SeaDawg

So very true

She was. Many decades ago. Still, I like the three page penance idea. Never had to use that, but.... 😅😅😅 Sherry

In our Elite I, we keep the big dinette set up as a bed all the time. I'm not really sure where the leg is, anymore. We use the underbed storage as premium space. Three crates. Sherry

Everything changes with the weather guys. Best job in the world. Be wrong 50 per cent of the time, and still keep your job We just got back from camping in Western NC on our acreage. The forecast stink, but we went, anyway. It was great. That said, we're in the mountains, where the hills make and break the weather. Sherry

As a former English teacher, I actually love the word "dross." Descriptive, seldom used. Interesting. 😄

I always encourage folks to take the time and shake out the trailer at a nearby campground. We couldn't. We had a tight timeline from the Orlando builder's show to NC, to Hohenwald, and on to the panhandle to drop my brother for a preexisting plane reservation. If we had it to do over, we would have stayed. But, couldn't. That said, we were seasoned rvers, and so are you. Though systems are in different places, many will be at least somewhat familiar. If the weather really stinks, and you don't have a pet with you, I recommend Fall Hollows bed and breakfast. Nice, clean, friendly midwest people. If they have a room available Our first trip back to Hohenwald was 6 months after pickup, to have solar retrofitted . February 2008, to labor day, 2008. Like you, we can fix most anything. Fortunately, we didn't have anything to fix. Sherry

Personally, I think an adjustable Lagun mount in the small dinette would be the bomb. I use the small dinette as extra counter space. At counter height would save my back, and Paul could easily bring it down at night for watching tv or reading at the forward seat.

For screw holes that don't show a lot, I'd actually recommend marine tex epoxy. It's white. Might not be the same white, not shiny, but it will definitely seal the hole. And much less noticeable than a deep black hole. If you decide later that you don't like the color match, you will have to sand it to rough it up to get a secondary bond. Gelcoat is brittle. It doesn't like to bond to a lot of material, including marine tex. That said, if we have to fill old screw holes on the boat, epoxy if some kind ( often marine tex) is our go to, because it will seal and stay. You can buy gel coat repair kits, tinted or untinted. They're not cheap, and for deeper "wounds", require buildup of layers for proper repair. If you just glob it in to a deep hole or gash, it will likely just look good for awhile, and then part ways . If you buy untinted and colorant, you're really on your own, because the color is different wet than when it dries . We've had a few scratches in noticeable areas repaired at Oliver. They did a great job, and I can't see the difference. They did the buildup in layers, so it took a couple days. And did the proper wet sand and buffing. Where are your repairs needed? Noticeable areas?

1. We can look up the connectors you need. Did they install the Zamp port? 2. You still need the solar controller on your panels. The inverter is a completely different piece of (important to some) equipment. You never want to send solar power directly to a battery, unregulated. That's what your controller does. The solar port takes that regulated power, through a fused line, to your battery. So, you get two protections for your battery. The existing solar controller, and an inline fuse.

That's actually really easy. Thanks, Overland. Our new software is so much more feature rich and intuitive than the old. Fun to discover new tools.

This technique also works on original posts, not just quoting a quote. I use it often when I want to select just a sentence or two of from a long post, especially one with many photos. It saves a lot of deleting. Sherry

Thanks for the catch. Options is a mod only button.

And, welcome aboard. We're sailboaters, too. There are a number of boaters on the forum. I think the molded fiberglass construction gives us a common ground. We still have our fiberglass boat. 40 + years old. Sherry

With a Cherokee, I'd be looking at an Elite I. My friend towed a Casita for a number of years with a Cherokee. She had a much heavier tongue weight than we did with the Elite I. My initial thoughts. Sherry

Yes. That's because mossemi's whole post was within a quote box that he edited to add his own responses on bold. The quote prompt below ( quote. Edit. Options line) will only pick up items outside of a quote box. It won't allow you to quote a quote. 😃 at least, not on my phone. Sherry

If I click on the new little "quote selection box, instead of copy or select, the quoted passage also gets an automatic header if author and time. I often find it faster to use than the original quote button at the bottom of a post, as I don't have to spend a lot of time deleting extra text. Sherry

I think the only way to "quote a quote" is to select text within the quote. On my phone, if I press and hold the area to copy/paste, an option pops up to quote just that selected item. I think the normal quote button only selects new text, not what was already in a quote box. Sherry

So, noticed the brown sign today as we drove by the exit off 26. Looks like a really nice campground, on the shore of Lake Murray. Have any of you camped there? Not far from Asheville. But looks like a nice place in spring or fall. https://southcarolinaparks.com/dreher-island Sherry

We have an Elite I, the shorty. When our adult daughter camps with us, she pitches a tent. Ditto with our nephews. I don't think the Oliver's are very friendly for more than a couple plus one child, on the dropped down dinette. Sherry

How long you can make water, and black and grey capacity last, is seriously a matter of controls. And tv payload. We carry several square stacking five gallon water containers of potable water. We set one on the tongue while camping, and it's the water station for refilling water bottles, tea kettle for making coffee, and often for washing dishes. And brushing teeth. This really amplifies the fresh water tank, which we only use for showers, toilet flushing, hand washing, etc.. sometimes dishwashing. I usually heat water in a tea kettle to wash dishes. Two pans. If we're short, I can reuse rinse water for wash, and rinse the next batch with boiling water. Scubarx set up a switch for refilling the fresh tank, which is really great. We have to go into the seat, upset the bed, etc., to do so, so we try to limit that activity . How long the grey and black capacity last depends on available facilities. We use a pit or vault toilet, if there is one. Outdoor shower if it's ok. Navy showers or bird baths. Camp sink for dumping dishwater if there is one. In bear country, you absolutely don't want to dump water near your campsite, nor anyone else's. We often camp in bear country, so it's a big consideration for us. Out west, in the desert, probably not so much. We don't camp in the desert much. I'm not a fan. Collection tank capacity (grey and black) is more limiting than fresh water for us, with auxiliary 5 gallon jugs in the truck. If there are no other toilet or shower or dumping facilities available, 7 to 12 days is about it, for 2 people. Can sometimes stretch longer, but it's not easy. We've never carried a blue boy. We do have a small one, but never figured out where, or how, to carry it. Someone else with the same limitations gave it to us. Sherry

When I wrote those comments years ago, I didn't realize Overland was planning to upgrade the batteries to lithium. The lithium can really make use of the big power flow from extra panels, charging faster at a higher rate. Bigger funnel to fill bigger vessel, faster, in simplest terms. That said, I don't begin to have room for Overland's batteries, nor his number of panels, in and on our 2008 shorty. I'm only a little jealous. 🤞🤥 We've camped with our setup (200 watts panels, 2 group 27 agm x 105 amp hour batteries) since 2008. Recent years added a 12v dc compressor fridge and a 100 watt portable panel, and it's doable, but requires considerable effort in monitoring, and moving the portable panel around to follow the sun. And, use of the generator in low sun days I would love to at least upgrade the battery capacity, and the best way for us in the smaller Elite is dropin group 27 case size lithium, with our smaller battery tray. We are in the process of upgrading panels, and doubling solar fixed panel wattage in. The lithium will have to wait at least til the agms die . We're not in the habit of replacing what's still working. I, too, suspect you'll be more than fine with agm, if you continue to camp similarly to the way you have been camping/boondocking, with your current setup of 2 batteries and 200 watts solar. It's adding a lot of 110 appliances that will mess you up. You're already managing a week with half the capacity of your new proposed 4x 6 volts. A week with double battery capacity should be a pure joy. And, you may find you can extend your stays by a lot, if you can conserve water, and resist turning on that inverter every day. (We removed our inverter a few years ago. We are mostly happy with 12v life.) In 12 years, we've rarely camped with hookups with our Oliver. As far as whether the cost is justified, you probably have to look at useable amp hours , and life cycle, to make true comparisons (along with an honest projection on boondocking days). For me, one single battleborn 100 amp group 27 replacement would give me as much or more useable amp hours than my two current group 27 agms. Why? Because I don't run my agms down to 50 per cent, to preserve their longevity. I tend to run no less than 60 to 70 per cent, and try to keep mine at 70 to 75 per cent. I'm speculating that that's why I'm only just a few years ago on my second set of batteries in 12+ years. As far as maintenance, agm vs lithium, I'd say it's a wash. You do have to keep agms charged in storage somehow (solar does that just fine for us, if we have some bit of sun and breakers are turned off.) Lithium can maintain a charge , without load, for a really long time without any charging, (less self discharge) but, they are temp sensitive for charging. Since I live in Florida, and camp primarily in the shoulder seasons, or at moderate east coast elevation in summer, I think we'd be golden with lifepo. All that's relevant to how much time you actually get to use the trailer, how and where you use it, and if you can actually exercise the useful attributes of the solar and lithium batteries. And, realistically, how long will you use the trailer? I'm thinking I may just get 10+ years from properly charged lifepo dropins. Which may be longer than we continue to camp. Or not. We'll see. Some people tend to get really psyched about new tech ( and I have to admit, I'm one of them.) When I get sad is when I see people load up their trailers with new tech that they don't understand, and don't or can't use to its full advantage. Susan, as an experienced camper, knowing something of your preferred style over the years, you have an advantage over new campers, who can only conjecture what their choices might be. Still, you're the only one who can justify the additional expense of lithium vs agm. Sorry for the really long post, which may or may not help. Sherry

We were told that our rv qualifies as a 2nd home. As does our boat. Bath. Cooking facilities. Sleeping quarters . Ditto with the boat. Verify with your own cpa. Sherry

Oliver did our original solar install in 2008, which we've updated a bit. And, we'll be updating more, later in the year. This past year, we installed 600 watts of solar, using Victron controls, on our boat. It was a very extensive labor of love. Not months, but definitely weeks of time. Some of those many hours were definitely not fun. The end result was great. It was really important to us to have solar on the boat as another source of power, as we've lost 2 alternators over the past 5 years, both at extremely inconvenient times. Before solar, everything on our 40 year old boat was engine driven. Battery recharge, water heater, refrigerator, etc. Or, shore power, which is obviously unavailable sailing 50 miles or more off shore. I totally understand going with the original package, and being solar powered from day one. If you counted up the hours of our solar install on the boat, we'd have spent a lot, lot more than just the component prices We manage our Oliver shorty on two group 27 batteries, 200 watts solar, and rarely plug in. We have augmented the last year with a cheap Coleman 100 watt "portable" panel. We're good to go, living the 12 volt life, for over 12 years.. Where I think you'll most likely want to make a change is in the Zamp battery monitor, and that's a pretty inexpensive and easy upgrade. But, many people are fine with it. It depends entirely on how you use your trailer. With our particular circumstances and necessary power monitoring, because we have limited battery power, and no other other power source beyond solar, we need better than just simple gauging lights. Sherry

Thanks, Matt. I totally understand. It will be a big disappointment for many, but it's the safest course. Thanks for the early notice. Sherry