SeaDawg

In these days of shrinking campsite availability, it's really nice to know that our Ollies fit in spaces that others have to reject. We've been given, and found, some really awesome campsites, over the years, in small but beautiful sites.

I wish indel/isotherm offered this as an upgrade, with the order. I know I'd be sad drilling holes into a brand new fridge. Plus the extensive work of deinstall/reinstall. Good for you, ordering before install.

Just your eyebrow board is worth quite a few bucks. Sell the parts.

We've had a few double pane windows fog. We did not replace them. We took our trailer to Suncoast Designs in Hudson, and they pulled the offending windows, resealed, and reinstalled. Much more economical than window replacement. (I checked.) There are companies that do similar work around the country. Mind you, my trailer is 15 years old next month. Fogging occurred on the sunny side windows a couple years ago, at over 100k of travel. I do think the double/thermal pane windows make a difference. I have triple glass at sticks and bricks home, in Florida.

Once you're done with the install, you'll be amazed at how much easier it is to access items in the fridge, between the slightly raised height of the fridge, and the drawer at the bottom of the fridge. Every day we're camping, I'm super happy we made the change.

Even though I love my drawer, I think the shoe storage cubby is an excellent idea. Right inside the door, probably even enough height for boots, on their sides. I'd probably want a boot tray on the floor that I could remove and clean, or one of those fabric cases from IKEA that I could pull out and wash. Bonus of the fabric case would be hiding the clutter, and keeping everything contained in transit, and being able to keep favorites from finding their way to the far back of the recess. Something like these:

Santa gave me a drawer underneath, instead... perfect place for my wok skillet. 🙂 though, I wouldn't have minded a taller fridge, either.

When Oliver replaced our original Norcold with the Dometic, they told me they had to remove the door frame to do the swap. Also, (because we have an Elite 1) they had to remove the shower wall. The tightest pinchpoint for us is the space between the shower wall and the microwave cabinet. When we replaced the Dometic ourselves, Paul took it out in three pieces, and we didn't have to remove the door frame. But, our fridge was dead, and yours still works, so you likely want to keep it in one piece and sell it.... I would verify with service, as we probably have the same door rough opening, but I can't be certain of that. The good news is, the indel 130s fit through the door with the door frame installed, and just barely fit between the microwave cabinet and shower wall, as well. 🙂

If you check the specs, the tf130 and isotherm cruise 130 are pretty much identical dimensions. Interior layouts, including the low drawer, which i love, are the same The tf 130 is made for land/trucks, so no coast guard approval. No rvia approval. Less stainless, probably more galvanized. As we own a very early trailer, we can do as we wish, and did the install ourselves. Oliver can't. They have to meet rvia standards. I've seen both, and the isotherm model has better door insulation.

Google maps has taken us down some crazy places, I'd agree. And some extremely difficult, and nonexistent roads. Definitely not my favorite. Is artificial intelligence an oxymoron?

Some comments on our choice and install, five years ago.

Well, I hope you like it as much as I like ours, five years in. You'll need some venting across the top, as these (as you know) vent to the interior. I think that was an additional $50 or so from truckfridge. We put a shallow IKEA drawer under ours, as the fridge total capacity is larger (sans the big absorption unit), but a shorter height. I think I recall the venting requirement to be 24 square inches. We finished the vertical edges of raw fiberglass with trimlok press to fit trim. The freezer is smaller, but I make it work. I don't mind. At least stuff doesn't get lost.

Those solid vent covers look great! I wonder if they'd fit mine. We removed our original vents, and covered with visquene and insulation, and reinstalled. That really helped with air and dirt intrusion, but the solid covers would be soon much nicer. The isotherm cruise elegance 130 is probably a bit more efficient than our truckfridge to 130, as there's more insulation in the door. Otherwise, interior layout is identical to ours. (All indel b products.) I'd love to have 200 ah lithium, but no changes in store til the agms die. Even then, not sure if we'll bother. I manage ok with 400 watts solar, some portable when camped awhile, and a small genset for a string of cold, rainy days. With the caveat that we don't have an inverter anymore, nor microwave. Our fridge draws 60 to 70 ah per day, depending on ambient temperature. We installed the truckfridge 5 years ago, and it's worked great.

That can be a very real issue in areas with only one cable/internet provider. I hope that the new entries into the market (like wifi internet and starlink) provide enough competition to drive down some of that cost. When my mom still lived in a small town in Missouri, her cost for just basic cable and one extra channel (so she could watch her PBS shows) was ridiculous, but her old rooftop antenna was damaged. I tried 7 different indoor/outdoor antennae before I found one that gave her all the channels she wanted. The successful antenna was about the price of one month of cable. She was extremely happy to turn in the cable box. (She doesn't use the internet. )

We've been watching the wireless home internet for some time. In December, one of the biggest, Ver****n offered $25 a month, plus taxes, for ten years, and showed service in our area, with a 14 day free "look." We bit. So far, so good. Upload and download have been as good or better than our previous wired connection, and may prove to be more reliable in storms. We'll see. Good enough that I canceled the much more expensive wired connection, and ordered one for our daughter and my sister. We did re- install a repeater in the garage for all the devices down there (phyn plumbing alert, garage door wifi control, house battery, etc.) Good news, only one repeater needed now, when we had several in the house before. We run everything off the device that I call the cube, including TV streaming, and all the computers and devices. Bonus of 5g, when I have a phone that can use it . We'll see how it works in the long run. We have no tv cable connection anymore. Local channels on antenna, everything else is streamed. (Cut that cord several years ago.)

Yes, second look, our vents are likely similar, though the hooded indent is shorter on yours. Immaterial for us, now, with the replacement 12v secop/danfoss compressor fridge. Just a smaller space to close up. I'm really sorry for your troubles. We could access quite a bit from the original cavity with the 3way, but sometimes it required my skinnier arms.

👍👍👍

We've used maps.me in several countries , on several continents . Gps based, no phone signal required. In Chile last year, downloaded maps from maps.me worked way better than Google maps . It's free, as well. Still had a paper backup. But that was much less useful than the app.

Do you seriously have a true landline? We've had voip for decades, which is what the cable vendors bundle here. I don't even know if a true wired landlines is still available here. We call the "landline" the solicitor line. We give out that # when someone requires a phone #. Everyone else calls our cells. Kind of miss those landline days, but I don't miss "dialup " speed. And yes, we carry atlases and paper maps, as well as two phones and a GPS.

I'm really glad everyone was ok. Pretty surprising that both trailer and TV flipped, going only 55 mph.

It's def a pita to move that fridge out. Good on you.

I think our very early vents were possibly smaller

@Chukarhunter, thanks! That could really clean up some clutter in my truck.

You could just subscribe to/follow individual forums that you do wish to follow, and not the others. And change your notification settings in "account." I think that would do it. Or, do as I do. Mostly ignore anything that comes up in "blogs."

Most of the fiberglass rv /factory direct sales companies sponsor some kind of spiff/ambassador/reward program, and have for a very long time. We don't show ours anymore, except casual showings at gas stations, shopping malls, campgrounds, and repair facilities, as most people want to see the latest model, not a 2008. (Though lots of people who step or peek inside are utterly astounded at how great a 2008 looks. A few have even accused me of exaggeration, til I show them the paperwork.) Back in the day, I was always excited to show our trailer, but Oliver gave me data on those who requested a look-see. I looked everyone up online, as our trailer has always had an off season spot at our home. I interviewed them by phone, before providing my home address. I don't remember ever collecting a spiff. We enjoyed showing off our cool little trailer. We had a lot of fun with it, for a few years. We even let Technomadia test-tow our trailer with their jeep, with my husband along. Met some fun people along the way. Still friends with some of them, who ultimately decided on another brand. Times change, people change, and everyone should simply follow their guts. No obligation. No harm/no foul if you decide to not opt-in.