Zodd

I just put some painters tape over the button and turn the fridge all the way down. Keep the door open and a little baking soda inside.

What is the humidity level in the trailer when you do this?

On the topic of humidity when winterized in the trailer what all do you target and use? I figured I could do <50 using damprid but using that has hardly had much effect and humidity is staying at about 72% which feels too high. I put a second damprid in thinking maybe it just needs two but no impact. The trailer is covered with vents closed. Maybe I need to open vents? Just figured with it being covered opening vents would not do much and maybe even make it worse living in the inland northwest.

This is one reason when towing I like to have my trailer info showing on my super duty display. It will show when and how much trailer breaking is being applied. However, going down hill I normally don’t have cruise on as I like to stay engaged with what my speed is. Downshift to a level that holds my speed versus letting cruise manage it.

This is one reason I have loved RV Tripwizard for trip planning as it will show you not only the elevation gain/loss but also the percent grade on the roads. I have often wonder what my “I’ll pass” limit would be. Once it hits double digits I start questioning. Since I am out west this is one of the reasons I went with a 3/4 ton to ensure more stability through all these mountains.

It does pro-rate based on start date. Our billing cycle is on the 11th of each month. In September we started on the 15th of the month and only paid $45. But it is only pro-rated based on start as regardless of when you pause you get it through the end of the billing cycle.

It seems like if $3k for a ceramic coating is worth it $1,300 for a Calmark cover (assuming you don’t go with a cheaper one) would be worth it. We store outside and have a ceramic coating. Figured keeping it covered over the winter would stretch how often we have to get it coated again, therefore paying for the cover pretty quickly. The coating has made washing it and get bugs off pretty easy. We wash after each trip. I also use WashWaxAll to help protect.

I am not sure about leaving it open while off. But Oliver did put out a video on cleaning it and operation.

Ok, yes it is electric so comes with those concerns. But I have loved this thing since way back so was excited to hear they were going to be making them again. The details and prototype is out and so for I am intrigued. An onboard gas generator for recharging to extended range to 500 miles is interesting (to early to know what that means for towing). Still years away from production so we will see. Https://www.scoutmotors.com

I used this RecPro RV Antifreeze -50°F Protection Non-Toxic which is Ethonal-free, assuming it is the Ehtonal that triggers this. So far, knock on wood, no alarming for me. And I have had it alarm a few times with three of us sleeping. It still has propylene glycol in it. It seems ethylene glycol, which some types of antifreeze use, can produce carbon monoxide when it decomposes at high temperatures.

We just washed and cleaned up the Ollie for the winter nap. Makes us very sad to put her away for a while as we have loved this first season of camping. We at least got a fall trip knocked out before the end of the season. I have been dreaming of a fall trip in the Ollie for years so we very excited to finally do it. It was fall in the inland northwest so nothing much for those of you back east (I will get there someday). We got 5 trips in this season though and have to say we are very happy with our Ollie. Including 7 days with no hookups in a state park. We made it 7 days with power to spare and even a little water left even with a few showers (we used the boondocking port to add a little more just to learn how to use it and I think that will be a wonderful feature in the years ahead!). I have been worried about the sound of the heater as in past campers we have rented the heaters have been loud and wake me up in the middle of the night. Not with the Ollie and the Truma! That thing is so quiet we could nearly even tell it was on. Everyone has been nervous about the composting toilet. Been a fan in theory but it is another question when it comes time for real-life use. So glad we have it! I just emptied it for the winter and there was zero smell! It is so easy to use and empty plus no black tank smell and a huge water savings. It is a must IMHO. The amount of storage has also been a surprise. You all have said it but was never really sure until we got one. We even did half these trips with our 16-year-old daughter and had plenty of room for everyone's clothes and food. The pantry holds way more stuff than we thought and I always thought the size of the refrigerator would be an issue. Nope! We always had room for more in the refrigerator and we always came up with more than we needed. She has performed perfectly and towing her around the mountains has been no problem. Grateful for the tips I have gotten from you all over the years leading up to this. Looking forward to more adventures next season!

Thanks for the picture. I was just washing and cleaning ours to put away for the winter , and had the same thought while trying to clean that area out. Very hard to clean and not just a gutter trapping everything you don't want. On the list for an enhancement someday.

Yes. This creates some pros and cons for the dish. It is small and compact and very easy to deploy. However, the further away you have to deploy it, the weaker your single and, in turn, your speed gest. So far, I have not found this to be a problem. The power cord is only so long and it can only get so far away. We just got back from our fall trip and had to put the SL mini as far away as we could to try and clear obstructions. Speed was still fine ( >80 mbps). The issue was still obstructions. As you can see we were pretty clear but had one section on the horizon that caused us to go between 97% ping success to 87%. At 87% zoom conference calls become an issue. Because of this I don't plan on mounting the mini to anything permanent on the TV or Ollie. I am looking for a stand to get it up higher but also mobile. This gives me the most flexibility to avoid obstructions. Also in case anyone is wondering. Here is what the power draw jump looks like when the mini needs to kick on its heater.

Welcome. I hope you have enjoyed the first season of camping with it as much as we enjoyed ours!

That is true. During one of the calls I was presenting and it worked great. Again it all depends on the speeds you happen to be getting. But then again I have the same issue at home sometimes. This morning working from the camp spot speeds are good. Upload is for sure slower but 15 Mbps up with 22ms latency will work. On my plan Starlink can throttle me though so your mileage may vary.

Just for reference. I have used the mini for many Zoom meetings, including 2 simultaneously, worked great with no issues.

You are correct.

One more update on this front. We got out on another trip for a week and needed Starlink for the internet for work and other things. We were camping in a state park with many trees so I had to make my way 10 mins out to a trail head parking lot with more sky. I had to run Starlink and my laptop off my Bluetti AC200 and it worked great. I had about 15 hours of run time over 4 days I needed to power Starlink and recharge/power my laptop. At the end of the week, my Bluetti had about 13% charge left. Overall, I am very happy. I ran it from two locations (a parking lot at the trailhead and a side spur, sorry forgot to grab a picture of these. But both were good skies but by no means a fully clear sky with no obstructions. A few pine trees in front are less than 10 yards away and pine trees block the horizon). Both had a pretty open sky straight up but still had pine trees blocking areas, but I still get speeds over 100 Mbps. Here are my stays. 99% connection uptime and pretty consistent < 30W draw from the mini. At one point we had two video calls going at the same time with no issue.

Interesting. I had not thought of Con-tact paper. For sure seems easier. Ours does have something similar under the cushions but it is a harder plastic and does not help at all. Thanks for chiming in @jd1923

Nice! I have noticed that the leather seats (maybe cloth has the same issues) slide off the fiberglass rather easily. Have you seen the same or come up with a solution? One solution I am looking into is magnets mounted inside the corners of the seats and then on the edge of the fiberglass another magnet or small metal strip for them to "attach" to.

I have been on this forum for many years as my wife and I researched, learned, and awaited when it made sense for us to join the clan of Oliver ownership. First, I want to thank this group for all you have shared and knowledge over the years. My wife and I were introduced to Oliver a few years back. Like many of you once we saw the quality, community, and how Oliver conducts themselves we had a hardtime accepting anything we saw in other places. We have camped with our kids as they grew up and camped in many different ways including car camping, tent camping, yurt camping, popup camping, teardrop, and renting a few different types of TT. We thought it would be a few more years before we jump into Oliver ownership since we still have one at home for 2 more years. But all the stars aligned this summer and we decided to pull the trigger. We are now the owners of hull #1305 after working with @Snake River Idaho who were great to work with and had a wonderful trailer they had decided to part ways with (such great people to work with and a great reflection on the Oliver community). We just got home from a one-week trip to bring her back home. There is certainly a lot that goes into anyone making this decision. For us, we had heard stories on this forum about health issues making it hard or impossible to do things like this. We have also been personally close to a number of these stories with quite a few of them happening recently. So since we found ourselves in a place financially to do it we decided we were not going to wait any longer even though we have to account for a 3rd sleeper for 2 more years (which on the week trip home she did wonderfully on via the dinette setup each night). The trip home was wonderful. Despite spending a few years learning and researching, doing it for real still had me learning and trying to figure things out. We did have a few minor events on the trip home we had to figure out like the overly sensitive LP/CO2 sensor that woke us up in the middle of the night the first two nights. Or that leather cushions on fiberglass don't stay in place and slide right off (does anyone have a remedy for this?). But we got to experience things on the trip home we have always wanted to but never had before like Bannack State Park Ghost Town one of the most well-preserved ghost towns in Montana and a beautiful sunset in the middle of nowhere outside Dillion MT. Or the Atomic Museum (way cooler and more educational than my wife, I, or our girls expected) outside Arco Idaho along with Craters of the Moon (meeting up with some friends who just happened to be passing through). Not to mention and most importantly having some dedicated time with our youngest laughing, talking and playing games (she is in the final two years of High School and missing her older sisters so getting her away from all the teenage struggles and into a quiet place allowing her to connect with mom and dad and nature and history was wonderful!). We did the showering in the Oliver and I have to say it was easier than I thought. I am 6 foot 1 and while tight it worked great. We had a couple of nights when all our girls were able to come meet up with us and we spent those nights in the Ollie playing games, and eating dinner while watching the Olympics. I have to give a shout-out to @Foy_Mirna for his lagoon table as it was a major win for those nights being able to get all 5 of us around the table again (I expected it to feel more cramped with 5 in the trailer but it did not)! Towing the trailer was also a great experience. I am glad because my wife towed pretty much the entire trip given I was on a business trip the day before pick up and lost my wallet so no driver's license for me. We live in North Idaho so going up and down mountains will be a thing for us no matter what direction we head. It and the truck did great up and down passes, construction zones, and passing semi-trucks. We even had a day driving where we saw 20 MPH wind gusts and my wife did not even realize how windy it was until I told her. My wife did great (she even backed us into a camp spot on the last night and did great!). We head out on the next trip in a week and are very excited! Thanks for letting me learn and take part in this community over the last few years. We hope to see some of you on the road in the coming years.

This is really what drove me to have double protection. Plus a way of verifying the post before plugging in (I did not think of just going the tester route).

It would be easier to not what to stream if we could just cast or view downloaded content via HDMI connection but that is another thread. It is nice how small it is. Packs up easily. I may need to invest in your packing solution. Right now I just put it back in the box it came in.

Also, we are currently on the 50 GB plan. We watched an Olympic Volleyball match (so about 2 hours) and went through 8GB of data. So not ideal for a lot of streaming as people have mentioned. However, you can buy more data (not cost-effective) or use the standard data unlimited plan ($150 a month) with the mini.

The first use of the mini out in the wild. I was surprised it worked pretty well given the tree cover we had. The setup is super easy and does not seem to care much about how it is pointed. Pull it out, plug it in, open the app, and follow the instructions. The app does all the work to align and celebrate based on where it is pointed. You can see in the images below how it was set up and how many trees we had creating obstruction. The screenshot shows based on that setup how it performed over 60 mins. 2 mins of no single and 7 mins of obstructions. For streaming and video calls not great but for web surfing and some slack messaging it worked great!