John E Davies

RB, we plan to leave the return trip pretty much wide open, so we can adjust our schedule depending on weather, wildfire smoke and stuff we find to do. We do not actually need to “recreate” on the way home at all, BC is our “back yard” so to speak, it is just 90 miles to Canada, eh, though we have not explored much of it except for the lower 100 mile tall strip of BC and AB. It will be easy for us to access there in the future. Alaska, not so much..... it is still a fair drive, even from here in the Pacific NW... I understand the .44 mag, unfortunately I can no longer comfortably shoot a big revolver due to worsening peripheral neuropathy. I do plan to bring my Henry Big Boy X .44 Mag lever rifle, with bear loads. I will keep it loaded and close at hand when camping, and I could lug it around on hikes, but it will be a whole lot less comfy than a handgun, though I expect it would cause no raised eyebrows in remote parts of AK. In Canada I cannot carry it anywhere (unless I happened to be hunting with a resident guide). 😥 I will feel naked with only bear spray. I do understand the firearm declaration laws for Canada. John Davies Spokane WA

After years of talking about it, we are finally ready to head north, depending on whether or not Canada opens up her borders to US visitors. We plan to spend four weeks on the road and more or less haul @ss up there just after Labor Day, 2000 miles/ 40 hours from Spokane WA to Tok, AK ... And then drive these Alaska routes as shown by the arrows. Weather permitting, we can hang out a few days here and there to wait for photo opportunities (no rain, sun breaks). Drive the Denali Hwy (gravel) westbound, to see Mount Denali in all its glory, plus elk, caribou, birds, etc. My wife is eager to do nature, northern lights, and time lapse photography. The caribou hunting season will be over by August, so hopefully there will be no crowds of hunters along that road. YouTube Denali Hwy and Denali NP Then to Denali NP for a few days, loop south and back east to visit the Kennecott Copper Mine via the McCarthy Road (more gravel - we would like to park the trailer for that section) and then to Valdez. YouTube McCarthy, Kennecott Mine, fast forward to 9:00 minutes, very cool Then back up to Tok and turn right for Canada. That south central AK loop with side trips will be about 1400 miles. Then slowly work our way home through BC and Alberta by the eastern route, hopefully missing the crowds at Jasper and Banff, and any early snow in the passes. We might detour to Prince Rupert going north, if the weather is good, we do want to see the ocean, but I am guessing Valdez will provide better views and whales and such.... We have no desire to deal with crowds, cruise ships, helicopter flights, tour buses or Anchorage. We want dark skies, star gazing, northern lights, solitude and wildlife. No hookups needed, nor do we even need established campgrounds. DNR ones are fine (Geezer Pass). Any and all advice about places to see and stay will be greatly appreciated. Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

That is very cool, my wife depends on reliable data access for her work, unfortunately they still don't have any sats in polar orbit, so if you want to go the Alaska (the big part) you will still be out of range: "SpaceX Service's ESIMs will communicate only with those SpaceX satellites that are visible on the horizon above a minimum elevation angle of 25 degrees." The RV antenna will have to be prorfessionally installed, and will it be as big as the home ones? That might be a problem on the limited and curved roof space of an Ollie. Maybe use a telescoping mast coming off the rear frame extension.? I'm guessing it won't be usable when driving.... John Davies Spokane WA

The spare tire sender wakes up by itself after driving a few minutes and it stays working like the other four. You can also wake one up by flicking it with a finger (imagine flicking a booger, sorry for the perfect analogy🙄). First thing in the morning while doing my walk around inspection before leaving the site, I wake the display and then flick the senders to get “today’s” pressures, not the ones from when they last went to sleep (when they were warm from driving). This is in case one happened to pick up a nail and was quietly deflating over night. (You would not know until after driving a few minutes otherwise.) I never use a tire gauge unless one of those morning readings seems odd. They do not indicate super accurate numbers, but they are very consistent. John Davies Spokane WA

https://reserve.wanderinglabs.com/new It needs a whole lot of work to be of any use use to me. It seems to be mostly State Parks, but even using the Corps of Engineers filter, it did not show any of their reservable campgrounds in WA. It shows just thirteen COE locations, all in a handful of southern states. And I tried the WA State parks filter and it returned zero hits. Unless I am using it wrong? It seems to be disfunctional. John Davies Spokane WA

That looks very sexy, but I personally would prefer a stainless steel version rather than aluminum. It would be no work at all to cut it. Especially for the price! My bottles are not locked, I think having them under the weird doghouse provides a lot of “visual deterrence”. OTH I would probably just get a Master Python 6 foot cable lock ($13 at Amazon) and sleep well enough. The tumblers are not secure, but it is a lot better than nothing. John Davies Spokane WA

I bought the amp and found out that it was not needed for either my full sized Ram pickup or my shorter Land Cruiser. There have never been any issues with connecting, except when a sensor battery gets low, which is to be expected. I have never even needed to raise the dorky antenna mast on the display.... https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2482-review-tire-traker-tt-500-tpms/ IF you needed to install it, a good spot would be in the left overhead cabinet at the bathroom divider wall. You could splice into the power and ground wire for the cabinet lights, that is where I mounted the Garmin backup camera transmitter. John Davies Spokane WA

I can’t advise about Rushmore, except to say it is usually insanely crowded in warm weather. I suggest that you continue north to the Roosevelt NP area. https://www.beyondthetent.com/camping-in-theodore-roosevelt-national-park/ John Davies Spokane WA

That is pretty cool. Thanks for posting! The Australians have been using what they call “poly block” hitches for off pavement towing, for decades. I had a Treg model and it was terrific. I am glad US manufacturers are starting to use this concept. Did you buy the warranty? I found this picture on that page. It does appear that, like a rubber torsion axle, you can expect it deteriorate over time. Does it start to get noisy? Rubber axle bushings can be destroyed by exposure to water and grit. Are these rudder tubes exposed in the front of the tube? Please keep us updated on how this works out. John Davies Spokane WA

This is pretty bad for storing just about anything hard, I had been using a bunch of loose foam sheets to pad the wires and plumbing. I made strips from 1" thick Dow Corning R5 rigid foam board from Home Depot. It can be cut with a SHARP knife and dressed smooth with a bench top belt sander. Wear a dust mask! I used 3 mil aluminum HVAC tape to secure it. The frame member got 2" total thickness, the outside got 2.5" to make it level side to side. The black tank rinse plumbing has been bugging me for years, so I removed it completely (Natures Head toilet!) And capped the bottom fitting with a1/2" FPT Cap, so nobody could accidentally flood the interior: I cut out a tray and it just rests there, so access underneath is not an issue. Here is the area stuffed fairly full, it all lies nice and flat. The material is not especially strong, but it weighs absolutely nothing and is easily replaced if it gets damaged. Plus it is fire retardant. If you wanted it to look nicer you could cover the entire top with the aluminum tape. The material is however 100% waterproof. I tested that by submerging a piece in a glass of water for 12 hours. No worries! John Davies Spokane WA

Here is a related thread, I installed a similar box up front under the jack: ... https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2688-how-to-junction-box-for-trailer-harness-repair-or-extend-the-harness/ This all came about because I wanted to install a ... Redarc DC to DC Battery Charger .... and I needed to know FOR SURE that the wires were big enough. 12 AWG is the absolute minimum according to Redarc, and bigger is always better, especially in an Ollie with a very long run back to the batteries. Here are the existing butt splices, half of them are absolutely buried under the sewer pipes. Time for a J-Box! So I cut all the splices, and dragged the ends up to where I could inspect the wires. Most were OK, but the white Ground wire was not. Somebody extended the front wire with a smaller sized one. Darn it! I bolted down the box next to the 120 VAC outlet. I spliced into the green and white running light wires and brought them up to the box via the bottom hole. The other wires come in from the left and right sides. I ran heavier 10 AWG black and white wires (power and ground) from the box back to the appropriate posts. So now the Redarc charger will not suffer from excessive voltage drop, and with the easy access, it will be very simple to troubleshoot any future 7 Wire Harness problems. The new splices are easy to ID because they have clear spiral wrap plastic, and they are secured to the inside wall using a 1" thick block of HDPE plastic, bonded with JB Weld directly over the small LED light. The placard goes inside the J Box using 3M double stick tape. Here is the placard, in Apple Pages format: Oliver Junction Box wiring placard Rear 7 pin.pages Note that I indicated where those marker light splices are - I hate not knowing! John Davies Spokane WA

My Land Cruiser 200 charging voltage is 13.6 volts with the trailer hooked up (using a digital OBD2 Scan Gauge).It never gets above 14 volts, regardless. Here is the history using my VictronConnect app, showing the initial parasitic load (propane detector and stereo mostly) of about minus 0.3 amps, then the engine starts and the trailer battery voltage and current shoot up nicely, to just under 11 amps. It maintains that charge rate right up until the batteries are close to full. , The only fly in the ointment is that the wiring needs to be 12AWG or larger, all the way from tongue to charger. My Hull # 218 had a splice from 12 AWG down to 14 AWG, so I had to rewire the entire 7 wire harness, essentially. That is another thread. ... https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/5271-how-to-junction-box-for-the-7-wire-trailer-harness-under-the-front-dinette-seat/?tab=comments#comment-54709 I went on a 90 minute, 40 mile test drive yesterday, it worked flawlessly, I can monitor the Victron app inside the truck, the sky was hazy high clouds, not ideal solar conditions, but the total charge current kept around 16 amps, going up to 22 when the sun broke through a little. Total cost was about $312, not including all my labor! Questions are welcome. John Davies Spokane WA

FYI, related thread and discussion: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/4759-redarc-trailer-charger-mounted-inside-the-ollie-for-100-lithium-charge/?tab=comments#comment-49376 https://www.etrailer.com/Battery-Charger/Redarc/RED96FR.html I won't add much commentary, it is pretty self explanatory. The instructions allow you to mount in any position, I chose horizontally with 1" cooling holes and a 1/2" gap between its housing and the mounting plate for cross flow of air. Note that there is a ton of extra space, I plan to add a small Victron MPPT Solar charge controller for my portable panel, it will go just to the rear of the Redarc, and there is room for another circuit breaker too. More.... John Davies Spokane WA

Jim, you can easily add terminal fuse blocks to your positive posts. John Davies Spokane WA

FYI, one disadvantage with Rock Tamers is that they do need to be close to the ground to work correctly, but when you are traveling briskly on a gravel road, they can drag when you encounter a dip, and shoot up a rooster tail of gravel onto your trailer. This is a non-issue with a Stone Stomper. John Davies Spokane WA

Update via email, Jason described the factory wiring of this switch, I have NOT completely inspected my trailer to verify this. The circuit is not fused, and he could not tell me why. The wire goes from the rear bus circuit breaker, then it exits through the belly and runs along the outside to the breakaway switch. So some of the wire is out in the open, but several feet of it is NOT, and that remains a fire hazard IMHO. I kept the 20 amp inline fuse that I added, and will not worry about anything more. I will continue to test the switch operation before each trip. If you feel like crawling around under your trailer, look to see if there is a wire coming out above the axles, heading toward the front. Please comment about what you find, or don't find 😉 Thanks. John Davies' Spokane WA

Thanks for the kind words FrankC, I see your Rock Tamers are rigged correctly - they should fly back at an angle, not straight up and down, so they deflect rocks down onto the pavement instead of back onto your rear tailgate and bumper. I had Rock Tamers before this mod, and they are OK, but they do not provide nearly enough protection for around here.... this part of the country has a gazillion unpaved roads, Spokane County alone has 4000 miles of them. FYI, an easy mod to help your RTs work better is to add strips of heavy mudflap material on TOP of the bars, trimmed so that they press against the chrome bumper. They will stop the few stones that do flip back up in that direction, and the rubber won't damage the finish. Plus they will dampen any side to side rocking of the arms. John Davies Spokane WA

Note, these pics are from Hull #218 delivered May, 2017. The big cables Oliver installs for the inverter are in fact 4/0 ("four ought") welding cable, with an abrasion resistant rubber coating, for dragging around a shop floor. Unfortunately they are NOT very chafe resistant. They need to be covered in plastic split loom to prevent this, which was due to it lying on top off the steel battery tray in back, when everything is pushed tight into its normal position. This particular damage happened after one camping season, and I subsequently covered the cables. I recently removed the cables entirely to rewire the batteries, and I cut a piece to show exactly what is happening. The insulation in the top pic is worn well over half way through! If the RED one wears completely through and shorts out to the tray, you will have a fire - the tray is steel, and it bolts to the fiberglass floor (which has a heavy aluminum liner inside it) and THAT connects directly to the main aluminum frame by way of its support post. If your cables are not protected, inspect them closely, and repair or replace any that is worn more than this one. If the conductor wires are not cut, you could add a couple of layers of thick self adhesive heat shrink tubing. And cover them completely! There is a big fuse (250 amps in my trailer), but it is "downstream" from this area and it won't blow if there is a problem here inside the box. FYI these cables also become damaged simply by hanging in the plastic "pass through" grommets, they are very heavy and they move around when towing, and the grommet compacts and chafes the insulation. The conductor cannot short out there because the surrounding area is fiberglass. NOT so with the main cables and the tray. John Davies Spokane WA

Update, I made some changes when I relocated the tray to the back. This shows how the front corner can be clipped back for truck access: This shows the new aluminum support structure, welded by a local shop. I added pins with clips to retain the plastic support bars, which give anchor points for the fabric. Plus I made new lower support bars with no collars (straight across) and I added stand-off tubes (1/2" white PEX) to prevent the fabric from "walking" out to the side during tight turns. The photo immediately above this post shows the old setup, which did not work well. This will be my fifth camping season, the system has been excellent, no issues except the original support bars were too weak (thin Schedule 40, replaced with Schedule 80), and the left SS flap continues to get scorched by the exhaust when turning VERY hard to the left, in spite of the factory down-turned exhaust tip. I try to avoid remaining in that position more than momentarily. The front of the trailer remains showroom new looking, and the rear of the truck has no rock chip damage. I do still have to remove dried bug carcasses, but they are confined to the very edges of the hull and the top third of the front. I still highly recommend this mod. I try not to tow in hard rain, but if it does happen, the back window of the Land Cruiser stays almost completely dry! And in normal conditions on gravel roads, it stays about 75% dust free. John Daviers Spokane WA

Where you tow also is very important, you can get by with a less capable tow vehicle if you never get into really strenuous conditions. Somebody who never left Florida might find the V6 to be acceptable, but the first steep mountain grade would reveal how very bad a choice it is, plus that engine has to be revved really high, the peak torque is at about 4000 rpm. A screaming engine is hard on the passengers nerves..... the 5.7 is perfectly fine for power, you just won’t be able to carry very much of your “stuff”, especially if there are more than two normal sized people. If there are four adults, then you won’t be able to bring ANY gear inside it. John Davies Spokane WA

Old batteries, meaning really really really old ones, were made with glass cells inside a wood box! If placed on a damp floor, the wood could absorb water, swell and break the cells. Later they used steel, which conducts. A plastic cased wet cell or AGM or lithium battery does not have this rather serious design flaw. Concrete is fine for very short term storage, such as under the frame where it is out of the way while cleaning the tray or fixing a cable. But if a plastic cased battery leaks, the acid will definitely etch and damage the floor. http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2017/02/storing-car-battery-concrete-floor-drain/ John Davies Spokane WA

Which engine? IMHO an SRT would be great, the 6.4 is quite a beast, and that model has a very good payload. The 5.7 would be marginal, due to its inadequate payload, the V6...... well, no. Welcome to the forum. John Davies Spokane WA

I use full synthetic 0w20 year round, at 5000 mile intervals. If I were not using the good stuff I would change it more often, but this has been working well. At nearly eight quarts capacity, it is a little more costly. John Davies Spokane WA

Enjoy your first trip. Post some pictures please. When you have time at home, consider sterilizing the water system with bleach, I do it every spring to make sure nothing bad has started growing. My friend has a junky trailer and he complained about stinky water from the taps. I asked him how often he sterilized it, and he said “never!” This is on a five year old trailer..... I told him that his fresh tank was probably grey by now.... yuck. We have been having record warm temperatures the last week, but the cold will be returning. I plan to hitch up add bleach, and go for a long test drive before flushing the system and parking “Mouse” for a few more weeks. I definitely have cabin fever..... Those Harvest Hosts can be nice or mediocre, the problem we have is that the wineries we like end up costing us way more in their products that if we stayed in a commercial place. John Davies Spokane WA

My Firestone airbags came with individual schrader valves that could be mounted externally under the bumper. I asked the tech to run them up into the right rear fender well, at the jack. I added colored tape to ID them, Red Left, Green Right. When not towing, I leave them coiled up in there, when towing I leave that access cover off and run the ends out to where I can reach them easily. There is about two feet of excess length, plenty to allow the valves to lie on top of cargo like my generator. I use a compact low pressure mountain bike pump and two gauges, this one for adjusting at the low end (they want 5 psi at all times to prevent pinching damage). Milton S-917 2 to 20 psi gauge And this one for adjusting the high end: Milton S-921 5 to 50 psi The pressure you need while towing depends on the tongue weight, I was running 12 psi when the trailer had a TW of 620 pounds. and since I lightened it up to 480 pounds, I backed off to 10 psi, and I leave the Andersen chains almost slack. For towing a trailer with no WD hitch like a Uhaul rental it would be higher. The gauges and spare valve caps and cores, and an extra schrader valve, fit in a 1 quart zip bag and when NOT towing, they ride in the little cubby inside the jack cover, and the pump gets covered by some foam water line insulation and tucked in the bottom of that compartment next to the jack. When towing I leave them out in the open so I can adjust pressure without having to shift any cargo. You can drive the truck with 10 psi in the bags and no trailer, but it rides VERY rough and the butt sits high, so if you plan to drive any distance, especially on unpaved roads, lower the pressure to the minimum. They specify 5 psi, but I am actually using 4 psi, a very little change of air pressure at the low end makes a big difference to the ride. Going from 5 to 4 psi is a 20% change. Going from 20 to 19 psi is only a 5% change. An onboard pump and gauges would be very nice, but every connection and splice gives you a potential leak point. I prefer to have a very minimal number of splices. For inflating, the bike pump takes about thirty pumps per side, then I disconnect and reduce the pressure to the correct psi using the gauge. I hope that answered your questions, and more. 😬 John Davies Spokane WA