Born Free Leap'n Lions RV Club Info & Discussion Forum

Ok saturday the 13'th we make the 5 hour drive to the factory. and meeting Ed Newman, he has been quite helpfull considering we had first contacted him the night before he was going to new york for thier last rv show.

What as veteran RV owners should i look at specificly on the born free coaches ill be looking at saturday? is there anything that i should ask Ed about that you had wished you asked before you purchased your first RV?

Also ive noticed that on Some RV's like the winnebago view/itasca navion. that the gas engine model does not use LP but a gas generator.

Is that available with the born free 22-r 24"ers?

Oh btw besides the visit to the factory is there anything in that neck of the woods you suggest i take a look at for sight seeing? might as well make a weekend of the trip!

Unless you order a diesel engine the gas models with a generator willl be gas powered using the fuel in your chassis tank.

ok that will be good to know thanks! with it running of the chassi's gas.. is the gas tank larger than a diesel engine W/ LP generator since you wont need a 25 gallon LP tank? or is the LP tank just left off making the chassis slightly lighter?

The LP tank is also on the gas engine powered models to run the water heater and the refrigerator. The refrigerator can run off of either LP gas or AC electric power if you are plugged into campground power. In a gas engine powered model, it is good that the generator draws it's fuel from the 55 gallon gas tank. On diesel powered models, the generator is a LP gas powered model which will empty the 23 gallon LP tank rather quickly.

The fuel tank for both the gas and diesel powered models are the same at 55 gallons for the Ford E450 chassis used on 24' and 26' Born Free coaches and is smaller at 37 gallons for the Ford E350 chassis used on coach models shorter than 24'.

whemme wrote:The LP tank is also on the gas engine powered models to run the water heater and the refrigerator...

... and furnace.

bcope01,

You are so corrrect - I forgot about the furnace.

We have a 40 gallon propane tank on our BF. The previous owner had it installed when it was built for him. Don't know if they have installed any others or not. But if they did one, maybe they would install another.

We have only filled it once a year since we bought it in 2003. We dry camp on Iowa fall football weekends, using the furnace. And we run the frig on propane while traveling, whether you agree with that practice or not. Our perception is that we don't use a lot of propane.

Sharon Harrington
2002 24RB 7.3 Powerstroke

If you plan on towing, inquire about the hitch setup on Born Free. It's a little different than the standard Class IV hitch setup. If you're buying a new one, you can have a standard Class IV hitch installed. If you're looking at a used one, you may have to do some "improving" to the hitch setup if you plan to tow anything besides a car four-down.

Roger

wife and i are planing to pull a small trailer to take two 800 LB honda silverwings. and other times just an MINI cooper (2400 lbs) so we will try to get the best hitch we can put in. thanks for the advice!.

It's not so much that the hitch isn't competent as much as it won't accept a standard off-the-shelf draw bar. Look it over well. Were I having a new one built, I'd certainly have a class IV receiver installed instead of the stock Born Free hitch setup.

Roger

My 2006 came with I believe a class III hitch rated at 5,000 pounds. I had no problem with taking my Blue Ox tow bar and using it on the Born Free. Maybe the hitch design changed in the past few years.

Why wouldn't yours accept an off the shelf tow bar? Was the pin hole in the wrong place, or did the bumper design interfere? I guess I was lucky mine worked out, because I would have never thought about it not fitting.

John

What to see -
Once in Humboldt, there are two resturants that are very good. One is at the North end of town near the High School. Excellant food and great place to talk business. The other is downtown where the owner has converted the old John Deer shop into a resturant. Your salesman will know where both resturants are - hard to miss either of them.

There is the Grotto, unique collection of rocks and interesting history. West Bend.

New quilt shop in town, in the American legion's building downtown (one of the employees at Born Free is also part owner)

Antiques - coulple of shops in town, newest one is called "Teresa's Antques" and is on Hwy 169 as you go through town. Bought a couple of nice items there.

Trees in Humboldt hadn't changed much when we were there two weeks ago, but everything south of Minneapolis should be in full fall colors.

Generator - We have a new 08, 24 footer - just brought it home. We have a the generator in ours, just now getting it ready for winter. Other items, we would be happy to entertain any questions you might have or share our information and experience with you. Feel free to contact me.

We've towed a car hauler with both 32-ft Presidents we owned, and the trailer is a Load Trail 18-ft wood deck dual axle (both with electric brakes) rated for 7,500 lbs, and it weighs in at 1,900 lbs. I added a lockable storage bin on the frame, so with hardware, straps, etc it's right around a ton.

With the first 32-ft prototype, equipped with a Class III hitch, we towed a Mini Cooper with no problems, but for our bigger BMW X3s (at 4,200 lbs) we required an upgrade to a Class IV hitch during the build of the latest rig.

We added a Prodigy brake controller to the RV, and another controller to one of the BMW X3s. So, now when we arrive with our 51-ft train, and if there is no long pull-through sites, I can drop the BMW off the trailer, unhitch the trailer from the RV, park the RV, hitch up the trailer to the X3, and park the trailer wherever I need to.

This also gives me flex in using the trailer and X3 in other ways for hauling light cargo, or even taking the RV with car and trailer for service, and being able to drive away in the BMW while waiting for service to be completed. I considered the other forms of towing, and this made best sense for us. By the way, if you buy an electric brake controller from Camping World, they have a fixed price to install, even if it takes hours and spare parts to make it work. BMW's standard hitch does not enable the brake control pin, so the Camping World techs had to communicate with BMW service techs to figure out how to set it up the way I needed it. The total for the controller and BMW installation was under $200.

I would be glad to answer any quesitons about this setup.

Hey Bill & Bill, don't forget the kitchen stove unless you eat out all the time.

Oh... and don't forget to give Ed a hard time... in general and about everything. He deserves it. You can tell him I said so.

He's one of the nicest sales folks you'll ever get the opportunity to work with.

Roger