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11-13-2016, 03:20 PM
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#1
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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My Triton 2951 Thread
Hello everyone, well I picked up my new 2017 Triton 2951 yesterday! It was built in September so it is still pretty fresh off of the assembly line. I will use these thread to document some of my modifications and other info about the trailer. It wasn't home for an hour before I started pulling screws and tearing into it.
I am putting in four 6 volt batteries and this model has plenty of room for them so I will be doing a write of that over the next few days. With this trailer being ALL LED lighting, I probably didn't need the 4 batteries but it will still be nice to have them. I also have a Progressive Dynamics 70 amp Converter that I am putting in to replace the cheap stock 40 amp converter that they used. This also means I am replacing the 6 AWG that they used to 4 AWG.
I hope this will end up being useful for someone so lets get started.
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11-14-2016, 03:40 AM
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#3
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Inteli-Power PD9270V Converter Install
Well I had planned on putting one of these in my last two RV's but never got around to it. So this time I had it bought before I even brought home the trailer. It is a good thing I did this now too! The new unit is a 70 amp converter and the old unit was 75 amp. The new unit has multi stages though and is a better unit. So what I found was pretty crazy. They ran 6 awg from the batteries to the distribution panel which was just over 15 feet of cable. Then another 4 feet of cable from the distribution panel to the converter. That is 19 feet of 6 awg cable to handle up to 75 amps. 75 amps for this size and length is way over the cable rating but that isn't the bad part. Now lets talk about the ground side of things. First the good part. They ran a 4 awg cable from the frame to the distribution panel ground bus. The ground from the converter didn't go to the distribution ground bus bet yet another ground bus mounted on the wall under the sink. Now for the good part, the wire that was connecting these two ground buses together was just a small 12 gauge wire!
Here it is loose from the bus so you can see how small it is.
So for the converter to charge the batteries at up to 75 amps, it had to take a path that ran across this little small wire! Whoever wired this setup clearly didn't know what they were doing.
Here is the old converter in place. Don't mind the spaghetti or the extra water line valve setup on the intake of the pump that had no purpose.
So seeing this I decided I had to put in some new wire. I went with 4 awg from the batteries to the new converter and then 4 awg from the converter to the distribution panel. Now I know 4 awg really wasn't needed at the distribution panel because everything is LED so there really isn't much of any current load happening but i just kept it all 4 awg. For the ground I took the existing 4 awg frame cable and went straight to the converter. I then added a new piece of 4awg from the converter to the distribution panel bus. I added a few more 12 gauge wires to connect the two buses together just for good measure.
Here is the new unit in place.
The converter comes with the Charge Wizard remote pendant which will be mounted inside the storage area just inside the compartment door so I can easily see what mode it is in if I care to know.
Like others have mentioned, the wiring in RV's is a mess. It is crazy that this industry doesn't put out better quality than it does. I already knew this so that is why I dug in and started working on it so quick. I am pretty surprised to see the charging path was passing through a small 12 gauge wire though.
Progressive Dynamics (PD9270V) 70 Amp Power Converter with Charge Wizard
Buy Online
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Company Website
PD9200 Series RV Power Converters
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11-14-2016, 03:43 PM
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#4
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Arizona
Posts: 61
Arizona
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Great job! Looks good!
Glad to hear you had plenty of room for your batteries. Four batteries would be a really tight fit on ours.
As for the OEM wiring, yup, pretty questionable. On our rig I used 2 and 4 awg cable to wire in a winch directly to the batteries just to the left of the converter. Paralleled the converter with the winch to get plenty of charge current to the batteries.
Thanks for posting the LED data. Wondered about the specs and who made them. Now we know!
BTW, great choice ref the Progressive Dynamics converter. They work great in "boost" mode!
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11-14-2016, 04:30 PM
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#5
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Arizona
Posts: 61
Arizona
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Oh, forgot to mention, not sure about your rig, but I believe that valve assembly attached to the water pump (which looks similar to ours) is supposed to be used for winterizing purposes. On our last rig we used the water pump intake hose to get anti-freeze into the system. We'll probably winterize our rig in Dec sometime. I guess we'll find out for sure then
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11-14-2016, 06:59 PM
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#6
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by otr_pwc
Oh, forgot to mention, not sure about your rig, but I believe that valve assembly attached to the water pump (which looks similar to ours) is supposed to be used for winterizing purposes. On our last rig we used the water pump intake hose to get anti-freeze into the system. We'll probably winterize our rig in Dec sometime. I guess we'll find out for sure then
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Ok thanks for that, I figured it was for something like that but for me in Southern California it has no purpose.
It was just extra stuff to shake around when the water pump was going but I will keep it in case I ever was to re-install it.
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11-15-2016, 01:20 AM
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#7
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Factory Installed Antenna
So I had not seen this type of antenna before and the dealership didn't have any answers on it either. There was no documentation on it in the packet either. I won't be able to test how well it works until next week since I don't get any over the air signals where I live.
I got a ladder and took a picture of the label on the underneath side of it so here is what it is.
Continu.us CA-2500
Spec Sheet
http://www.offroadtoybox.com/TritonT...ntenna-web.pdf
Company Website
Antennas Archives - Continu.us
These appear to be very hard to get if you are not a manufacture so I have not found one for sale online yet.
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11-16-2016, 03:01 AM
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#8
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Arizona
Posts: 61
Arizona
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That looks just like the OTA antenna we have on our 2951 except ours is black. Works well. We used it quite a bit for our trip to FL a few months ago. When we were close to a metro area, it would typically pick up 10-30 channels. For longer stays we set up our satellite.
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11-16-2016, 02:40 PM
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#9
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by otr_pwc
That looks just like the OTA antenna we have on our 2951 except ours is black. Works well. We used it quite a bit for our trip to FL a few months ago. When we were close to a metro area, it would typically pick up 10-30 channels. For longer stays we set up our satellite.
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Yes mine is Black as well but this is just the picture they have of it. Glad to hear it works ok, we don't watch a lot of TV but it is nice to have when you get bored.
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11-20-2016, 01:48 AM
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#11
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Interior and Exterior LED Lighting
With no actual porch light and only the awning LED light string, I wanted to add lights for the stairs so we could still see to get in the door but not have the bright awning lights on when it wasn't desired. Since I already had everything open I figured I would do the interior stairs as well.
The first thing I did was add the new switches to the wall as you walk in. I added a three switch unit so now I have a total of 5 switches in this location. I have one unused switch for a future project all ready to go. The wall is wide open to be able to run new wires down it so the wiring portion was straightforward and easy.
The LED lights can be cut every 3 lights so they work perfect for a project like this. They come with wires attached on one end but with a standard 30 watt soldering iron and some 18 gauge wire, you can just keep making new strings as much as you want. The lights are brighter than what I want but I can Black Out some of the LED's along the string so the length of light is still what I want but it will tone down the brightness.
JR Products 12245 Black Triple SPST On-Off Switch with Bezel
HitLights Weatherproof LED Light Strip - Warm White 3000K SMD 3528 - 300 LEDs, 16.4 Ft Roll - 12V DC - 82 Lumens
HitLights Weatherproof LED Light Strip - Blue SMD 3528 - 300 LEDs, 16.4 Ft Roll - 12V DC - 82 Lumens
From right (closest to the door) to left. Kitchen overhead lights, Above cabinets lights, Interior stairs lights, Exterior stairs lights, and a spare.
These look much brighter in the pictures than they do in real life but as mentioned, I am going to dim them down some.
Here is a couple of shots of the outside steps. Again they are not as bright in real life.
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11-21-2016, 12:55 AM
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#12
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Instrument Panel Switches, Volt Meter, USB Charger, and 12 Volt Outlet.
Here is another quick project I did. The lighting switches are so much better now with this and the previous switches I added. I have no idea why they decided to put the main ceiling lights on the little switch on the panel. I added another triple switch in place of the two switch and moved the ceiling lights to it. Now from left to right it is Ceiling lights, Awning lights, and Ramp lights.
I also wanted a Volt meter to see what the batteries were actually doing along with an easier way to charge our phones. I added a momentary switch to the panel for the volt meter since it is really bright and didn't want it on all the time. Now I can just press it to see the current voltage on the batteries. The Dual USB charger has 1 amp and 2.1 amp outputs. The 3rd position is a standard 12 volt outlet that we can use a car charger on or anything else that has this type of plug.
Here are some pics showing the install.
JR Products 12245 Black Triple SPST On-Off Switch with Bezel
Cllena Triple Function Dual USB Charger + Blue LED Voltmeter + 12V Outlet Socket Panel Jack Marine
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11-21-2016, 09:56 PM
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#13
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Alvin
Posts: 727
Texas
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Sliiiiiccccckkkk, indeed.
__________________
2017 Aerolite 213 RBSL-ND
2018 Wolf Pup 17RP Limited (Tiny THauler)
2018 F150 King Ranch 3.5 Beast
2003 Ram 2500 Cummins (can't kill this beast)
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12-20-2016, 03:55 AM
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#14
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Antenna Fix
A couple more fixes after our first trip out with the trailer over Thanksgiving. This one really bugged me and made it difficult to sleep a couple of the nights. The TV Antenna was sloppy on its mount so as the wind blew, it rocked back and forth a small bit which was enough to make a knocking noise inside the trailer.
As you can see in the picture, even though the mount and antenna are a matched pair, they are not a tight fit. My first try at the fix was to wrap duct tape around the entire mount following the contours of course. This didn't work as the antenna would not go back on all the way. After some trial and error, I found that I could only add the tape to the one sections outlined in Red. I put two layers of duct tape on each of the four pads and the antenna was then a tight fit when it went back on. I will see how long this last but since the tape is not exposed, I think it will last a while.
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12-20-2016, 04:26 AM
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#15
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Couch Fix
otr_pwc, you might want to look at this one.
So my 2nd and biggest issue with our first trip out was the jack knife couch coming off the wall. We had it in the bed position and my wife was setting on it with one of our dogs. She was setting towards the wall and all of a sudden, the couch and her slammed to the floor.
As it turns out, the couch is a really bad design in my opinion. There are three 1/4 inch screws holding the couch to the wall on each side. The way it is designed, any downward pressure is trying to twist the mount off the wall. Meaning the mount wants to pull the top screw out of the wall twisting in a downward movement. It is the same movement as when you fold the couch up against the wall.
So, with all the downward force trying to twist the mount off the wall, if the screws are not going into some wood to really hold them in place, guess what, the pull out. As it turns out, there is NO wood or metal framing where the couch screws to the wall. These screws where only in the side wall which is just 1/8 paneling with the foam behind it. Not much support for the couch the way it is designed at all.
When it happened, I just made a run to Home Depot and bought some 5/16 screws to mount the couch back in the stripped out holes and we were careful for the rest of the trip.
Knowing what I knew now, I wanted to better support the couch at the wall so I built some legs for the mount. I bought the angle iron at Home Depot for around $9.00 I believe which I cut in half to make both legs. The front leg closest to the Fridge also had about a 1/2 gap to the floor until you put some weight on it which was another issue so when I made the legs, I used a couple pairs of vice grips to clamp the couch to the legs to get everything just right. Once I had everything lined up, I then finished off drilling all the holes and shaping the legs.
I hammed the legs down so they were fully contacting the floor and would actually give the couch the rear downward support. The new mounting also put the original 3 screw holes in a lower position so all the screws are a nice tight fit in the wall. Now each side has three 1/4 screws and three 5/16 screws holding it to the wall. The 5/16 are the ones on the couch mount since I had to drill those holes out when I did my temp fix. I also have two 1/4 grade 8 bolts mounting the couch to the legs on each side.
Now not only do I have downward support in the back but I have a lot more holding power to the wall since there still isn't any framing inside the wall that I am connecting to. One other thing that you can't see in the pictures is the main pivot bolt on the side was spinning loose. The bold screws into a threaded piece in the couch but they didn't use any lock tight so there isn't anything to prevent the bolt from turning as you open and close the couch. I add a washer and jamb nut on the back side to lock the bolt in place.
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12-20-2016, 02:22 PM
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#16
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Senior Member
Join Date: May 2016
Location: Arizona
Posts: 61
Arizona
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Looks more secure now. Glad no one was hurt when it fell. One of the first things we did was remove that wall-mounted couch. It just seemed to always be in the way, plus it blocked part of the window view when up. When we removed it we were shocked, like you, to find how flimsy it was mounted.
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12-20-2016, 07:05 PM
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#17
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Jarvisburg
Posts: 36
North Carolina
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Hello, I am new round here. I found this while looking for reviews on the 2951. I am currently waiting on mine to arrive at my dealer. Gonna borrow some of your ideas...hope you dont mind.
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12-20-2016, 07:18 PM
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#18
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Card
Hello, I am new round here. I found this while looking for reviews on the 2951. I am currently waiting on mine to arrive at my dealer. Gonna borrow some of your ideas...hope you dont mind.
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Oh not at all, that is one of the main reasons I started this post!
I hope the info helps you out once you get yours!
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12-23-2016, 01:24 AM
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#19
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Member
Join Date: Dec 2016
Location: Jarvisburg
Posts: 36
North Carolina
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Doing my PDI tommorow. I took my wife last night to see it as she won't be available when I pick it up, so she got to inspect the interior.
Does your bottom sofa in the happi jack bounce a little when it comes down by itself? Or is it smooth?
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12-23-2016, 01:44 AM
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#20
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2016
Location: Acton
Posts: 36
California
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wild Card
Doing my PDI tommorow. I took my wife last night to see it as she won't be available when I pick it up, so she got to inspect the interior.
Does your bottom sofa in the happi jack bounce a little when it comes down by itself? Or is it smooth?
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No it does bounce a little. It is like it is a little too tight of a fit as you have to fold both sides down together to kind of push it outward. If you fold one side down first, the other side won't fold down. I figure it may be adjustable but I haven't got around to looking at it yet.
I would look really closely at the jack knife couch to make sure it is mounted ok. My one leg had about a 1/2 inch gap to the floor and didn't make contact until you sat down. This caused additional stress on the already unsupported wall mount. I am still really happy with the trailer and don't regret my purchase, it is just like most trailers and the factor workers don't always do the best job.
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