Post by nemoconnect on Aug 21, 2021 19:21:37 GMT -5
We purchased a new 2021 312bhkse in March. We’ve had a great season with it and I have done several modifications to it throughout the year, I wanted to share a few of my favorite upgrades.
I’m sure there are other models that have the same setup but there is a large cabinet under the sink but is only accessible from one end so it leaves a large void that is hard to access and almost useless even though there is a lot of room. If you’ve got this same setup, I assume you have cussed it just like I have. It would be accessible from the front side of the cabinets by the entry door but they made it enclosed with no door. I took out the panel insert and then covered it with doors. I’m no carpenter so I knew I couldn’t match the doors so I found that if I stacked 2 of the doors that are below the stove on top of each other, it would cover the hole perfectly so I ordered 2 of the doors from the factory. The next issue was the sink plumbing cuts through the middle of that cabinet and I didn’t really want to re-plumb it so I just worked around it and made shelves from 1 x 10’s that fit on either side of the pipe. It’s not ideal but it turned out pretty decent and the whole project probably only took 3-4 hours. I would’ve preferred the look of one single door but this was the easy way out because there weren’t any existing doors that would’ve worked to cover the hole.
Next was the bunk and the lack of ladders for the top bunks. I made a ladder for each side out of 1x4 and 1x6 that are fixed in place and don’t interfere with the slides or seats or anything. I also put rails on both bunks and had to make the side above the dinette so it folds up so the bunk can fold up and latch in the up position.
In the kitchen dinette there are doors to access the storage underneath the seats but for some reason, they didn’t put doors to access the under seat storage back in the bunk so I popped the panel out and installed a door just like in the kitchen. The hole opening is the same as the kitchen so I was able to order a door exactly like those. I was only able do it on one seat because my ladder that I made interferes with the other one. It makes it much quicker and easier to access the storage.
I also doubled the amount of shelves in the cabinet beside the TV and the pantry beside the fridge. The shelves are so far apart, there was a lot of wasted space.
I added an AC vent in the bathroom by cutting a hole for one of the standard vents like what are in the rest of the camper and then directly in line with that one, I cut another hole for a new vent in the main room which gave me access to the foam duct work. I used a piece of 1 - 1/2” pvc pipe as the duct to go from the main duct into the bathroom. I also cut one more vent into the bunk and installed the RV Airflow systems insert in the main AC. I also installed a 2nd AC in the bedroom and the whole system together worked great. I only needed to run the 2nd AC occasionally and never needed it when the sun went down and we usually like to keep it at 67 in the camper. In the heat of the day when it was in the 90’s, the bunk and main room would be 70-72 and the bathroom would be 75-76.
Excuse the mess in the pictures, I took them right after we got back from a trip and before we got unpacked.
I’m sure there are other models that have the same setup but there is a large cabinet under the sink but is only accessible from one end so it leaves a large void that is hard to access and almost useless even though there is a lot of room. If you’ve got this same setup, I assume you have cussed it just like I have. It would be accessible from the front side of the cabinets by the entry door but they made it enclosed with no door. I took out the panel insert and then covered it with doors. I’m no carpenter so I knew I couldn’t match the doors so I found that if I stacked 2 of the doors that are below the stove on top of each other, it would cover the hole perfectly so I ordered 2 of the doors from the factory. The next issue was the sink plumbing cuts through the middle of that cabinet and I didn’t really want to re-plumb it so I just worked around it and made shelves from 1 x 10’s that fit on either side of the pipe. It’s not ideal but it turned out pretty decent and the whole project probably only took 3-4 hours. I would’ve preferred the look of one single door but this was the easy way out because there weren’t any existing doors that would’ve worked to cover the hole.
Next was the bunk and the lack of ladders for the top bunks. I made a ladder for each side out of 1x4 and 1x6 that are fixed in place and don’t interfere with the slides or seats or anything. I also put rails on both bunks and had to make the side above the dinette so it folds up so the bunk can fold up and latch in the up position.
In the kitchen dinette there are doors to access the storage underneath the seats but for some reason, they didn’t put doors to access the under seat storage back in the bunk so I popped the panel out and installed a door just like in the kitchen. The hole opening is the same as the kitchen so I was able to order a door exactly like those. I was only able do it on one seat because my ladder that I made interferes with the other one. It makes it much quicker and easier to access the storage.
I also doubled the amount of shelves in the cabinet beside the TV and the pantry beside the fridge. The shelves are so far apart, there was a lot of wasted space.
I added an AC vent in the bathroom by cutting a hole for one of the standard vents like what are in the rest of the camper and then directly in line with that one, I cut another hole for a new vent in the main room which gave me access to the foam duct work. I used a piece of 1 - 1/2” pvc pipe as the duct to go from the main duct into the bathroom. I also cut one more vent into the bunk and installed the RV Airflow systems insert in the main AC. I also installed a 2nd AC in the bedroom and the whole system together worked great. I only needed to run the 2nd AC occasionally and never needed it when the sun went down and we usually like to keep it at 67 in the camper. In the heat of the day when it was in the 90’s, the bunk and main room would be 70-72 and the bathroom would be 75-76.
Excuse the mess in the pictures, I took them right after we got back from a trip and before we got unpacked.