Mike and Carol

I think users have 24 hours to delete or change a post. After that, a moderator can do it. If you need something done, just PM one of us and we can make the change. Mike

It’s worked well for me.

I got the email. Did the survey. Interesting picture of the Elite II with a big fridge.

I sure like the Cummins diesel in my Ram 2500. Makes towing so much easier than with my previous gas V8’s. I also get better gas mileage, both towing and not towing. Mike

Looks like a nice set up! Thanks for the initial report. Mike

Congrats! 21 overnight is a good initiation, sorry about the fall. 997 on the road! Mike

Looks like a great spot!

This is the parking lot for Horseshoe Bend just outside of Page, AZ. I have a collection of Carol holding our Oliver in the palm of her hand at various spots around the nation! A nice fellow tourist offered to take our picture. It’s worth the stop and 15 minute walk to see this. It was a bit cool but pretty spectacular.

Glad to hear you’ll be picking up tomorrow. 4th time should be final! Congrats - Mike

Agree with everything Overland said. We also use bottled water for drinking and cooking. We fill from sources we can find, usually at a campground or park. We haven’t used Bill’s mountain streams method even though we’ve been near some very clear running mountain streams. Mike

I never run my jacks all the way down. I have 8” blocks for each jack and 20 big yellow legos. Total jack movement for any of them is just a couple of inches. Saves battery and reduces any damage if I decide to drive away without raising them. Hasn’t happened, but you never know. Mike

I put a block under the front jack and lift it up. Usually you can go a couple of inches until the load is off the truck. If necessary, I keep going, raising the back of the truck a little with the jack. Mike

I usually remove one after a trip to have it filled. Where I go they like to have them removed for filling.

Like Bill said, they should be perpendicular. You won’t be able to attach a quick connect unless they are. Mike

I used a thick yoga mat I picked up at Walmart to insulate the basement and battery doors. I also used it to line the bottom of my Ram Boxes on my truck. Lifting the 30 lb bottles is no easy task as we age. I need to be on a step in order to get them over the lip without rubbing the fiberglass. Mike

Ours is not. If we want hot water when there are no electrical hook ups we must use propane. Mike

I’m okay with what we do. We drive to a location and stay a while, then drive to another, burning diesel all the way. But, if we’re home, I’m driving around town every day for errands, helping kids and grandkids, etc. The fuel I use is minuscule compared to big rigs driving across the country daily or trains and planes burning lots of petroleum. Even our wonderful windmills take gallons and gallons of petroleum lubricants daily to produce whatever electricity the wind allows them to produce. So, I’m at peace pulling my little Oliver to our national parks and recreation areas and enjoying what our country has to see. Mike

I haven’t been looking much at other trailers. We do have a couple of nationwide mega dealers close by and I saw their lots were pretty empty for a while but seem to be filling back up. I’ve also noticed prices for houses in our area are going up and I keep getting calls from “realtors” that want to buy my home, for a good price. But, then I would either have to full time in my Oliver or buy another home at equally inflated prices! I think Oliver (and some of the other fiberglass makes) and Airstream will continue to do well. Used models of SOB stick and staples will sell for cheap and probably won’t be in use long. Mike

I believe they are now using Cooper tires. I replaced my original BF Goodrich tires with Coopers last January and I’m very happy with them. Mike

The switch on the hot water tank does fail. I’ve replaced mine twice and I carry an extra in my spare parts bin. Great idea to use the circuit breaker and avoid the switch. Mine is now always on because I don’t plug into electricity when I store unless it’s going to be below freezing more than a couple of days. When that happens I want the hot water on anyway to provide a little extra heat. (When I had AGMs I did plug in while in storage to keep the batteries charged. With lithiums I just turn them off.) My 30 lb propane tanks last for weeks while we are on the road. I’ve had one run dry a few times, I just switch to the other and fill once we get home if it isn’t more that a couple of weeks. I think the furnace may be the biggest draw but we only use it when dry camping. I understand gas mileage improvements, but I don’t think the trouble of draining the fresh tank is worth the effort. We’ve decided on campsites while on the road and a good number of those have been no hook ups, so having a full or near full fresh tank gives a lot of flexibility. I insulated my basement door. My unscientific view is that if it is 25 degrees outside and 70 degrees inside the surface areas that are at 70 degrees are going to counter the surface areas that are at 25 degrees keeping the stuff in there above 32 degrees. I haven’t installed any thermostats yet (I should and probably will, now) but we haven’t had any freeze issues while on the road even down into the teens. Good luck!! Mike

Sorry to hear about the issues on your first voyage! We have a different refrigerator, but a gap that lets in cold air does not sound right. A propane tank, 20 or 30 lb should last longer than a couple of days even running what you were running. Question: if you have electric hookups why don’t you use electricity for your hot water and heat? A small space heater that runs quietly is much less annoying that the furnace cycling on and off. I leave the switch on the hot water tank in the on position when we travel so that when hooked up to electric it is always on and we always have hot water. Propane is only used for dry camping. Yes, it takes almost forever to drain the freshwater tank. That’s why I rarely do it. Question: If you are traveling why are you draining your fresh water? I try to travel with it full. I would hate to get caught in a dry camping situation with an empty fresh tank. We’ve been camping in below freezing weather at night this month so we have been using our fresh tank for water. Here at Zion there is no water hook ups at sites. I top off the fresh tank when I can so it remains as full as possible. I’ve never winterized. We regularly camp when the low gets into the 20s and a few times in the teens. When at home in storage I keep a space heater on during cold spells. I would have service check you propane system. You shouldn’t be getting an alarm like that with everything so new. Smoke detectors can be finicky. I replaced ours last year and it went off in the middle of the night last week. We hit reset and it didn’t come back on. Weird. We sleep with the vents open unless it is super cold and then with just the bath vent open. Mike

What kind of camping do you like to do? FHU? No hook ups? National and State Parks? You will get lots of advice on this forum! Alaska is on our list, we’ve done all but 5 of the lower 48. We lived in Hawaii for years so… Welcome to the group. Escape makes a nice trailer. Mike

We’ve been below freezing almost every night the last couple of weeks. No issues except when I left the water hose connected and woke up to 29 degrees and a frozen hose! 😳. We’ve been using the fresh tank ever since. Mid 50s today at Zion NP, low last night was 33. Enjoy your trip to SC. Mike

Glad to see another one roll out of Hohenwald. Congrats! There’s warmer weather all around. It’s been nice in AZ the last few weeks and now southern UT is not bad either.