Purchases You Regret

[Drew Bru]

Our Aims 2000w inverter/charger crapped out in less than a year and the tech support was non existent. What a piece of crap (both the equipment and the company). That was our only real equipment failure in 2 years of living in the bus. I regret the fridge we chose, too, because while 7.5 CuFt fits in the space perfectly, the inside of it is so cramped that it doesn't really work well for everyday use. We hadn't really factored in the shelving size and the compartments being so small, we were going by exterior size and how it would fit in the bus. I'd go with the next size up if I were to do it again. Pretty much everything else is working well though.

 

[Danjo-SKO]

What's the reason? Too much moisture?

It doesn’t put out enough heat

 

[cadillackid]

I never keep Zip ties on long enough to ever have them wear out.. seems im always needing to cut them off to add or delete something

 

[Biscuitsjam]

Sounds like you've had your share of frustrations. I was planning on using an apartment stove/oven in mine. It never occurred to me that it was a vented inside. Some day this will all be behind you.

Almost all RV ovens and residential ovens vent directly into the room. Some air has to enter/leave the oven for "convection" in order for the air inside to not "stratify" and heat unevenly. Also, propane ovens need some oxygen to keep burning. Eventually, all heat produced by the oven will be radiated out into the room as it cools back down. Some ovens have vent hoods but this mostly catches steam and smells from the stove, and sometimes some of the stove heat, doing little for the oven heat. Most newer RVs with so-called vent hoods just filter the air and vent back into the cabin.

However, the Summit PRO24G vents an unusual amount of heat. Also, it blows out the top of the door right in your face if you're standing in front of the oven. It would be a problem with any oven, but much more so with this particular model.

 

[witchywoman]

My jig saw from Walmart. Half the time it stays on when I let go of the handle.

 

[Doktari]

Spray WD40 on everything. That will take care of it. I don’t work for WD40.
A lot of the cheap Chinese electronics I’ve bought from Amazon I never used because the instructions don’t make sense and I can’t get them to work. Id rather pay a few extra dollars and get instructions. But most everything I’ve bought for my conversion has been used. Ive got a whole extra bus full of used stuff I bought that wouldn’t fit or work for one reason or another. I dont want to know how much I’ve spent on all that stuff but fortunately it’s not massive. And I slowly find some treasures in there that will work for something. Now my problem is people giving me stuff. Someday it will all get hauled to the Habitat Store.
My Harbor Freight 26” took chest weighs a lot in the short bus. That’s my only gripe on new stuff I’ve bought.

 

[CoffeeGuy]

I bought a Westinghouse iGen 4500 generator for our bus that checked more boxes than any of the others I looked at, and found one for about 30% cheaper than the lowest price elsewhere on Amazon. It ran like crap. Smelled like raw fuel, vibrated like crazy, way louder than it should have been. But it came with a 90 day return policy and I used that time to take it to an authorized repair shop. They found the defect, replaced the parts, and it didn't cost a dime extra, though I did have to drive a few hours to the shop to drop off and pick up. It's a sweet machine, now.

Harbor Freight stock use to suck. Some of it still does. BUT... some of it has gotten so much better. Their Chief brand is solid, so is Predator, and Hercules. Their hydraulic stuff has never let me down. I'll purchase tools that I need for a single job, but if it's something I will use regularly, I buy elsewhere. Sometimes you run into absolute crap. They have some sets of small drill bits (below 1/8") that are absolute crap because they have no cutting edge. My 1" belt sander from there crapped out on me last week, but it took 10 minutes to figure out it was the power switch and 20 more to install a new switch. I even have a milling machine and engine lathe from HF that aren't the greatest, but they sure serve their purpose and have more than paid for themselves. FWIW, I'm planning on liquidating most of my tool collection in the next couple years so I'm not going to over-invest.

 

[joeblack5]

Most of the stuff I put on both our busses was used, came from the scrap yard or I had it laying around.
We like tape cassette music thingies. So bought a used high end panasonic car stereo with tape deck and aux input of fleabay. $60..
A while later a ran into a bluetooth head unit in the scrapyard and I wish I had realized the advantages earlier..
Johan