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Was very surprised by Alpine. A beautiful college town in the SW corner of Texas! Should have stopped there but had a few stops this day, lunch in Marfa, and finally made camp at Davis Mountain SP. Present day Marfa seemed a little out of place. The locals looked like they were mostly from South Austin getting away from city life! Charley is a good traveler and happy camper. Has his own bench seat with pillow. Mama’s boy, but he loves Dad too!

Just curious, why would I want to run the air conditioning wide open then immediately run the heat wide open? If I did that with my home heat pump/air conditioner I think that the same thing would happen. I don’t think that I remember that the air conditioner was run then the heat pump. I can understand now why a huge amount of humidity is cycled into the trailer. Maybe that explains why the Atmos unit cooled down the trailer and reduced the humidity even though the fan was running continuously, it was allowed to run a normal air conditioning cycle. Thanks for the explanation, much appreciated.

Great confirmation with your test results, should be comforting news to other Truma owners! For whatever it’s worth, my former Dometic Penguin ll (11,000 BTU) would not run on the 2200W genny until a Micro Air Easy Start was self-installed; upon further modification I was also able to operate it with the Xantrex 2000, as well. I have since replaced the noisey DPll with a Dreiha Atmos 4.4 (15,000 and 12,000 BTU cooling and heating, respectively) and consider it a much cheaper alternative to the Truma if cost is an issue to some. As with the Dometic, the Atmos equipped with a SoftStartRV runs great with said genny and inverter. Thanks for sharing your experience.

We drove to Truma in Indiana in September and had the soft-start installed. While there and in the presence of the technicians, I connected my Honda 2200i Companion generator with propane conversion and we tested it. Worked perfectly. The technicians were impressed. When we got home, I tried it again and ran the generator and air conditioner for several hours. I did this test three times. I am very happy with the set up now and confident going forward. Instead of running two generators I can now run one. The big test will be when we get some altitude to see if the generator can handle it - after changing the carb jetting of course. As a side note, I can now run the air conditioner off the 2000 watt inverter. We tested this too at Truma with success.

Sorry to quote myself but I did re-watch this movie. Very funny... stands the test of time and shows what genius's Lucy and Desi were. Forgot about the whole "rocks" thing and Donna and I were laughing hard at that part. It was funny hearing the "tech" guy explain the brakes using magnets and shook my head realizing that we have the exact same brakes that they did in 1953. Before I was born for crying out loud! The movie is available free on TUBI. You'll have to watch some ads but not too bad. If you have not seen this movie... or not seen in it a while I strongly recommend "The Long Long Trailer" with Desi and Lucy. Scotty

You may eventually want to add a vent or two. Our 2008 had a vent to the sink side. Even though we no longer have a microwave, I still like the vent. When parked, I prop the cabinet door open a bit. Nice install. Wishing you the best.toshiba makes some great products.

I’ll say yes. My trailer is outside 24/7/365 and has been since being purchased in 2017. I have washed/waxed it at least twice a year over the years and gradually the shine had disappeared. When I’d do a thorough job, it would take me four days. No telling how many times I’d move the ladder or how many times I would climb up and down it. One of the last times I washed/waxed it I fell off of the ladder, hit the rear bumper and ladder on the way down to my asphalt driveway. I was lucky enough not to break anything. Since having the trailer coated it is much easier to wash and a quick spritz of the CGI magic elixir and it shines better than new. More important than the shine is the long term protection of the gelcoat. Additionally, as everyone else has said, is the fact that the CGI guys are the finest group of guys that you’ll ever meet.

Update on our return trip… Given the goal of staying off Interstates, we wanted to see South Texas w/o I-10 travel. Left Inks Lake for lunch in Kerrville and spent a night in Bandera at Antler Oaks lodge. They are $59 plus tax! But with a soft sales call, I talked them into $40 cash and we would not hook up, no costs for them. The RV park was nice enough, but one tenant scared us. They were up all night, lights on at 2AM, where 4 pickup trucks parked around their large travel trailer. One thing my Dad told me, “Nothing good happens after midnight.” I’m sure they were involved in trafficing or drug running. We stayed quiet pin the trailer and they kept me awake most of the night. Thought to head straight south to Uvalde. The largest town out that way and they were in the news for a major school shooting a couple years ago. Uvalde also has the cheapest fuel around. Another part of planning is where to buy fuel. We use Gas Buddy and with the map view you can look ahead at prices along your route. Highest gas price we paid was $2.99 for diesel and the lowest was $2.79 at H-E-B Uvalde, $2.43 for regular, nice! Wanted to see Del Rio, stopped for lunch there and had many great views of the Amistad National Recreation Area. On our route west. just woke up in Sanderson TX. Not much of a town or RV park. Got another $10 discount for my “no hook-ups speel” some light road noise and we slept well. i was too tired yesterday to push another 2 hours to Davis Mountains SP, so will leave for there as soon as I stop typing this! Looking forward for a few days there!

At the time i was thinking about applying RED Loctite, i did not fully understand of its properties. Yes, it requires some 'Heat' to break its bond. At the time, i was thinking, "hey this part of the stove element gets really hot, so maybe i should try RED...". That's what i get for thinking without knowing. I discussed using RED, for this application with the Dometic Engineer, his reply was 'Blue is all this application needs, that is why we now do it this way." I also believe that by specifying 'using Blue Loctite', it is a QC measure to make sure they have 2 screws per element, hopefully tightened down. B~Out,

That is the 'million dollar' question. When it was assembled at the Dometic factory did it have two screws on each element or one. That would be a Dometic QC question. I am not sure what happened with the Gliddenwoods stove, I was just posting that their issue looked similar to ours, and what our involved. By the time the burner caps became loose, and then fell off, I fount one screw in the drawer below, and one was in the remaining element. I searched all over for the other two screws. The heat shield below the stove, may have helped those screws find a really good hiding place. Kind of like where socks hide in the washer or dryer... This D21 assembly 'Process Change' to add blue Loctite to the screws tell me, this was a re-occurring problem, and this is how they chose to address it. And I am good with that.

These are metric screws that come up from underneath to hold down the burner cap. “the bolts used to secure the burner caps are common M3x24mm socket head screws. Most RV appliances are going to have metric (screw, nut, and bolt) fasteners, to be compatible with the non-USA market. If you are going to ream/drill-out thru the burner cap and put in bolts... I would stay small, less than say 1/8-3/16"... At that point I would probably go with a small 'round-not-slotted-head', a slotted head is just one more place for food to catch and be difficult to keep clean. My problem was, with all the shaking (Campbell Hwy, roads to Mayo, Keno & Tuk) on our AK trip 'on roads less travelled', the threads on the underside of the burner cap had pulled/stripped away. Also not thinking "hey, could they be metric not SAE". So I caused some issue by trying to fit SAE into Metric. My Very Bad!!! If you have the D21 (ours was installed in mid-2020) and you remove it, and do not see blue Loctite on the screws, at that point, I would get some 'Blue', loosen up the screws just a bit and add a drop of Blue, retighten, and call it Preventative Maintenance time well spent. I am not sure when Dometic started adding the Blue Loctite to those screws. it was done sometime between 2020 & their 2023 email reply. This is not thread-drift, but I believe the root cause for a lot of our appliance & trailer problems were Blown Shocks, which I did not check before heading 'Off-to-Alaska'. That said, after we replaced shocks & leaf-springs, "yah we broke some of them too". This years R/T to Alaska was rather uneventful with regards to 'shaky-trailer-syndrome...'. We did had an issue with the 'Highpoint Convection Microwave' coming loose from the front panel, but fixed it (interesting screw choice in there) and we were good. However, getting it re-seated in the very back took quite a while. Thanks to all for the comments and feed-back. Gawd I love this forum. B~Out,

I did the same couple years ago, easy one-hand operation and full hose flow to boot!

Finally, going to have an oven. I checked the hotspots of the Toshiba MW/oven and the only place it got warm was the back and on top. So I decided to take the plunge with an abundance of caution while using it because I really miss: warm cookies, birthday cake, biscuits, pizza, etc. I did line the cabinet with 1 mm adhesive backed fiberglass high heat barrier. Luckily with a little modification I was able to use the old MW SS trim kit. So plug and play essentially. Again, I will be measuring the cabinet temperatures while using. I think the most likely problem may be that the unit gets too hot or prematurely stops working. Although every looks good so far, nothing abnormal or high temps The highest wattage pulled that I saw while using the convection oven and AC on high was around 2800 watts. Will try to only use one at a time though. Links: Heat shield https://a.co/d/14NmCvX Toshiba https://a.co/d/gGyB2Gc Best, Mike

I added these both sides.

Under warranty, and Oliver sent me a replacement. I may have to replace it again. Won't know until I take it into Oliver in February

My jack is 16 years old. Works fine.

I'd do a wrap, if i did anything. Maintaining paint, as a secondary solution, just doesn't appeal to me. We've done several coats of paint on our 40+ years old fiberglass dinghy, over the decades. It's a pita.

John, I never said that I was a non believer! I just asked the question hoping that the issue could be explained clearly. I’m not on either side of the issue.

There is no "Supposedly". It does as reported, tested, documented and videoed on several sites. For non-believers here is a simple demonstration procedure of the amount of moisture that their Set 2 units generate: Run the stock not modified Houghton on auto cool with the T-stat set to lowest setting. The unit will run and as it approaches set temp, the fan speed will work its way down to low. Run for a few minutes longer. The evaporator coil will be "Loaded" with condensate and you should be seeing signs of excess condensate running over the side of your trailer. Now cycle off the unit. THen turn it on to heat pump and set the temp to max temp to cause the heat pump to start. You will now feel and sense the huge amount of moisture being evaporated off the supply air coil and being dumped into the cabin as the warm heat pump air dries out the supply air coil. BTW, you can do this with any heat pump air conditioner. I estimated the amount of moisture retained in the fins of our unit to be ab0ut 25 ounces. If the fan is not cycled with the compressor, as the vast majority of ac units are designed, you can expect to see this problem. It can be amelerated somewhat by design by changing the coil face temperature and by special coatings on the coil fins and piping. But the results still will be unsatisfactory for most US mainland conditions. Hence this is one of the two problems with stock Set 2 Houghtons. My hope is that Houghton later units will be redesigned to cycle the supply air fan with the compressor, and also come with a remote thermostat. Those two changes would make the Houghton a class leader in quality and performance. GJ

Honestly, I just hooked it up for the photo, and didn’t look at which port I attached it to. 🤪 Usually, I fill up at home without a filter for trips under a week. I use the filter when on full hookups or when we need to refill on the road. Heading to Florida for two months this winter, any the timely release of this new FitRV 3-in-1 filter prompted this upgrade. I considered the proximity of the hanging location to the septic outlet. But we rarely use full hookups sites. The filter would be stored in my bucket at a dump station (which we also rarely use, as I use a macerator pump at home into my septic tank for trips under a week.) Hanging on the basement door would work and maybe be a more sanitary location. I’m in the basement frequently, so not ideal in full hookup settings. Both have compromises. It could be placed in a stand on the ground, too, and moved under the trailer. Lots of options. Thanks for your input!

Steve, Very nice install. I purchased and installed these Ely quick connects on my city and fresh tank connectors a few years ago on XPLOR. They are a little pricey but 💯 brass and USA 🇺🇸 made not CCP 🇨🇳 junk. They really do make quick work of hooking up your water sources during take set up or take down of your base camp. One of my top smaller mods for sure. https://www.eleyhosereels.com/products/garden-hose-quick-connectors?_pos=1&_sid=dc579a2e3&_ss=r

Agree with David’s comment! The fall colors are something we miss in south Texas. Mike

Bill, Great photos! The fall colors are really popping! Glad you and Debbie got to enjoy a great trip!

Just returned home from the Hungry Mother SP VA fiberglass rally. There were three Ollie's in attendance, too. Fellowship and Potluck dinner were great!

I may actually do a camo wrap so I can lose it in the woods.

John, we do like our HEB’s. We have a new one just a few minutes drive from where we live. Gas/diesel is always among the lowest in the area. We’ve shopped at grocery stores across the country with our travels and none beats HEB for selection and price. Earlier this month we were at the Big Bend Bluegrass Festival in Alpine, just 20 minutes from Davis Mountains SP. We spoke to a resident of Fort Davis and asked about the famous Drug Store that is now closed. It’s a long story, but BLUF it’s still closed, sadly. Do go walk around the old Fort Davis, it ‘s a National Parks site and an interesting visit. If the timing is right check out McDonald Observatory and see if they are having a Star Party while you are there. It was a fascinating evening! Have fun! Mike

Awesome trip report. I much prefer mountains over flatlands and snow over sand, but I always enjoy a road trip.

Yes, on our 2022. Solar off first, then inverter breaker, followed by the batteries. Reverse to turn back on.

The time has come and our annual gathering/rally is next week! There are spaces still available in the Quail section. Full hookups! Join us if you can and please let me know you are coming so I can pass our calendar of events your way. This way you can be prepared and join in on all the fun activities! See you there! Paula 23rd Annual Fiberglass Gathering in the fall Quail Loop @ Lake Lopez, CA, October 30th to November 4th 2024

I throw a greeting out to whoever I saw this morning up in the texas panhandle headed north. I was on my last day of the return trip from alaska back to san antonio. This trip I've seen my first 2 "wild" Ollie's. One out on the Homer spit a couple months ago and the one today. Sorry I didn't get a chance to say hi I think it was hull 747 or 757 I don't recall but we tent camped for a night on the spit just to say we did but the wind was so brutal that night we were hunkered down.

Greetings to the Elite II seen heading eastbound on I-70 near Cisco, UT around 10:45am MT on Sun Sept 22nd. We were westbound, same location in an Elite I…

Hello to the Oliver I spotted on September 9th, heading west on I-90 toward Spearfish SD -- I was heading east. I've been on the road for five months and this was the first Oliver I've seen this year!

Bill, You were the only Oliver we saw until we got to Pagosa Springs, CO…wow! What are the odds? It sure was exciting for us to see you and Twist headed back to NC. So glad we got to catch up while we headed west. How cool is that? 👍🏻😊 David & Kathy

Actually, Patriot saw an Ollie! And, it was me! On Monday (August 26) I was headed east on Interstate 70 (just east of Jefferson City, Missouri) when I got a rather excited call from David and Kathy. They were headed west on Interstate 70 and spotted me going the other way! Unfortunately, at the moment we passed each other I was getting a message on my dashboard that the Ollie had become disconnected. Thankfully this message was only due to a small pebble causing the electrical connection between the truck and Ollie to become unstable. Thanks to both of them for making my day! Bill

We also had this issue while up in northern Canada last summer. We believe it was a problem for a couple of years, we just were not aware of it until it was loose enough to start coming apart. When we returned home I got ahold of Dometic and received the following email reply. ===================== From: CustomerSupportCenter [mailto:customersupportcenter@dometic.com] Sent: Friday, September 1, 2023 9:46 AM To: BryanB Subject: RE: Dometic.com Support Form - US - productsupport - rv - b2c Hello Mr. Bjornstad: I was able to reach out to our engineering department. The engineer indicated the information directly below: “the bolts used to secure the burner caps are common M3x24mm socket head screws. They can be found at most hardware stores. He should apply blue Loctite to the screws before putting them in.” ===================== Yes, there are threads in the underside of the burner caps. The burner cap is made of 'pot metal' so if the screws are not of the exact sizing and ARE NOT 'Loctite-d' in, they may vibrate out again or worse yet, they may strip (as ours did) out of the soft pot metal burner cap. There was no indication (blue) of there being any Loctite around our screw heads when we were taking it apart to repair it. So the Loctite comment above may be a revision based upon customer experience. The following is what we did to fix the issue. We only had one screw per element and no Loctite at the time so we were at a less than ideal situation. turn off the gas at the tanks, remove the stove from the countertop, disco your gas fitting, turn stove upside-down and, make a note of the 'ignition wiring' if you have to disco more than one of them, remove the underside heat shield, (you have to cut the zip ties to remove it, replace zip ties to reduce vibration on re-install), re-insert the screws, apply Loctite where the screw head comes in contact with the assembly, then re-install the stove ‘Check Gas fitting for leakage’. We actually became quite proficient at this and I would be able to do it (less Loctite) as Maggie was doing 'meal prep', so I was done when she needed the stove. That is until the loosening of the screws and vibrating caused the 'burner tube' coming into the mixing bowl to break. At that point the stove was UNSAFE to use. So I put it in the back of the truck, got a brass plug for the gas supply line and covered the area with the 'Oliver supplied' sink cover, and taped that down. That gave us a larger meal prep area, and more outside cooking. Our final resolution when we returned home (because stove was basically shaken apart) was to replace our D21 (AMZN Dometic outlet), because we were unable to find the replacement parts that broke as a result of the ‘burner caps’ coming loose, and shaking/breaking apart the internals of the stove. When the new stove arrived, I took it apart at the bottom and made sure all 4 screws were there and sure enough, signs of blue Loctite on the screw heads. I have discussed using Red (hi-heat) Loctite thru PM's with others on the forum. The caveat is 'if you want it to stay put, Red would not hurt, if you have need to get in there and remove those screws and do other work, Blue would be better'... So I will stick with the Blue for now, as I do not believe that the original stove had any Blue on it. In fact, I do not believe we had two screws in each burner cap to start with. Never did find the two missing screws and I searched the entire enclosure and behind the false back of the drawer area. We can now look back at it as a learning adventure. Yah, may not take as many 'wash-boardy' roads less travelled, and will probably even go slower than we did... We learned a lot about the Oliver, Appliances (lost the WH too), about repair in remote locations, phone conversations with SeaDawg & Outlaw Oliver, and our own tolerances to experiences when dealing with and overcoming unexpected issues that arise, but GAWD, did we enjoy the adventure even with the adversities. So much so, WE ARE GOING BACK again this camping season, with the intent to make it to AK this time. Cannot wait to try (after a local shake-down weekend) our new Dometic stove and WH (another thread)... the adventure continues. B~Out, First edit, if others end up purchasing a new Dometic D21 Stove... the Brass elbow attached to the stove is now pointed 180 deg. opposite the supply line. So I just disco'd it, put on some YELLOW Teflon tape and then tightened it up to the orientation of the old one, and hooked the gas line back up. Second edit, Some of your appliances are going to have 'Metric' in them, especially if they are used outside the US. Just be Aware. Third edit with pics: once you have the stove exposed, you remove the heat shield screws (sm. red circles), notice wht. zip ties.. Your burner cap screws pass thru here (black arrows). The large red circle is the broken supply tube between control knob & mixing bowl. I tried to get some aluminum tubing to repair it. Even thought of sacrificing the stem to the coffee pot... I was told, that was NOT an option.

Unfortunately, not since 2006. 🤨 They list the couplings under "Watering Tools" Fabrication & Packaging United States - Garden Hose (Reno, NV) China - Hose Reels & Watering Tools That's an interesting idea! 45° or 60° would have been great. I'm not sure coming in from straight down would be beneficial.

I always wash/wax my vehicles and also my trailer. Then, I GOT OLD. Since hitting the 70’s my stamina isn’t what it used to be. I can still wash/wax my trailer, but what the CGI team did is a different level. 4 guys, multiple buffers, scaffolding, ladders, thorough wash, buff and then buff some more, ceramic coat, buff, ceramic coat again, buff, measure shine with some kind of shine measuring thing. It would have taken me a week to do that, then two weeks to recover! Mike