The following are some lessons learned since fulll-timing 05/02. These do not include the hundreds of lessons learned by reading books and on-line before starting or that we have put on our website at www.skyaid.org/rv hlahore at skyaid.org
Additions 05/05 and 07/05See also: What they should tell new Teton owner, Why we like our Teton, Other RV tips
Ideas for a late-model Teton owner
You can dim the under-vanity light by putting black tape over some of the light rope
If the door latches are too tight just pinch the non-moving part with vise grips
The Heart Inverter can not go into idle mode in Teton
There is too much ghost load in most RVs from TV, microware, and VCRYou can buy replacement drawer slides at Home Depot
The clothes closet door latches (shown below) need to be moved out about 3/8 the latches are too hard to open otherwise, and break
Consider them to be expendables - buy many spares.
Metal
filings were dropping onto carpet from slides occasionally.
The factory had failed to clean out the filing after manufacture.
The slides were not generating the metal filings they way we feared.
You can support the front end of Teton just rear of each leveling jack where there is metal structure jack stands
Satellite cables to the roof do not have enough wires to run a motorized antenna, so will need to add wires
Closet railing screws used by factory did not large enough heads, so they pulled thru the hole in the railing, which resulted in tilting the closet doors which then broke the closet snap-latch. Replaced screws with larger heads.
Knife
holder drawer broke, probably due to vibration should re-enforce plastic was
too weak.
Replacement drawer from Teton was much stronger.
Add transparent caulking at bottom kitchen sink cabinet.
Hydraulic fluid for slide-outs did not seem to be mentioned in the Teton instruction manual.
Low hydraulic fluid results in slide stuttering while sliding in.
We now use a turkey baester to refill the hydraulic fluid.
The baester is low cost and fits into both the fluid bottle and the narrow space
above hydraulic tank
Propane tray needed oil to prevent rusting - this minor item was not listed on the annual Teton maintenance schedule
We developed black areas on the ceiling near the lights.
We were able to clean these marks off with a rug cleaner and prevented future marks by
sealing the ceiling carpet edges with tape
Add
insulation board under kitchen slideout ( there is only 1 of board to the
outside at underneath slides)
Notice that the Tetons manufactured in 2004 have this extra insulation.
Should
tack-weld, not fully weld, the Mor Ryde shock absorbers if/when they break off.
They are supposed to fail by breaking off, and if fully welded would probably
fail by breaking/folding, etc.
Consider installing a bungee cord on upper cabinet doors to eliminate door
accidentally being open and jamming during slidein.
File
drawer (heavy) is now held closed with a screw driver
pushed thru hole drilled
in side of the file drawer.
The screw driver is inserted before travel, and removed after parking.
You can grease wheel bearings at low cost without having to re-pack the bearings.
Air Conditioner sensor
to prevent freezing had never been installed. (Noticed this after two years,
when the air conditioner
froze up and ceased cooling. We had to wait for the ice to melt before the AC
would work again).
Apparently the factory had failed to connect the A/C sensor.
Sensor could be seen hanging free in the air conditioner by opening up the AC panel
from inside of the RV.
It was a fairly simple mater to open up the AC on the roof and attach the sensor
to one of the cooling coils.
Pocket
Door to bedroom ceased automatically closing completely. (after 3 years of
full time use)
It appeared that we could have a major task getting to the pneumatics which
controls the door opening and closing.
However, just exercising the door about 50 times 'recharged' the pneumatics, so
it is working again.