Convince the wife

[cassiesdad]

I have to convince my wife that camping is cool.....bought a 1990 22'.....everything work except the oven. Pilot light but stove will not. With some tweeking I'll get it! Fingers crossed

 

[fendermender]

Welcome, New here myself and just bought a 90 T205. This is a great site...extremely friendly and helpful.
Not sure how good these newer ovens work but the one in my 73 Class C was worthless. I could never even get a pizza right. Either raw dough or burned to a crisp. I tore the whole thing out and replaced with a new cooktop and microwave where the oven was. Then I got one of those undercounter toaster ovens for doing slices of Pizza, muffins ect.

Good luck with the new camper!

 

[awellis3]

I have to convince my wife that camping is cool.....

Welcome to the group.
Here's how to convince your wife camping is cool. Wait on her hand and foot, offer to do any or all of the cooking, do all of the clean up and all of the set up and tear down. Buy her anything she wants to put in the trailer (new dishes, utensils, pans, etc.). In the beginning, avoid involving her in anything technical (like your oven issue). It'll only cause her to distrust her appliances and add doubt about the reliability of her home on wheels.
True story: My wife never camped until we married (29 yrs. ago). When her mother asked in amazement why she would want to spend a weekend in a tent, Penny said, "Why wouldn't I? I sit and read and sew while Wright (that's me) does everything else."
Over the years, she has taken over most of the "inside" chores and is learning more about the trailer's systems. She drives the truck when we hook up and is the navigator. All of this has been accomplished over time and at her own speed.

That's my advice,
Teach

 

[Sunline Fan]

Yes, RV ovens are fairly useless. In order to successfully get it to work, you really need something to prop the dish up on so it isn't so close to directly contact the heat.

Yes, they are kinda a pain to light. You really need to kneel on the floor to get it lit in pilot mode, then turn the knob to the temp setting to get it to fully light.

It sounds like you may already be to this step, not that you just got the stove lit. If you still have trouble lighting it, let us know because there might be a problem with the oven then. I don't hear of oven troubles often though, and most people rarely use them.

 

[jim44646]

Yes, RV ovens are fairly useless. In order to successfully get it to work, you really need something to prop the dish up on so it isn't so close to directly contact the heat.QUOTE]

Ovens aren't useless. They make a good place to hide cookies, candy and other things you don't want the kids (grandkids) to find. Also good storage area for pots and pans.

 

[clueless campers]

Yes, RV ovens are fairly useless. In order to successfully get it to work, you really need something to prop the dish up on so it isn't so close to directly contact the heat.

Ours has a rack. Isn't that normal?

Ovens aren't useless. They make a good place to hide cookies, candy and other things you don't want the kids (grandkids) to find. Also good storage area for pots and pans.

We store bread, chips and snacks in ours.

 

[Tweety]

Teach has a good plan for you! In addition to his suggestions, make sure you take her someplace really really nice with full hookups like Ives Run (Tioga, PA which is up by the NY line). That way there's nothing annoying about the living experience. There's lots to do in the area if you're a bicycler, hiker, boather, shopper, like restaurants, or just want to sit. You don't want her to be bored unless she wants to be bored The worst thing about camping is loading the food into the trailer...............soooo plan some good meals, load up the pantry and make sure you cook them!

 

[awellis3]

Yes, RV ovens are fairly useless.

I must have an exception. Ours works really well. We bake cornbread, cassaroles, everything we do at home in ours.
It does take some effort to initially light the pilot and it takes a minute or two for that first successful ignition, but after that, we're good-to-go. The broiler works well, too.

Teach

 

[Tweety]

I must have an exception. Ours works really well. We bake cornbread, cassaroles, everything we do at home in ours.
It does take some effort to initially light the pilot and it takes a minute or two for that first successful ignition, but after that, we're good-to-go. The broiler works well, too.

Teach

Same here. Once we get it lighted we use it just like our home oven - although it is small. I have the rack on the highest rail. I keep an oven thermometer in it, since the temperature control is off a little and I can never remember in what direction

 

[Sunline Fan]

Ours has a rack. Isn't that normal?

Yes, that's normal. The problem is, when something is put on the rack, there's no good buffer from the burner to the food. So the bottom of the pan always gets fairly direct heat, causing stuff to burn on the bottom if you aren't careful. Some people (I think Tom & Mary told me about this?) have put like a tin foil pan inside the oven, upside down on top of the burner/below the rack, to help distribute the heat a little more evenly.

Mine does get used for storage most of the time...

 

[JohnGB]

Welcome Cassiesdad,

I second Teache's method. And my wife even use to be a Girl Scout Leader before we had kins and use to live at camp when in high school all summer. I just love everything about camping and DW likes to sit under the shade tree and read her book. We now have our own routines, She does the shopping list, food buying and most times loads the food and the clothes while I'm as work.

At camp she set's up the inside and I do the outside. I love to cook camp style and we do some real elaborate meals at camp.

Now the oven, I have heard of the burn it up problems but never had that problem. We have used it to bake deserts and casseroles with. Some have said to use a pizza stone in the bottom to help spread out the heat. In our case the oven is about 25 degrees less than the knob says. Ours is a 2004 unit and do not know about the older ones. While ours does work well, we do not use it that much, we have way too many other ways to cook. Crock pot, dutch oven, camp stove, micro wave, foil packets, BBQ grill.

Good luck and happy camping

John