Barry Barquest
Barry, I have some good news and some bad news.
Let’s start with the good news. The issue of the water dripping from your condensate tube is easy to fix. Simply pull up the condensate tube from the outside tray and re-route it to one of the little square vent openings in the outside access door. Many refrigerators are designed to do this anyway, and if you need more tubing to reach you should be able to source it at a local home center or auto parts store.
Now the bad news: the reason your fridge is creating so much condensation is because it’s open to the warm humid air, which is causing condensation on the cooling fins in the fresh food compartment. Sometimes people complain of a condensation issue on the doors of this model if the door flapper heater fails for some reason. That doesn’t seem to be the case here.
You mentioned adjusting the doors. I assume you have inspected them already to look for damage and that they are making good contact with the fridge box. The doors can be only adjusted by removing them and adding or removing washers (neoprene preferred) at the hinge pins. On the older 1200 series, there was an issue with wood door inserts being too heavy which caused the bottom hinges to bend. I’m sure that’s been remedied (I’m talking about early 2000s here) but it’s worth a look.
Test the door seal by closing the door on a dollar bill. If the bill slides easily, the seal is likely bad. Of course, any physical damage such as tears or separation from the door are obvious. If the door seals are bad, then so is the news: the seals are molded into the door foam when the doors are manufactured and are not replaceable. In order to have a “factory quality” seal the door will have to be ordered and replaced.
As an alternative, it may be possible to cut off the old seals and surface-glue generic refrigerator seals on the doors, but this doesn’t always work very well. I hope this helps!
— Chris Dougherty
David Morehouse
David, this is not an uncommon issue, and the problem is a bad seal — but not the toilet seal. Rather, it’s the ball seal inside the toilet itself.
The ball seal is compressed against the ball, isolating the toiler from the black tank, but it allows the ball to move when the toilet is flushed. When sitting is storage while winterized, the seal will dry out and stiffen. When returned to service, the seal can leak — and once there is no water left in the bowl, odors can come up through the toilet.
Thetford makes a toilet seal conditioner which restores the seal and keeps it moist and supple. A valve grease like Dow Corning 111 can also be manually applied. Occasionally, material can get trapped around the ball and seal, creating a leak. A soft toilet brush and water with cleaner can be gently used to try and clean it up, but understand that toilet seals are fragile and super-stiff brushes can damage some seals and other plastics in the flush mechanism.
Lastly, the mechanism can be sticking slightly open. Silicone lubricant sprayed around the moving parts and joints may help free it up enough to close.
Replacing the ball seal may be needed, which may require removing the toilet (Dometic toilet seals may be changed without removing). This will give you a good opportunity to service and clean the entire unit. Service kits for most RV toilets are readily available.
— Chris Dougherty
Jeff Johnston
Jeff, propane can be finicky at higher altitudes because of the lower atmospheric pressure and lower oxygen content up there. Because of the way the cooktop is designed, it can’t adjust its output of gas to correspond with the atmospheric pressure, and thus won’t light.
Interestingly, many RV appliances do function at higher altitudes — but some fail, like your cooktop, even at lower levels around 3,000 feet.
There are basically two ways to fix this in most situations. Appliances that have an available high-altitude kit are fitted with a smaller-sized orifice to reduce the amount of gas flow. The second way is to derate the regulator to a lower pressure, as low as 2.5-inches water column (wc). The former is a pain to do, especially on each appliance, but not all appliances require it. The latter requires a manometer and gas fitting to properly adjust and should be done by a qualified technician.
What I’m not sure of is the effect of the third-stage regulator, if there is one, in the cooktop. Appliance regulators further reduce the gas pressure from 11-inches wc to 10-inches wc. Those, like the ones on your home BBQ grill, are fixed and non-adjustable.
You would do well to reach out to the appliance manufacturer and see what they say. They may have seen this before and have a fix, like an altitude kit.
— Chris Dougherty
My question is, was the 2015 Ford Edge left off the list for a reason or was it erroneously omitted?
Aaron Leimer
Aaron, I compiled the dinghy towing guide for MotorHome magazine for roughly 20 years, and I can tell you that errors and inconsistencies did arise from time to time. In some instances, the manufacturer incorrectly stated that a vehicle is not towable or, worse yet, was towable when it actually was not. This often happens when a new vehicle has not been completely vetted as towable and the preliminary information isn’t correct. The other possibility is that the 2015 model was simply overlooked that year, and that happens as well. The bottom line is, as long as the owner’s manual verifies that the vehicle is towable, you’re good to go. Enjoy your new-to-you dinghy vehicle!
— Chris Hemer
Mike Stinson
Mike, the short answer is “no.” While raising the trailer does raise the center of gravity, it’s usually not enough to affect handling. What you have to watch is the overall height increase of the trailer with road-height restrictions. Note that this information applies to your average axle flip — not extreme lifts. Make sure that the hitch is correctly adjusted so that the trailer is level when hitched up.
— Chris Hemer