SeaDawg

If your breakaway is connected with proper distance, your emergency brakes will engage, should your trailer "break away ." Thats the purpose of the cable.

Safety breakaway wires are necessary. But, very rarely used. I towed thousands of miles with my dad, without ever needing them. But, when you do, you do. You're fine, going 30 miles to Hohenwald, to check it out. Check your connections when you hitch up. The bulldog is pretty much foolproof, imo. If you are hitched, have the collar lock on place, you're golden. You can't lock the collar if you're not hitched properly. At least, I don't know how you can screw it up. Don't think I could

We keep one day's laundry in a small bag in the bathroom. The rest goes into two ikea bags in the truck bed, presorted. We empty daily.

What day is your appointment in texas?

I can't tell what your distance is, from your photos If I remember correctly, you should have 24 inches of play. You have time. Take it. Use it Take your trailer back in next week, talk to Jason, and get it right. If it's wrong.

You can usually bring gelcoat back with fine rubbing compound, and buffing, waxing etc. Gelcoat isn't a paint, or a coating. It's fiberglass, without the "fiber", and sprayed onto the mold before the rest of the fiberglass is built up. The gelcoat on our trailer is marine grade, fairly thick, and you'd be surprised at what some buffing and waxing can do. Even when it looks chalky and tired.

Looking at the manual for the new Girard power awning, I don't see an attached patio screen room being a very good idea, even if you made one.. At the least, you would have to somehow disable the wind/motion sensor, or risk the awning rolling up on its own, with the screen room attached, which could certainly cause some serious damage. I think a Clam, or something like it, would be your best option, with the new power awning.

I use a old thermal stainless pot from a defunct krups machine. And a big drip cone from Amazon. If you really want steaming coffee to last, preheat the big pot (clean), with boiling water. Let it sit for a minute or two. Return water to the tea kettle. (Same procedure for thermal mugs) Reheat water. Make coffee. The preheated jug or cup keeps coffee hot much longer .

Pink stuff is rv antifreeze. Orange and blue are the typical colors for rv tank treatment.

I saw that someone "liked" this good thread, so I thought I'd bring it back up for discussion. Over the years, I've definitely "culled" the essentials. We travel with some empty cupboard and truck bed space, years in. We carry less every year.

Btw, your toilet probably came with a little bottle of tank treatment. Put most of it down the toilet, but put a quarter down the bathroom sink. The odors will go away, even for those of us with hypersensitive noses, if the shower floor is now clean. Um, when you treat the toilet, open the valve/hole by depressing the pedal at the bottom of the toilet. It will close when you let off the pedal. Ps. Put an inch or so of water in the bowl from a jug, if you still haven't connected to water. There is a rubber seal around the valve at the bottom of the bowl that likes to stick, if it's left without water or rv antifreeze in it. After every dump, you'll need to add a little toilet tank treatment to keep everything happy. An ounce ot so of the orange liquid, or one pod if the pod packets is quite enough. The inexpensive orange liquid at Walmart is fine.

Several "other brands" do offer the midpoint. At a weight I can lift. (Champion, Westinghouse, etc.) Not sure if anyone offers dual fuel at that range, though. Someone eventually will. Because it's so often asked for.

Do you know which way your tanks are set up? It's been pretty cold today in Lewisburg, according to weather.com, but I doubt your furnace ran much your first night. It was much warmer. My guess, not being there, is you are good for tonight, even if you are on the one tank setting. At the very least, if you're actually set in the 55 to 60, and the heat didn't kick on a lot during the day, you should be good for tonight. Maybe tomorrow. The only way to really tell is to remove the hood, and slide your fingertips down to feel the temperature difference, which is actually really hard to do when it's cold out. It's easier to feel the difference in warm air. Or, loosen both tanks, lift and feel weight difference. Assuming you don't have a propane guage, which we don't, either. You can extend the life of your propane by using a small electric heater, when you have hookups. Make sure it has tipover and overheat protection. We put ours under the small dinette, facing out. The furnace rarely kicks in, and we can use free electricity for auxiliary heat. Sidenote, we never leave the electric heater on when we're not physically in the trailer.

Congratulations @ lots of missions accomplished, today! Your trailer looks great.

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So, I ran across this today. There's at least one usa owner of the Hymer gt touring.

I don't know of if the Edwin Hymer caravans got off the ground in Europe, but I saw some at the rv supershow in Tampa a few years back. Molded fiberglass . Pop top on some models. Lightweight. Nice finishes. I think all were single axle. https://www.sicardrv.com/blog/post/the-new-2019-erwin-hymer-touring-gt-travel-trailer/ If they did, and you see a used one, I'd take a look. No, they're not Olivers, with our double hull. But significantly lighter, and easier to tow. Never got introduced here, that I know of. Smaller ones were a revival of sorts if the Eriba puck, one if my favorite tiny trailers of all time.

Henry, are you planning to use the trailer in Europe, and ship back and forth? Your original post says "currently living in Europe. " Or, are you moving/returning to the US? If you're looking for a camper for Europe, I suspect there are a number of good brands there, already.

You have indeed had a busy Minnesota winter. And it's only January !

Mike, way back in the day, we looked into shipping our trailer to Europe, and buying a Volvo on the buy abroad program, or leasing a car through the French Peugot/Renault program. The modifications (including different safety regulations) were extensive, but not insurmountable, if we lived on solar. I'm pretty sure I still have that yellow folder somewhere upstairs. I saw it a few years ago when I was purging files.. Our biggest issue was finding insurance for the trailer. And, of course, the time. The smaller Elite is heavier, but not larger than many of the German trailers we've seen on our trips. Still would want to carefully plan trips, as so many old roads are soooo narrow. We've honestly found cabin camping and minivan camping to be more sensible for us, abroad.

I got the manual for the 9500 (Houghton 2801) today. Looks like it should work very nicely in our limited rooftop real estate. I can't seem to find a way to post the pdf on my phone, but if anyone wants to see the whole Houghton manual, you can send me a pm. The rep added me to a notification list for new inventory of units with the white shroud. 😃 I think it will look great on the roof, if they come back in stock before camping season for us! Thanks again, @Katanapilot. And Overland. Sherry

Nicely done!

Welcome, Paul and Mary. I still have a lot of family in the beautiful state of Minnesota. Love your photos. Hope you'll share more.

Thanks for the link, Henry. I'll try to send the author of that article a note. I don't think I've ever seen even a used Oliver for $20k. The last one I saw under 28k was a 2008 Legacy, with no solar. Unfortunately, I don't know of any travel trailers using diesel as a fuel for furnace and stove. Some of the even pricier overland vehicles offer this option. Maybe one if the Aussie import trailers, but they're not likely in your stated price range, either.. NuCamp does use the Alde heat system in their trailers and the Cirrus truck camper, but it's fueled by propane and electric. Here in the US, you may find diesel in van conversions. Good luck in your search, and keep checking back. Maybe a great early used Oliver will pop up for you. Sherry

FrankC, I too was mystified. Maybe looking at a different currency? But then, even the smaller Elite I starts at top end, around 40, 000 gbp.