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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/21/2026 in all areas

  1. Once you setup your Starlink the dish is locked to your account. So it is useless to someone who wants to just pick it up and walk away with it. Now, granted, not all thieves know this as many are stupid hence their trade. But we have always left ours out overnight and during the day (unless we need it in the truck to have a single).
    2 points
  2. Water would be "our biggest constraint" if we did not have our secondary fresh water tank. Yes, we always fill both tanks before leaving home; the 32-gal in the Oliver and 35-gal in the TV (a lifesaver): https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/horizontal-leg-tank-35-gal-2137324 Also, we do not use onboard water for cooking or drinking. So we also carry 10+ gallons drinking water in 1 and 2.5 gallon food quality jugs. And with cold water in glass carafes in the fridge AND truck fridge, we start with about 80 gallons total. Our Wisconsin friend @FloraFauna also always carries an extra 35-gal fresh water! Steve once wrote something like, "I wish it was larger!" The most we ever got out of our Oliver Fresh Water tank was once 28 gallons (measured when refilling). More often it's closer to 22-24 gallons when you can hear the water pump taking air. Lift the front jack another inch and you could get another 3-4 gallons but it's time to refill the tank. With the TV hitched, 35 ft of hose (10+25) will connect the secondary tank to the Boondocking water connection. It's so easy with Eley hose quick-connects on all parts! When refilling the first time, I use about half (18 gal) so that we can refill again. Water in tow we can last 10 days, with quick showers every other day. So given we have enough water for 10 days and our 900 Ah with solar suitcase we can also last 10 days. It's the Black Tank that limits our travel. We can dry camp for 10 days, IFF we dump the black after 5 days (based on 2 of us). If you have composting then you would not have this constraint. I mounted our tank (special order mounting straps) and put a cloth cover over it to keep direct sunlight out (unnecessary with a truck cap). Put it in the middle of the bed, the area which is hard to reach for other items. I could not see carrying 5-gal jugs to the rear. What's 5 gallons, about a half day of usage? Gotta have water, the more the better and more so in the desert southwest! 😎
    1 point
  3. We leave it out at night. One exception, we stayed at a sketchy campsite one night where I did not have a good feeling re the neighbors (van life types and some living out of cars). So I brought it in before going to bed and we left next morning to find a better campsite! I bring it in every time we leave for the day. In fact 90% of the time we use the truck mount, so we have to pull it down. I put it in the Starlink travel bag ($40 option includes a dish frame and bag) and it with the 2' pole extension sits in my truck tool box. Takes 1 minute to mount or remove. Once camping outside of Durango, we drove into town and halfway there I realized the Starlink was still up on the truck mount, NP! 🤣 Most of you have truck caps. I believe you could easily side-mount the base-mount 2" PVC pole to the side of the cap. The second removeable piece of PVC pipe mounts above to provide height. Paint it to color match and have it there ready. Ron and others have tall poles, mounting suction cups, etc. I just don't want the hassle, love the truck mount. If you can move the dish 10 ft up to avoid trees, you can also move it 10-20 ft over to a clear spot. How far? We've never needed the dish more than 30-40 ft away from the Oliver to clear trees, but we're not often in heavy woods. Where we camp, the Ponderosa Pine is our tallest tree. You wrote "WIFI to WIFI." I believe you mean what MobileMustHave.com calls "WiFi as WAN" (check them out, they have videos explaining everything). I have a Pepwave router which is capable of this and so could your router. Just recently I created a hardwire solution for my truck mount (30V power and Ethernet LAN). So now I have the Mini wired to the Pepwave router directly which allows us one login. You should have up to 50' distance with Wi-Fi as WAN, though it will depend on your router antenna. We have the extremely capable Parsec Husky which in my experience covers 100+ ft radius in broadcasting Wi-Fi. When I cannot park our TV in clear view of the northern sky, I will use the portable stand with battery and change login to the built-in Mini Router. I installed our router in our truck for a number of reasons; 1) our Internet connection ALWAYS travels with us, day trips too, 2) The Oliver will be parked in the shade more often and the tow vehicle can be moved some, the trailer not so much, and 3) when we travel for business or pleasure without the Oliver we have our Wi-Fi, no need to use unsecure hotel or public Wi-Fi. My portable stand is large and clumsy. Next mod will be to remove the post and replace the large plastic tank with a flat metal base. A short pole and flat base will be much easier to store when not in use. Very often with our router setup and T-Mobile Business 5G Cell SIM card ($30/mo) we do not need the Starlink (80/20 rule). Boondocking in a canyon? Time to connect the Starlink! This link will go to my final post of the thread, when I hardwired the Starlink. =>
    1 point
  4. Thanks JD. We are weighing all of our options for replacing the Dometic. The Chill Cube is certainly getting a lot of play with people. And Inverter Service Center, the place where Steve got his electrical upgrade done, recommends the Chill Cube and may actually start installing it at some point. Thanks again!
    1 point
  5. I've added the Texas Rally info to the new rally map: https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1dsUQmPEsXOhV3KgTIkwI1QzIeWChkCw&usp=sharing
    1 point
  6. There are number of brands in the market that refer to products as "extended season" campers. Lance is one of those but there are few others and this is where at most I would categorize the Oliver, although admittedly one can get by for a day or so in some rather cold temps if you can put up with the noisy furnace if not plugged into shore power with AC heat source which we have also done a few occasions.
    1 point
  7. Well, I guess I jinked myself, or at least proved why having a TPMS is valuable. On the trip from Utah to Grand Junction (to get us some new leaf springs), our TPMS went off, and my wife said, "One of the tires is down to 35 psi... now 30... now 25," all in the matter of 30 seconds. We pulled over, and sure enough, the tire pressure was dropping fast. The valve stem had ripped and started leaking. We did enough of a patch-and-fill job to get off the side of the freeway so we could change the tire. Glad we had it, so this stayed just an inconvenience! Also, so glad I had done dry runs of changing tires at home so whenever this day did come I was confident we could get it addressed. The next day I went to Les Schwab and got some nice steel stems put on all the tires!
    1 point
  8. I'm sure that someone here on the Forum will have some "trouble shooting" tips for you on this problem. But, I can tell you that Oliver spent several years trying to find a way to install something other than the "simple" microwave. As I understood the main issue during the time they were trying, heat dissipation was the main issue they were dealing with. Therefore, it seems (to me) likely that you have basically honed in on the root cause of your problem. Good luck in fixing what you have. Bill
    1 point
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