VBistro

Trixie the Adventure Beagle

We'd love to join in, but unfortunately are traveling with a non-egg couple (rPod). Think they would be open to an exception? mb

ugh. I’ll try again when I have more signal than I can get while, literally, driving down the road. 😉

Kirk, Have you used AeroPress? I’m curious about your experience and a comparison with the Robot. Aeropress is our go-to when the Breville poops out at really high altitudes, but it’s kind of a drag to make 4 (or more!) shots in the morning. If the Cafelat is a simpler prep, I might be willing to try it.

As described by TopGun — it’s difficult to release the door, which causes the whole thing to shake and make a racket. We had them adjust it once on pick-up, and that lasted about two days, so I’m not really sure their adjustment did much. It seems to be highly dependent on just how perfectly level we manage to get. mb

Time to add a few from our most recent month-long trip to Moab (mountain biking), Valley of the Gods (annular eclipse), North Rim of the Grand Canyon (supposed to be more mountain biking, but we got smoked out by a nearby prescribed burn), Valley of Fire, and a Paso Robles HipCamp (wine tasting, of course!). The rest of the trip was staying with friends, and we’re currently high-tailing it home! As always, the Ollie performed above and beyond — we never once plugged in, but still used the convection microwave and a/c whenever needed. And even though we spent several nights in sub-freezing temps, we had no issues with frozen lines. I love VellOllie!

Any idea what this change will be? If there is one thing I find mildly annoying in VellOllie it’s the bathroom door. It makes way too much noise when you fully open and close it.

We use ALL the coffee options including instant (yes….bags from Walla Walla Roastery are delicious!), AeroPress, CleverDripper, and our Breville Bambino Plus for espresso. We have a Knock Aergrind to grind fresh for each cup. What we makes depends on the day. If we’re staying put for more than 2 nights, I’ll set up the Breville. One to 2 nights = CleverDripper or aeropress, or instant if I’m really short on time. All are equally delicious, and I never feel like I have to do without coffee!

This is all excellent information. Thank you! Unfortunately we don’t have time for an upgrade before we start our month-long trip tomorrow, but it’s definitely something to consider in the future. Who wouldn’t t want a quieter system?? 🙂

OK. Our last attempts at troubleshooting: 1. “primed” the pump by using the old “run city water through the system while in boondocking mode” trick (we’ve had to do this before when we had an airlock). Turned everything back to normal mode: nothing. 2. Now we are really at a last resort: replacing the replacement pump with a brand new one that Mr. Amazon Driver delivered bright and early this morning. “Bleepity, bleep, bleep, bleep!” SO MANY BAD WORDS…..the replacement for the replacement dropped right in and started pumping! So….the replacement pump we bought as a “spare” at Camping world this spring is apparently faulty. Glad we discovered that here and not in the middle of nowhere. Good news: I ordered 2 new pumps from Amazon yesterday, so we still have a spare. SO FRUSTRATING. We’ve been spinning our wheels for 24 hours, completely flummoxed and driving ourselves nuts. Grrrrrrrl

OK. I checked, and the fresh water tank is full. Turned the pump switch on, opened a faucet and….nothing. Is there some other priming step we’re missing? mb

So is there something special that we need to do once it’s plumbed in line to get it to kick in? The system isn’t under pressure at the moment, since we just installed the new pump, so simply turning on a faucet wouldn’t cause a pressure change, would it? Maybe fill the system to capacity (the tank is only 80% full at the moment), THEN turn on a faucet? I could see how that would change the pressure in the system somewhat and could trigger the “call” we need to kick the pump on. TIA for your help. mb

Changed the fuse. Nada. The mystery really is that there is 12V at the power leads at the new pump, yet it won't power up when wired.

Good point, Galway Girl, but once we got our switch configuration sorted, we have 12 V at the pump, but it still won't turn on. Just to be thorough I'll swap out that fuse, though. It can't hurt. Thank you

Sorry….I didn’t see this until now. The service person at the TMobile store activated the SIM before I left the store.

We’ve been using a TMobile sim card in our cradle point for about a year. No problem. I picked the sim up from the t-mobile store, popped it into the cradle point, and voila! It was a piece of cake.

I’ll update with some Ollie boondocking pics, since when I last posted, we didn’t have VellOllie yet! 1. somewhere near Victoria, Vancouver Island 2. somewhere off of I-80 in Wyoming 3. Meadows Group Campground in Buffalo Creek, CO

We did similar, but were able to cut a piece of plexiglass that could just fit in the slots along the sides of the screen door. Works like a charm!

What a gorgeous place! Wind River Range is on my list. Is the campground called “Green River Lakes”? Would you mind sharing a link? mb

I like Saffron Road simmer sauces. I combine the curry or the lemon grass basil with some shelf-stable tofu and whatever fresh/frozen veggies I might have on hand. Serve it over some pre-cooked rice, and you have a very tasty meal. https://www.saffronroad.com/products/variety-pack https://www.lundberg.com/products/organic-white-thai-jasmine-rice Yum!

Everything I’ve read is that the main road remains open until the 1st big snowstorm, or November 30th, whichever comes first. If the weather is clear and it hasn’t snowed yet, then the forest roads to access the Rainbow Rim Trail should still be open. We can be flexible — if it doesn’t look good, we’ll just go elsewhere.

Weather permitting this fall (I know that North Rim is over 9000ft and snow is a possibility even in mid-October), we are planning a trip that will take us near the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It’s been a bucket list item of mine for a decade to mountain bike the Rainbow Rim Trail. I know that there is a lot of dispersed camping in the Kaibab National Forest, but I’m curious if anyone here has brought their Oliver onto some of the forest service roads off of Hwy 67 (the Grand Canyon Highway). The place we want to camp is on the Rainbow Rim Trail about 16-20 miles from the highway. A day trip to Rainbow Rim is not really an option — we’ll have our dog in tow, and don’t like to leave her for more than 3-4 hours. TIA!

The longest we have made it truly “off the grid” by your definition is 11 days. We have an extra cooler for frozen, pre-made food (will upgrade to a 12v cooler one of these days), a composting toilet, a filtering jerrycan for extra drinking water purified from the creek, a sun shower for bathing, and a “scrubbing” laundry bag for when we inevitably run out of clean cycling kits. By the end we are craving fresh fruit, but it can be done!

We love our EV and have taken many road trips in it. Just like any vehicle, you have to plan ahead and recognize limitations. But in general, we have found owning an EV to be an excellent experience — maintenance is a breeze, acceleration is other-worldly, and it’s just a hoot to drive. We know it’s not going to tow an Oliver, and that’s OK. Our TV is too large, and too much of a gas-hog, for every-day driving. It, like our EV, has a purpose.

We used to drink water from home (in jerry cans) almost exclusively while camping. I didn’t think this would be sustainable on our 5 week trip this spring, so I decided to give the Ollie tank a very thorough (2X) cleaning and combine a 3-stage filter with regular Purogene use at every fill. We are also pretty discriminating about where we fill. The system worked beautifully, and it was a nice change to be able to drink water right from the tap. BayTec - 32oz Purogene Drinking Water Treatment and Water System Sanitizer for Water, Sanitizes Water Storage Systems, Provides for Long-Term Storage of Drinking Water https://a.co/d/2ZJp9l2 Blu Tech R3, RV Water Filter System, 0.2 Micron Water Filter for Campers with Compact 5-inch Filters, 3 Stage Premium RV Water Filtration System, for RVs, Vans, and Boats - by Blu Technology https://a.co/d/fATO3Vq