Stargazer's Garage

I took our Keystone Premier 31BH out of the valley and brought it into town last night so that I could get some service done. I was able to adjust the ProPride Hitch and get another impression of it since my first time towing with it last week. I set the weight distribution bars to 7.5" and I think it's the right setting because the forward/back motion--which I learned is called "chucking"--is minimized and the steering feels good. I might also try 8" again next time just to confirm. Also, after towing again last night I'm confident that my installation was correct because the whole rig pulls nice and straight. My previous complaint about it being tedious to raise and lower the WD bars with a ratchet socket has been nullified after I realized that I had a speed wrench (like the one used for the stabilizer jacks) that I could use. It's much stronger than the one for the stabilizer jacks so there's no worry about breaking it and it makes the process of

My LG Eve GW620R Android smartphone hasn't been very reliable since I bought it back in December. First it got bricked when I tried to update the firmware and the entire mainboard had to be replaced. Then about a month ago the system software got corrupted and I lost half of all the function on my phone. Online technical support didn't help and when I went to Cellcom at Coquitlam Centre for help, the person there was COMPLETELY UNHELPFUL so much so the guy turned me away and basically said he would not help me at all. I just about gave up on getting my phone fixed at all. Today I tried one more time and with the help of telephone support I was able to do a factory reset by pressing the VOL Down , Menu , and Camera buttons at the same time while the phone was on. I thought I had tried that already, but this time it worked and I got full function on the phone again.... I have to thank William at Wireless Wave who seemed really to care about helping and directed me to the correct

We just completed the trip with our new 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer. It was also my first experience towing with the ProPride hitch. However, because I couldn't complete the entire installation in one day, I have some doubts my own setup. I need to remove the hitch anyway so that our dealer can work on the trailer, so I'll be able to reinstall the hitch and make sure I do it right. Here are my initial impressions on towing with the ProPride hitch.... It's definitely easy to hook up with no effort--the Denali's backup camera makes it simple. But it's time consuming having to raise and lower the WD bars with a socket wrench whenever I want to hitch and unhitch. My cordless drill doesn't have enough torque to turn the adjustment screw, otherwise I would use it. After hooking up and adjusting the weight distribution bars, the trailer was nose-high. I wasn't able to fix it right away, but after we got to the KOA I was able lower the hitch bar one

We just completed the shakedown trip for our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR. Because the 35' trailer doesn't fit on our driveway, we had to keep it at the storage lot. That made setting things up a lot harder. In fact, we didn't get all the final pieces into place until the morning that we left. Luckily, it didn't take us too long to get on the road and even with taking our time to stop at a weigh scale, Hagen's of Blaine to pick up a couple of items, and a rest stop to make some minor adjustments, we were able to get to the campsite by about 3pm. We decided to go to this KOA for our shakedown trip even though it's farther away from home because we came here lots last summer and are very familiar with the facilities. Getting a pull through site made things that much easier. We found that we actually like the pull through sites a little bit better because they back onto the very large open field where the kids can play while we watch them. Overall, it was a good we

I learned today that VW currently has a service action out (described to me alternatively as “S9” or “60A7”) for the inspection of the 2004 R32's moonroof drain. According to my invoice the dealership modified the moonroof drains; whether that entailed installation of new parts or modification of current parts I don’t know. As it was free, I suspect the latter. FYI, latest TSBs for the 2004 R32 from the NHTSA. Since my 50k miles scheduled maintenance was more than a year ago, I took my R in today expecting to have the “60k miles” service done, despite only having 54k miles on the odometer. To my surprise the dealership told me all I needed was a “55k miles” service which was simply an oil change. I was surprised because according to the information on VWoA there is no “55k miles” service for the 2004 R32 – it goes from 50k directly to 60k. Odd. Type rest of the post here.

From Bullet Mods and Accessories I did a lot of research over the past year about different kinds of hitches and although we never had a problem with our Reese HP Dual Cam system, the thought of towing a 35' trailer very near our limits across the Prairies this summer made it easier for us to upgrade. We the same trip a couple of years ago on the tail of some severe thunderstorms and I know how strong the winds can get. After reading information and comments from owners and non-owners of variety of hitches including the Equal-i-zer, Dual Cam, PullRite, Hensley Arrow, and ProPride 3P, I decided the ProPride 3P Hitch was the best one for us. I'm really glad I did, too, because customer service has been top notch and beyond what can usually be expected from "average" companies. I completed the install of the ProPride myself. It was fairly straightforward. I didn't bother to take any pictures of my progress because I found that Restcure.ca is a great resource with a

We're another step closer to getting on the road with our brand new 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR travel trailer. The ProPride 3P hitch I ordered several weeks ago was shipped 11 May 2010 and is making its way from Grand Blanc, MI to the west coast. It left Hodgkins, IL this morning. I can't wait! UPDATE: 14 May 2010 The hitch is now on the West Coast! View ProPride 3P Hitch Journey in a larger map Can you tell I'm excited? Past journey as of 12 May 2010 View ProPride 3P Hitch Journey in a larger map

I'm really glad I found this series of tips from Keystone RV Company on YouTube. They are great because they help me understand our new Premier travel trailer much better. This video explains how to winterize the RV's water system.

This is another helpful video from Keystone RV. This information is explained in the Keystone Owner's Manual, but it's nice to have the pictures to correspond. This video explains the proper way to apply the proper lug nut torque on the travel trailer.

I just happened to find these very helpful videos from Keystone RV. These service tips are great because they are specific to Keystone RVs and will really help with our new Premier. This video shows you how to manually crank the slide outs in case of power failure. Good to know.

All My Days by Alexi Murdoch Now I see clearly It's you I'm looking for All of my days Soon I'll smile I know I feel this loneliness no more All of my days

From Bullet Mods and Accessories When we first bought our Pacific Coachworks Tango travel trailer last year, one of the first accessories that I bought were Lynx Levelers . I didn't want to bother with heavy scrap pieces of wood to level the RV and I really liked the bright orange colour of the Lynx. They are very easy to use especially since the Hoppy bubble levels that I mounted tell us how many inches to raise the trailer, and each of the Lynx Levelers are about 1" tall. There was never any guessing to how high to build the stacks. During the off-season I used the Lynx Levelers under the trailer tires to keep them off the frozen pavement. As it turns out, we had one of our warmest winters on record. So in March when we took the RV out on the first trip of the year, I noticed that the levelers bent out of shape from the weight of the tires on the soft asphalt.... ...Even though it was just cosmetic and they worked just as well under the stabilizer jacks, I still thought ab

From Bullet Mods and Accessories Last year when we were shopping for our first RV, a Pacific Coachworks Tango , we noticed clothes pins clipped on each corner of the travel trailer. We had no idea what it was for until the dealer explained that it helped the water running from the gutters to fall away from the sides of the trailer. This would reduce the black streaks that occur when the trailer sits outside in the rain. We were skeptical at first, but.... ...when it rained, we could see that it really worked. It's cheap, too, so as homage to the little red-neck inside of me, I promptly placed four brand new bamboo clothes pins on our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR .

From The Bullet We signed the papers for our 2010 Keystone Premier 31BHPR today and did the walk through. It was a little sad saying good bye to the Tango because we had such a good time with it last year. But seeing the new shiny Bullet right next to it made it easy to be excited. It's going to take some time to get used the new layout and figuring out exactly where we should put everything but there was one pleasant surprise: the laundry chute. At first, we didn't think it would be good for anything but when I put our laundry hampers in place, we realized that it would work out quite well. In the Tango we had to take up floor space for it. In the Bullet, it is conveniently out of the way. From The Bullet From The Bullet One thing I was disappointed in was the plastic toilet. The one in the Tango was porcelain. I suppose we have to make some sacrifices to reduce weight.