Moving Thermostat & Fan Controls (2019 315RLTS)

[howson]

One of the next projects on my list is moving the fan and thermostat controls from the hutch to where they are in the 2019.5 and now the 2020 315RLTS. Why? Because with a coffee pot brewing on the hutch counter the heater will never come on (if it's cold). If it's hot the air conditioner will never turn off. Hard to see the fan control, too, as you have to scrunch down to see the button labels. (Grand Design was smart to move them!)

So has anyone done something like this and have any tips to share?

Early 2019 control location:



Later that same model year:

[TucsonJim]

Howard - I was discussing this with another TT owner at the Quartzsite rally. He moved his controls to the outside of the wood panel located just to the left of the current location in the second photo. In the new location, I wonder if the wall heats up enough when the furnace is running to trick the thermostat into thinking it's warmer than it really is? It's experiment time....

Jim

[Cate&Rob]

howson
Hi Howard,

If you are going to move these, why not move them right around the curved corner into the hallway opposite the entry door? This is where the thermostat is on our 303 and being very central to the kitchen/bath/bedroom it reacts well to a balance of temps in all these locations.

Rob

[howson]

howson
Hi Howard,

If you are going to move these, why not move them right around the curved corner into the hallway opposite the entry door? This is where the thermostat is on our 303 and being very central to the kitchen/bath/bedroom it reacts well to a balance of temps in all these locations.

Rob

Well what the heck--they are both Reflections made in the same factory and controlled by the same product manager. Why the heck did they put my trailer's controls in the hutch when yours are in the hallway!

I'll definitely consider it an option. I know getting the controls out from behind the hutch won't be much of an issue, but I'm not sure about the paneling. When I did the Winegard project it was much harder to run wires than I'd anticipated.

[Cate&Rob]

Well what the heck--they are both Reflections made in the same factory and controlled by the same product manager. Why the heck did they put my trailer's controls in the hutch when yours are in the hallway!

GDRV-Megan
A great question to ask Micah .

Re: Feeding wires around a curved interior wall . . . I did this on the similar curve inside the bedroom of a 303. (for additional lights beside the mirror in the bathroom) . . . the wall board is not very tightly attached to the wall studs. I slid a thin plastic strip in through the existing opening and it followed the wall around the curve between the studs and the wall board. I attached the wires to this plastic strip and pulled it out the new location hole.

Rob

[GDRV-Megan]

GDRV-Megan
A great question to ask Micah .

Re: Feeding wires around a curved interior wall . . . I did this on the similar curve inside the bedroom of a 303. (for additional lights beside the mirror in the bathroom) . . . the wall board is not very tightly attached to the wall studs. I slid a thin plastic strip in through the existing opening and it followed the wall around the curve between the studs and the wall board. I attached the wires to this plastic strip and pulled it out the new location hole.

Rob

good question! I'll check with Micah.. thanks!

[GDRV-Megan]

GDRV-Megan
A great question to ask Micah .

Re: Feeding wires around a curved interior wall . . . I did this on the similar curve inside the bedroom of a 303. (for additional lights beside the mirror in the bathroom) . . . the wall board is not very tightly attached to the wall studs. I slid a thin plastic strip in through the existing opening and it followed the wall around the curve between the studs and the wall board. I attached the wires to this plastic strip and pulled it out the new location hole.

Rob

According to Micah, the reason it was changed from the hutch to the side of the overhead cabinet (as the 2nd photo in post #1 shows) is because of feedback from the Hershey Show in 2018 - it was the same complaint (coffee maker on the hutch was preventing the heater to turn on or the AC to shut off depending on the temps).

But the reason why they haven't put the thermostat in the hallway (like in the 303) was because on the 315, the wall curves, and then there is an opening for the bathroom, which does not allow for the thermostat to be installed in that location.

[howson]

MOD COMPLETE! Post 1 of 2

Cate&Rob & TucsonJim and anyone else interested-- I got it done today! Much easier than anticipated. First, here's the final result:

Note the old holes in the hutch backing are covered over--for now--with Gorilla tape. Once this quarantine is lifted Fran will likely refinish the entire rear panel of the hutch. Also note that the top of the thermostat is aligned with the bottom trim of the hutch's upper section. If either control is too high the Convenience Center's door will impact the face--not quite enough space behind the handle.


First off, I want to credit Cheryl May Jessup from the Facebook Grand Design Reflection 315 RLTS Owners group. She posted on 2 Jan about how she and her husband "got the cabinet down" which led me to look closer at the bathroom's upper cabinet. Upon close inspection I realized it has a separate rear wall from the trailer's! Once that cabinet was down, I was sure the wall behind it was a perfect place to access the wires (and I was right).

First, to ensure there was no power on the thermostat or MaxxAir control wires, I removed the Rear O/H fuse.


The covers pop off both the thermostat and MaxxAir fan control. The bottom of the control cases are screwed into the hutch panel. The thermostat has six control wires in a brown sleeve. To remove the wires, depress the small gray release lever and gently pull the wire out. Take a picture of how the thermostat is wired! The MaxxAir has what looks like a phone cable plugged in the back--easy to pop out.




The cabinet in the bathroom comes down with the removal of six screws. As previously mentioned, note how the cabinet has it's own rear wall. That makes it possible to make a hole in the trailer's wall behind the cabinet without worrying that it will be seen afterwards.



The two wires were easy enough to find among the gaggle of them behind the bathroom wall. Be gentle when pulling as the wires may be wrapped around other wires. You may have to dig your hand back there and guide them up from behind the hutch. I taped up the MaxxAir "phone" end so the tab didn't break off.

Using a sharp utility knife and being *very* careful not to penetrate too deeply (there's wires and a vent on the right side!) I cut out two small sections around a stud of the bathroom wall. Using a large bit in my drill I worked both sides of the wood stud to make a large enough hole for both wires to pass through. The DW held a cutting board on the right side while I drilled the wood from the left to make absolutely certain I didn't hit any wires or the vent.



See next post for more info...

[howson]

MOD COMPLETE! Post 2 of 2

Last steps are to mock up the mounting locations, drill holes, rewire the controls and mount them. Standard stuff--nothing cosmic about it. Popped the fuse back in place and everything worked as advertised.

Took about 2 hours from start to finish once the wire access mystery was solved.



Summary
This is an relatively easy mod that with even modest handyman skills anyone can accomplish. A helper is highly recommend to remove the cabinet and help fish wires.

Any questions, fire away!

-Howard

[Cate&Rob]

howson
Hi Howard,

Once you were inside the wall from the bathroom side (cabinet removed) and past the wall stud, were there other restrictions inside the wall that prevented moving the thermostat further from the buffet and "around the corner" into the hallway? Just curious . . .

Rob

[howson]

howson
Hi Howard,

Once you were inside the wall from the bathroom side (cabinet removed) and past the wall stud, were there other restrictions inside the wall that prevented moving the thermostat further from the buffet and "around the corner" into the hallway? Just curious . . .

Rob

In post 8 you can see wood supports (facing the camera) that are mounted in the wall to the left of the visible stud. Those vertical supports are there so it's possible to mount the towel rack (much lower on the wall, obviously). Further left of the supports is another stud. Too much work to try and get through them. The install I did mimics what the factory has done on the late '19s and newer 315s. The DW is very pleased!

[howson]

Cate&Rob -- here's another picture of that wall area (forgot I'd taken this pic) showing the obstructions to going any further. The gap between the two studs is the space the controls are mounted to on the kitchen side of the wall. Edit: The mounting location in the kitchen is lower than the opening made in the bathroom wall shown below, so that's why I had to use the 10ga wire to guide the wires through the wall on the other side.

[Cate&Rob]

Cate&Rob -- here's another picture of that wall area (forgot I'd taken this pic) showing the obstructions to going any further.

I can see where that would be an obstruction to going further around the corner .

My thought was that getting the thermostat even further from where there might be cooking/coffee appliances on the buffet counter, would be a good thing. They do this on the 303 by putting the thermostat in the hallway where it can monitor a balance of bedroom, bathroom and main living area temperatures (as discussed earlier) . . . I just wondered why they wouldn't do this on other models.

Thanks for the extra detail . . .

Rob