Hey everyone,
I picked up my 2020 Grandby about a month ago now and within a week went on a 1500 mile trip on/off road down into Baja. Gosh what a shakedown cruise without much prep. in general, I have gotten accustomed to crappy QA on things I buy. For instance I recently bought a $14K tractor implement brand new from the factory. After a few months of waiting, I got it with a number of hydraulic hoses that leaked, levers that were stuck and just a general feeling that no one cared to check before it left the factory. Literally it was delivered with a puddle of hydraulic fluid under it the size of a trash can lid. There was NONE of that with FWC. Everything worked, everything was tight, and everything that I should have received I did receive. Hats off to them. I basically bought it, loaded it and left for Mexico. Everything worked- and still works!
A couple observations that will probs be nothing new to any of you.
- the 3 way Dometic fridge was a pig on DC. I have 2 AGM batteries and that fridge would suck the batteries from full down to 11.9v in 4 hours. As someone suggested run that fridge on propane even while driving. I did that with good results.
- I used a lot more DC than I thought I would. Note we were in Baja and it was hot. We constantly were refilling and cooling our water bottles. We drank a lot of cold water. I was running the dometic fridge on propane, the water pump as needed, the ceiling fan ~8 hours per night, an external fridge freeze that pulled about 80w continuous, and once per day a 12 cup coffee maker. I had brought a Goal Zero 3000w/hr battery pack to supplement the 2 AGM batteries. I also brought a 1.6KW generator. Pretty much every other day I needed to run the generator for some hours to bring things back up to full charge. My brother brought a goal zero backpack solar for 200 watts which consistently produced 6 hours of 120 watts. I used his for two days straight and this wasn't enough - by probs at least another 100 watts of actual input. In the short term the generator is a good solution although noisy and the issue of gasoline. The nice thing about the generator is that it is a sure thing and low cost.
- I used a lot more watering in the FWC than I do if I have the water in jugs. I have years of camping under my belt and know pretty much how much water I consume. I was surprised how quickly we ran through water given the sink and shower. I did enjoy have the sink AND the shower. :-). I need a good solution to fill the FWC water tank without using a hose. Some places I could only get water in 5 gallon jugs, which were a pain to try to pour into the camper fill port 6 ft up the in the air.
- Based on my casual observation didn't notice much difference in temp given my dark grey sides. Quite good ventilation through the screens and fans. If it was hot outside it was hot inside. Just my .02. Also I bought a little USB/battery portable fan to blow right onto my wife and I in the bed. It was a godsend.
- Nothing broke even though I was bombing down washboard roads for 10-50 miles at a time. Quite well engineered in my opinion. I did religiously air down my truck tires.
I had some pretty good sag in my stock F350 until I inflated the airbags. The stock truck would look odd going down the road with a loaded Grandby. I had to put about 50psi in my airbags to offset the camper and my trailer tongue weight.
All in all Im super happy and so is my wife.
steve
