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Its under his info - Hull #1432 - 2023 YM

Awning brand?

Couple of thoughts. Just for the record your trip locations are not really the NW but rather should be considered the Northern Rockies. Have not been to CN in a long time so will leave those areas out of the comments. As for chains, I have lived in MT for almost half a century and never owned them nor used them. The likelihood of needing them this time of year is unlikely too but anything is possible. You might see some triple digits temps in SD and ND that time of year and certainly well into the 90's. I did photoshoot in TRNP once in the summer and it was brutal. At least 110º perhaps more, but at least the assignment was with horses. Cameras got so hot it was difficult to hold them at times. Two Medicine is awesome and will be quite a bit cooler, days will be getting much shorter too by then. Same for East Glacier of course. Autumn colors start quite a bit earlier up in this neck of the woods compared to the SW but you should be hitting it at a good time. Expect cool to downright cold nights and with some frost on the later part. I have seen bitter cold temps and near blizzard conditions in Sept but it is rare and certainly not every year. Normally, the roads would not freeze up this time of year, but again anything is possible. Early winter snows tend to melt fairly quick on the roads and Montana has a great road crew system for clearing. I would imagine CN to be no different. Have a great trip

I do like our manual awning. Zero issues.

Not sure if this will work with your awning.

We already have most of our campground reservations (based on previous visits car camping). We also have a bunch of the now-required reservations for hiking and buses in CA (Lake Louise, etc.) Just wondering if anyone has recent info on conditions or suggestions for Badlands NP (dry site) 8/17-21 Bismark restock 8/22 Theodore Roosevelt NP (dry site) 8/23-27 Great Falls restock 8/28 Glacier NP Two Medicine (dry site) 8/29-9/1 East Glacier KOA (hookups) 9/2-9/15 Waterton (hookups) 9/16-22 Tunnel Mountain, Banff (hookups) 9/23-10/6 Whistler, Jasper (hookups) 10/7-13 All weather permitting, of course. If winter starts we plan to donate our reservations and head south. 🤪 We have a few family visits the set the course outbound, but no fixed return plans. Again, depending on weather, we may just make a bee line for FL or try our luck heading East on the trans canada highway. Both are VERY long, but we got nothing but time 😁

MDIV is in storage now, but I will definitely give this a try. There is very little downside for me since I never use it as is. THANK YOU P.S. This forum continues to be one of the highlights of Ollie ownership.

You are wise to avoid the snow and stay really weather aware in the shoulder months, weather can change quickly. In 23 we camped right outside Rocky Mountain NP at Spruce Lake CG in Estes Park. (Super close to RMNP) We got to know the couple running the CG and they told us that in 2022 in the last week of Sept they had 6” of snow. As @routlaw said “anything is possible”. Last fall on our 48 day trip out west we had amazing weather in Sept and Oct. I recall we only had 2 days of rain and perfectly cool temps. We will likely only travel out west in the shoulder months. Winter certainly has its beauty and totally changes the landscape. I am in the crowd that has zero desire to camp in snow or pull our Oliver in winter conditions for sooooo many reasons. Sodium chloride aka rock salt on icy roads being the biggest one. One of many great advantages of living here in the south aka the land of cotton are long summers and short winters and very little rust on our vehicles. Wishing you safe travels!!🇺🇸 Patriot

Lucky you, sure wish we had a manual awning! Oliver should make that an option.

This will be a first for us, though common to many of you who have more time for travel. I have 6 weeks off work, for our personal longest camping trip ever. I was inspired by a post our friend Steve @ScubaRx made last year where wrote that he and Tali often travel across country without reservations! This is difficult for the Project Manager in me, but should make for a spontaneous and exciting adventure! First stop just 5 hours from home, we’ll stay 2 nights up at 7760 ft in this beautiful McGaffey Campground SE of Gallup NM.

We moved out of the Midwest 26 years ago and there were two things I had forgotten about, one bad and one good. The bad are the huge storm fronts that can come through slowly and sometimes just sit for what seems to be FOREVER! Low pressure started with the storm that came through central Kansas. Then we caught up to it again the next day in Nebraska. And then it was still there ALL through Iowa and after two rainy days at Wilkinson Pioneer Park near Mason City Iowa it also covered most of Minnesota (so far). Fortunately we only had 3 rainy days but we have not seen the sun in 12 days! Let me tell you, this is difficult for us who live in sunny Arizona. Non-descript GRAY skies. You can't make out clouds, it's just a pale shade of gray. I remember a year in Chicago about 1980 when the Chicago tribune headline stated 45 days of gray. That was during the winter though, the first 12 days of June being nothing but gray, wow! The good one I had forgotten was how large and tall deciduous trees can be in the Midwest. Over the last 20 years we've lived in AZ, Central TX and S FL. No tall trees in these locations except for Ponderosa pines in AZ. Every town in Iowa, the pretty houses are surrounded by huge tall trees. Then we got to Chris' sister's home in Farmington MN. This was our best campsite so far. A private little spot in the woods along their driveway a couple hundred yards before their lakefront home. We spent 4 overnights with family here. We left today and drove up to Brainerd MN, staying Gull Lake Rec Area another ACOE park. Drizzle and gray again today. Just staying here one night. The plan is to boondock in the Chippewa NF for the weekend, but... If it's raining to the north when we wake up, I'm driving west to Fargo ND or further west as far as we must to see the sun again! 🤣

Well, I sort of agree. We've already gotten caught in several snow storms while camping with Oliver. They were just very comfortable nights. No worries at all. But that snow melted in a day or so. Given the latitudes and elevations we will be visiting, and the time of year, I'll have my eye on the weather. I don't want to end up towing hundreds of miles in a Canadian blizzard. I don't even own chains for the truck. At least not yet. I'm probably going to buy some before we head north.

We struggled with the same question when we bought our Elite II in 2022. We ultimately chose to stick with the Gen. 2 (2019) Tundra 4.7L Double Cab we already owned. We have towed our 2022 Elite II with that 2019 Tundra with the 4.7L engine, a transmission oil cooler and an Andersen weight distribution hitch, without trouble. We live in Idaho, and have towed it over mountain passes in the Pacific Northwest many times. I know that some on this forum will disagree, but my experience is that at least Gen. 2 Tundras are not true "1/2 ton" pickups. They fall somewhere between the 1/2 ton and 3/4 ton pickups offered by their competitors, and so are up to the task of towing an Elite II with an Andersen WD hitch. Your Gen. 1 Tundra may be different. Your specific door sticker controls over the more generic owners manual. The door sticker on our Tundra also reads 1421 lbs. payload capacity. We initially towed our Elite II from Hohenwald to central Idaho without airbags. The addition of airbags helped reduce jounce, so I would recommend them. We have not upgraded the already substantial 4-wheel disc brakes on the Tundra, yet with the gain properly set on the brake controller, the Elite II braking system has enabled us to safely make a couple of panic stops (such as for a deer in the road) without incident.

Most of us suggested no but you can just make it, if that's what you want. However, the mountains of the Pacific NW is not an easy traverse. I have an older Ram Diesel and wish it had more than a 4-speed trans and an exhaust brake like modern diesel trucks have today. The mountains we travel through are not an easy climb for the trans and not as easy descend on the brakes. I also upgraded wheels an inch larger to upgrade to larger brakes of the next gen Ram, big help. I believe the 600 LB number is subtracting the average weight of a full 5 passenger load from the total available 1421 LBS. Another thing from your tire pressure label. Same on our GX, Toyota puts P-rated tires on these trucks, P stands for passenger cars. It's a must with towing to upgrade to LT tires. Our GX now has LT265/70R17 Load Range C tires and if I was going to tow with it regularly I would have purchased Load Range E instead.

New Mexico is a wonderful state in its hidden treasures from the area NE of ABQ (where Art lives) up to Santa Fe and to Taos NM, then further up to Raton NM for the Santa Fe Trail Balloon Rally (we just happened by this rally when moving from VA to AZ back in 2005)! Then there is Ruidoso! It's Gods Country in Lincoln County NM of Billy-the-Kid and Smokey-the-Bear fame. Don't travel across southern NM without spending some time here. The area is named the White Mountains of NM, wild elk and feral horses walking the city streets daily and so many cute carvings Smokey is shops everywhere. If you're ever traveling through Albuquerque and need breakfast, lunch or dinner, or just great sides to go, like their amazing salsa and beans, Mexican meats and stews and much more, you've got to stop at the Frontier Restaurant. Just one exit S on I-25 of I-40, head a few blocks east on Central. This is my 4th visit here but the first time I parallel parked with an Oliver! (There was a car behind me when I parked and just a narrow alley in front). It worked out great and we could even keep an eye on our rig from the window seat! Chris had the Taco Salad and I enjoyed the Frontier Burrito, pints of salsa and beans to go for upcoming campsite dinners!

I hope you have a great trip. I would love to travel without scheduling everything to a gnat's ass. Wave if you see us. We leave Sunday for six weeks

I’m committed to my 50th reunion at West Point in Oct ‘26 (class of 1976) so we won’t be attending. We’ve got plans already for all of Sept/Oct. Fall at Lake Guntersville should be nice, though! Mike