Got the 399TH-R home

[anupamdas]

We took delivery of our 399 TH-R from Holiday World RV in Katy,TX. When I went to take delivery of it and saw it for the first time, my intial reaction was "What have I done? Holy crap that is huge? Will I be able to to handle it?" Started the PDI with the help of a list that I had put together from a list in this forum. Was super helpful. However due to the ongoing COVID 19 situation and my sales person having to leave midway because he was not feeling well (I begin to get this sinking feeling), we rushed some of the items on my list. Hopefully I didn't miss anything major. Practiced a couple of hooking and unhooking in the parking lot with the fifthwheel hitch as we were switching from a travel trailer. Got it on the road and parked it in our storage place. As I was going through my mental checklist after parking I realized that I forgot to ask about storing procedures. Do you all have a battery tender hooked up? I have 2 batteries connected in parallel (I think?) Do I need a special tender?
Thanks in advance.

[geotex1]

Congratulations!!! I suppose the best advice will come after a few questions... How will you store your new rig - out in the open or under roof? Where will you store it - home, storage facility, campground? There's no single answer to your question because some of us have shore power at home or where we store and leave it plugged it. Some of us use solar to keep the batteries topped off (and many of us for more). Then there are some who yank and store the batteries with a trickle on them...

[xrated]

We took delivery of our 399 TH-R from Holiday World RV in Katy,TX. When I went to take delivery of it and saw it for the first time, my intial reaction was "What have I done? Holy crap that is huge? Will I be able to to handle it?" Started the PDI with the help of a list that I had put together from a list in this forum. Was super helpful. However due to the ongoing COVID 19 situation and my sales person having to leave midway because he was not feeling well (I begin to get this sinking feeling), we rushed some of the items on my list. Hopefully I didn't miss anything major. Practiced a couple of hooking and unhooking in the parking lot with the fifthwheel hitch as we were switching from a travel trailer. Got it on the road and parked it in our storage place. As I was going through my mental checklist after parking I realized that I forgot to ask about storing procedures. Do you all have a battery tender hooked up? I have 2 batteries connected in parallel (I think?) Do I need a special tender?
Thanks in advance.

LOL....first off, congratulations on the new 399TH....that is a really nice rig. And the LOL at the beginning of this was because when we bought our 394M in March of 2019 and I backed up to it to hook up, I got out of the truck and looked at the "monster" behind me and thought to myself....Holy Crap....what have I gotten myself into with this. At that point in time, I had towed trailers for almost 50 years, but....never a fifth wheel AND never something that big. So I definitely know the feeling of "Holy Crap" and "What have I done". Anyway, congrats, it's a nice one.

[Txfivver]

Beautiful rig, the colors look awesome together!! That new '20 diesel should pull it fine. I was leaving my Solitude plugged in to shore power in my storeroom but I'm pretty sure it was overcharging the batteries. I now unhook the negative cables and use a good trickle charger for a few days and then just leave it unhooked. Welcome to the site by the way and enjoy the new toys!

[Chuck.N]

We took delivery of our 399 TH-R from Holiday World RV in Katy,TX. When I went to take delivery of it and saw it for the first time, my intial reaction was "What have I done? Holy crap that is huge? Will I be able to to handle it?" Started the PDI with the help of a list that I had put together from a list in this forum. Was super helpful. However due to the ongoing COVID 19 situation and my sales person having to leave midway because he was not feeling well (I begin to get this sinking feeling), we rushed some of the items on my list. Hopefully I didn't miss anything major. Practiced a couple of hooking and unhooking in the parking lot with the fifthwheel hitch as we were switching from a travel trailer. Got it on the road and parked it in our storage place. As I was going through my mental checklist after parking I realized that I forgot to ask about storing procedures. Do you all have a battery tender hooked up? I have 2 batteries connected in parallel (I think?) Do I need a special tender?
Thanks in advance.

Congrats on the new rig!

We just signed papers yesterday for a new 399th, and expect to take delivery around labor day. I'm already scared $h!tless! We plan on having the unit professionally inspected prior to taking delivery, just to avoid what happened to you during the PDI. Worth the cost, IMO. We rushed through the PDI on our Class C purchase. Never again.

We hope to FT in ours, so storage will hopefully be negligible. Best laid plans of mice and men.... so, I'm hoping my solar system and inverter/charger will keep things up to snuff if we're away for any length of time. My biggest worry now is finding places to camp with that large of a rig.

[FT4NOW]

For all of you 399 upcoming owners, it's really not that bad once you figure out your turning points. I was nervous too parking it the first couple of times, now I can put it anywhere it needs to go.

Tips for storage, i put extra shelves in the cabinet above the sliding door, wire rack shelving in both bathrooms and both closets, and expandable curtain rods above the shower for towel hanging. If you look up Trones from IKEA, I put a triple stack in our bedroom and 2 triple stacks in the garage.

Also, if interested in dryer venting, search the forum for 'custom dryer vent' and look at the thread i started.

Congrats to all.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

[anupamdas]

Congrats on the new rig!

We just signed papers yesterday for a new 399th, and expect to take delivery around labor day. I'm already scared $h!tless! We plan on having the unit professionally inspected prior to taking delivery, just to avoid what happened to you during the PDI. Worth the cost, IMO. We rushed through the PDI on our Class C purchase. Never again.

We hope to FT in ours, so storage will hopefully be negligible. Best laid plans of mice and men.... so, I'm hoping my solar system and inverter/charger will keep things up to snuff if we're away for any length of time. My biggest worry now is finding places to camp with that large of a rig.

Chuck,
Congrats. Welcome to the 399 family. We opted for the following
1. Full body paint (cost an arm and a leg but totally worth it)
2. Solar system . 200 watt system with a 2000 watt inverter that i found out during the pdi is only connected to the refrigerator. Apparently thats how the factory wires the system.Didn't know that when we opted for it.
3. Residential refrigerator with an ice maker. We are in Texas and the grand design rep at the rv show said that it cools things down quicker and ice cream wont melt in transit..which was the clincher.
4. Double paned windows. Hopefully keeps the condensation down.
5. 3 rd AC.
6. Heat pump
7. King bed

One mistake I made was not ordering the 3 season doors for the back patio. When the rep was showing us a demo unit at the show (which was not a 399) it had the doors. He was showing us how handy it was. I got the impression that they were standard equipment. Nope ours came up with a lame roll up screen which i am sure is going to be a pain in the butt.

My next research topic is to make sure how the inverter is wired. No documents were provided about that in the 50 lbs packet that came with it.

Hope this helps.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[huntindog]

Chuck,
Congrats. Welcome to the 399 family. We opted for the following
1. Full body paint (cost an arm and a leg but totally worth it)
2. Solar system . 200 watt system with a 2000 watt inverter that i found out during the pdi is only connected to the refrigerator. Apparently thats how the factory wires the system.Didn't know that when we opted for it.
3. Residential refrigerator with an ice maker. We are in Texas and the grand design rep at the rv show said that it cools things down quicker and ice cream wont melt in transit..which was the clincher.
4. Double paned windows. Hopefully keeps the condensation down.
5. 3 rd AC.
6. Heat pump
7. King bed

One mistake I made was not ordering the 3 season doors for the back patio. When the rep was showing us a demo unit at the show (which was not a 399) it had the doors. He was showing us how handy it was. I got the impression that they were standard equipment. Nope ours came up with a lame roll up screen which i am sure is going to be a pain in the butt.

My next research topic is to make sure how the inverter is wired. No documents were provided about that in the 50 lbs packet that came with it.

Hope this helps.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

The way I understood it, the residential fridge comes with a 1000 watt inverter wired just to the fridge.

The solar option is a 300 watt panel with a 2000 watt inverter for all outlets. It sounds like they either messed up, or you have an additional 2000 watt inverter that needs to be turned on.

[anupamdas]

The way I understood it, the residential fridge comes with a 1000 watt inverter wired just to the fridge.

The solar option is a 300 watt panel with a 2000 watt inverter for all outlets. It sounds like they either messed up, or you have an additional 2000 watt inverter that needs to be turned on.

Thanks for the note @huntindog . I quickly got back to the coach and checked. I have only 1 inverter installed that is rated at 2000 watts. It came with 2 regular batteries. The guy who was doing the pdi said that it powered the fridge only and that they can rewire it for some more money. I am going to call grand design customer service and see if i can get a wiring diagram to verify what he said as correct

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[huntindog]

Thanks for the note @huntindog . I quickly got back to the coach and checked. I have only 1 inverter installed that is rated at 2000 watts. It came with 2 regular batteries. The guy who was doing the pdi said that it powered the fridge only and that they can rewire it for some more money. I am going to call grand design customer service and see if i can get a wiring diagram to verify what he said as correct

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

This is all messed up.
If you had only gotten the residential fridge without solar, then you would have a 1000 watt inverter just to run the fridge.
I see no reason why that should go away just because you got the solar option...... I doubt you got a break on the price of the solar due to not getting the 1000 watt inverter you should have got with the fridge. I also do not see why your functionality should be constricted due to this.... 2000 watts is far more than the fridge requires. So you in effect got less for your money than you should have.
In my case, the 398 I am waiting on has the solar option, but just the regular gas fridge. I expect all of my outlets, including the microwave to be operational...Naturally no ACs should be powered

I just remembered something I read. Someone had a unit with the solar /inverter that was not working.... It turned out that the GFCI on the inverter was tripped.

Check to see if the 2000 watt inverter is actually producing power. It may be that you have a 1000 watt inverter that is just powering the fridge, and the 2000 watt one is not producing power at all. This would make sense.