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The step for winterizing the fresh water inlet is really to prevent damage at the check valve where some water may accumulate and not drain due to the design of the check valve. I have never added any significant winter antifreeze in the freshwater tank because if it drained, there is very, very little chance that any freezing would damage the tank. Imagine an ice cube tray with a bit of water in the bottom of the tray. Any freezing water would just fill the void and not press any significant issue to the sides of the water tank.

After purchase of our OE II, I realized the first thing that I wanted to add was a cargo box for more external storage. Based on various posts in this forum, I decided to go with either the Arksen 29” Diamond plate (4.3 CF) or the Dee Zee DZ91717P (5.4 CF). While the Arksen has a look that more closely aligns with the Oliver, I chose the Dee Zee because of the larger capacity. As I will explain later, this turned out to be a problem. With regard to any modifications to our Oliver, my goals are to (1) minimize any drilled holes and (2) try to be consistent with Oliver installation techniques. With that in mind, I decided to use the same U-bolts that Oliver uses to attach their aluminum storage basket and purchased two of them from the factory (part #10839). This had an additional benefit since I only needed to drill two holes through the fiberglass (near the tongue jack) - the other U-bolt would be fastened at the tongue. Also, when it comes time to sell, it should be very easy to replace this box with Oliver’s basket should the new owner want to do so. Instead of buying the U-bolt plates from Oliver, I cut and drilled some old garage door hardware that I had laying around (apparently DW is right when she says I never throw anything away). To avoid the possibility of galvanic corrosion I placed pieces of vinyl siding between the steel plates and the aluminum tongue. Positioning and drilling the holes through the fiberglass was a little trickier than I had anticipated. They say measure twice, cut once. Not wanting to screw it up, I think I measured it six times. There isn’t enough space to get a drill directly underneath the fiberglass so I had to use a ¼” x 12” bit to drill the first hole, enlarging it to 3/8” from the top side. Once that hole was drilled, I used the U-bolt to determine the position for the second hole and drilled that from the top, first ¼”, then 3/8”. I then used my Dremel with a pointed abrasive cone to slightly taper the holes as others on this forum have advised to prevent cracking of the gel coat. Now comes the problem with the Dee Zee box. As you can see from the photo, there is an indentation in the rear of the box exactly where the rear U-bolt needs to be! (What did I say about measuring twice?) After considering other fastening strategies, most of which included drilling many more holes, I finally relented and decided to go with the Arksen instead. I trimmed a piece of interlocking foam utility mat (Designer’s Image 765-5058, 0.43” thickness) to use as a cushion between the box and the fiberglass. As luck would have it, I happened to have four 4” x 4” x 3/8” rubber vibration pads (UPE Group) laying around (did I mention that I never throw anything away?). After trimming to the width of the tongue with a razor blade knife I stacked the four pads and secured them to the tongue with 24” long cable ties. The ribs on the pads allowed them to interlock and stack nicely. And four of those pads adds just enough height to make the box level. To beef up the bottom of the cargo box, I added a piece of ½” plywood. To minimize moisture entry from the bottom, I used gasket cutters to make tight-fitting washers from 1/8” rubber packing sheet and placed them on the U-bolts between the plywood and the interior bottom of the box. The U-bolts were then fastened down with the steel plates using SS nylon-insert lock nuts. Permatex nickel anti-sieze was used on the threads to assist future removal, if needed. Overall, I am quite happy with this install. Special thanks to MAX Burner for giving us a tour of Casablanca at the rally in Alabama, including his own Arksen cargo box.

So we left YS after a week of awesome fun touring and hiking around and taking in the sights and we headed out the east gate to Cody for our next place to base camp with XPLOR. Came up on this gorgeous pull off and decided to capture a vid. IMG_2186.mov Safe Travels!

Ron, I don't think it is a propane flow problem. The burner lights immediately when the control board demands. I don't have a manometer or whatever the necessary tool is to check propane pressure, however when the fridge burner is burning, I have lit both stovetop burners as well as turned the water heater to propane and fridge burner tube and stove burners stayed blue with no sign of fuel starvation. This problem has me baffled so far.

Your LP regulator may not be functioning properly, check if the cooktop operates correctly or the QC ports, if equipped. Switch the regulator to the other tank, a tank valve may have been opened too fast and has an internal shutdown. If that doesn’t work close each and reopen slowly for the first quarter turn to reset.

We are based camped at the Ponderosa CG right in Cody. A lot to do and see here and this town has a really nice vibe. Landed another nice FH site and even a little shade. Tomorrow morning we will get breakfast at Roosters and then head out to Bear Creek Pass and a place called The Red Lodge. Safe Travels!

I run 20 psi when just truck’n around, 30 when towing the Oliver, Today’s dump at 60 psi!

Beautiful sunrise at Pancho Villa SP, Columbus, NM this AM - headed to Old Mexico for lunch today... Magnus guarding the perimeter with D and Oscar inside enjoying their BRCC morning Joe (note our newly minted wooden signage made for us by our friend, Coy): @Patriot - FYI: we stayed at Norris CG and loved it there... We felt it was closer to the sights and hikes we wanted to explore. We've also stayed at Fishing Bridge and Madison and thought they were just as awesome. Enjoy, Explor, and Experience it all, brother! Cheers... IMG_2848.HEIC

Enjoying our last what we thought was going to be a nice quiet evening here at Fishing Bridge CG in Yellowstone, we had an unexpected Oliver visit and showing. Where does a 2000# Bison graze? Anywhere he wants!! I kept real quiet, he had no questions, but he loved our Oliver. What a last night at YS send off! 😂 The Beast head to head with our Beast of Burden. So glad he did not munch our SL mini cable. He tugged on it a few times as he ripped grass out of the soil. Glad we decided to enjoy dinner inside.

This big fella was out munching this morning not far from our site here at Fishing Bridge. We have a large herd of Buffalo being farmed not far from our home in Western NC. It’s still pretty neat to see them in the wild. The guy that owns the fiver you see had eyes the size of teacups. 😄 His expression was priceless. Onward with a short drive to Cody in the morning! We will be there a few days and longer if we really like it! IMG_2130.mov

In Cooke City there is a chocolate store just to the left of the Sinclair gas station. Hopefully you found it. Great fudge and this lady's "bearclaws" are the best I've ever had. I assume that you will either be taking the Beartooth Highway towards Red Lodge or the Chief Joseph Highway towards Cody. Either way - both are great roads. Its a bit of a shame its relatively late in the year in that a good friend of mine is the guide at the Beartooth fire tower and it is now closed for the season. In any case, I would not want to tow the Ollie up to that tower. With regards to the forecast rain - The main storm headed towards western North Carolina hasn't even made landfall down in the Gulf yet. But, we still got 6.44 inches of rain overnight. Current predictions are for totals of rain to reach as high as 20 inches. I'm guessing that this amount of rain will put a stop to the talk of drought. Hopefully all of those residents that live near streams/rivers have enough sense to get to higher ground and that any land slides do not affect humans. Bill

Unless you've already done so, be sure to take your lovely bride around the Grand Loop to Mammoth Hot Springs - spectacular views! Enjoy, @Patriot - we've been to YNP twice already this year!!! Love it, always something new to experience there.

Still looking for the snow front you said was moving through. 🙄 You must be watching a local channel! Ha! 😂 Stay dry, I do believe you are going get some hard rain. I did have a short encounter with a bear in Montana at Beartooth Pass in Cook City. Fun times! We bought him a T-shirt and all was good.

Great view of Grand Priz! Beautiful day! Great looking lady - but - not too sure about that guy she is with! Stay safe!. Bill

We extended our stay 2 more days here at Fishing Bridge CP inside Yellowstone NP to give us a full week at this magical park. Why leave? Ha! And the CG staff have been just awesome taking great care of us. Loop E is the where you wanna be if you are gonna stay at Fishing Bridge. The other loops are very close. This morning we enjoyed a short hike to the overlook at Grand Prismatic Spring. wow factor for sure. We enjoyed lunch at the Old Faithful Lodge and watched Old Faithful for the third time since we have been here. Every 90 minutes give or take it does it's thing. On our way back to Fishing Bridge we pulled off the road and walked out to the shoreline of Yellowstone Lake just to take in the majesty of this huge lake. More proof that the natural beauty surely is everywhere you look here. This is the time of year travel out west suits us best. A lot less peeps, much more campsite availability, beautiful sleeping temps, very little traffic and no long lines. What more could one ask for? Not a cloud in the sky, and gorgeous temps! (Excuse the poor audio in the lake vid, it was a little windy) Happy & Safe Travels from Hull #634 XPLOR IMG_2115.mov IMG_2116.mov

It is "standard" operating procedure, in hot air ducting, to decrease duct size the further it gets from the heat source. The same amount of air in the 4" duct gets put into the 3" duct. This increases the velocity and helps move the heated air along. I just hope the is a direct path out of the bathroom and back to the return duct. Also hope that air is returned through the cabin and not through the basement. The return air is going to suck the air with the least resistance. Hopefully it is not the air from the drain 'scuppers'. That air might be 40°, or more, cooler than cabin air, and the basement air might be 20° or more. The warmer the return air the more efficient the furnace is at heating.

Can't see how the "fridge burner is burning" and it's not cooling. Your fridge may be fried, sorry to say. We're hoping ours lasts forever as I have not yet seen a single compressor fridge that can freeze two steaks and two trays of ice at the same time!