Galileo

I think most owners with the Dometic A/C would agree that’s it’s a tiny bit loud. (I suppose if you’re deaf it wouldn’t bother you at all - just your neighbors.) That, and I’ve read that at least two other owners have had issues with the bolts holding the fan motor backing out and causing significant problems. I had that issue myself. Luckily, I didn’t mind crawling on the roof to fix it myself. Others had to get professional help. The design and assembly shows a lack of care and proper engineering to an item that should be expected to regularly be exposed to a fair amount of vibration. As it’s built, this A/C should be -expected- to have problems. If I have to deal with the same problem again (before I replace it entirely) I’ll replace the substandard hardware with something more akin to what the factory SHOULD have used in the first place. Pretty sure I’m not the first one to have to replace the hinges on the Dometic fridge freezer door. Likely also why they’re a popular item on Amazon. Otherwise, I think it’s a great fridge - super freezer. Toilet seal leaked from day one. Wouldn’t keep water in the bowl. Tried the usual seal conditioners with no improvement. Replaced the seal with a new factory one. Worked for a few weeks, then same problem. Had a cheapo Thetford toilet in previous MHs - never had an issue with them. If your unit is 8 years older than ours - it’s highly likely that the components and workmanship were frankly - better. There’s really no such thing as “exactly the same equipment” build nearly a decade apart. Corners are cut, cheaper suppliers of parts and subassemblies are substituted, production processes are streamlined, workforces change, pandemics occur - and often - once-reliable items carrying the same model number are redesigned into something wholly different. (I believe there’s a phrase… oh yeah “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”.) Ask owners of White Mountain ice cream freezers. The ones made 20 or 30 years ago are bulletproof. The ones made 5 years ago will fail before you can make a second batch of butter pecan. We treat our equipment very gently - so it’s not as if we’re abusing our stuff into early failure. That said, I AM fairly demanding of stuff I pay a lot of money for. I EXPECT it to work properly and not fail quickly under normal operating conditions. OTOH - in those ‘less than three years’ - we’ve camped in 30 states and two provinces in Canada. We’ve crossed the continental divide four times. We use our Oliver for pretty much three months solid on each of the three vacations we’ve been on, and put 78,000 miles on our first tow vehicle during those three years. So it’s possible we’ve just use our trailer more than most folks. As for your lack of problems from any of your Dometic appliances - I’m happy for you! Really! It’s not like I -enjoy- having to diagnose, troubleshoot, or seek out other’s experiences to keep things working. I AM lucky to have a fair degree of mechanical aptitude, experience, and the tools to make most of my own repairs.

Too soon? 😋

For sure the Furrion-Vizio combo that came with our 2022 LEII leaves much to be desired. We’ve replaced the gosh-awful Vizio television with a Roku TV. Which - even though is the same 24” size, is -functionally- much more user friendly. Yes, I do find the speaker arrangement on the Furrion in the Oliver to be lacking. Three speaker outputs and only two are used? Speaker placement? Missed opportunities to effect a much better outcome. I may add a third set of identical speakers amidships and hook it to the appropriate speaker output to make for a better sound balance. Also considering wireless set of speakers to take outside. Anyway, the remote has been tempting me to hurl it against a wall for three seasons. (“What? You were trying to adjust the volume and you changed the input?!” or “You had to turn the lights on to make sure you had the remote upright and could find the right button?!”) Now, it’s tucked away - hopefully never to be used again. V

Perhaps some (later? Earlier?) trailers did come with a real remote, but ours didn’t. Just the credit-card-sized aggravating joke of a remote. Val

For those of you who have been less than impressed with the tiny, difficult to use remote that came with the Furrion DVD player - stereo that came with your Oliver - thankfully there is an upgrade available. Though a Furrion dealer I contacted said that there was no full sized remote available, I looked on Amazon (where else?) and found this: Universal FUTVRS1-BL Replaced... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094NHGK5B?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share for the money, it seemed worth a try - even though a vendor on Amazon I also contacted also said it “will only work with TVs”. Oddly enough, this remote arrived with two stickers that said just “Remote”. They were stuck clumsily on the front and back of the remote. Since they were obviously crudely stuck on, I peeled them off. Sure enough, it says “Furrion” under the stickers. Dunno why they bothered sticking them on. At any rate, the remote controls the power, volume, DVD player functions, AM/AM functions, input/output functions - and probably stuff I haven’t even figured out yet. I haven’t tried to actually tune the radio yet, but I suspect that will also work as well. If you’ve been as frustrated with the tiny remote as I have, then you’ll enjoy this upgrade!

Our previous motor homes were older (quite a bit older) and didn’t have electric or gas/electric water heaters - only gas. So we didn’t have the “quiet” option - just the F-14 on full afterburner blast of the gas flame. I’d love a gas/electric option. In fact, with the terrible, terrible arrangement with the water heater being so far from the galley and head points of use, I’m tempted to install one or more point-of-use electric water heaters and only using the Truma for times when no electricity is available. That would also save running so much water down the drain waiting for the heated water to arrive at the tap.

I thank you all for the suggestions to run the furnace. That said, running the furnace, using a dehumidifier, or cracking the windows doesn’t address the cause of the problem - cold air entering the trailer in fairly large amounts. If I can feel cold air blowing in through the heat registers - which I can - then there’s a significant opening admitting outside air. The trailer is hardly “closed up” if that is the case. Likewise, if cold air is blowing in, inside air is also leaking out - at a significant amount. Running the furnace is addressing the symptoms - but ignoring the cause. I suppose if most operators are content to put a band-aid on the problem rather than address the issue - that’s fine - for them. Running the furnace when there’s a large amount of cold air coming in is also pretty inefficient. Like having leaky old double hung windows and no weatherstripping in your home and “solving” the problem by installing a larger furnace. I do have and use a dehumidifier - I swear by them for my sailboat in NOLA - and they make sense in a lot of cases. Unfortunately, the cold wall in the trailer is a much better “dehumidifier” than mine. As it’s a large, cold surface, it grabs the moisture out of the air better than my dehumidifier. Using a dehumidifier in winter is about the worst time of the year to use it as cold air can hold a lot less moisture. Further reducing the humidity leads to static electricity, nosebleeds, and a generally uncomfortable atmosphere for the people in the trailer - or room in a home. (Probably why virtually every home furnace has a humidifier built in.) Again - this condensation is in ONE area - JUST above the area where the water valves, water heater, and furnace are. Were it a general humidity problem, there would be a lot more wet areas. Why isn’t the area over the outside access door to the “basement” as bad or worse? It certainly would be more logical for that area to be more prone to outside air infiltration. This tells me that there is a cold air infiltration problem that is localized. As the trailer shell has insulation in this area, it seems clear that it shouldn’t be as open to the outside air as it apparently is. I’ll certainly check the areas where the propane lines go through the hull to the water heater and furnace. I know there are “weep holes” to allow any trapped water between the shell and the liner layers to drain, but they shouldn’t be so large as to cause the significant draft that I’ve described. I’m also suspicious that the cutouts in the shell for the water heater and furnace to have unsealed areas or gaps that are allowing cold air infiltration problem. Additionally - IF there is one or more openings in the hull near the furnace or the water heater that are admitting and significant amount of outside air - then those holes need to be closed up! Two gas appliances that can generate Carbon Monoxide and air coming into the trailer in that area is a recipe for disaster. Running the furnace in that case is probably the riskiest thing one could do. Finally, the furnace ductwork is a whole different set of problems. The register under the bed (king bed floorplan) is the only one that gets decent airflow. The register under the galley cabinets is significantly weaker. The one in the head is a joke - barely enough air coming out to make a candle flicker. Until I can rework the ducts - running the furnace is pretty much ineffective anyway. It only directly heats the area under the bed. I DID see a post or two mentioning how terrible the “return” inlet location for the furnace is. It really wouldn’t be so bad IF the midship and head registers delivered any amount of heated air. So - I guess I’m just of the mindset of finding and solving the cause of the problem rather than compensating for air leaks.

No, as I said, have not been able to find anything applicable via the search function of the forum.

Though I haven’t taken it up with Oliver, I’ve found Truma to be quite unresponsive to requests for warranty service. Though I know the outer door on the water heater is prone to breaking. (By people who think you should swing it down rather than lift it off the bottom tabs.) Ours has never been mistreated - but still developed diagonal cracks at both rear corners. I emailed Truma asking to get a replacement door - even if I had to buy it. Response? None. Not even a “Go to your local dealer.” I admit to not knowing how long the warranty is on the unit, but with my luck, by the time I need it - it’s expired. As for recalls, should one affect my unit - and be worth taking advantage of - I’ve not modified the unit nor done anything that could even be detected as having touched it myself. (‘Course, if they looked here in this forum, they see my admission!) I suppose if push came to shove I could find an ambulance chaser, um, I mean product liability attorney, who would love to chat with Truma about sending people out on the road with a gas appliance that -could- set their trailer on fire… When Oliver sent out the replacement valve cores for the tires, they included a gift card for some minor amount that would likely NOT cover having that work done at a shop. Certainly not enough to refill the tires with nitrogen as they came from the factory. Again - I did it myself because it was less time, trouble and $$$ than it would have been to take it to a shop. Dealing as I have with service people, I tend to like to do it myself. It’s very rare to find a mechanic who cares as much about your car or trailer as you do. Warranty work typically pays poorly and the quality of the work is often commensurate with the mechanics compensation and resulting poor attitude and work ethic. I didn’t intend to wax so cynical, but I have horror stories that back up my claims. So I always think -very- carefully before I let anyone work on my stuff.

Hello all, Again - sorry if this has been discussed to death previously, but I find the “search” function to be pretty pitiful and have been unable to find anything near what I’m looking for. On to the question/problem: We haven’t been out camping much in cold weather until now - ironically - in Florida… go figure. Anyway - two issues that I’m fairly certain are related: When the furnace is off - there is often pretty cold (outside) air blowing in from the furnace outlets/registers and no, the heat and fan are off. There are no windows or vents open, so no air going out of the trailer. (So none should be coming IN.) I have a significant “breeze” coming in here…. The other issue is that the curb side rear inside side wall below the (closed) window is cold enough to cause significant condensation issues. Upon checking further, under the cushion (and condensation-mitigating mat) there was a LOT of condensation on the access cover over the water valves. Where is all this cold air entering from?! Something certainly seems to be wide open and allowing cold air infiltration. I would HOPE that there isn’t outside air coming into the interior of the trailer from the outside of the furnace - as this is right by the furnace exhaust. (CO anybody?) It’s more than a bit of a mystery since there are apparently two pretty big holes in the trailer - one admitting the cold air, and one exhausting inside air to make room for the cold air. Ironically, the panel over the “basement” and street side of the bed have zero condensation. That’s counterintuitive as the outside access door to basement (on the street side of the trailer) would be an obvious entry point for cold air. BTW - I don’t even turn the gas furnace on unless it’s deadly cold. We’ve been using a 1,500 watt electric heater while in campgrounds. (Why burn my propane when I can use the electricity I’m paying the campground for?!) Besides, it’s quieter and the heat distribution from the furnace is dismal anyway. (THAT - I found posts for!) I’ll bet there is a well-known answer to this question. I’m just disappointed that I couldn’t seem to find it…. V

Until the banging/thumping - out Truma has been fine too. The original water heater upgrade was largely due to a sales pitch. Though we don’t need “hot water as long as your propane lasts” the attraction to a “demand”/tankless water heater always gets a higher mark on my book. As for the tools or knowledge - if the choice is “no hot water until we can find and schedule a service stop” or fix it myself, I’ll always opt for the fix it myself option. I’m a former mechanic and an avid DIYer who has rehabbed a 150 y/o house. So unless I get into something REALLY intricate or with a lot of circuit boards, I’m on it. I can’t leave home without a cache of tools. Just the required wrenches to properly torque the lug nuts means “toolbox” to me. I even keep a hydraulic floor jack in the truck because the OEM jacks are a joke. V

I’ll look into it!

Ummm - yes, Navy shower - I can do that. On the other hand, trying to explain water conservation, grey tank size, etc - has been a challenge for me…. V

True - I’d call them “water resistant” or maybe even “spray resistant”. A rubber boot over the toggle assumes the rear of the switch is in a sealed enclosure.

Wow, I don’t know who “serviced” that unit, but they certainly made a mess out of it! Alternatives to Truma - yeah, the “old fashioned” tank type water heaters are pretty simple and reliable - but - they take a while to deliver hot water, are pretty wasteful of gas, and they sound like a jet engine firing up. As a tank style heater - once you use that 6 gallons of hot water - you’re out of hot water. No, I don’t take long showers in the Oliver (or at all if campground showers are available) but the other points still apply. As for “Dometic” - after my experience with the Dometic A/C that came with our 2022 LEII, (far too loud) the Dometic porcelain toilet (perpetual seal problems) and the Dometic fridge (flimsy freezer door hinges) - I wouldn’t touch another Dometic product. The fridge and toilet I can compensate for or live with. The A/C is gonna be in a garage sale after I replace it with a Houghton.