Mike and Carol

Gary, aH stands for Amperes Hour, the number of amps a battery can provide in one hour. 100aH means the battery can provide 100 amps in one hour. There might be a more technical explanation that some of our techies can provide. We’ve found that our 300aH has been plenty and when we had 200aH for over a year we never had an issue. There is more useable power in a lithium than in an AGM. When we had our 400aH AGMs we got very near our limit while camping in cool cloudy weather at Glacier NP and Grand Teton NP. I had to run the generator because the solar was unable to keep up. Because you can take lithiums down lower than AGMs I don’t think we would have had the same problem. I will add that we don’t use the AC on battery power, run the fridge on propane, and are generally pretty conservative in our electricity use. Occasional microwave and blow dryer are the big loads. Mike

We replaced our 4 AGM 6V batteries with two Battle Born 12V 100aH lithiums in 2020. We had the configuration for over a year with no issues, we’re about 50% dry camping. We did add a third Battle Born when they went on sale. 300aH of lithium has been plenty. Mike

Pete, I installed a SiriusXM receiver in our trailer 7 or 8 years ago. The only way I could get it to work was to put the small antenna between the insulation and the hull back in the attic. I don’t know what the frequency difference is between SXM and SL so not sure if this applies. Mike

I’m thinking we’ll pick one up as well. My son has SL for his camper and they love it, both he and his wife do a lot of remote work, email and video calls, it checks the block. We’ll be traveling west to northern CA, OR and WA in August and September, looks like some sparse cell coverage in some areas. Mike

We have shampoo and conditioner there.

Canyon Point is a nice campground, we enjoy staying there. I think the campground is open mid May to mid October. The Ranger can verify. Mike

On 3/13/2025 at 9:15 AM, Galileo said: IF we have full hookups, I dump before leaving the site - because I like the nose of the trailer as high as possible to get good drainage. But we never use the site sewer “real-time”. If no sewer connection, we hit the dump station before hitting the road. (That’s the way turkey vultures do it - vomit before departure to reduce takeoff weight!) There are plenty of campgrounds and open camping areas with no dump. Leaving the Dome Rock BLM area at Quartzsite is a common example of having to tow with some amount of fill in the black and gray tanks. You could detour into Quartzsite to one of the commercial dump facilities if weight is a concern, but we’ve always just hit the road to dump at our next location. Even then, we’ve had camping spells where we did 2 or 3 locations with no dump. As Steve explains, these trailers are pretty robust, and if you are towing with a 3/4 or one ton truck, weight control does not have to be a primary concern. Mike

Everyone rolls a little differently. After well over 100K miles and 9 years our Oliver does just fine riding with a full FWT, haven’t noticed any disagreeable handling or behavior even when we also have some liquid in the other two tanks. I prefer the flexibility of having fresh water in any situation and sometimes you just can’t dump and so it is not something I’m concerned with. We’ve had to camp in areas we hadn’t planned with no water available. It’s nice to just turn on the tap and have water flow. YMMV. Mike

We always travel with a full FWT for the same reasons John mentions. We also travel sometimes with some degree of fullness in both the black and gray tanks if we were at a spot where we couldn’t dump. I figure a little sloshing around in the black tank while driving isn’t a bad thing. If we can dump before leaving we do, but it’s not something I worry about. Mike

Welcome to the group! Carol’s sister and family live in Frisco, not too far from Royce City. We’ll see you out on the road…. MIke

Exactly. We’ve been using this technique for the last 8 or 9 years. BTW, Davis Mountains State Park is one of our favorites. Mike

I’m certainly not suggesting that the Berkey does what an RO system does. We have had an RO system for 20 years that supplies drinking water and water for both of our fridges with ice makers (we’re actually on the second system, we wore the first one out). The RO removes everything, which is why we add back electrolytes to our glasses of water during the day. For camping, the Berkey has been effective. It gets top ratings by the EWG. I asked them about microplastic removal and they said their carbon filters remove some but that their new ceramic filters remove most/all micro and nanoplastics. Plastics is becoming a major health issue, they’re finding them in our arteries, artery blockages, brains, organs, etc. I applaud anyone who engineers a good RO install in their Oliver. I’m not that smart or talented so we’ll just roll with our Berkey. Mike

Agree 100%. One bar max. We have a valance on the window that I can set my phone on just inches from the boosters antenna so I can get a little better hot spot performance. Seriously looking at a StarLink.

Another good option in the Grand Junction area is James M Robb State Park in Fruita, just outside (west) of Grand Junction. It’s also just a couple of miles outside of Colorado Monument, a must see if you are in the area. Mike

We ordered and used the AB Lifestyles Oliver sheet set and mattress pad. They fit perfectly. We don’t use the top sheets anymore because they were too snug down at the feet end. We just use a regular twin bed sheet and tuck it in a little more. It allows a little more maneuver room for our feet. Mike