Category Archives: Camper Upgrades

Samlex 2000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter: Long Term Review

Camper Upgrades,

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I installed the Samlex 2000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter in our camper 12 years ago. Other than having to turn it on when camping, it has been one of those “out of sight, out of mind” things in life. In other words — it just works as designed — I give little thought to it.

Our Samlex inverter is a model PST-2000-12. It is an industrial grade piece of equipment that has been bolted to the floor of our Milan travel trailer in the front storage compartment. It has withstood the rigors of 29,820 miles of towing, quite often over dusty and bumpy dirt roads.

The Samlex PST-2000-12 stands out as a premium, reliable, and efficient inverter. It’s especially well-suited for applications where power cleanliness, safety, and ruggedness matter — like mobile workshops, solar off-grid systems, or mission-critical backup setups. While it’s priced at a premium, its durability, certifications, and performance justify the investment for users needing dependable and clean AC power.

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Mopeka Sensor Battery Replace and an Update

Camper Upgrades
Mopeka App on my iPhone connects to all sensors via Bluetooth

I’m getting ready for a trip and checked the Mopeka sensors. Oh no! The right propane tank is full, but the sensor battery is low. I’ve had all the sensors for almost two years, and this is the only one that’s discharged. I think it’s a bad battery. In this post, I’ll show you how to replace it. It’s a simple task that anyone can do.

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ProPride Weight Distribution Jack Upgrade

Camper Mods, Camper Upgrades,

Recently I posted a 25,000 mile update on our ProPride trailer hitch along with some maintenance tips. This got me to thinking about something I have wanted to do for about 3 years — replace the Weight Distribution Jacks that came with the hitch. This new version, which ProPride calls the v2 WD Jack (version 2) was released about 8 years after we purchased our hitch.

ProPride now includes the v2 jacks with a new hitch. The original version 1 jacks are no longer sold by the company, although they still have repair parts for them.

Why did I wait 3 years? Because there was nothing really wrong with the originals, other than it was somewhat difficult to remove the plastic propane tank cover. The old jacks did have a couple other idiosyncrasies, but they we’re deal breakers for me.

In this post I’ll discuss the installation of these new WD Jacks, which has already been a great upgrade. It will probably only interest those owners of ProPride hitches with the original version 1 WD Jacks, but some folks may appreciate my approach to solving problems. 

But first a few preliminary comments for the uninitiated —

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Ultra-Fab (tongue jack) Customer Service for the Win!!

Camper Upgrades

 

Ultra-Fab Phoenix 5500 installed in the summer of 2020.

This is story about excellent customer service.

I spent the last 18 years of my career working with companies to improve their customer satisfaction. The biggest problem I faced was the fact that most companies do not truly believe that outstanding customer service builds consumer loyalty and retains their current customers. Nor do they truly believe outstanding customer service attracts new customers.

Most companies pay lip service to customer service and simply pretend they take care of their customers. I know this for a fact. I spent 18 years working to convince companies that great customer service is the road to success and company growth. Too many companies just don’t get it.

Ultra-Fab gets it!!

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ProPride Hitch 25,000 Mile Update and Maintenance Tips

Camper Upgrades

Gosh, how time flies. We’ve had our ProPride Hitch for 11 years and it is the best investment we have made for towing. The best being defined as safety and convenience. 

On our last camping trip we past the 25,000 mile mark with our ProPride trailer hitch. 

For a detailed explanation of how this hitch works, see my ProPride 20,000 Mile Update post back in 2021.

You might observe that in three years we have only towed 5,000 miles. It doesn’t seem like much, but most of our trips are around 300 miles round trip. Given that we camp a minimum of 2 weeks, and usually camp for a month at a time, we are averaging 3 months of camping per year since we retired. 

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