Coastal Aggie

If this would allow it to be run off a honda 2200 Id definitely be amenable to swapping my dometic for the truma. I was a little miffed that i was forced to go with the truma furnace in the 2023 despite not wanting the truma package which meant furnace and AC control are now on separate panels. I didnt want the truma package because i dont want to 1.) buy another generator when i already have a 2200 and 2.) have to haul a bigger generator around.

So none of yall actually use a mosquito net on the door of your trailers to keep them outside? My friends that live in Fairbanks use one on the door to their house and it works great.

Painted Cowboy is who I used both times I had my trailer delivered to me from Tennessee they were prompt and very accomodating to my ever changing schedule and their rate is pretty much the industry standard. The staff at oliver have their contact info if you need it as I believe they've referred several others to them over the years.

Probably one of my favorite toys I picked up during my time In galveston. It was the year that there was a huge population explosion of the giant quarter sized mosquitos that have a pretty painful bite. I think 2017 or 18. Many of the hallways at the school were spotted with blood spots from students smacking mosquitos against the walls. They had to put up signs asking folks to avoid doing that.

Don't I know it. Roads were still pretty icy this last time I drove up. And there were a couple of times i started sliding but always regained control. That was not a drive for the faint of heart. Most of the campgrounds were still closed for the winter too. I think aside from Liard in BC I spent the nights in the roadside pullouts because there was nowhere else to camp. Even once I was up in alaska we took a trip down to the kenai and while the campground we went to was technically fully open they hadn't gotten around to plowing the actual campsites yet. Another lesson learned when I decided to brave it and found the snow in the cul-de-sac at the end of the row of campsites to be too deep to turn around. Thankfully I've got a 12k lb winch which made easy but time consuming work to pull my truck and Ollie in a circle to get back out of the campground.

Im getting ready for my 3rd trip up to Alaska in about a month. this will be my second trip up with an oliver and first time in the summer and not during the shoulder seasons. As such mosquitos are on my mind. I thought i was used to them from going to college in Galveston and living in texas my whole life but even last spring when i was in alaska leaving just when they were starting to hatch it was a whole different ballgame. I would like to get one of those magnetic screen doors for the Ollie and was wondering if any of yall have recommendations on them. Also while my original thermacell has worked amazingly for most outings ive done the refills can be a bit of a pain when you need to use it for extended periods of time so if someone has experience with either one of the other thermacell products or some sort of alternative thats just as effective or better id appreciate the insight.

It definitely depends on the person and situation youre in. I "Full time" in my LE1 granted im not actually in it for most of the year as im out working on ships. But it is my main house so to speak. I have a small storage unit for seasonal equipment and anything i want to keep but dont need with me in the trailer near my parents house that i can drop/pickup from when i visit them, my F150 acts as my garage and all my time spent not at work im living in the trailer. when i am at work if its not somewhere that i can bring the trailer it gets dropped at whatever the nearest/cheapest storage lot is until i get off the ship. So far in my career its worked out to be 2 months at a time in the trailer then out working for 6 but pretty soon here that will change to much more time off. i think if it were more than just me it would almost certainly be too cramped for full time but ive had friends come with me for a few days at a time with little issue.

I cant recommend the mopeka sensors enough, an absolute must have for winter camping and from the things ive heard there is no better product for the job. The issue with the level bouncing around is because they use sonar so when it gets low it has trouble determining where the level is but by then youre already down below 10-15% and its time to refill anyways unless you like waking up freezing in the middle of the night. Getting them setup properly helps but itll still start bouncing around when it gets low enough. calibrate the sensors on a perfectly level surface before attaching then stick onto the tank and use the same surface to adjust it to the right position. the magnets are strong enough that you shouldn't usually need to reposition them unless they really get knocked around hard

Ive been using State farm. when i crashed the 2022 at the time i dont believe there were any other used LE1's on the market so they paid out enough to cover the increased cost of a 2023 with all the same factory upgrades.

@GeoffChapman that tracks along with my experience in the 2022 didnt experiment a ton with it before its unfortunate demise but 7 days from san antonio to fairbanks arrived with i think around 60% and 5 days back from fairbanks before the crash and i was at about 75% that morning both ways being mostly overcast the whole time. For 2023 and onward they've switched to 12/120v only fridges so no option to run it on propane and i think its just too large of a power draw for spending any significant amount of time boon docking.

@Jason Foster The lithium pro package on the LE1 which is what i have is only about 2/3 the capacity of the LE2's having only 260AH of lithium and 240 watts of solar. On a full sun day its just barely enough to hold the batteries at a constant level and maybe get a couple % of charge but only for a couple hours either side of the suns peak. I might have some parasitic draw somewhere but after doing some rough math compared to what you're describing it looks like its just an inadequately sized system for running that fridge. i definitely dont leave the inverter on just turning it on and off as needed. Probably what ill end up doing is removing the battery tray to fit some larger batteries similar to what @rideadeuce has done as well as adding a pair of skinny 90W panels that ive had my eye on to either side of the AC. i was super happy with the performance of the system on my 2022 with the propane fridge so if i can get the 2023 up to at least a week id be happy with that. Of course a likely much cheaper option would be to source another propane fridge but thatd most likely require cutting a new exterior vent like the 22's and earlier models have.

Ill have to look into that then must be a bad parasitic draw somewhere. i assumed it was the fridge because that was the only thing i had running aside from the lights and the maxxair fan on the lowest setting for a couple hours in the evening when id stop for the night on a 3 day drive from Norfolk Va back to San Antonio. mostly overcast but some partial sun i was down to about 25% on the batteries when i got to SA. wen i was driving the 2022 back from alaska i was only down to around 70% after 5 days with the fridge running on propane.

i have thought about setting up something similar because it seems to me that the auto retract is way too sensitive even for light winds. However there was one time i had gone over to my parents house and left the awning out and that auto retract saved me a big chunk of change when a freak 30 minute storm with golf ball size hail came out of nowhere while we were eating dinner. after that im not sure id want to do something that eliminated the use of the auto retract, maybe just find away to adjust the sensitivity of the sensor.

I "full time" in mine when im not out working on a ship which is about 9 months out of the year so generally i spend about 2-3 months at a time in mine. Storage is really the only issue with it. the bed of my f150 serves as my garage so its usually packed with my bulky or outdoor gear and i made a sort of under bed dresser drawer for my clothes in order to keep the closet free for bulkier items. If you want to boondock full time you'd need to make significant upgrades to the solar package as well as carry a small generator as even with the lithium and solar package the new fridges being used starting in 2023 draw too much power to go for more than a few days maybe a week of clear skies without needing supplemental charging.

Any chance someone remembers who did this or what discussion it was under? Been digging around the forum and I'm not finding anything. Since night time Temps here have cooled back down again I decided to experiment a little. Emptying out that forward cabinet and leaving the door and little access hatch to the area above the sensor open so that the temp can equalize with the inside air. I've now been able to set the thermostat to exactly the temperature I want and it's been maintaining it perfectly. This seems to prove my idea that the sensor needs to be moved away from the wall.