Hi all, my name is Mike and I just bought a 1984 Fleetwood Wilderness 31 ft. 5th wheel.
My wife and I (and our four fur-babies) are going to live in it while we renovate the old family farm house we are buying. We expect to be in it full time for three or four months.
First off, I have absolutely no idea what size batteries I need. It came with one single automotive battery that wouldn't hold a charge and barely ran the landing gear. I want to put it back to the double configuration it is supposed to have. We will be on shore power most of the time. I'm thinking a couple of Duracell BCI Group 31M batteries from Batteries Plus would be sufficient for what we want to do, but could be way off. (Cost is the major factor right now, and we'll likely sell the RV once the house remodel is done.) It has a 30-AMP service connection and I am not sure what shape the electrical system is in other than the battery was charged while driving, most of the driving and cabin lights lights worked, and it appears to have an inverter system. I have yet to try the water pump, furnace, tanks, etc. but was assured everything but the fridge worked.
Second, the Norcold 8310EG2 fridge is kaput. The heater gets hot, it gurgles like crazy when i plug it into 110 volts (bypassing all other wiring) but no cooling happens. It is out of the RV on the floor of my garage. I'm looking at getting a rebuilt cooling unit from http://www.rvcool.com/ as suggested in another thread here, but wondering if there are other options.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
PS: I have a 2009 Ford F25 with the 5.4L gas V8. I pulled the rig from Salmon, Id to Nampa with little trouble, but it seems under-powered for regular use for touring or even weekend jaunts. Trailer weighs around 7,000 lbs as near as I can tell.
My wife and I (and our four fur-babies) are going to live in it while we renovate the old family farm house we are buying. We expect to be in it full time for three or four months.
First off, I have absolutely no idea what size batteries I need. It came with one single automotive battery that wouldn't hold a charge and barely ran the landing gear. I want to put it back to the double configuration it is supposed to have. We will be on shore power most of the time. I'm thinking a couple of Duracell BCI Group 31M batteries from Batteries Plus would be sufficient for what we want to do, but could be way off. (Cost is the major factor right now, and we'll likely sell the RV once the house remodel is done.) It has a 30-AMP service connection and I am not sure what shape the electrical system is in other than the battery was charged while driving, most of the driving and cabin lights lights worked, and it appears to have an inverter system. I have yet to try the water pump, furnace, tanks, etc. but was assured everything but the fridge worked.
Second, the Norcold 8310EG2 fridge is kaput. The heater gets hot, it gurgles like crazy when i plug it into 110 volts (bypassing all other wiring) but no cooling happens. It is out of the RV on the floor of my garage. I'm looking at getting a rebuilt cooling unit from http://www.rvcool.com/ as suggested in another thread here, but wondering if there are other options.
Any help and advice would be greatly appreciated.
PS: I have a 2009 Ford F25 with the 5.4L gas V8. I pulled the rig from Salmon, Id to Nampa with little trouble, but it seems under-powered for regular use for touring or even weekend jaunts. Trailer weighs around 7,000 lbs as near as I can tell.