Aluminum Camper Forum

I spoke with three more neighbors today.  Two had T-Mobile and were happy with it. The third had "Mint", which he claimed was owned by T-Mobile, uses the same infrastructure, but was cheaper.  Mint requires you to bring your own phone... the prices are low enough that I could buy a phone directly from Apple and still save money.  I'd need to program the "ESIM" chip myself, but if my neighbor could do it then I probably could too.

I expect that I will still need to turn on wifi calling, so I appreciate the points made by others earlier in this post.  If I run into trouble with reception, I'll try the "wifi" only approach that Merlin mentioned.

I've always wondered about using a signal amplifier with an external antenna, either at home or in the TT.  If the antenna is directional, do you need to point it?  How do you know where to point it?  Does one use the cellmapper.net map that Merlin mentioned to try to aim at a particular tower?  Also, will the amplifier/antenna work with different technologies, including 4G(LTE) and 5G?  A look at cellmapper.net suggests that towers with the same technology may have multiple transmitters at different frequencies.  Does the amplifier/antenna work with all of these?

One last question... is the antenna on a mast?  Or is it simply mounted to the side of the RV?

I have wifi calling enabled on my phone, but still have problems with Verizon.  I can call from my home, but for some reason it seems that folks cannot reliably call me. Perhaps this might work better with other carriers. I recently used this wifi capability when I locked myself out of the house.  I realized that I couldn't call my wife because of poor Verizon signal strength.  I got the idea of standing near the corner of the house closest to my wifi router, and that allowed me to make the call!

I wonder if I were to purchase the "WeBoost" system, if I could use it in the house when I wasn't camping.  It might be a hassle to move it though, and I'd likely need two permanently mounted antennae (one for the house and one for the TT). 

Thanks for the cellmapper link.  It's pretty neat.  I was able to determine the cell tower locations for Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile.  The weird thing is that one neighbor says that Verizon is poor and AT&T is great, but they both have cell towers in the same locations!  Perhaps their towers have different signal strengths.  T-Mobile has one tower in the same location, but two others in different locations not far from Verizon and AT&T.

Another neighbor has offered to walk around my house/yard with his T-Mobile phone.  I thought that it might be an interesting "can you hear me now" test.

Thanks for the advice about being overly concerned about coverage.  I'll keep that it mind!

I spoke with two neighbors this morning.  One had T-Mobile, but it didn't work out so he switched to AT&T which is working okay.  The other has T-Mobile, but has to turn on WiFi assist to get it to work in the house.  Right now, I'm leaning toward AT&T, but their prices are considerably higher and their pricing plans span across three years instead of two.  Thanks for the insight!

Will do.  I was about to knock on some doors today when my wife stopped me.  "Normal people are eating turkey and watching football" she says. 

I found an interesting interactive coverage map maintained by the FCC.  I'm not sure how much to trust it though... I used it to search some of our favorite campgrounds, and got different results when going from one end of the campground loop to the other!

My wife and I live in Maryland.  Our cellphone coverage is terrible in our neighborhood, and we are looking to take advantage of "Black Friday" plans to update our phones and network.  We currently have Verizon, which is not working for us... we often have better cell service at a remote campground then we do at home!  We are considering T-Mobile and AT&T, but are wondering what the coverage would be at campsites.  Any recommendations for cellphone service?  We would be getting new phones, so a 5G network is an option if it came at a reasonable cost. 

Will do.  I posted a lot of pictures for a dinette table modification at "My dinette table is less wobbly", but I didn't see much of a response.  I guess that I put in too many pictures.  When I get around to it, I put in some (but not alot) of pictures for some of the other things that were done in our CL 14DBS.  Things are a bit busy now with the holiday weekend.  I hope that everyone gets a chance to enjoy it!

We have a CL 14DBS with a small wobbly dinette table.  I was hoping to do something that would make the table more sturdy, while allowing us to insert a table "leaf" to have a little more space when we needed it.  To do this, I started by mounting a bracket onto the side of the slideout (Fig 1).  I was careful to find the location of the aluminum tubes inside the wall.  I made the bracket out of sheet PVC (NOTE:  burning PVC can emit dioxin, a poisonous gas... see caveat in this post).  The bracket has holes in the front that contain ¾" aluminum tubes that will be used to sturdy the table.  I covered the top with laminate that I had left over from work that I had done on countertops in the kitchen of our house, so that it could operate as a place to put your coffee when the table is removed (Fig 2).

Underneath the tabletop, I mounted a thick piece of material with aluminum tubes going through it (Fig 3).  When seated on the pole in the dinette, these tubes line up with the tubes in the mounting bracket (Fig 4).  I made inserts (Fig 5) that slide inside the aluminum tubes to hold the table top aligned with the mounting bracket (Fig 6).  The inserts were made from copper ½" pipe with nylon washers on the tip.  When they are inserted, the table does not wobble or tilt forward or backward, since the copper tubes slide smoothly/snuggly into the aluminum pipes.  This keeps the table sturdy!  When I'm not using these inserts, I keep them stored in the frame of the dinette bench (Fig 7).

I made a table extension (Fig eight) that slides into the front side of the table (Fig 9).  Figures 10 and 11 show what it looks like with the extension in place.  The extension is a little narrower than the table so that it will fit between the benches when the dinette is used as an extra bed. 

When the extension is not being used, it can be slid underneath the table.  I made grooves in the bottom of the extension (Fig 12) to allow it to be stored underneath the table without interfering with the large aluminum flange used to mount the tabletop to the pole.  To store the extension, flip it upside down and slide it into the aluminum poles underneath the table (Fig 13).  The copper pipes go through the aluminum tubing underneath the table, and into the aluminum bracket that was mounted to the wall.  This keeps the table sturdy.  Figures 14 and 15 show the table with the extension stored.

Thanks!  Paul had asked about the bracket that I made for the table, so I'll describe that in a new post.

I tried to access the motor, and was not able to do so easily.  I was was happy to just lube the parts that needed it using the recommendations earlier in this post.  Many thanks to those that contributed.  I finally finished my bookshelf without any issues despite multiple slideout openings/closings... I put pictures in a recent post here.

Thank you both for the comments.  I've been trying to find extra space in a number of places.  I've managed to make a closet in the bathroom, cubbyholes above the dinette window, shelves in the wardrobe, drawers under the sink and over the frig.  I've also made an extension to the dinette table that made the table less wobbly.  We got the camper in 2014, but I think that I've spent more time in it doing projects than actually camping.  My wife calls it my "happy place".

I have a 2014 CL 14DBS.  My wife and I really enjoy it, but at times it can be lacking for storage space.  At such times, stuff ends up on the dining table and interferes with meals.  We keep a small garbage can underneath the table, and this reduces the amount of leg space.

Whenever I opened the slideout, I noticed a big blank wall that had nothing on it but an AC outlet and an access door for the slideout controller.  I guessed that I would be able to make use of the space inside this all to make a bookshelf, with space for a small trash can and hamper.  I didn't know it at the time, but this would also allow me to add a flexible LED light and USB charger port.

I mentioned this project in a previous post asking about how to maintain slideouts.  I figured that I would be operating the slideout multiple times in order to finish the project, and did not want to wear anything out.  I posted the "before" picture in that post, but will include it here as well.

I made the bookshelf out of sheet PVC.  I was able to get scrap from a friend who does a lot of trim work on houses.  CAVEAT:  PVC contains chlorine, which creates dioxin (a poisonous gas) if it burns.  I did some research and decided that my bookshelf project was safe enough for me, given my situation.  Being in an all-aluminum camper certainly helped.  Nonetheless, I encourage others to do their own research if they consider sheet PVC for such a project. 

The plumbing for the shower ran through the wall.  Wiring for the slideout controller and bathroom lighting ran through the wall as well.  I had to make space for these (as well as the aluminum structural tubing inside the wall) by making the center section not as deep as the side sections.  To do this, I cut a lot of PVC panels and glued them together with crazy glue.

The shelf allows me to store a number of things that would otherwise be clutter.  I even have room to store my DVD collection, binoculars, remotes, trash, and dirty laundry (which would otherwise be in a laundry bag on the floor).  I was able to move the slideout controller to a more visible location (it had fallen down inside the paneling).  I was also able to tap off the power to the bathroom light switch (behind the wall) so that I could add a flexible LED light and USB charger.  The flexible light is great because I can position it so that the LED portion does not interfere with the slideout as it slides back in.

The trash bin and hamper are held in place with rotatable "paws" so that they can't rattle out of place while the slideout is slid in and the trailer is moving.  Although the bins stand out from the bookshelf a bit, then do not interfere with the slideout as it slides back in.  I plan to put the books et al into the hamper for storage while moving.

In order to make space for the trash bin and hamper, I had to remove one piece of the brown molding that framed the slideout.  I think I like the black aluminum frame better. 

The paneling is held in place with screws and double-sided tape.  The tape was used to hold the trim to the paneling, and wherever paneling made contact with the aluminum.  I got the impression that the tape was used to hold the paneling and trim in place while they applied the screws through the trim.  I removed the screws and trim, and then used a putty knife to gently pry the paneling away from the aluminum.

In my CL 14DBS, the slide-out wall is adjacent to the bathroom.  When I removed the paneling, I was able to see the plumbing for the shower, the slide-out controller (which had since fallen from its intended place and was now lost behind the paneling), as well as the wiring for the slide-out controller, the bathroom light, the AC outlet (on the bottom of the wall), the license plate light, the cable TV cable, and the main AC cable (service for the entire trailer).

I've attached a picture.

I'm now finished with the bookshelf and am currently working on a trash bin and hamper that will fit in the area.  Once I finish them I will post pictures of that as well.

Thanks.  I did the tracks (top and bottom on both sides) as shown in the MyRVWorks video.  I also did the "gibs" and couplers as shown in the early Schwintek video. I did the gibs (top and bottom both sides, and inside and out).  I did the couplers (both sides, inside and out, top only since there isn't one at the bottom).  The diagram at https://lci-support-doc.s3.amazonaws.com/assemblies/slideouts/ccd-0002715.pdf shows the gib and the coupler.  It was hard to do any lubricating from the inside.

While peeling back the flaps to do the lube, I discovered more dead stinkbugs from a trip that I took three years ago.  Those guys got everywhere!

Thanks.  I've ordered the lube as well.  Do you just lube the gib (as in the Schwintek video)?  Or do you also lube the track and ceramic wheel (as in the MyRVWorks video)? 

Thanks for the link!  It provides a good amount of detail.  "Darren" in the video points out that Schwintek does not recommend lubrication (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7dyXFg9GbU).  Schwintek apparently did recommend lubrication back in 2015 for particular situations to "reduce noise while in transit" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0my90W3AKM), but has since removed the link from their website.