3

Tips and Tricks / Re: Another Crazy idea from CrazyG..

« on: January 12, 2015, 07:42:56 am »

Greetings RheaNL;
I marvel at your ingenuity and resourcefulness in packing a toaster oven,  a large electric skillet,  a small electric skillet, and a butane camp stove, with all its butane bottles into your 21' camper... ..
It's amazing what people can do when they put their minds to it...
Take Care
Tony

4

Tips and Tricks / Re: Another Crazy idea from CrazyG..

« on: January 11, 2015, 03:36:57 pm »

Greeting PC'ers...
This the lastest info which we just gleaned...
We went to the Williams Sonoma store in Asheville today, and talked to Mary the sales lady.
She was very knowledgeable, because she is their  'Demo-cook'....
We were more interested in the new 'ceramic' fry pans and purchased some...
NOT the kind you would use on an 'induction' unit...
But, I did ask her if she ever used the induction method of cooking and she said yes, numerous times,,,,She sid she didn't like them, because depending on the pans and the food,
""THEY COOK TO FAST"""  25 to 50% faster than gas or propane....
She said she was old school and hasn't gotten used to them yet...
So there you go...something to put in your pot and let simmer...
Take Care
Tony

 

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Tips and Tricks / Re: Another Crazy idea from CrazyG..

« on: January 11, 2015, 12:20:07 pm »

Greetings 2Frazzled;

Your right about the 'iron' part....cast iron should work, ""BUT"" not all
stainless steels are none magnetic....It depends...
My wife has got some Wolfgang Puck  SS pots, that are magnetic...
So I don't know how to respond to that exactly...
We don't have an induction unit just yet, but I thought for the space this particular unit
consumed it might be interesting for campers cooking out side or something...
My understanding is that it cooks much faster...and it's safe in the respect that you can touch the cooking surface without burning yourself...
This technology stuff is just leaving me behind, and I continually have to scramble just to keep up with what is going on..
I'd be happy to hear from anybody else that knows more about this technology
Take Care
Tony

6

Tips and Tricks / Another Crazy idea from CrazyG..

« on: January 11, 2015, 11:27:18 am »

Admittedly I'm NOT a PC owner  , BUT I've been looking at them and surveying them...
and one of things I see as a short coming in the PC's is the gas cook top...
In the camper we had previously, it had a 3 burner Atwood, and you could cook about anything on it...It seems the cook top in the PC's are much smaller, and most importantly the
the control knobs for the gas are VERY close to the burners themselves....and in some of the pictures I'v seen on the internet , the knobs had been melted...
SOO!! I was thinking about a whole new method of cooking that is just coming out into fruition... ...It's called ""Induction heat cooking"....It's done with electric, with special type pans and it's faster and smaller than the range tops in the PC's...
Admittedly it uses 120v, and wouldn't work for boondockers unless they ran their generator...
Here's a picture from the website you might be interested in....
http://www.acitydiscount.com/Vollrath-Mirage-Pro-14-x-15-25-Counter-Top-Induction-Range-1800W-59500P.0.143612.1.1.htm?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cse&utm_campaign=cse_goo&PPCID=22&link=Induction-Cooktops&catargetid=730011350000099681&cadevice=c&gclid=CKC-goWnjMMCFeLm7Aodp3cAuw
Of course, the price could be an issue...BUT, I thought somebody may have interest in them,
and was just posting for those who might be interested...

Take Care
Tony

7

General Discussion / Idea for a Camper Electric Heater

« on: January 01, 2015, 12:22:49 pm »

With the cooler weather now here, this is just an idea some one could use to
keep their campers warmer, depending on the model & space available to do it...
I'm talking about electric toehold/kick plate heaters....
In the Holiday Rambler TT I had, we had a Suburban Gas heater, that when it started up, it would whine away and cycle....To me it was just to noisy, and consumed a lot of propane.
So I got this idea to use more electric and less propane...
I found that I had space under a cabinet to cut a hole and install one..
These are some of the models available you could possibly use;
https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=electric+kick+plate+heaters...
I cut the hole, and wired it into the air condition circuit....admittedly this is NOT to code..BUT
I figured since I wasn't running the air conditioning and the heater at the same time I could get away with it....It worked fine and kept the camper warm down to freezing, and if it got colder, then I'd just kick on the propane heater to make up the difference...
One winter, when it got down to 15 degrees on Cedar Key, on the gulf coast of Florida, NOTHING could keep the camper warm....So I got another idea, and installed an outlet thru the camper wall, and hooked up a male/prong type outlet on the outside of the camper....That would take a standard 12 ga.extention cord,and plug it into one of the extra 15amp outlets on the camp site electrical posts, and I had a standard GFI outlet on the interior of the camper to plug in an additional electrical space heater...Voila....We had heat, and I didn't have to burn my propane, and listen to the propane heater whine all night...
Now, mind you, I understand that a lot of the newer units have strip heaters in their units,
but I offer this as just an alternative to anbody wanting extra heat.
The limiting factor in most cases, is the 30 amp circuits in the campers, and the individual breakers....Most sites electrical posts offer 2 extra 15 amp circuits that could be used if needed...Why not use them???




 

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General Discussion / Re: Introduce Yourself!

« on: December 24, 2014, 10:39:36 am »

Greetings PCer's   , and Happy Holidays to you !!
My name is Tony Graupp & my wife's name is Bonnie....
Currently we don't own a PC, but it is in our plans to purchase a 2551 or 2552....
We're not new to the RV & camping world, as we had owned a 32' Holiday Rambler TT for 14 years, and towed it to Alaska, the maritime provinces, and to Florida on may occasions ...
I chose the 'handle' Crazyg, because of all the crazy things owning a camper RV affords you to do....On 2 separate occasions we sold our furnished house right out from under us, and had to full time for  a year or year & 1/2 each time while we decided to either buy or build a house....
We settled in the WNC mountains currently, and are looking to replace  the TT camper...
The last crazy thing we did, was to sell our camper right out from underneath us, while were in the middle of a 10 week trip to Florida....Because of my age [late 70's], I get tired of driving after a couple of hours, and my wife Bonnie refused to drive the big rig stretched out 50', and weighing nearly 19,000#.....So I gave her an ultimatum...you either drive it or we sell it.....WELL!!!! The next thing she said was go ahead....SOO!!! I went to WalMart, bought a
'For Sale' sign, put our phone number on it, and taped to the Camper....
Low and behold, 3 or 4 people passing thru the camp sites saw it, and it only takes one buyer...5 weeks into our sojourn, I watched as my beautiful camper was being towed away by
some total stranger.....I can still remember it vividly...
As a side note, do you realize how hard it is to sell any RV ???? Literally thousands available...
SO, Now, you want to call me Crazy or what ??? ..
I've spent a lot of time on the internet, looking at different models, and I think I've narrowed down to the PC....Most importantly, something my wife can drive....We checked on a class A diesel....and she just flat out NO!!...I currently have a diesel Excursion, that I towed the TT with, and she feels that the E-450 wouldn't be that much worse to drive....
So, now it's just a matter of getting our finances together, and finding the exact unit that suites our needs....
Again !!!  Merry Christmas to you all, and have one on me ..