New Outback 277RL

[Bob Landry]

After two agonizing months of waiting, I dropped off my Jayco this morning and picked up my new Outback 277RL and I'm sitting by the picture window drinking my first cup of coffee.

I didn't think very much about it when i saw it at the show, but it's a little short on outside storage. That's the only down side to the trailer that I can see, but DW really likes it and that's what counts. I've already got a couple of things in mind, one being an aluminum diamond tread box for the rear bumper that will carry my air compressor and tool box. I'm trying to keep the tongue weight down, so probably not much besides hoses and electrical cors will go in the front pass-through. One unexpected event was that After cranking the tongue jack half a dozen times, I knuw a power jack was in the cards, so that got put on before I even left the dealer. That will be money well spent.
Projects on the front burner... Install my Progressive Industries EMS. Still havn't figured out where that's gonna go. The second is to do away with the mouse hole shore power setup and install a Marinco 30A inlet so I can use my detachable power cord. I'm sure DW will come up with some ideas, but honestly, I can't see that this trailer really needs much in the way of mods..

[W.E.BGood]

Aaaahhhh, love that feelin'...enjoy the coffee and let the fun begin! Regards, BGood

[JRTJH]

Bob, I just installed the Marinco 30 Amp retrofit kit on my trailer. The plate adapter to replace the mousehole plastic part is just about 3/16 inch smaller and the screw holes don't line up exactly. The hole cut in the trailer skin by Keystone is just a "touch" too big to get a good bite using the existing screws. I used stainless 8/32 screws with oversized fender washers and plastic insert nuts to secure the plate. The rest of the install went without a hitch. My mousehole was on the rear wall between the two rockers. The cabinet that the cord pushed into is a great place to make into a storage cabinet. I ordered a door (same size as the overhead kitchen cabinet doors) and put it on the cabinet. Now we have a little extra inside storage and no potential for "mud on the carpet" from pushing the cable through the mousehole.

I think you said earlier that you worked on marine electrical installations, I'm sure you're well equipped to install a retrofit kit, just wanted to let you know what I ran into doing mine last week.

[Bob Landry]

I don't have much luck getting kit components to fit what they are supposed to fit and having seen the results of unskilled labor cutting holes for things, I generally roll my own..

I used a material called King Starboard for the mounting plate. It's a hi-tech plastic material that's used in the marine industry and is completely UV resist.

I cut the square large enough to completely cover the existing cutout and screw holes. Since the bottom half of the cabinet was already unusable because of wiring, I put the PI EMS system in the lower half of the cabinet and mounted the display behind the door also and just used the existing door. A bead of white silocon sealed the Starboard.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_12397_0_b14d7a59bf1f8bb22c885f6d018e9abd.jpg

Shown below, I used the same method on a previous trailer so it works on either fiberglass or aluminum sides. On this one, I used butyl putty because it looked like that is what was udes on all of the other outside openings, but white silicon would have been a much nicer installation. Maybe I should market this as a kit. It sure beats trying to fill gaps and hit screw holes and it completely hides all of the ills of the existing installation.

http://www.keystoneforums.com/attachments/photobucket/img_12397_1_c981beedcac54898df1796abaf0463ff.jpg

[JRTJH]

Nice job, Bob.

As I said, I used the kit, it came out pretty good, I still have to clean up the rest of the butyl tape that has oozed. I will do that tomorrow or the next day, We've finally had some warm weather, all the way up to 65 today <YIPPEEEEE> LOL

Here's a pix of the spacer I made, but didn't use and the finished install, with the butyl still needing to be trimmed. I bought a cabinet door from Keystone (about $60 with hinges, catch and handle) that matched the interior. Now we have storage where there was a muddy cable before.