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Two years ago I went on a 60-day guided caravan (20 rigs) through Mexico to Belize and back. It was one of the best trips of my life and I'd do it again in an instant! Having said that, I'd never do that particular trip alone. And don't even THINK about guns or ammunition, drugs, or anything else the Mexican Government condemns. At the border, they X-rayed several of our rigs from bumper to bumper. There were also quite a few random inspections throughout the country. Travel into Baja is a little easier because it is considered the "frontier", but the same restrictions on what you can bring will apply. http://adventurecaravans.com/tour/yucatan-colonial-mexico/

GOOD NEWS Natchez Trace Campground has agreed to offer us a 20% discount on campsites again this year. ?To receive the discount, you need to mention you are attending the Oliver Travel Trailer Rally, give your name and the number in your party (needed for planning purposes). There are lakeside sites available but for convenience you may want to request a campsite in the area nearest the Town Hall. This campground is quite large. GREAT NEWS Oliver Travel Trailer Company will graciously and generously pick up a number of expenses for the rally. Most of our meal costs that includes a BBQ cookout ??Friday evening and a Cinco De Mayo Fiesta ?Saturday evening will be sponsored by Oliver Travel Trailers. In addition, Oliver will pay the cost of the rental of the "Town Hall" where most of our meetings will be held. A Big "SHOUT OUT" to Oliver Travel Trailers ! THANKS Hardrock

Coy, thank you for all of your work organizing this! Don

Some states have agricultural inspection stations and will confiscate some live plants and animals. Be careful about hitchhikers. I once picked up a lady and her small child walking on the interstate. It was VERY HOT Arizona day and and they needed water. I thought I would take her to the next town and get her help. In the middle of nowhere was an immigration blockade. I was able to convince the Border Patrol that I was merely concerned, but I was detained until they throughly checked me out. The point is, not all inspections are done at the state lines or international borders.

Everyone should know that this Rally (as opposed to the first Oliver Rally) is really an Owner's Rally. Hardrock has already spent numerous hours in coordinating with the folks at Oliver and various campgrounds in trying to arrange dates, places, sponsorship, activities, etc. A big thanks should be sent Coy's way for getting this thing off the ground! And, since it is an Owner's Rally, if there is anything that you might want to see, do, or hear about, be sure to let Coy (Hardrock) know. If there is anyway possible, I'll be there. Bill

Scotty, sorry about the delay, I'm usually only on here on my phone and that is pretty difficult at times, never mind attachments... Your checklist looks good, I marked a few questions/comments Procedures-for-Summarizing-Oliver-LE2-84RV.docx.docx

That 13.5V is DC volts and there is NO DC power available from "the landline cord." That cord supplies 120 VAC to the charger/converter which in turn charges the battery and supplies 12 VDC to all the accessories in the trailer. It also supplies 120 VAC to your outlets and the AC side of the inverter. This sounds as if the heater was plugged in while the trailer was disconnected from outside power and was getting its power from the batteries through your inverter. That would quickly run the batteries down, make your inverter go into a low voltage state and shut down, which kills the power to the heater as well. In order to use a high current draw accessory like a heater, you MUST have the trailer plugged into an external power supply and make sure the outlet that the heater is plugged in to is not drawing off the batteries. (This would assume that you have some outlets that are ONLY connected to the inverter--not likely.)

Um, no. It's your travelling second home, but it's travelling. You still have to respect and honor state laws, which may differ from your home state. And travelling into Canada, you can expect an inspection. In at least fifty percent of our crossings, someone inspected the interior of our Ollie. I don't know much about Mexico crossing, as I have not done that. they don't like guns, anymore than Canada, from what I have heard As far as States, don't even think about transporting a hand gun through new York, or several other states. Leave it at home, even if you have a permit. Unless you have a new York permit, you are subject to arrest and jail and fine. Check out the websites. If your tail light flickers, you could, possibly, be in big trouble. Open alcohol containers, in the unoccupied trailer, no big deal. Unless you are trying to bring big quantity into Canada. check the website for admissable quantity before duty. Rx drugs. Most ok. If you have Rx for med marijuana or scheduled drugs, carry a prescription copy with you. States that don't allow med marijuana will not tolerate it within their borders. Second home or not, your home is on the move. Federal law will likely prevail, which means no, and arrest, and consequences. Many states do not honor reciprocity on guns, bear spray, pepper spray, even if you have the proper permit in your state. Some, and many, do. It's up to you, if so inclined, to know the rules on visited states, and comply, appropriately. It may seem that we are a homogenous country with open borders, but we are not. Every state has rights to limit or expand certain freedoms as they see fit, and it's up to you as the traveller to know, understand, and keep them.

Hi Bill, I did contact Sage and he is trying to help me out. I needed to take a break from my Ollie with it's problems......so it's taken me a few days to get back to the forum. I did take off the hitch a reattach it to instruction. But I'm having the same problems. I will continue to try and work them out and get back to the forum....as it might be useful information to others. Carole

Good to hear that a date has been agreed upon. Let the planning begin. Also glad to hear you are planning on being there Don Thompson, we look forward to meeting you. We do have plans for that time already in place but are going to try to move things around to get there. We are signed up for the "Spring Fling" in the White Mtns but that is not until the next weekend. Hope to see you all there.

Hey Justin, You sound an awful lot like me 35 plus years ago. When I got out of high school 40 years ago my father got me a job working in the same factory as him except a fairly decent job in Quality Control. I hated it from day one but made the best of it and actually worked my way up into a pretty good position today. I know the nihilistic angst you speak of firsthand. Looking back at this point, I'm glad I stuck it out but only because I'm less than 5 months from collecting a pension but if I would've come across something else, I would've left in a heartbeat. Sounds to me like you're actually in a pretty good position. You have a vocation that doesn't require you to be tied down too much. There are thousands of retirees out there living in RVs that would probably love for someone to show up at their doorstep and provide them with a nice relaxing massage and some youthful banter (thinking like Quartzsite in winter). Why not 'Have massage table will travel'? I bet if your energetic enough you could definitely make it happen. There are a lot of forums you could let yourself be known on and word of mouth travels pretty good as well. Seems like it'd be a pretty cool enterprise and as with any new enterprise you might want to have a nice cushion in case you land on tough times. Or you could find a town you like and stay long enough to make enough money and move on. Good luck, wishing you a 'Long strange trip'. Jim

Since the connection between the camera and the monitor is wireless there is no way to lose connection by jiggling the wiring, so it's power to your monitor that's being lost not connection to the camera. The female 12 volt "power ports" in most cars/truck are a piece of junk. The male plugs just won't stay seated in them (watch the video and you will see the power button going off and on as it loses power.) You'll have to find a way to keep the connection hot. You can alleviate some of the night time glare by tilting the camera up so you do not "see" so much of the trailer. The IR LED's that come on after dark are seeing the reflection of the stark white gel-coat and closing down the lens, so glare is normal for night time (I just turn it off after dark.) The vacuum created behind a moving vehicle causes rain water to collect on the plate covering the lens of the camera and makes it blurry. If you figure out a solution to that please let me know.