SeaDawg

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.

Congratulations! I like the colors. Backstory? Here in Tampa, we'd be thinking USF Bulls. Guessing not, in Texas. Sherry

Congratulations, and have fun. Staying near the factory tonight? Sherry

So, I thought I'd update this a little. This trip, we're camped in a small area surrounded by tall trees. Except for an hour and a half of overhead sun, my fixed panels don't do a lot. Once again, I ran the fridge empty to cool it down. But, as ambient temp was 60, it took less than an hour for the fridge to hit 39. Then loaded with cold beverages and food, some ice and frozen veggies in the shoebox freezer. Full, but not packed tight. I don't have an internal fan. I definitely have needed the supplement of the portable panel, and we run the honda 1000 for 30 minutes to an hour each morning, to bring the amp hours down to 20 or 25 hours from full. With a couple moves of the portable panel, I'm back at 100 per cent battery sometime between noon and one. The solar does the rest. By nine pm, I'm down 19 to 24 hours on battery. Fridge doesn't use as much with cool nights, typically 19 to 24 amp hours. I run the gen in the morning to get the most efficiency from the gas, and bring hours needed down to 20 or 25. (The charge controller sends more power to the battery when it's lower.) I charge our phones and Dyson vacuum at the same time, while the genset is running. Solar does the rest. And, the weather has been storybook perfect in the NC mountains. 75 to 80 high, fairly clear skies, 50s at night. No need to run fans or furnace. With a better, more efficient portable than my $100 Coleman 100 watt, we'd not need the genset at all, I think. I rarely get more than two to four amps from it, but, it works. And, I'm loving the organization and steady operations of the indel truckfridge. It's been a great solution for us. Very quiet. For John -- still haven't done anything more with the vents than cover them with plastic... Maybe we'll think of something this winter. It keeps the bugs and dirt out, so it's ok for now. Sun's getting low. Time to start the campfire. Sherry

We are deeply saddened by this announcement. Paul and I would like to share our heartfelt sympathies to his wife, all their children and grandchildren, and the Oliver family. Jim was a great guy, with an amazing vision. His entire family worked to make it come to fruition. He will be missed, by so many. Sherry

You're not doing anything wrong. We had some issues with topic and forum subscriptions, and they're suspended for the time being. Changes are in the works. Sorry for the inconvenience. Sherry

No worries. The wording has changed several times on the official campground description, since I've been looking. I think we'll enjoy it there, without electric. So far, says reservations open in November for spring. Thanks for your insights. Glad to know the geezer pass works, too. We'll likely have a couple other (geezer type) campers with us, this time. And now, it says campground opens in April? Used to say May 15. I chalk it up to being new on the res system.

Good idea, Newshoes. Especially if the fridge is still under warranty.

Have you been able to try a Harmony? I'm curious. Sherry

Thank you! You had power at Dunewood? I don't usually care, but leaving Elkhart, with a new rv, it's nice to know that all the electric elements work. We can always run the generator, as we have in the past. The idea of an electric hookup is enticing, though.... Since the deliveries we do don't have solar Sherry

I suspect you've already tried unplugging power sources for a few hours to reset, but I will share a crazy story. One night about six years ago, everyone in the house was awakened by a crazy persistent noise. Turned out, it was coming from our tv (we usually only have one) . Unplugged it. Moved it the next day to a tabletop in another room. Bought a new tv. Our daughter wanted to watch something different one night, a couple months later. Plugged in the crazy old tv, and the cable connection, and, voila, after channel scan, old tv worked like a charm. Just for grins, before i spent more money, I'd disconnect 110 and 12 v power, and let it sit awhile. If a main board is fried, it won't help. But if you're not going anywhere for awhile, doesn't hurt to try to reset it. Power fluctuations can do weird things to tvs.

Yup. Love that classy trailer next to the airstream. ? Sherry