breal14
RVF Newbee
- Joined
- Jan 9, 2025
- Messages
- 4
- Location
- New England
- RV Year
- 2004
- RV Make
- Four Winds by Thor
- RV Model
- Chateau 24T sport
- RV Length
- 24
- Chassis
- E450
- Engine
- V10 Triton
- Fulltimer
- No
Hi,
I'm a first time RV owner having just purchased a used 2004 Four Winds Chateau 24T for my family. It's 20 years old, but only has 22,000 miles on it and is in very good condition. 1 super slide that gives 18 inches of room inside. It really opens it up. I know slides are 50/50 on people liking them or not but so far, i'm happy that it has it.
I have a LOT of questions, so i hope to learn a lot from this group.
I am in the north, so i bought it already winterized. Which is good and bad. Good because it's not going to freeze, but bad because I have no idea how to do it myself next year, nor how to unwinterize it in a few months to get ready for the season. So, lots of questions to come from me on that topic!
I'm starting to make a list of things i want to upgrade.
We will mostly use this for boondocking on 4 day weekends and such. We are a part of a club that has no hookups and lots of rules around generator uage (basically, you can't). So, first item on the list is house battery improvements.
The previous owner updated all the lighting to LED and has pretty efficient things like usb ports and small led tv's that won't suck much juice. There's a 2500 pure sine inverter to use while the truck is running? at least that's how he explained it to me and it powers a dedicated 120 circuit. I'm not entirely sure. Need more exploration here.
I can't see well in there, but it's a single group 27M battery. It's 2 years old. I imagine its a standard deep cycle lead-acid type and around 160ah from what i can tell of the pic. I'll get in there in more detail when it's warmer.
I'd like to bump this to a 200ah array, or even replace with Lifepo4 at some point.
I'd also like to integrate solar or a small wind turbine that I can prop up. We park right on the waters edge at this club so there's a constant breeze. I don't want to mount anything to the roof (very scared of that) so i'm considering a portable briefcase array that i can set up when we park in a few minuets.
The other issue it has right now is the door to the power cord won't stay latched. The plastic on the door that sticks out to hold the latch is just worn away so the key doesn't stay behind it enough when closed. I'll consider replacing the whole plastic insert, but for now i just put a piece of tape on it to hold it closed. A replacement seems cheap enough at like $12 Amazon.com but i'm concerned about the install/making sure it doesn't leak/etc.
Storage is limited. Other units we looked at had huge 'trunks' under the rear bed outside. This one has a small cubby because the water tank is there.
My cooler won't fit in any of them (we have a big fishing cooler, 150 qt or something) so i need to figure out where that goes. Perhaps i'll rig something to hold it in place inside the rv.
Anyway, look forward to discussing with you all!
I'm a first time RV owner having just purchased a used 2004 Four Winds Chateau 24T for my family. It's 20 years old, but only has 22,000 miles on it and is in very good condition. 1 super slide that gives 18 inches of room inside. It really opens it up. I know slides are 50/50 on people liking them or not but so far, i'm happy that it has it.
I have a LOT of questions, so i hope to learn a lot from this group.
I am in the north, so i bought it already winterized. Which is good and bad. Good because it's not going to freeze, but bad because I have no idea how to do it myself next year, nor how to unwinterize it in a few months to get ready for the season. So, lots of questions to come from me on that topic!
I'm starting to make a list of things i want to upgrade.
We will mostly use this for boondocking on 4 day weekends and such. We are a part of a club that has no hookups and lots of rules around generator uage (basically, you can't). So, first item on the list is house battery improvements.
The previous owner updated all the lighting to LED and has pretty efficient things like usb ports and small led tv's that won't suck much juice. There's a 2500 pure sine inverter to use while the truck is running? at least that's how he explained it to me and it powers a dedicated 120 circuit. I'm not entirely sure. Need more exploration here.
I can't see well in there, but it's a single group 27M battery. It's 2 years old. I imagine its a standard deep cycle lead-acid type and around 160ah from what i can tell of the pic. I'll get in there in more detail when it's warmer.
I'd like to bump this to a 200ah array, or even replace with Lifepo4 at some point.
I'd also like to integrate solar or a small wind turbine that I can prop up. We park right on the waters edge at this club so there's a constant breeze. I don't want to mount anything to the roof (very scared of that) so i'm considering a portable briefcase array that i can set up when we park in a few minuets.
The other issue it has right now is the door to the power cord won't stay latched. The plastic on the door that sticks out to hold the latch is just worn away so the key doesn't stay behind it enough when closed. I'll consider replacing the whole plastic insert, but for now i just put a piece of tape on it to hold it closed. A replacement seems cheap enough at like $12 Amazon.com but i'm concerned about the install/making sure it doesn't leak/etc.
Storage is limited. Other units we looked at had huge 'trunks' under the rear bed outside. This one has a small cubby because the water tank is there.
My cooler won't fit in any of them (we have a big fishing cooler, 150 qt or something) so i need to figure out where that goes. Perhaps i'll rig something to hold it in place inside the rv.
Anyway, look forward to discussing with you all!
