SeaDawg

Painted cowboy? Don't know if still the same, but here's a thread. Best to call your reo, obviously. Everything changes over time.

I sure hope that doesn't happen. I was a teacher, a long time ago. Summer is shorter for teachers than students, for sure. There's a lot of beautiful country between you and Hohenwald, and it's a great trip. (I've done it. My college roommate, and still my best friend, lives in CT.) Plus, the factory pickup can be so educational. Good to explore the options, but hope you'll get to make the trip yourselves. What was your original pickup date?

I got a similar email, but no date.

That would be something new. Our vehicle insurance is with a different company. Unless this is something because if your home state rules, I'd try another call, and see if a different rep has a different answer.

Doesn't hurt to ask, anyway. The more people who ask....

The other town i recommend visiting is Franklin. Not far from Hohenwald, half hour or so south of Nashville. Beautiful town, some really great restaurants, and more hotel choices than Hohenwald, without the Nashville prices or crowds. Check out 55 South (my personal favorite Franklin restaurant), or more upscale dinner only Red Pony, same chef owner, or any of the other highly rated Franklin spots. Franklin has become a kind of restaurant hotspot for Nashville and surrounding areas (We also like a couple of the local restaurants in Hohenwald , especially Junkyard Dog, if you stay in Hohenwald. ) I just don't have a hearty recommendation for most accommodations in Hohenwald. You can easily drive to Nashville, enjoy the fun, and leave early or late and stay in Franklin. The southbound rush hour traffic from Nashville can be pretty awful, so try to avoid it.

@Mattnan, the Gaylord at Opryland is spectacular at Christmas. They turn the whole resort into a winter wonderland from mid-November on through Christmas. Even if you don't stay there, a lunch visit to one of their (slightly overpriced) restaurants is a great way to tour and see their amazing decorations. It's huge, and the indoor gardens are beautiful, too.

Congratulations! X2 on the solar. It has opened up so many wonderful camping opportunities for us.

Well, here's an interesting twist. Starlink and verizon working together? https://qz.com/2081223/amazon-wants-to-make-your-cell-phone-into-a-satellite-phone/

We have used good Sam's since day one, 14 years, for the same reasons @LongStride stated. Reasonable rates. We also use their roadside service. Their top plan covers not only our Ollie, but rentals, in Canada and Mexico, and covers tow of tv and trailer. The only annoying thing about good Sam's is their pretty much constant stream of mailers and emails, encouraging you to re-up early, etc.

I'm sure they do continue r& d , always looking for best available, in a steady supply stream. That's why we've seen so many advances in equipment, over the years . I've said it before (multiple times), I personally don't think a manufacturer can change horses, midstream, in supply chain issue times. If ac is your biggest issue, you're going to be limited to a few winnebago model vans, from what I've seen

That's been our feeling about our Elite 1, for 14 seasons. I'm really happy for both of you. Hope you enjoy yours, long term, as much as we have enjoyed ours. 14 seasons, over 100k miles. Wishing you many miles of smiles! And, happy travels.

I seriously doubt that. I have friends in the marine industry, with volume, maybe, 3 to 10 per cent. Pretty much across the board. Why? Because, seriously, they don't have to. There's a big market, and if you can supply, you don't have to cut price. I understand lots of folks wanting to make the best, even better. I get that. Some of us just wing it, and try rogue stuff on our own. If you actually need ac a lot, I commiserate. Virtually none of the readily available, standard ac options on rvs today are very quiet. We camp at altitude in heat. Or, live with the consequences. I'm with @mossemi. I happen to really enjoy my Oliver. Yes, we tweak from time to time. We're like that. Nothing changes my opinion, made 14 years ago, that our Ollie was the best choice, for us. Hopefully, we'll get to enjoy another 14 years.

FWIW, Dometic, nor any other brand ac, is actually "cheap." They all cost over 1k. The Dometic equivalent of my unit was more expensive, considering the Houghton comes with the adu (interior unit), and Dometic and most others are priced separately. We had the original Dometic in our trailer for 13 seasons. It always worked. It also drained through the Oliver drain lines. I don't think any of the other brands, to date, have that facility. I would say it's true that getting Dometic units has seemed to be a reliable supply chain for Oliver. That's an important factor for a manufacturer. But, i wouldn't regard that as a cost savings, by any means. Do I love that my Houghton replacement streams water down the rear of the trailer? No. But, it fit my size requirements for our self-installed bigger solar panels. It's narrower (which we needed), but longer, which might interfere with Oliver's current panels, with shadowing. IDK. I could have saved $$$ by installing a second fan, instead of ac, for as seldom as we use ac. Unfortunately, the majority of the US accepts the noisier ac in most cases, so the big guys don't spend a lot on bringing the quieter, more efficient European/Australian available units here. I see that changing, as Dometic has brought one of their quieter units in, as a retrofit only, perhaps as a test. Truma has entered the US market. As has Houghton. Coleman ndq is making some advances, though I think supply chain is still tough. Keep asking. Eventually, something will work. In the meantime, yes, it would be nice if service were allowed to install the Houghton. But then, who warrants it? Will there be parts availability? That's a much bigger deal for them, than for us, as individual owners.

My guess would be the Maxx air dome, as @kmoon4545's trailer photo shows a white bath fan shroud. Maxxair offers both black and white. Pretty sure ventline is only available in smoke, as I remember from my search last year. I bought the white maxxair dome with the led light to replace our 2008 fan, which gave us over a decade of good service. I really wanted a stainless shroud, solar, like we've put on the boat hatches, but none were the right size. Best to ask your rep, though.

I bought a small black and decker years ago. Not the foldable, more powerful model. Don't buy the cheaper one, like I did. Pretty much useless . I've heard the ryobi is good. I now carry a Dyson, that I also use at home. Love it.

@Wanderers, I love the outdoor cupboard for outdoor cooking! Nice bike storage setup. Your original post mentioned two 1000 watt panels on the truck... might be an extra zero that you'll want to edit out?

There was a pretty long thread about this awhile back. Perhaps this will help?

Each year, we watch end of year/black friday/ Christmas sales. Last year, we snagged some great deals. Solar panels,, etc.. This year, I'm watching for very little. Packing cubes. Some storage containers. We pretty much have all we need. I'm watching for January white sales, early, as 14 year old trailer towels are getting aged. And, a new, small fry pan.

When we replace our old gasket, we'll order black. Like dewdev , I'll do it once, and done

@Rivernerd Yes, I understand the need for return vents, or jumper ducts, transom vents, undercutting doors, etc. in home hvac. We also built separate returns in each room in our new home 6 years ago. It made for a lot of extra ducting, and a big challenge for our hvac installer, but smoke and pressure tests showed that he did an amazing job, and it works very well. Balancing pressures and return air in a small trailer is another different, and interesting conundrum. If you haven't seen it, here's another link to @Mainiac's excellent mod, which suited his needs very well. It's another good discussion. In our older Elites, there is no duct to the bath. Central furnace, no ducting. We heat the bath by propping the bath door open. I'm certainly no hvac expert, but I'm thinking the original location for the vent , with a ducted furnace, at/near the furnace location, is probably the most efficient, though perhaps not the most quiet?

Red Rock in OK was one of those victims of budget cuts. It's no longer an OK state park (since 2018). Privately operated. I'm really sorry you had a bad experience. Beyond state parks, there are many camping opportunities, as we all know. COE, fish and wildlife, nfs, blm, county and town campgrounds dot the maps. (For example, driving through Iowa, little campgrounds near small towns are everywhere, if you Google camping near whatever tiny town. They won't have necessarily great views, but clean and neat, and less than $25 a night, for the most part.) I'm confident we'll all find spots, if we look. We've only camped in a handful of Florida parks, because we leave in the summer heat, and northerners and Canadians have booked many of the best parks before we even think about it. Our camping opportunities in prime park spaces are limited during our "season." I understand that, and that's why I'd find a reasonable surcharge helpful. Get some spaces open for us residents, and get a bit of additional revenue from those who don't live here. Not double. Not $50 extra, but $10 is surely reasonable. I wonder about the "tourist marketing" angle. Though we always try to spend local as we camp our way to wherever, I suspect campers don't really contribute that much to the local economy. From what I've seen, they buy groceries and gas, for the most part. There's only so much we can carry in our campers, after all. When we camp, we try to be an asset rather than a burden. But, the seasonal increase of traffic in our Florida communities is something we have to gear up for, year round. Roads, ems, police, etc. Quite certain we (as a state) make much more from foreign owners and renters of luxury condos on the beach, who pay some significant taxes.

Starlink is offering a new antenna, half the weight of the original, and physically a bit smaller, as well. https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/12/starlinks-new-rectangular-satellite-broadband-dish-is-smaller-and-lighter-than-before/amp/

I was thinking the same thing!

Atwood and Houghton are both common in Australia, but as far as I know, neither is made there. I'm looking forward to dimetic freshjet, now available only as retrofit in USA. Eventually, US will catch up with eu and Australia.