SeaDawg

Looks like that bridge could use a warning system like this one in Sydney. Approaching truck height is measured by sensors. Overheight vehicles trigger a giant stop sign projected onto a wall of water and air-- impossible to ignore. Quite cool. https://www.truckinginfo.com/158996/aussies-deploy-water-wall-tunnel-warning-technology It's also deployed when there's a fire or accident in the tunnel. Emergency vehicles can drive right through, of course, since it's only water.

Sweet looking truck!

It might even be worth a stop in Oregon next spring. I'm intrigued. Grey water recycling has been mostly historically limited to toilet flushing, in residential applications. (And that's pretty useless in rvs.) I'm interested to see what the maintenance cycle is like. I'd certainly love unlimited recirculating shower water when boondocking. Sherry

We carry our filtered drinking water from home in four 5 gallon, square containers that stack. They look like these, though we bought ours at a show years ago, and I have no idea of the brand anymore. We have a cap with a spigot that replaces the storage cap. I keep one on a stool outside the trailer, and refill our stainless water bottles and the tea kettle from the jugs during the day.

Love the solution, and the fabric. Nice work!

MarkC, are you planning to fulltime in the trailer?

Were it me, I'd be tempted to give it a tour with the 4.8, if that's what you have. You know your truck. And you know your maintenance. All that is a big factor. I'm a strange bird, probably. Love my 2005 Silverado, looking forward to newer technology in a few years with the Tesla truck. In the meantime, we usually tow with a 2008 Ram hemi. 5.7. It's a lovely tow with an elite 1, as excess power means the trailer isn't really felt. Just slightly more frequent gas stops, with a 34 gallon tank.We love the nimble factor of the older Silverado, but we often need 4 x 4, where we camp, so Ram, it is. Don't take the rock collection with you. 🤣 I'm showing 7900 lbs towing with some of the 2007 series. What are your specs, with your current vehicle?

That capacity depends on the availability of pit/ vault toilets, and possibly available "bush area," for the guys. Black tank has never been our limiting factor. Maybe a gallon or two a day, input, max, sans other facilities?. Freshwater, grey water capacity is more critical, for us. You don't have to hold the flush step forever with your foot, for just liquids. I'd say 9 or 10 days, conservatively, on our black. Long enough that we've never worried. I have no problem with maintained pits/ vaults. Our Alaska runs, with rental deliveries, have 24 or 32 gallon blacks, and rarely more than half full after three weeks or so. We have looked at composting for the boat. Maybe the trailer, someday, if we have to replace the toilet. Or the plumbing fails. More likely on the boat, where pumpout is much more of an issue, and more logistics/ PITA. Don't get me wrong. We like the composting idea. We just rarely replace a working system for something else, just because.. When systems work, we keep them. When they don't, we replace them. Sherry

A great number of our owners who are lucky enough to have an available outlet keep their trailers plugged in while in storage. Some people even run the refrigerator, and heaters between the hulls or in the cabin. Others, like us, depend on solar to keep theirs charged. Our charger converter is designed to step down to "float" when the battery is charged. I've yet to hear of anyone who had an overcharging issue.

Hi, okcamper, and congrats on your sport! How long have you had it? What do you tow with now? Have you ever weighed the trailer at a cat scale to determine the real world weight you're towing? When we weighed ours, loaded for camping, with propane and some grey and fresh water, we found a tongue weight of roughly 400 lbs, camper 3500, overall 3900 lbs. I think that's pretty close to Pete's reported weights. We both have a few extra pounds in solar panels and extra equipment. If you weighed yours loaded, you'd have a better idea of specs to look for. Unfortunately, I don't remember anyone towing with a Highlander. But, the new one rated for 5000 pounds has a 3.5 turbo, right? Is the new Highlander still built on the van chassis? All wheel drive, or front wheel? Many of us who own the smaller elites tow with full size half ton trucks because a) we already own them b) we like driving trucks and c) mpg doesn't change a whole lot, maybe 10 to 20 per cent, towing. And, we hardly know the trailer is back there. Other Elite I folks have towed with smaller trucks (Tacoma), a Honda Ridgeline, and suvs and one friend with a Mercedes wagon, another with a Toyota FJ. The FJ owner has changed to a truck, I think. Sherry

Sport model was only made for a very short time, probably less than a year. A version of original legacy to reduce the starting price, with a steel frame and fewer features included in the base model. Same great hull. Only a very few built, maybe not even a half dozen. Oliver went into production hiatus not long after introduction of the sport. The concept was not revived when Oliver went back into production with the Elite II.

Great idea for a simple fix. We have a wide definition of simple, just as wide as opinion range of our owner population. We run on solar at home, and in the camper. High tech, to enable low tech. Quiet. Listen to the cicadas and the breeze. It's a bit of wierd dichotomy, perhaps, but we love it. Silent power. Time in the woods. Restorative.

I'd agree with john Davies. Test your generators individually, and paired, before you look elsewhere. Try a neutral ground plug on one generator, without coupling. Then see what happens. We don't have the EMS, but we do use a neutral ground plug.

True, David s. Technology keeps rolling forward. Back last spring, Tesla started rolling out over the air updates to preheat batteries of model 3s heading to superchargers. I think it's updating all models, but not sure about that. Downside, uses some remaining onboard battery power. Upside, significantly faster charging time. As I said before, it's about a two year wait for the Cybertruck. We'll see what's what when it hits the road. Btw, Overland, thanks for the intro to Engineering Explained. That guy has a really interesting facebook page, and youtube channel. Most of which does not require an advanced math brushup course to understand. For the record, his latest car is a Tesla model 3, which he took on a roughly 2000 mile trip, and shared the results in another youtube video. So, he does have real world experience with evs, just not towing (yet.) Sherry

There are aftermarket adaptors available for the zamp ports, so that you can use most other connector types with their "proprietary " port. (Meaning, the Zamp suitcase panels are plug and play, but an adaptor plug makes other less expensive panels just as simple to connect.) Your friend is right. Portable solar is great. Allows us to park in the shade, and still keep the batteries charged. I don't know which controller Oliver is installing, so yes, you should ask how many additional watts you can have in portable solar. The controller needs to be sized big enough for all the power coming from the combined rooftop and portable solar. Edited to add: Most suitcase solar packages come with their own separate controller, which feeds directly to your batteries through Oliver's prewired Zamp port and wiring, so then you don't need to worry about the capacity of your onboard controller. We did ours a bit differently... ( of course. 🙃) Sherry

Trainman, do the folding bikes you bought fit in the ram bed folded, upright? We almost bought a set at a show a year ago, but they wete too tall too fit under the Undercover topper, upright, and too big to carry otherwise, with all our other necessary gear . Sherry

Nice griddle, Landrover. Nan, how do you like the Cobb wok? I use my wok pan a lot at home. Our Ollie's Christmas gift arrived yesterday. 2 200 watt panels, to double the output of our existing twin 100s. Excited for that. Next year, maybe a Lagun table , if I can figure out a good mount place in the small dinette. I'd love to be able to raise the table to counter height when I am using the little table as a prep space, or dish drying space. 🙂 Sherry

Congrats, and welcome! The Lagun table will be an awesome upgrade. Sherry

This is the one I was talking about. $35 direct wire, $55 lighter plug . Cheaper in black, on amazon. https://www.amazon.com/Caframo-Ultimate-2-Speed-Lighter-Plug/dp/B00OM5MILI/ref=sr_1_2?adgrpid=55287297999&gclid=CjwKCAiAlajvBRB_EiwA4vAqiIUxKRK7tbvEhRL0JfUkGLahfrywbm58HmxeN3_3yvENQEVwMYs8_hoCuxkQAvD_BwE&hvadid=274839819549&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=9012147&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=b&hvrand=12790311878140615116&hvtargid=kwd-294887234866&hydadcr=12189_10197804&keywords=caframo+ultimate&qid=1575679050&sr=8-2

Caframo fans have had consistently goodcreviews for decades. Canadian company. The little Ultimate model can be ordered with a 12v plug. Small, but moves a lot of air. No guard, but the pladtic blades won't hurt you. And, easier to clean without the guard. Used on many cruising sailboats, as they're very efficient. White and black available.

Yes, it will be interesting to see what the actual battery capacity and towing range will be in the Cybertruck. I'm not even going to try to rework his math. (Though even Steve's trailer doesn't weigh half of his example trailer, and mine is less than a third of the example weight. And, I can't honestly remember the last time we gained a net 5000 feet elevation in one hundred miles of driving, at an average of 75 mph , even with the Ram's hemi.) It would be quite nice if Tesla did some real world testing while towing with the Cybertruck, as they have done with the yet to be released Tesla semi, but the necessity isn't the same, when many pickups never or rarely tow a trailer, at all, or, just tow a utility trailer short distances for work. Semi purchasers will insist on meeting full load towing projections. Their livelihoods depend on it. Some recent efficiency changes in Tesla motors have upped the range of the newer s and x by a small per centage, with the same battery . I've heard some battery improvements are upcoming, as well. We'll see what we get in a couple years, when the pickup actually hits the road. Overland, I, too, am hoping for a 300 to 350 mile range, with my little Ollie in tow, though I'm not holding my breath. Even a 300 mile range towing would slow us down, when we're trying to put miles behind us. With the ram's big gas tank, even towing, we can travel at least 300 miles or so, or 4 to 4.5 hours on the interstate. If our coffee intake doesn't make us stop earlier. 😏 As far as towing with a Tesla x, I was reminded of a video I saw of test drives in Australia, from Penrith, (elevation 80 ft or so) outside Sydney, to Bathurst, via the great western highway, and back, via Bell's Line of road. Both beautiful roads, in the Blue Mountains. Nothing approaching mile high, but plenty of mountain driving, with high points of maybe 3000 ft. Or so. More real world. And, a bit over 100 miles. With a roughly 4000 lb trailer behind the Tesla x, it used about twice as much battety power than when driving without the trailer. Same as we've heard from most reports with the x. Probably important to note a couple of other things. The test drivers reported great towing stability, and acceleration with the x. And, Australian speed limits wouldn't allow towing at 75 mph. 😏 The x arrived at bathurst with 12 per cent capacity left. A bit better on the return on the more windy and slower Bell's Line of Road. (Which is a beautiful road, by the way. We drove it in 2015, in a campervan.) Full report https://www.carsguide.com.au/adventure/tesla-model-x-74243 Video

But, we all had to start, somewhere. Back in the day, it was high tech. 3 turtles and all. I remember our first office computer system. It wasn't really fast or great, but it was a step forward from typed carbon leafed invoices and cross posting/ cross filing. Oh, and that first amazing Fujitsu 474 megabyte hardrive. Almost the size of a dishwasher laid sideways, and only cost about 10k. Now, think about the computing power in our phones. It's astounding, isn't it?

Rivian look like a truck, and apparently actually runs like a truck. A real prototype has been on tour, and is or was in South America doing offroad and bad road testing. Video of the engineer test driving in South America was really fun to watch. I was grinning along with her. https://stories.rivian.com/postcard-from-south-america Rivian also recently secured additional funding from Cox automotive. Amazon, Ford, and Cox probably can't all be wrong... https://ride.tech/electric-and-hybrid/electric-truck-maker-rivian-gets-350m-investment-from-cox/?gclid=CjwKCAiArJjvBRACEiwA-Wiqq3fPhuXBIm9jA0lpbZSb4XeY7LWfO2hZkRA6Lfpi9t7EXHrWd62ckhoCUHwQAvD_BwE Atlis has a sizeable staff, a beautiful website, and still no prototype yet. They did test a small battery of their own design development, 3kwh, and proudly announced it was fully charged in 13 minutes, besting their 15 minute goal, which they think/ hope is scaleable. https://insideevs.com/news/340388/atlis-pickup-truck-battery-charges-in-under-13-minutes/ 3 kwh would power a Tesla x for about 8 to 12 miles, i think, dependent on speed, based on battery size vs published and real world range for the x. While Atlis is still looking for backing for development and yet another network of superchargers, Space X will be launching its 19th delivery to the space station tomorrow, and Tesla's network of superchargers is in place and growing. I wish them well. But, a lot is still in just planning and digital mode for now. It takes a lot of money to launch a new vehicle. Still, the more new ideas, the better. Thanks for bringing the Atlis to the discussion.

That's true, Mike. I was recently looking back at old Texas Tesla owners' posts from five years ago. Texas was then described as "an island." In those days, you could drive in, and to and from, the population centers of Texas, but states east and west were bereft of chargers. You couldn't get from Houston to Panama City, without issues. Times have changed. Now, Texas is a leader in renewable power, even with the major oil and gas companies headquartered there. Texas has an independent grid that should be a source of pride to all of you. And the Tesla supercharger grid can get you easily to Florida, or anywhere else east or west. on the interstate. Honestly, I don't think any of us want a lot of charging stations, disguised as cactus or trees, like some cell towers, in the middle of nowhere. Til battery capacity/ increased motor efficiency/ range allow us to go rogue, there will still be a need for ICE vehicles and jerry cans, for many people. In the meantime, I'll leave room for you guys at the gas pump, with my daily driver/ interstate/ some intersecting byways Tesla truck. and you guys can leave space for me at the superchargers. Fair? Sherry

You never know abour February weather in Hohenwald. We picked ours up , about the same date, great weather. Though chilly, jacket or sweater weather . Definitely, keep an eye on weather.com. it can also be really crappy, same week. We wish you many miles of smiles, and fair weather for pickup. Love our little 2008 legacy I Sherry