First Impressions

I took the mattress out the day I brought it home, and put it out front for whoever gets it first, the trash man or college kids, it's really worthless.  I put in an 8 inch memory foam that is simply awesome for $350,  Serenia Sleep 8-Inch Memory Foam RV Mattress, Short Queen 

I don't expect great work from the RV industry, but man, there's some stuff that just shouldn't happen, like wood filler smeared over the kitchen trim at eye level, never even sanded, just stained over and finished, the rails holding the table as a bed aren't wide enough, so it slips out when put down, the webbing in the bathroom behind the toilet is hung behind the toilet seat, so you can't put the seat up if you put anything in it, and it's hard to keep up when empty, just raise it up 10 inches.   The handles on the kitchen window catches the blinds(was already bent when I took delivery), as it does on all the blinds, if you're not careful to close the latch when you lower the blinds.  Easy fix would be shim out the blinds a half inch or so.  Also, why is their no storage door on both sides of the front storage?  First thing I noticed trying to get my folding chairs out that had slid to the other side of the storage.

I'm criticizing now, but I do love my R Pod, just going to take some work to get it up to snuff.  

Next, as a disclaimer, I'm a high end audiophile junky, and musician, my sound standards are high.  Being said, the Jenson stuff is junk, always has been, and belongs out front with the mattress.  One speaker didn't work, the first day, it's slow as heck loading cd/dvd's(cheap processors/memory) and those are $20 a pair speakers, just awful.   Camping world has this Jensen unit for $319, which should be $3.19.   If you're buying new and ordering, buy your own sound system, TV, and keyless entry(mine worked only about every 4th try, even after resetting, new batteries, etc).  On mine, I think the electronics was all called the Crown Package, which I believe is an $895 option.  You can buy a Pioneer, or Kenwood AM/FM/CD/DVD/Blue Tooth, satellite and Pandora ready, 50 watt per channel, gorgeous sounding system(that won't break!, can upgrade software, etc, etc) for about $325-$350 that is a seriously good system.  Any decent $50 and up pair of speakers are a huge upgrade to the interior speakers.  Even these speakers will sound markedly better under a better receiver, but I'll put mine out front with the mattress, too.   Seems the RV and boat industry in general puts really cheesy sound components in.

Heading back to Austin in a few weeks for a longer stay, pulls great.  Discovered having 36 gal of water on board costs me about 1 1/2 -2 miles per gal.  Adding Power Stop truck brakes to my 4 Runner tomorrow, with stainless steel lines, which give a wonderful firm feel to the brake pedal, so excited about beefing up my stopping power, although the electric brakes work very well, never felt I was being pushed.

I noticed when running the furnace on battery, only the floor fan runs, but when plugged in, the roof ac unit runs.  Anyone know if this is normal?  Can you turn it off?   You just have all that fan noise, and cool air blowing on you when standing.

Peace.    

Now, winter question:  Is it possible to set one of these up for winter use?  In tank heaters, wrapped lines, etc?  Someone said the furnace would keep lines and tanks from freezing, but that didn't sound too logical to me going down the road!  I'm in Indiana, and will be traveling south this winter, just wondered if there's solutions other than re-winterizing every time I come home for a few weeks.  Oh, duh, leave the darn thing in the Florida Keys?  LOL