Mike and Carol

Like jd, my trailer did not come with any kind of seal. You might want to clean it up and go without. It hasn’t been a problem over the years. Mike

Agree. I’ve not seen anything but the Andersen used. What tow vehicle will you use?

I agree about the Blackstone. We have two and like them. I also like my Weber Q1000, 10 years old and works great. I removed the regulator so it goes on the Oliver quick connect. I don’t think there were any warranty issues doing that. In fact, many dealers sell kits with the parts needed for the regulator removal and quick connect installation. Mike

Is your HWH a Dometic or Suburban? I believe what I have is a Suburban hot water tank. It is not connected to my inverter. If we don’t have 110v we run on propane. The outside switch is usually left on so that it kicks on when we hook up to electricity. Mike

“….back then.” Here’s ScubaRx back then (May 2016) on our pick up day helping the Oliver folks because of a problem with the lights on our trailer. Blew a fuse in my truck (yes it was a Tacoma, TRD Supercharged), blew a fuse in Steve’s truck and blew a fuse in one of the Oliver guy’s truck. We spent an extra night at the Fall Hollow B&B while Oliver worked to fix the issue. Good times! Mike

We love that part of Arizona, actually most parts of Arizona! Looks like a great trip. Mike

Yep! We had an interesting delivery experience, a good discussion over a beer. Hard to believe it’s been 9 years! Mike

I don’t recall getting a lug socket when we picked up our trailer new in 2016. Mike

On cold, rainy nights we keep the windows closed. For ventilation I open the maxxfan and the bath vent. With the maxxfan on a low setting pulling air out there is fresh air coming in through the bath vent. You might get a damp bathroom floor if it rains hard or is real windy, but it wipes up easily. Agree with your parks assessment. Palo Duro is one of our favorites. Be sure to drive up to Jerome while you’re at Dead Horse Ranch, and Sedona of course. You will really be blown away with the southern Utah parks! Mike

The early registration might have only included a smaller set of sites. I’d go ahead and try to grab a site. It looks to be a pretty big park, we haven’t camped there yet. I should start another signature map with just Texas State Parks!

We’ll be there! Site 16.

I replaced our original faucet early on (2017) because it couldn’t be moved or adjusted, it directed flow only to back of the sink. I don’t recall the brand, but we didn’t like it. I put in a Delta bar sink faucet that has a removable head and spray capability. Delta Faucet Essa Chrome Bar Faucet with Pull Down Sprayer, Chrome Bar Sink Faucet Single Hole, Wet Bar Faucets Single Hole, Prep Sink Faucet, Faucet for Bar Sink, Chrome 9913-DST I don’t remember a way to remove the aerator from the original faucet. MIke

Gary, we’re big fans of Texas State Parks. Parks that we’re familiar with around here (Boerne, just north of San Antonio)…. there’s Guadalupe River State Park and Blanco State Park. Guadalupe River State Park has a nice area in the river to swim or wade. Blanco State Park is small but nice. Further north is Inks Lake State Park, another nice (and popular) camping spot. We’ve heard good things about Perdernales Falls State Park, but haven’t been there. One of our favorites is Mother Neff State Park between Waco and Temple, not exactly Hill Country but worth a visit. We camp there often. Another park we like is Lost Maples State Park an hour or so west of here. There are a number of nice commercial RV parks in and around Fredericksburg, we’ve stayed at one (Peach Country RV Park in Stonewall) and drive by the others pretty often if you are interested. The state parks fill up fast, recommend reservations! Mike

I keep hearing nothing but good things about these folks and their company….

We also experienced this on a trip in 2017. Both wires were loose and I had to feel around the bottom of the pump to figure out where they were supposed to attach. Crimping has prevented this from happening since. Mike

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