Mike and Carol

We use TST and don’t need any amplification.

After the arctic blast the weather this week has been great and you should have good weather this weekend! Your batteries should be okay. If you’re going to store under cover with no electrical for long periods you might consider disconnecting your batteries or installing a cut off switch. If you’ve got 2 AGM’s there should be room in the battery tray to mount a switch, it’s fairly easy to do. Mike

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Some of the best spots we’ve camped at were without any hookups! Great pictures. Isn’t it nice to have the flexibility to do self-contained camping? 😃 Mike

Yes, we’ll be fully open next Wednesday. Weekends in Texas State Parks fill fast, but weekdays are generally available. With the governors announcement that COVID restrictions are gone next week I hope that state parks will be open to capacity. Mike

When I removed mine I just used a fingernail to get a corner up a little then took hold and slowly peeled it off. Warm/hot weather helps. Mike

We store ours at a storage facility. It is covered and has electricity. It gets dusty after a few weeks there, so I end up giving it a quick wash before we travel. I used to keep it plugged in to keep the AGM’s charged. Now, with lithium’s, I don’t. I turn the batteries off. If it wasn’t covered I would keep the batteries on and let the solar keep them charged.

Larry, glad to hear your Ollie is on the way! We don’t use the Andersen levelers, but understand that they work well. If the gear package includes some kind of block for under the jacks, you should be good to go. I would recommend a water filter. The blue Camco filter works well. I recently got a Culligan cartridge type filter that seems to be pretty good too, it’s a little more work and I still carry a blue Camco! The water gauge that Bill mentions above is what we use. It is adjustable. We don’t have the on board surge protector so we use the kind that plugs into the power pole. It tests the circuit before allowing a connection. We also carry a GFI tester. We have both a 30 to 15 and a 50 to 30 adapter. In 5 years I’ve used the 50 to 30 twice, once due to a flaky 30a plug on the power pole and once because a 50a plug was the only plug on the power pole. There is probably not a rush to get one, but the 30 to 15 will get more use. We have a sewer hose support, I think it is called a Sidewinder by Camco. I use it about half the time I have a sewer connection, especially when the dump hole is a bit elevated. You want a straight downhill path for your black and gray fluids to travel, if not you end up having to lift the hose. I also have a Zero G fresh water hose. It is easier to handle in cool/cold weather. Good luck! Mike

That’s a tempting offer and under normal circumstances I’d pack up an drive over! Unfortunately, I’ve got my Maxxfan in pieces on my workbench waiting for a part. Black plastic taped over the hole on the roof. I’m sure someone will take you up, Big Bend is one of our favorites. Mike

I agree with Frank on this. The only dribble I can see would be if you unhooked your hose after you dump. There is no need to do that - just leave it connected and cap it. The next time you use it just hold the hose up so any remaining fluid doesn’t dribble out. Put your elbow on and lower it over the dump hole. Mike

It gets good reviews. We get an annual park pass. With our son and family in Durango we’ve been going to CO more often.

Mine says ‘open’ from time to time. I just press again and it gives me the level.

We don’t either. We’ll be staying in the state park to see Ouray, Silverton and the area. We’ve got reservations in a couple of other state parks as well as USFS campgrounds. Otherwise, it will be no-reservation USFS and BLM.

I just replaced my BF Goodrich tires with the Cooper Discoverer AT from Discount Tire. The Goodrich’s did well, about 60K miles and still a lot of tread left. I had some slight sidewall cracking that started last summer. I’m happy with the Coopers, checked the recall and it doesn’t look like I’m affected. The BFG’s looked utilitarian, the Coopers are a bit more aggressive looking. Probably a silly reason to go with a tire, but....

We just got back from Arkansas and eastern Texas, in time to batten down for the arctic blast that hit Texas. I’ve got some maintenance do to in March then April we head to KY, TN then the non rally in AL. July we’ll be in Colorado, Durango, Silverton, Ouray and Telluride, then over to Sylvan State Park north of Aspen. Trying to decide whether to go east or west in Sept and Oct. Mike

I have an extension like what is mentioned above. I find it takes too much space in the bumper area and since we never disconnect our hose from the trailer it doesn’t make sense for us. I do have a clear elbow that came with my Valterra hose that works well. I have a backup Rhinoflex hose that attaches to the Valterra, they seem to use the universal connections.

Check under the dinette seat closest to the bathroom for the black valve. The gray is under the bed near the pantry. Just watch the gate when it is opened to see if it fully opens. Yes, we always dump the black before the gray. I do a couple of rinses until I get clear water flowing out. Then do the gray. While the gray is draining I’m unhooking the black flush hose and putting things away. We usually get down to zero in both tanks.

Are you saying that the inside display is always showing a percentage in the tanks and does not read zero? They gray tank does drain slow, but ours does get to zero. The black is fast and easy, dump, fill/dump, fill/dump and the dump water is clear and the gauge reads zero. Elevating the front a bit does help. Have you checked the operation of your gates? Maybe they aren’t opening all the way?

Yes, well done!

Good install job! Looks very similar to what I did a few years ago. Ours has operated flawlessly. It is very easy to open and close the blind without opening the door. The slider is accessible through the sliding panel for the door handle.

May will be a good time to pick up your new Ollie. That’s when we picked ours up and had a nice leisurely trip home. Maybe you can stop by the non-rally in Lake Guntersville and meet some other owners. You’d get lots of help if there were any issues!! Mike

I kept the same metal stems. They checked them out to make sure they were good.

The refrigerator is very efficient while on propane. Our 30lb tanks last a long time. I have no idea how much it uses in a 24 hour period, there are so many variables. We do travel with our refrigerator on propane. Like Bill, we’ve never run ours on 12V. Mike

We had the metal stems installed about 4 years ago when we first got the TST TPMS. It was not at Discount TIre, I had them installed at a local independent tire dealer.

Drinking first cup of coffee.... We just finished this odd arctic blast this week. Temps hit single digits two nights and we stayed well below freezing all week. Finally, yesterday we hit the 60s and the low last night was 53. I didn’t winterize 😬, never needed to before. I did find a couple of gallons of antifreeze at the third Walmart I checked, but could not find a pump. I put the trailer in the driveway, turned on the furnace and electric heater, hot water tank and put drop lights in the basement and under the bed near the outdoor shower. Once the weather returned to normal yesterday I checked everything and it appears we weathered this storm with no damage. I did keep the vents closed and shades down to help retain heat. Mike