a couple complaints and a lot of compliments

firemailwv

Active Member
After a week in the South Carolina sun in our new Big Country, I have a couple of things to complain about and need to know how to remedy them. Before I go on complaining, the list of great things about our Big Country are much longer than these complaints. I can't tell you how many folks slowed down on their golf carts to say what a nice rig I have, we are the only Big Country in the park. This is a sea of Sierra's, Montana's, and Cedar Creek's. And honestly, only one is more impressive than the Big Country exterior and that is a full body paint Cedar Creek that just rolled in, everything else is just so blaaa... We have all the room we will ever need. Well, I think we will ever need, anyway! Going home with all the laundry washed and dried without going to the laundromat, priceless. :eek:

Now, to the point. I don't really like the electric awning. At first, it was great because it is so easy. But I'm used to a manual one that I had de-flappers and tie-downs on. I put it out and left it unless a big storm was coming. This electric one has been in more than it has been out. Maybe I'm being gunshy, but man it really flaps in the constant ocean breeze. Does anyone have any advice about this?

Second, one air conditioner is not cutting it during the day. It has been in the upper 80's and low 90's all week and during the day, it gets up into the upper 70's in the BC. The worst is the bunkroom. It has the ceing fan, but it really gets warm back there for the kids. I'm thinking, obviously, of getting a 2nd AC, but I want to put in the bunkroom and take out the fan. What do you think? :confused: I'm guessing that most go 2nd AC's go up front. Where is the wiring already ran? Up front? I also am concerned about the extra height of putting it up front. How much taller would it put me? The brochure says I am 12'9" now.

Any input or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, as always.

Jon
 

Ray LeTourneau

Senior Member - Past Moderator
Jon, Our Bighorn has the manual awning. I'm not sure when they started including the electrics as standard but for the most part, I agree with you. I kind of like the standard. On the other side of that it would certainly be nice to be able to just push a button to retract when a storm does blow in.
Regarding the A/C, I've attached a PDF of a modification that many have done to the earlier Bighorns. The same mod may work for you. It's a method of helping or directing the air flow from the A/C more efficiently. Putting a low profile A/C in the front should only add a couple of inches.
 

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kakampers

Past Heartland Ambassador
If you were used to using tie-downs on your manual...do the same on the automatic...just remember to release the straps before hitting the retract button. Won't hurt it!

As for the A/C...don't know exactly where your wiring is...I assume like every other unit, it is wherever your ceiling fan up front is. Remove the fan and install the second A/C. As for height, we went with the low profile and it puts us right at 13'2"...we too started out at 12'9"...
 

jmgratz

Original Owners Club Member
If you were used to using tie-downs on your manual...do the same on the automatic...just remember to release the straps before hitting the retract button. Won't hurt it!

As for the A/C...don't know exactly where your wiring is...I assume like every other unit, it is wherever your ceiling fan up front is. Remove the fan and install the second A/C. As for height, we went with the low profile and it puts us right at 13'2"...we too started out at 12'9"...

Don't know if your auto-awning has a 'wind sensor' on it but if it does be sure to turn it off before strapping it down. Ours has a switch on the side of the control box that allows us to turn on and off the wind sensor. I like the fact you can put it out just a little if it is raining to keep from getting wet when opening the door.
 

gwalter

Retired Colorado Chapter Leaders
With my awning I run it all the way out and it is a bit to loose. I hit the retract button and as it starts in it puts tension back on the awning and takes most of the flap out of it. It doesn't have to be retracted much to tighten it.
 

jayc

Texas-South Chapter Leaders
I too love the ability to be able to leave the awning out and not have to get up and get dressed in the middle of the night to take the awning down. It's true that it was nice to be able to deflap and tie down the old manual awning but its even nicer to just hit the button and roll it out or roll it back in.

As far as the second a/c unit, I wouldn't be without one! It does add a little bit to the height of the unit but its worth it.
 

TXBobcat

Fulltime
Jon
As mentioned above (AC air flow problem SOLVED) there are some things you can do to improve the air from your A/C. One thing to think about. In your S&B if you have a temperature differential of 20* it is concidered good. So if the temp is 100* outside and 80* in your house your A/C is doing well. The same goes for your trailer. We run one A/C in the livingroom during the day and close off the bedroom and if it gets real warm we will open the bedroom door and turn on the 2nd A/C. We have the A/C in the livingroom dump directly into the room not go through the ducts.

We had an outdoor temp of 103* and the inside was 82*, yes it was warm but I don't think you can do much better.

Something else you might think about. I started a thread about a Big Country in a campground that had 3 A/C's . I checked out about getting a 15k A/C for the front and remove the 13.5 Penguin. To be sure it would work I checked out the specs and all of the Dometic A/C's require #12 AWG wire and a 20Amp breaker. So any fan that is using #12AWG wire you can put in an A/C and the opening in the roof should fit the A/C box.

If you didn't run the electric HWH or a few other electrical appliances you might be able to run all three A/C's. Fan run abt 3.5 amps, Compressor runs abt 12.5 amps. That comes to 16.5 amps X 3 = 49.5 amps. May not work all at one time but you can control how much A/C you put in which area.

BC
 
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