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Our Zip Dee Chairs are close to 25 + years old and we are still using them everytime we go camping. We did however just get new Dark Blue Sunbella covers for them to match our Oliver's new color scheme. Since we wouldn't leave home without them, we had to find a convenient place to store them. The attached pics shows our Chair Holder, which also holds our umbrellas inside the closet. The first pic shows just the Holder & umbrellas, second pic show the Holder with 1 chair, the third pic show the Holder with 2 chairs and the Sink's Cutting Board slide next to the chair. The original plan was to use Velcro to hold the Holder to the Closet's wall, but it fit snugly without velcro. I put a little Teak Oil on the Wood Arms Pads and Waxed the SS Frame, they look new, good for at least another 25 years. BTW, these chairs are the most comfortable chairs we have ever used. Now onto the next items on the "Honey Do List," a Bike Rack-Teak Table (with ComPass Rose) for the Dinette, Teak Pantry & Microwave Counter, and of course finish the Teak Nightstand Pull Out Table, just to mention a few!

If you want to check out the Nashville area, the following is a great spot to stay for a few nights, it is on the shore of a lake (busy boat traffic during the day, quiet at night) and really close to east Nashville. Check out the city zoo, it is quite nice, and the most excellent Lane Motor Museum. Both are a short drive away. The museum has room in back for an Ollie, I parked “Mouse” there for half a day. The zoo, nope. Nashville drivers drive fast and are quite aggressive, stay off the freeways and you will be fine. Anderson Road Campground, J Percy Priest Reservoir We spent two nights in Henry Horton SP while our 2006 Ram Cummins was getting an unexpected complete hydraulic system transplant ($4000!) in nearby Columbia. HH seemed very nice, fairly laid back and quiet compared to Fall Creek Falls, which is a complete madhouse in summer. If you do decide to stay there, be sure to hike back to Fall Creek Falls itself, it is pretty impressive for an East Coast waterfall 😬. Just be sure to approach the Park from the southwest (Hwy 284) not from the northwest (through Spencer), that Hwy 30 is a steep twisty nightmare with a trailer. It sure is fun in a sports car.... John Davies Spokane WA

This one works well. You can place it atop the Tow Vehicle or on the tripod. https://www.amazon.com/KING-OA1501-Portable-Omnidirectional-Antenna/dp/B01MSDL4UU/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=king+portable+antenna&qid=1618153214&sr=8-3 We also have a cheapo Walmart flat indoor antenna that can be placed in the window facing in whatever direction the signal is transmitting. Works well for short range.

John, Looking forward to being able to monitor the BattleBorn with a tablet in the TV and campsite, that's the only device we use that is Bluetooth capable. Good advice about how to connect shunt to battery, was wondering about that and I do have a battery master switch installed. Thanks,

FYI the VictronConnect app works great, but you can only have one device (a phone or tablet) connected at a time. I like to have my iPhone connected when towing in the truck, to see what is happening in back. Then when inside the trailer I turn that app off and connect with my hard mounted iPad Mini. I disagree, just a little, with overland’s comment about attaching all the grounds to the Victron shunt, especially if you have an inverter. You should not stack more than four cables on any one connection. Having a nearby ground bus bar or stud makes it easier to manage the many cables, and to add more in the future. Simply connect that bus bar to the Victron shunt with a short, very heavy gauge jumper cable. Be sure to attach the power wire for the shunt directly to the batteries, not on to a switched source, or the system will get confused and reset the state of charge to 100% if the batteries are disconnected, or if you have a battery master shutoff switch installed. The system uses only about 5 milliamps on standby, which is negligible. You might as well buy the optional Victron temperature sense cable and install that, it provides temperature data that is very useful. (It also has a fused power wire, so you do not need to use the one that comes with the shunt.) Your batteries may not need that temperature compensation, but YOU need the info so you can monitor what is happening in the “hot box” compartment. I am not sure if this is compatible with the model of shunt you ordered, this fit my BVM-712 Smart unit. https://www.victronenergy.com/accessories/temperature-sensor-for-bmv-702 If you add another Victron product like a smart MPPT solar controller, you can easily set up a network and they will talk to each other, and you can see the battery temp on the solar app display, for example. Very cool. John Davies Spokane WA

Took your advice and ordered a Victron shunt this morning. We use a tablet with Bluetooth when camping, so should work well monitoring battery, too. https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt Thanks,

I remain a fan of Rejex, though it is considerably harder to apply since you must strip off all traces of any previous wax and debris like sap and tar, even the leftover carnauba from your wash product will affect how well it sticks to the gel coat (or paint). It also cannot be done in direct sunlight. Apply it incorrectly and it will disappoint.... I use it on my cars too and since they and the Ollie are garage kept and neither of us commute to work, I let the job go a lot longer, up to two years. For prep, use a strong solution of genuine blue Dawn dish detergent, not a generic version which may be less effective, to remove dirt and any wax. Then follow up with 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner 08984 . A quart size will last a couple of Ollie cleanings and can be found at a local auto paint retailer for about $15, body shops use this product routinely as a paint prep. If there is stubborn debris a clay bar will usually get that off. “Baby butt smooth” is the goal. Power buffers are not needed IMHO unless the surface is neglected. I also like https://www.meguiars.com/automotive/products/meguiars-gold-class-car-wash-shampoo-conditioner-g7164-64-oz-liquid for normal washing. But it does have wax in it, so that has to be gone before the Rejex can be applied. John Davies Spokane WA

I searched and searched the Net and local brick and mortar over to find what may be one of the last tins of 3M Marine Ultra. A email to 3M reveals that this product has been discontinued and Their suggested replacement is the liquid-based 3M™ Perfect-It™ Boat Wax, 36113. As a fan of paste waxes, a liquid replacement is not great news but I will try a bottle and see.

Anderson Rd. campground looks like it's pretty close to the airport, and fairly close to a lot of interesting spots: the new Opryland (25 minutes?), Gaylord hotel (awesome gardens, indoor, and amazing Christmas decorations from November on), and, of course, the reservoir. There used to be a restaurant not far away (Darfon's) with excellent food, if you don't want to venture into the city. Traffic can be problematic on that section of the freeway closeby from 4 to 6 or 7. But, it's still not far from the fun in downtown Nashville, which we love. Wander from bar to bar, and enjoy music of all types. It's a wonderful town. Lots of parking for a truck in downtown lots, just a few blocks from the fun.

Henry Horton SP in TN is gorgeous per a friend there now.

Since everyone is talking about (older) Tacoma, I thought you might like to watch this video, comparing the Tacoma and a Ford Ranger in a challenge. (Read the comments if you have time. Some good info here.) The guys used a 5,000 lb true weight utility trailer, so more than the Elite, but less than a II. BUT, a lot of squared off frontal area on the utility trailer. Do you have a Ranger? I test drove one in 2019, and really liked it as an around town, sometimes tow vehicle. Some great features, lots of payload for a midsized, (depending on features), and 7500 lbs tow rating. Very comfortable cab and seats. I don't know about a II, but I think it could be fine for many Elite owners. Especially if they were mostly flatlanders. flatlands. You don’t have time to watch the whole thing, slide on over to the 14 minute mark. That's the Ranger part of the test, and the comparison is at the end.

I have an antenna with a similar design as the one SeaDawg posted (the one with the two circles) on the roof of my house that does well for us in getting our local stations (we also shun cable service at home though they still get our $$ as our only choice for high speed internet...). Different antenna designs optimize for different situations. If you are expecting to be far from the broadcast towers for instance you may want to get something that you can aim toward that city out there somewhere and pull in a far away signal with a tight-beam type antenna whereas if you're near urban areas a wide angle antenna that has less range may be just the ticket. BTW I had an uncle who installed antennas in rural western MA when I was a kid and one thing he stressed was that higher was always better. He was *really* good at climbing trees which is where he'd often end up putting antennas for clients, with big cable runs back to the house. This page goes into a bit more detail on the various categories of antenna along with a bit of additional info to help dispel myths about needing to spend a ton for "digital TV capable" antennas and such. Elsewhere on the site you can type in a zip code to  find  out where the nearby towers are, which is super helpful if you are trying to figure out where to aim directional antennas.

More than likely - if I owned a 3/4 ton TV I would not use the a weight distribution hitch. A case can be made for all of the "what ifs" in the world but at some point a person can simply get carried away with just about anything. As long as each person is at least aware of all the risks involved, the legal constraints, and the potential risk that they just may be putting others in, then they should be able to determine what the answer is for their own purpose and comfort level. Bill

I'd guess that a "rubbing compound" is a bit too aggressive at this point. I'd start with just a simple polish of your choice followed by the wax as you mention. Bill

I agree that Battleborn is probably the better choice for a simple install. There was likely a good reason that Oliver only used LifeBlue for a year. With that in mind, I think the most minimal install would be the batteries and a new monitor. For a battery monitor, the new smart shunt from Victron is easy to install and probably the best you can buy. You don’t have to add a bus bar, just take everything that’s attached to the battery negative and attach that to the shunt itself. Then a single cable from there to the battery. Use their app to monitor the battery just like you would with the LifeBlue. Then change the settings on your charger and solar charge controllers to lithium like you said. BTW, a single 200Ah lithium will give you 160 usable amp hours, so you’d be reducing your capacity vs your AGMs. Personally, I don’t see the point of doing anything less than 300.

Ask your rep. And let us know what she or he says, please.