Steve Morris

I keep having people ask what a "Curiosity" trailer is. When I tell them it is our name for the trailer, and that it is an Oliver, they've generally never heard of the brand before, either. 🤷‍♂️ From this weekend; Halloween weekend at Mosquito Lake State Park in Ohio:

Interesting! I saw those in a previous photo and thought you'd added them yourself. They were not in our 2023, delivered the end of March. So that practice started somewhere in the 26 trailers built after ours. It's been on my list of things to modify.

Things must have moved in recent years. In our 2023 EII, the detector is attached to the aft face of the forward dinette seat. And the fuse is under the street side bed, tucked way up front toward the aisle, almost under the pantry. It was 3AM for us the first night we owned the trailer when that obnoxious wail occured. OTT replaced it the next morning just in case it was a bad unit.

I happened to have this in my watched topics for when I do the separate shower valve.

Thank you!!

@Wildbrew It does, and thank you very much! I'm surprised to see that you only needed a one inch bulkhead fitting to feed the seven antenna cables through. I figured I'd need 1'1/2 or 2". I've seen people use a 1-1/2" PVC pipe through the roof and sealed well inside and out, and sticking up enough into a junction box that a little water in the box wouldn't spill into the open pipe. But that never looked like a solid enough connection to the hull to me. Here's an interesting option for mounting the antenna, too. I got the magnetic base option on the antenna, as I didn't know how I was going to mount it. MMH says you can go from the magnetic base to the standard, but not the other way 'round, so I went with the magnetic just in case. I could use it on top of a junction box to get a little more height. I planned to use this mount on the inside of the rear awning mount to get additional height and move it as far away from the air conditioner as possible. But it sounds as if yours is working fine right beside the AC, so maybe I'm overly concerned with the separation. Bill, it is just an alternative to the Oliver optional internet package, but with more modern (and upgradable) components.

I've been looking into switching after 54 years of AAA membership. Since AAA is regional clubs, coverage (and quality) varies widely. Too many negative reviews for me. I've been watching a lot of roadside service reviews on YouTube, and people seem to love Good Sam's until they actually need it. Stories of hours or overnight waiting for service to arrive, phone operators saying they can't find anyone to come, so sorry..., and many more bad stories. Every single review of Coach.Net that I could find was extremely positive. That's likely what I'll switch to when AAA expires this next time.

Beautiful scenery! (Third one didn't work for me.) I'd never heard of this National Monument, but it is now on my must-see list the next time we are in CO!

Why haven't I seen this before! I bought the same Speed Demon 5G setup from MobileMustHave last November during a sale, and four months before we even had the trailer. I currently have the router with its seven stub antenna in the attic, and it works okay. I can't really compare to my phone, because the phone is AT&T, and the Pepwave uses a Verizon card. I tried putting the big Parsec Husky antenna in the attic to see how the signal changed, and it went down. I'm guessing because it had 49 feet of cable looped under it. (seven seven foot cables.) I haven't yet had the nerve to drill through the attic to mount the antenna externally. My plan is to use the Parsec antenna mount [link] on the rearmost curbside awning mount and bring the cables in through the attic as shown by @Wildbrew He hasn't been on since May, but I sent a PM asking for details on the gland box.

What is causing this part to break? Age? I ask, because prior to getting the Oliver in March, we’d never had a trailer with a toilet. In order to minimize water use, we rapidly push down the pedal and let it spring back up on its own. I’m starting to think that might be asking for trouble! 😳

We did a little off-pavement driving in our travels around Kentucky last week. Managed to get through without resorting to 4-low. We also took a hazardous route through tall grass to boondock at Whiskey Thief Distillery. Having friends who are friends of the owner has its benefits! My wallet left these places a fair bit lighter.

One should never be interrupted while dumping. 🤪

Will do! It probably won't be until after our early October Tearjerkers outing, though.

John, this might help. I plan to do this, as I have the license plate relocation kit for the 1UP. It includes turn signals/brakes as well as the license plate light. Another one of John's gems.

We talked to the guys at the rally and checked on their schedule. Deb and I are going to the Eggs 'n Smores rally in Florida in January, then on to my brother's place in New Smyrna Beach for a bit. We plan to stop in Murfreesboro for a complete detail on our way home.

Congratulations! Your upgrade is similar to ours, coming from a Hiker 5x8 squaredrop to the LEII. It sure is a startling difference. On your Turtleback travels, I imagine you’ve come across my friend Kevin and his family on Lifestyle Overland. They’ve now moved on to an enclosed adventure trailer with the new baby. Welcome aboard!

Fixed that for you. 😉 Which is funny, because with something like my Land Cruiser, in Australia I could add an relativity inexpensive rear end kit that’s been government certified to increase the legal cargo capacity by about 1200 pounds, resulting in a 2600 pound capacity. That’s nuts, and I’d never do it. But doing the same thing here and getting in an accident, I’d loose my home to some lawyer…

I completely agree. We looked at fiberglass trailers specifically because they were not sold through dealerships. If Oliver had been at a dealership, I wouldn’t even have considered it, based on the sleazy treatment we got at all three Cleveland Ohio area dealers a couple years back. No way would I ever take my trailer to one! It is bad enough taking a 30k disposable car to a dealership where the service guys come and go weekly. Imagine taking a $100k trailer to your local car dealer and expecting proper care and workmanship. And I respect auto service guys much higher than RV service guys. Bottom line is that if our Oliver had been at a local dealership, I probably wouldn’t be here now typing this, because I’d be in an Escape.

Tankless heater, so minimal weight change. That's about what ours is with the bikes loaded on the back. If you have a similar delta, you'd be close to 400# with the bikes on, which is 8% of an unloaded unoptioned EII, and recommendation is 10-12%. I haven't weighed our trailer, but it is around 5400 empty (7000 minus sticker cargo capacity.) I have no idea how much stuff I have in it, but if 6000# total, my 475# tongue weight is about 8%, too.

All tanks empty with no bikes and rack folded. Tongue weight 525ish pounds.

I haven't been on here in about ten days, so catching up. We returned home from a family trip with my two brothers and their wives on Thursday, so Friday I finally remembered to check the tongue weight with and without the bicycles. I'm using this Simple Weigh scale, so it may not be as accurate as a Shoreline scale. We'd just returned home, so the tanks were as follows: Fresh: 13% Gray: 44% Black: 65% Almost everything else in the trailer was as it is when we're travelling, although we did take out the laundry and food from the fridge that doesn't stay in all the time. Results: Tongue weight with no bicycles and with the 1UP Super Duty Double installed and folded: ~550 pounds Tongue weight with two 50 pound bicycles and with the 1UP Super Duty Double installed and extended: ~450-475 pounds. This surprised me, as that puts me well under 10% tongue weight with the bikes on. Once I dump the tanks, I want to re-weigh, but it is likely going to be similar. I've towed almost 1000 miles with the bikes on the back, and haven't noticed any sway or lightness, although about 600 miles of that had a 20# propane tank in the front basket. That Andersen hitch really does its job well! I'm considering getting a Rubbermaid ActionPack 24 gallon container and moving some of the heavier items from the basement to the front basket. If really needed, I can add a 1UP Roof Rack and mount it across the rear of the front basket using J-hooks. That would take 50 pounds off the back and onto the tongue, which should help considerably. Thoughts? Edit: Empty tanks, Tongue weight with no bicycles and with the 1UP Super Duty Double installed and folded: ~525 pounds.

That sounds scrumptious! We just picked up some Ben’s pre-cooked jasmine rice today for our outing Sunday to Thursday. There’s a local Mediterranean restaurant here that serves filet mignon kabobs on jasmine rice and shredded red cabbage. Mmmm! We’re going to recreate it on the Skottle, but with sautéed onions and mushrooms instead of cabbage.

@John E Davies GPS speed and elevation come from the cell phone, not the truck.

I bought the Carista OBD Reader around 2014, and at that time there was no subscription; buy the reader and get the app free. It still works without subscription today! The above display is from the OBD Fusion app. There is no need for a Carista subscription to use ODB Fusion. However, on top of whatever ODB Fusion costs, you'll need to purchase the $10 Toyota Advance Pack for all the sensor PID hooks. Here is a link to an extensive thread on MUD on how to do all of this. I found it very confusing. There are dashboards available to download from thread participants, but they do not scale. So if you have an iPhone 14 Max and the dashboard was made for an iPhone 8, things will look wonky. I spent several hours fiddling with modifying someone's dashboard to get the above on my iPhone XS. Some of the dashboards are quite extravagant! https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/diy-smartphone-scan-gauge-obd-fusion.1269979/ I have OBD Fusion running on my phone on a vent phone holder, and my 11" iPad over top of the Toyota screen using Waze or Gaia for navigation.

Yep, got it. We still need to get out together some time! October is SE Ohio somewhere? All we have is a Tearjerkers gathering at Mosquito Lake Oct 5-9, and busy the 17th. Otherwise wide open!