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Mcb

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Everything posted by Mcb

  1. Blackwater River State Park in Holt (east of Pensacola) is nice.. So is Camp Venice Retreat in Venice.
  2. I received the firmware yesterday but won’t be able to install it for a week or so. Like you, I’ve been disconnecting the inverter from the batteries to prevent it from charging them all the time. It’s a real nuisance .. That switch needs to be more accessible.... a project for this summer for sure.
  3. We picked up our new OTT in November. It’s our second camper, but our first new one. It was also a pretty big purchase for us. Like you, I got pretty spooked by reading about folks having issues with their new campers. Part of the problem for me was having 5 months of waiting til we took delivery during which I could obsess about OTT on this platform... which I did (still do.. )... which lead to worries some times, second guessing at other times. In the end I realized that buying an Oliver is much like anything else.. you just have to hope you get “a good one”.. A camper that was built by folks on top of their game, and that it was done on a “good day”. These things are, after all, built by people, who have good days and bad days just like all of us.. So we crossed our fingers and hoped for the best. we lived in our E2 for the first two months we owned it, and will be back on the road for 6 weeks soon. I feel like in that time we’ve gotten to know it pretty well, though Im sure there will still be surprises.. it is, after all, an RV. The majority of issues have been because of us.. learning new systems, occasionally putting common sense on the shelf... The other issues have been related primarily to components, which are being dealt with by Oliver. As time has passed in #685, the more we’ve been overall impressed with the construction and workmanship, and the more we feel like it was a good decision for us. With our first camper, a Casita, we soon learned that “stuff happens”.. it just does.. we had no experience.. zero.. We learned to deal with it, make simple repairs and what not, and those times became part of the overall experience. It’s been the same with #685.. we’ve run into issues here and there, and self inflicted or otherwise, we have learned from them and gained confidence... and we are loving it.. if you do decide to pick up an OTT, keep plugging away at this forum.. keep track of bits of info that might come in handy in the future.. dealing with stubborn door locks, tilting the camper one way or another to make the gray water drain better .. stuff like that.. and marvel at the other stuff.. like the amazing mudflap modification someone just did, or NCeagles pre cold weather camping study, or the amazing minutia that folks like JD focus on... its quite a group to say the least, and always there to help..
  4. Wowie Bill, that is an amazing list! Thanks so much, I’m going to enjoy going thorough it and checking all the places out. Even if we don’t use any of them this trip, we have lots of East/West runs in our future ( grandkids on both coasts ) so this kind of intel is invaluable... thanks again, mark
  5. Good thought.. it could certainly impact our final trajectory as we get further East.. Maine is home, so we will make a run for it once we are close enough.... we are prepared to winterize the camper en route if needed.. the closer we get to New England the greater the number of folks we know who will put up with us there driveway for the night🙂.
  6. Thanks Bill, yup.. two votes for I-70. I think that’ll be our first choice, we’ll keep an eye on the weather. A list of campgrounds would be great, or, if it’s easier, just a couple that you liked would be great. Actually, any that you didn’t like would be great too.. Mark
  7. Thanks Mike, very helpful information, really appreciate it. We have two days reserved at South Llano State Park, which we are excited about. We will have a look at the other places as well...Karchner Caverns in particular.. Mark
  8. We never been through that area and are pretty excited about it.. do you have any favorite campgrounds along the way?
  9. Im hoping to benefit from the wisdom and experience of those of you that have zigzagged around this country with your OTT in tow... We are headed from the Bay Area in California back to Maine sometime close to the end of March.. The hope is to move along at a pretty good clip, but taking a day off here and there . while I’m comfortable calculating weather related risks East of the Mississippi, I’ve no experience with traveling in the West during that time of year. Would it be prudent to loop south on Rt10 until we can pick up Rt20 to Dallas, and just keep easing to the Northeast through Little Rock and on to Nashville? Thanks in advance!
  10. Man oh man there sure are some cool pickup trucks out there.. As a very long time Tundra owner, and a very happy one at that, it does make me wonder when Toyota is going to at least make it look like they are trying to be innovative in their Truck design.... I’ve read a bit about some changes coming in 2022 but it sure seems like they are lagging behind. I suspect we will be shopping for a new TV in the next couple of years.. can’t wait... looks like it’ll be a lot of fun with lots to think about. our Tundras have been incredibly reliable work trucks, but maybe it’s time to move on..
  11. Camp Venice Retreat... Venice FL...
  12. Congrats to you #354 ! Count us (#685) in on a Maine get together this summer..
  13. Interesting. Did you have the warm duct air running into the basement at the same time as the fans? Do you think that the moist air in the basement can be “drier” if the temperature is increased by the air from the ductwork? if the object is to keep pipes from freezing using electricity, it might be worth trying running an extension cord with a clamp light equipped with a 150w bulb into the basement.. There are crawl spaces under old houses throughout Maine that use that technique to prevent pipes from freezing.. might help an Ollie in NC🙂
  14. Because the LP alarm is wired directly to the battery ( Jason @ OTT ) the only way to avoid phantom drains is to disconnect the batteries at the negative terminal. When the batteries are down to 50% and this is done, they go into a “standby mode” ( Larry @ LifeBlue ).. As NCeagle mentioned, please point out the fact to your Oliver contact that the lack of electrical diagrams is a nuisance.. And while I’ve been told that the service crew doesn’t mind answering even the simplest of questions it doesn’t help much when the issue comes up on a Saturday or Sunday... 🙂
  15. It would be interesting to see what happens to your experiment with the fantastic fan on, or open. We haven’t dealt with really cold temperatures yet, just a couple nights between 30-32, and the fantastic fan set on 10% with a window cracked kept the condensation away. We had the thermostat set at 66 or 68... something like that. I’ve noticed that the air being pulled into the cabin from the open bathroom vent by the fantastic fan set at 10 or 20% is significant... with the bathroom door open of course. Might be a good option to cracking a window.
  16. We are headed to the Bay Area from FLA early March, and plan to stick with I10 the entire run. I suspect we will be boondocking and using HH. If it’s useful, we could let you know where we stayed. we head back East ( way way back East) to Maine in early April, and I’m assuming we will want to swing south on I10 to avoid the mountains but I’m not sure when to start to move North...
  17. Very impressive project... that shower valve looks pretty cool...
  18. We tow our OE2 with a 2016 Tundra TDR. We’ve got a Leer cap, haul a honda2000 generator, a couple bikes, misc camping gear,tools, 5 gallons of water etc in the bed. We have the Anderson towing setup. The truck tows fine, and it and the trailer set pretty level. Interestingly, if we are traveling at 60-68 mph our mileage is around 12mph.. not far from what it is without the trailer in tow. But if I spend the day driving closer to 75, the mileage drops to closer to 9mph..
  19. NCeagle, have you explored the possibility of cutting a hole below the bed and rotating the inverter so that the controls are accessible from the cabin? Maybe move the 300a breaker there too?
  20. Ours is no longer flashing [20], and seems to sort of work on occasion... it’s happy to let me know I’ve got shorepower connected, but that’s about it.. Im dealing with the inverter directly when needed, and am waiting to hear what Oliver and Xantrex come up with for a solution...
  21. Hey there John, I’m not sure if these would work for you, but might be worth considering... They are 24”x24” and lock together like a puzzle. They are about 1/2” thick rubber, and as tough as nails. They are easy to cut with a utility knife. We had hundreds of them to protect finished floors and counter tops on construction sites, and the uses for them seemed endless...I’ve got ten of them with us on the road now.. They had them at HD for a long time , probably still do.. 20 bucks for 4 of them as I recall.....
  22. Thanks for the info John, I emailed the LifeBlue rep this am asking him for his thoughts on the subject of chargers. If my lead acid battery charger could get the batteries partially charged in a reasonable amount of time I think I’ll stick with that. I’d be looking for something to bail me out of a situation while on the road that I can stow in the truck and hopefully never need..
  23. For anyone interested, I fixed my issue by removing the panel and disconnecting the wires attached to it ( not those related to the water pump). Once reconnected, the readings are back to normal..
  24. The tank monitor in 685 isn’t working any longer and has a symbol on the screen that isn’t ( at least I couldn’t find it) mentioned in the owners manual.. Anyone ever seen one of these? Thanks!
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