Enhancements and repairs to our coach.
While in Red Bay we had Cody Poores of Cody’s Custom Cabinets do a few tweaks for us. One was a minor tweak to a shelf in a bedroom cupboard, to reduce the size of the lip on it. Another was to add an extra shelf in the upper pull-out pantry next to our fridge.
Here’s the pantry drawer as it came from the factory:
Since we use it mostly for cans, there was enough room for another shelf. So Cody made one that matches the existing ones:
The extra storage capacity is very useful!
Tweak Thursday: we added body wash / shampoo / conditioner dispensers on the wall of our shower:
In December 2023 the big window awning on the passenger side of our coach broke; it slammed open when extending it, and wouldn’t retract anymore. We got it repaired when in Red Bay, Alabama (home of Tiffin) in March 2024; see this previous post about that issue and repair.
Unfortunately, that repair didn’t last; after a few months it started making clunking noises when extending, and wouldn’t automatically retract. We could still use it, as I could push it back up and it’d stay retracted, but it wasn’t ideal.
So we made an appointment for when we were back in Red Bay in December with the Girard Awning Service Center next to Red Bay Acres (where we were staying), and got them to install a replacement.
Since the old awning was from a different manufacturer, they needed to do a few adjustments. They filled the holes from the old awning mounting with rivets, and painted them, after the old awning was removed (look closely just below the black slide topper rail):
Here’s the new window awning installed:
Painted rivets from the old awning arm mount; not an entirely tidy paint job, but only visible in certain light:
The left side is a bit tidier:
They added an extra cord bracket (used to hold the awning open); they asked if we wanted to remove the old one, but we said it’s fine to leave it; we could use it to have a shallower angle. The lower one is the new one:
The new awning open:
Definitely a nicer product. We did consider replacing the two on the driver side too, so they’d match. But they are still functional, and it wouldn’t be cheap, so we decided to leave them as-is.
We keep a mop and broom hanging in our half bath, as a convenient place to keep these long tools. They hang on the wall with Command Broom and Mop Grippers, available from Amazon. They are mounted using self-adhesive Command Strips, so can be installed and removed without drilling any holes or damaging the wall at all.
Very handy.
Back to our regularly scheduled blog posts, with RV modifications on Mondays, travel on Tuesdays, campgrounds on Wednesdays, and attractions on Thursdays and Fridays.
When staying in deserts or other places with low humidity, we use a humidifier to make us more comfortable. It lives on our bathroom counter (or stored in the closet when in more humid places):
It is important to only use distilled water with the humidifier, to avoid greasy steam. For a long while we purchased jugs of distilled water from grocery stores, but that gets expensive and a hassle after a while.
So we later bought a water distiller to take tap water and distill it:
We fill this with tap water, and it effectively boils it and captures the evaporation as distilled water, dripping it into a jug, that we can then pour into the humidifier. It takes about three hours to make a jug of water, but it has a timer to turn it off when it’s done, leaving a little water in the bottom to make it easier to clean up. One jug per day is enough to be able to keep the humidifier running all day.
We’d rather be in places with a comfortable level of humidity, but we do enjoy deserts, and would rather too low humidity than too high (and yes, we do have a dehumidifier for such places too). It’s good to have tools to be able to make such places more comfortable.
Happy New Year! 🎉
As we begin 2025, let’s look back at 2024, as is my tradition on this blog.
I will have a series of blog posts reviewing topics from last year. I schedule my posts following a pattern: Modification Mondays, Travel Tuesdays, Whereabouts Wednesdays, and To and Fro Thursdays and Fridays (okay, those last ones are bit of a stretch). So I will post my annual summaries in that order too (though not on those days), starting with modifications today.
We have done a number of modifications to our 2017 Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome, to make it more comfortable as a full-time home, to improve the features, or to repair issues. This is a summary of some of the changes done in 2024; also check out the changes from 2023, 2022, and 2021.
For each modification topic I include a link to the corresponding blog post, and a sample picture; see the post for details. (Tip: you can click or tap on either the link or picture to go to the corresponding post.)
You can see all of the modification-related blog posts via the modifications category, with the earliest posts at the top, or the latest posts at the top.
Garbage bin hanging on back of driver chair:
Replacing cover on light under sink:
Engine compartment insulation:
Replacing solar fuse with breaker:
Refilling our fresh tank with a water bladder and pump:
Using a sewer tote tank and macerator pump to dump waste tanks from the back of our truck:
Replacing the cabin air filter:
MagSafe charger on bedroom wall:
Replacing controller for Tecma macerating toilet:
Kenwood DNR1008RVS GPS receiver:
Integrating water filters and softener into the coach, and more:
The best hose quick connectors:
Using a filter canister to help sanitize the coach water systems:
You should vacuum out under the fridge occasionally:
Dumping waste tanks into house septic system:
Replacing pump connections with Wago lever nuts:
Velvet flocking liner for shelves:
How to prevent the auto-generator start (AGS) from turning off when manually starting the generator:
I hope you found these posts interesting and useful.
For some unknown reason, our coach came with a set of towel rails inside the shower. Which makes no sense, since you’d have to remove the towels before using it.
So one of the first modifications we did after we got our coach was to remove the bars from those rails and flip the ends upside down, so they serve as hooks, and add another set of towel rails outside the shower.
Here’s a pic from years ago of the inverted ends of the rails (and soap dispensers, but we moved those elsewhere after I knocked them off a couple of times):
Our replacement is mounted above the toilet, next to the shower:
Much better!
Inside cupboards and in the half bath we have compact motion-activated LED rechargeable lights, that are magnetically mounted to a self-adhesive patch, so they can be easily removed and recharged via USB. These lights have a switch to toggle between off, on, and auto; we leave them set to auto, so they come on via motion.
Convenient to illuminate in cupboards, and also in the half bath, so we don’t need to turn on the ceiling lights. In that bathroom, we have one mounted on the wall and one under the cabinet, above the sink.
For Tiffin owners (or anyone with a Magnum inverter), having the auto-generator start (AGS) enabled is a good idea, even if you are normally connected to shore power. It’s useful so if there is an extended power cut at the RV park, the generator will turn on before the battery level gets too low. (I have mine set to come on for 2 hours when the battery drops to 12.2V, which is about 50%, since I have AGM batteries.)
If you boondock at any time, or use your generator while driving for AC in hot months, or even just the monthly exercise you should be giving it, you may find an annoyance with the system: if you manually start the generator, it will automatically disable the AGS feature.
But fear not, there is a solution:
AGS button on the Magnum control panel.AGS TECH item, and press the dial to select that.AGS Mode item, and press to select.RV to Other, and press to select.Now the AGS will remain on, even after starting the generator manually. Much more convenient.
Here’s what the AGS TECH menu item looks like:
And with AGS Mode: Other selected:
I hope this helps!
We had some extra shelves added in several cupboards in our motorhome, but they just had a bare wood surface. To make them a little nicer, and not quite so slippery, I added some self-adhesive velvet flocking liner to them:
Simple and easy.