We're happy with our new 2350

We’re happy with our new 2350.  It was delivered to us at our winter location in Southern California on April 4th as promised, and we would like to share some of our experiences with it during the following few weeks.

The first two weeks involved getting this RV ready for our maiden voyage, moving in some of the gear that we had used in our previous 37’ motorhome and acquiring a few other items that fit better into this one.  A talk on the phone with Kermit at the factory resulted in a couple of small items immediately being sent to us as replacements for defective ones.  That previewed additional factory support that we would receive soon afterward.

Then it was time for us to start our usual spring migration toward our permanent home in the little town on the Central California coast named Pacific Grove.

Our first stop on the trip was at a Flying J just five miles away to fill the fuel tank and weigh both the RV and our 2003 Honda CR-V toad car.  We had packed both vehicles with everything that we thought we would need (plus some extras) and were relieved to find that the gross weight amounts reported were less than all of the individual weight ratings and the combined total rating.

Our first real stop was 350 miles away at a favorite RV Park of ours (Pismo Coast Village).  This choice proved to be very advantageous to us because Sky River RV has a major RV repair facility located almost directly across the street from the park.  Two items on the 2350 needed a repair that we had planned to tackle ourselves when we camped.  That work turned out to be more than we could handle and another talk on the phone with Kermit resulted in us being authorized to have the repair facility fix these items.  Sky River RV was able to fit this work into their schedule on very short notice and had the work done before our scheduled departure at the end of that week.  We feel very fortunate that both Phoenix USA and Sky River RV provided such quick and excellent service.

Camping in this much smaller RV than our previous one proved to be very comfortable once we began to get the feel for where we had stored things and how to organize our activities.  The corner bed proved to be quite satisfactory for both of us and our dog and cat.  We like the electric sofa in the slideout that makes into two comfy recliners or a bed.  We often use an oversize TV table in front of the sofa at breakfast and lunch instead of setting up the big table as that is quicker and sufficient for us.

A refueling shortly before ending this trip showed that the Ford V-10 engine had given us about 9.3 miles to a gallon of regular gas.  

We’re looking forward to many fun outings with our new rig.

Bruce and Sharon

Congrats on your new unit.  We just drove out to the Grand Canyon area,  our mpg was about the same ran 9.2 to 10.1 65mph,,lots of headwind. On a previous trip with tailwind was getting up 11.4mpg. Love those tailwinds. Since your experienced RVer you want to look at all the tips for these units.  We had a roadtrkek which we really liked, but the extra room with the PC is great. Goinig to do some dry camping next couple of days see how that goes. BTW, the bed, your doggie must be small, our bed gets a little crowded with our puppy dog, of course he weighs 106lbs haha.
David Sparks
2008 PC 2350 nolsd
Houston

How funny!  Our dog's name is Sparky.  He only weighs 16 pounds, so he doesn't take up much room in the bed.

Congratulations on your new 2350.  I'm sure you will love it.  We have a 2010 2350 and have had a wonderful time traveling in it.  Just had to speak up and say that we are in San Jose, CA.  We go to Pismo Coast Village RV at least two or three times a year as we love that area.  We also travel with our dog who is all of ten pounds.  He manages to take up most of that corner bed and we sort of move around him.

Margie

Congratulations on your new 2350.  We  just completed a 6000 mile winter getaway to Arizona / New Mexico & Texas. We don't have any pets, but Barb and I do enjoy the layout and space of the 2350. We came from a Winn. Rialta which was a bit smaller.  We do mostly dry camping in the wilderness, using 300 watts of solar and 4 batteries. (no generator)

We just got home to Wisconsin, and Barbs dad, in Rockford, Il,  took il and then passed away Sunday. We have been down here in Rockford camping now for almost two weeks.

So are we getting some use out of our 2350??..  Well, so far lived  in our 2350 85 days this year, and only 69 days on the place we pay taxes on.
 
Mileage: as high as 11.7 and as low as 9.2... Pretty much average 10. (no tow)

Enjoy your new home.

Denny and Barb

Hi Margie,
Nice to hear someone as close to us as San Jose has a 2350, too.  Maybe we'll see you at PCV sometime.  We don't have a plan for when we'll be there again, but almost always visit near the end of April or early May.  Maybe this September, too.
Bruce and Sharon

Hi Denny and Barb,
Thanks for sharing with us some of your activities and RV experience. 
You are definitely getting good use of your 2350. We once owned a Winn LeSharo, so understand how much you enjoy the size of your Phoenix Cruiser.
We've never done much dry camping, but we did three days last week in a campsite at California State Park Pfeiffer Big Sur. We didn't think about having a solar collector installed on our 2350, and it only has two batteries.  We ran the generator a few hours to keep the batteries charged.  So, we'll likely continue our habit of usually staying in hook-up places.  But it's nice to know that we can go without that for a few days.
Our first big trip will be during the month of September when we travel in Northern California and Southern Oregon before heading to Palm Desert, CA for the winter.  We're still trying to figure out how to pack for the various weather situations we'll be living with, and we'll need our towed car to be a storage locker.
Happy trails!

Yes.. Bruce and Sharon... we too test drove the LaSharo before we bought the Rialta. We were quite happy with the Rialta, but the tranny couldn't take it, and finally went out on us.

We too forgot to have PC do the solar for us. Would have been much easier for them to do it during construction. We told them to not do the generator, but do 2 extra batteries.  That was a good choice as we had bad memories of the Rialta genset and after almost 3 months of dry camping, we never ran our batteries down below 95%. And.. we (I think) are power mongers... meaning I am a Ham Radio guys .. sending and receiving radio emails (when out of cell service area) daily and we usually like to watch two DVD movies a day. Of course... we were in the SouthWest where there is a Sun.. Not here in the midwest where maybe one day a week or the trees prevent the solar panels to work properly.  javascript:void(0);

Well the Southwest is known for it wild West weather fluctuations. So.. for that we just bring along "layers".  Used to bring my Wisconsin long johns and overcoats, but took up too much space. So now it is layers, and that seems to work out fine. javascript:void(0);

Denny and Barb

Space... you can search some of my other posting as see what I have done to create more "space". I take pleasure in finding more "space" in the 2350.  We have a two person inflatable kayak, with all the trimmings and life jackets tucked away nicely UNDER the coach. My next idea is to store the leveling blocks behind the exhaust pipe.  When I get home I will work on that.

So yes.. this 2350 is a work in progress probably to the last day I own it...

We ran the generator a few hours to keep the batteries charged.

Just a quick comment on this, good data if dry camping a lot.

When it comes to battery charging, running the generator and plug-in offer a very slow charge.  That is why I do as pictured when charging very low batteries with the generator or an over-night plug-in.  It gets results.

I understand driving the motor home charges the batteries quickly like my battery charger.
BTW:  Bruce & Sharon, Congrats on the new rig!

Hi Ron,
Thanks for the photo and comment on running the generator to charge the house batteries.  I don't completely understand the process here.  Could you explain in words what is going on in the photo?
Bruce

Hi Denny,
Interesting comment you make about carrying an inflatable kayak as we also have one. 
I would never have thought to even consider packing it onboard our 2350 as the weight on the rear axle was 8440 lb. during our first trip (just 60 lb. less than the 8500 GAWR).  I expect we'll be needing to carry a few more things when we head off on a longer trip.
Also, it never occurred to me to look under the coach for storage space.
Thanks for sharing your ideas.
Bruce

Hi Ron, Thanks for the photo and comment on running the generator to charge the house batteries.  I don't completely understand the process here.  Could you explain in words what is going on in the photo?
Bruce

Hi Bruce.  What you see pictured is our 110v battery charger plugged into our PC's outside outlet and hooked up to the coach batteries.  Whether plugged into campground power or the generator running, that outside outlet powers the battery charger which has multiple settings for various charge settings.  It is a 4/10/20/40 amp charger.  The slower the charge, the easier on the batteries.  The 4 amp setting is nice when the rig is in storage.  When you don't have enough time, you need to charge stronger to get the batteries back to full capacity.  Overnight on the 4 amp setting with dead batteries won't be enough, but the 10 or 20 amp setting will.  If you run your generator only an hour or two at a time, then set the charger for 40 amps to get the most from the run time.

Obviously you would never run the charger off the inverter.  If that worked, then you will have solved the world's energy crisis.

Does all this make sense?

Hi Ron,  Thanks for the explanation on the battery charging.  I thought that running the generator in the 2350 would quickly recharge the house batteries.  I'll need to pay more attention to the Xantrex remote panel input voltage display to see if the batteries need a recharge during any inverter use.  During our three day Big Sur drying camping adventure I only ran the generator when I was using the coffee maker or microwave oven (only about an hour total).  The rest of the time I think the only battery drain was from interior lights and radio. 
How often do you usually use your charger unit while out camping?  At what battery level do you think it's best to start the recharge?
One more question:  Where is the negative cable from your charger unit connected?

Wanted to comment regarding this thread. We just finished 3000+ plus trip, Vegas, Zion NP, Grand Canyon NP.  Wife had a conference in Vegas, so I could tag along hehe.  Anyway. No major problems. I have had a problem with the Micro/conv oven,, works, but think I will replace it. After 12 nights in the bed with our dog, still no problems. We did full hook-ups to no hook-up. No problem with shower.  I updated my bike project. We had a blast at Zion riding around on our foldables.  Stayed 3 nights only used the AC one night and in the afternoons. Grand Canyon was for a specific reason.  http://walkingrimtorim.blogspot.com/

 Currently doing another posted project Bathroom Mat.  Not posted yet.  Make sure you read the tips. Ron has put a bunch of good things to do to your 2350. I have STOLEN  many of them and of course Improved them hehe.  I am actually shutting down for the summer except to do some projects later on. To hot and to crowded.  Acutally you could say summerized the RV, since will not use it till the fall.   
2008 PC 2350
Houston, Texas
David Sparks

How often do you usually use your charger unit while out camping?  At what battery level do you think it's best to start the recharge?  Where is the negative cable from your charger unit connected?

The negative battery cable from the charger is connected to one of the two negative battery terminals.  In the picture, the battery tray happened to be partially open, not fully open, so that connection is not in view.

About your other questions.  Keep in-mind we have the earlier 2000 watt Tripp-Lite inverter and two 12v batteries, so what I share next might be different for you.

I don't use the battery meter above the stove, only the Tripp-lite meter below.  But even that one is not precise enough for me.  Actually we have to watch that meter closely because once the yellow light alone goes on, it's time for charging.  If I wait much longer, we could have dead batteries by morning, especially if running the furnace during the night.  With dead batteries it gets serious because the fridge is dead.

I have learned to shut off the inverter using the switch on the inverter itself, when we don't need inverted 110v.  This because the inverter uses 12 amp hours whether you use 110v or not so shutting it down saves a lot of battery reserves.  If you want to shut the inverter by the entry door, that kills 12v to everything including the fridge so that's not a good plan.

Because we most exclusively camp without hookups, and we tow a vehicle, the motor home can sit for a number of days at a time without being driven.  Then we become completely dependent on charging the house batteries off the generator.  Without our 4/10/20/40 amp charger, the generator would have to run for over 24 hours before our batteries would get fully charged after a complete draining.  And we really don't like running the generator because of the noise, so I try to keep the run times as short as possible.

With well charged batteries, we use the inverter generously for watching TV, making coffee, and charging electronics.  When we see an upcoming power shortage, we'll watch TV in bed off the lower power TV set, and make coffee with the generator running for just long enough.  On a weekend getaway without hookups, we don't give the batteries any thought because the trip starts out with a full charge.  But when out for 3 weeks, we have to watch our power because a full charge is rarely accomplished.  Sometimes we'll run the generator for an hour per day to keep up with power needs, using my own charger on the 40 amp setting.  Without my own charger, I would have to run the Ford V10 engine because that is the next best charger.....maybe even the best charger at a high idle condition.....that would be where a stick could be used between the driver seat and gas pedal.  But I find using my own charger working better for us.

Because most RVers drive to places where there are hookups, they rarely find themselves in our predicament.  Even those who don't hook up but drive their rig everywhere (no tow vehicle) have no such concerns because driving the rig takes care of the batteries nicely.

Sorry for the long read.