Residential Fridge Option.

[adam]

Good Evening,

Hoping some owners could put their input on these questions please,


My wife and I have a 42' Tag axle motorhome but were recently out to have a look at the new 2015 Landmark for a change. It was the Key Largo floor plan. We are very familiar with inverters and battery banks but we would like some owners feedback who are actually using these units with the residential fridges in the Landmark lineup;

How well is the battery holding out with the small 1000W inverter if the unit is not on shore power? While we do next to no boondocking - Can you do a full days worth of road travelling without depleting battery power while operating the fridge? Our other question was regarding the gas generator and how well/fast it replenishes the battery(ies) on the Landmark.

Can anyone tell us about the quality of the "full" paint package on these units? Is the full paint holding up?


Thanks for now

Adam.

 

[danemayer]

Hi adam,

The residential refrigerator's inverter is supported by 2 batteries and should get you through a full day of driving and maybe a few additional hours. Several owners have reported that their tow vehicles provide enough charge to the batteries that they're not noticeably depleted at the end of the day.

Landmarks use the LP model of the Onan 5500 generator. I've used ours on occasion in storage to keep the batteries charged. Usually just run the genny for 30 minutes every few weeks.

We also have full body paint on our almost 4 year old Landmark. It's holding up beautifully.

 

[doxiecouple]

Can't respond to the residential refrigerator but our full paint option is 18 months old on our San Antonio and is still in pristine condition. Even an occasional "grandson bicycle" scrape along the curb side slide has held up well.

 

[Tombstonejim]

One thing that you are going to find is that none of the 5th wheels even the high end ones are not engineered and designed as well as the motor home. I went from a 40 diesel to the 5th wheel. Things like and inverters/converters and plumbing is seems to be just done haphazardly in the 5th wheels and not located in easy to get to compartments like motorhomes. I still can't get over having to take down the basement wall to get to things like the converter and water connections.

 

[Bohemian]

Run power from the truck to the trailer and keep the batteries charged when traveling.

The details of how to do this depend on the power requirements of the refrigerator. The current wiring in your trailer, wire gauges, and controllers. Your cable The current wiring in your tow truck, wire gauges, and controllers.

You may need to do some new wiring.
You may need to add some diodes to protect some circuits.
You may need to add a relay to protect against draining the trucks battery.

 

[adam]

Update to my original post;

The residential fridge is operating fine now that we have the correct inverter in it. I also operate a large Dometic Fridge on the slide tray in the basement. Because none of the other recepticles are tied to the inverter I simply plug the Dometic into the 12VDC plug in the basement while travelling. Both are wroking fine.

Yes there is a difference in design and convienence items. But there is a also a big price difference not only from a aquistion stand point but also operating costs. While we didn't purchase our motorhome new it had a MSRP in 2008 of 345,000. It was a tag axle coach so it was a dream to drive and was very easy to camp out of. The biggest problem we had was the hole in the middle of it that I constantly threw money into!!
I tend to be (according to my wife) RV retentive and I like things near perfect, and because of that there was no end in sight to the money you can sink into a pusher. Others like yourself know what I'm talking about......Steer tires that are $900 each, Aqua Hot control boards that are $900 and so on and so on. And our unit only had 29000 KMS on it. I will say the Cummins/Allison powerplant is a true dream and NOT the weak link in their design - its all of the house stuff that drives a owner nuts.
In my opinion all of the plastic motorhomes are prone to chassis flex - this leads to leaky roofs and popped windshields, save probably the highest end Newmars and Newell units. Or you could go for a true bus chassis and buy a MCI or Prevost.

I have owned Fords my whole life, 3 diesel models but after driving the 400 ISL in our Holiday Rambler I couldn't go back to the Ford engine. So I bought my first Dodge. The truck is nothing special just plain ST trim but it drives nice and the Cummins pulls like I expected. Plus I put 6 new Michellin Tires on it for $2100 instead of $7200!

Enough of my ranting.

We love the Landmark, its not without its faults but they are far less than other manufacturers by miles, this becomes evident when you go from unit to unit and compare things closely. I have upgraded the battery bank but do miss the large inverter/display from the motorhome and will probably fix that issue when I do solar panels.
Heartland has a great thing going in its Landmark line and with management soliciting information and implementing where possible the ideas of the people who put their hard earned money down on these coaches then they are sure to stay at the top of the pile.


Adam

 

[adam]

And regarding the full body paint;

The quality of the paint on the Landmark is every bit as good as some diesel pushers that I have been next too. Now that I have washed and waxed it twice its well on its way to being well protected. Plus it helps too keeping it under cover while we are at home.

My only constructive comment on the paint is that I had to reseal a few of the caulking joints and I had to jack up the bedroom slide because all 3 rollers had masking tape stuck behind them from when the unit was taped off and the rollers were binding. It should have been removed at the paint shop and during my dealer PDI - but was missed by both parties. The other item that I noticed is that the top of the front cap and 1 of the plastic wheel well skirts are a little dry. (They just could have used a little more paint put on them). Just small items though.

Overall its very nice and the striping is well done and its very good quality!


Adam

 

[Nabo]

Man - I want your covered shed. We are in the process of tearing down our current shed to build a longer/taller shed to put our LM in but yours is the cat's meow.

 

[rxbristol]

I opted for the full body paint and love it. In the spring, I washed and waxed it and I'll wax it again in the fall. It takes me about 4 hours using a spray synthetic wax. I've had lots of compliments about how nice it looks.

 

[adam]

The spray wax sounds somewhat easier than the manully applied Macguires product that I am using - it sure is a long process, our biggest problem is when we wash, as our rural water is full of minerals and if its not shammied off right away it leaves lots of spots!

We have a small 30X33 with 8' sidewall pole barn that was the maximum allowed size in our area by the building department, when I wanted a covered option for the RV they allowed me to errect this temporary shelter because its only "bolted" to the concrete - Go figure?!
The shelter is a Canadian product and the company (Kodiak Shelters) in Manitoba will ship to the USA too. All North American components and a heavy fabric with a 10/15 year warranty. Ours is 48X18 with 18' roll up doors at both ends. You can put one up in a weekend. The link to the company follows;


http://www.kodiakshelters.com/modules.php?name=Why_Buy_Kodiak



Adam