Mike and Carol

The Garmin 890 is on sale for $379 at Amazon ($499 normal price). Looks like there are several vendors, one has it for $509. Mike

Our son bought at Forest River No Boundaries, it’s the large model (19.8?) with a queen bed, two bunk beds and a dinette that makes into an additional bed. It’s about 23’ and well under 5K pounds. He pulls it with a Ram Power Wagon. He has two kids and two dogs, works well for them. We camped with them outside of Durango last fall.

Yep, we’re on the road! We boondocked for up to a week with no issues. A mix of Harvest Hosts and NH and VT state parks with no utilities on our trip to Maine. We don’t use our inverter much, so most of the load is the 12V things in the trailer. With some sun, we were usually back up to 100% by early afternoon. Even when we had an electrical hookup I rarely turned our charger on, just relied on the sun. Mike

Hey CW, that’s a good question. I’m not familiar with either of the lithium options you are asking about. I can tell you that I have 2 Battle Born Lithium batteries, 100aH each, that I installed last January. I also have the older 320W solar with the Blue Sky controller. (Oliver would probably call this the Lithium Amateur Package if they offered it! 🤣). This set up has not limited us in the least in our travels this year (6 week trip to Maine, 4 week trip to Colorado, 2 week trip to Arkansas). We are leaving tomorrow for Arizona for a couple of months and I’ve decided not to take my generator. Our solar and two batteries have been plenty. All that to say that you should be good with either package. Mike

We had similar issues with hard water deposits. We now travel with a water softener. I just changed out the anode in the hot water tank and it was completely consumed. It’s been about 2.5 years, should have done it a year earlier. The last time I changed it was after 18 months and there was still about 30% left. 18-24 months is probably about right. I also flushed quite a bit of junk out of the tank, but also had that when the anode still had life left. Mike

Welcome! Retirement comes quickly. Enjoy the time planning for your upcoming Oliver and ask any questions you may have. Mike

Andy, welcome to the group! I’m sure your modifications and experiences will benefit everyone here. Happy New Year! Mike

Congrats! Let us know how it goes. Mike

Meander, of course! If you don’t need to be back home for some reason I would explore some Tennessee state parks and Arkansas state parks. Drive up to KY and visit some distilleries. Drive south to the coast in Mississippi and Alabama. See you at the rally! Mike

I’m not sure what bathroom faucet you have. The one on our trailer was replaced in 2018, I think. If you have a decent flow then you should be good. Mike

Plus you can stand under hot water a little longer!

We’ve found that Raclette cheese doesn’t smell great when you open and slice it. It tastes much better! We usually also do cornichons, salami, pepperoni sometimes, and prosciutto. You can always substitute other meats and cheeses as needed. We’ve made caramelized onions which are good on top of your pile of potatoes, meat and cheese. And, we’ve found that hearty red wine goes well. We do a Cab or Cab Franc. Our various French friends usually served a nice Bordeaux. Enjoy!

We had the same issue a few years ago. Check for plastic bits or hard water debri in the faucet filter and in the line behind the toilet. Mike

A good thing about Raclette is you can do whatever you want! We’ve had guests put potato on their tray with cheese on top. It’s all good.

We lived in France in the 1980’s and enjoyed Raclette with French friends the years we were there. Our tradition is to do Raclette on New Years Eve. We try to use Raclette cheese, when we can find it (it seems to be getting more common these days), otherwise any cheese that melts well will do. We put small potatoes on top of the grill to keep them warm and then put the meat and cheese in the tray to melt. Then smash a small potato on your plate and scrape the meat/melted cheese on top. You can do whatever sides you like. Some of our best memories of France are sharing Raclette with friends. This was last year when it was just Carol and I on the wine barrel. A couple of years ago…

When our black tank is full, or needs dumping because we’re leaving for a location with no sewer, we dump, close the gate and fill to about 70-80%. Then we dump again and then repeat one more time. I’m outside manning the outside dump activities and Carol is inside watching the level to tell me when we’re at the 70-80% level. Then we drop in a detergent pod and a capful of Calgon water softener. When we’re heading home we also add some Happy Camper to both the black and gray tanks. We’ve been trouble free for the last 6 years. Mike

Great news! We need to get back to your area, we really enjoyed camping there a few years ago. February will be here before you know it! Mike

Interesting video. I think his use of the term “perfect” needs to be put into context. He is saying that the ANDON method results in vehicles coming off the line with no known defects, that problems are solved before the vehicle is finished so that problems aren’t passed to the dealer/customer. My two Toyota trucks back that up. I didn’t find any issues with either of them as I drove them off the lot and in the initial stages of ownership. As the miles piled on of course there were things that needed to be adjusted/fixed/etc. Mike

Unfortunately, no. We didn’t spend much time at the campground and it seems they didn’t either. We saw them out by their Airstream on our evening walks but there were always folks there talking to them. So we just waved and got a friendly wave back. Mike

We’re watching the latest episode of LOLOHO (Long Long Honeymoon) on YouTube which we’ve been watching for years. It’s a question/answer episode and one of the questions was what trailer would you have if you didn’t have your Airstream. Sean’s answer mentioned two brands, a quick mention of Lance and then he talked quite a while about Oliver’s. We camped across from Sean and Kristy in Gros Ventre campground a few years ago in Grand Teton NP. Mike

Hey Dale, Oliver travel trailers are unique in their double wall construction but as far as appliances, suspension and brakes, wheels and tires are concerned they aren’t too mysterious. Any competent repair facility should be able to work on your trailer. We have a local, family owned repair shop that does work on ours and has had no issues working on our trailer. I would start looking locally at what is available for servicing, I’m sure you’ll find a competent shop. You live in a great area, one of the few states we haven’t visited but high on our list! Mike

The older BAKflip covers required the tailgate to be closed first before the last section of the tonneau cover. My first one was like that. The new covers (last couple of years) don’t require that. The tailgate can be closed and the last section will just snap down when closed. Much more convenient. Mike

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Well…., we’ve been full in three days too. I guess some days we’re more full of it than others!

Tough loss to Navy but a great showing against Missouri last night in their bowl game winning it in the last three seconds! Mike