John E Davies

I do not take months long trips, so I just live with a dirty trailer, I would not suggest a commercial car wash, the detergents are really harsh and the brush will destroy your fine finish. One time I used one to remove mud, and I avoided the brush and soap entirely, I just used the cold water rinse feature. Never blast the external openings, like fridge vents and water heater access panels. At home I use a pressure washer, good carnauba car wash soap, a soft mitt and patience. Followed by a complete dry using a gas leaf blower and cotton rags. It takes some time but it looks factory new afterward. I do clean bugs off the front of trailer and truck by hand when traveling using 100% cotton rags and a detailing spray (Speed Shine), they come off more easily if you do it early in the morning when it is soaked with dew. The roof is fine to walk around on, in theory, I would never stand up because it is very slick if waxed; there is no non-skid material anywhere. I use a corrugated foam camping pad to kneel on, placed behind the street side awning, and scoot around on my knees. Most sections can be reached from a ladder, but to get good access to the central part you must crawl up there. You can prop the solar panels up at a 30 degree angle using some home made supports, for easy access to that part. I use Rejex and it works great, but it is a huge PITA to apply correctly, the prep work is very important. You have to remove all debris like sap and tar, so it is baby butt smooth, using a paint prep solvent to remove any existing wax. I do it every other year, since Mouse is stored indoors. Most folks who are not so anal just use a good marine (boat) wax, more frequently. If I were unwilling to wash like this, I would seek out a good car detail shop that does trailers, and have them do an exterior detail and wax, right before winter storage. The inside is so easy to clean, that is best done at your leasure. John Davies Spokane WA

Here you go..... https://www.intechrv.com/models/terra/oasis/ The aluminum cabin frame looks really fragile to me with all those huge window openings and no diagonal bracing, anywhere. Any idea on what the cabinets and inside walls are made of, and how they are attached? John Davies Spokane WA

OK, this may be a silly question, are all your warm air registers fully open? They have loovers to adjust/ balance airflow. You can try removing one or more completely, pry gently with a flat screwdriver and it will pop free. Remove the adjustable part completely if needed. If you still aren’t getting enough warm air you have a duct or furnace problem. Open the hatch above the furnace and check your duct work to make sure all visible parts look OK, not disconnected or crushed. You can even remove one of the ducts at the furnace fan housing, see how much airflow you have there. John Davies Spokane WA

Jim, The Collar works great, no worries at all there. The Discus lock is a kinda lame (easy to pick), there are much better choices in the $40+ range. I have this one..... Stanley padlock hardened One way to prevent somebody from dropping your locked coupler onto their 1 7/8” ball and driving away - insert a 2” ball bearing into the Bulldog coupler socket. https://www.amazon.com/Inch-Chrome-Steel-Bearing-Balls/dp/B007B2A3VQ Keep the extra one as a spare or give it to a kid as a toy. What a cool stocking stuffer! You could use an old 2” hitch ball if you have one, cut the shank off with a hacksaw. But the bearing is a more elegant solution. John Davies Spokane WA

wlonghurst has made only two very unhappy posts, in this thread, never to return again.... I wonder if he ever got his Truma working? Has anybody heard by Private Message or otherwise? Also, two forum members commented on the previous page that “you get an extra five gallons of fresh water” with the standard heater. That is true in theory, but the only way to retrieve that water is to remove the anode (drain) and try to catch it in a bucket. You certainly cannot pump it out with the onboard water pump if the fresh tank is empty. The stuff that comes out will have sediment in it, so it will need to be filtered. I guess if you were dying of thirst in the desert it would be worth the effort..... It would be very nice if there was an easy to operate manual drain valve (like the release valve on top) at the bottom of the tank. You could simply connect a short garden hose from there to the winterization port a few feet away and draw out that water with the pump, transferring it into the fresh tank. Pretty cool, I think. Any ideas on how to actually do that? Weld an extra threaded bung onto the tank? A 5 gallon “reserve” would be good. John Davies Spokane WA

Take a look here, there have been lots of discussions. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/3930-truma-hot-water-heater-questions/?tab=comments#comment-38221 I remain steadfastly in the KISS camp. Keep It Simple Stupid. The standard unit is primitive and inefficient, but VERY easy to maintain by the owner, and cheap to replace it if fails. It is also fairly loud if you are sleeping on top of it, I turn it off at night, then switch it on in the morning when I start to wake up, the switch is easy to reach from that bed without getting up, if your head is toward the galley. OTOH, if you are plugged into city water and sewer often, you might love the endless hot water the Truma offers. For boondocking, not so much. Where and how do you plan to camp? That is the question.... ,John Davies Spokane WA

FYI with your brand new pickup truck (new shock absorbers) you will be wasting your time and money getting the Andersen. An old truck with worn shocks would benefit from it because it dramatically reduces the up/ down seesaw forces on jouncey roads. But in that case it makes more sense to just install high quality replacement shocks. Last oil change I discovered both my OEM Land Cruiser rear shocks were leaking oil (blown seals) - the fronts were fine. This is with 140,000 miles so it is not unexpected. If you put a lot of miles on your Rebel and notice things aren’t as stable as the used to be, don’t install an Andersen to correct it....😬 Just fix the real problem. Hang in there, you are getting close. I hope you have a decent camera because we are all expecting lots of pictures over the next few months.... John Davies Spokane WA

Jim, can you recommend a decent pulse oximeter? There are swarms of them and there must be a lot of junk - can you please recommend a specific one that is suitable for routine home monitoring? Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

One thing that most people do not consider is that even if you are in the boonies, if you do get really sick with the virus, you will have to deal with the local walk in clinic or a really small rural hospital. Not only will they not have very many resources, you will be needlessly stressing their very limited capacity. I am not saying don’t camp, but do stay fairly close to a major highway, do have an emergency plan to get you promptly to a major city, in case things go downhill quickly. You really don’t want to pay for a medi-vac flight from say fifty miles back in the Grand Staircase/ Escalante NM to Salt Lake City.... and be sure to have some kind of satellite communicator, for when you are in trouble and there are no bars on your cell phone, and buy the optional search and rescue insurance. https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/10/22/926264615/covid-19-surges-in-rural-communities-overwhelming-some-local-hospitals And understand this, if you travel with a companion and you catch the virus, he too will probably get sick shortly afterwards, so there goes your backup..... if you are both over 60, you are at much greater risk than those younger folks. Be very careful, always. It’s a killer. John Davies Spokane WA

The rubber chocks Topgun linked are very excellent but pretty expensive for four. I agree that you need heavy rubber ones, the Harbor Freight chocks are a great value ($32 for 4) and work super well. Buy four, attach a 48” length of bright rope to each pair, loop it over the hubcap, it makes it a lot easier to retrieve them, especially if they are wet/ dirty. Put the knobby side down, toward the pavement, and kick each one lightly against the tire with your shoe. After you are hitched, if one gets stuck under the tire do not despair, grab the one that did come free and whack the hell out of the stuck one with it, it will pop out in a couple of blows. Don’t kick it or you will hurt your toes and swear a bunch. ALWAYS double chock BOTH tires whenever the trailer is going to be disconnected. The brightly colored rope makes it less likely you will forget to remove them when you drive away. Buy these chocks HF will have a big Black Friday sale really soon, they might knock a couple of bucks off the price. John Davies Spokane WA

That is a CrossConnect commuter, it is OK for gravel but nothing more strenuous, it is MSRP $3000, discounted maybe 20% sometimes. Their hard-tail and full suspension mountain bikes start at $3500 and $4500 respectively, very nice but too aggressive for my “older guy” style of riding. I would add a suspension seat post and possibly larger diameter tires to the CrossConnect and call it good. And take the dorky looking fenders off. Those are for folks who live where it rains. 😀 Yamaha has been making ebikes and their power plants from Day 1 (1993 !!!) but they just got into making complete bikes (for here) about a year ago. They have that great Yamaha build quality (like their motorcycles, boats, musical instruments, and generators) and a stellar 3 year “bumper to bumper” warranty. None better in the industry that I am aware of.... I personally think they all look very nice. https://www.yamahabicycles.com/ Sorry for the thread hijack. John Davies Spokane WA

The video said a max weight capacity of 260 pounds, can that possibly be right? That is simply enormous.... I was expecting 80 per bike on two trays. I am not in the immediate market for one, but a local bicycle dealer just announced they are now stocking Yamaha eBikes, so who knows what Christmas might bring...? Those are around 50+ pounds..... A high rack load limit would be good, for reserve capacity plus general strength and sturdiness. Yummy .... : John Davies Spokane WA

FYI, be aware of poor quality electrical adapters, especially ones with weird Chinese names. They are made of inferior materials, small gauge wires and soft bendy pins, and they do fail. Hopefully when they fail, it won’t cause a fire. Research carefully and do not buy the cheapest one there. You don’t have to buy a Marinco adapter (“yacht grade”, mega $$$$$) but do invest in a higher quality part. I bought this adapter .... NUSET RV Adapter ..... and it failed in less than a year, one of the contacts inside the 30 amp housing bent and lost contact. I replaced it with a Marinco unit. I personally put safety over cost when it comes to electricity.... When holding the two adapters next to each other, the Marinco was noticeably better made, and was significantly heavier. It’s a high quality part. NUSET adapter Davies Amazon Review 1 star I do not recommend the type pictured above, it puts a whole lot of weight and stress on the 15 amp receptacle. Plus the rain cover may not close. Instead use an adapter with pigtail at the trailer connection, and run a heavy gauge (10AWG wires) 20 amp extension cord to the receptacle. That saves wear and tear on your expensive factory supplied shore power cable. If your trailer is exposed to lots of rain, you can make a water shield for the cord to adapter connection with some heat shrink tubing. Mine is connected indoors during storage, and when I camp it is rarely used. John Davies Spokane WA

Problematic at best ... the black tank is about three inches higher than the grey tank, so there is no way you would be able to have any sort of natural drainage in that direction. You could use a pump to get the water there but you risk having the black tank backflow into a full grey tank, causing that smelly water to flow up from the shower drain, and possibly out onto the cabin floor. Yuck..... If they were at the same height it would be doable. You could actually connect the bathroom sink drain to the black tank, without much difficulty. I don’t know how helpful that would be; we don’t even use ours. There is no way to get the shower to drain that direction. The easiest and most practical setup is to use the black tank as an aux fresh tank, and make it gravity feed into the (nearly empty) fresh tank. That brings its own issues, like where do you dump the grey tank to make more room for that extra 18 gallons? Out West you can often water the sagebrush, but that isn’t always possible. John Davies Spokane WA

It would be easy to add solar later, the trailer is prewired for it, but my suggestion is, if you want to get your feet wet, add an external solar port and solar controller next to it, inside under the rear dinette seat, and get a 100+ watt portable suitcase panel (without controller). Renogy makes some really nice ones. That will allow you to plug it in occasionally when you have the sun exposure, or if you are parked in shade, you can use a really long power cord to the panel and set it out in the direct sunlight. Since the controller will be at the trailer that setup will work great. Panels with onboard controllers are limited to around 15 to 20 feet cable max, due to voltage drop over the wires. https://www.truckcamperadventure.com/the-renogy-solar-suitcase/ If you later want more power, add the roof panels and keep the portable unit, it will always be useful in certain situations. John Davies Spokane WA

One time, around 1972 on a Norton Commando 750. Actually, three times, I went back to the beginning and rode it again before departing the area. Pretty neat road, and zero traffic. Another good one not too far away is TN 30, between McMinnville and Falls Creek Falls SP, (north entrance). Woohoo! Most RVs shun that route and take the more modern (bulldozed straight) alternative. Out west those kinds of twists and curves are not that unusual.They are found as side routes off new modern freeways, from the good old days. Though it is rare to find a stretch that long, they do tend to be shorter, going up and down precipitous mountains. One good detour off US 95 in the ID Panhandle is the Old White Bird Grade, it was made about 1920 and was quite a challenge for Model A’s - in the 2900 foot climb there were four water stations so drivers could pull over and top up their boiling radiators.... others are the Spiral Highway going down from the Palouse into Lewiston ID (Snake River gorge), and the Chief Joseph highway due east of Yellowstone. The latter is amazing because you have to crank the wheel hard back and forth but the speed limit is 65 mph. 😳. Corvette drivers have a great time on it. I have done these and more with “Mouse” but you need to take it really really easy, in either direction. Traffic is usually low or nonexistent. Not at all like the Dragon in these times. John Davies Spokane WA

I am glad it is working for you but the manufacturer would consider that to be abuse. How long does the battery last before it will no longer perform well? OTH generic replacements are everywhere, cheap and simple to change. John Davies Spokane WA

The reason the APC UPS has such a low run time is that it has a reliable but primitive SLA Sealed Lead Acid battery, which is dirt cheap and simple to find a replacement for when it dies in a few years. Ideal for sitting around your office for months on end, with an occasional use when the 120 VAC power sags. It needs to be plugged into the wall all the time to stay healthy and charged. I have one attached to my home modem and router. The Patriot (I don't know about other brands) has a LiFeFPO4 lithium iron phosphate battery, which is a totally different chemistry, and is ideal for transport (no risk of fire like regular lithiums) and long term storage (minimal self discharge). It can be discharged way down repeatedly and not be damaged. It is just like the big lithium house batteries for RVs, like the new Ollie lithium purchase option. Good stuff.. Here is an old discussion about these lithium iron batteries, but it is focussed on an emergency car jump starter box, not a portable inverter power supply. ... https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2171-need-recommendation-for-a-lithium-battery-jump-starter/?tab=comments#comment-18819 I would never even consider taking along my UPS, it just isn't designed for the task. I do carry a cheap 20,000 milliamp lithium ion battery pack to connect my iPad and iPhone to, it works fine. Just saying.... John Davies Spokane WA

I do NOT recommend mounting that heavy an object to the shower wall. I am sure it is just like myLE2, meaning it is just glued in place to the walls and ceiling with silicone sealer. It is not intended to be a load bearing wall, the cabin structure sort of floats around it. I am actually surprised that it supports that heavy glass mirror door, it doesn’t seem very secure to me. OTH the door is closed when towing, so it isn’t flopping around and stressing the mounts. A wall mounted monitor would be very hard on things, especially on bumpy roads. I discovered this when I made a clothesline, the front end attached up high to the partition, and simply pulling down with a few pounds of pressure on the wire deflected the wall noticeably. I ended up installing a big aluminum angle brace there, between the partition and the ceiling. At the back, no worries, the rear overhead cabinet is pure thick fiberglass/ honeycomb. Very strong..... ALSO, FYI, the bathroom divider/ wall is not a honeycomb composite structure like the rest of the hull, it has a thin plywood center, between the two gelcoated fiberglass panels. If you drill into it for any reason, you must seal the holes very well to prevent water entry from the wet bath. Moisture getting inside would rot the panel. Another consideration is somebody accidentally falling into the extended monitor, that impact would break things due to the massive leverage. I think you definitely need to get Oliver involved so you don’t break something. If you mount it without their engineering blessing and it wrecks the attach area, they won’t consider that a normal warranty issue, but abuse, and you will end up paying for a (possibly very) expensive repair....Good luck. John Davies Spokane WA

LOL, wrap the toilet and place an old rag on top, to indicate.... “Do NOT use!” I for one would not mind hearing the story about how you ended up in the pool..... John Davies Spokane WA

It would be super easy to seal off those traps to block the room air, so they don’t dry out and get smelly. For the floor and each sink, small circles of sheet rubber or pieces cut from an old mouse pad. For the flush toilet you would need to wrap the bowl with plastic kitchen wrap. In our semi-arid climate I have no need for a dehumidifier, the relative humidity stays below 50% and fairly constant in my Ollie, stored inside an attached, insulated (but unheated) RV bay. Plus the temperature is very stable, which reduces the possibility of condensation from large swings....The house OTH requires a whole house humidifier for the furnace, or the RH will drop to 20% or less. Snap crackle pop! Blue lightning from your fingers! With the humidifier it stays at more comfortable 45-50%. John Davies Spokane WA

And there are those folks who never read the written instructions, and complain when something doesn’t work...... I am referring to somebody in my family. RTFM 😬 John Davies Spokane WA

LOL, I have seen those signs in various towns. Some like Ocean Shores, WA are located so far out on a sandy peninsula that there is no way you would EVER get to high ground in the ten to twenty minutes allotted. So, grabbing a beer, sitting on your roof in a chair and watching the tsunami roll in is a more or less accepted response. BTW, for the uninitiated, many of the coastal names are Native American, they often sound very different from their spelling. This remote town in coastal BC town is pronounced “yew-kloo-let”. Whenever I spend time on the coast I am hyper aware of sleeper waves and stuff like this, it kinda spoils my vacation time to always have my head swiveling around. So I do try to at least overnight on high ground.... John Davies Spokane WA.

I bought a well regarded weather alert radio to take camping, what a waste of money, most places where I have cell coverage, it works fine. Where there is no cell, the radio is just static on all bands. I did buy a 30 foot wire external antenna for it, that could be strung from trees, but that seems to be dubious at best. I wanted to be able to receive tsunami alerts on the WA coast - nope, I had to hope I would hear the distant sirens or the herd of panicked stampeding feet. 😀 I do keep it in my office now, in case of a disaster, but for my kind of camping I would have to use the Garmin inReach weather option, which is perfect for future planning, but it in no way alerts you to potential dangers like flash floods. FEMA BE SMART. TAKE PART. KNOW YOUR ALERTS AND WARNINGS If somebody knows of an effective back country alert system that does not involve a cell phone or satellite phone and subscription, I would love to hear about it. John Davies Spokane WA

“FLORENCE, Ore — On November 9, 1970, a 45-foot sperm whale had washed up on the beach near Florence, but as KATU reporter Paul Linnman noted at the time, it later became "a stinking whale of a problem." Three days later, on November 12, the dead whale exploded into history with what has been described as the first-ever viral news story. Watch the special remastered version of the original Exploding Whale report below” Twenty cases of dynamite, the local DOT road crew, a huge decaying whale, lots of spectators .... what could possibly go wrong....? Enjoy. https://katu.com/news/local/the-exploding-whale-50th-anniversary-of-legendary-oregon-event John Davies Spokane WA