New Alpine owner. Few issues immediately

rbev2308 · 03-08-2015, 06:12 PM

Just got into the 5er world finally. Some new things unlike what I have seen in the past on TT's. Picked up my 3535RE and went camping immediately. Had severe 6 point auto leveling issues which were not present during PDI. Techs came twice and tried to resolve and only made it worse. I spent an hour on Lippert's website and manually reset the rear sensor and it auto leveled perfectly today so fingers crossed this bug is fixed!

1) Dometic Thermostat and heat pump. Not used to the dual zone a/c-heat pump with furnace. Turned the thing on as temps were in high 20's and went to eat. Had it set on 71, came back, L/R was 68 and B/R was 90 and bathroom was 105. Wanted to see the heating storage area which was nice and toasty (85). Hopefully did not burn all my LP in the one tank overnight. Once I reread this confusing manual and looked at a few notes on here, I think I may have solved it. Putting it in auto allowed the A/C to kick on in zone 2 which seemed odd having furnace blasting air and a/c pushing down but when I woke up at 2AM, it was 71 degrees. In all honesty, I think the heat pump mode without furnace would have sufficed just wanted to see how good the furnace operated..Must get a gauge to monitor LP usage.

2) Cable/Satellite wiring. Cable wiring sucked as no channels were coming in. Simply moved all over to satellite connection and retuned and worked like a champ. Most likely loose connecting on the cable in where you connect from outside since both tvs acted the same.

3) Loved the electrical caddy for maintaining power cord!!!

Overall, pretty happy first time out, minor stuff which a good reputable dealer should have caught in my opinion.

Would like any insight into others who programmed their thermostat as far as when to use and not use furnace (temp range). I like limited use of furnace simply to keep the underbelly heated as I am under the impression only heat from the furnace will heat that as the heat pump function from the roof only comes out of ceiling.

bsmith0404 · 03-08-2015, 06:50 PM

We use the furnace anytime it drops below 35ish. I believe you have heat pumps on both ACs, ours only has it on the rear (older model) so the heat pump won't keep the bedroom warm. One thing I am looking at is adding vent covers with adjustable louvers, especially in the bathroom. That is the one area that I just cannot seem to keep the temps controlled in. The room is too small without any heat control, need to be able to shut it off a bit to keep it from getting so hot.

It takes a bit to get used to the dual zone settings, to be honest, I have to go through memory recall every time we go to use it.

Sounds like your 6 point leveling system wasn't calibrated or lost it's calibration. I've only had to go through the calibration process once when we first got ours, no issues with the leveling since. I don't care for the hook-up position recall, but I guess it at least gets close. I always hook-up a bit lower than when I un-hook.

The power cord reel is one of the best things ever added to these RVs. Even in cold temps the 50 amp cord winds up nicely. Much better than fighting with that big heavy cord. This is one feature that will definitely be in all future RVs we own.

Sounds like your are getting aquatinted nicely with your new unit. Hope you continue to enjoy it.

rbev2308 · 03-09-2015, 05:45 AM

One thing I will have to do is to get something for that furnace vent by the bed. Getting up at 3AM and stepping on to a 130 degree metal grate is no fun and great idea putting a floor vent in the bathroom other than you cannot control the flow so it is like sitting on a toilet in the hot desert in the Middle East. Only thing missing was the a fly or two!

PARAPTOR · 03-09-2015, 07:10 AM

Sounds like your furnace is located roughly same place as mine right below the Bedroom and Bathroom registers. I have also considered installing registers with dampers in select areas. They are posts out there cautioning restricting air flow in these RV furnaces so I wanted to take small steps into this. Although some have done it with no reported problems. As a start/test I purchased a couple sheets of magnetic material like for frig stickers and cut out rectangles to cover the registers. I thought even when furnace was not in use these would keep stuff out of them. Worked fine for that. As for as regulating airflow, the Bedroom and Bathroom pieces would be lifted up during furnace operation. Covered registers down stream from the furnace stay flat even when totally covered. Not very technical but used my slippers to hold down the magnetic rectangles in the Bathroom and Bedroom

By the way have not noticed any erratic furnace operation but then again never tried closing them all off at same time nor have I used them more than one season. I was also trying to divert as much heated air to our sole 2" duct going to the garage

Still considering installing registers with dampers in the Bathroom and Bedroom.

Not sure how the Alpine is wired from factory with coax, On my Raptor the satellite external connector is only a straight run to behind the main TV, where as the cable external connector is a feed to another coax connection behind the main TV along with the other two coax connectors in the rig. In this coax layout is also the external antenna and amplifier (booster switch). As we know that booster must be off when not using the external over the air antenna.

howard · 03-09-2015, 11:56 AM

I really like the HP; it keeps the Alpine very comfortable when the termperatures are above about 32 degrees. Below that the furnace comes on. It has significantly reduced propane consumption. We leave the thermostat set on "auto." The only issue we've had is this past July traveling in 90+ degree weather, the thermostat could not find zone 2 (the BR). Once the Alpine cooled down it could find zone 2. This went on for a couple of days...very frustrating. Finally my wife took the thermostat off the wall and put it in the refrigerator when we left to drive to the next campground. We put it back on the wall when we arrived and it worked perfectly immediately finding both zone 1 and zone 2. It did not like the heat durring the day driving! I called Keystone support and they were very nice. They agreed it was probably a bad thermostat, but keeping it in the 'fridge sure saved our trip! I since bought a new thermostat, but July is still several months away to see if that is really the fix.

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