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There was a little hiccup getting into the Sheyenne National Grassland. The last 3 miles were dirt and it had been raining everywhere. Given the condition it drove like a single-lane road. Then up ahead were train tracks with a hill to climb to get over them and strange thing was the dirt up at the tracks was muddy black dirt! I was worried in getting over it and since we are running with a 2WD truck, I thought to get a little more speed leading up to it. Wow, first time towing the Oliver we fishtailed at the crest and when the truck went one way, the Oliver went the other. Since I was brought up driving in snow, I gently turned into the direction of the spin and after my heart moved up into my throat for a few seconds, all was good. Whew! The first picture was taken the next morning going the opposite direction. It shows the mud that hit the Oliver, but look behind the Oliver to see the train tracks on the hill and the muddy section. Then look even more closely and you can see the tire skid marks made by the Oliver the evening before! Good thing on the way back it was a soft glide downhill over the tracks. So we're driving an hour north to get to Fargo and as soon as we got on I-29N I said to Chris, "Try to find a truck wash." I was thinking the kind of place that has a tall booth and a pressure-washer, the DIY kind of wash. Turns out it wash a full-service truck wash. This is the best invention! I walked in first to see if they wouldn't mind washing our non-commercial vehicle. Then waited in line for 20 minutes with 18-wheelers fore and aft. Not only the mud on the rear of the truck and the entire Oliver, but after 2400 miles on the road we had bug splatters all over both fronts. I paid to clean both TV and TT with an under-carriage wash. This was the absolute BEST $75 investment I've made for the Oliver! Works well in our budget vs. that $3K CGI detailing. Pics attached of Dirty Ollie and Happy Ollie! 🤣

We ended up in the Sheyenne National Grassland in southeastern North Dakota at Hankinson Hills Campsite and what a beautiful place. 😂 Amazing! The green and golden pasture views with cross-fencing like a Civil War battlefield! We drove up just after one trailer had parked, two of us in 25 campsites. They took their loop and we took the other. A little later, three girls with two trucks and horse trailers came to camp and pulled in next door to us. We walked over to say hello and what beautiful people with their draft/show horses. These 3 women is their 30s had never traveled out of North Dakota in their lives! Chris and Kayla are pictured below. We would have stayed 2-3 nights but wanted to get to Fargo the next morning and then head west in search of sunshine again...

Sorry guys. I forgot to post back up I replaced with the black and left an additional 3/4"-1" to push in. The cutters Patriot shared the link on were awesome. I did the work prior to the Rally.

I believe @Dirt Duff has the 4.7L which was the standard V8 in older Toyotas. Newer Tundras, which are certainly bigger and heavier, have the 5.7L which must be more powerful. We have the same 4.7L in our 2008 Lexus GX470, hence the model number. The GX will get up and go, being 100s of lbs lighter than the next gen GX, but it doesn't have a feeling of torque. The Tundra could be geared differently though. It's all in the gearing!

Pretty sure every production-made ball mount/receivers are gonna have at least a little “play”. If I watch carefully when raising the front Jack when hitching up, I can detect when the point of taking weight off of the TV changes to lifting the TV. Then again, with our combo, that movement is pretty slight and under less than ideal conditions (rain, dark, rushing) I can’t see it. The “LevelMate” device and app will let you judge the height to 1/4”. Especially useful if you use the “set hitch height” function.

Our first RV experience was a Class C rental in Alaska in 1999. When you are still working and Alaska is calling, an RV rental is an awesome way to answer. We shared our 3 week rental with friends that were Class A owners and shared their knowledge and expertise, making the experience a joy. However you get to Alaska, you’re sure to have an amazing RV adventure! Mossey

Happy Flag Day!!!!!!!!!

Why is it that this reminds me of the 2 years, one month and 29 days I spent in the Army? Absolutely no disrespect here in that it was one of the best things that I ever did! Bill

Roger JD.. I was responding to Rivernerd, but failed to make that clear. Fixed it above. Good clarification. Thanks! GJ

Yep, I have a 2020 Tundra with 4.30 gears and it pulls the LE2 without any problems at all. It does share the same issue that most Tundra's have which is low payload, but we travel light and pack most things inside of the camper anyway.

Looks like they did a good job getting you all cleaned up!

It’s likely the age difference between our hulls. If you keep up with yours every year or two they may stay nice!

I honestly hadn’t expected the bleach soak to get them as clean as it did. I threw the Dawn dishwashing liquid in just for surfactant reasons. I figured I’d have to do the scrubbing again - but didn’t have to. I wonder if scrubbing them the first time (last year or so) had a residual effect. At any rate, the bleach + Dawn + water overnight definitely got the gaskets to damn-near new condition. Pleasantly surprised they came out as well as they did.

This modification was a break-out from an old and long thread that Mossemi started: “Only one switch to operate streetwise and curbside lights . . .” It concerned a common complaint that the curb side porch lights can’t always be used because the street side lights also come on and they can annoy the neighbors. Mossey posted a new photo of the main switch panel wiring yesterday, and it showed a ground wire labeled “porch light”.” I hadn’t noticed it before, so I tried my circuit signal probe again and finally found where the circuit crosses over to feed the street side porch lights. It was in a sheathed wire bundle behind the attic side board, deep along the right bottom corner. It can’t be reached through the attic without disturbing the insulation, but it can be reached through the right rear speaker hole. The duct tape dust cover will have to cut open then re-taped afterwards. The wire bundle has enough slack to splice it though the speaker hole. I pulled the positive “red” wire out of the “split-sheath” wrap and verified it was the right one with a clamp-on amp meter. It read something like 0.9 amps with the lights on. I cut the wire, capped the end coming from the old switch, and spliced a new blue wire to the lights end. A Wago connector was easier than trying to crimp a butt splice in the tight space. The new wire was sheathed for extra protection and routed to the main switch panel. It was tie-wrapped to an existing wire bundle on the forward edge of the attic ceiling. With the left attic side board also removed (they are held by two small lag bolts), the wire can be passed into the left side upper cabinet. A short stiff wire will help fish it through. The upper cabinets have thin laminate floors fastened with a few Phillips screws. Remove them to expose a channel that the new wire can lay in all the way to the main switch panel. I also removed the microwave outlet for more room to feed the wire into the switch panel area; just snap off the cover plate, loosen the two mounting screws slightly so the wings fold in, and it will come right out. I had a round rocker switch in my stash, and they are also available from Amazon. I installed it in the blanked hole for the “Street Awning” switch, and blacked out the word Awning with a felt marker. The switch just says “Street” now, for the street porch light. Very unprofessional, but I hope someone will had a better solution. If you don’t have a blanked spare switch hole, then a switch can be mounted on the other side of the switch panel, on the inside cabinet wall. The switch was wired with the new blue wire going to the middle terminal, the red hot +12Vdc to the bottom, and the yellow ground to the top (needed for the blue neon indicator.) The other ends of the hot and ground wires went to existing six-port push-in terminals that feed other switches. There were some unused ports. This is easier than it sounds, but it’s good to have a clamp-on amp meter and/or circuit tracer to help find the street porch light wire. I included a photo and list of the tools I used. The inexpensive brands work well enough, and I’d recommend owning them for other electrical projects, troubleshooting and repair work: Digital clamp-on ac/dc amp meter, also a multimeter, can check your shunts and loads too! Circuit tracer for finding wires, shorts, and breaks Metal fish tape, I cut short pieces off the end for these kind of jobs Cable tie gun, you will wonder how you ever got by without one Auto wire stripper, just makes it easier Thomas and Betts crimpers, 50 years old and still my favorite go-to Inspection mirror Fluke multimeter, when accuracy counts Cheers, Geoff

So if you go to Fargo, circle back or stop on the Minnesota side of the river, and visit the Viking ship replica, and the replica stave church (built to look like the Hopperstad church in Norway.) Amazing projects, even if you are not of Scandinavian heritage, like me. The builder of the viking ship never got to launch it, but his kids actually sailed it to Norway. It's truly beautiful. https://www.hcscconline.org/

We've done a number of Alaska trips, never with the Ollie. Flew up 20 years ago and rented a small class c. Delivered several rentals from Indiana to Alaska over the years. It's a very long trip. Our favorite part of the trip had always been northern bc, and the Yukon. But, you can fly in and rent there, too. Not Ollie purists. We've rented campers on several continents, when expedient. Love my Ollie, but not shipping it to Europe, Australia, or Iceland. Rentals often make so much sense. Glad you had fun. May is a bit chiller, bit a great time to visit Alaska. Fewer bugs. Fewer tourists. Fewer fires. Good on you for great timing.

One of my brothers lives in Brainerd. Brainerd weather doesn't always look at the calendar. Lol. It SHOULD be in the 70s, but 40s or 50s can happen in June. At least it cuts down on mosquitoes.

The "newer" Garmin GPS units come with so much more than the older units. This includes campgrounds to include boondocking spots, history data, sights to see, shopping, restaurants, height and weight limits specific to your rig, etc. I just saw a recent post on All About RV's (see here) where a "new rear view camera system" can combine several cameras and TPMS and dash cameras. Just might make those "schtinkin" cameras worth another try? Bill

I ditched my Garmin GPS long ago. Don't forget that you can download large areas in Google Maps and use it offline if there is no cell coverage and this wouldn't use up your data if you are on a limited plan. I use this all the time here in Colorado where vast areas have no signal. Obviously, it can't include in-time things like traffic slowdowns or accident notification. I freakin' love my GM integrated trailer camera system on my 2021 Silverado! I purchased the camera unit for something like $350 I think. installed it at the top of the spare tire cover and ran the connecting wire easily under the trailer and the connector is right next to my 7-pin. It's not that I can't back a trailer without it but the piece of mind and absolute certainty of what's behind and how close is priceless. It works extremely well. zero lag and high resolution view right on my dashboard screen. It provides active guide-line overlay that moves with your steering rotation just like any modern car/truck back-up camera. In tricky, tight spaces or backing uphill, it's excellent.

…and the Army is celebrating 250 years today!

I assume that you have filed a Service "ticket" regarding this issue? There have been a number of occasions in the past where these "rubber strips" have shifted from their original location. Unfortunately, I'm not aware of exactly what was done to correct each situation. And, to my knowledge, there has only been ONE Oliver that was ever actually removed from its original frame to be have that frame replaced. Therefore, Service should be asked how to proceed in getting this "rubber strip" back to where it belongs and what can be done to keep it there. Bill

The highways in Kansas are nearly perfect, everywhere we drove! I had not driven on highways so smooth since what I remember of I-64 in VA during the 70s when that Interstate was a new road (moved to VA from the pothole city known as Chicago). The roads in AZ and NM are terrible, and even worse where Fed funds are needed as in US highways and Interstates! We headed to Manhattan Kansas, picked the location for some pickleball courts we found on the PicklePlay app. We made an inquiry on Harvests Hosts but after the courts listed were not to be found and the host site looked like a construction co lot, we drove north of town to stay the night a Tuttle Cove a ACOE campsite. $12 with the senior pass. Windy when we got there and perfectly calm the next morning, a very nice spot and what an amazing dam!