New to RVing and numerous questions

[kathryne]

hey everyone out there.
 I am with my husband, who is a pipeliner, and this is my first full time RV experience. We bought a new 2009 Open Road by Pilgrim INTL., and now find they have gone out of business. It is a 40 ft 5th wheel with 2 roof mount A/C units, 4 slides, and 50 amp power requirement. It's hard to find specific info about this unit.
The refrigerator is Domestics New Dimensitions, and when on the electric mode, it doesn't cool the refrigerator properly or freeze thoroughly in the freezer. When I switched to gas setting, everything seems to work ok. What could be the problem? I'd rather use electric vs gas.
I have  also noticed the lights dimming, especially in the evening, and recently found 2 light bulbs burned out, and the bulbs were black inside. Is this normal?
Any info will be appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Newt]

None of that is normal.

If you have ruled out electrical problems at the site then you do need to get it looked at.  I'm not sure if anyone took over warranty coverage on Pilgrim units but even if not, it may be something relatively minor.  I'm sort of an idiot about matters electrical so I can't offer any specific suggestions except that you might want to check your rig's battery.  Even when hooked up to shore power these things still make some use of the battery I think.

Do you have a 50 amp surge protector?

[junglejim0745]

hey everyone out there.
 I am with my husband, who is a pipeliner, and this is my first full time RV experience. We bought a new 2009 Open Road by Pilgrim INTL., and now find they have gone out of business. It is a 40 ft 5th wheel with 2 roof mount A/C units, 4 slides, and 50 amp power requirement. It's hard to find specific info about this unit.
The refrigerator is Domestics New Dimensitions, and when on the electric mode, it doesn't cool the refrigerator properly or freeze thoroughly in the freezer. When I switched to gas setting, everything seems to work ok. What could be the problem? I'd rather use electric vs gas.
I have  also noticed the lights dimming, especially in the evening, and recently found 2 light bulbs burned out, and the bulbs were black inside. Is this normal?
Any info will be appreciated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Actually the two problems may not be related at all. Your Dometic fridge should work on either 120 volt electric or propane and it is not all that uncommon for them to work better on propane than electricity. Check your thermistor inside the fridge. It is the little wire clipped on the fins in the top rear of the ridge in the lower portion. Sliding it up or down will affect the temperature in the unit. If moving the thermistor does not affect the temp in the fridge (usually leave it set overnight to see a change) then there is probably a problem in the circuitry of the fridge and you need to have it checked by a serviceman. I know service calls are not cheap, but in the long run it is better than ruining everything in your fridge over a bad unit or part.

The lights in your rig are most likely 12 volt and run off of your converter which converts the 120 volt shore power to 12 volt for all the 12 volt power needed in the RV. Blown bulbs can be a sign of a problem, such as power surges from the converter or power surges through the converter from shore power in some cases. Blown bulbs can also be just blown bulbs, nothing more. If the blown bulbs is a continuing thing there probably is a problem, if just a couple of bulbs probably not.

Many people are in your shoes with orphan RV's at the moment, hopefully some company will buy out the former manufacturers or at least their plans and start providing warranty service on these units. Remember though, the warranty on appliances like your Dometic refrigerator and other things does not have to go through the RV manufacturer. You can go to any authorized dealer to have them repaired under warranty.

Happy RVing.