MAX Burner

…and then there were three at The Q:

Returned home yesterday afternoon from a 13-day Quartzsite trip. Spotted 6 OTTs during the 1576-mile run. Hull #’s 1441, 148, 50, and an unknown # were seen in person, 2 others were seen while driving on I-10 in the opposite direction. Not bad, IMO, that’s 0.46 Ollies spotted per day…. Ha! FYI: both of the OTTs on I-10 were spotted yesterday- the first one was at 10:50am westbound about 10 miles west of the AZ/NM border, white pickup TV. The second one was about noon yesterday at approximately mile marker 65 in NM also westbound being towed by a dark colored pickup. Anyone know who they might be?

Ours runs a weekly 15-minute “Built-in-Test” . The BIT results can be pulled up on the app. Its peace of mind knowing it’ll startup after sensing a loss of utility power.

Headed to @ScubaRx's location now... 6.3 miles north west of my current location...

The boys and I had our 2nd "Oliver Sighting" today on DAY-11 of this trip... It was Hull #148 from FL, the TV was not present so it's unknown who the owner is. Spotted this very nice looking rig in the Dome Rock Camping Area just west of Quartzsite.

I got bored - had to do something...

Hey @jd1923: QuartzFest 2024 officially opens tomorrow, but early registration started today. They're expecting 800+ rigs from all over the US and Canada... Planning to depart mid-week and head back to my lovely bride who'll be just getting home from Chicago - everything regarding the return route, at this point is WX-dependent. It would be great to get some "dueling Oliver" pix, right? We'll keep you posted in any case... Cheers!

Thanks @Geronimo John: We've got a fairly small house and the 12.5kW fits us perfectly. All our 120vAC demands are met with this unit. However, the cave isn't tied into the standby GENSET, that's why we'll be installing a standalone solar/battery bank back-up system this spring for the cave (what we do to keep our beer cold, right?). But this unit can run both LNG or LPG and it comes with the second set of jets to do just that. Real easy to switch over to the other type of gas.

Hey, @topgun2 - that's the 3 axle 30-footer with 3 slide-outs, right?

Awesome report @jd1923! Can't wait to get ours connected to the system. About how far is it from your LR to the Dongle?

We've been members since 2012!

Always.

MASSIVE! Very impressive! Thanks for sharing the results... What was the disposition of the night stand? Just curious.

"Red sky at night - sailor's delight?" I'm thinking those adages don't apply to this particular geographic region - the nearest major body of water is about 360 miles west of here. They call it the, "Pacific Ocean." HA!

We're not as lucky, @topgun2. We'll experience several power outages annually, some lasting many hours to days. Always seen to happen in the colder months. But so long as LNG doesn't go off line at the same time as grid power - we'll be OK. That's why we're planning to make the "Cave" off-grid, worse case scenario - we move from the main house to the cave during extended LNG/Power outages... That scenario hasn't happened in the 19 years we've lived here... BUT....?

So we moved to a campsite about 4.5 miles south of The Q to BLM land that outside of LTVA fee-areas. We're closer to the QuartzFest HAM Radio campout which starts tomorrow. The boys and I volunteered to help out the organizers by hauling their registration tents and accessories from their storage location in downtown Q. The QF started officially in '96 or '97 and draws north of 800 rigs from all over the US and Canada. It will likely start getting a bit crowded around here by this weekend! FYI: Here's the latest sun rise from the Sonoran Desert taken a few minutes ago: Cheers!

Not to highjack the thread, but - same here, @Patriot - we installed ours about a year ago, but had been wanting to do it for quite some time. Our installers wired the standby power system into the main house panel via an ATS which is in addition to the 6.8kW of solar on the roof. Solar's not going to help us during a power shortage as ours goes back into the grid as we don't have battery bank storage (soon to change). We have ten 300W modules in storage from another project that we're designing to power the "Man Cave." Currently it's energized by a 75A sub panel from the house. We want to make it completely self contained/off-grid later this spring. Just another "honey dew." HA! We've experienced actual power losses and the system kicks into action in 50 to 80 milliseconds after detecting grid power loss, the digital clocks in the house don't even notice the changeover. We're also glad we did this.

So, I decided to move to a location adjacent to where the annual QuartzFest HAM Radio "campout" will start on Saturday. It's about 4.5mi south of the RV Show at MM99 on the west side of HWY 95. It's on BLM land that is outside of LTVAs, so there's no fee. Much less crowded - at least for now, this event usually draws north of 800 HAM rigs from all over the US and Canada.

Couldn't agree more, Mike. We've got long-time friends living in Sierra Vista. FH - just down the road from Bisbee!

@Mike and Carol - Just FYI: We keep this one: in the TV's center console and make a habit of checking hub and drum temps at fill-up stops. Just really looking for anomalies and deltas in temps from wheel to wheel. In any case have safe travels next week, Mike and Carol! Cheers from Quartzsite!

Dead Horse: great location near Jerome, AZ... Jerome reminds me of Bisbee, AZ not far from Tombstone - may stay there on the way back to NM. Safe travels @Mike and Carol! Cheers!

We are SOOooo thankful there's no more "popped rivet patrol" duty. We were tired of replacing popped interior rivets in the AS...! Talking about things falling off - we met a young couple at an AS rally in Pagosa Springs years ago. After having just collected their brand new 31' AS from the factory, about halfway to Pagosa they stopped for the day and discovered the entire aft overhead storage cabinet decided to release and crash down on the rear couch/dinette area. Tore up the upholstery bad, the quality check just wasn't there. It took several of us to man-handle the cabinet from inside and get it into their TV truck bed so they could "somewhat" enjoy their first rally. AS sent a truck out before the end of the rally to bring the rig back to their "mothership" to attend to damages... Whew!

Very cool. Suggest they add a category of "0 - 5,000" out, it would make for a more interesting view and add a lot more color to the map...IMO. That's why we've got a NG whole-house standby genset at our place...

Hey, @Patriot: I hear ya, brother... 100%! However, just FYI, back in the day, we actually carried (get this) two Honda Trail 90's on a custom front rack mounted to the RAM 3500 while towing the AS. Ok, it was certainly "double-butt ugly" - but never an issue functionally or operationally. Totally doable - never any cooling concerns. I always thought of what amount of damage would be generated by a deer-strike right down the snot locker...? Oh, well - that deer strike did happen while towing but many years later which is another story... Regarding OTT lights while carrying bikes - as you may recall, we use the 1Up also. My concern was with the visibility of the upper lights on either side and thought, "the more the better." So, we added an LED strip light as an auxiliary safety feature on the flip-down rear bumper. Both RED and ORANGE, the LEDs are clearly visible even during daytime towing hours. Turn signals and emergency flashers are ORANGE, running lights are RED, brake lights are bright RED. The mod is tied into the 7-pin harness in the port-side aft garage compartment. There's a post on it somewhere - but, essentially, we copied John Davies design. Works great. Solid mod. Cheers from "The Q"!

I ordered the VE.Direct Victron Dongle yesterday from Amazon - arrives at the house Friday, but still in Quartzsite until next week. But to answer your question @Ronbrink, there's 3 options. The Cerbo is option 1. It has 3 VE.direct ports on top, two of mine are used for the SmartShunt and the SmartSolar Charger. I'll try the 3rd one for the Dongle and check the signal strength in the TV. If we can receive the "My Devices" page - that's all we'll need to monitor everything the Cerbo reports on the 7" touch screen. Option 2 will be the SmartShunt - have to check, but if my memory serves, there's 2 VE.Direct ports on the SS. 3rd option is connect to the Victron 12/12DC Charger - its a little closer to the TV than the other 2 devices and may work out. I'll check the ports later this morning to see if there's one open for the VE Dongle cable. Whichever gives us the best signal strength from the TV will be what we use. The data should be all the same regardless which device is used with the Dongle. In any case the Dongle cable appears quite long - we'll mount it as far forward as possible to get the best signal. Hope this helps. Cheers from Quartzsite!