rideandfly

Katjo, Beautiful campground, nice work with the photos and video! We have family in Michigan, time for another visit with family and to this campground, too!

Always enjoyed checking fuel economy MPG even when gas prices were less than $1.00 per gallon. For me it’s fun to check our camping rig economy that helps understand how one might reduce fixed operation cost to save money for other hobby adventures. Retirement is so busy, hard to have time do everything, but having fun trying, hope we maintain our health. 🙂

Took the Tundra for the recall and the dealer needed less than an hour to perform recall work. 🙂 Been experimenting using cruise control while towing Ollie with over 10,000 miles on the Tundra’s odometer after this trip. Tundra’s on board MPG is accurate and was used for two test using cruise control. Both test were over 300 miles each on interstates. 2WD 3.5L 10 speed Tundra with street tires on Ollie & Tundra. TV tire pressures 40 PSI and Ollie’s tire pressures 50 PSI. LE2 Ollie’s weight between 4900 to 4950 pounds with empty grey and black water tanks. Rig weight is around 10,900 pounds. Check Rig & TV/Ollie weights periodically with CAT scales. Set cruise at 63MPH yielding 61MPH GPS speed. Tow haul mode used with 7th gear. Engine speed was 2150 RPM. During the test while climbing a 5% grade reduced speed to 55MPH and dropped down to 6th gear. One way test from Crossville TN (TN plateau area) to Denver NC yielded 15.8 MPG. Round trip from Crossville TN to Howenwald TN and back to Crossville yielded 15.5 MPG. Should see better MPG in the flat lands, will see.

I don't remember that, but will get a DVD for the next camping trip to "them thar hills" on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Alvin said he could do some thinking up thar! 🙂 Thanks,

We were at Cody a few years ago, could drop the laundry bag off loaded, everything would be washed, folded, and placed back in the washed bag. Don’t remember the cost per pound, but we were able to go out to eat and returned with our laundry completed! That’s roughing it! 🙂

Do they still wash and fold your clothes by the pound ?

Wow! We visited Sgt Alvin C York State Park a few months ago, beautiful area. First learned about Sgt. York in a movie with Gary Cooper playing the part of Alvin York.

Fuel prices at Crossville TN yesterday:

Camped at Cumberland Mountain State Park TN twice this week during the trip to Oliver. This campground is in the plateau region in Crossville TN.

We stayed at Oliver campground last night, met some very nice Ollie Owners!

It may take a while, but looking for a 2 next! 👍

Here's the paste lube we purchased from Lowe's hardware. Once applying lube directly to the black/grey drain connections, don't use same container for potable water valve applications! 😬 https://www.danco.com/product/0-5-oz-silicone-faucet-grease/

Best fuel prices I have seen in our area lately, photo taken today, Newton, NC:

We keep a 3' section of hose connected to Ollie's black/grey water drain at all times. Also have room for a 5' and 10' sections of hose in the bumper. Always look at the dump station grade when arriving to see which direction will give Ollie a higher nose up attitude while dumping. We use Camco leveling system to level Ollie while camping, also use these two leveling wedges to lift the rear wheels of the TV and lift Ollie's nose in situations when the dump station is lower on both sides of the dump drain pipe in the ground causing Ollie to be nose down in both directions to get better draining of the tanks. One campground has a dump station with much lower ground on both sides of the dump station drain pipe, making it difficult to completely drain the tanks, even using wedges under the TV rear axles. In this case we use a Camco 15 gallon dump tote and don't take Ollie to the dump station except for fresh (potable) water. This campground has the only dump station before getting back home, so I want to empty the tanks completely before leaving that campground.

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Will get that for you. Here's a Victron Bluetooth Shunt video in the meantime:

Congratulations from North Carolina! Wow, beautiful rig, photos, and garage!!!!!!!!

We don't have factory installed solar panels, currently have a 100W solar suitcase. Installed a Victron 500A Bluetooth SmartShunt giving battery state of charge, and discharge information with additional information on a smartphone. There's a good video in the following link: https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors/smart-battery-shunt#pd-nav-video This shows a slight discharge of a single 100AH Battleborn lithium battery of .32 amps without anything else connected to Ollie. It can be read inside & outside of Ollie, but not from the TV, not enough Bluetooth range.

David, Will have the Toyota dealer to check out our Tundra next week. Thanks,

We took our 2015 LE2 Ollie in for a non-electrical issue at Oliver a few years ago and they automatically added a ground strap to Ollie's frame (for free) because of electrical ground through ball issues with other trailers. We used to charge through Ollie's 7 pin connector with a 100W Renogy suitcase panel. On our last outing during June I checked Ollie's battery charge rate with TV idling connected to the trailer's 7 pin connection and saw about +3.5 amps. Current 100W solar suitcase installation that happened over a couple years.

Our Dad bought us a canvas 2 person pup-tent. Started camping in the back yard. Eventually started back packing and camping in local woods. When camping in the woods would take side meat, eggs, and cook with Sterno stove. Really enjoyed that! 🙂

We purchased a lightweight 6X9 indoor/outdoor carpet to use at home for $19.99 at Costco, it's been on sale for as low as $16. Debbie wanted to try it in Ollie. We purchased another roll for Ollie and cut out three pieces for use over Ollie's Vinyl floor. Had use anti skid rug material under the carpet to keep from slipping. Will see how it works out!

We were camping west of Kansas City one evening next to a lake and made the mistake of leaving the interior lights on with the curb side porch lights on while opening the door. After opening the door, hundreds of Gnats came in Ollie covering part of Ollie's interior wall & ceiling. Took a while to kill the Gnats. Next time we went outside that evening we turned on the street side porch light with the curb side porch lights off to attract the Gnats to the street side of Ollie with all of the interior lights turned off. Did not have Gnat issues when using that strategy opening the door. 🙂

When we purchased Ollie, our bank wired the money from my account to the seller's bank account. It's a secure way to send money and for the seller to receive payment, too. If someone does not like the idea of giving their bank account to a buyer, you can also set up a one time use Bank account, too.

This is not in my 2015 LE2 operators manual, but you're right! 😁