These pages will detail some of the many modifications to our Class-B vans. Our first van was a very well-built Great West Van – Legend, which we traveled with for 10 years. We are now driving a 2021 Galleria on a 2020 chassis.
Every time we take our van out, we think of new modifications, and the list keeps growing. Check back from time to time to see what the latest changes are.
BTW – Please read the disclaimer below before attempting any repairs or modifications.
Page Contents:
Modification #2 – Debadging
Install – Window Wrap
Purchase & Mod – Windshield Cover
Modification – AC Cover
Modification – Bike Rack
Build – Tank Rinse Hose
Modification – Drain Valves
Modification – Leveling Blocks
Replacement – Steel Rims
Replacement – Smart Plug
Replacement – Awning Ramp Block
Modification – Awning Hole Plug
Replacement – TV Antenna
Replacement – External Pwr Recpt
Replacement – Electric Dump Valves
Modification – Dump Valve Lubrication
Modification – Gravity Dump Valve
Replacement – Aluminum Macerator Cover
Modification – Dump Hose Sleeve
Replacement – Plumbing Hang Straps
Modification – Sliding Door Stop
Replacement – Magnetic Screen
NEW – Modification – Rear External Shower
NEW – Modification – Rear Doors Privacy Area
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TIP#002: Debadging – The second modification after picking up our RV from the dealer involved removing the manufacturer’s emblems and other stickers. A debadged vehicle presents a nice, uncluttered appearance, improves the aesthetics, and makes it easier to clean and wax (IMHO).
Most emblems are installed using automotive double-sided tape. Heating with a hair dryer or hot water can soften the adhesive. Fishing line, dental floss (I like mint), or a thin piano wire can saw through the tape behind the emblem. An eraser wheel and Rapid Remover Adhesive Remover are used by many body shops. Adhesive can also be removed using Goo Gone or mineral spirits.
NOTE: Test the adhesive remover on a hidden area of the paint to make sure it doesn’t damage the finish.
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TIP#118: Window wrap: To help reflect some of the hot Florida sun (and add a unique look), we installed VviViD One-Way Perforated Window Vinyl from Amazon. The peel-and-stick application is an easy two-person job.
The film has lowered the temperature of the glass by more than 20 degrees. The downside is that the holes fill with morning dew or rain and distort the view out the windows.
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A windshield cover with side window screens was an early purchase.
TIP#068: With all our trees, the windshield wiper gap filled up with leaves, so we bonded on another piece of vinyl using vinyl glue to cover the wipers and vents. Super magnets to keep everything in place.
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TIP#141: AC Cover: Another early mod was painting the black air conditioner cover to match the van and replacing the rusting hardware with stainless steel. (TIP#069) The van paint code is located on the driver’s seat pedestal. Our local auto paint store mixed and loaded a couple of spray cans, and we finished off with a clear coat.
Update Feb 2022: The AC on Gal_2.0 is a Turbo II with two smaller fans. When we removed the cover to paint it to match the van, we discovered an opening into the condenser (cold side) of the AC. This would draw hot, moist air in through the hole and reduce the cooling performance of the AC.
Other issues we noticed: the washers holding the cover sides were starting to rust, and the bolts lacked lock washers. A single sheet metal screw was installed between the fans to hold the front edge down. The screw was partially out and also lacked lock washers and flat washers. There have been reports of these covers coming off at highway speeds.
TIP#142: To secure the cover better, we installed a rivet nut, bolt, and clamping bracket in place of the front sheet metal screw, and all hardware has been replaced with stainless steel and installed with Loctite Blue. We may add metal stiffening bars to the side screws to keep the plastic cover from bowing out.
Overall, I consider the design with the open front scoop a ridiculous idea. I’m guessing the designers have never been to Florida during the Love Bug season.
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Bike Rack: One option we had was a rear-door-mounted bike rack. With two bikes loaded, we noticed the bottom mount was flexing the door sheet metal, which would lead to metal fatigue. Inside was a small metal backing plate, but the forces were pushing it in and not pulling it out, making the interior plate quite ineffective. We pointed this out to Coachmen but did not receive a response.
TIP#017: Our solution was to use super automotive adhesive to bond a larger 1/2″-thick aluminum plate inside the door to distribute the stresses better. While we had it open, we added rockwool insulation, making sure to keep clear of the latching mechanism.
UPDATE – We no longer recommend the Coachmen door-mounted bike rack option. As mentioned above, our previous Galleria (ya, the one that had an electrical fire) had a door-mounted bike rack, and we were not impressed.
Some owners have reported the door skin metal becoming fatigued and splitting open. In addition, the upper rack mounts pulled away from the door skin on some vans.
TIP#136: A swing-away hitch-mounted bike rack transfers the weight to the frame and carries the load better. They are also available with ones that can swing to the driver’s side, so you don’t have to walk around the bikes to get into the back of the van.
WARNING: Swing away any hitch mounted gear at night to allow emergency exit through the rear doors.
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TIP#107: Tank Rinse: Rinsing your tanks when there is no water faucet at the dump station, you can make an adapter hose that connects the outdoor shower faucet to the rinse connection for the black tank and uses the water pump to supply water.
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TIP#033: Drain Valves for the tank and plumbing had to be shortened under the coach. They would drag on speed bumps. There is no reason to be that long.
TIP#034: Some of these valves have cracked or broken. We recommend replacing the plastic valves with metal.
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TIP#028: Leveling Blocks: I saw this tip on the web and thought I’d give it a try. Cutting one block in half gives you a few more configurations when stacking blocks.
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Steel Rims
After repeated attempts to eliminate the 63-mph shakes from Coachmen alloy rims, we decided to switch back to the Mercedes OEM steel rims. This has several advantages: tires are easily balanced, rims are stronger, it doesn’t require carrying another size set of lug nuts and matching lug wrench, and it simplifies tire rotation.
Note: If you have alloy rims, the spare is likely a steel rim and uses different lug nuts and wrenches.
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TIP#110: Smart Plugs have been used for years in the marine industry, and RV manufacturers are beginning to use them as well. Smart plugs have an increased connector surface for better connection, weather seals, and are easily connected with no twist.
UPDATE: I noticed the new 2022 Gallerias now have the Smart Plug as standard equipment. What do you know? RvXplor is a leading innovator once again.
UPDATE: The Smart Plug was recovered from our fire-damaged Gal_1.0 van and installed on Gal_2.0.
TIP#123: Again we noticed raw metal edges that needed to be primed and painted on the new van. Mercedes is very insistent that up-fitters prime and paint all raw edges. A rule that Coachmen seems unaware of. (2021-12-21)
UPDATE: Our plug (cord end) melted, and Smart Plug tech said they’ve seen this before and claimed it was from running the AC and charging the lithium at the same time. Pure Bunk! The lithium was fully charged from driving all day, and if we were drawing more than 30 amps, the breaker would have tripped. We ended up having to purchase a new cord and new round receptacle at Camping World $$$ and rewire at the campsite. Smart Plug did send a replacement plug, but I haven’t decided if I want to try it again.
UPDATE: Smart Plug has finally admitted their design was causing the failures. The metal clamping “U” that clamps around the wire was breaking when tightened, causing a plug failure. They have since redesigned the metal part.
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Awning Ramp Block used on the Carefree Awning is designed to lift the awning into the housing when closing. They are designed as an “H”, and the spreader bolt on the top of the H is supposed to tighten the lower portion of the H onto the rail. The threads strip easily, so we improved the design. It uses a “U”-shaped clamp and stainless locking hardware.
TIP#163: If you need to replace your blocks with the new design, DO NOT remove the top screw that goes into the awning material. It’s a real bugger to get back in since the tubing just wants to twist.
UPDATE: Carefree now uses the “U”-shaped blocks like we designed.
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TIP#211: Awning Hole Plug – This mod may not be worth the effort. We drilled an access hole through the cover to the manual rewind socket and capped it with an easily removed plug. Since the end cap is held on by only one screw, it’s easy enough to remove the entire end cap. Either way, an emergency rewind is easily accomplished using the door step accessory (TIP#146).
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TV Antenna: The King OmniGo antenna is as close to useless as you can get. The dealership said that 6 channels out of 72 means it is working as designed. Their comment was, “Manufacturers install them, so you have to buy something better.”
TIP#042: Using a metal suction clamp, a PVC pole, and a small antenna from Amazon proved to be considerably better and received 68 of the 72 channels in our area.
It is not omnidirectional, so you need to use a phone app to see which direction to aim it in. I connect the cable through the exterior satellite connection to the inside wall plate (TV amplifier off). The power amplifier inside plugs into the TV USB for power.
UPDATE: It appears the Galleria 2022 has replaced the King antenna with the Winegard Roadster omni-directional TV antenna. We’ll let you know how it performs.
UPDATE-2: The Winegard Antenna has slightly better reception than the King. Some days it will pick up several stations, and the next day, very few. We will continue to use the pole-mounted antenna instead for reliable, consistent reception.
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External Power Receptacle – The outdoor GFI power receptacle on our van had a black flip-up cover and receptacle, so we replaced them with a white one. After removing the black cover, we noticed the cutout through the van wall had bare metal edges and chipped paint that needed to be primed and painted. We also noticed the black receptacle had a sticker: NOTICE: Not intended for wet and damp locations.
NOTE: Another RV manufacturer mentioned in their video that Mercedes requires all manufacturers to prime and paint any holes and cutouts. Apparently, Coachmen didn’t get that memo.
TIP#161: After priming and painting the raw metal, we replaced the receptacle with a high-quality, hospital-grade GFI that is rated WR (water-resistant). It also has an indicator light to display the status and whether it is OK (green) or has tripped (red). A thin gasket will also be added inside the cover.
TIP#104: A common issue with Galleria RVs is that this GFI outdoor receptacle appears to be the first one in the electrical circuit, and so it is the first to fault-trip. Several other 15-amp receptacles inside the RV are daisy-chained from it, and when the outside GFI trips, all the receptacles on the chain will lose power.
In a recent (6/10/2022) walk-thru video, the explanation for putting the GFI outside was “it’s proprietary.” In my opinion, they wanted to save 5-6 feet of wire when they daisy-chained all the plugs together. I may add this to the some-day-re-do list since I wouldn’t like going out in the rain to reset it on some late night excursion.
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Black Tank Dump Valve pull cable was difficult to operate, and the valve leaked sewerage into the dump hose, so we replaced the valve with a new Camco brand valve. 5-5-2022
TIP#166: While we were at it, we decided to Xplor our options, swapping the manual valve with an electrically operated module to open/close the valve. Replacing the valve was pretty straightforward (except for the sludge waterfall when disconnecting the pipes). The motor module uses a bracket attached to the valve bolts, and the pull shaft connects to the rack and pinion gear.
The biggest dilemma was locating 12 volts DC for the motor. We considered the trailer hitch power or running a wire to the fuse panel under the driver’s seat, but finally found a hole into the Li3 control cabinet behind the rear wheel well. A future modification could be to add a wireless controller to make it even more “Techie”.
(We left the pull cable in place just in case we wanted to go back to manual operation.)
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Dump Valve Lubrication – As long as we were replacing the Black Tank dump valve with a Camco valve, it presented the perfect opportunity to modify the valve for easy lubrication. 5-5-2022
TIP#167: We drilled a tiny hole, the size of the tubing that is supplied with a can of spray lubricant, in the upper edge of the valve. This allows spraying lithium grease into the valve body to lubricate the blade and seals. A very tiny screw closes up the hole to keep out dirt and debris.
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TIP#210: Gravity Dump Valve – While we are on the subject of dump valves, we chose to install an emergency dump valve on the macerator’s passenger side. If the macerator ever goes belly-up, it permits the use of a “stinky-slinky” hose to empty the tanks. Eventually, the hose will be stored in a PVC tube under the van.
A Valterra Sewer Storage Tube can be mounted under the van to hold the slinky hose:
https://www.amazon.com/Valterra-Products-A04-3460BK-Carrier-Adjustable/dp/B01NAU762Z/
We installed the 3 inch Valterra waste dump gate valve from Amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076FG17DZ/
The new valve also allows you to put on a hose flush cap and thoroughly rinse the pump. If you ever have a clog, you can give it a good blast with the hose.
The macerator housing holds around 1-1/2 gallons of effluent that the pump can’t discharge out, as I discovered when removing the clear inspection cover (YUCK!). Because of the dump hose’s up-hill mounting, the macerator dump hose also holds some slop. The new valve will empty the macerator and hose for cleaner winter storage.
For more information about the Thetford macerator, see the Macerator Page
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Leveling blocks or ramps will help give you more room working under the van.
To remove the black cap from the macerator housing, we used a small angle grinder with a medium-grit disk to remove the majority of the black cap.
A small air grinder was used with a medium-grit disk flipped with the grit inside to maneuver around the top of the cap.
Once the majority of the black cap was removed, we used a long strip of 40-grit sand paper to remove any remaining black material.
The new valve was glued on using Oatey All Purpose Cement for PVC and ABS.
The entire cap removal process took less than an hour, and unlike many of my other projects, it didn’t require any Band-Aids. 6/22/2022
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TIP#231: Aluminum macerator Cover – The OEM macerator viewing cover is a fragile clear plastic cover that seems to hook onto speedbumps and other road hazards.
We designed a new cover made from solid 6061 aluminum with countersunk stainless hardware and a beveled edge to deflect damaging objects. The larger diameter provides additional protection for the bottom of the housing. A center screw provides a drain to make cleanout a little less messy. New stainless hardware and new O-rings are supplied with the aluminum cover. Thanks to the suggestions from our customers, the cover is Patent-Pending.
If you would like more information about the aluminum covers, you can send us a note using the form here:
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TIP#151: Macerator Hose Sleeve – Older macerator hoses were thinner and prone to developing leaks. One way to extend the life of the hose is to install a nylon braid sleeve on the hose. The downside is that it requires disconnecting and removing the hose, so you may be better off just installing the newer, heaver hose.
UPDATE: 1/9/23 – We tried installing a sleeve but were unimpressed, so it is no longer recommended.
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TIP#216: Hang Strap Replacement – When our plumbing hang straps broke for the second time, we decided to replace them with something a little more robust. The new strap is hot-rolled steel bar stock, 1-1/2 inch wide by 1/4 inch thick. (The zig-zag bend is to allow for some spring to reduce possible fretting of the pipe.)
Performing a structural analysis on the original strap shows the obvious: the poor choice of material used will result in metal fatigue and breakage exactly where our hang straps broke.
Water tanks falling out, straps breaking, and statements like: cozy wrap applied to van metal walls “increases tensile strength” lead me to believe there may not be a clear understanding of basic metallurgy.
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Door Stop for the sliding door. We purchased the Vancillary Door Stop (expensive) to test it out and were not impressed with the price or the operation. We mounted it temporarily, and when the roller would go over the ramp, it’d be too tight vertically and jam the roller. For permanent mounting, they supplied a couple small tubes of JB Weld. 5-20-2022
TIP#126: After thinking about the idea of permanently gluing the Vancillary ramp to the inside of the rail, we thought, why not just put two small dollops of JB Weld on the track? It’s much simpler and easier to sand off if it doesn’t work.
So far, it has workd great. (We will keep you up to date as we travel.)
UPDATE: It lasted about two years and required another dollop of JBW.
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Magnetic Screen Door
We removed the screen door post behind the passenger seat to provide more seat movement. The pull-out screen is not easy to use, especially if your hands are full. A magnetic screen solves several issues. Plenty of seat travel, hands-free operation, no difficult latching mechanism. We also installed a new handle on the B-Pillar.
Another feature of our mag-screen is that it is mounted with Velcro, meaning it is completely removable when not needed. Contact us if you’d like more information.
2022-09-15
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TIP#253: Rear Shower
While the original bed was out, we took the opportunity to run a pair of PEX water lines (hot and cold) from under the sink to the passenger-side rear screen post. I’ve always liked the idea of a rear shower, which would offer a little more privacy than the side shower. Hanging a tarp or large towel across the open rear doors creates a nice little shower space when boondocking.
Our van came with a water pump override switch in the driver’s side rear screen post. I thought someday this could come in handy if I ever built a rear shower.
For additional information, click link: Rear Shower
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Tip#258: Rear Doors Privacy Area – When creating a private space between the back doors, there are numerous options: A large beach towel, a small tarp, or, as shown, a thick emergency foil blanket. The back cover can be held in place by a variety of methods. Shown here, a pair of spring clips hold the top portion in place while round magnets hold the bottom portion.
TIP#262: Barn Door Cover – Since adding a rear shower, we’ve been prototyping rear barn door ideas. The side shower is adequate but lacks a simple way to create some privacy. There are barn door covers on the web, but they have been sold out for many months and aren’t that difficult to make.
This initial prototype was constructed from Harbor Freight Paint Tarps sewn on a standard sewing machine. A 4-foot-wide tarp fits above the doors and uses a couple large magnets folded in the material to hold it on the roof. The vertical tarp is 6×9, and the only modification is a couple grommets for use with poles and ropes to use it outstretched as an awning. It is held with a couple spring clips. A couple narrow strips of material and magnets can cover the open hinge area if more privacy is needed. (2023/05/27)
