Now that we’ve lived in the Vilano coach for a while, I’ve identified a couple of small things to improve upon or change up to fit our personal wishes. Luckily sitting parked here in Texas for a month has provided both the weather and time to get things done.
A. The Left side basement door
A right side storage compartment door, which provides access to the biggest storage compartment, the basement, raises vertically and is held fully open by two powerful magnets. The left side basement storage compartment door, however, has to open horizontally due to the bedroom slide coming out over a part of the doorway. This horizontally opening door provides full access but it quickly became apparent, if there is any wind, the door can become a head, arm, and finger cracking hazard, as the wind slams the door open or shut. To fix this issue, while keeping within the Vilano factory design look and feel, I installed a set of magnets (same type as those on the right side door) to hold the door in the fully open position. This solution looks as if it came from the factory and works great — definitely a safety and convenience improvement.
B. Living room cabinets above the above TV
Coming from an I.T. background, I may have a few more electronic, media and network components than the average RV joe…but maybe not too many more. The most common place to set up these components would be in one of the three cabinets above the TV in the living room. However, there’s a problem with using this area. These three cabinets are in the slide out, the walls exposed on two to three sides to sunlight/heat, and there is no ventilation into or between these cabinets which can make them warmer than the room temperature – especially with heat-producing electronics in them. Below are some things I’ve done to negate this heat issue:
- I used a hole saw to cut 4” inch holes in the two walls between the three compartments for air flow;
- I installed a 120mm 120v low-speed electric fan with a speed control into the newly cut hole in the left cabinet, which has my “gear” in it. The fan blows air from inside this left cabinet into the center cabinet or beyond;
- for now, when parked, I use small spacers to hold two of the doors about 1/2 inch open allowing cool air to enter the gear cabinet and blowing warm air out the center cabinet.
This works well, with the fan being near noiseless and the interior cabinet temperature remaining close to room temperature. So far I’ve only been able to test it with bright sunny 90-degree days, but it appears to have eliminated the heat issue. These mods also help to keep the factory installed Furrion DV1200 Media device cooler in the center cabinet. While you can hardly tell the doors are open that small 1/2 inch, some time later I may investigate cutting air flow openings, with grid covers, into the cabinet bottoms just above the TV so the doors can stay closed.
Notes: I have a network printer in the right side cabinet but it has a power saving mode and produces very little heat. All of the video electronics are tied into the DV1200 Media Center and its 5.1 audio speakers and it’s all controlled using a single Harmony One remote control.
I’ll publish a connection diagram for these components in a later post.
Well, you do have a few more electronic devices than I do. However, if I was on the road as you guys are I would my assortment of them. I also like how you rigged the doors. It is important to have your home fit your lifestyle and thus the mods and adjustments.
Well, we may be full-time RV’ers but it doesn’t mean we want to rough it every day. Bonnie and I like to be in touch and we control all our personal business via the Internet. We also like to keep up with what’s happening in the world around us and I don’t feel living lite means having to give it all up. As for the door and those type of things, it’s the small “adjustments” that makes the place feel like home, plus, some of them just make sense. Thanks, Monte! :-)
We are looking to upgrade our RV – in fact, we have already sold our previous camper. We visited the factory in Burnsville a couple of weeks ago and we were impressed with the manufacturing process. We are also considering and were very impressed with the 365.
You had a very nice post about your purchasing experience with VanLeigh – thank you for publishing that. Now that you have lived in yours for awhile what is your opinion of the unit and their service?
Hi Larry, nice to hear from you. The short answer to your question is “No” my opinion hasn’t changed. I still think VanLeigh RV’s customer service is absolutely top-notch. There’s a long history with the Tiffen family in the RV industry so i wouldn’t expect that to change. As far as the Vilano, and our 365RL in particular, we still love it. It’s extremely comfortable and practical. The design was spot on for us exceeding our needs and our wants. However, that’s not to say there hasn’t been a few issues. We’ve had to have one of our slides realigned a couple of times, there was as issue with the slide covers and one of the A/C’s had to be worked on under warranty. But the unit has always been usable and operative which is very important as we live in it full time. We have never regretted buying it. Some of these issues may have been due to VanLeigh being a new manufacturer or perhaps even to our unit being an early unit, #12.
Great idea on the door magnet. Do you have a link to where you purchased these? I want to use the same type of magnet that Vanleigh uses on the other side of the coach as I tend to get slightly anal over such matters. Thanks!
RJ, I’d been given a couple of the magnets on my first visit to the factory having some adjusted made. However the follow ones from Amazon appear to be nearly the same.
https://www.amazon.com/Selling-Rated-Magnetic-Baggage-Replaces/dp/B01INZ7XV2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1500311611&sr=8-1&keywords=rv+door+magnets
Thanks for the great article on the Vilano 365 and how you did your tech setup. We are currently looking to upgrade from our Airstream to a 5th wheel and the 365 is one of our top choices. I have been wondering how I was going to approach the tech setup as most RV’s are not setup to be overly tech friendly in my opinion.
Everyone has different requirements and setups, John. I guess RV manufacturers can’t design their rigs to support them all. I have found the Vilano to be fairly easy to work with and the support from the manufacturer has been exceptional. Best of luck on your decision.