Mike and Carol

Your PEX presentation and hands on learning started me on my PEX repair abilities. It was what I needed to get started. I think the dump valve class would also be good. Steve showed me what to do years ago and I’ve been able to remove, clean and lube my cables a few times. Ditto on the valves. Mike

That must be why you need a hex wrench!

If you use a generator to supplement your solar you can use your trailer power cord just like if you are on shore power. You might need a simple 30a to 15a adapter, depending on the generator. I had a Champion that had a 30a RV plug on the front. My current generator does not. Your solar connection is entirely different than a power connection plus you don’t need anything other than what is on the side of your trailer. We’ve done a fair amount of camping and have rarely needed to use our generator to charge. A few occasions during extremely overcast weather and cold nights caused our batteries to run down to the point I pulled out the generator. If there is any amount of sun and you aren’t in the shade you’ll find you solar will keep up just fine. Lithium batteries allow you to more of the amp hours than traditional batteries do. If you get a generator just ensure it’s a quiet inverter generator. Nothing is more annoying that campers with open frame contractor generators polluting the air with lots of noise. Mike

Look into your fresh and city water connectors (where the water goes in). You’ll see it’s 1/2” square. You just stick your Allen wrench in there and tighten (righty tighty).

Hmmmm… that’s interesting advice from OTT service. I replaced my AGM’s a couple years ago with lithiums. Kept my 2000 watt Xantrex inverter (if that is what they are referring to), kept my cabling, didn’t add a battery management system (just reprogrammed my Blue Sky controller), kept my fuse panel and didn’t add a DC to DC charger. The only new component beside the batteries was a new charger (PD4045, less than $150) that has the lithium option. We did change some cables, but only to clean up the battery compartment. Existing cables were reused. I’ll talk to Jason at the rally, upgrading to lithiums should be fairly straightforward with the cost being the batteries and the PD4045 charger panel that fits in the fuse box. Mike Edit: we did add a surge protector on the Maxxfan circuit to prevent any surge to the fan.

There will be trips where something falls off, loosens up, breaks off, wears out, etc. With some camping experience these events will seem routine, you’ll pull out a tool and make an adjustment, reattach something, tighten something else, etc, etc. On the city water connection, if I remember it takes a half inch Allen wrench that inserts into the fixture to tighten it up. It’s a larger Allen wrench than comes in sets, I think I got mine on Amazon for less that $10. Happy 2023 camping! Mike

Steve, terrible news! I hope they can get her back to where she was. We will certainly keep her in our prayers. I hope we see her at the rally. Mike

Cooper AT3’s on trailer and truck:

Two Battle Born 100aH lithium batteries would give about the same performance as your four T105s. They will fit nicely in your battery tray. Due to the age of your trailer you would also need to change out your charger (PD4045) located in the fuse box under the dinette. I has a switch for lithium battery charging. If you have the Blue Sky solar controller you will need to change a couple of settings on the charger. Not difficult, I did both of mine in about 30 minutes moving very slowly. Battle Born supplied the new PD4045 and can provide the Blue Sky setting changes. We had two BB’s for a year and had no issues ever running low on electricity. Mike

I replaced my BF Goodrich tires with Cooper AT3’s (same that’s on my truck) a couple of years ago. No regrets. Mike

We ordered our trailer in Sept ‘15 for delivery in December/January sometime. We put off our delivery until May so I was told our chassis and other parts were put aside until early ‘16 when work on it resumed. So, parts of our trailer were pre-2016, including tires. I believe that is why we got the BF Goodrich. Mike

That’s what we use, too.

I’ve removed my cables, black and gray, several times over the years to clean and lubricate. Loosen the set screw and pull it out, stick it back in and tighten. I don’t know why your gate would be stuck so soon. There are lubricants you can put down the drain for the gate. I wouldn’t use Dawn - besides suds in the tank, it might remove any lubricant you have/had on the gate assembly. With the gate open, you should be able to squirt some lube around the edges and on the gate itself. Mike

Michelins weren’t used in trailers through 2016, BF Goodrich was standard. I think they went to Michelin sometime in 2017. Mike

That is why we won’t allow these types of discussions on this forum. Leave current events and political views out. Target shooting is a legitimate interest and popular sport. Let’s keep the discussion there. Mike

Nice set up John. My son was on the rifle team in high school and while at West Point. I worked with a guy at Fort Huachuca (AZ) who had a nice indoor range for air guns on his ranch in Sierra Vista that we used to spend time at on weekends. Good clean fun. He’s still a shooting enthusiast. Mike

Welcome to the group. Some of our favorite state parks are in Arkansas! Mike

I replaced the tires (BF Goodrich) that came on my 2016 a couple of years ago. Plenty of tread left but each tire had some cracking. Put Coopers on. Didn’t feel the need to stretch the life of the original tires. Mike

Hi Linda, good to have you back. Good advice in the above posts. Let us know how it goes. Mike

The CGI guys worked almost 12 hours straight yesterday to get our 7 year old trailer looking better than the day we picked it up!

I have towed our Elite II almost 100K miles with 4 different trucks, all with tow package. A 2012 Tacoma, 2016 Ram 1500, 2020 Ram Rebel and now a 2020 Ram 2500 Diesel. The Tacoma was marginal. The half tons were perfectly adequate. The 2500 is by far the best - effortless towing. I also use it as my daily driver, not unusual at all here in Texas. If I didn’t have a tow vehicle I would go with the 3/4 ton. The gas engines do fine, diesels are more capable. Also, with a 3/4 ton you generally don’t need to be too concerned with payload. Mike

Hey Mark, welcome to the group! Mike

Happy Easter to all! A special day! Mike

Pete, glad it went well! They will be here Friday and Saturday to make ours look new…. Mike

I’m Hull 135 and the basement light is just inside at the top of the opening.