Steve Morris

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!