Steve and MA

I've read and participated on this form for over 4 years. There's always been a strong bias expressed in favor of 3/4 and 1 ton trucks. I think some of the cautionary feedback is coming from this bias. Initially I towed with a 2016 GMC Canyon Diesel using the Anderson hitch and it performed just fine for me. I don't disagree that a heavier truck is a better (more stable) TV. My current TV is a Mercedes 3500 van, but the main reason for the van is cargo, not tow, capacity. Wasn't the question of the BW Continuum hitch setup the point of this thread? The Sierra EV curb weight is over 8500 lbs. That's about 1000 lbs more than a Sierra 3500. I don't think an Anderson, BW Continuum or any other anti-sway or weight distributing hitch would be needed with a Sierra EV in combination with an Oliver LE2. I can't find that GMC has a hitch recommendation. As far as driving dynamics are concerned, the Sierra EV will probably be a great TV without a special hitch. As to the range anxiety that some have raised, maybe that's an issue for some. I think you've stated your expectations well and an EV will work for your use case. Until someone tries, we won't know how well an EV truck performs in real life. Keep us posted. Steve

Both doors clear the front basket when the trailer is straight behind, but one door or the other will stop at the basket if not close to straight. The van probably should be discussed under the Towing an Oliver topic. I've gotten several questions about it recently due to its appearance at the rally. I'll probably start a Sprinter van as TV thread sometime soon. On Tuesday night 5/6 the park was maybe 10-15% occupied. There are about 100 sites, but less than half are premium waterfront with the large concrete parking pads. I didn't notice a swimming beach area on the lake. There's a swimming pool though. More info here: Roosevelt State Park

It's a 2021 3500xd cargo van with 144" wheelbase rated for 7500 lbs towing, 750 lbs tongue weight. Cargo capacity is 5600 lbs. The relatively low towing limit (for a one ton truck) is because of its unit body construction. The dually rear wheels keep the rig quite stable, even in the severe crosswinds we've encountered on IH-10 in New Mexico. The 1500 and 2500 Sprinters as well as the extended body 177" wheelbase 3500's have a 5000 lb max tow rating.

This post is just an FYI. On the way back home to TX from the rally, we looked for a convenient overnight stop along IH-20 and made an uninformed selection of Roosevelt State Park just east of Jackson MS. It turned out to be a lucky guess. It's just 5 minutes off the interstate and has some of the best campsite parking pads that we've run across anywhere. The premium sites are better than what most private RV parks have to offer; they're large, level and deep. Only one of the premium sites isn't on the waterfront, #37, which is the only pull-through. We picked it without seeing it or any of the other sites because we didn't want to unhitch for our quick overnight stop. It turned out that all of the premium sites are deep and level enough that we wouldn't have had to unhitch our trailer. Our luck was even better because through the 22nd this month the sites are half price. The park staff told us that they had been closed for renovations for about a year and recently reopened. The special pricing is to encourage people to rediscover the park. Regular daily prices are $47 weekdays & $57 weekends for premium, or $37 or $47 respectively for regular sites on weekdays or weekends. The regular sites are also nice, but they consist of smaller asphalt strips that aren't as large as the premium sites and may require you to unhitch to level the trailer. The state park prices are less than what many less desirable private RV parks charge and was especially a bargain at $23.50 for our one-night stay. We plan to go back before or after next year's rally, expecting to pay the regular daily price. In the picture you can see the size of the site. We didn't take a picture of a waterfront site because it was raining most of the time we were there, but all the premium sites have similar sized concrete pads, easily big enough for 4 LE2s (though only enough hookups for one). Steve

The disadvantages of an Airstream for 2-3 x the cost 😉

We use quick connects on our freshwater fill without issues. We seldom connect directly to city water. There are two good quality quick connects that we've used. One is the design from McKillans (typically stainless steel) and the other more common one was from Camco (typically brass). We haven't used the Eley brand mentioned above. None of these have backflow check valves, so there's some leakage upon disconnect. The Camco and McKillans types are similar but not compatible with one another. We used the Camco connectors until we added a Blue Technologies water softener and hose reels. Blue Tech has McKillans style connectors and a mix of NPT 1/2 inch and garden hose threaded connections. The Blue Tech softener and reels, along with a Clearsource water filter system, are mounted in our TV and are used to fill our fresh tank. Steve

B17, Steve and MA, Steve & Mary Allyn, Texas, “Un Œuf”, 969

Did the ranger have them turn their rig around so their streetside was against the campground hookups, or did they just keep their curbside facing you but with more room? I haven't camped at Mustang Island State Park since the '80's, but in a tent on the beach. Google Maps show the RV sites to alternate head-in/back-in with no pull throughs, making it difficult to disconnect your TV if you have a head-in site. It is an odd layout. This probably works well for motorhomes, but not so much for trailers. Usually when every other campsite shares the same electric hookup the sites are pull-throughs that work well for all types of campers. Steve

Last week during some unusually cold south Texas weather we ran both of our 30 lb tanks to completely empty. We took them to a nearby U-Haul for refill while the temperatures were still in the low 20's. We were charged for volume (16.9 gallons), not weight of propane. After getting them home, as the weather warmed, we noticed a faint smell of the gas odorant. We found that the pressure relief valves were bleeding off propane. We had a serious fire hazard. A little online research suggested that based on volume, tanks are sometimes overfilled in cold weather. Liquid propane is denser at low temperatures, so more (by weight) can be filled in colder temperatures before the Overfill Protection Device (OPD) shuts off the flow. There are also recommendations for the entire valve to be replaced whenever the pressure relief has popped. We took the tanks to Propane Depot, a specialty supplier. They weighed the tanks. One weighed 65 lb and the other 66 lb. The tare weight for our tanks is 25.5 lb each. Neither should have weighed more than about 55.5 lb when full. They had been overfilled by about 20% of their rated capacity. Texas regulations state "containers of less than 101 pounds LP-gas capacity shall be filled by weight only", so this rule was not observed when the tanks were refilled. After bleeding off the excess, the guys at Propane Depot checked the pressure relief and the tanks were no longer leaking. They didn't think the temperature had been cold enough to explain the extreme overfill so the OPD is suspect, though it seems odd to have failed on both our tanks. The propane guys said they only refill by weight and never depend on the OPD. We plan on replacing the valves before the next refill anyway. The takeaway is to make sure the tanks are weighed before and after being refilled. The filled tank shouldn't weigh more than its rated capacity plus its tare weight. Stay safe, Steve

Why not get another quick connector and thread it on to the plastic plug that was previously used to cover the water port?

We've been very pleased with the basket and boxes. Now that we've had them for almost 6 months we can give more feedback. First, many have asked about their weight limit. As @Patriot mentions, this is a question better answered by Oliver. Sea Biscuit doesn't provide a weight limit, but the basket and boxes are very robust. Oliver has a 150 lb limit on their optional bumper receiver. Our unladen receiver weighs 26 lb, so we're looking at a maximum of about 176 lb hanging on the rear bumper. The Oliver receiver could probably handle more weight, but you also have to consider front/rear weight balance. Our Sea Biscuit basket and empty boxes combined weigh 74 lb. If we observe the Oliver weight limit, we can carry 102 lb maximum in the boxes. We only carry about 30 lb of bulky/dirty items in the boxes: chocks and blocks in one rear box and a (very) small grill in the other. We also have the Oliver front basket, sometimes loaded with 70-80 lb of gear (e.g. generator and fuel) which helps offset the weight on the rear. Access to the dump hoses stored in the bumper is a minor inconvenience, but less so if you keep the hoses attached. Since we have the Nature's Head, we only have to deal with gray water. If we had a black tank, then we wouldn't want to troubleshoot a leaky hose or connection while the basket is attached. That brings us to another access issue. The basket must be pulled out about 4-5 inches to remove the spare tire cover. This isn't a big issue though. We can just pull the pins holding the basket on the bumper and slide it back a little without removing it from the mounts. No tools required. Fortunately, we haven't had to use the spare, but the basket won't be a problem if we do. Besides the convenient storage, especially the easy access to the chocks and blocks, an unexpected big benefit is that the boxes are at countertop height when parked on level ground. We always have an outdoor table set up. The boxes are also strong enough for a 225 lb person to stand on, making it easy to visually check things on the roof. Steve

Our refrigerator has an external cooling fan as standard equipment. If yours is similarly equipped, then you should hear that. Ours is loud enough to drown out the sound of the propane flame. If the propane flame fails to light, then the error code will reappear within a couple of minutes. A side comment: the factory cooling fan isn't adequate for Texas summer heat. Like several others have done, we've added an auxiliary fan from Beech.

What refrigerator do you have? When we ran out of propane running our Norcold it could be switched to AC or DC without displaying an error code. When the propane was refilled and the stove burners, hot water and furnace were working, the fridge still gave an error code on propane. After turning the fridge off and then back on, then the propane worked.

Ours is a 2022, so not familiar with the PD (shore power?) and Blue Sky (solar) charge controllers. What about the 12v feed coming from the TV? Should this be disconnected, or run through a DC-DC charger?

We used our old EU2000i with a SoftStart equipped Dometic for a couple of years. Our OEII has the 3000 watt Xantrex. We only used the generator for summer boondocking in the Texas Hill Country, never at high altitude. The combination worked well most of the time. We couldn't use the microwave concurrently with the AC, and if the batteries weren't at 100%, the Xantrex had to be dialed back to the lowest charge rate. When outside the trailer, the generator was much louder than advertised due to the higher rpm and frequent surging as the AC compressor cycled. It was annoying. At least when inside the trailer the generator surging couldn't be heard over the noisy Dometic. We recently switched to the Truma AC and a 3200 watt generator. They're both much quieter, inside and outside the trailer.