Overland

I think we’re right at 9’ to the top of the AC. So we’re probably O.K. pretty much anywhere but drive throughs and parking garages. 😛

We started out with mattresses, but swapped them for 4" cushions, and use sleeping bags. The mattresses were of course usable to sit on during the day, but the cushions really make the space feel and function more like a real sitting area.

I think you've been misled by some of the discussion here. A half ton pickup is the default tow vehicle choice for an Elite II. You absolutely do not have to be a minimalist for it to work, and in fact many owners tow with far less capable vehicles. There are certainly some ½ ton models, and even some ¾ tons that are offroad oriented and so aren't made for towing, like my Raptor or a Power Wagon. To tow with those, you have to do some small modifications. But apart from those specific models, a dead standard ½ ton off the lot, with pretty much any engine choice, will suit an Elite II just fine. There are advantages to having a ¾ ton truck, but they don't come close to being necessary unless, like a few owners, you travel with a small machine shop in the bed of the truck. (Lookin' at you, Steve 😛) FYI, I travel with two heavy bed racks, an offroad jack, a winch, a fridge-freezer, 15 gallons of water, a 10" telescope, two boxes of recovery gear, 4 max trax and 2 aluminum bridging ladders, camping gear (tent, stove, grill, table, chairs, etc.), portable campfire, 200W of solar panels, a house battery, CO2 tank, 5 gallon propane tank, all my tools, hiking gear, first aid, a drone, all the chocks, blocks, etc. for the trailer, and 3 weeks worth of food. All that is in a half ton with the lowest tow rating and cargo capacity in Ford's lineup. I never think about weight and I don't use a WD hitch. Now, all that plus the trailer puts me over my cargo capacity, and so I'm not saying that I would endorse carrying all that in a ½ ton. (I use timbrens to carry the extra load.) But I know that I, and some of the other posters in this thread, load up our trucks much more than the average Elite II owner will ever need or want to. Most people don't need portable winches, tools, recovery gear, etc., etc. (90% of the time, we don't need all that junk either.) We're the oddballs, and sometimes it's tempting for us oddballs to make recommendations based on what we do, rather than what the average owner needs. Point being, if you're not an oddball like us, then refer to my earlier statement - a ½ ton truck should be your default choice.

I agree, though I think anyone can appreciate the ability to take long showers while boondocking. Moreso, I feel like these systems are moving toward an inflection point from the exotic to the practical. If the price, complexity, and availability of these filters are, or become reasonable, I think that at least among boondockers, we'll eventually start to see them as indispensable.

The furnace has the potential to be quite efficient, particularly in protecting the water lines, if you could find a way to circulate the air that's lost heating single corner of the inner hull space.

I thought I'd revive this thread since Earth Cruiser just posted this video, in which Lance talks about their new grey water filtration system. Unfortunately, he doesn't give any details and there's nothing I can find on their website about it. The only info they give is that they worked with Oregon State to develop it, and that it's robust enough that their shower system is now completely independent with no grey water tank at all - just recycled water, over and over. Which is pretty cool. I'd love to know more, just for curiosity sake. Skip to 3:45 -

Sport Model? I’m in need of a history lesson.

The stock cushion foam seemed a bit soft to me, so when we had some made, I asked for something firmer. Naturally, that now seems too firm - the grass is always greener I suppose. That, or I need to find an in between foam. That's one of the advantages to cushions - that you can inexpensively have a local upholsterer cut new foam pieces for you, to customize them to your liking. The other advantage is that the twin bed area works much better as a sitting space when the bedding is put away. You can do some research on the forum for condensation problems. I always felt that the issue was limited to the latex mattress that has the holes through it, which allows moisture to travel to the bottom of the mattress and condense. Regardless, I've seen no complaints about cheaper alternatives like Bill referred to. We used camping pads for a bit but don't use them anymore. No mold problems so far. IMO, if you really want home mattress like quality and feel, you've got to go after market with something like what Southern Mattress offers.

But with Timbrens. Otherwise, it’s butt would be dragging. Also the Raptor essentially has an F250 frame and rear axle, which makes me a lot more confident in its ability to take some abuse. I’d feel the same about a Power Wagon, but I don’t know anything about the Rebel.

Here are the two stickers from my truck. The blue sticker shows the gross vehicle rating (7,050) and the individual axle ratings. This is the sticker that the DOT really cares about. The white and yellow sticker is a consumer oriented one that shows your tire info and also the max payload (1,150 - see, I'm worse off than you). Like Dave said, the difference between the weights on the two stickers is the actual weight of the truck, with all its options.

That's exactly right. That info is on a sticker that is labeled Tire and Loading Information, and I suspect that label is what's causing the confusion. The weights given are for the vehicle and not the tires - changing tires won't increase any of those numbers. I can't imagine a manufacturer equipping a truck with tires that can't carry the truck's GVWR. There's also individual axle ratings in addition to the overall payload, which are listed on a separate sticker.

I'm surprised that the dealer is blaming the tires for the PW load rating. Maybe that's also true, but the overriding issue will be the same as the Raptor - soft springs. You can swap the tires, but I guarantee that you'll also be adding air bags. The only truck that I know of that comes with both offroad and towing capabilities is the F250 Tremor.

Oliver includes a Zamp connector for portable panels on their trailers. If you want to use a different one, it’s fairly easy to swap out. Several people have done so, since most people think that the Zamp portable panels are overpriced. Your portable solar will work together with the rooftop solar. Technically it’s a separate circuit but both circuits charge the battery simultaneously, which I think is the question you want to know.

One thing we found is that the adding a Lagun table with a foldable top transformed our twin bed area into a great multipurpose area. Having both the dinette and the ‘lounge’ is awesome - we never felt cramped in our Ollie but now it feels downright spacious. Swapping out our mattresses for cushions made a difference too.

While we have owners all over the map in terms of how they travel, I’d venture to guess that the average travel day for a retiree is around 4 hours. At least, if I were retired, that’s the pace that I would take. And most probably tow at 60mph. If that were me right now, I’d give the truck some serious thought. Charge in the morning at breakfast and then again at lunch.

I think Oliver usually runs it down the rear street side corner. You can access that area by removing the wall panel in the attic. It's just attached with screws so it should be easy to see how to remove it. Then just snake the cable down to the basement area. Depending on your hull #, you may also have a panel in the basement to remove. Oliver has typically installed the coax outlet on the rear of the trailer, in the space between the lights and spare tire, but I think I've seen some recent ones with the outlet on the street side, in front of the basement door.

Here's a good look at the probable towing range of the Tesla. I like this guy's videos, and his numbers are usually fairly accurate when he tests them in the real world. Without redoing his numbers, you have to interpolate between his Model X calculations and the Cybertruck's, since he's assuming a full 14,000lb trailer on the truck. I would guess that the numbers would be closer to those of the Model X, but some amount higher. So, towing at 60mph, maybe 100kw per 100 miles, or ~200 mile range? I was hoping for something close to my Raptor, which is ~350 miles, which for us would be two charging stops per day maximum, since on longer days, we tow between 600 and 700 miles. So if my tolerance for charging is two stops, then I would be limited to 600 miles with the Cybertruck and then only at the limit of efficiency, since that 200 mile range is probably optimistic. Maybe 150 or 175 miles is a better place to set expectations, which would be a 3-stop day on longer stints. Is that still O.K.? For some, I'm sure - but probably not for us. If we lived out west and were retired, so that we could take a more leisurely pace and didn't have to spend two full days on the road just to get anywhere worth seeing, then I'd probably be O.K. with the truck as it is. But in our current situation, I think we need a good 300 miles of towing range at least before an EV would work for us as a tow vehicle.

The heat pump model that Reed and Karen have may well work differently than the heat strip model that most owners choose. With the heat strip model, you must have the fan set to auto if you only want the furnace to run. Otherwise, as you've experienced, the AC fan will also turn on.

So does the generator provide power to your 120 outlets when it’s running, with the inverter off? Like Mike said, it could be a grounding issue. The test would be if the surge protector shuts the generator off from the 120 as well as the charger.

MEGAbytes? Luxury. My high school job was working with an IBM 360. And I used to sneak into the accounting deptartment after work to write my English essays on their Apple III. 🙃

I don't think that Atlis even have a prototype yet. What they've released so far is just (very well made) renderings. I'm pretty sure that Ford holds the Atlas trademark for pickups, and I'm not sure that changing a vowel is going to get them around that. The Rivian has serious backing from both Amazon and Ford. It seems real. I like the Bollinger design, but I don't think they have backing either, and their $125,000 price point won't fly.

Everyone is different. We have people here with a wide range of travel styles, means, risk aversion, etc. The arguments that you've made are really the same ones that people have made at all stages of EV development. At first it was "these are fine for commuting to work, but not for me...", then "these are O.K. for some highway trips, but not for me...", then "these work for most highway trips, but you couldn't go cross country...", then "sure you could go cross country, but only on certain routes...", then "I found this trip here that you couldn't do...". And on it goes. At each stage, the criticism gets narrowed down a bit more. Now we're at the point of how far can you tow a 6,000lb trailer. And that's fine. Those criticisms are all 100% valid. If your trips don't fall into the categories where an EV works, towing or not, then it would be dumb of you to get one. It's also perfectly valid to question the cost, build quality, manufacturing issues, charger availability, aesthetic appeal, etc. But...but...you have to respect that there are other intelligent, logical people who, at each stage of EV development, have looked at the limits of EV's, looked at the cost, looked at the risks, and said "hey, that actually works for me". Making that decision doesn't mean that they're blinded to the limits that you see - it just means that those limits don't impact them as much as they would you. I'm sure you could find a percentage of those people who underestimated their needs; but for the most part, EV buyers seem genuinely happy with their purchase. It would be silly to assume that those people are just in denial about their suffering. At this point, it would be silly to assume that anyone who buys an EV isn't well aware of the ever-narrowing set of limitations and risks. In this particular case, no one has even come close to saying that an EV truck would work for everyone. But we do have individuals who have looked at this truck and the trips that they make and decided that for them, or for people like them, the benefits might outweigh the limits. On the other hand, we also have those who want to say that since an EV doesn't work for them, then they clearly won't work for anyone - and anyone who thinks otherwise obviously just hasn't had it splained to them. No one is going to pooh pooh your choice, but if anyone fails to respect other people's choices - like making the assumption that those buyers are only buying an EV to make a statement, or that they aren't being practical, or are outright stupid - then I suspect they might get pooh poohed for that.

🤔😂

Oooo, here’s the idea - sorry, too much coffee this morning - make a wheeled battery pack that you can drive with a remote in and out of the truck. And then give it a tow ball so that you can use it to move your trailer around.

Another idea would be for Tesla to make a sort of power wall unit that could go into the bed of the truck for extra range. Together with a small crane to get it in and out. 😂