Cabinet Edge Liners... Well, most of the cabinets in the BC20X are pulling away from the laminated MDF in the corners as shown in the initial pics. This makes them not only unattractive but the edge material gets in the way of proper opening and closing of the doors. Ugh. My first repair scenario was to hammer them back into place (didn't last) then use clear gorilla adhesive (works ok with vinyl) and a heat gun on the vinyl to allow it to stretch back into the corners. I even used a round piece (sexy tool I made) to force it back into place nicely. Despite the notion and effort, it didn't work either. The edge vinyl pulled away again.
I found the exact replacement edging material on Amazon, 1/2" black vinyl T edge, and bought 100ft. Much cheaper than buying from Airstream parts folks. Now I need to decide if I do the install with or without some additional adhesive in the groove... hmmm. I think I'll do some of each to find what lasts best. If the fail above happens again, it'd be nice to have it still removable. So, I won't use epoxy but may try permanent double back tape (used to on autos for trim) on one, clear Gorilla glue on another, and nothing on a 3rd... something's gotta stick.
First step is to remove the cabinet door, and retain the hinge hardware for reinstall. Next step is to remove the old edging. It came out easily, which may not be the case "next time" if I add adhesive. I also learned to only take the top hinge off the door ~ it was easier to align correctly if the lower hinge stayed in place.
To make the T edging manageable, I estimated and cut just somewhat "the right length" pieces off the spool, so I could just handle less in the camper. One tricky part on the new edging is locating and cutting the holes for the hinge hardware. The stock cuts in the original vinyl are beautiful, likely laser cut to length and features. I just noted the locations and used a drill with pilot and then larger, after it was in ~ it worked fine but needed vacuuming. Re: reinstalling the new vinyl, the clear Gorilla glue did not work at all. I reinstalled most without adhesives; but I tried to assure that on the rounded corners there was sufficient material to get into the corner well, and used my "pressure tool." All the cabinets look fine and work well now... and I have material to "do it all over again" if needed. At the end of the day though ~ this is a laborious and tedious task and I did all of the cabinets over several sittings. It gets much more laborious if the T channel is too large to capture new material ~ then I had to use (sometimes multiple layers of) double back tape to get the edging to stick well enough.
2000W Inverter... An inverter creates 120v AC from 12v DC (batteries); I have one on the Crusher Too attached to my aux battery and it's helped run blenders, saws, and fast chargers when needed. For the BC20X I completely over-specified the inverter. The reason is that most of the Amazon inverters are from China, despite wherever they were designed, and fail after 3 years or so. I am willing to pay more for confidence and solid ops and Viktron, an English team, crushes mobile and residential solar, inverter, battery control, UPS installs, and the like. So Viktron... now which one... I over-specified again and got the 50amp Multiplus simply because it had Bluetooth and automatic 120v switching (that is knowing what to do when connected to shore power/generator or not). I only have 30amp in the Basecamp so I won't need both of the circuits/phases, but the 30amp version (w/out BT) was not cheaper when netted with the add of BT dongle... it is heavier so yeah, penalty applied. I also can set the inverter I bought to only deliver 30amps, and I'll not install 3 phase wiring. Electrical in the Basecamp is tight actually. Here I've opened the battery and power center bays and found to find the ACin from shore connections.
I ran an extra 10AWG 2 + ground from the inverter to the power center (breakers and fuses, etc) as ACout from inverter to drive all 110v AC on the camper. We'll have hair dryers, Nespresso machine, and AC, even without shore power. Unfortunately the rerouted 10AWG (again 2 + raw copper ground) from the ACin is just a skosh short to reach the inverter where it will be installed on the floor under the front dinette seats just outside the battery box. Grrr... I ordered a 2 pole bus to terminate and re-source 10 gauge to the inverter. Mechanically it's a bear, electrically it is pretty simple. I even made my own battery cables to run from the inverter to the batteries nearby. Why? ~ 'cause I know how and have a hammer crimper as well as a heat gun. It's kindof my jam... and saves me bucketloads.
I drilled a couple of holes in the "wall" adjacent to the battery closet to run all the stuff to and from the inverter. I installed the controller-remote in the battery closet wall. Securing the inverter to the floor was a bit of a task; it is expected to "hang" on a bracket but there's precious little space in the BC20X so floor mounting it was. It is permanent in the BC20X so I secured it directly to the deck and modified my rugs covering the flooring.
The Victron inverter is in and confirmed delivering 120v AC as well as properly recognizing shore power hookup pass-through and switching. Woohoo.
Teak Shower-Bath Floor... Yeah, this is just for a nice warm feel on your feet. Luxury buy.
Cabinet Shelving... I had some extra white melamine cabinet shelving decommissioned earlier @ Blodgett. I cut the right widths from these pieces and used L brackets to add some "organization" to two of the taller cabinets. I encountered cascading issues of course - first off my 6 1/2" battery-powered rotary saw battery was bad and I had to order another one; this was done online only as battery interfaces have changed since original purchase and retail had nothing for me. At least I recovered the saw. I took the delay as a chance to buy a nicer finishing blade as well.
Additional Solar... When we found ourselves in a "no generator" campsite, we ran out of power on day 4 despite sunshine and stock 180w solar on the roof of our BC20X (admittedly we were a bit shaded there). Others in the loop used aux solar to boost recharging. We now can do the same with a potent Zamp 200w suitcase folding solar panel with controller setup which connects directly to an external port on the BC20X. The suitcase and panels are very solid and nicely finished, but they are not light at 47#. I use Zamp stuff on the Crusher Too and on top of the camper as well and all of those work well; good company. The new panels add 200w additional charging from sunshine!
Assuredly Level... I also simplified leveling procedures with installation of a Beech Lane Wireless (Bluetooth) Leveler. It was easy... 1) I leveled the camper both directions and checked with bubble levels, 2) I installed the level transmitter and installed batteries, 3) I downloaded the app, 4) I entered the attributes of the trailer (width & tongue to axel distance), and then 5) zeroed the leveler device in the app. Easy peasy.
Update 11Jun25 ~ Lithium Ion Batteries & BT Dongle On Inverter.. I upgraded the BC20X from 200Ahr AGM LifeLines to 200Ahr LiIon heated Battle Borns. That's almost $2K of batteries... sheesh. Again the issue was not the electrical but the mechanical nature of the install in the cabinet. I chose the golf cart batteries as they are a bit smaller than the G27s, so fit more nicely in my battery cabinet. All went smoothly but for the bruises on my old skin banging around again in the camper's tight spots. Lithium batteries should not be charged below 35° so I bought the heated variants of the BBs for an extra $200 each or so. I wired in a manual heater switch and added a temp gauge to my BMV 712 battery shunt/monitor... I think I can basically predict when temps may fall, or have fallen, to freezing AND I want to charge so... all good. I don't need to keep my computers up really, but I do need to keep power in the BC20X for whatever comes our way.
I wanted the VictronConnect app to show inverter status so I installed the appropriate Bluetooth dongle for the VE.Bus there and violla... added visibility and tracking, just as with the battery monitor. The DRC BC20X is very dialed-in for boondocking anywhere ~ including broadband Internet provided by Starlink in the Crusher Too, as well as power to spare provided by solar or generators and an on-board high capacity inverter backed by killer Lithium batteries. Kala & I weathered heavy winds, bitter cold & rain, brutal heat, and even some human glitches ~ but power will not be a problem henceforth.
