johnwen

Follow up...after sunrise I inspected the side of the trailer and the bent hose end. Everything looks ok. In retrospect, we discussed events this morning and decided communication between us could have be better. We seemed to lose too much time hooking up to the trailer. With the wind blowing pretty hard and being dark, the backup truck's camera wasn't entirely useless, but pretty close. We might look into a wireless headset, since verbal communication is somewhat hampered anyway while trying to line up the hitch and connect it. We have tasks we perform each time we travel and we know what each other does. Under normal circumstances, we check each other's tasks over to some degree. The decision to leave was good, I think, with a clear path away from the storm and several directions to use as an escape route. Had it been rush hour or even normal daytime traffic we may have elected to stay put. Our safety is of utmost importance, but we would also not like to be stuck across country with broken windows and solar panels, along with a totaled vehicle from the hail. As for the campground, it looks as if nothing really happened. Yay! Hope to see ya'll at the rally 🙂

A very fast developing storm had us departing our campsite in minutes tonight. So many things done wrong... 60 mph winds, 1+ inch hailstones, and a tornado in the mix had us running to beat the storm. We took only what was necessary and left everything else behind. We took long enough to see that there was a clear path out of the storm's path so we decided to go. The storm was 2 counties away and we felt we could escape safely. Wendy was busy on her tablet and phone plotting out our path and watching the storm. We have talked about what we would do in a situation like this but never considered an immediate departure at night. I think we did the best we could under the circumstances but realize there is room for improvement. We full time and are many states away from familiar surroundings. Well, we safely evaded the storm. No hail or heavy rain was encountered. So, all went pretty well. Until we came back to the campground..... It's my first time driving at night with the camper and setting up. I pulled a real dumb-dumb. I figured to use the dump site on the way back into camp to save a trip later. I thought all was going well until I saw a recoil of some sort in the side view mirror as I pulled away. I just knew I returned the septic hose to it's place but I wasn't 101% sure so I stopped and looked around. The septic hose was all locked up safely in its compartment. But I had driven off with the water hose still attached to the black tank rinse spigot. The water hose stretched until it could stretch no more. I bent the water main over to a 45 degree angle and popped the campground hose end off. I had the water shut off and the water stand pipe, although bent, did not leak. I'll own up to the campground admin folks in the AM. The connection on the Oliver was bent sideways, but I was able to take off the water hose end that remained on the fitting. After hooking back up at our site, I straightened the trailer's hose hookup somewhat to make it a little easier to get my water hose end on and tested with water pressure. All seemed ok. No leaks that I could see and water was going into the black tank. The outside attachment point seemed ok. No cracks or leaks externally. If anyone has any experience with this sort of mishap, please let me know what else to check out. I plan to call OTT service tomorrow as a follow-up and give them a good laugh. First time in the dark made me realize I need to triple check everything I do. I think I'll stick to daylight ops!

Congratulations. Great write up 🙂 Happy Trails, John

Very nice, are they permanently installed? How much do they weigh? 🙂 (edit: guess I should have read the intro, I see they can be removed. I jumped right to the video after seeing the picture and didn't even read the description lol. Very tasteful and attractive.) John

June will mark 38 for us 🙂 We're full-timers and in Texas waiting for Bluebonnet to happen next month. Then, who knows? Happy trails!!!

Hello, jstone.....from hull 996 🙂 Hope you're havin' fun! John

Congratulations! Have a ton of fun 🙂

We received them in January, this year, at factory pickup 🙂

Thank you much, Frank C 🙂

Thank you all!

Looking again at my 2022 brochure I see that it shows a picture of the Bright Way batteries so I reckon all is ok. Except, since they are not actually AGM, is the "AGM" setting on my solar controller ok? There is also a "gel" setting at a slightly reduced voltage setting. 14.4 vs 14.1 John

Thanks, Bill. I specified AGM, and indeed my build sheet indicates AGM, but got these sealed lead acid batteries instead. Guess I'll contact OTT about this tomorrow. John

My 2022 Elite II came with 4 Bright Way Group 6V 220 AH Deep Cycle Sealed Lead Acid batteries. I thought I was getting AGM batteries. Is there a difference between Sealed Lead Acid batteries and AGM? John

Well said, SeaDawg!!! 🙂

OMGoodness. After reading this thread I decided to get up on the roof, remove the A/C cover, and gaze at the many ways a bird, or mud-dauber, or frog, or whatever, could end up under the cover. I'll be busy screening today! John

Hi Frank-n-Val, I see you have a 2022 model as well, I wonder if previous years had issues with this as well. We're hull 996 🙂 We'll get it figured out! John

Thanks, all for the responses. I did submit a ticket and also asked about jb weld and contact cement. The glue/epoxy is still firmly attached to the fiberglass but the aluminum had none on it. John

It turns out that a part fell off the propane tank cover. Any ideas on what to use to reattach it? Thanks ya'll John

Oops, forgot you were headed to the keys. Have fun! John

Hi Ed and Nancy, We had 1 bad stem as well and got a pack of 4 at local auto store. Sorry to hear about your truck. Did you make it back before the storm hit? Believe it or not, it is 18 degrees here in sunny, SC by the lake ....grrrr! Was great meeting up with you at the mother ship 🙂 Btw I finally realized we had our back up camera set up to view a reverse picture, so images were displayed backwards.. probably the reason for having difficulty backing into our spot at the mother ship. At least that's the story I'm going with 🙂 John

Us too 🙂

Thanks for the heads-up on the mosquitoes 🙂

Actually I did send pictures to OTT they confirmed warranty problems if I covered up the gaps. I have a call into Norcold/Thetford and expect to hear back from them. Will post what they say.

I don't know either. I've contacted Norcold/Thetford and hope to hear back from them soon. Will post what I find out. John

Probably why my alarms went off! Thanks, John