For all Intents and purposes

[tanda62]

Been thinking about one of these tuning programs for my Intent. Good to see the feedback. There is also this company https://www.ultrarvproducts.com/Ford...-Custom-Tuning. I wonder if there is any difference between them and Five Star. Looking forward to hearing more experiences - thanks!
Tom

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by tanda62

Been thinking about one of these tuning programs for my Intent. Good to see the feedback. There is also this company https://www.ultrarvproducts.com/Ford...-Custom-Tuning. I wonder if there is any difference between them and Five Star. Looking forward to hearing more experiences - thanks!
Tom

One difference is that they will ship to CA, if you want to give it to a friend out of state...

[K9AEG]

Originally Posted by Wyatt

One difference is that they will ship to CA, if you want to give it to a friend out of state...

On the front page, results looks very similar, and the device look the same also.

[K9AEG]

After installing the Rear Trac Bar on my previous Class C, and felling it didn't help the "tail wag" much, I thought I would do a bit of testing on the Intent before shelling out the $500.

Here is my test, for better or worse:

1st I taped a 12" ruler to the rear tire hub-cap hub.
Then strung masking tape across the wheel well, intersecting the ruler, but not touching it.
Then had my DW push the back-end back and forth while I read the masking tape deviation.

Results were less than 1 MM, or 1/16".

Where is the tail waging coming from then? Looking at the Michelin tires side wall, and I could see the problem. The tire sidewalls. My Class C also had Michelin and I could remember there was some negative comments about those tires with their soft sidewalls, back then.

Think my tests were sound and valid?

[theSane]

Originally Posted by K9AEG

After installing the Rear Trac Bar on my previous Class C, and felling it didn't help the "tail wag" much, I thought I would do a bit of testing on the Intent before shelling out the $500.

Here is my test, for better or worse:

1st I taped a 12" ruler to the rear tire hub-cap hub.
Then strung masking tape across the wheel well, intersecting the ruler, but not touching it.
Then had my DW push the back-end back and forth while I read the masking tape deviation.

Results were less than 1 MM, or 1/16".

Where is the tail waging coming from then? Looking at the Michelin tires side wall, and I could see the problem. The tire sidewalls. My Class C also had Michelin and I could remember there was some negative comments about those tires with their soft sidewalls, back then.

Think my tests were sound and valid?

What is the weight of the toad? With the 3000lb VW Golf on a dolly, I do not get noticeable tail wag. I also have stock Michelin tires.

[sundog964]

Originally Posted by K9AEG

After installing the Rear Trac Bar on my previous Class C, and felling it didn't help the "tail wag" much, I thought I would do a bit of testing on the Intent before shelling out the $500.

Here is my test, for better or worse:

1st I taped a 12" ruler to the rear tire hub-cap hub.
Then strung masking tape across the wheel well, intersecting the ruler, but not touching it.
Then had my DW push the back-end back and forth while I read the masking tape deviation.

Results were less than 1 MM, or 1/16".

Where is the tail waging coming from then? Looking at the Michelin tires side wall, and I could see the problem. The tire sidewalls. My Class C also had Michelin and I could remember there was some negative comments about those tires with their soft sidewalls, back then.

Think my tests were sound and valid?

A 60 MPH wind exerts a force of roughly 8.6 lb/sqft. a 10 sq foot section of the RV would be equivalent to what your DW would be able to push with. That is a LOT less than the area on the side of the RV.

You will likely get more than the 1mm motion, 5x, 10x, hard to predict without a Computational Fluid Dynamics simulation. But certainly more than 1 mm.

Say it is 10mm, or 1/3 of an inch. Does that really effect the feel? Not sure. But for us, when I put the front sway bar to the second set of holes, it reduced the apparent sway and push from passing semi trucks and wind significantly.

I believe that my 2020 Vista has the side motion preventer installed from the factory. Or at least that was what I thought I saw when I was scooting underneath.

[K9AEG]

Originally Posted by theSane

What is the weight of the toad? With the 3000lb VW Golf on a dolly, I do not get noticeable tail wag. I also have stock Michelin tires.

I was also concerned with or without the toad. But with toad I believe I'm around 5000 lbs. Hitch has maybe 100-300. No way of measuring that.

Your 31 has longer wheel base. Maybe less overhand length behind the tandems and thus less of a wag problem. Don't know.

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by K9AEG

After installing the Rear Trac Bar on my previous Class C, and felling it didn't help the "tail wag" much, I thought I would do a bit of testing on the Intent before shelling out the $500.

Here is my test, for better or worse:

1st I taped a 12" ruler to the rear tire hub-cap hub.
Then strung masking tape across the wheel well, intersecting the ruler, but not touching it.
Then had my DW push the back-end back and forth while I read the masking tape deviation.

Results were less than 1 MM, or 1/16".

Where is the tail waging coming from then? Looking at the Michelin tires side wall, and I could see the problem. The tire sidewalls. My Class C also had Michelin and I could remember there was some negative comments about those tires with their soft sidewalls, back then.

Think my tests were sound and valid?

That test is really reliant upon how strong Barb is...

[Fritos55]

Looking for thoughts re Cold weather traveling in my Intent 29L

We're considering traveling from Houston to Minneapolis MN for Christmas, thinking that with all the COVID stuff this might be not only the safest way for us to travel (no crowded airports or hotels) and the safest for our MN relatives once we're there. Being the son of a plumber, my biggest concern is freezing water pipes, causing them to burst. Looking for any advice from experienced cold weather campers.

We've been up north in late fall / early spring with temps that have dipped overnight into the low 30's with no issues. No frozen pipes, the propane heater keeps up reasonably well, and we have a space heater available to assist assuming we have shore power or generator available. Our plan would be to keep an eye on the long term weather forecast and just not go if the temps were forecast to dip into single digits or below. We'd also watch for winter storms and schedule the drive up & back to avoid any winter storms and driving in the snow.

Looking at the water and drainage diagrams for the 29L, it looks like most of the water lines run under the floor or inside the cabinets so most of the lines would be kept above freezing from heating the interior. The Winnebago Intent brochure brags about "Heated holding tank compartment" but as long as none of them are full I'm not worried about freezing solid enough to burst. There are two areas that concern me, though.

One is the water lines that run to the sink in the "tailgate" area. I'm thinking I can locate the cold and hot water feeds and install shutoff valves in those lines to keep water out of those lines completely. But it also looks like the supply lines from the fresh water tank run through the tailgate area and may not be inside the coach. I haven't tried to locate where they actually run yet.

The second is the "water service center" which holds the water pump plus all the drain valves and the water "distributor" (for lack of a better term). This area has a door that opens to the outside and I'm not sure how warm that area stays.

If anyone has any cold weather experiences that they would share, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks!

[K9AEG]

Originally Posted by Wyatt

That test is really reliant upon how strong Barb is...

For a 98lb 4'10" weakling, I was surprised she got the tail waging pretty good. (I just may now have to be a better boy towards her. )

[Wyatt]

Originally Posted by Fritos55

Looking for thoughts re Cold weather traveling in my Intent 29L

We're considering traveling from Houston to Minneapolis MN for Christmas, thinking that with all the COVID stuff this might be not only the safest way for us to travel (no crowded airports or hotels) and the safest for our MN relatives once we're there. Being the son of a plumber, my biggest concern is freezing water pipes, causing them to burst. Looking for any advice from experienced cold weather campers.

We've been up north in late fall / early spring with temps that have dipped overnight into the low 30's with no issues. No frozen pipes, the propane heater keeps up reasonably well, and we have a space heater available to assist assuming we have shore power or generator available. Our plan would be to keep an eye on the long term weather forecast and just not go if the temps were forecast to dip into single digits or below. We'd also watch for winter storms and schedule the drive up & back to avoid any winter storms and driving in the snow.

Looking at the water and drainage diagrams for the 29L, it looks like most of the water lines run under the floor or inside the cabinets so most of the lines would be kept above freezing from heating the interior. The Winnebago Intent brochure brags about "Heated holding tank compartment" but as long as none of them are full I'm not worried about freezing solid enough to burst. There are two areas that concern me, though.

One is the water lines that run to the sink in the "tailgate" area. I'm thinking I can locate the cold and hot water feeds and install shutoff valves in those lines to keep water out of those lines completely. But it also looks like the supply lines from the fresh water tank run through the tailgate area and may not be inside the coach. I haven't tried to locate where they actually run yet.

The second is the "water service center" which holds the water pump plus all the drain valves and the water "distributor" (for lack of a better term). This area has a door that opens to the outside and I'm not sure how warm that area stays.

If anyone has any cold weather experiences that they would share, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks!

The basement area, what I call the “Pump House Bay”, the one that houses my water pumps and distribution lines, is heated by a duck tucked way up to the upper left side in the compartment.

But if your heat isn’t on, that won’t do you any good. Have you considered adding residential style plumbing insulation to the hot and cold lines? It comes in split tubes, you just snap into place.

[Twpinaz]

In response to your request to share our experiences in cold weather traveling. We camped during the winter in our Intent in 20-30 degree temps. I was worried about pipe freezing and bought a small electric ceramic heater and put it into the pump bay. We ran our heater throughout the week long stay. We didn’t have any issues with the pipes. Probably didn’t need the small heater, but wanted the extra just in case. Also, filled the freshwater tank and then unhooked the hose as it would have froze. Only connected the sewer hose when we needed to dump the tanks. At the time we went we were new to raving and I called the rv park and talked to an owner or employee that lived in their rv year round and got a few tips from them. Going to Minneapolis I would imagine you could run colder temps than what I experienced. Safe travels and look forward to hearing back on your experience.

[SCCAFIRE]

Originally Posted by Fritos55

Looking for thoughts re Cold weather traveling in my Intent 29L

We're considering traveling from Houston to Minneapolis MN for Christmas, thinking that with all the COVID stuff this might be not only the safest way for us to travel (no crowded airports or hotels) and the safest for our MN relatives once we're there. Being the son of a plumber, my biggest concern is freezing water pipes, causing them to burst. Looking for any advice from experienced cold weather campers.

We've been up north in late fall / early spring with temps that have dipped overnight into the low 30's with no issues. No frozen pipes, the propane heater keeps up reasonably well, and we have a space heater available to assist assuming we have shore power or generator available. Our plan would be to keep an eye on the long term weather forecast and just not go if the temps were forecast to dip into single digits or below. We'd also watch for winter storms and schedule the drive up & back to avoid any winter storms and driving in the snow.

Looking at the water and drainage diagrams for the 29L, it looks like most of the water lines run under the floor or inside the cabinets so most of the lines would be kept above freezing from heating the interior. The Winnebago Intent brochure brags about "Heated holding tank compartment" but as long as none of them are full I'm not worried about freezing solid enough to burst. There are two areas that concern me, though.

One is the water lines that run to the sink in the "tailgate" area. I'm thinking I can locate the cold and hot water feeds and install shutoff valves in those lines to keep water out of those lines completely. But it also looks like the supply lines from the fresh water tank run through the tailgate area and may not be inside the coach. I haven't tried to locate where they actually run yet.

The second is the "water service center" which holds the water pump plus all the drain valves and the water "distributor" (for lack of a better term). This area has a door that opens to the outside and I'm not sure how warm that area stays.

If anyone has any cold weather experiences that they would share, I'd love to hear about them. Thanks!

Do yourself a favor and go buy a heated drinking water hose. You plug them in and the keep the hose from freezing up to -30 or so degrees.

Something like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Camco-TASTEPu.../dp/B01ABONB0A

[lenore]

Originally Posted by YGoHom

Solar is complete and working well. The Victron app is easy to monitor what’s happening. Right now it’s on “float” because the batteries are fully charged!
I turned on the inverter Thursday afternoon with both refrigerators on, some lights and outdoor TV on. Then again all day Friday. By the end of the day the batteries were fully charged. This isn’t truly a test because it was in the driveway, so no water pump or heater usage, but I’m pretty happy.
As Denny said, it’s all about the sun hitting the panels. The sun is pretty low and off to the side here right now, so the highest wattage I’ve seen is just over 200 of the 400 potential. The series/parallel activates the system early and stays on til the sun goes down.
The hardest part was running the wiring thru the tiny space along the black tank vent pipe. Everything else was pretty straight forward.

nice installation, very clean looking and well done..

[YGoHom]

Originally Posted by K9AEG

After installing the Rear Trac Bar on my previous Class C, and felling it didn't help the "tail wag" much, I thought I would do a bit of testing on the Intent before shelling out the $500.

Here is my test, for better or worse:

1st I taped a 12" ruler to the rear tire hub-cap hub.
Then strung masking tape across the wheel well, intersecting the ruler, but not touching it.
Then had my DW push the back-end back and forth while I read the masking tape deviation.

Results were less than 1 MM, or 1/16".

Where is the tail waging coming from then? Looking at the Michelin tires side wall, and I could see the problem. The tire sidewalls. My Class C also had Michelin and I could remember there was some negative comments about those tires with their soft sidewalls, back then.

Think my tests were sound and valid?

My experience doing mostly 1 addition at a time, each one added a necessary element. Pulling my Jeep was a nightmare before the additions. Your trailer would be much more difficult.
Pull the trigger. I really believe you’ll be happy.
I bought the rear facing Roadmaster from a place in Oregon. They were cheapest by far. So much so that I called to place the order because I thought it was a mistake.

Roadmaster 1139-146
Hitch Source $731 with free shipping and no tax.
Etrailer is over $1300


-Robb

[K9AEG]

Originally Posted by YGoHom

My experience doing mostly 1 addition at a time, each one added a necessary element. Pulling my Jeep was a nightmare before the additions. Your trailer would be much more difficult.
Pull the trigger. I really believe you’ll be happy.
I bought the rear facing Roadmaster from a place in Oregon. They were cheapest by far. So much so that I called to place the order because I thought it was a mistake.

Roadmaster 1139-146
Hitch Source $731 with free shipping and no tax.
Etrailer is over $1300


-Robb

Yep Robb agree one step at a time. I do have the Roadmasters on both the back and the front. That done along with front Sumo s on the front really made a difference.

I didn't do the Sumo in the rear yet. I will have to have garage do that as one of the duels have to be taken off, and I'm not about to deal with that.

I'm qui satisfied with the rigs performance in most conditions now, but not as good as the Shelby Mustang GT yet.

[YGoHom]

I just realized I messed up! That’s the sway bar, not the trac bar

I got it on Amazon for $525, which looks like the current price.

SuperSteer SS400 Rear Trac Bar Compatible with Ford F53 16-19.5K GVWR

Install was easy. No drilling. You can bolt the ends with the rear off the ground, but it has to be settled at ride height to get the bar the correct length. I was able to slide under on cardboard easily to do this. You’ll need some large closed end wrenches.

[theSane]

Originally Posted by K9AEG

Yep Robb agree one step at a time. I do have the Roadmasters on both the back and the front. That done along with front Sumo s on the front really made a difference.

I didn't do the Sumo in the rear yet. I will have to have garage do that as one of the duels have to be taken off, and I'm not about to deal with that.

I'm qui satisfied with the rigs performance in most conditions now, but not as good as the Shelby Mustang GT yet.

I did the rears with the help of my father. Used those leveling blocks under the rear jacks to lift the rear end up so the suspension was fully extended, then set on a pair of 12 ton jack stands. Once most of the weight was on the jack stands, I put a bottle jack under one side of the axle to lift those two tires off the ground. Was able to remove the tires without much issue, drop the axle to let it hang freely, and install the sumo spring for that side as guided by their videos and printed instructions. Rinse and repeat for the other side.

Just be careful with what lines are run on the back side of the frame rail, use zip-ties or Velcro to pull those lines out of the way if possible.

[K9AEG]

Originally Posted by YGoHom

I just realized I messed up! That’s the sway bar, not the trac bar

I got it on Amazon for $525, which looks like the current price.

SuperSteer SS400 Rear Trac Bar Compatible with Ford F53 16-19.5K GVWR

Install was easy. No drilling. You can bolt the ends with the rear off the ground, but it has to be settled at ride height to get the bar the correct length. I was able to slide under on cardboard easily to do this. You’ll need some large closed end wrenches.

I like the "cardboard idea... We use it all the time...

[K9AEG]

Originally Posted by theSane

I did the rears with the help of my father. Used those leveling blocks under the rear jacks to lift the rear end up so the suspension was fully extended, then set on a pair of 12 ton jack stands. Once most of the weight was on the jack stands, I put a bottle jack under one side of the axle to lift those two tires off the ground. Was able to remove the tires without much issue, drop the axle to let it hang freely, and install the sumo spring for that side as guided by their videos and printed instructions. Rinse and repeat for the other side.

Just be careful with what lines are run on the back side of the frame rail, use zip-ties or Velcro to pull those lines out of the way if possible.

OK thanks for the info . Seems like it is do-able .