Overland

I just slip in under the weight limit, if anyone is still looking for a Christmas present for me -

That would be quite a modification. The power required, either electrical or gas, would have to be considerable.

If anyone wants to get geeky about these toilets - their design, safety, environmental impact, etc - there’s a very thorough study that you can download here that I think is very much worth reading. You’ll notice that the paper is on urine diverting dry toilets, or UDDTs, which is what these toilets actually are. Despite the name, they are not composting toilets.

As I mentioned above, time is the typical answer. It’s generally accepted that six months of drying will reduce pathogen numbers to a level that poses no health risk. So if you’re a seasonal camper, then you can just leave the toilet alone and know that it will be sanitized by the time you’re ready to camp again. But as I mentioned, that doesn’t work for everyone. My process is to empty the toilet and let it sit for a few weeks, which for an empty toilet should by itself reduce any pathogens considerably. After that, I’ll place a bleach solution in a garden sprayer, take the toilet apart, and spray everything thoroughly. That should kill anything else that remains. The next day I’ll hit it all with a pressure washer. I typically do this while I’m cleaning out the trailer so that I’m not doing a lot of extra work - for example, when I’m sanitizing the water tank I just make an extra gallon of bleach solution to use on the toilet.

It never occurred to me to dump my poop on the ground, but I’ve been around enough humans to expect that some do, (with my luck, probably the previous occupant of my next campsite). But then those same people would probably dump their black tank in the same place so maybe we should be thankful. As for that first article, all I can say is that if you tell me that you allowed your pee tank to overflow 50 times, my takeaway isn’t that there’s a problem with the toilet. Having said that, yes there are drawbacks and yes we’ve had a few accidents and issues, but we learned from them and so haven’t repeated the former and have eliminated the latter, at least all but one. The first lesson we learned is that you need to empty the tanks more often than advertised. If you fill the poop bucket to much then it will indeed start to smell and will be more difficult and messy to empty. You need to keep the poop to peat (we much prefer the peat over coir) ratio below a certain level. Contrary to the normal advice, we’ve found that keeping the bucket as dry as possible is the key. You want your poop to be desiccated, quickly, and remain that way. If it is, then zero smell, even when emptying. I think the advice to add moisture comes from the idea that you’re supposed to be composting, but you really aren’t. You just want a sanitary, odor free storage bin. Same advice goes for the pee tank. Test its capacity, and you will have regrets. Our rule is that if you can see the pee, it’s time to dump. That’s about ⅔ full, so you’ve got a little time, but that’s when you need to start thinking about it. Trust me, you get over the shyness of taking the pee tank for a walk across the campground. If someone looks at you funny, just tell them that they went camping to get closer to nature and here it is. My one remaining bit of squeamishness is that I do hold my breath when dumping it. It can get ripe. Lesson number two is to carry a bungee or something to secure the trash bag to the toilet when inverting it to empty. Similar issue to the overfilled pee tank - you don’t want the bag to come off mid-dump. Lesson number three is to minimize the TP as much as you can, and to use as small of sections as you can. Unroll a bunch of TP and stick it in the toilet and it will wrap around the agitator and you’ll have to pull it out by hand. Lesson 3.5 is to bring gloves. Lesson 4, forget the vinegar bottles and what not. You’ve got a faucet on a hose there in the bath, so just give the toilet a quick spurt of water to clean it after peeing. If you do get a little smell from the pee trap, then a squirt of 409 or windex works better for us than vinegar. That only leaves the one problem I haven’t solved, which is how to thoroughly clean the toilet after a trip. The typical advice is to just leave it, but since I like to cut all the power to the trailer when it’s in storage, that would mean no exhaust fan. So I dump and try to clean the toilet as best I can. And one thing I can say with confidence about the Nature’s Head is that it was not designed with easy cleaning in mind. I’ve settled on the old clothes, pressure washer, and try not to think about it too much method but I’d sure like either an easier way or an easier toilet to clean.

I once raced an airstream to get the last spot at a campground. It was a good spot, too.

No surge brake. There's an emergency brake, but that requires the breakaway pin to be pulled in order to activate.

Correct, though what I found when researching the buzzing problem on my EMS is that apparently all the Progressive units, both installed and portable, seem to have an issue with intermittent low voltage, which indeed can cause the burned out relay shown above. It’s one of the reasons I’m considering getting a different EMS rather than have mine repaired under warranty. Here’s a thread discussing the problem. The relay on the EMS itself can also burn out, from the same cause or from a dirty contact on the relay (probably my problem). Perhaps that’s another reason to opt for a portable unit (and keep it outside vs what I’m thinking). I don’t know about you guys, but if I’m going to have an electrical fire, I’d rather have it start outside than in. I’ll have to do some more reading, since the issue with the Progressives primarily seems to be with using the EMS while running on a generator, which I don’t use. I’m curious how Oliver wires their built in EMS when you have two shore connections. I bet it catches both, but it might be wise to wire it so that it only monitors the side port. That way you could bypass the EMS when using a generator or if the EMS is acting up. Also, another point scored for the Victron Multi, since it eliminates the need for a transfer switch. It will also give a low voltage warning in the event that the EMS isn’t doing its job.

Something isn’t right. Your batteries should be able to put out full power up until they’re almost dead. My guess is that the low voltage cutoff on your inverter is set too high.

Have to agree with the above. I installed mine before the Bluetooth unit was available and even then I regretted having done so. It’s a necessary device but the display really shows you nothing. Hide it away and save the hole in your fiberglass for something truly useful like their color display.

I suspect that’s the trick - probably with lithiums too.

Tooletries bath organizers are 25% off today. They seem to be pretty popular here in the forum so I decided to give them a go.

Yeah, if you say retail on 600ah of batteries is $6,000 (high these days), and $3,500 for inverter, cables, etc. (also generous), then that’s $9,500 in materials. I wired my whole trailer in less than a week, and could certainly do it again in 30 hours or less, so with what’s left of the total, that would be over $500/hr in labor. Plus profit on the materials. Maybe I should think seriously about getting into the trailer mod business.

Much more difficult than the attic, of course. I think that the best route would be to try to go straight down the front of the trailer with your wiring, then run it though the lower hull to wherever you’re going. Trying to run them straight back through the upper hull would be on the impossible end of difficult, I’d think. I’d test for a free path before cutting a hole though - open up the vanity base and see if you can get a fish tape up past the belly band where the hulls meet - that’s always the tightest spot.

When the delivery delays get over six months, yall let me know. 😂🤕

Our PI portable EMS started buzzing loudly this last trip so I had to stop using it. I might be able to clean out the relay with compressed air which is the recommended fix per the internet, but I’m thinking about replacing it with the Hughes EMS, which seems to be more highly rated. An advantage of the Hughes is that it can connect via Bluetooth to your phone so that you can read the status remotely. This would allow me to have the best of both worlds by installing the portable unit inside. I could cut the power cord just inside the hull and add plugs so that I can just plug in the EMS and secure it - reading the status on the phone if necessary. The advantage of that setup, along with not having to deal with it every time we plug in, would be the ability to bypass the EMS or easily replace it if something goes wrong. Also the EMS would be protected from the elements - at least with the PI, I know that water and dust can and do get inside, despite the fact that it’s supposed to be used outside I’m also going to get just a basic end of plug surge protector so that I at least have something as a backup in case I have to bypass the EMS unit.

Relatively easy. You’d remove the bath caddy for easy access to the front wall of the trailer, drill through there (single wall at that point) to run your cables inside and snake them under the toilet to the front dinette seat. From there you can choose to run them either under the dinette floor or or the outside wall. Both spots are tight, but I ran two pairs of 00 through each so you shouldn’t have a problem. Then it’s wide open to the battery box and beyond. Sounds like you’ll end up with a really nice setup. 2kw will make you the Ollie solar king by a wide margin. Have you put any thought into wiring your two panels in series and placing the controller in the trailer near the batteries? 24 volts would give you less loss in the cables and having the controller on the battery side would certainly be better.

I think the problem with that philosophy is that state parks aren't made and maintained just for state residents. Typically, they're a big part of a state's tourism marketing. So there's a balance to be made, same as any other tourism business - yes, the point of drawing people in is to make money off of them; but if you're too much of a hog about it, you can easily piss off your customers. I hit that threshold at a state park in MO, where the fee was something like $50 extra for being out of state, for what I have to say was a lousy little park that offered nothing for me but it's location for a one night stop. We stayed at a private place nearby for considerably less, and that experience has made me wary of state parks from then on. If it's something reasonable - under $15 difference or so, or if the park has something particularly interesting to offer, then no big deal; but if not, I'll find something else. We paid, all in, I think $48/night for Palo Duro in TX this last trip, just because I'm always interested in a decent place to stay along that stretch of 40. Worth it? Maybe for one trip - quiet campground and some nice hiking trails. In contrast, we stayed at Red Rock canyon west of OK City on the way back. It was only $20, but I'd never pay it again - awful place, and in fact we ended up moving camp to their parking lot at 1am just to get at least half a night's sleep. I think that experience may have convinced my wife that WalMarts are no longer off the table. I noticed that KOA has upped their rates to around $50 across the board as well, which is for me about $30 more than night at a place like that is worth.

That was actually a little state park in Nevada. Really neat spot. It was recommended by a ranger at Great Basin, and I'm glad he did since it's not the sort of place I'd be attracted to just seeing it on a map - pays to stay open minded. Oddly, for the first time we ran across another Oliver there, and then met the next door neighbor of another Ollie owner. The slots are mud, and so constantly changing. Most are pretty short, though a few offer some surprises, if you're comfortable with tight squeezes... Angels landing is a must, though we have some friends who went to Zion earlier this year and didn't do it. Not sure we can talk with them anymore. But I liked Hidden Canyon more -no chains! - but unfortunately it's closed now after a rockslide, perhaps permanently I've been told: Not sure I'll go out of the way to see the bicycles. But if it's on the way, I can be a sucker for a good roadside attraction if it's weird enough. But really I prefer my weirdness in rock form. Anyone familiar with this hidden moonscape?

I'd do a search on the forum. This question gets asked four or five times a year, with the same answers. I do believe that one person has done a bit of a grey tank mod with a pump. I ripped mine out and use the space for storage. Personally, I think especially if you're paying someone else to do it, the cost/value just isn't going to be there.

If the threading is compatible, you may be able to buy just the trickle valve from High Sierra and add that to the existing faucet - https://www.highsierrashowerheads.com/shop/trickle-valves/

I went back to a Viair as well, after experimenting with carrying a CO2 tank. The tank is great, and fills tires much faster, but the Viair is so much more convenient. I pseudo mounted it to the truck so that I didn't have to unpack it each time, which made it much easier to deal with.

We just got back from a trip and didn't have much trouble finding spots. I made two reservations ahead of time that I knew we'd need - Great Basin and Palo Duro - but everything else was either BLM or no reservations and had no problems. Could have done USFS at Great Basin, but the campground was mostly empty after the first night, so it was just as well.

I like the soft sided bags, too, especially if you're carrying it in the truck and don't want to hear your tools banging around. I had a similar one (still have, but repurposed), but I switched to smaller individual bags and tool rolls that I then stuff into the storage bin under the rear seat. I just found that it was easier to grab the one bag I needed rather than pull out everything. Love your decked boxes.

Another situation where a map wouldn't be much use. Nor GPS. I hope everyone is carrying a long piece of string. 😝