Leaderboard

We finally installed our grapics today on hull 537 "Beacon" It was too cold to install them in Maine after we returned from picking the Ollie up in late October. It was warm enough today in the Florida Keys. We have been on the road since February 3rd and will end this year's trip at the Oliver rally. My wife took the pictures and the graphics/vinyl were done by Banana Banners of Bowdionham, Maine. (Thanks for the referral Mainiac) The photos are of the Pemaquid Lighthouse just 3 miles from home. See you at the Rally.

I bought a set of RV Snappads and installed them with no trouble on the Oliver Stabilizers. Here's an install video I made to show you how easy it was. RVSnappad.mp4

I can't speak to the Traegers. But I bought a Davy Crockett several years ago to use camping. It works great and is a good size to cook for up to four people. Or more. Brisket, ribs, steaks, tri tips, whole chickens, whatever. The WiFi controls make cooking a breeze. And I've heard that some competition folks would like to ban pellet grills because they make cooking too easy. I'm a long-time slow smoker, shoveling coals into my big grill at home. Like you, I wanted similar cooks on the road. Pellet grills fill the bill. The Davy Crocket, and other pellet grills, do not provide an overwhelming smoke flavor. Which is OK. But you can use a smoke tube to add more flavor. Or smoke for several hours at the 150-degree setting for more smoke flavor. I'll often do that with steaks, remove them, crank up the heat and put the steaks back on for reverse searing. Adding Grill Grates https://www.grillgrate.com puts great grill marks on the steaks or whatever. Plus they get hotter than the grill on the smoker. They make a sear station for the Davy Crockett. One downside for me with the Davy Crockett is the spring-like feet on the bottom. I carried it in my truck bed, and bumps on the road tended to make it tip and flop around. Also, I liked it so much I carried it to the back yard when not traveling. It's a long way, and that got old. Its shape is a little unwieldy. In November, I saw a smaller one that came out last year -- the Country Smoker Traveler. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VNN775P/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's $200 at Amazon. When I bought it in November, is was $10 less. It's a lot smaller and way more portable than the Davy Crockett. It does not fit in the Oliver basement. It weighs 43 pounds and is a much more friendly size and shape to tote around. It does a good job, too, although it does not have WiFi and the grill is smaller than the Davy Crockett. But it's more than big enough for two people. I've cooked the same meats -- and vegetables -- on it as on the Davy Crockett, although a full-size brisket won't fit unless it's trimmed down. Plus the Grill Grates that fit the Davy Crockett also fit the Traveler. So now the Davy Crockett is set up in my backyard kitchen. And it has a big brother. I bought the Green Mountain Grills' Jim Bowie, their largest model. They must have an affinity to the Alamo. But, hey -- so do I. I live in San Antonio and know the Alamo's former historian/curator. And a Western artist who recently completed what may be the definitive painting of the battle. The Jim Bowie, which I use to feed crowds, replaced my big steel wood-fired grill, that after 25 years, finally rusted through in too many places to be able to control the heat properly. For pellet usage, the Jim Bowie goes through a lot. The Davy Crockett much less. The Traveler less than the Davy Crockett. I use the Davy Crockett often. Yesterday, I spatchcocked a chicken. Smoked it for about two hours and turned the temperature up to 250 until the chicken breast reached 165 degrees -- about an hour and a half more. It was juicy and delicious. BTW, when I cranked up the temperature, I was working in my office upstairs and changed the setting with the app on my phone. And it notified me when the internal temperature reached 165. I did that sort of thing while camping, too, as the Davy Crockett has its own WiFi. If you have a hotspot or WiFi at the campground, you can do that while out hiking or whatever. Sure beats shoveling coals. Let me know if you have any questions about these pellet grills.

It can. And slow drains like that aren’t good for starting batteries even if you aren’t running them down. So you’ve got a couple of choices - The easiest way is to just disconnect the fridge from the truck when stopped and connect it to your trailer, or to shore power if the fridge has dual inputs. The other way is to use a separate rechargeable battery pack like a goal zero for the fridge. With that, you plug the fridge into the battery pack and the battery to the truck. Just unplug the battery from the truck when the engine isn’t running. These battery packs will have hookups for portable solar panels to keep them charged during the day if you aren’t driving. Many of them are sold as “solar generators” for that reason. There’s also a third way, which is to do like we did and permanently install a second battery in the truck, with solar hookups and a relay that automatically shuts off power from the truck when it’s off.

Just wondering why I would need those, my wife gets down on her hands and knees and put those pads under the jack as I push the jack button. trainman

I like a man who lives on the edge. 🤠

Our cooking changes depending on where we are. If possible, we like to support the local mom & pop restaurants. Cooking outside is the best either with the Weber Q or the Blackstone griddle, and sometimes the mood is lazy quick microwave meals. I Also carry a 12v 110v cooler freezer in the back of the truck. We always wind up carrying more food than needed.

I'm one of those who cooks mostly outside, on a wood fire whenever possible. It's what we like. We've also used a gas grill, and a pocket rocket. We don't usually have power, so microwave is a nonstarter, and reheats and sometimes toast, are done on the fire, or in a lidded pan on the stove in the Ollie. For us, the original Ollie three way fridge could hold food for two, for about two weeks, if I stored things like tomatoes, onions, potatoes etc., outside the fridge, which is actually best, anyway. I process (clean and cut) celery and carrots, etc. and store in smaller containers or bags in the fridge. It's not that hard, really, in my opinion. The smaller freezer ( shoebox size) in my replacement 12v truck fridge makes frozen veggies and meat/ fish a bit of a challenge. But still doable. We shop whenever in town. I also carry shelf stable boxed milk and tinned cream, so that helps, on longer camping trips. Sherry

We bought a National Luna fridge/freezer for the back of our truck, which triples our storage space. That made a big difference for us, and we can get about three weeks of groceries between that and the trailer, if needed. For cooking, we do grill a good bit, but then we do that at home as well. We also substituted a small toaster oven in place of the microwave, which we find to be more versatile. A typical meal for us is one thing on the grill, and one or two things on the cooktop or toaster oven. Some people carry an instant pot and seem to get a lot of use out of them. And some people carry a portable stove as well for cooking outside - we carried one for the first few trips but found that we don't use it that much. The Lukens' have a Cobb Grill and you can search for their posts about it - seems pretty neat.

Thanks John...that youtube is here: Repairing Maxxair with Condensation Issues

Hello! Our Oliver went into production February 17th and we are hull #622. We receive our Oliver April 22. The Shackelfords', yours and ours are all probably near one another. This is so exciting!

I’ve removed the fan blade assembly a dozen times or so for cleaning. I remove and clean the screen even more frequently. A couple of years ago a flock of beetles took up residence between the screen and the fan. I thought that if I turned on the fan at a low speed it might suck them out. WRONG! It was a mess... beetle guts everywhere. When we got home I removed the entire assembly from the trailer. I completely disassembled the fan, cleaned everything, put it back together, climbed back up on top of the trailer and reinstalled it. What I didn’t do was lube anything. I’ll do that this weekend before we go down to the coast next week (Rockport TX).

I had mattresses for my 23 Elite II custom made by Southern Mattress of RM. I am very happy with how they turned out. Very well done and reasonably priced.