Introducing ourselves

Don Horner

2012 Unity IB
Howdy; I'm Don and my lovely wife is Betsy. I just joined this forum; I've lurked on some Yahoo groups but never participated much because I'm not keen on the format. I'm glad to see this forum.

We bought a 2005 LTV Free Spirit LSS model in November, 2005 from the original owner, who had it about 10 months and put about 7,500 miles on it. He was about to take an assignment in Europe and didn't want the van to sit for 6 months or more. It's based on a 2004 Freightliner chassis.

We had just returned from a trip to Florida's only LTV dealer. They handle most of the Sprinter conversion vans, and we had decided the LTV was the one we wanted. However, I didn't care for the salesman. So, when we returned home (the dealer is about 150 miles away), I looked for some other place to buy a LTV. I stumbled across the ad from the seller of our van, discovering that he lived only about 40 miles away. A quick phone call, a look-see the next morning, and we were the proud owners at a decent savings.

It's equipped with the rear electric sofa/bed, a swivel passenger seat (that seems pretty useless, as the passger door has to be opened to turn it), the Firestone Ride Right rear air bags, standard steel wheels, and most of the other more-or-less normal stuff -- generator, awning, etc.

I sold an older 28' Class A Pace Arrow and got rid of both my Windstar and my Dakota pickup, and use the Sprinter as my daily driver as well as an RV. Three insurance/registration bills replaced with one! My wife would not drive the Pace Arrow or any other RV, even a class C, but she'll drive the Sprinter. This is kind of handy since I have a pesky heart problem and she may have to drive it home, some day.

We now have close to 20,000 miles with few problems (the worst was my awning collapse which I discussed in another thread). I had the first service done at a Dodge dealer; I'm about to go back to the selling dealer for the first time for my next service. I have a couple of very minor issues to have resolved, such as a leak around the shaft of the TV antenna.

We love it. It suits us perfectly, and we get a little smug when traveling with our friends in their huge Class A machines. We go places they can't, spend a heck of a lot less money, and seem to have far fewer problems. The best mileage I've seen was 23.3, and that was holding it at 60 MPH. I guess I have a heavy foot, because I usually average about 20 MPG.

As time goes on, most of my questions will probably sound a little stupid because I'm surely not as familiar with the vans, the people at LTV, electronics, etc. as many of the rest of you. But, I'm sure hoping to learn.
 

Zach Woods

New member
Hi Don -

Great to hear how much you are enjoying your LTV!

On your issue with the rotation of the passenger seat: I am not familiar with LTV seats but most Sprinter rotatable or Captains style seats can be spun while keeping their door closed. It does require either adjusting the back more upright or sliding the seat forward and backward on it's track as you rotate it or maybe even both.

Somewhat of a fussy nuisance but you might give it a try to see if yours does work this way.

I have a Westfalia and found this a big headache when I first got the vehicle. After learning the secrets to successful seat rotation I am finding that I can spin the seat pretty quickly and easily (but not without making multiple adjustments during that rotation process).

Enjoy your rig!
 

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Don Horner

2012 Unity IB
Zach, I can picture your "fussy" process and it might be possible, but frankly, to us, it isn't worth the trouble to figure it out. With our seat, the only way the door can be closed while using the seat in any reasonably comfortable position is to rotate it a full 180 degrees. I haven't found a combination that would allow the seat to remain in an angled configuration and not be in an awkward position. Once it's turned to point straight back, and adjusted again for reasonable comfort, the floor is too far away :eek: ! Of course, what I mean by that is that the floor does not angle up like the floor near the firewall, and relaxing in the chair is almost impossible without a foot stool of some sort. I'd love to have a foot rest like a barber chair.

It's funny how our original perception changes once we actually gain experience. On paper, I favored the Roadtrek RS design. I saw the pictures of 4 front seats angled towards a central table, forming the "dining room", then all turned like theater seats towards the TV, forming the "living room". I liked that, and figured that I could leave the bed made all the time in the rear, forming the "bedroom".

Then we had a chance to compare every model at one dealership (except the RoadTrek, which we had previously seen). We decided that the quality of fit and finish was higher in the LTV (and the price was correspondingly higher), and Betsy decided she's rather have the rear sofa for her "living room". Now that we've spent several months in the thing, I find it hard to remember what I ever saw in the RoadTrek design.

By the way, we looked hard at your Westy, and gave it serious thought, but in the end it was not the right coach for us. I can see how someone else would appreciate it's features. Isn't it wonderful that we have so many choices?
 

Zach Woods

New member
Hi Don -

Yes. Good that there is variety.

To satisfy my curiosity, help me understand how your passenger seat rotates. Does it rotate with the center of the seat bottom always staying in the same position relative to the seat base or does it rotate with the center of the seat bottom swinging closer to the driver's seat as you rotate the seat to face towards the back.

I am just trying to understand the differences between our vehicles.

Thanks,
 

BaywoodBill

pre-Yuppiedom
With our LTV (good choice, Dave. And it's outstanding that there are so many varieties built on the Sprinter platform), we haven't tried turning the seat with the door closed. It pivots above the battery case and, like yours, the back has to be up and the seat forward.

It's a difficult chore and may get easier if I did it more. Yet, I found that when it's turned our feet don't reach the floor. It's like a little kid sitting in an adult chair. With a footstool it could be OK, but we have little need for it to be turned. We both take part in the cooking, cleaning, etc., so when we have none of that to do we are off hiking or driving to some other location.
 

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Don Horner

2012 Unity IB
... To satisfy my curiosity, help me understand how your passenger seat rotates.
There is a flat plate bolted to the battery box, then there is a "Lazy Susan" type swivel, then another flat plate to which the seat tracks are bolted.

The bottom plate of the swivel mechanism hits the door -- I just put a tiny scratch in the door panel trying it :(.

{Edit} -- it's the top plate of the swivel that hits the door panel as it rotates. The seat slides forward on its tracks, but the swivel plate remains fixed, concentric to the swivel.
 
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mpsan

New member
Hi all:

We also looked at most all of the Sprinters and wanted the RoadTrek...until we saw the PleasureWay. Then we went to a dealer who had PW and LTV and we went for a New, in showroom, 05/06 LTV LSS with the 3rd seat. We have taken it on a shakedown cruise to Diamond PT, WA and all went well. My wife also likes driving it. I think that we are going to remove the 3rd seat, however, as we do not need it. Just remove seatbelt screw and 4 floor screws. Then put Floor Screws back in.Seems simple enough and will allow less "squeezing by" when the Bath door is open.

I think buying the van on the Showroom floor may have done the Coach Batteries in (I have the two Coach Batteries) as I think they had a habit of leaving it on shore power. My first Battery is under the seat, and I want to see if I can move it to the rear, opposite the other one, as they have them now. At the same time I want to change to AGM batteries (Lifetime) and see if dealer will make an allowance. I also believe that I will change the Parallax 7345 Converter to a 3 stage one that will allow unlimited shore power without frying the batteries. We can use the same Parallax case and just install the new converter.

Still, I want to be sure I get something from the dealer!

We are about to winterize now. In Portland, Oregon, it does not get that cold. I am going to use the Air Compressor method on fresh water and then pour the Pink Stuff down the traps. One point of confusion is that we dumped the tanks after our last trip...filled them with 1 gallon of water each while adding PurePower. I have been told two things...

1. Just add about a gallon of Pink Stuff to each tank. The Black has only been used once since dumping, and we will be fine.
2. Dump the tanks, keep them empty, and add just a little pink stuff down the toilet and sink.

Not sure who is correct. I had thought that we should not let the waste tanks dry out. Also, I do not yet know what a safe PSI is for blowing out the fresh water.

That's it for now...
Dave

P.S. I wish our local chapters would get on here. I do not like the threading of Yahoo groups so try to stay off.
 
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What Next

New member
Hey Don I have the same thing. Check your seat is it the plate that hits or the rail for the seat? On mine it was the rail the seat slides on . When I removed seat to check water in pain in the butt battery under seat I cut the seat rail at same angle as plate, all fixed. Adjust large nut so that seat turns easliy with out rocking, a little lube on disk in between helps. I have a one step folding step that I need to get at awning support on rear it works great in front of seat for that foot support. Store the step behind drivers seat.
The battery under seat can be replaced with a AGM when it is time for a new batteries. The battery has to be layed on it's side and base has to be slightly modified but very easy saw it on several vans at LTV Rally.
I removed the third seat also, I put plastic plugs in holes nothing to trip on. LTV has a flip up counter to add that will match what you have. Good Luck
Gary O
 

mpsan

New member
Gary, did you ask about moving the underseat battery to the rear? I want to do that...and change the converter to a 3 stage.

Hey Don I have the same thing. Check your seat is it the plate that hits or the rail for the seat? On mine it was the rail the seat slides on . When I removed seat to check water in pain in the butt battery under seat I cut the seat rail at same angle as plate, all fixed. Adjust large nut so that seat turns easliy with out rocking, a little lube on disk in between helps. I have a one step folding step that I need to get at awning support on rear it works great in front of seat for that foot support. Store the step behind drivers seat.
The battery under seat can be replaced with a AGM when it is time for a new batteries. The battery has to be layed on it's side and base has to be slightly modified but very easy saw it on several vans at LTV Rally.
I removed the third seat also, I put plastic plugs in holes nothing to trip on. LTV has a flip up counter to add that will match what you have. Good Luck
Gary O
 

Don Horner

2012 Unity IB
Gary, I think you're correct about the seat rail. I gave it only a quick look and my first thought was that the seat rail mounting bolt was too close to the end to trim it; apparently it doesn't take much to make it clear. I didn't bother to check closely about the plate under the rail; I figured that if I could trim the seat rail, I could trim the plate if necessary.

This whole discussion about batteries is of interest to me. My coach came with only the single auxilliary battery under the passenger seat. It doesn't last long. I've never checked the water. I think it's a good idea to replace it with an AGM.

The original owner of my coach purchased the battery box and cables offered by LTV to mount under the rear seat, but never had it installed. I got it with my pruchase, but I haven't installed it, yet, either. I understand there was supposed to be a template with it. I talked to the tech guy at LTV and he promised to send me a template, but he never followed through with that (or several other things he promised) and didn;t respond to any additional emails. I got too busy to pursue it.

What I would really like to do is mount a couple of the 6V golf cart batteries under the rear seat and wire them (in series?) to make 12V. I have a couple of friends with large class A coaches, that's what they use, and they have plenty of battery power. But, I don't know if there is room back there -- I have the under-floor storage box installed, also. I haven't crawled under or measured to look.

Part of my problem with modifications is that the coach is in almost constant use. I purchased some property next door to my daughter about 45 miles from my home, and I stay in the RV at least 4 nights every week while I'm out there doing improvement and getting ready to build. We take frequent weekend trips and have been gone as long as two weeks, so there are actually not many nights when it's not in use. I have shore power at home, at my daughter's, and so far, everywhere that we've stayed. I'm going to have to do something about the batteries before we try to spend a night dry camping because the present battery won't last over night with evern moderate use.
 

What Next

New member
mpsan the new LTV's with 2 batteries have both in back and front under seat is empty so it could be done. I saw people with batteries in all three spots.
Don your right about the batteries when you do install that other battery box switch to the AGMs. Golf cart batteries are better value but room is the problem.
Oh check the two wire connections to that 50 amp breaker on bottom of coverter box. Mine was just a half turn loose spent two days trying to figure out why I had no 12 volt power.
Oh how about TV volume mine is hard to adjust because it is takes so little.
 

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BaywoodBill

pre-Yuppiedom
There's already a topic "Batteries" under this Free Spirit sub group. It would be helpful if future discussions on batteries were moved into that topic and allow this "Intoducing ourselves" topic to remain as titled.
 

mpsan

New member
Yup, before we get farther OT, I do want to add to the Batteries discussion, but I think that I did reply in Batteries already. Golf Cart Batteries (Lifeline) are just a little too tall and will only give a slight capacity improvement. Lifeline even told me that, but I think the rest should go into the other topic.

Dave
 

JustThePilot

New member
Hi all...

I have a 2006 LSS in silver. When I ordered it, I had the factory leave off all of the decals. I have also changed the Freightliner badge to the Mercedes one.

I've enjoyed the discussions about the various battery upgrades. Mine came with 2 batteries in the rear -- a Varta maintenance-free on the DS and an Interstate on the PS. Although this seems less than ideal, they seem to be coexisting fine so far.

I've made a few minor upgrades:
- added antennas on the roof for a Garmin GPS and cell phone (along with a Wilson amp)
- added a Xantrex battery monitor.

The factory also prewired the van for solar (which means that they ran a wire from the control panel to the battery compartment in the rear), but I haven't quite decided whether I need to add a panel yet.

In about a year, we have a little over 16,000 trouble-free miles. We've been to Florida once and Calif a couple of times in the past year. I'm about to head back to Calif later this month.

Happy trails to all...

Steve
 

BaywoodBill

pre-Yuppiedom
Welcome to the Free Spirit group. How about a picture or two of your van without the decals. We removed the advertising decals from ours but DW likes the scenery on the side and I like the "Leisure" part.

Does yours have the 12-volt TV LTV came out with after we bought ours? How is it for battery drain?

Where did you run wires when you mounted the things you mounted?

We expect to drive through Morden next summer and I'm thinking about having a second battery put in the rear. We will be in Illinois as well.
 

Don Horner

2012 Unity IB
Hi, Steve, mine is one of the first year (2005) LSS models, it's a nice color combination. Next time you're in Florida, if you make it to the central east coast shoot me a PM and maybe we can cause the locals to think they're seeing double.

Of course, that goes for anyone on the forum...
 

JustThePilot

New member
Thank you for the welcome. If I can figure out how to post some pictures, I will try.

I do have a 12-volt TV/DVD combo supplied by LTV. I think it's a 15 or 17 inch screen and the kids enjoy it. It consumes 3.5 amps/hour, so seems pretty effecient. Between the 2 batteries, I believe I have 170 AHs -- which equates to 85 usable AHs (to stay above 50%.)

Running the various wires has been an interesting experience. The cell phone antenna on the roof is mounted near the fantastic fan. The wire comes through the fan opening. There is a small hole that is covered with some screen material that seems made for this purpose. With the fan removed, there is access to the roof lining. I drilled a small hole in the trim piece to feed the wire into the roof lining area. The wire runs in the ceiling lining above the shower to the driver side wall area above the closet. The rear wall of the cabinet above the closet can be removed and I ran the wires in the side wall to where the microwave AC plug pops up into the cabinet above the microwave. Here's were I have the antenna hooked up to the amplifier, along with a Kyocera KR1 cell phone router.

The GPS antenna is also near the roof and runs parallel to the cell phone antenna to the Fantastic Fan. At that point, it just runs in the ceiling lining forward to the dome light. As you may have discovered, the dome light just pops out and there is access to lots of good space in the head liner. At this point, it was easy to run the wire down the DS A-pillar to the dash, and through the dash to one of the unused buttons next to the shifter.


Don...thanks for the invitation. It would be neat to see double...I haven't run into any others that look like ours do.
 

BaywoodBill

pre-Yuppiedom
That wire work must look (invisible) great. If you can do that I know you won't have any trouble posting pictures. All you have to do is click on the little mountain on the tool bar, find your picture, and click to go.

I'm not afraid to post pictures but I don't have the courage to pull off headliners, dome lights, etc. I managed to run wires for my scangauge and back up sensor in an unobtrusive way, but that didn't involve taking things apart. Although I cut a lot of wrong wires before I found the right one for the backup lights.
 

KL2BE

Member
Jerry (KL2BE) & Nancy (KL2BF) live in Alaska (summers) and Trinidad (winters).
We were planning on a used Class C RV in 3-5 years when we sold our boat (which we live on in the winter in the West Indies). Then 3 things happened; (1) we had several friends die this year in their late 50s, (2) we saw a factory DEMO on an LTV rally that came through Anchorage 2 weeks ago and (3) my internet research convinced me we wanted a 2.7 liter I-5 Sprinter not a 3 liter V-6.
We bought the DEMO over the phone (we hope we bought it; it won't be back to the facorty for several weeks and it could be wrecked in transit).
We are picking it up in Mpls. in Sept and taking a 3 month trip through the Southwest and then home to Alaska (Alaska Hyway in Dec.; may need better tires according to several threads on the forum).
The forum has been quite usefull already. I know I'll have to bring a WFCO Ultra III 3-stage charge with us. I'll have to get new Lifeline coach batteries and install a Link 10 battery monitor. (I am dissapointed that a company like LTV doesn't have a more sofisticated electrical system as a stock item!).
Does anyone know if the Sony Radio/CD/DVD unit is "satellite ready"?
A lot easier to bring what I need than to try to provision from Big-Box stores on the road.
Thanks.
Jerry
 

mpsan

New member
Hi Jerry:

My 05/06 has the Sony Radio and the Sirius radio is added on...not built in. I have made the converter/battery change as well.

'73,

W6TGE, Portland

Jerry (KL2BE) & Nancy (KL2BF) live in Alaska (summers) and Trinidad (winters).
We were planning on a used Class C RV in 3-5 years when we sold our boat (which we live on in the winter in the West Indies). Then 3 things happened; (1) we had several friends die this year in their late 50s, (2) we saw a factory DEMO on an LTV rally that came through Anchorage 2 weeks ago and (3) my internet research convinced me we wanted a 2.7 liter I-5 Sprinter not a 3 liter V-6.
We bought the DEMO over the phone (we hope we bought it; it won't be back to the facorty for several weeks and it could be wrecked in transit).
We are picking it up in Mpls. in Sept and taking a 3 month trip through the Southwest and then home to Alaska (Alaska Hyway in Dec.; may need better tires according to several threads on the forum).
The forum has been quite usefull already. I know I'll have to bring a WFCO Ultra III 3-stage charge with us. I'll have to get new Lifeline coach batteries and install a Link 10 battery monitor. (I am dissapointed that a company like LTV doesn't have a more sofisticated electrical system as a stock item!).
Does anyone know if the Sony Radio/CD/DVD unit is "satellite ready"?
A lot easier to bring what I need than to try to provision from Big-Box stores on the road.
Thanks.
Jerry
 

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