Leaderboard

I've never been a big Fan of KOA's, (not sure really why) until recently. We were able to make reservations at three different KOA locations, last week easily. However, we had to cancel these reservations, because of a family emergency and reschedule at a locale KOA in Dayton Ohio, within 50 miles of home so we could stay in touch. I would rate the Dayton Ohio KOA, on a 1-10 scale a solid 10, we will go back!!!

Two men passed each other in the upper atmosphere. One yelled at the other, "Hey Buddy, you know anything about parachutes?" The other answered, "No! You know anything about Coleman stoves?"

We were much further up the coast from Bar Harbor for our recent short camping trip. It was terrific and not many tourists. The scenery is spectacular. It does lack the volume of great restaurants and shopping but tons of trails and hiking. We are busy where we live further south on the coast with summer folks. The local businesses cater to the summer folks and this is how many locals make money. The unfortunate part is there are so many more visitors and common courtesy and patience is no where near what it once was or should be. Just too many folks in a hurry and without realizing it trying to make this place like the place they came from. Sorry but lobster boats are out on the water at 4:30-5:00 am. If you live close to the ocean you will hear their diesel engines. Summer folks trying to get noise ordinances to have things quiet until 8:00 am. These fishermen need to work. They wake me up too. I would never ask cor an ordinance that would affect these fishermen. Oddly enough it is the beauty and charm of these small coastal villages that attract summer folks. Of course these are the same folks illegally setting off fireworks until 2 in the morning. Ok I will get off my soap box. I love this place. I do wish folks could just be more civil.

I decided to reinforce the fridge hinge with the LHC reinforcement bracket. Since my Dometic is the same primary design as the one that was in my Casita, I know the benefit of strengthening that part of the door. I've know a couple owners who have broken their door and Dometic's prices for parts is astronomical! I added the button guard in addition. As far as the fridge front, I added a metal decorative sticker to the front panel for aethetics and to try to keep the front from fingerprints. I just didn't like the black. I don't recommend the film I bought as it was a bear to install without a few bubbles and another person to help!

KOAs are very convenient and easy to locate when traveling to make a quick overnight stay when Walmart parking gets old. I frequent the koa In kings land Ga. exit 1 I -95 Florida Georgia line. Best free breakfast in the morning homemade waffles pancakes with fresh fruit and whip cream coffee and Oj 👍🏼

I don’t think it is odd. First, you don’t want to be walking around on top of an Oliver. The structure is strong enough but there isn’t much flat space that isn’t covered with solar panels and utilities. Second, where would you mount it? In the back you don’t have much space on either side of the spare tire and window. If you could, there’s no place to step once you got up there. Mounting on the side would look plain ugly and would not be able to provide any access to an accessible area. A lot of owners have a collapsible ladder that can be moved to where you need it without having to stand on the top. If you haven’t seen an Oliver in person I recommend you do so and you will see that a permanently mounted ladder would not be practical. Mike

MB Sturgis sells a kit with all the parts and a video of the retrofit for the Q series is here:

Hi there. We picked up hull 836 on June 21st and ran into the same Xantrex issue where it just shut down and we couldn’t seem to revive it. We to had been dry camping and not using any significant 120vac loads. I finally plugged my generator in and it miraculously brought everything back on line. It was a mystery until it happened again while we were home and the trailer was just sitting there again with minimal ac loads. I called Xantrex and found out that there is a setting in the Xantrex (setting #5) that is set default to 25 hours. This is called a power save setting and it shuts down the inverter after 25 hours if it does not detect any significant 120vac load. It does not detect a load as small as the microwave front panel display but if you ran the microwave it would detect that and cancel the 25 hour countdown to shutdown. The Xantrex guy told me to change setting # 5 to OFF. This disables the shutdown timer. I did that and it has been trouble free ever since. Also make sure if you were pushing on/off buttons on the inverter under the bed and the inverter remote that you go back and check that the inverter power button under the bed is in the off position and the on/off button on the remote is in the on position. This gives full control to the remote and will save you from having to go under the bed if you ever need to turn on or off the inverter. There is instructions in the manual on how to change settings but it’s much easier if you put the Xantrex app on your phone and connect by Bluetooth. let me know if I can help more. Mike

"I don't know the lyrics either, so I just hum along", said one cicada to the other. Mossey

We were in bar harbor, one year, late September. Way too crowded for us. My guess would be arrive mid-august to early September. If the Canadian border opens, scoot up to New Brunswick . Its so beautiful up there. And, go to St John's go further up. Our Canadian hosts have always been accommodating. And, we love our time in the provincrs and territories. A lot of Canadian campgrounds close, early to mid September

Good to know. Fall is our favorite time to travel. We just drove through central Maine through NH and are at Grand Isle State Park on Lake Champlain in Vermont. It was a great drive through beautiful country. We’ll be back. Mike

We bought this generator too from Sam's Club back in early April for the $399 price. We do have the MicroAir Easystart. We figured out that the water heater draws 1200 watts so we had to shut that off before starting the A/C. We bought the grounding plug and so far it exceeds our expectations as well in terms of low decibel sound and power.

Once schools starts up in Sept things quiet down a little, but then of course the leaf peepers start to arrive in October. I think that September through to Thanksgiving is the best time of year in Northern New England. It’s quieter, cooler, fewer bugs.. and absolutely beautiful. The trouble is a lot of campgrounds shut down by mid October. Spring can be pretty amazing too, again, fewer folks around, but the weather can be pretty iffy.. and at some point the Blackflies make their presence known with an obnoxious degree of intensity…… if it were me driving here all the way from Texas, I’d aim to be around here between mid Sept and the beginning of Nov. and Id focus on Western Maine, NH, and VT… it’s a pretty time of year in the hills and mountains of that neck of the woods.

Any functional, useable ladder on the rear would likely block a portion of the rear egress window.

We do KOA’s on occasion. Usually when it’s the best choice for the location we want to visit. Last one was the KOA on South Padre Island. We just wanted a relaxing week on the shore and the KOA was a good choice. Mike

We had the pleasure of meeting @Mike D. and Jill at a gas station near Ocala today.

Tejas Smokers is another company I worked with to get the tubing and quick disconnect fittings replacing the regulator on my grill. They were very helpful in getting it figured out and working great! https://tejassmokers.com

Adding to this . . . . it is not advisable to DIY most propane installations as they need to be tested for safety. Routine cleaning is fine, but making adjustments might just be asking for trouble. . . . . . . . remember the Hindenburg 😲

Jason supplied us with the proper settings for our battery installation.

The cicadas are so very loud tonight. Rhythmic white noise. Its all ok.

We spent a day in Bar Harbor, got there early and did a lot of walking. Had a nice lunch. There were a lot of people, but finding a good parking spot early and spending the day on foot worked well. Weather was perfect! We will be back, hopefully to make it in to Canada… Mike

Imo, hitting the solar panels with a hose, from a step stool is plenty good.

I don't think Oliver, or anyone else, waxes the trailer prior to delivery. You could, however, ask if service could do it for you, if you are planning a long trip home. Or, if they could recommend a local mobile detailer A good wax job does help with road dirt, and bugs.

Yes, we run one big 2hp saw at a time, not two. I wouldn't expect it to run ac, and anything else. I think the compressor issue is the long spike in power. We have a smaller compressor we'll probably try. It should be fine, I think. We're rating this as one of our best buys, for 2021. It's been so helpful. We usually carry a Honda 1000 just to charge batteries. This gives me a lot more, and cost half the price of our Honda 1000, but that was over a decade ago. We need to change the oil, though. Probably past time, with 200+ hours.

UPDATE Drove from dry camping at Craters of the Moon Idaho to my cousin's in Emmett ID. She gave me a hose and a standard 110v extension cord. With an adapter, I connected my 30a shore power cord to the extension cord. Suddenly, the inverter was alive. I then disconnected the 110 extension cord and tested each item (AC, micro, TV) separately to make sure they worked. And the outlets too. Everything seems to be functioning normally. I'm running the AC now off the lithium. No prob. I remember seeing somewhere in a forum post about someone who had a Xantrex die, then when they plugged it in to shore power it came back to life. If I can find that post, I'll ask them more about it. Very strange.

Update on this relatively inexpensive generator. Our pole barn construction crew used it every day, to power their saw and charge batteries. We've used it to power saws, run some led garage lights (7?) and charge batteries, for the interior buildout. It struggles with the 2 hp compressor, but everything else is fine . I think it's a tiny bit noisier than when new. The construction crew loved it, and thanked us daily for quiet power. The control knob never had the set screw seated, so it fell off a few times, til Paul got around to looking at it. A long screwdriver and reading glasses fixed the issue. So, over 200 hours later, we're still happy. Also, no free cover has arrived.

I had been keeping my eye on this phone, I found out it is now discontinued due to poor sales figures. I just ordered a 256 GB Verizon model for $600. Regular street price is around $850. For those who love a small phone that you can work one handed and slip into a pants pocket, this is a great choice, it gets stellar reviews and takes jaw dropping pictures. The only down side is a short battery life. It is actually SMALLER than my current 6S. If you can get by with “only” 64 GB it is just $450. I wanted a big memory so I can load lots of GAIA maps. My current phone has just 32 GB. https://www.walmart.com/ip/Verizon-iPhone-12-mini-256GB-Black/678825703?selected=true John Davies Spokane WA

Just watch tight turns as you will bend the handle…

@johnwen, are you fulltiming now, and if so, what batteries do you have? That would give a good base. Fwiw,over the last 14 seasons, we've rarely had power or hookups, and, with a 3 way fridge and 200 watts of solar, 2 105 ah 12v batteries did fine, for us. When we installed a dc compressor fridge. That all changed, with the additional 60 to 70 ah of battery storage required. (Elite, smaller battery tray.) We added 200 watts portable, and an additional 200 watts fixed. Still not enough, if we camp in the shade. Generator comes in handy, two or three times a week. Even with that extra load, I'm still hesitant about the considerable investment in lithium, since we haven't found a solid "need." Just the want. And, if course, the luxury of extra power Were it me, I'd start with solar, and base batteries or agm, and see how it works out. Lithium keeps getting more affordable. And, I personally don't think it's a really big deal to swap it out. If you fulltime in a very northern climate, everything changes. See @Jim_Oker comnent.

Thanks for the help, Dan. We'll have to commit mid-September for a mid January pickup....brrrr! Just trying to get as much info as possible. 80k+ is a big number for us so I'm trying to get it right the first time. Best of luck with your October pickup 🙂

Depends…… Most likely it would be required due to the TW and also to minimize passenger discomfort on bumpy roads. I would order it, for sure. There are countless Andersen hitch threads, search and do some reading. It is the only WD hitch approved by Oliver. https://www.ford.com/cmslibs/content/dam/brand_ford/en_us/brand/resources/general/pdf/brochures/17RV&TT_Ford_Expedition_Sep7.pdf John Davies Spokane WA

It must just be me, but that Rivian is just ugly, looks like a Ford Flex knock-off. Tesla, a nice Federally funded, pseudo tech company, run by an eccentric rich dude, that has yet to meet its own metrics. I'll grant you, the cars look cool, perform to design specs, but Tesla doesn't have any tech that is all that proprietary. More PT Barnum than not. As some in the industry and from the auto press contend, Tesla is more auto manufacturer than a tech company. Elon for all his brilliance, has no idea how to run a high volume manufacturing business, and that will be his downfall - great idea, pitiful execution. Does not make money selling vehicles, but does ok trading environmental credits. But, as Seadog states, he got the ball rolling. Sometime, after I've long turned to dust, the Oliver of the future, will be hurtling itself down some lonesome trail, silently hovering along, headed to some cool spot- back of beyond. Until then, I'll take my dino powered behemoth with my Ollie in tow, into the wilderness, desperately seeking solitude from the constant droning, or is it cacophony, of electronic intrusion. Sorry OP, I just couldn't help it...I'm a natural - disrupter. Ha RB

We drove in to bar harbor, with two cruise ships docking, in bar harbor. Not a fun experience.