Picked up new to me Chinook

[Flame]

What is the oldest you should accept from a tire shop for a set of 6 tires?? Is 90 days about max??

[Blue~Go]

When I first got my Chinook, I agreed to a max of six months old by the DOT code (I was away from home, it was winter, and I needed to get going -- so I couldn't be too demanding). The tires I got were EXACTLY six months old. Which is a bit of a bummer as that's nearly 10% of their lifetime.

Now what I do is talk to the tire place (in my case recently Discount Tire). I just ask them to find out what the newest date code they have (or will get if they order them) is. I bought tires for my car this way in July and they were only about a month old. I've also ordered trailer tires but the people at some places will go look in the warehouse at the date codes. I like to do business with people like that.

So I guess I'd say six months max, but newer is preferable.

[Norman&Michele]

Welcome to the club! I just wanted to chime in on the 3-way fridge. Somewhere--the fridge manual, or the Chinook manual(??), I read that the propane gas should be shut off when re-fueling truck. Something to do with fumes, and igniting--enough to terrify the hell out of me. When we are traveling, I switch the fridge to DC, and shut LP off outside. My understanding, is as long as the truck is running, it will charge and keep fridge cold on DC setting. Then when we stop to refuel, I know I don't have to worry about the fridge being on LP and ignited gas fumes. When you stop for the day, then you want to swap it to gas or AC if you are plugged in. Hope this helps. -Michele

[chin_k]

I only turn the propane off when I need to keep the rig sitting on the driveway for weeks.

When fueling, I just ask someone to switch the frig from propane to DC. I don't think we need to shut off the valve on the propane tank as much as we don't need to seal the gas tank while trying to add fuel into it

[caconcourse]

Welcome to the club! I just wanted to chime in on the 3-way fridge. Somewhere--the fridge manual, or the Chinook manual(??), I read that the propane gas should be shut off when re-fueling truck. Something to do with fumes, and igniting--enough to terrify the hell out of me. When we are traveling, I switch the fridge to DC, and shut LP off outside. My understanding, is as long as the truck is running, it will charge and keep fridge cold on DC setting. Then when we stop to refuel, I know I don't have to worry about the fridge being on LP and ignited gas fumes. When you stop for the day, then you want to swap it to gas or AC if you are plugged in. Hope this helps. -Michele

Hi Michelle,

We also turn off the propane while driving as recommended by the dealer we purchased the Chinook from. We ran the fridge on DC as you are doing, but it was a huge drain on the charger, and if we parked for an hour it would drain the batteries as well. One day I forgot to turn the DC mode on, and at the end of the drive, the refrigerator was COLDER than many days when we were on DC. I think the DC mode does not do a good job cooling, even while draining all available DC power. Since then, we just leave the fridge off while driving, and it seems just as good, but our batteries get a full charge during the drive. If we park for an hour or more, I turn on the propane while it is parked to keep the fridge cold. This arrangement has worked well for us on the last several trips, some as long as six weeks on the road. I do keep some small water bottles in the freezer to help it work as an ice box, and to provide some really cold water on hot days. I also have an indoor-outdoor thermometer, with the "outdoor" transmitter in the fridge, so we can monitor the temperature in the refrigerator during the day.

[chin_k]

Well, I guess I was too lazy. When thinking about how serious a fire can be, it maybe worthwhile to turn off the valve when the rig is on the way.

[Manitou]

For whatever it's worth, I left the propane on. Off to refill the propane of course. Off when I left the rig alone overnight. Off for tunnels or ferries that require that. On while getting gasoline, but had I known about that risk.. I'd probably shut it off for that. I had the dinosaur retrofit control module though. Just left the fridge set to "auto" ever since that upgrade and it never let me down again.