John and Jodi

A quick search of "awning" on the forum returns about 50 pages of posts. With multiple brands having been installed on our Olivers over the years, there's a wide variety of satisfaction and usage. We are looking to replace our Girard awning. We'd like to be able to connect something more robust to the Oliver so that we have a place to cook outside protected from rain and wind. We understand that "protected from" is a matter of degree. @Hokieman has suggested a MoonShade XL which is the direction we're thinking of (manual, staked down, wind walls available). Has anyone else added or replaced their awning?

Donna and Scott -- It is with regret that Jodi and I inform you that we will not be able to attend the rally. So site No. 79 will become available after I cancel the reservation today.

On our last trip, we had significant tire issues (we replaced two tires, one valve stem, and one wheel), so I wanted to share a little of what we experienced and hope to hear from others on ways to make the next time easier. What happened: Entering Wichita Falls, TX on US-281 from the south driving around 60-70 mph, we heard an unfamiliar noise that we couldn't place or locate. The noise would come and go. Five miles later we exited the freeway onto the frontage road, stopped on the shoulder, and hopped out to make sure everything was alright. It wasn't. The right (curbside) rear (RR) tire was gone. Its wheel was an aluminum nub. Some thoughts: Our LE2 handled fine. I think the weight distribution hitch/anti-sway really helped. The noise coming and going was due to us driving near concrete barriers on the side of the road that reflected the noise back to us, such as on a bridge. When we were on straight road, we couldn't hear or feel anything. We were lucky. No damage other than scratched gel coat. There was a considerable amount of steel cable wrapped around the axle and brake area. Taking the tire off: The first task was to get the trailer "jacked up". We pulled forward onto our Andersen Rapid Jack to elevate the right, front (RF) tire. This worked well until the RF tire went flat also. In addition, taking the weight of the trailer off the RR wheel made it more difficult to remove the lug nuts. Fortunately, a passerby stopped to help us and had a powerful impact wrench and an extender since the lug nuts are recessed quite a bit and the center dome got in the way of the wrench. Also, my personal wire cutters were no match for the steel cables. We needed heavy-duty snips to remove all the cables. It was apparent that we were not fully prepared for this situation, so we called a mobile RV repair person. He ended up using a low-profile hydraulic jack to hold up the trailer. Some thoughts: If we had simply run over a nail, we would have been fine. The Rapid Jack would have been all we needed. I have to upgrade my wire snips and am struggling with choosing a hydraulic jack. A low-profile jack is bulky and heavy, can get into places with low clearance/uneven terrain, and has extended lift range. Bottle jacks are smaller and lighter, but have more limited lift range. Any thoughts on what you use? Where to place the jack? The trailer has a jack point for the frame, but, rightly or wrongly, the repair guy put his jack behind the wheel near where the bolts are in the photo below. Getting to our spare: This wasn't a big deal. We do have the rear bumper receiver but it slid out easily. I was glad that the spare had good pressure since I hadn't checked it in about a year. Some thoughts: Check your spare. I had even installed a tire valve extension (something like this) to make it easier to check and fill. Put this task on a checklist to do periodically. Putting a good tire on: A full light truck tire is bigger and heavier than a passenger tire. Also, a full tire has a larger radius than a flat tire which means the tire may need more clearance. Changing it on uneven ground introduces clearance issues if the axle is not up high enough. Since we had lost our tire, once we put the new one on, we spun the tire and checked for brake operation. We found a 3 second delay from the pedal push to the application of the brake on the wheel. This caused us some concern at the time, but both our technician and myself confirmed that the delay was due to the truck's brake controller. It's probably obvious, but put the wheel on and hand-tighten the lug nuts with the wheel off the ground and then tighten the lug nuts to the proper torque (we did have a torsion bar) when the wheel is on the ground and won't spin freely. Some thoughts: If you are going to check your trailer brake while the wheel is jacked up, use the manual control on your brake controller, not the floor brake pedal. A second tire went flat: Our hearts sank as we watched the RF tire lose pressure as the RR tire was replaced. We only had one spare. The technician's fix was to pull out a can of fix-a-flat and refill the tire with air. It was enough. Again, we were fortunate to have pulled off the road 2 miles from a great RV park, so we headed over with the technician following us to ensure we arrived safely. Some thoughts: Carry a can of fix-a-flat. Purchasing tires on a trip: The next morning the tire "repaired" with the fix-a flat was flat again. This time we refilled the tire ourselves and drove the trailer to a Discount Tire for a replacement. This store had a limited selection so we only replaced the one bad tire and risked driving to our destination one hour away with no spare. Before leaving, the store manager offered to "top off" all our tires. In the process of putting in air on the left (street) side tires, the TPMS sensors were very difficult to remove. To make a long story short, they were finally removed, the tires topped off, and we were off to our destination (Lawton, OK). Upon arriving in our campsite, a camper remarked that one of our left tires was low. It was flat. We don't know for how much of our hour-long drive it was flat. The next day I brought that tire into a Lawton Discount Tire where they replaced the damaged valve stem and I bought the only compatible wheel they had and a spare tire. Some thoughts: Fix-a-flat works for emergencies, but only to the nearest tire shop. Although limited by the store's available tire selection, it will be a cold day in hell before I ever drive the trailer again without a spare tire available. Lessons Learned: As we pulled away from home, all four of our trailers' tires had TPMS sensors on them. I never pulled out and turned on the monitor. It might not have prevented the blowout (or whatever it was that happened), but the alarm would have told us that there was a problem and we would have pulled over much earlier, reducing risk to ourselves and damage to the trailer. I thought I was prepared for tire issues. In fact, I was only prepared for the simplest, most basic scenario. The next time we go out, we'll have a few more tools. I'm interested to hear from you what's in your tire changing tool kit. Open issues: Still trying to figure out which type of hydraulic jack to bring with us. I'd appreciate your thoughts. Still trying to figure out the correct jack point. I'd appreciate your thoughts on this as well. We hope this has been helpful to some and interesting to others. Let us know your thoughts.

Texas doesn't have a lot of public land, so if you're passing through the Wichita Falls area in north Texas and need a place to stay for one night or more, we can recommend Crossroads Luxury RV Park. We had a flat nearby and limped into this park with little notice and they really took care of us. Great service. Clean park. All the amenities we need.

@Steve and MA Steve, our last trip we did need to use our spare so we are re-evaluating our tools and the location of those tools and are considering a Sea Biscuit solution (front or rear, not decided yet). I hear you say that the basket does not need to be removed to remove the spare tire cover, but how difficult is handling the spare with the basket now extended an additional 4-5 inches? The spare tire and wheel is pretty heavy. It seems like the basket would be sticking out quite a bit and you'd be trying to lift the tire off and then put the bad tire on with all arm strength (a recipe for a bad back). Can you get close on the sides? Anyone else with a rear basket had to change a tire?

We just reserved site #79, arriving on the 19th as well. I put our names in the Google doc.

F47; John and Jodi; San Antonio, TX

We'll be in F47 and are also arriving on the 29th. We'll look for y'all or an announcement. I'm trying to crack 400 birds on my lifelist. We'd have our own binoculars and scope.

Thanks. I've tightened up the screws for now. This will go on a list of things to fix the next time I get back to the factory.

My solar panel inside is only being held on by one screw (the right side). The left one seems to be the victim of some non-standard cutting. Is there a way to get behind this and use a bolt and nut? Or a bead of clear silicon caulk?

No, but I recognize the locking pin as the mechanism we use to secure our propane tanks. Didn't even look in there. Mysteries solved and got a few good tips on securing the Bulldog hitch. Thank you community! One other takeaway is that I can put the cotter pin in with my other spare parts (fuses, etc). It doesn't need to be on the keyring.

Well we qualify, so fess up!

We have the electric lock door which has a remote and key identified by the brand, RVLock, so I don't think it's the door key, but, I admit, I didn't try it. Our Bulldog hitch has a hitch pin to keep it's lever secure. However, the pin we use to secure the Anderson weight distribution hitch uses a cotter pin for security....Hmmm, that could be it for #2.

These three keys were on our camper key ring. #1 is used for locking/unlocking the external compartments (basement and batteries). #2 and #3 are mysteries to us. We'd appreciate any help.

We love Davis Mountains State Park. We're usually there around Labor Day to get a break from the San Antonio summer heat. It's a great birding spot and has a fair amount of trails. If hiking is not your thing or the weather is bad, we also love the old fort, and Alpine has the Museum of the Big Bend at Sul Ross State University and the Reata restaurant. We've been to Big Bend twice, but going there is a commitment. Driving to the Big Bend National Park visitor center from Fort Davis is almost three hours each way. For Fredericksburg, we enthusiastically support the above suggestions: Enchanted Rock, the war museum, LBJ Ranch, and the wineries.