Jim_Oker

I've been charging mine (hull #709, with Xantrex Freedom Pro 3000 inverter/charger/converter unit) by adjusting the inverter setting so that it won't draw more than 14 amps (I have a few light bulbs on the same circuit so want to leave headroom for them). I think it's a different setting than John circled above - as the units are in amps, but if you check the settings on your inverter you should be able to sort out which to adjust for this purpose. Before I did this, I tripped the circuit if I plugged in with SOC low enough that the charger was in "bulk charge" mode, but it's been fine with this setting. It's easy to switch the setting from the Xantrex phone app, e.g. in the rare event I'm plugged in to a 30 amp outlet at a campground as I was back in June.

It's also conceivable that the sail switch was being impeded and your messing around in the compartment got just enough dust off of its mechanism that it was able to switch when the air flow started (the sail switch involves a flap - i.e. "sail" - that sits in the flow of cabin air that rushes through the furnace when it's running, and my understanding is that it's meant to ensure that the flame won't go on unless there's sufficient flow through the furnace to keep that flame's heat from building up too high w/in the furnace due to low air flow. BUT the switch is prone to not working properly when it gets gunked up with sufficient amounts of dust or pet hair or such. My guess is that it's more likely what dewdev described, though, unless you blow into the area where the fan is that moves the air from the return into the ducts, which is where the switch sits.

Good idea. Another approach with those bluetooth leveler devices is to use something like the curved Anderson leveling wedges and drive onto it on the clearly low side until the device reads as level (or close enough that you can finish the job with the trailer jacks).

see also: Boeing

Don't worry about a sticker - the salesman would never lead you astray

I would guess that the amount of braking generated by a given number would vary a bit from controller to controller, but I do not know this for a fact. With my Redarc controller (the TowPro Elite unit) I'm in a somewhat similar range as Frank, and indeed I find I make adjustments based on coditions like wet roads. My "towing tutor" (a friend who has been towing big horse trailers since she was a teen) told me that it should not feel during braking like either the trailer is pushing my tow vehicle or that is holding my tow vehicle back - instead it should feel like they are kind of stopping in unison.

Not what you're asking for, but I pondered a dedicated GPS but decided to go with the TomTom Go app on my large screened smartphone instead. Yeah, it doesn't have the low clearance warnings and such, but see John's comment (and I've seen other comments on line by folks saying that these Garmin RV devices also miss some overpasses to the point where these folks have just gone ahead and bought a trucker's atlas (print) anyway. The TomTom Go app lets me download the maps for the entire continent onto my phone, and has good UI/features at least for my uses. It's not as crafty as Waze for navigating sneaky routes around traffic in many urban areas near home, but is great for road trips. (OTOH, the Garmin routable topo map layers sound pretty nice, and I do not get this feature in the TomTom Go app; Gaia is only a partial substitute since it does not have the turn-by-turn directions type routing).

InReach reception varies by location - I've found that it can take a while to get signal in an out when in tight valleys or canyons - in these cases I presume that I'm only getting line of sight to a satellite periodically. The worse was at one of the camps in a tighter part of the Grand Canyon during a raft trip there. It took maybe 4-5 hours one afternoon/evening for my message to get out, and for me to receive the one my wife had sent. I've heard of some folks having reception issues in dense forest as well. So it's not magic - it does need a decent connection to a satellite.

Garmin InReach (I have an Explorer SE model). I use it more often for texting my wife when off the grid solo so she won't worry, but sometimes get weather reports from it, and it is a nice emergency SOS tool to have in hand when beyond cell range. I have also used it to coordinate with friends who also have an InReach when we are joining up for camping/hiking/skiing in areas beyond cell range.

I know a lot of folks do this, but honestly we have had no issue with just putting the tp into the solids composting bin (as suggested by Nature's Head). It does make that crank a little harder to turn at times, but not super hard and the older TP just turns into compost pretty quickly so that crank resistance doesn't just keep getting worse at least in our experience. We aren't particularly sparing with our TP use either, and despite that we are still getting at least 3 weeks of use between emptying (longer if the 3 weeks of use is broken up with some weeks between trips, as the contents do shrink down a surprising amount with time). Again, I'm not trying to make sales for Nature's Head - just sharing our experience in case it's useful for folks trying to make this purchase decision.

To be clear, since I weighed in on this, the video states the same things as the Nature's Head user manual I linked - that cleaning the interior of the bin is unnecessary and in fact may inhibit composting a bit since that matter that's left behind will give the composting a good start with the fresh material when refilling. However, the video and manual note that *if you want to periodically clean dried on solids from the inside of the bin* that you should only use water or a combo of water and vinegar - no "sanitizing" type chemicals which might inhibit composting bacteria from doing its thing. So yes, some periodic cleaning may be desired or possibly needed (we have yet to see a need but we're only a bit over a year and a half in). And for sure there's some work either way. It takes maybe 5-10 minutes ish after 3+ weeks of use for two adults to do a swap out of the full bin contents for some new moistened peat or coir. I agree that folks should pick the tech that they think will work best for them. I'm not here to pitch the compost toilet - I am simply sharing what I've learned about the regular maintenance (and I'll also note that as someone who tends to camp w/o water hookups, I really appreciate not having to use water to flush a toilet - for me this is the big selling point for going w/composting, as I think the maintenance is kind of a wash between the two types of toilets/tanks, so long as you keep your black tank blade valve lubed or you avoid getting the wrong things into your compost bin).

From the Nature's Head online User's Guide:

This is not correct btw. Per the instructions for the Nature's Head toilet, you just empty the bin out into either a compost bin where it can go on to fully compost (and then be used on ornamental, NOT food plants) or into a trash bag that goes into the usual trash waste stream, and then you refill the bin with more compost medium (moist peat moss or coconut coir), and the residue left behind from the prior load will serve to help the population of beneficial bacteria build back up. And they are quite strident in their documentation to stress that it is vital NOT to sanitize the bin with bleach or similar cleaners. But for sure, as you note, it takes a while for the material to fully compost, so if you're on the road for a while you'll be disposing of the partially composted material in the trash. The nice thing is that for two people, we've found that we can go *at least* 3 weeks before needing to empty the bin, and if there are gaps of time between weeks of camping, we can go longer as the volume shrinks over time. The benefits of that partial composting include no poo smell even if you are working with an opened bin as long as you let the last "deposit" sit for half a day or so before doing the work, and it really isn't disagreeable to do the emptying at least from a smell perspective. Since it's not fully composted, though, you should assume there is still some fecal bacteria, and just as you should do if you have a full black tank to empty, you should probably be wearing gloves and you should be thoughtful about cleaning your hands and avoiding spillage (which is not hard). If you let it continue composting in the toilet (or a separate compost bin) at home after camping, you can eventually consider it fully composted, i.e. free of that nasty fecal bacteria. I would refer to manufacturer documentation of how long that takes versus social media or web forum claims in that regard. We, btw, put toilet paper in the bin along with the poo deposits, and it's been no problem other than that it can make the crank a little hard, but not impossible, to turn until it's decomposed a bit which it does relatively quickly. Given how rarely we camp with full hookups, the composting toilet has been great for us and I would absolutely choose it again if I were buying another trailer.

Yeah my friends have used them in the wilderness not in town. And they’ve indeed had cause to use them at least a few times each. One did have a story of poor aim, where they overshot and the bang happened on the far side of the bear. Fortunately the grizz decided to just take off in a sideways direction rather than coming right at my friend but he said it made him spend some time practicing doing a calm careful aiming of the device for any future encounters. My understanding is that they’re not legal in much of grizzly country in the US anyway. But aim is an issue with spray and revolvers too. You can also overshoot with spray. And as a revolver toting guy we met in Montana’s Bob Marshall Wilderness said to me when I asked about the revolver, you’re better off NOT carrying one unless you’re trained and you practice with it regularly - hewas a local who also did elk hunts out there and had a great story of a night where they all hovered on the outskirts of their camp while a grizz tried to get at the elk they’d shot and had hung high in camp. The bear never came at any of them so of course they didn’t shoot it. Sounded like a rough night.

My BC friends carry "bear bangers" when in grizzly country. They think they're better than either spray or a revolver. I think sometimes some of them carry a revolver but not typically. I don't carry spray in black bear areas. The only documented attacks on humans in WA state in a long time that I know of have all either been a result of hunters shooting but not killing bears or unleashed pets running back to owners with bears following. I have a friend who found himself between a mama and two cubs in a berry patch across the trail up on Desolation Peak in the North Cascades. He sang gently to her as he backed away from being inbetween them, and continued down the trail with his heart racing. My encounters have all involved them running quickly away, though in one of those the bear sprinted down the trail right at me before darting off to my right down a game trail he/she obviously knew was there. That was stimulating - this encounter btw was on the West Coast Trail which runs between Port Renfrew and Bamfield on Vancouver Island. For sure the ones that have become habituated are riskier due to their comfort level being around humans but I think that risk is more manageable than the risk from grizz.