ScubaRx

Your trailer can never fall below ambient temperature. Wind chill has no effect on inanimate objects. It will, however, reach that temperature faster with wind.

Sherry, the plan is to mount 2x100 watt panels on the top of the camper shell to charge a 100Ahr AGM battery in the back of the truck. This will be used to power the Dometic full time. I just didn’t get it all done prior to leaving yesterday for Quartzsite. We should have it finished by the rally.

As a "thank you" for helping a friend with a trailer project, I was gifted a Jackery Portable Power Station Explorer 500. I'd never heard of it but it has turned out to be a pretty cool gadget. I'm still playing around with it and to see what its capabilities are, I'm taking it with us when we leave tomorrow for Quartzsite. Initially, I'm going to see how long it will power our new Dometic CFX 75DZW Electric Cooler/Freezer. Tests at home have it working fine, but the problem will be recharging it on the road. We'll see.

What, you have more than one pair of shoes??? At the same time??!!! Oh my goodness, you Oliver people are really rich.

We have camped many times in temps down to what you're describing. We do not have any additional heaters under the floor. In the situation you describe, the propane furnace will provide sufficient heat to keep your inside plumbing going. Do not hook up to outside water and expect it to be running the next morning, even with a heated hose it will most likely freeze at one end or the other so you do need to pay attention to "the outside fittings, ie city water connection, shower nozzle." Pete has "bilge heaters" in his unit. Maybe he'll chime in here. Realize though, you would have to have hookups (electricity) to be able to use them. Even a large tank of water will eventually freeze at 10 degrees but in my experience, simply keeping the basement areas slightly above freezing does the trick and it's not too hard to do. It WILL use a lot of propane so be aware of that. My guess is that if the temperature never got above 10 degrees, the furnace would run pretty much constantly and you could could use up 60 pounds of propane in less than a week. Realistically, probably daytime temps would get to near freezing or above and lessen that propane load. Running out of propane in below freezing temps would not be fun or safe, but that's why there are wheels on your trailer. If you are not trapped somewhere, move.

GVWR (Gross Vehicle Weight Rating) is usually easy to ascertain for a given vehicle. It's generally on a sticker inside the driver's door. CCC (Cargo Carrying Capacity) seems to be a bit harder to determine. Depending on factory options that came with the vehicle, that value could go up or down. Plus, if you've added several thousand pounds of "permanent" options (bumpers, toppers, bed slides) that comes out of the total also. OK, I think (hope) I already know the answer but here's the question. Wouldn't the easiest way to make sure you're not overloaded be to just weight the tow vehicle in its loaded, ready to travel state and make sure that it's under the GVWR? I realize that tongue weight has to be counted also.

The problem lies with the Progressive Industry’s EMS. A quick work around is to simply turn it off. Then you eliminate the potential that there is a problem within the generators. If everything works as expected in this scenario, it indicates that the EMS is doing its job. I would then call the tech department at Progressive Industry. They will have seen this problem before and know how to remedy it. Hope this helps.

This guy has a lovely wife and a beautiful child. He also has a gigantic heart. Phil is fun to hang with and a great guy to have around if things start to go belly-up. They just don’t come any better than Phil Andrews. Thank YOU, Phil for all you do.

Here's a trick I've used several times. This is not specific to any given area of the trailer. Use a flexible but stiff object such as this to push through the area you want to fish a wire. Attach a length of string trimmer line similar to this (any brand will do) and pull through at least twice as much as the distance needed to go completely through. Attach the wire you want to fish to the center of the pull line and pull through being careful not to lose the lower end of the pull line by pulling too far. When finished, pull the line back and leave a coil of the pull line at either end of the area for the next time you want to pull something new.

Can you say M-O-T-O-R-H-O-M-E? 😎

Good choice and to her advantage.

That thing looks just like what I always envisioned a tough truck should look like. I even have a picture I drew that looks almost exactly like it. I was six at the time.

The ones I've seen that were prewired had the the cables terminated under the port side bed (driver's side). The plates in the roof are 1/4" aluminum. You are correct about drilling and tapping. I would use 1/4-20 button head hex-drive screws. The proper bit to use is a #7 (0.201 inch) the closest decimal size bit is a 13/64 (0.203 inch), either will work just fine. You would use two screws per bracket. I don't exactly know when they started prewiring the units. My guess is: if yours has the plates it probably has the wiring. I will be at the factory Monday thru Wednesday. I'll inquire about the wiring and get back to you.

Not knowing the age of your pending trailer, some or all of this may not apply. During delivery, make sure the previous owners show you where all the solar wiring has been preinstalled. Also, where it begins and terminates. There should be wiring leading to the roof to connect the panels to through a combiner box mounted there. If not get them to show you how to retrieve the wires at the roof. In addition, the PO's may not know any of this. There are metal plates embedded in the fiberglass on the roof. These are attachment points for the brackets that hold the panels on. Make sure you understand where they are. During panel installation, you will drill through the outer shell fiberglass and the plate below it. Here's where you stop. Do not continue to drill after the metal plate is penetrated or you risk drilling through the inner fiberglass shell and ultimately into and through the ceiling. This will create a tiny unwanted round skylight. Not good. Let us know the model year and the hull number.

Does your trailer have solar? If not, you're correct, you would not like the desert at Quartzsite. If it does, you would have all the electricity you need as the sun shines pretty much all day every day (but it's not too hot). Water is simple to get and cheap (25 cents for 5 gallons) in Quartzsite, about 4 miles from where we will all be camped. And, your Oliver is uniquely equipped to pump that water into your onboard tanks. Dump before you set up and you should be good for a week or so. When needed, the dump station is available at the same place we get water. Think about it, you might want to give it a try. If you absolutely hate it, remember there are wheels on the trailer for a reason.