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Old 04-09-2012, 08:31 AM   #1
Halibutman214
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Oregon
Posts: 192
Passport 26BHWE Review

My first trip with my Keystone Passport 26BH was a 130 mile trip over the Cascades. We camped in a State Park with full hook-ups. The overnight temperature the first night was in the upper teens.
Let me first say that set-up was a breeze however I had a toyhauler so I pretty much knew what I had to do. If however I would have not eyeballed the trees very carefully I would not have been able to get my awning down or my slide all the way open. I had but 3" to spare.

Soon after hooking up the water I noticed a drip coming from one of the tubes under the rear of the unit that I was unable to get stopped. I searched my literature high and low and could not find what these tubes are. I assume one is to drain the F/W tank but thought it was odd that one would be pressurized unless it's a drain for the hot water heater?

While I always run an electric heater when I have full hooks I ran the furnace to take the chill off and make sure everything was working correctly. It ran perfectly and heated the inside quite well. A couple hours later however the A/C suddenly kicked on which really had me going. To make a long story short it seems that at some temp above the temp you have the thermostat set, the fan on the A/C kicks on and circulates the air. This is great idea but if it's something you don't know is going to happen it can be very confusing. Since we had the electric heater going right next to the thermostat it sensed the higher temp and kicked the fan on. THIS IS SOMETHING THAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN THE WALK THRU! Let me also add this feature can be turned off.

Our two kids were happy with the bunks and we loved the master. We did however swap the mattress out of our Lance which is REALLY a nice mattress.

KEYSTONE, if your reading this, what were you thinking when you put in the power receptacles. Running an extension cord from the bathroom so you have a reptacle in the rear of this unit is something one should not have to do. The receptacle ever the counter is too high. I tried 3 different coffee makers and they simple don't make one with a cord long enough to reach. There isn't a plug even close to the dinette. In the master there is only one and it pretty much will only work for what it was designed for... the recharge station. The serious lack of plugs is my single biggest complaint.

The fridge worked well and the freezer compartment kept everything frozen. I do wish the fridge had an indicator of some sort (like the one in my lance) so I knew that it had switched from gas to electric and vise versa.

The water heater worked well but the light that was supposed to come on when the water was hot didn't work all the time. It came on the first time going from cold to hot but unless you turned it off and the water cooled off and then you restarted it wouldn't come on again. Maybe it only stays lit for a certain amount of time?

We loved having the dry bath but again Keystone what were you thinking when you mounted the hose to the wall. You can remove the spray nozzle from the holder but then only have about 18" you can move it. I'm going to cut a small section out of the piece that holds the hose to the wall to make it more of a clip for the hose. This will allow you to get the spray head where you need it.

I know they were trying to make this light and we love the amount of storage but the access to much of the storage is a real pain. A simple door on the front of the area under the dinette seating would have went a long way. Another project for me.

Overall we were very happy with this unit and if we had to do it over would still buy it. We do think that if some of the things we mentioned were put in to this it would go a long way in satisfaction for the customer.

I can not post this without also saying I love my Diesel. It was a Sunday drive going over the mountain. I can honestly say there were times I totally forgot the trailer was there. Thanks
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2008 Dodge RAM 6.7 Cummins (I love my truck)
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Old 04-09-2012, 08:58 AM   #2
Festus2
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Location: Fraser Valley BC Canada
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Thanks for sharing your comments and impressions with our members - very informative and helpful to prospective Passport buyers. I wouldn't count on Keystone reading your post but instead you might consider writing up a review and sending it along to Keystone. That way you will at least be assured that someone there will have read it and hopefully get back to you with their response. It would be interesting to find out if Keystone does indeed send you a reply and what they have to say. Keep us posted.
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Old 04-09-2012, 09:15 AM   #3
f6bits
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Join Date: Nov 2011
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There are usually three tubes that hang from below. A single tube for draining your fresh water tank, and a pair of tubes that are the low-point drains for your hot and cold water plumbing, and those two are pressurized since they’re part of your faucet plumbing. You should be able to tighten the caps enough to stop the drips. It’s also possible that your hookup had too much pressure.

The light on the water heater panel is a fault light, only to come on when there’s a problem. I, too, find it disconcerting that it seems to do nothing, but I guess that no news is good news.

I find that kitchen receptacle oddly placed, but I guess I’m lucky in that the only things we use it for are a baby bottle warmer and a space heater. Both of which have long enough cords to reach.

Our bedroom has two outlets – one on each side of the bed.

I’ve not needed electricity in the rear of the unit, so that’s not been an issue.

For the shower, I replaced my shower head with an Oxygenics, and it’s great. As a bit of a bonus, I can slightly lift the shower head out of its holder and it’ll stay there and point more downward. Someone here posted a mod where they installed a slider bar for mounting the shower head. Much better than anything Keystone would install.

Some dinettes have storage doors on them, but those might be higher end models. Others, such as us, can order factory cabinet doors that match the wood and make our own doors.

I’ve never had the A/C fan kick in with the furnace on. Then again, replacing the thermostat was about the first thing I did after our maiden trip, and it’d be the thermostat that’s controlling the A/C fan.
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2011 Passport 2590BH
2009 Ford F150 SuperCrew FX4 5.4L w/Max Tow
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Old 04-09-2012, 12:24 PM   #4
Halibutman214
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Oregon
Posts: 192
Quote:
Originally Posted by sdayman View Post
There are usually three tubes that hang from below. A single tube for draining your fresh water tank, and a pair of tubes that are the low-point drains for your hot and cold water plumbing, and those two are pressurized since they’re part of your faucet plumbing. You should be able to tighten the caps enough to stop the drips. It’s also possible that your hookup had too much pressure.

The light on the water heater panel is a fault light, only to come on when there’s a problem. I, too, find it disconcerting that it seems to do nothing, but I guess that no news is good news.

I find that kitchen receptacle oddly placed, but I guess I’m lucky in that the only things we use it for are a baby bottle warmer and a space heater. Both of which have long enough cords to reach.

Our bedroom has two outlets – one on each side of the bed.

I’ve not needed electricity in the rear of the unit, so that’s not been an issue.

For the shower, I replaced my shower head with an Oxygenics, and it’s great. As a bit of a bonus, I can slightly lift the shower head out of its holder and it’ll stay there and point more downward. Someone here posted a mod where they installed a slider bar for mounting the shower head. Much better than anything Keystone would install.

Some dinettes have storage doors on them, but those might be higher end models. Others, such as us, can order factory cabinet doors that match the wood and make our own doors.

I’ve never had the A/C fan kick in with the furnace on. Then again, replacing the thermostat was about the first thing I did after our maiden trip, and it’d be the thermostat that’s controlling the A/C fan.
The Hot Water Heater light: We were told this worked the opposite of the one in the Lance whereby instead of the light coming on when you switched it on it came on when the water reached a certain temp which it did, the first time, so am not sure about this fault thing?

Receptacles: Alas I went back and looked again. There is in fact another receptacle in the bedroom. If you hang your head over the bed on the Port side it's sort of up in the corner. Now this, I'm very happy about! I may never have looked again had you not said something.

The shower: I read that post about the shower mod but am a tiny bit reluctant to drill and mount it on that wall. It seems pretty flimsy to mount something that heavy. Unless I went through the entire wall I'm a little worried about long term affect. Speaking of the shower my caulking along the bottom held up beautiful and it looks sooooooo much nicer.

Storage: How does one go about ordering doors? I'm fairly handy and this would make it super easy.

The A/C fan: If you read the manual on the thermostat it talks about this function when it is in the Au mode but what it doesn't tell you is when this will happen. I'm simply concluding based on the fact the temp at the thermostat was 4 degrees higher than what it was set at that it caused the fan to turn on.

Festus2 Good idea on sending a copy of this to Keystone.
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Old 04-09-2012, 02:48 PM   #5
f6bits
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Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: SoCal
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Cabinet doors would be ordered through your Keystone dealer. If one of your cabinets has doors that would be a good match, go with that. Otherwise, walk the dealer’s lot and find something you like in another model and order from that.
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2011 Passport 2590BH
2009 Ford F150 SuperCrew FX4 5.4L w/Max Tow
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