jbeletti's 2015 Landmark 365 Ashland

[VKTalley]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

Today, Kevin Wolbeck and I added Tinted Acrylic Glass (aka Plexiglass) to our screen doors. Mine took a couple hours. Kevin's took well less than half that, as we were experts by that time

While in Knoxville, TN getting Cheap Heat installed at RVs for Less, Kevin found a glass shop that had in stock and could CNC cut Acrylic for us. He bought a 4'x8' sheet and gave Piedmont Plastics our measurements, then picked the material up the next business day.

Jim, question....why tinted acrylic, and why remove the top screen? I'm curious.

 

['Lil Guy']

Re: My Mods: Added Vinyl Tiles to Bed Platform

I like this mod. If you want the ventilation at the bottom, what's involved in removing the acrylic? You said you left the screen in.

 

[jbeletti]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

Jim, question....why tinted acrylic, and why remove the top screen? I'm curious.

Val,

As we attend a lot of rallies and events, we like to have our entry inviting to guests that stop by. A closed entrance door typically signals "we're not taking visitors". But it's not always true. With acrylic (or polycarbonate) on the screen door, we can pin the entrance door open and not lose all of our warm or cool air from the coach, essentially slowing down the transfer of hot/cold and at the same time, send the signal "c'mon over - we're up".

The tint is done to cut down on the amount of sunlight and therefore heat we introduce into the coach when the entrance door is pinned open.

I've done this many ways in many coaches. I have learned that the top section of the door, being large, makes it a bit more difficult to remove the acrylic when desired. So I've begun (2 coaches now) to make that section of acrylic "fixed". Once I make that commitment, there's no reason to keep the screen in it.

While we rarely remove the lower section acrylic panel, I want the option to do so, so I leave that screen in.

Hope this helps you make your own decision

 

[jbeletti]

Re: My Mods: Added Vinyl Tiles to Bed Platform

I like this mod. If you want the ventilation at the bottom, what's involved in removing the acrylic? You said you left the screen in.

Frank - depends on how the bottom panel is installed. I've done it a couple of different ways. On this install, the panel is bowed and inserted into tracks on the left and right sides of the opening. This means that removal is pretty simple, just bow it a bit, pull it out and store it. That said, I will likely add some sort of fastener or two to the top and bottom of the lower panel to keep the panel from bowing on it's own and to keep it from rattling.

In past installations, I've use 3M Trim Tape to affix a section of paneling J-trim to the lower area to act as a pocket. This allows the panel to be set down into this trim. Then I affix a long strip of white Velcro across the top of the panel to hold the top of the panel onto the door frame. To remove the lower panel, I pull the top from one corner to pull the Velcro apart all the way across, then lift up on the panel to remove it. Real easy.

 

[jbeletti]

Re: My Mods: Added LED Strip to Switch Panel

A bit of related trivia/facts that I've learned:

Plexiglass is a brand name for Acrylic sheets
Lexan is a brand name for Polycarbonate sheets

Sort of like Kleenex is a brand name for tissue

 

[porthole]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

found a glass shop that had in stock and could CNC cut Acrylic for us.

View attachment 36503

Since you had the plexi CNC'd, couldn't they do the radis as well?

Ever try routing the radius using a pattern bit?

 

[jbeletti]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

Since you had the plexi CNC'd, couldn't they do the radis as well?

Ever try routing the radius using a pattern bit?

Duane - yeah, I don't recall what Kevin told me as to why they couldn't CNC cut the radiuses.

I don't own a router but yeah, that sounds like an awesome way to do it. Would save 20 to 30 minutes per door.

 

[Bryced15]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

While in Knoxville, TN getting Cheap Heat installed at RVs for Less, Kevin found a glass shop that had in stock and could CNC cut Acrylic for us. He bought a 4'x8' sheet and gave Piedmont Plastics our measurements, then picked the material up the next business day.

Jim, where in Knoxville did you purchase the tinted Acrylic? I would love to do this mod also.

Edit: I see now where you said Piedmont Plastics. Oops!

 

[MCTalley]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

We've already done ours. Not tinted, but otherwise pretty much what you've done (though we left the top screen in place).

Our salad plates from our dish set happen to be the same radius as the upper part of the door. I used that and a plexi/lexan scoring tool (a couple bucks at Lowe's) to score that circle a few times and it snapped off pretty clean.

We used the little white plastic twisty screen door holder-onners (whatever those things are called) to keep the Lexan (in our case) pieces from falling out of the upper or lower sections. It does rattle a bit since I used 0.08" thick Lexan.

 

[Nabo]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

We've had a hard time finding the tinted plexi. Thanks Kevin for doing the hunt for us. I know RVs for Less has a glass company that also does it.

 

[jassson007]

I didn't know the doors came apart. I fitted mine in to lower channel and used silicon to hold top and sides and the screen in both sections to hold it from going through.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[jbeletti]

I didn't know the doors came apart. I fitted mine in to lower channel and used silicon to hold top and sides and the screen in both sections to hold it from going through.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Andy - yep, screws on the sides hold the rails above and below the slider section together. Remove them and you ahve easy access to insert the glas into the tracks if that's how you want to do it.

 

[jbeletti]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

We've had a hard time finding the tinted plexi. Thanks Kevin for doing the hunt for us. I know RVs for Less has a glass company that also does it.

Byrd - I called Butch and he gave me the place you told him about. Kevin contacted them and they didn't have it in stock and it sounded like the cost may be higher than what he eventually found.

Kevin called around and found Piedmont Plastics (near Harbor Freight). He and I went in on a full 4'x8' sheet. Sheet cost plus the cuts and tax was $174.80. Here again, this is for two doors - so $87.40 each.

 

[Nabo]

Re: My Mods: Added Tinted Acrylic (aka Plexiglass) to Screen Door

Thanks for the info Jim and also Thank Kevin for doing the leg work finding the place to get it from. Since I have already put in regular Lexan, I'm thinking about talking to the local window tinting company about putting a film on like tinting car windows. Will let you know the outcome.

 

[fredwrichardson]

Thanks Fred. I looked at a LOT of items like that online. Looking forward to your review.

Jim,

Here is how the product looks and works. Actually pretty happy with it and it does not alter the refrigerator and does a great job of keeping the doors closed on the refrigerator.



Looks good in that is is grey and somewhat matches the refrigerator. Uses a adhesive that is like the 3M command so it can be removed without damage and it is cheap, under $8.

Also is on Amazon and is part of Prime shipping.

Fred

 

[jbeletti]

Thanks Fred.

 

[jbeletti]

My Mods: Relocated Bedroom Closet Rod

I felt the clothes rod in the bedroom closet was too close to the closet doors. We had to push the hanger corners down to close the doors. I looked at LM 365 closet rods in other units and they were fine. Hopefully few people need to do this simple mod

Simple fix! Removed all the clothes and simply moved the rod back a couple inches. There's a center bracket holding the rod to the bottom of the shelving above the rod. This bracket determines the height of the rod. Both ends of my rod were a bit low (1/2" maybe), causing the rod to drop at each end.

 

[porthole]

Re: My Mods: Relocated Bedroom Closet Rod

Only 1 center bracket

Not sufficient for some reason in the Cyclone

 

[jbeletti]

Re: My Mods: Relocated Bedroom Closet Rod

Only 1 center bracket

Not sufficient for some reason in the Cyclone

Duane - yes, came with only one. But I have several in my parts bin from past coaches where I've replaced the OEM rod with a heavy walled rod. I briefly considered added more to this one but it impedes sliding clothes back and forth on the rod. And honestly, this single center bracket is actually held in place with heavy long screws into wood that is between the luan layers of the shelf. I'm quite impressed with it.

 

[porthole]

Re: My Mods: Relocated Bedroom Closet Rod

Little tongue in cheek there Jim.

When we would travel by boat in the past, the length of the trip could be judged by the increase in depth of the water line. Kind of referring to Deb's attempt to "sink the boat", bringing a years worth of clothing and supplies for a two week trip