Ray and Susan Huff

We have solar and feel it is worthwhile. Solar panels charge the battery while traveling, as well as when camped. Our lithium batteries are full by mid morning after small overnight draw down from running the MaxAir fan, charging electronics and the usual phantom amp usage.

Our preference, too. I love seeing the items offered that are not on the shelves in our locale. Actually, with pandemic supply issues, there isn't much on the the shelves in our one and only small town grocery store!

My husband informed me of a design flaw in the Girard awning installation; perhaps this is also true of the Dometic awning installation as well. While cleaning the roof of our 2021 Elite II he noticed a substantial amount of water standing the entire length of the inboard edge of the awning where the rubber gasket meets the roof. A combination of said water and accumulated fir needles/leaves creates a sludge, of sorts - a black slime, that is easily removed, but water only returns the next time it rains. I realize the intent of the rubber moulding between the awning cassette and the roof is two-fold: to reduce vibration and to prevent water from running down the side of the trailer, onto the windows and above the door. Has anyone come up with a design modification? What do you do? I know, clean it, periodically. . . . . . . but it doesn't seem to take any time at all for the black slime to reappear (at least there in the PNW). I wonder if some sort of gutter, tilted slightly to the rear would help. Or is "out of sight, out of mind" the remedy?

Our son and daughter-in-law just installed Starlink at home where they don't have cell reception. She works a lot from home, and they were relying on Hughes Net, which was unbearably slow. They say Starlink is 500% faster. We are going to hold out for our Rural Electric Coop fiber, but it might be a few years before we are connected. As for mobil data, we still rely on cellular for connectivity on the road. Most always we have service around towns and plan our needs accordingly. Sometimes it's a pain, but that's life!

Our previous RVs have had Dometic absorption fridges which defaulted to LP when set to "Auto". The Norcold default is 12v; we always choose the power mode and never set to Auto. In our experience, the Norcold fridge does a much better job of cooling than the Dometic in our Leisure Travel Van. However, the Norcold lacks one feature the Dometic had - it had an audible alarm if the burner failed to light, after a certain number of attempts or the door was left open. The only indication you get of no LP supply, when in LP mode, is an error code on the display. I wish it had an audible alarm. What we do is set an alarm for the remote temp sensors we use in the fridge, to let us know if the temp gets above 40 degrees in the fridge and 25 degrees in the freezer.

My "swarm" was a bit exaggerated! Usually 3 or 4 bees (Yellow Jackets) - enough to be annoying, especially while eating. I guess I'm just not very tolerant of bugs.

Thanks for the info. Can we change the #26 setting in the programming menu through the Xantrex remote panel? What is the setting needed to prevent charging and thus causing the fan to cycle on and off.

But turning off the inverter doesn't turn off the charging, which is what makes the fan run periodically.

How do you deal with bees???? They seem to be prevalent everywhere we go . . . . . the minute you start cooking, especially meat, they swarm . . . . and some places it is impossible to eat outside. Frustrating, to say the least.

And, as production increases, resolution of these quality control issues takes time and resources that could be better used on the production end. I realize it is difficult during these pandemic times to get any help, let along qualified help. But, having to manage an increased number of quality related issues can only result in lost ground. Streamlining production is a step in the right direction, but an uptick in unnecessary problems could be disasterous for Oliver's reputation of quality and customer service. I will say, the service crew is doing a great job - better than most RV manufactureres.

We discovered another disadvantage to the newer, cantilevered awnings. With the old manual style, you had to drop the awning down in order to roll it up. This facilitated the removal of fir needles and such, after camping in forested areas. Our 2021 Elite II was ordered with the standard powered Girard awning. I understand there is a way to adjust the pitch, thus lowering the front rail of the awning. However, this is achieved with tools and a manual adjustment. We rarely use the awning to create a shaded living area, mostly because we don't want to worry about wind. When we do use the awning, it is to shade the side of the trailer to help keep the fridge cool. I'm beginning to think these new fangled powered, legless awnings are not idea. They look good, but lose many of the practical features, such as being able to adjust the tilt and lower the awning to better shade the side of the trailer and allow for cleaning off the upper surface before retraction. We try to park the trailer such that the street side does not get direct, afternoon sun, when temps are warmer. But this is not always possible, if you are restricted by the orientation of the campsite. Open for suggestions

I wish it came in more colors . . . . like pool noodles!

Yep . . . . very much like our Speedy Stitcher 😊 A handy tool to have and it takes up little precious cargo space.

I'm determined to beat the fan noise . . . . . any comments regarding disconnecting shore power at night to eliminate the annoying fan cycling on and off are appreciated.

I did have the bluetooth app installed, before we had the inverter replaced. Haven't tried pairing the new one yet. I assume this setting can also be changed via the remote panel. What does Oliver say about this strategy?