# New Outback



## Terri

We are purchasing our first Outback, it is a 298RE. For those of you who have owned one for awhile what would be the first modification or useful tip you can give me. We are empty nesters, so no kids. We take grandkids ocassionally and have a dog.
Thanks for the ideas
Terri


----------



## KTMRacer

Terri said:


> We are purchasing our first Outback, it is a 298RE. For those of you who have owned one for awhile what would be the first modification or useful tip you can give me. We are empty nesters, so no kids. We take grandkids ocassionally and have a dog.
> Thanks for the ideas
> Terri


We have a 295RE, 2yrs old, 15K miles on it and 160+ camping days. Nice choice. we are also empty nesters with grandids that come along at times. We found the 295RE (298RE before they added the wardrobe slideout) to be the perfect couples trailer. Great view, lots of room, great layout. DW even takes her sewing machine along on occasion.

Mods:

IMHO the bath hamper under the sink is worthless. I took off the net hamper and moved the hinges to the side to make it a regular door. then added a shelf in the middle to give more storage.

Moved the medicine cabinet up. On ours to move it up meant removing the left outside side panel to access 4 screws that went into the aluminum stud.

The pantry is nice, but got tired of arranging stuff so made a full set of pull out drawers with full extension slides to organize stuff.

you'll probably find the bed is like most TT beds, not that comfortable. We replaced ours with a airdream air over coil spring mattress. Same one that is in our S&B high end hideabed. VERY comfortable.

We took out the two rockers and put them in the rec room in the house and put our exkornes (sp?) swivel recliners in the trailer. Not that the trailer ones were bad, just decided we'd use the house ones more if they were in the trailer and we liked them.

The AC is marginal in hot weather, not a unique 298RE feature, but the size of the trailer doesn't help. First pull down the main air intake and seal up all the cracks etc. with metal backed tape and make sure the openings into the plenum are as large as possible. Next pull down each ceiling vent and using metal backed tape, make sure the seal up to the plenum and ceiling as well. I also added two more ducts in the living area, one in the bathroom and one more in the bedroom. cut into the existing plenum. All these made a noticeable difference in high temps at keeping the trailer cool.

Replaced the bath fan with a Fantastic and added a Fantastic fan to the living area vent. for power I picked up power from behind the microwave.

DW didn't like the 16" oven, so I bit the bullet and sold the oven on consignment and installed the 21" oven.

Added an electronic ignitor to the oven. DW really appreciated that!!

Since we dry camp I installed 4 Golf cart batteries, but with the new outback front your limited to only two batteries.

Added a 1,000W sine wave inverter to power stuff in the trailer when dry camping. Like the TV and pump for the couch air mattress.

Wanting more bedroom storage, I bought two of the pots and pan drawer fronts from Keystone and made two pull out drawers that fit in the underbed storage. Still leaves plenty of underbed storage but gives each of us a "dresser" drawer. Pictures of this mod are in the mod's section.

Since we camp in (a) rain and (







under pine trees, after a few campouts decided slidetoppers were worth it and installed the A&E slidetoppers with a full wrap cover.

Made a drawer to go under the storage space under the oven. Worked out better than the open space.

Discovered that all the drawers are 16" deep, even though many can be deeper. So I made drawer boxes the max depth with full extension slides for the nightstand, silverware drawer, and the existing drawer in the pantry.

If you do much dry camping you'll find the WFCO converter, while it is claimed to be 3 stage rarely if ever will go into the boost charge mode. WAY to long a power run to the batteries. More of a WFCO issue than Keystone. If you dry camp much I recomend replacing the converter with a Progressive dynamics drop in converter that WILL go into boost mode easily. Otherwise it will take ALL day to charge a partially discharged battery or batteries.

The kids and grandkids love camping with us. Plenty of room for everyone. In fact last fall we had 6 adults and 7 kids IN the trailer at breakfast time while we were making breakfast and then served it in the trailer with everyone having a place to sit. Mighty impressive for any TT!! NO they didn't all sleep in the trailer, it was our family and another family camping with us.


----------



## egregg57

Terri said:


> We are purchasing our first Outback, it is a 298RE. For those of you who have owned one for awhile what would be the first modification or useful tip you can give me. We are empty nesters, so no kids. We take grandkids ocassionally and have a dog.
> Thanks for the ideas
> Terri


 You can check the MODS forum for some ideas. Mod'ing can be a lot of fun, no doubt! I did a lot of comfort things in our 325FRE:

Satellite radio
Wireless headphones
TV in the bedroom
Just removed and replaced our mattress. The older models we had seemed to have much better mattresses. This being a Fifth Wheel I would have expected the same or better! Not so. Replace the existing mattress with a Paramount pillow top from Camping World. 
Installed LED Puck lights in the master bedroom, removing the awkward 12v light fixtures. Added a digital clock
Replaced the Coleman Mach Thermostat with a digital Hunter, adding a High/Low fan switch to it.

A freind of mine purchased a new WFCO inverter, added to it a router and several other things for periferal devices used with his lap top. He is adding more things to it and did not want to get into the details until he was done and could show me. I am looking forward to it!

There are a bunch of things you can do, the sky is the limit!

Eric


----------



## Angel On Guitar

Terri said:


> We are purchasing our first Outback, it is a 298RE. For those of you who have owned one for awhile what would be the first modification or useful tip you can give me. We are empty nesters, so no kids. We take grandkids ocassionally and have a dog.
> Thanks for the ideas
> Terri


We got our new 298RE last July. We too are empty nesters and I am retired. We also take the 2 dogs all the time and the grandbabies once in awhile.

We decided immediately that we did not want any holes in the walls for hanging hooks, etc. because our previous RVs (used) had them and they just looked bad. So we bought those sticky hangers that you can take off later with no residue and used them to support a towel rod, and other items where needed. For the toilet paper we bought a free-standing chrome TP stand at one of the stores like Bed and Bath.

We replaced the mattress with a real queen size and a memory foam topper for my "princess and the pea".

The first big mod I did was to build my own Steady Fast type of system to get the rig totally stable. That made a huge difference in the noise and shaking.

Secondly, I moved the radio to the small cabinet on the right side of the TV to install a new electric fireplace where the radio had been.

Then I removed the accordian door between the bedroom and the living area and replaced it with a real door. I also installed a locking knob on the bathroom since we sometimes have our 5 granddaughters with us. On those trips an estrogen scrubber would be nice since it is dripping off the walls.

I also changed the under-sink cabinet door orientation to make it open like a normal door instead of folding down (simple hinge move).

We added a 19 or 22 inch TV in the bedroom on the wall where the "Place TV Mount Here" sticker was located.

The largest mod we had done because it was just too much risk. We learned on our very first trip in August last year that the single A/C unit would not cut it here in the Houston area. Since the 2012 298REs were not pre-wired for a second air conditioner (A/C) we took the trailer back to our dealer, Holiday World in League City, Texas and had them install the necessary 50 amp service (replacing the 30 amp) and then install the new A/C in the bedroom. They seemed to have done a good job but somewhere along the line during the process they fried the microwave, the fireplace, and the converter. Luckily the fireplace was still under warranty so I was able to replace it myself. They replaced the microwave and they are now working on the converter problem. We should get the rig back late today or tomorrow.

When I get the rig back I will post some pictures of the mods if anyone wants to see the changes.

One last thing I did was to add a 50 amp service box at the house so when we bring it home to pack, etc. we will have it 100%. That is important when you live in hurricane country as we do. Hurricane Ike took our power for over a week and our generator wasn't large enough to power the whole house including A/C so staying in the rig will be great when we get another big storm.

Mods that are on the to-do list include adding a small drawer over the 2 large drawers at the rear side of the kitchen sink so the wife will have more storage. Last on the list for now is re-routing the plumbing under the bathroom sink. That area is virtually unusable because the hoses are in the middle of the area. I'm sure there will be more but for now that is enough.


----------



## Bugsmema

We also have the 295 RE 2011 model. I have a question for y'all. I would like a plug put on the opposite wall from where the bathroom lite switch is by the sink. This would be in the bedroom side in the corner. Hope that makes sense. Has anyone done this? Hubby is very reluctant to do this as he's not sure what the wiring looks like. What do y'all think? Do able or just forget it. I thought a corner shelf with a plug in clock would be perfect there, but if its a pain in the rear don't want to mess with it. 
Thanks for reading and any response. Hubby's not into modifications, lol.


----------



## bbuchorn

I have had my 298RE for a year now. Just getting started with the modifications. Added a memory foam topper on the queen mattress. Had to reset the hinges and shock spring brackets on the compartment lid under the mattress. My trailer came without the booth table combo. It has an Oak table and 4 chairs. Perfect for my DW and I. We usually pull out one of the swivel rockers into the living area and set a folding table up in the slide out. We found the air mattress in the couch to be a little thin, as well as the foot of the bed being lower because of the couch sitting in the slide out. get a 2x4 block long enough to block up the outer support bar in the floor to level out the sleeping surface, or do as we did. Buy a good, Super thick blow up air mattress. A queen size will fit in the living area. These work great when the grandkids are with us, and stow away nicely when we are on our own. The best advice I can give you is USE IT. It gets easier and more fun as time goes by.
BBuchorn


----------



## thefulminator

Empty nesters you say? You need to start with the most important mod of all.


----------



## Oldcow

thefulminator said:


> Empty nesters you say? You need to start with the most important mod of all.











Oldcow


----------



## classicmazdaman

Congrats! You will love that floorplan!
1. Electric Tounge Jack - ours did not come with one
2. Remove the camp kitchen and convert to the Weber Q setup recommended on this site.
3. Buy a tv that will fit in the camp kitchen opening and 2 wall mounts. Put one wall mount in the bedroom and one mount in the camp kitchen opening. Install outlet and back the ck plastic with piece of plywood to support the wall mount. Cable is an easy route from the back and power can tap from the outlet over the water heater.
4. Buy a high quality cordless 3/8 electric impact gun and 3/4 socket for the stabilizer jacks (handy for 13/16 lug nuts too)
5. Replace the Chinese tires within 2 years of ownership even if they look good
6. Install 3m clear Crystalline window film and get the a/c on by 10 and 15btu can handle the 298 size. We live and camp in FL at tracks with no shade.


----------



## DutchmenSport

Hi.
We purchased our 298RE a month ago. Ours has the free standing table and 4 chairs version. First thing I did was unscrew the table from the floor and turned it 90 degrees (long ways with the trailer, parallel to the window), then screwed it back down. Second thing I did was remove 2 of the free standing chairs. Third thing I did was switch positions of the 2 living room rocking chairs and couch. Why? When both slides are are "in", you can easily access the living room. There's room to pass between the kitchen table and the sink counter top. The 2 rocking chairs afford more room for the table, so the 2 chairs can actually be at either end the one side of the table. This simple change made a LOT more space available in the camper when the slides are both in and out, and everything is accessible without having to squeeze between table and countertop.

Next thing I did was to put a garden hose sprayer on the outside faucet and put the white bendable (thingie) away.

Next, we put a glow-in-the dark sticker (star) on the light switch that turns on the 4 lights in the middle of the living room. (extremely hard to find when it's completely dark).

We also hung a television in the bed-room. And then added a towel bar under the cabinet over the stove and sink, between the light and the window to hang wet wash cloths on. I'm trying to figure out when to install another towel bar without being in the way, or looking dumb.


----------



## Thor

Congrats on your new trailer!!!!! Welcome to Outbackers.com.

Memory foam topper pad is a must.

Enjoy your camping experiences with your new trailer

Thor


----------

