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New to us 2018 Boondock XL owner in Idaho

WayneWWayneW Member Posts: 20

Hello all! My wife and I are new owners of a very slightly used 2018 Boondock XL. A woman at work bought this new. She used it ONCE, took a job in another state and had it sitting at her neighbor's house for a year. She called us in March, saying she knew we were interested in it and she needed to sell it to help with a down payment on a house. We weren't really in the market but she gave us one of those deals you can't turn down.

We had plans for lots of short outings to get the bugs worked out. We got in one 2-night outing before covid shut things down. The next trip was a 3,200 mile round trip to Arizona for my mom's birthday. On that trip we experienced a 75 degree temp swing (30 in the mountains of Utah, 105 in Arizona). We learned quite a bit about the trailer on that trip! We were boondocking on the way down and back. Fortunately the tow vehicle was able to recharge the battery during the long days of driving and we had no problems with that end of things.

We did have some brake problems. Some of the lining on the driver's side broke loose from the backing plate and made a heck of a racket when braking. I was able to pull things apart, remove the offending pieces before anything bad happened, and finish the trip without brakes. I've since replaced both sides with new pads, springs, and backing plate (thanks etrailer!).

Because we weren't able to go camping early on, I was able to keep busy and do some mods, thanks to all the ideas on this forum. I built a wind screen for the stove, removed the microwave and built shelving in that space, installed a stainless backsplash in the kitchen, removed the television, built a box on the front for cords, hoses, chocks and such, did the Fantastic Fan variable speed mod, did the water tank pickup mod, moved the wiring inside the fender well where it was rubbing, repaired the brakes, packed the trailer bearings, wired the battery box for SAE solar connections and picked up a Renogy 100 watt solar suitcase (whew!).

Now we're off to Wyoming for a 10-day boondocking adventure to test all of these mods, especially the solar suitcase! Thanks for all the ideas!!

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