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24 Days Of This, That and the Other… — 2 Comments

  1. Rob and Linda just never cease to amaze me with their valuable, interesting, and attractive blogs (e.g. interactive maps, how-tos, product sources, etc.). We’ll be at Spartan for our annual chassis maintenance June 6, and at Entegra for the end-of-warranty appointment June 12, so this was a valuable heads up for us.

    I’m still thinking about following Rob and Linda’s lead, and stopping in Mishawaka at the factory for Snap Pads to put on the leveling jacks. For certain, they keep the feet off the pavement, which both protects the pavement from physical damage, as well as the feet from standing water and corrosion during repeated or long-term parking, without always having to use boards. However, they do not obviate the need for wooden boards for leveling, if you want to keep the front tires or the tag axle tires on the ground (or boards), when parking on front or side slopes are.

    I’m also considering the new, firmer Flexsteel foam for the driver and passenger seats. That does seem like a foregone conclusion if we keep our Aspire for more than a few years. Got a phone number for the shop in Leesburgh, IN, Rob?

    Allen and Donna

    • Hey Allen and Donna, thanks again!

      Heads up on the Snap Pads you still need to call and order thru their normal ordering process. Since they offer free shipping I don’t know if there is a major advantage to picking them up other than getting them immediately. And FYI you still pay an international currency exchange fee because the business is located in Canada (our fee was $6.98).

      Also, you may want to consider upgrading at least the front jack pads on your Aspire. Not sure what year Aspire you have, but on the 2017 (and up?) the stock front foot pads are a really wimpy stamped plate that tend’s to bend very easily, they are the Equalizer #7849 model. I am going to be upgrading to the much more robust Equalizer #7819 foot pads that have welded reinforcing ribs as well as an additional upper reinforcing plate. I ordered front Snap Pads (10″ round) that fit the Equalizer #7819 foot pad. You may also want to consider upgrading your rear foot pads to the Equalizer #7820 (12″ round) which also has the upper plate reinforcement. The stock rear foot is the Equalizer #7821 which is the same as #7820 just without the upper reinforcing plate. Here’s a link to all the foot pads: https://www.rvupgradestore.com/searchresults.html?Search=equalizer+foot+pad&Submit=

      For the seat foam, also heads up that we have the foam but have not yet done the swap so can’t advise on difficulty level. It seems like it will be a fairly intense project. It involves full disassembly of the seat, possible removal of the base and dealing with clips, hog rings and glue so it is not for everyone. The Flexsteel tech (Bill Trump) says it takes about 4 hours per seat when you know what you are doing (so a full day+ for me!). The incentive for me to do it myself is because Entegra want’s $250 per seat just to remove them and reinstall and that does NOT include any of the Flexsteel labor. I would guess its somewhere in the range of $1000-$1500 total cost for both seats to have Entegra/Flexsteel do the extra firm foam upgrade. The foam cost by itself is only about $200 for both seats.

      The contact to order the firmer foam:
      Lisa Bauer
      RV Customer Service Advisor
      Flexsteel Industries, Inc.
      T: 563.585.8356 | F: 563.583.2712
      A: 3400 Jackson St. | Dubuque, IA 52001
      http://www.flexsteel.com

      Lisa will need the codes found on the top part of the seat tag to order the correct replacement assembly. On our seats those tags were on the back of the seat under the flap. The driver and passenger seat are different and have separate part numbers.

      The foam cost is about $100 per seat. The foam can be shipped to you directly, however the shipping cost may be very high due to the large size of the bundle. Alternately, the foam can be transported to the Flexsteel service person (Bill Trump) in Leesburg, IN for about $20 whenever the truck makes a run from Dubuque, IA (about once a week?). That’s about a 45 minute drive from Middlebury. If you go that route, sure to set up the delivery well in advance of your visit to the area as it could easily be over a week to get the foam from Dubuque to Leesburg. Also the foam takes up a lot of space, so make sure you have some place to store it. Bill’s contact info:

      Bill Trump
      Flexsteel
      106 W. Van Burren Street
      Suite R
      Leesburg, IN 46538
      574-536-8506

      Take care and keep us posted on your results!

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