Important Links -- Tiffin Mods and Upgrades - Post 'em here

[billdreamlv]

Today I added a fill and flush switch to my Thetford toilet. I know that a lot of you have done this already but I thought I would post this simple way to add the switch.

The Problem: When I go to the bathroom, I have to either put my hand behind the toilet and find the switch and press the button to flush before I stand up while the water splashes on me or stand up and turn around and practically put my face in the bowl to reach the buttons in the back of the toilet to flush.

Solution: Add a remote switch to be able to fill and flush without fishing around for the fill/flush button and without getting my bottom wet.

I pulled off the access panel in the pantry slide and to see where the wires could come out. I cut a hole on other side of the wall of the panel next to the paper roll in the bathroom and ran a 4 conductor 22 gauge wire along the inside of the wall (it is a sandwich wall about 1" thick) toward the back and to my surprise it came out at the side wall of the MH in the back of the cabinet and fell down on to the plumbing below.

Then I fished the wire through the bushing that holds fill hose and 12v wires and up to the back of the toilet. I took the collar stay off with a quarter turn and carefully pulled the fill/flush button assembly out so I could work on it.

Warning: You need to be really careful that you run the wire along side the wire that is already there and up through the collar so that when you put it all back together you are able to place the collar on the assembly without having the wire get in the way. Because the collar and wires are difficult to access in the back of the toilet, you need to be careful that the wire is not running on the opposite side of the support bar in the back. Bottom line is that both wires need to run in the same holes and behind the same bar behind the toilet.

I took off the rubber, water proof cover, and examined the circuit.

Sw1 is the flush button and Sw2 is the fill button. I wired the four conductor wire to position 1 and 4 on the flush and 1 and 4 on the fill as shown. I used lots of flux and a little solder. I purchased the switch from Amazon. The current draw is in the milliamps, so the 22 gauge wire is plenty.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...0?ie=UTF8&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I wired the end of the switch to this momentary on/off/on switch and now I can fill and flush the toilet without bending over and leaning into the toilet to do so. The old button works the same and the new button works perfectly. It took about 4 hours.

[Aaron1981]

Does anyone have any mods for getting more air into the engine compartment for cooling on a 1998 Allegro Bus DP?

[luvdoggiez]

In May of 2015, we replaced the OEM Carpeting of our 2003 Allegro Bus with Pergo style flooring. It took the better part of the Memorial Day weekend, but both of us were very happy with how it turned out! :-)

[techdad55]

Added a cup holder to the drivers door. Works well and is removable.

[select55]

1) genuine hardwood floor in living room slide out
2) did entire master bedroom and slide out in vinyl planking
includes new engine cover and engine box
3) new stainless 18CF electric fridge
4) entrance steps in marble tile
step entrance sides done in stainless mini tiles
5) took out recliners and installed couch/hide a bed
with custom end table
6) took out mini jack knife couch and extended the kitchen cabinets
and counter top to end of slide with computer slide out shelf
and 48 inch sound bar system
7) HID headlights and 24 inch mini light bar
8) Painted one wall in bathroom to break up the all wood look
9) articulating TV mount in bedroom
10) made slide outs for basement freezer and tool box
11) Installed HD slide motor in living room slide
12) many mcs motorhome redesign/replace/repair enhancements

[billdreamlv]

I wanted to simplify the TV situation in the Bedroom of the MH. I wanted to get a lighter TV and one that would automatically get the OTA signals without having an extra box to go through. I had two existing coax cables that were run from the control center to the old BR TV. One was the Sat cable and the other was OTA. The first thing I needed to do was find the overall inside dimensions of the TV cabinet. The rear TV inside dimensions of the box opening is 24 and 9/16 wide by 18 and 3/4 high or 19 inches high if you take out the front cross member on the top. I needed to find a TV that would fit into the opening. The problem was that all I could find was a TV that was either 4 inches to short or a TV that was going to be slightly too big. I researched a TV by Vizio that had an overall width of 24.9 inches. This meant that the TV was 7/16 too big for the cabinet. The TV dimensions were found on Amazon and I used the VIZIO E28h-C1 28-Inch (27.51" diag.) 720p Smart LED TV (2015 Model). Of course any model of the same size would have worked but I found that this TV was available on Craigslist for $100 on several ads. I then purchased a Dremel router bit and base kit and routered a ¼ inch off the sides of the ¾ inch plywood leaving more than a 1/2 inch on each side. I then used a piano hinge from Lowes on the right side of the cabinet(3/4 inch) and mounted the TV all the way to the top. I took out the bottom screws that held the casing together on the back of the TV and drilled a hole right through the TV casing so I could screw the TV directly to the wood bezel. I first checked to see it I was going to destroy any circuitry. I bent a flat bar stock I purchased from Lowes (an inch wide) to fit the back of the TV and wrap around the TV towards the wood frame on the bezel. Then I drilled holes in the exact spot the screws were located to mount the TV for a wall mount, into the flat bar to match the holes. Then two holes on the top of the flat bar to mount to the frame. The entire TV weighs 9.3 pounds (vs 35 pounds) and the screws I used were plenty. My first attempt was to mount it on the bottom of the bezel but the IR sensor was blocked by the cabinet frame and the remote didn’t work. Then I purchased a knob at Lowes that sort of matched the rest of the knobs in the coach. The depth of the TV is 2.9 inches and now I have several square feet of storage behind the old TV. I mounted a spring loaded gas strut to the door of the TV frame and connected it such a manner that the door stays closed when the strut goes past the center of closing. I mounted the bracket that held the old TV in place on the bottom of the TV and it was an exact fit. Here are the results.

[sterns]

Originally Posted by flywithcoop

What is the year and model of your MH?

Sorry for the late reply, its a 2015 Allegro 31SA.

[bobbiker]

Since last post have added motion LED lights to upper cabinets. Battery operated & work well. Easier job than wiring in and each costs $13 and take only a few minutes to install. Have automatic shut off after 30 seconds to save batteries. Original ones I installed under kitchen and bathroom sinks are manual on and can be set from 1 -5 minutes automatic shut off or manually turned off. I have mine set at 1 minute. All these LED lights are available at Lowes. Also built small cabinet behind toilet for extra storage and purchased 2016 upgraded bathroom door from Tiffin with Bob Tiffin's help. Also put new bathroom hook outside the shower on slide wood face-sure for easy access when getting out of the shower. Prevents dripping all over the floor

also thinking about applying undercoating to the lower curved portion of outside storage doors as they take a beating when traveling and are pitting despite all my cleaning & polishing efforts

[flywithcoop]

We discovered we needed some coat/hat hangers during our current snowbird trip. Bought some Delta Towel hooks at home depot and installed them on the columns at the end of each living room slide. They are a perfect match to the original Cabinet hardware on our Allegro.

Installed a large size 16,000 grain "On the Go" water softener in the wet bay. It is a perfect size for the 2014 Allegro LA Open Road. Sits upright in the bay yet can be easily removed for regeneration.

Bought a Garmin 7" RV gps system with free lifetime map updates. Map updates for the Kenwood system are $150. Two free updates will cover the purchase price of the new gps system. A huge benefit is my navigator (wife) can easily use the hand held system instead of leaning halfway out of her seat to use the in dash gps system.

[Orionfe]

Originally Posted by billdreamlv

I wanted to simplify the TV situation in the Bedroom of the MH. I wanted to get a lighter TV and one that would automatically get the OTA signals without having an extra box to go through. I had two existing coax cables that were run from the control center to the old BR TV. One was the Sat cable and the other was OTA. The first thing I needed to do was find the overall inside dimensions of the TV cabinet. The rear TV inside dimensions of the box opening is 24 and 9/16 wide by 18 and 3/4 high or 19 inches high if you take out the front cross member on the top. I needed to find a TV that would fit into the opening. The problem was that all I could find was a TV that was either 4 inches to short or a TV that was going to be slightly too big. I researched a TV by Vizio that had an overall width of 24.9 inches. This meant that the TV was 7/16 too big for the cabinet. The TV dimensions were found on Amazon and I used the VIZIO E28h-C1 28-Inch (27.51" diag.) 720p Smart LED TV (2015 Model). Of course any model of the same size would have worked but I found that this TV was available on Craigslist for $100 on several ads. I then purchased a Dremel router bit and base kit and routered a ¼ inch off the sides of the ¾ inch plywood leaving more than a 1/2 inch on each side. I then used a piano hinge from Lowes on the right side of the cabinet(3/4 inch) and mounted the TV all the way to the top. I took out the bottom screws that held the casing together on the back of the TV and drilled a hole right through the TV casing so I could screw the TV directly to the wood bezel. I first checked to see it I was going to destroy any circuitry. I bent a flat bar stock I purchased from Lowes (an inch wide) to fit the back of the TV and wrap around the TV towards the wood frame on the bezel. Then I drilled holes in the exact spot the screws were located to mount the TV for a wall mount, into the flat bar to match the holes. Then two holes on the top of the flat bar to mount to the frame. The entire TV weighs 9.3 pounds (vs 35 pounds) and the screws I used were plenty. My first attempt was to mount it on the bottom of the bezel but the IR sensor was blocked by the cabinet frame and the remote didn’t work. Then I purchased a knob at Lowes that sort of matched the rest of the knobs in the coach. The depth of the TV is 2.9 inches and now I have several square feet of storage behind the old TV. I mounted a spring loaded gas strut to the door of the TV frame and connected it such a manner that the door stays closed when the strut goes past the center of closing. I mounted the bracket that held the old TV in place on the bottom of the TV and it was an exact fit. Here are the results.

Very nice, any thoughts of running HDMI cables in place of the coax. I've been thinking about it, but may not be worth the hassle

[billdreamlv]

Originally Posted by Orionfe

Very nice, any thoughts of running HDMI cables in place of the coax. I've been thinking about it, but may not be worth the hassle

For the 40 coach you would need an HDMI cable that would be 50 feet or more for the run. HDMI cables don't work very well when the distance increases. 50 feet is tops and you could get the cable run only to find out it doesn't work. The better thing to do is run a cat 5 cable and put two adaptors on either end to accomplish your A/V needs.

[Orionfe]

Forgive my ignorance, but is cat 5 cable fiber optic?
By the way, thanks for your service. I spent several years as a P-3 flight engineer

[billdreamlv]

Originally Posted by Orionfe

Forgive my ignorance, but is cat 5 cable fiber optic?
By the way, thanks for your service. I spent several years as a P-3 flight engineer

Ya, flew air crew on P2s. Cat 5 cable is the cable that is used on routers and computer terminals. It has 8 wires in it and an RJ45 connector on it that looks like a telephone jack on steroids.

[billdreamlv]

I have my DW help when I hook up the trailer to the Allegro Bus. My DW tries hard but on several occasions has guided me close to the ball but it is usually back far enough but it is 1 foot to the left or right. She can't get the concept that the ball has to be under the cup in order for it to connect.

Problem: I had to make several attempts to get the trailer hooked up to the hitch.

Solution: Put a camera on the hitch so I could see where the hitch was in relation to the cup.

I installed monitors on the dash a year ago and realized that they can have 3 different camera inputs on each with the selection of the A/V switch. Here are the parts I used.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

After installation, this was the result of my first attempt to use the camera without the DW. I was too short by about 3 inches but left to right was right on. I moved it back another 3 inches and hooked it up. Can't tell you how good that felt to be able to back up without directions.