SeaDawg

David S, one of my friends has that Black and Decker vacuum, and she likes it a lot. Last year, the V6 at Black Friday was probably $30 more than last year's price on the Black and Decker. I brought up the old Christmas thread because the Black Friday deals will start sooner than we think. An older model, like the v6, was a great bargain on Black Friday. I wouldn't want to pay full retail for it, either. Sherry

So, a quick update. The Dyson v6 is the bomb for use in our little trailer. I can sweep our little dog's hair, and the crap we track in quite quickly, several times on one charge. The downside is 110 charging is limited to when we're plugged in (almost never) and when we run the generator. I bought some extra attachments (long stem and floor head) on amazon, and use it at home when we're not traveling. The max button is great, but depletes battery more quickly. This is my favorite handheld vacuum. Ever. And I've had a bunch. The only one that compares in power is a very old, corded, Dirt Devil with a bag and a heavy motor. Not suitable for camping and boondocking. Sherry

Another National Park with good balance is Shenendoah/Skyline, where we camped a few weeks ago. The campgrounds and park are run by the National Park Service. Though the campgrounds aren't modern by any means, they're well kept. No hookups. Lots of pull thrus in Big Meadow and Loft Mountain. Smaller sites, many more suitable for tents, in Lewis mountain cg. The campground hosts wete all great, managing the busy leaf season really well by getting out and mingling and meeting everyone. Concessionaires run the lodges and restaurants, and , within the campgrounds, the stores and coinop shower/ laundry are run by concessionaires. I'm sure the showers are welcomed by the many tenters. We stopped for lunch at Skyland resort, which a decade ago was so wonderful that we changed campgrounds to eat there twice. The concessionaire has changed, I was told, and our meal was disappointing, based on previous experience, though service was good. Sherry

That's nice, more like a small mobile home. But all the weight on one side might cause some side to side imbalance towing... I do like the central bath idea, like you said.

Landrover, the exp6 kitchen can be accessed from inside or out. Fairly clever design. The exp 4 has no room for anything but the outdoor kitchen, but its about half the price.:) I guess you'd just have to carry a supply of protein bars and pbj for bad weather. I would be too claustrophobic with the exp4 lack of height. It seems to be basically a well equipped, offroad bed on wheels.

Townesw, thanks for the great photos and instructions. I'm sure other users will find this very helpful through the years. Sherry

John, that's a trailer I'd love to see in person. I've seen updates on them since their launch a few years back. It's quite the impressive caravan, rugged outside, lux inside, though simple. Maybe someday they'll put a poptop on the new single axle model, the exp4. It's about half the price of the exp6 models. Sherry

Well, good luck. And hope you enjoy it.. Looks rugged, but not sure I'd be happy with outdoor bath, kitchen, and a poptop. Good to keep the center of gravity low if you're mainly off road, I suppose. Still time to catch a flight out and see it. November in Brisbane is pretty nice. Like may in Florida. Sherry

Sounds like you had a wonderful time! Congrats on a successful trip. Wishing you many more miles of smiles. Sherry

Might have been.? And that's so cool. Did you camp at Matthew's Arm? I don't think we ever camped there. Been in the rest of them. Sherry [attachment file=201045]

On our way back from Western New York, we camped a bit on the Skyline Drive. Geezer pass gives you free entry to this beautiful parkway. Great views from many of the pullouts. We checked out Big Meadow, but decided not to stay,even though we got there early enough to snag a couple sites close together. Sites are close together, big, flat, lots of campers. We continued south to Lewis Mountain. Still smaller sites, but more separation. Smaller campground. Lots of tenters and families. And gnats, but the gnats retired for the night after sundown. We had camped here 10 years ago, and enjoyed it just as much. No hookups, quiet after hours. Lots of trees. The next day, we moved out early to get a site at Loft Mountain. Since we arrived around 11 am, even on a Saturday in leaf season, we had pur pick of some really nice sites. Lots of pull thrus. Much bigger campground, but much bigger sites, choice of sun or shade Good separation. Seems like most if the sites are a quarter acre or better. Very nice, professional and helpful staff at both campgrounds. A view from one of the overlooks on the way. It's a beautiful drive.

Woa, sorry about that mess! Hope your hitchhiker likes Kansas. Thanks for the info on the park. looks great!

Glad to hear that. For future readers, eco mode only works well for us ( honda 1000) under light load. It will surge and hunt when under heavy load, under 50 per cent of rated load. Say, 500 watts. Last week, we charged two olivers from a single honda 1000, with over 100 ft of good heavy cord, but still a lot of resistance. We didn't use eco. Worked great. At the beginning, might have to use the choke a few times. We're only charging batteries, not trying to run ac. Not possible with a honda 1000. Sherry

I don't know that Cooper makes ST tires, Pete. At least, I don't know of any. Just guessing the cooper is the best replacement for the discontinued Michelin LT tire. On our older Oliver trailer, we run still on st tires, with a speed rating of 81 mph. Not that we go that fast... consistently. But, nice to have it on the interstate. We also have an older TST tire pressure monitoring system. Great customer service, speedy turnaround, as ours does not have user replaceable batteries. I can highly recommend TST. Our 10 year old system still works, and turnaround time with battery replacement is exceptional. Anything electronic today that works 10 years makes me very happy... Sherry

Door on the back, or the "wrong" side wouldn't be a dealbreaker for me. We don't often camp with close neighbors. anyway. If hookups are at the back end, also not a huge deal. I've seen plenty of campers in Australia with American side doirs/ hookups, and owners adapted. Met one delightful lady towing her Airstream on the full lap around the country. :) The shorepower will be the biggest issue, as John mentioned. If it helps you at all, your American driver's license is good for six months down under. My bet is the owners of the company will help you find a rental tow vehicle. I don't know if Australia requires liability on the trailer, as much of Europe does. That's a tough one, but we'll see. Perhaps you could lease/purchase the caravan for a few months, if that's an issue, and use their Australian insurance. .. We rent long term campervans. 35 days plus is typically the sweet point, shoulder season. Qantas is starting a new nonstop from O'hare to Brisbane in April, 2020. Right now, I can get spring tickets for 730 USD plus seat reservation , round trip. 16 hour flight on the 787 dreamliner. We've flown similar time, Dallas to Sydney, and it's an awesome flight. Late dinner (excellent) around 1030 , a movie or two or three (great movie selections on qantas, bring your own earbuds, theirs are chintzy), late night snack, sleep 8 hours, have breakfast, and land at 6 am-ish,refreshed and ready to start the day down under. I sleep like a baby in the dreamliner. Like sleeping on a recliner in my living room. Do spring for the global entry card. United credit card helped pay for ours. American credit card (qantas partner) might do the same. It takes time, so start soon. Also, all the major international big plane flights land around the same time. Be ready to skip airport bathrooms, and get to customs quickly, before the hordes arrive at the passport machines and immigration lines. Just my experience... Sherry

Mirna, many of us who have (or had) sailboats are familiar with eutectic plates, but they're usually called cold plate or holding plate systems. We've used holding plate refrigeration on our boat for 40 years, on the 2nd set now. On the boat, they're like big blocks of metal, filled with coils of solution. The plates are attached to the side of our heavily insulated icebox bins. A compressor runs off the engine, cooling the solution in the plates when the engine runs. The solution absorbs heat during the day, keeping food at a fairly consistent safe temp if we run the engine an hour or two a day. With good insulation in the box, it's very efficient. There are newer systems out that can chill the plates with a danfoss compressor when we don't want to run the engine. Our newer plates can use both types of compressor. Recommendations we've received are to cool the box initially with the big engine driven compressor. Use the 24v danfoss to maintain, and then maintain the batteries with solar. The 12v danfoss compressor Isotherm that Overland bought has the option of adding a small holding plate, (ASU). I don't remember if he opted for it, or not. I kind of think he did. Holding plate technology is proven, efficient, and highly dependent on great insulation. It's also kind of bulky, heavy, and can be tough to get cold enough when air cooled in hot weather. Many boats use keel cooling ( water cooled) systems to transfer waste heat, like frigoboat. That said, if you plug in every night to cool the plates, like some refrigerated trucks, it could be a great solution. I don't know of any holding plate systems designed for rvs, other than the assistance of the isotherm asu. Doesn't mean they don't exist...I just haven't seen any. That said,along those lines, I keep a freezer pack or two in our dc fridge. If I have room, I freeze it during the day when I have good solar production. If not, just the cold pack and thermal mass of the beer probably helps keep the fridge cooler...? Sherry

So, you guys have us itching to go back to Australia, and camp the half lap around the west and north. We've camped the entire east and south coast and tasmania, but only as far west as Adelaide. The mdc owners group is really fun, like our own. We've met the nicest people camping down under. Thanks for the memories. I'm looking at flights and camper rentals ... We love camping in Australia and New Zealand. And, seeing the very interesting campers and caravans. Mostly, we've enjoyed meeting the Australian people. They're great campers. Lots of tent camper vehicles. No big campers Always fun, always interesting stories. Sherry

Sometimes, it's not all about the scenery. It's sometimes about the fire, and friendship We spent almost two weeks with Pete and Bosker. We swapped info, stories, (lies, haha) and, sometimes, we even swapped dogs. Bosker is in Paul's lap. Our dog Liv rules the universe from Pete's. Every day is an adventure. Both dogs love the Appalachians, as do we. Campfires have a way of rekindling old friendships. Sherry

Btw. I followed John's link to the portal. The comments on Black series weren't impressive. https://expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/black-series-hq-tips-tricks-and-learning.203716/ I hope the mdc isn't diluted to lower American standards.

I requested joining their 10,000 member facebook owners group. This, and the island queen (walkaround queen) are new models. At around 21 ft, it's a nice floorplan, for two.. Unlike John, I love the outdoor kitchen. The standard floorplan has a climbover queen, but has a big kitchen indoors, and an oven.The walkaround queen deletes the oven. Both have a tiny fridge, but lots of freshwater. Either is a great floorplan for two, and one grandchild. To me, it looks heavy for a single axle. Looks like lt tires. Big tires. Most roads in Australia have lower speed limits than ours . American price? 64k au is about 44k us, plus plus? I'll look forward to hearing your report after seeing it. Looks a bit top heavy to me, but maybe the dealer will let you test tow?

Almost twelve years later, the trailer still is just the Oliver. I do love reading the new names and stories.

For those of us "old school" folks with the FanTasic fans, including humidistat that closes the hood, here's a hint if your fan quits working, but a multi meter shows power to the switches. I checked the fuse in the overhead. It was fine. Power to all the switchrs we could see. There's an additional plunger switch above the fan, easily accessed topside, but we reached it from the inside, between the fan blades, after removing the screen and lowering the bezel. It's a safety switch to shut down the fan when the humidistat closes the lid. A quick spray of wd40, and working the frozen plunger a few times, had us back in business in 5 minutes. Thought we might have to replace our 12 year old vent fan, but its working fine, now. Sherry

What is your battery voltage reading? I think there is a safety cutoff on our furnace fan at low voltage. Ours is 12 years old, though. Not the same model.

Well, good morning. We often leave between 230 and 3 am to miss city traffic in tampa and Jacksonville. Hope your trip was good.

Try their personal website, d-hai.ch. A Swiss-german couple travelling north America. We've seen a number of these types of sturdy rig, usually in Canada or Alaska. Usually German built, sometimes personally owned, often leased and shipped across the ocean for the adventure of a lifetime. Pretty cool.