Cougar 26RBS first road trip

[{tpc}]

Thanks for the reply Tim! We were just in the keys in November and I swear I saw more TT coming and going than I have ever. So it really peaked my interest.

I can make it from the Detroit area to Nashville in one clip, but I usually stop and sleep for an hour or so as we like to leave in the early am, bypass some of the tractor trailer guys that seem to always be in copious amounts in Ohio.

I once drove straight through from ocala to Detroit area in a uhaul cube truck, and again, I had to stop and sleep at some point. That’s my longest drive and that one was solo. So for a trip to the keys I feel like planning for 3 days of travel both ways seems about right according to your description.

[gregrc75]

We have a 2022 Cougar 25RDS with the front windshield. The reflectix didn’t work for us despite putting 2 layers. I made a removable insert, similar to what you put in a roof vent. It’s made of 2” foam glued to a thin plywood. I wrapped it in fabric and stapled reflectix on the back. I added 2 handles to take it in and out of the window and pull it tight against the window frame. It works great, no draft and no condensation.

[TimC]

Originally Posted by gregrc75

We have a 2022 Cougar 25RDS with the front windshield. The reflectix didn’t work for us despite putting 2 layers. I made a removable insert, similar to what you put in a roof vent. It’s made of 2” foam glued to a thin plywood. I wrapped it in fabric and stapled reflectix on the back. I added 2 handles to take it in and out of the window and pull it tight against the window frame. It works great, no draft and no condensation.

That is awesome! I might have to try to recreate that.

[TimC]

Originally Posted by Marinerjoe

Something for you to think about. Your 350 will likely have a 3” receiver. As will mine. I’m torn between getting a 3” to 2” adapter, or bite the bullet and get a 3” ball mount shank for my Andersen hitch. Not having that extra play because of the adapter is very appealing. Your thoughts?

I reached out to Propride on this question (I have their hitch). Their response was that I can use the adapter but they would recommend not doing that to prevent “hole wallowing” and slop. I will likely be looking to see if I can find a used Propride shank of the right size and I guess see if I can sell my current one.

[DonP]

Even though it's not night, I'm also bored. I've read through this whole thread and see nothing about tires. We have a new 26RBWSE, first trip last weekend, no sawdust except in the floor vents. Are you guys running the stock Trailer King tires? Any comments on those? We ran Goodyear Endurance on our 21RBS.

IMO you are going to like the F350 more than the F150. We had an 21RBS that we pulled with a Sierra 1500. It was great when we got down into the California valleys but not so great in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We now have a Ram 2500 diesel, and I can finally pass semis going uphill and instead of 10.5 mph I'm getting 13.5 mph with a heavier, longer trailer. I'm betting that the mph will go up to 15 if we could ever get to somewhere flat.

[TimC]

Originally Posted by DonP

Even though it's not night, I'm also bored. I've read through this whole thread and see nothing about tires. We have a new 26RBWSE, first trip last weekend, no sawdust except in the floor vents. Are you guys running the stock Trailer King tires? Any comments on those? We ran Goodyear Endurance on our 21RBS.

I am running the stock trailer king tires for now. No comments really other than I had no problems and they survived the 4,000 mile road trip. I had Goodyear Endurance on my old trailer and to be honest I can’t tell the difference. That said, from everything I’ve read a lot of brands of trailer tires have issues. Tires aren’t something I want to mess around with, so I’m only going to run these ones a couple years and keep a close eye on them. Then the plan is to switch to Endurance.

Originally Posted by DonP

IMO you are going to like the F350 more than the F150. We had an 21RBS that we pulled with a Sierra 1500. It was great when we got down into the California valleys but not so great in the Sierra Nevada mountains. We now have a Ram 2500 diesel, and I can finally pass semis going uphill and instead of 10.5 mph I'm getting 13.5 mph with a heavier, longer trailer. I'm betting that the mph will go up to 15 if we could ever get to somewhere flat.

I think you’re right about liking the 350 more than the 150. That said, I never once wished I had more power with the 150. I didn’t do any extreme mountain towing, but have towed up and down 6% grades with both the new 26RBS and my old smaller trailer (probably a bit bigger than your 21RBS) and could easily maintain speed and accelerate if needed. I think the 3.5L ecoboost is a great engine for towing. Obviously it’s no diesel but for what I towed it was great.

You’re definitely doing way better than I am on the gas mileage though. I averaged between 8 and 10 with the ecoboost. I’m expecting to get similar with the 7.3.

[DonP]

Originally Posted by TimC

I think you’re right about liking the 350 more than the 150. That said, I never once wished I had more power with the 150. I didn’t do any extreme mountain towing, but have towed up and down 6% grades with both the new 26RBS and my old smaller trailer (probably a bit bigger than your 21RBS) and could easily maintain speed and accelerate if needed. I think the 3.5L ecoboost is a great engine for towing. Obviously it’s no diesel but for what I towed it was great.

You’re definitely doing way better than I am on the gas mileage though. I averaged between 8 and 10 with the ecoboost. I’m expecting to get similar with the 7.3.

You're right about climbing your grades, but we live @ 5100ft and climb to almost 9000ft on some roads. The Sierra's engine did ok but the transmission would reach 210 to 225 degrees, not good. We can be climbing for a 35 mile stretch it's hard on the trani. With the Ram @ 370hp and 800 lbft the trani temp stays about 170 degrees. If we were in the midwest I would be expecting maybe 15mph with the diesel. Is the 7.3 a gas or diesel?

[TimC]

Originally Posted by DonP

You're right about climbing your grades, but we live @ 5100ft and climb to almost 9000ft on some roads. The Sierra's engine did ok but the transmission would reach 210 to 225 degrees, not good. We can be climbing for a 35 mile stretch it's hard on the trani. With the Ram @ 370hp and 800 lbft the trani temp stays about 170 degrees. If we were in the midwest I would be expecting maybe 15mph with the diesel. Is the 7.3 a gas or diesel?

I think the difference between my F150 and your Sierra was probably the turbos. They provided some good torque and apparently maintain power better at elevation (although I never towed in really high elevations). I imagine that diesel makes it super easy though. The towing performance of a diesel made me want one, but I don’t want to deal with the emissions systems.

The 7.3 is a gas engine. Not as much torque as the diesel, and it’s a gas guzzler. But it’s supposed to be a really good and reliable engine.

[TimC]

I thought of a few more things to share. Perhaps people with the 26RBS might be interested, or maybe even applies to other Cougar floor plans.

Not really part of the road trip, but when preparing for it I pulled off every panel I could find that came off. I found there were a few spots that there was a lot of wasted space. First one was under the bathroom sink. There’s a shelf and then a closed off area under that shelf. I removed the panel and found it was a mostly empty space, but it’s where the shore power enters the rig so there was some wiring in there. I actually utilized that space to install my Hughes power watchdog (the access to the wires there made it super easy!). I left the panel off and we’re using the rest of the space for storing items in a small tote.

I found another spot with a similar waste of space. This one was the closet on the left side of the bed (if you’re looking toward the front of the camper). There is an outlet on the side of that closet, so the wiring and back side of the outlet is inside the closet. To cover that they put up a panel that blocked off about half the closet. I removed that and found that the outlet was pretty well enclosed in a box, so left that panel off and stuck a small storage tote back there as well to reclaim most of that space.

The last one is under the TV. Keystone ran some wires below the TV through one of the cabinets. In this cabinet they also put up a panel that blocked off half of it. I’ve left this one on so far, but will probably remove it, clean up and secure the wiring better, and reclaim that space as well. Or maybe I’ll make it a hiding spot for something cool.

Another thing I had forgot about. During our trip we unfortunately found a small tear in our flooring. It’s very small and hard to see. It’s in an area where I doubt we did anything to cause it, although it is possible we did the damage ourselves. I highly doubt that though because nothing happened that would result in torn flooring as far as I can tell. So I think I just missed it in the PDI. Like I said, it’s super small and hard to notice, but I’m thinking I should probably do something to prevent it from getting worse. Anyone have any suggestions? I was thinking squeeze a drop of vinyl flooring glue under there and stick something heavy in the spot until it’s dry. Not sure it’s worth taking in for a warranty claim, although I’ll probably reach out to my dealership to see what they say as well.

The last thing I had forgotten (that I can remember now) is the switch for the main ceiling lights stopped working. I can still turn the lights on and off with the iN·command system, but not the physical switch. Anyone experience something like that before? Maybe just need to replace the switch?

Oh, and I did get the truck. No funny business from the dealership. So far I LOVE this thing.

[jasin1]

Glad the truck worked out!

There was a post the other day about the light switch and incommand …pretty sure…not the exact problem https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=...uXQ_MX6X9QiO8u

Maybe the wire is loose on the switch

[DonP]

Great minds think alike, I too opened up the area under the bathroom sink. We use it for "tp", chemicals etc., hate wasted space. As for the wall plug, ours is on the front wall. We have one on either side of the bed with usb charger ports along side. Our fireplace is under the TV so nothing there either. We found lose molding along the side of each door I'll have them fix it when they install our slide topper and the missing black out shade in the slide.

[TimC]

Originally Posted by DonP

Great minds think alike, I too opened up the area under the bathroom sink. We use it for "tp", chemicals etc., hate wasted space. As for the wall plug, ours is on the front wall. We have one on either side of the bed with usb charger ports along side. Our fireplace is under the TV so nothing there either. We found lose molding along the side of each door I'll have them fix it when they install our slide topper and the missing black out shade in the slide.

You’re reminding me of more! Lol

Same issue here. Have some trim coming off. I’ll just secure that back down myself though.

[DonP]

Originally Posted by TimC

You’re reminding me of more! Lol

Same issue here. Have some trim coming off. I’ll just secure that back down myself though.

Normally I would have had it fixed already but since they have the topper and the shade to do so they can do the molding too.

Have you tried the "USB" ports Yet? Mine seem to be slow, our phones keep telling us to check the connection.

[TimC]

Originally Posted by DonP

Normally I would have had it fixed already but since they have the topper and the shade to do so they can do the molding too.

Have you tried the "USB" ports Yet? Mine seem to be slow, our phones keep telling us to check the connection.

Makes sense. All my issues so far seem to be very minor so I don’t think it’s worth taking it in for warranty. But, if I did have to take it in for something I’d do the same and have them do the minor stuff too.

No issues that I’ve noticed with the USB ports yet. We have a wireless charger that we plug into the USB port and then charge phones on that overnight. Since we’ve only charged phones overnight so far I’m not sure if we’d notice it being slower. But, some of the newer phones have fast charging capabilities with higher output usb C. I suspect the ports in the campers are not rated for that same power output so I would expect slower charging than when using the wall outlet adapter.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by TimC

Makes sense. All my issues so far seem to be very minor so I don’t think it’s worth taking it in for warranty. But, if I did have to take it in for something I’d do the same and have them do the minor stuff too.

No issues that I’ve noticed with the USB ports yet. We have a wireless charger that we plug into the USB port and then charge phones on that overnight. Since we’ve only charged phones overnight so far I’m not sure if we’d notice it being slower. But, some of the newer phones have fast charging capabilities with higher output usb C. I suspect the ports in the campers are not rated for that same power output so I would expect slower charging than when using the wall outlet adapter.

Also remember that many/most of the trailer USB ports are 12VDC powered. Line voltage drop in DC circuit wiring is SIGNIFICANTLY greater than in AC circuit wiring. It's not uncommon to connect a 12 ga wire to the battery/fuse, run it 20' to the USB/12 volt plug, connect it with "blade connectors" and then measure 9 or 10 VDC at the fixture. Then "power up the USB port, start drawing amperage by charging a phone and measure the voltage to find it's down to 7 or 8 VDC at the fixture.

So, it's not surprising to see a "check connection" notice on the phone. It's likely to be receiving a charge voltage only slightly higher than the current battery voltage....

It sort of boils down to a "lowest bid USB port" powered by the smallest gauge wire allowable connected with the cheapest and fastest to install fixture that can be found on the wholesale market.....