Day Zero Gear

[Lotus54]

Loads of good info.

I would suggest bringing mostly what you bring for motorcycle trips.
Keep it minimal and only get stuff when you need it.

My priorities are always: warm, dry, comfortable place to sleep.
The rest comes after.

Staying at the dealer lot is a good idea- make sure everything works and you don't need anything else.
Stuff like the power cable and adapters, stinky slinky, disposable gloves, RV toilet paper-- those are the ones you probably would never think about.

I've learned a lot of great ideas from various threads here- some work for us, some we don't really need.

I was surprised 'Farkles' was that unusual word- it is certainly common in the motorcycle world! I have lots on my Ducati (older Multistrada) and OSSA (trails) even my AJP Ultrapassar (look them up)

Mostly, have fun!

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Boxite

...Those few Airstreams displayed along that front fence is all they've ever had.) ....

LOL... me, rubbernecking, every time I'm flying down the Katy Freeway: "How many do they have today? How many do they have today?"

A great deal depends on the individual salesperson. Every time we see new Interstates on display at the LC Holiday World (which we drive past almost daily), we stop in to take a look. We've never encountered the same salesperson twice. Some of them have experience with Interstates and others can't tell the difference between an Interstate and a FEDEX van.

[TayaraTravel]

In preparation for receiving the AI, we downloaded the owner's manual and are slogging through it. Grade C- at best, maybe a D. Bad, ungrammatical English. Missing words, wrong words, obvious "autocorrect" errors. Don't people go to school anymore?

Passages that only an electrical engineer can cherish:

"All 12-volt current is routed to a 12-volt pass-through power stud mounted on the battery box� The power stud is the hub of the 12-volt system� It ties together the inverter/charger, house battery, and battery separator� Power from the stud goes to a buss bar with four breaker positions holding three Type 2 thermal breakers� The thermal breakers feed the rear lounge motor, the tank heater pads, and the battery disconnect switch�"

I'm sure this is important information. But as the second paragraph in the Electrical section, it plunges rather quickly into the trees, leaving people wondering what forest they are in. In other parts the manual provides no specific information on major systems, with a wave of the hand advising the reader to

"Make sure to read and understand all electrical Component owner’s manuals provided in the owner’s Packet before operating the touring coach."

If these subordinate manuals are of the same quality, I can hardly wait. It will be a long first day.

[TayaraTravel]

Originally Posted by InterBlog

... Every time we see new Interstates on display at the LC Holiday World (which we drive past almost daily), we stop in to take a look. We've never encountered the same salesperson twice. Some of them have experience with Interstates and others can't tell the difference between an Interstate and a FEDEX van.

There is more continuity at Katy Holiday World. There is one main Airstream salesman.

[Pahaska]

Originally Posted by TayaraTravel

In preparation for receiving the AI, we downloaded the owner's manual and are slogging through it. Grade C- at best, maybe a D. Bad, ungrammatical English. Missing words, wrong words, obvious "autocorrect" errors. Don't people go to school anymore?

Airstream has never mastered manuals. I have owned 4 Airstreams. In every case, the manuals have been terrible. Not one manual has correctly described the actual hardware. The 2017 manual is a great step forward from the 2014 manual, but still poor.

For my 2014.5, I have to go to the 2017 manual for schematics and interpolate what I ind there.

[Lotus54]

That made complete sense to me. But I worked as an electronics tech for some 25 years.

Originally Posted by TayaraTravel

Passages that only an electrical engineer can cherish:

"All 12-volt current is routed to a 12-volt pass-through power stud mounted on the battery box� The power stud is the hub of the 12-volt system� It ties together the inverter/charger, house battery, and battery separator� Power from the stud goes to a buss bar with four breaker positions holding three Type 2 thermal breakers� The thermal breakers feed the rear lounge motor, the tank heater pads, and the battery disconnect switch�"

[.

[Boxite]

Originally Posted by Lotus54

That made complete sense to me. But I worked as an electronics tech for some 25 years.

Yes, it makes sense to me also and I'm not an injuneer... the primary info in that paragraph is that the one point common to all 12V systems is that stud. I believe the major point being made is: This stud would be a critical point to start testing when no 12V power exists.
I have spent a career reading technical manuals (as you might imagine a professional simulator instructor-pilot, mfr'r flight-test pilot, and pilot-examiner would require) and the AS manuals are indeed needful of help.

Sections of the "Owners Manual" for my '08 Sport was apparently copied wholesale from a different model entirely with the result that critical information is just wrong. The electrical schematic download for the trailer have pages marked "Obsolete", .... with no superseding info supplied at all. One must be comfortable with common engineering practices in various industries to make sense of the errors. I'm particularly curious as to why some portions of the manuals appear to be ESL regarding a product mfr'd in Ohio.

[TayaraTravel]

Originally Posted by Lotus54

That made complete sense to me. But I worked as an electronics tech for some 25 years.

My guess is that for many new RV purchasers, "buss bar" means a galley location for making margaritas, and "power stud" is the star of the movie playing on the in-coach DVD.

I have every confidence that people of normal intelligence can learn to operate the Interstate. But not through the manual.

[amirm]

Originally Posted by TayaraTravel

Passages that only an electrical engineer can cherish:

"All 12-volt current is routed to a 12-volt pass-through power stud mounted on the battery box� The power stud is the hub of the 12-volt system� It ties together the inverter/charger, house battery, and battery separator� Power from the stud goes to a buss bar with four breaker positions holding three Type 2 thermal breakers� The thermal breakers feed the rear lounge motor, the tank heater pads, and the battery disconnect switch�"

That description should have also included:

"The thermal breaker terminal is buried where you cannot see it. It is also close to live AC mains wiring. Should any wire come loose from it, it has the potential to push AC mains voltage through all of your 12 volt circuits. Please say some prayers before operating the Interstate that this does not happen while you are using it. We appreciate your cooperation."

And:

"We could have shown you pictures of all the items above along this description so that you could better understand what we are talking about. That however would expose our super sloppy wiring with no descriptive labels, potentially causing you to back out of your purchase. Hope you understand."

[Boxster1971]

Originally Posted by TayaraTravel

In preparation for receiving the AI, we downloaded the owner's manual and are slogging through it. Grade C- at best, maybe a D. Bad, ungrammatical English. Missing words, wrong words, obvious "autocorrect" errors. Don't people go to school anymore?

Passages that only an electrical engineer can cherish:

"All 12-volt current is routed to a 12-volt pass-through power stud mounted on the battery box� The power stud is the hub of the 12-volt system� It ties together the inverter/charger, house battery, and battery separator� Power from the stud goes to a buss bar with four breaker positions holding three Type 2 thermal breakers� The thermal breakers feed the rear lounge motor, the tank heater pads, and the battery disconnect switch�"

I'm sure this is important information. But as the second paragraph in the Electrical section, it plunges rather quickly into the trees, leaving people wondering what forest they are in. In other parts the manual provides no specific information on major systems, with a wave of the hand advising the reader to

.....

... and none of that applies to the 2017 Grand Tour models anyway as they don't have the battery box referred to in that text. The newer Interstates have the batteries mounted in trays behind the driver side (a.k.a. road side) rear wheels. I'll join the chorus on the terrible Airstream Owners manuals. I see that they have even dropped many of the useful diagrams in the last section that began with the 2015 models.

[TayaraTravel]

Originally Posted by Boxster1971

... and none of that applies to the 2017 Grand Tour models anyway as they don't have the battery box referred to in that text. ...

Well that's disturbing, since this is from the 2017 Interstate manual. But I noticed several other passages also that seem to be lifted from an older manual, or from a generic Airstream trailer manual.

In consumer software, it is common to find a book entitled "XXXX, The Missing Manual" (where XXXX is Excel, WordPress, etc.) because the OEM documentation sucks so bad. Too bad the economics don't justify one our outstanding forum members to create "Interstate, the Missing Manual".

[InterBlog]

Originally Posted by Pahaska

Airstream has never mastered manuals. I have owned 4 Airstreams. In every case, the manuals have been terrible. ....

Airstream is not alone. A big portion of my job is technical writing. About every other year, that particular service category proves to be my largest source of revenue (I'm a self-employed industrial and technical consultant). I'm frequently surprised by two things:

(1) The number of potentially-qualified people who are not interested in technical writing as a career focus. Lots of young people go to university for language- and communication-related degrees. But many of them see science- and engineering-related technical writing as boring and/or beneath them. It makes no sense to me because of the obvious salary premium in STEM fields - money is there for the earning. I try to tell these people that nobody is going to pay them to write about the lint that they see in their navels, and that writing itself is always enjoyable irrespective of the topic. But many don't see it that way.

(2) Even in our litigious society, many stakeholders don't emphasize quality technical writing. I sometimes try to convince my clients that they are better protected in a scenario in which they have translated their product into the clearest possible narrative. It's a strong defense - hey, we wrote everything down and no critical information has been withheld or omitted; we've been thorough in doing our parts to disclose proper operations, risks, etc. But they often don't buy that line of logic. Some of my best tech writing products are regulator-driven, not producer-driven or user-driven. And that's the opposite of what should be happening.

FWIW.

[unifreck]

Interblog-----
AMEN, AMEN & AMEN. Many instructions and "How to use" pamphlets are written by people who are NOT Native English speakers and have not learned grammatical
English. Some are written by scientists that cannot communicate with the "everyday person" and are not interested in learning. Then some are never edited by anyone who cares. Thank you for your insightful comments. AEW

[toskeysam]

And.....that is why I have been tasked with writing a manual for my unit. I am taking a cue from LB_3’s diagrams and putting together a general operator manual for my wife to use should I ever get run over by a truck. She works with me each time we do anything, change power configuration, winterize, whatever needs to be done. We both have technical backgrounds, but it always helps to have a written description. This has become very important after Lewster did major surgery on the power system in our AI.
It is a challenge to be sure that when I write something that “makes perfect sense to me”, and it must also make perfect sense to someone else.
I thought I had left technical writing behind when I retired......oh how wrong I was!

[sheakev]

Originally Posted by Mcrider

1) On the tools, I bought a MC Cruztools bag (as a motorcyclist I'm sure you are familiar with this). Compact and stores nicely...

Great list, as to the Cruztools, I just looked at their website. Did you get both a metric and English kit? Any thoughts on which kit would be best for the AI?

Thanks!

[wachuko]

Originally Posted by sheakev

Great list, as to the Cruztools, I just looked at their website. Did you get both a metric and English kit? Any thoughts on which kit would be best for the AI?

Thanks!

Metric...