Mike and Carol

If you have any flexibility even AZ state parks will have some availability on short notice this time of year. If you aren’t flexible then you need to start making reservations about 12 months out!!

On both of my Ram 1500’s the lowered tailgate hit the top of the Andersen hitch. On my Ram 2500, with no Andersen, the tailgate doesn’t even come close to hitting the hitch. Mike

You can use your Blue Sky display to see what you’ve got going out and coming in. A low winter sun combined with a cloudy or rainy sky will limit your solar panels. We had to pull out the generator when camped at Grand Teton and Glacier National Parks a few years ago. Low sun angle and clouds prevented the solar from fully charging our batteries during the day. Your Blue Sky display should tell you what kind of phantom draw you have. Steve’s estimate of .4aH is a little lower than ours. If I turn everything off I still get .6 to .7aH draw. We store under cover so now I just turn the batteries off with a battery cut off switch that I installed. Mike

Here’s my feeble attempt, windsocks not flags.

The Outlaw Oliver has a nice flag pole setup. @ScubaRx

Sunset tonight at Catalina State Park!

Lance, it was great meeting and getting to know you. Ollie owners are the best! Mike

Agree with Bill. Oliver had us stay at Fall Hollow the night of our pick up. It needed work (that was 6 years ago). The owners are nice and we stayed in their B&B twice and enjoyed the hearty breakfast that was cooked for us. It’s convenient to the Oliver facility but I would check it out to see where they are now.

I agree that there are a bunch of nice state parks in the Tennessee system. We’ve stayed at those mentioned and recently a couple that are a little further from Hohenwald, Fall Creek Falls State Park and Panther Creek State Park. Both nice. Also near Nashville and closer to Hohenwald are Cedar Creek COE and Seven Points COE, both also very nice. Water and electric. Good luck! Mike

We’re camped in Catalina State Park just north of Tucson. It’s a popular park, so reservations need to be made well in advance. There are 4 other Olivers here, two of them that we’ve camped with many times before.

Everyone is different. It’s nice that you camp as you did in the 80’s. A lot of us like to explore our National Parks and Monuments. Most of the campgrounds in these areas have no hook ups. We’ve discovered the capabilities of our Oliver allow us to spend time in some very scenic areas without being concerned with power requirements. Like you, we do like FHU commercial campgrounds, occasionally. But, nothing beats being out in a National Park or some even more remote areas, with no other campers nearby, enjoying a quiet sunset with a nice glass of wine. Life is good! Mike

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.