# Just Received 05 '21rs



## ddavidson (Jun 12, 2005)

Hi,

I just took posession of a new 21RS, and slept in in last night for the first time. A few things I've noticed:

- Front door latch to hold it open is possibly the worst design I have ever seen. The wind caught the door and ripped it off the side of the trailer with 10 minutes of having it home. I cleaned it up, and plugged the four holes with some nice stainless cap screws for now. I suspect the door hits the awning when deployed, hence the arrangement to hold the door partially open. I can't see an obvious answer for this, so I'm thinking bungy cord???

- The pull out is not long enough, and I am only 5'11". I am thinking of adding a 'flip down' shelf on the front of the slide out on a piano hinge with chains for support, and gate latches to hold it up, and then making a long narrow cushion to sit in in. With this we could sleep the other way and have loads of room. Ever been done?

- The storage under the sofa is good, but the gap under the sofa allows small items to find their way into the trailer. I am thinking of sealing this up. On the same note, the 1x2 support under the sofa is broken in half. I might take this to the dealer to repair, but if it is common and there is a good mod I will do it myself.

- The small clips on the electrical cord cover are broken. I will get the dealer to repair.

- The front most screws holding the slide out rails to the ceiling were loose. I tightened them, but they seem vulnerable as they support the entire weight of the slide out while travelling. Much of my travel is on gravel, which is sometimes quite rough? Has anyone had problems in this regard, or have any advice?

- On the same note, how do the stock tires hold up? I put 8 ply tires on my previous trailer and never had a problem on gravel. What tire pressure does everybody run?

- I am going to mod the rear bumper to hold the sewage hose. I am surprised it didn't come like this.

- The remote control for the heater does not work reliably. The heater would turn on briefly (fan) and then shut down, like it had reached temperature. I had to manually turn on the heater using the A/C controls.

- The aluminum underbelly trim has dangerous sharp ends. I have trimmed/folded these over.

- What is the procedure for attaching stuff to outside walls? Is is mandatory to find an aluminum structural memeber? If so, how do you find it?

Sorry for the many questions. I will do some searching around the site as well, but if anybody has any good info I would love to hear it. And don't get me wrong, I spent a lot of time deciding on this trailer and so far I love it, just need to get it 'tweaked'.

D'Arcy and Amanda
04 Ford Explorer 4.6L V8 w/ tow package
05 21RS


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## 76 cougar (Jan 30, 2005)

Check in the mods for the bed . Cant remember who did it but it looked like a good fix for tall people.I also did away with the door holder and just keep a small bungy cord to hook door to awning arm. Look thru this site,plenty of info here.
Lawton


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## 7heaven (Jun 4, 2005)

Check under Mods, search "King". TheBoyds did it first and I did also. Check the Gallery for Brian's pictures and for mine. Happy Mod-ing!








7Heaven action


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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

Welcome aboard. A new trailer is exciting, when we think of all the places we will be going. Will attempt to satisfactorily answer some of your questions.

Concerning tires, I have heard that 8 ply, load range D tires are not made in 14-inch sizes. If that is correct, you will have to go up to 15-inch tires. As far as inflation pressure, go with 50 psi, the maximum for load range C tires.

Someone else beefed up the slide channels by using fender washers under the screws because in their case the screws were starting to pull through. This may take care of that problem. This is probably somewhere in the archives. I will look for it.

And we also had the door hold-open thing break due to a minor amount of wind. The plastic rod broke and its end, right at the T. I agree, a worthless POS. Someone ought to be making this piece out of aluminum or stainless or something that has some tensile strength.

Anyway, we agree that out Outbacks can use some tweaking, but most of these things are minor and the units are pretty darn good for the most part. Keep on posting.

Bill


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## z-family (Oct 2, 2004)




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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

Welcome,and congratuations on you 21 action 
You will find some excellent people to help you through all you questions.
This is also for Amanda, I'm Jan ,Bill wife. 
We have a womens section on shopping, you will find if we don't speak up the OB guys will post there too







Check out "asking permission"its funny.
I hope you enjoy your new OB




































Jan


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## camping479 (Aug 27, 2003)

Welcome and congrats on your 21RS, the finest in the outback line IMO









I haven't had any problems with the door latch. Ours has a block of plastic about an inch thick behind it, I don't know if the dealer did that or if it came from the factory that way. I use the awning strap to hold door open when the awning is out.

Sealing up the opening at the bottom of the sofa is a good idea, I hadn't thought about that. I may do that.

Our bumper came with rubber ends that pull off and I slide the sewer hose right in, I'm suprised yours isn't that way.

Those slide tracks are light duty, I beefed up the last screw with a fender washer. That being said, I think the rear wall with the locking mechanism carries the majority of the load. The track is there mainly to keep the slide straight and to bear a little of the load up front. I checked the track hardware out in a catalog at work and it is rated at less than a hundred pounds. I adjusted the rollers a little as one seemed to be carrying more than the other, I'll be watching it closely.

Our stock tires are Duro brand and have held up well. I run ours at the max pressure of 50 psi. I checked the load rating on them and they have a rating of 1760# per tire which is 3520# combined per axle. The axle rating is 2750# so the tires have a comfortable margin over the axle rating. Some here with the larger outbacks have upgraded their tires to a higher rating, probably not a bad idea and won't hurt anything.

Haven't had any problems with the remote, so I can't help you there.

Hope you get your problems behind you so you can get out there camping. Don't be afraid to use the dealer, that's what they are there for.

Mike


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

Welcome I will answer a couple of your questions but if any persist or new ones pop up, post them separately so that they are easier to track.

- Depending on the deployed angle of the awning the door should not make contact with the awning. You can get aluminum T bars to replace the plastic ones but so far yours is the first I have heard of that broke due to the wind. There have been a bunch that broke due to forgetting that they were latched and kids or even grown ups just grabbing hold of the door and giving it a big tug.

- The ceiling rails are only guides and only support the slide while it is being pushed in. The rear wall outside clamps support the slide once stowed.

- The tires as supplied may be enough for the 21rss but I did not feel safe with them on my 28rss so I upgraded to 15" D rated tires and so far so good.

- My rear bumper holds the sewer hose just fine, what mods are you having to do to it to make it usable?

- The furnace problem sounds like a fan sail switch problem and it would be something to let the dealer play with unless you are comfortable with electrical systems.

Happy camping and post offten.


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## ddavidson (Jun 12, 2005)

All,

Thanks much for the replies and welcome. Pretty active site.

First, I'll answer some the questions/comments that were posted:

Door Latch: Didn't break, the bracket ripped clean out of the side of the trailer (pulled the screws).

Rear Bumper: Has two plastic end caps screwed in with Tek screws. I suppose I could unscrew it every time, but was hoping for something more convenient. Anybody have photos of a good working system using the plastic caps? Otherwise, I am going to fabricate an aluminum door similar to the system used on my old trailer.

Remote Control: I will give this another week, and if it is still giving me grief, I'll take it back to the dealer. I don't have any experience with them (the dealer), so I am a little bit nervous.

The only question I have remaining is the one about fastening stuff to exterior walls (either interior or exterior side). I assume that the construction is is a sandwiched styrofoam design of some type, meaning that you have to find a frame member to get any strength. Is this correct? If so, how do you locate the frame members?

Thanks in advance,

D'Arcy


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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

ddavidson said:


> All,
> 
> Thanks much for the replies and welcome. Pretty active site.
> 
> ...


\ action I've seen rubber caps at General RV for the hose storage in bumper.( this is Jan ) so you might get more replys later on today or monday ,some folks are camping








Remote control: My DH read the Carrier booklet and has it working. Feel free to email him. Many people have had issues with that remote








Question ,did your dealer go over all your systems and show you how they work?
Outback.comFAQ is one the Forum areas . It is a hot link to site that goes over alot of important Outback info.
Scroll down once you go to that site. You will see the topic LISTS,continue to scroll,all are Hotlinks to lists like Pre-delivery Check List, Black Tank issues etc. continue to scroll down to the Question and Answer area too.

My DH had posted the Hotlinks to lists for some one picking up their TT monday
. He posted that yesterday.
If you use the bolded Cookie9933 it will get you to our personal info . You can review our post or topics and find the hotlink that way too.
Hope that helps for now sunny 
Jan


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## drobe5150 (Jan 21, 2005)

hi ddavidson action

welcome aboard,and congrats on the new trailer









the plastic caps on your bumper should not be screwed in, your bumper is 2 piece, those screws hold it together, just tug out the plastic caps, they will go back in with a little push. at least on my 28bhs, yours should not be any different








hopefully that helps you.

darrel


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

> the plastic caps on your bumper should not be screwed in, your bumper is 2 piece, those screws hold it together, just tug out the plastic caps, they will go back in with a little push. at least on my


 The bumper covers pull right out on our unit and we keep 20' of hose in the bumper.









Welcome, sunny

As far as you remote goes.....Try moving it over on the rear slide, in the middle of the bed. See if that helps. I know that with our unit, if the remote stays in the holder it cycles very quickly and does not cool or heat very well in that position.









Happy Outbacking!

Tim


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## hatcityhosehauler (Feb 13, 2004)

Ditto on the bumper covers. They are a little tough to pull out the first time, but should not be screwed in. I keep a 10' and a 20' sewer hose in mine. You might have some difficulting getting a elbow fitting in there, but the hose will fit.

As far as the other problems, I have not experienced them. Since the unit is brand new, I would let the dealer fix them. That way, a paper trail is started on them, and if they become a problem, you have something to fall back on.

Good luck and congratulations.

Tim


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

The screw you see should be cut off where it goes inside. One of mine barely touched the rubber cap. They are stiff to pull out, just pull.

John


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## CamperAndy (Aug 26, 2004)

You can use stud finder, the electronic models that you find at Home Depot work great on the inside skin to find the aluminum studs.

The bumper caps are just pushed in. The screws are to hold the aluminum skin on. If you screws were put in after the end caps were put on. Just Pull the screw, pull the cap, install the screw and then use a chisel to snap the screw off flush on the inside.

Ouch - on the screws holding the door latch, no idea if mine are screwed into a stud or a support block. Depending on the location to repair I would place a piece of 2x4 x4 behind where it is mounted and change the screws to 2.5", the outside wall is approximately 1.5" thick


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## ddavidson (Jun 12, 2005)

Thanks again,

I got the bumper figured out. As suggested, they (the dealer??) had replaced a couple of the screws on the bumper cover and screwed into the plastic caps. Easily fixed.

I'll give the stud finder a go, let you know how it works.

Regards,
D'Arcy


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