Introducing FN-2187 - the build thread

[tderonne]

That’s right, Safari. I didn’t go back and look.

[ronaprhys]

Update the first - one of many that should be occurring over the next few weeks as we get into the meat of things.

The RV is back from the shop. Engine oil and filter, gennie oil and filter, plus four ABS sensors have been replaced. This weekend's tasks include:

• Repair the tear in the roof liner with the Eternabond tape
• Install the new smoke/CO detectors
• Stereo install
• Headlight polishing - and figuring out what bulbs we have so they can be replaced with LEDs
• Look into the broken foglight - we're on the organizer team for an offroading event in Utah (goneMOAB) and one of our sponsors does LED lights, so I may just replace the fogs with round LEDs.
• More cleaning

I'm also going to be looking at all of the lights on the exterior that don't seem to work, have cracked or missing lens covers, etc. Those all need to be upgraded and/or replaced. Plus I need a new hook for the ladder - one's completely gone and the other is on its last legs. Given that, I suspect we'll have a trip up to General RV, which is near enough to us, to see about some specific parts if I can't find them online.

If we blast through all of this today (which would mean we've got the favor of the gods upon us), then maybe I'll start in the Invisibrake system tomorrow.

[ronaprhys]

Today's update:

• Safety first, so the smoke/CO detectors were installed. One next to the kitchen on the way to the loft and the other in the garage.
• New fire extinguisher has been installed in the kitchen area. The other larger one that's set to go in the garage needs me to find my Quick Fists before installing it. It just a hook to hang on and that simply won't suffice for going down the road.
• Stereo is installed. We've now got Bluetooth, AM/FM, USB, CD, and all (satellite will come from her phone, if we ever use it). Damned rear view camera still doesn't work, but that's another day's fight.
• We even managed to get the screen door re-screened. I've got to source the handle slider and a new latch/lock for it and then that'll be done.

Tomorrow - lights and the roof repair (hopefully it'll be a hair warmer. Not sure I want to use Eternabond tape if it's only 50 degrees out). Also, need to start addressing the lights.

Not too shabby of a day, though.

For those that asked, here are some quick interior pics - none of the garage yet.

The wiring mess I was dealing with:


The main cabin, with the slider in.


The door to the garage and the boudoir/loft. Yes, these steps are not for the inebriated nor infirm.


The view out the front glass.


And the cockpit itself:

[JohnRR]

It gets even better as you show more pictures of it.

[RunningHard]

Nice rig! Never seen one before.

[ronaprhys]

Today I was able to get a bit more done.

• Sourced a new screen door latch and got it installed.
• Found a camlock to replace the one that had broken on the water heater cover.
• Eternabond taped up two places on the roof. Have a few more to go, but nothing that appears to be in imminent need.
• Did a headlight lens restore on one headlight. Came out a treat, I'd say.

This is the other side that I've not done yet, but they were both in similar condition. Sap or some other thing that had etched it's way into the lens, yellowing, etc.



And post the 3M restoration. Nice and bright. With a new set of LED lights in there, it should be very bright, giving us much more light for night-time driving.

[ronaprhys]

As the gods would have it, it's supposed to rain and be cooler much of this weekend, so that'll make some of the work I want to do that much more difficult. However, deadlines are looming, so we've got no choice but to press on. Since Beth will be going to see Hamilton with her lady friends tomorrow, I'm going to have most of a day alone to get some work done. Sunday will be both of us, in some capacity. Things I've got on the docket:

• Check all of the rear lights, fix and/or R&R them. I know a few of the LED strip lights for the brakes are out - not enough to say it doesn't work, but enough to be annoying. Since I'll be trying to wire up the toad braking system anyway, it seems a good time to work on getting all of that squared away. Also, one of the brake lights may be out entirely.
• The rearview camera still isn't working. I think I hooked it up correctly when I was installing the stereo, but maybe not. There's one switch I didn't try, so when I've got it powered up, I'll have to try that to see if I get lucky. If not, time to chase down the make and model numbers of all the components and find a wiring/installation guide so I can figure it out.
• Wire up the toad's braking system. I've selected the InvisiBrake system and have to get that installed. If I get nothing but rain tomorrow, that may be what I focus on - pull my Xterra into the garage and get everything in there wired up. Then on Sunday, when it should be colder by not raining, work on wiring that portion in. It'd be great to be able to test it this weekend, but that may not be in the cards.
• Get the official measurements on the rest of the screen door hardware. I need the slide, handle, and a screen protector for the bottom to finalize that task.
• If I get through all of that, then I can do a little trim repair on the rear side.
• Also, I do need to get the ladder out and start playing with the lights on the side - the under-awning and docking lights that either don't work, are missing bulbs, lenses, or what have you.

Should be another busy weekend, no?

[jharrell]

Originally Posted by ronaprhys

Everyone, my fiance and I (rimfire7) have purchased a 2008 Gulf Stream Bounty Hunter - 381M, now dubbed FN-2187 (or Finn, for short).

Nice looking RV, I approve of the name, very appropriate

[ronaprhys]

An update from the weekend - the wiring system bested me, this time. The destructions included seemed clear until I got started. Physically placing the unit in the Xterra? Pretty easy, conceptually. Same with all of the physical attachments (cable and pulley, air cylinder, etc). The confusing part is the wiring - it keeps referencing an aftermarket tow harness, which I don't have. I'll be on the phone with them today to get that bit sorted out.

I've got the different wires run to where they seem like they should be, but we'll see. I've a feeling I'll be creating a custom umbilical cord to do the connections. I also found out my Xterra's bumper attachment points are at 28" off the ground vs 15" for the RV's hitch. Seems I'll be getting a 10" rise adaptor to take care of that issue.

Nothing else got accomplished as we had a surprise snow and exterior temps barely getting above freezing.

[ronaprhys]

Got off the phone with Roadmaster and got good advice. It seems I was over-thinking it a bit, which is normal for me at times. I have to order another part of theirs (146-7) and that should help solve the woes. Steps I have to take:

1. Tap into the Xterra's tail-light and turn lights (I've got separate turn/brake lights) and run the wire up to the engine bay.
2. Tie that into the InivisiBrake unit wiring I've already run up to the bay.
3. Both those will get tied into the 6 pin receiver on the 146-7 kit, which will then get plug into the back of my motorhome.
4. I may even get lucky and not have to run the monitor cable wire as there's a space on the MH 7 blade unit that may be used for monitoring. I'll have to check when I get to tinkering, later this week.
5. Then all I should need to do is button up the rest of the wiring and start testing.

[ronaprhys]

After last weekend's debacle, I'm down to 2 full weekends left to prep the rig for the shakedown cruise. Unfortunately, pretty much the entire list from last week is still the same list.

• Finishing wiring up the toad's Invisibrake 8700. Thanks to their customer support, I should now have the insight and parts to finish this. Where I left off last weekend was that almost all of the wiring was run to where it needs to be. I need to tap into my Xterra's brakelights and then wire the front socket (which needs to be mounted), plus the vacuum line portion and wiring it to the battery. But this should be much easier, hopefully. Then it's time to test away.
• Check all of the rear lights, fix and/or R&R them. I know a few of the LED strip lights for the brakes are out - not enough to say it doesn't work, but enough to be annoying. Since I'll be trying to wire up the toad braking system anyway, it seems a good time to work on getting all of that squared away. Also, one of the brake lights may be out entirely.
• The rearview camera still isn't working. I think I hooked it up correctly when I was installing the stereo, but maybe not. There's one switch I didn't try, so when I've got it powered up, I'll have to try that to see if I get lucky. If not, time to chase down the make and model numbers of all the components and find a wiring/installation guide so I can figure it out.
• Get the official measurements on the rest of the screen door hardware. I need the slide, handle, and a screen protector for the bottom to finalize that task.
• If I get through all of that, then I can do a little trim repair on the rear side.
• Also, I do need to get the ladder out and start playing with the lights on the side - the under-awning and docking lights that either don't work, are missing bulbs, lenses, or what have you.

Should be another busy weekend, no?[/QUOTE]

[Bill1374]

Try the convection oven before you decide to get rid of it. After I learned to cook with it, I really liked it. Having sold the MH, it's one of the things I miss.

[ronaprhys]

Thanks - we'll be trying out the full suite of cooking tools soon enough on our upcoming trip.

Updates from my scheduled work:

• The InvisiBrake is officially wired in and tested. Managed to do a quick run to the store to thoroughly test it, but everything aspect of it seems to work.
• Managed to get the rear view camera working, too. Very nice to have that going - it'll make all sorts of things easier.

Ran out of time to get the measurements as I was working on a side project. I did find out a few additional things that need fixing.

• I need to put a better spot to put the safety cables - I don't have a good spot to hook them in on my Xterra.
• The tow harness on the RV isn't in good shape and will need replacing. If I don't do that, the plug from the umbilical won't lock in.
• One tail light is working fine. The other has a few LEDs out.
• The reverse lights have exactly 3/20 LEDs working, so both will need replaced.
• My fiance tried to install a new thermostat, which didn't work (Honeywell for Dometic is apparently a no-go). In the process, it seems the board for the old thermostat failed, so we'll need to upgrade that, too. Good times.

[ronaprhys]

Yesterday was very productive, which is good, considering we've got a trip coming up very quickly. Managed to get the following done:

• Updated the rear stop/turn/tail lights to actual working LEDs. They were LEDs before, but one side sort of worked, the other only had a few individual lights going. Now they're new, shiny, and working nicely.
• Same with the reverse lights, but those were even in worse condition - only about 3 out of 22 actual LEDs worked. Fun fact - polarity matters when hooking up LEDs. When I wired black to black, white to white, they didn't work. When I reversed the wiring, they worked just fine. It'll be much nicer to actually have lights when we're backing up.
• Updated both thermostats - they were Dometic's but the accuracy of the temp gauge seemed rather suspect, so we wanted to address that. Tried to replace them with Honeywell home thermostats, but that didn't work well at all (no AC). So I ordered up two analog Dometics and replaced both. Now we've got furnace and AC going, no issues. Much happier with this situation. We'll have to see how accurate the temp guages are, though.
• Greased the gears on the slide. Just thought that'd be a good idea.
• Cleaned the entire interior.
• Removed the one small loveseat that we didn't want to have in there. Dog bed-crates will go there for our upcoming trips.
• Unfortunately, rain all day today so I won't get a chance to start work on the other lights (markers, clearance, docking, etc.
• Also, got the reverse camera to start working on the in-dash stereo. This is huge for us.
• Last thing was one lesson learned. We sort of had power to the house when the gennie was on, but all of the outlets and some of the appliances (the 120v ones) weren't working, either. Turns out the gennie has a breaker on it, which wasn't reset when they serviced it, which means we didn't have power. One of the joys of learning a new to us coach without any real manuals.

Now all we need to do for the upcoming trip is get the propane filled up, top off the fuel tank, get food/liquor, and pack our various sundries and we're ready to go - should be a fun time camping when it rains the entire time.