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General Discussion / Re: TPMS

« on: March 01, 2021, 12:46:36 pm »

We've had the EezTire system in our 2012 2551 for about three years and we love it.  It's been rock solid with sensor batteries easily lasting two seasons.

One of the things that drew us to this particular system at the time was the fact that the display would show blank if data for a sensor was lost.  Surprisingly this was not the case with some other systems that would simply display the last tire pressure if sensor communication was lost for any reason.  I would guess that things have changed in the last few years but it's a feature worth paying attention to when shopping around.

For five tires (spare included) I used the cap-style sensors with their anti-theft covers removed to make them easy to screw on.  For a little theft deterrent I always reinstall the rear hub caps rotated 45 degrees so that the hub cap holes don't align with the sensors.  For the front I used some sheet styrene plastic softened with a heat gun to make little bulged covers for the holes that line up with the slightly protruding sensors.  So all the sensors are hidden or covered and hub caps have to be removed to put air in the tires, but that's infrequent and not a big deal.

I can't recommend the EezTire flow-through sensors however, primarily because of their mechanical design.  I bought these for the inner tires thinking that it would be less of a hassle, but a peculiar design quirk makes them very difficult to screw on for the first time and when you replace batteries.  They have an internally threaded brass female end that screws onto the valve stem, but for whatever reason the threads start too deep within the female end. So as you fiddle about trying to get the first thread of the sensor to catch onto the valve stem you are just starting to compress the seal and depress the valve at the same time.  The thread should have started immediately at the end of the brass coupling so that you could get aligned and have the threads engaged well before the seat and valve compression begin. Refilling the air that was lost during the installation is also an extremely slow process through the sensor - you can hardly tell that any air is going in. On top of that, they have a tiny socket head security screw in the side of the coupling that is very difficult to tighten. 

But having a tire monitoring system is very comforting if you're the type that thinks about what those poor tires have to endure while you're cruising at 60 on a blistering day.  I wouldn't be without one now.

 

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General Discussion / Re: Peeling leather seats

« on: March 15, 2020, 05:53:22 am »

If you have any DIY skills at all it's really not that difficult to buy pre-made replacements skins from Phoenix and install them yourself.  We did this over a few days on our 2012 2551 and couldn't be more pleased with the results.

We had driven to a local upholstery shop to get an estimate about a leather/vinyl job, and we were quoted something like $4000 for all vinyl (which he preferred) with another $2000 or so for an upgrade to leather on the usual surfaces that contact skin. Some time earlier I had spoken with Carol at Phoenix about what they offered for seat covers, and when I told the upholsterer about the significantly lower price for ready made covers, he seemed skeptical.  He said he would be willing to install the ready-made covers for something under $2K, however.

This all seemed pretty high to us, so we contacted Carol again for specifics and got samples of the two recommended (beige) colors.  We were quoted $1500 plus shipping for both seats and the recliners.  Four weeks later we had a very nice set of leather/vinyl covers made by the same shop that made the original seats, and in the end they all fit perfectly, with only one significant but welcome difference*.  The stitching patterns of all of the seats were somewhat different from the originals and to my eye have a somewhat more modern style, but it seems that they still use the same patterns for cutting all the parts, because the sizes and mounting flaps are identical.

The seats and the recliners were pulled out of the RV and taken into the basement.  All that we had to do was document the removal of the original covers and write notes on the inside of the fabric flaps as the originals were removed by cutting off the original hog rings.  Just to be safe we only stripped and covered one seat at a time, keeping the other intact for reference.

Installing the new covers is accomplished by pulling the hemmed edges or corner flaps of the covers while crimping hog rings around the steel seat frames.  I think only the backs of the recliner foot rests required a few staples.  There were a few times where we had to refer to disassembly photos to get the attachment ears of the covers pulled and anchored in the correct sequence, but we finished the job in two easy days, and it looks beautiful.

Along with the seats we also ordered a few yards of matching vinyl in case we decided to cover all of the interior vinyl trims in the same color, but they are still holding up and we actually prefer the contrast of the darker beige trims to the lighter more modern seat color.

*The one design change that was made was with the backs of the recliners.  On the recliner backs they changed the positioning order of the two padding pillows that insert into zippered compartments sewn into the covers from inside.  The original covers had a fatter pillow on top with the thinner pillow in the lumbar area, and the new covers have the compartments reversed, with the fatter pillow filling the lumbar region.  It looks better and is more comfortable to sit on.

This turned out to be a very happy resolution to something that had be bothering us for some time.  When we bought the RV (used) two years earlier there was no trace of a seat problem, and they just disintegrated after we bought it.  Covering the seats yourself is probably not for everybody,  but I can attest to the material quality, fit, and price of the replacement covers.

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General Discussion / Re: TV Removal 2011 2551

« on: November 06, 2018, 03:18:38 am »

If it's anything like our 2012, and if I recall correctly you should find some screw heads visible by sticking your head into the cabinets on either side.  Our TV was screwed directly to a piece of particle board that was beveled on the left and right sides to match the angle of the side cabinets.  The whole board/TV assembly was then screwed into place from within the side cabinets.  The screws are several inches long, and their aim was sort of hit and miss with the TV mounting board..

In the attached photo I was in the process of building a custom swing-out tv mount, and you can see the tear-outs from the three original screws on either side.  These were covered with strip moldings later. The backboard that the swing-out mount is attached to in the photo is not what you'll see when you remove your tv - it is a newly added board to finish the area that shows when the tv is deployed.