Steve Morris

No Oliver logo on the nose would look really strange! We ordered our 2023 naked, and added our own graphic. We've had a lot of people ask what a "Curiosity" trailer was. We've heard "Is that some kind of Casita?", or the guy in Florida who looked it over rally well walking by, but wasn't inclined to chat. He returned the next day to tell me that he'd looked up Curiosity trailers, and that it was a really expensive trailer! No Oliver logo on the nose would certainly seem to cut down on random inquiries and potential sales! Here's a Curiosity brand trailer next to an Oliver at the Hungry Mother Fiberglass Rally. You can barely tell the difference! 🤣

I've not acted on advice to switch to steel valve stems while using our TST tire pressure monitor. Yesterday, that procrastination bit me in the ass on my way home from the Hungry Mother Fiberglass Rally in Virginia. Rapid Pressure Loss" or similar wording was what the monitor said with a constant loud beeping. A quick look in my mirror showed the front left trailer tire was indeed low. Stopped to check, and with 28 PSI showing, I elected to slowly drive to the next exit, and found a flat spot in a gas station lot. The rubber valve stem was partially separated from the rubber base, and if flexed, dumped out pressurized air. No fixing that on the spot! Time to change tires. I have all the tools needed, and it was a cool sunny day, so that was a bit of luck. It had been raining a few hours earlier. I didn't have my impact driver with me, but I do have an 18" breaker bar, so I could loosen the lug nuts. Before jacking up and removing the tire, though, it was time to get the spare. Two heavy e-bikes made this a chore, but fortunately, that's when a large fellow stopped and offered to help. (Oddly enough, the local deputy sheriff who was using the facilities at the station never even checked to see if we needed anything on his way out of the parking lot.) With his help, we slid the rack and mount out far enough to get to the spare. His impact driver made for a faster swap than my breaker bar, and his torque wrench was easier to get to than mine buried in the trailer's basement. All in all, about an hour and a bit delay, and the kind gentleman who stopped to help refused any remuneration. - I usually only carry the impact driver with me on long trips. And while this was about an eight hour drive, I'd elected not to bring it with me. It will now be included in every trip. - I'll be removing the bike rack mount and cleaning those surfaces and applying a dry lube to make it easier to slide the rack in and out. After we were done, I was really re-thinking John Davies choice to not use the fiberglass tire cover while toting bicycles! - I will be changing to all steel valve stems before we leave on our next trip!

I have not. I just drain it completely. The guy who developed it says the additive prevents growth of harmful critters. So far in almost a year I haven't had any negative effects. I have used it on four separate trips. I will be using it next week for the first time since early summer, so if I don't survive, I'll let you know. 🤣 Interestingly enough, I got our filter out to pack yesterday, and the bottom of the Fit RV filter had stuff growing on it. So into the trash it went, and a 4-pack of standard 2.5X10 filter elements arrived today for about half the price of the FitRV version. So much for the additional growth inhibitor...

Same with us when we reserved G23 again yesterday, and I said it was for the Oliver rally. For what it's worth, I don't remember a senior discount in the past, and it was 15%. Wasn't the rally discount 10%? I don't recall.

I have not. I just drain it completely. The guy who developed it says the additive prevents growth of harmful critters. So far in almost a year I haven't had any negative effects. I have used it on four separate trips. I will be using it next week for the first time since early summer, so if I don't survive, I'll let you know. 🤣

Curiosity- Steve and Deb from northern Ohio Copy/pasted from my “Meet Curiosity” thread: Paul Harvey mode on: “And now, for the rest of the story!” The inspiration for the came from a video by the “From She To Me” YouTube channel, which is the travels of a couple our age in their class B van. The voiceover for a recent trip was “Every one of our journeys begin with curiosity. What will we discover? What challenges might we encounter? What will be the lessons we learn?” I paused, replayed that scene, and paused again. Epiphany moment! I turned to Deb and asked how “Curiosity” sounds for a name for our new Oliver, and she was all for it. Then I looked at various images for graphics inspiration. I saw the corporate logo for Curiosity Software Ireland, and thought I’d fiddle with something along those lines. On a whim, I wrote to them asking permission to use their logo. Surprisingly, not only did they approve, but enthusiastically so, offering original graphics files and their endorsement. They plan to tell our story on their social media blog. Crazy how both events happened!!

We've watched maybe a dozen YouTube videos since picking up Curiosity in March 2023, and have never watched any terrestrial TV or DVDs (I probably haven't watched a DVD in a decade! Why do I have a cabinet full of them. For that matter, I wonder where my home DVD player is...) So yea, I'd like to remove the television. But Deb wants to keep it, "just in case."

Unfortunately, no. We were scheduled to attend a gathering in Pennsylvania last week, but both Deb and I were still nursing a really nasty chest cold that dragged on for almost three weeks. Ugg! Next Tuesday we head out for a week in west-central Ohio, where I will experiment with the various setups I have. The section of Indian Lake State Park where a dozen or so of us are gathering is heavily wooded, so I doubt I'll be able to get any benefit from the mast. I'll likely have my 150' of Ethernet cable out trying to find a bit of open sky. I also recently grabbed a Makita battery adapter with the Starlink Mini cable as the output that offers yet another quickly deployed setup. I carry three Makita batteries and a charger in the trailer, so with the adapter, I can plug in a battery and toss the Starlink Mini anywhere and have service within its inbuilt wifi range. I have deployed the mast here at home. I already had a pair of SeaSucker 4.5" vacuum mounts that I was hoping to use with Flagpole Buddy's generic mount. But with the angles of the hull, there was no way that would have worked. I already know how well the SeaSucker mounts hold, and the 6" Airstream mounts from Flagpole Buddy are just as good, but bigger. I stuck both mounts on the rear, above the left turn signals and an even height above the belt. I bought two extra sections for 16' of height above the lower mount, so close to 20' overall. I left it on for about a week without once needing to pump in more vacuum. And every day I really tugged on the mast, and rocked the trailer to see if it would come loose. It worked great! I did find it a little finicky to get the correct angle on the two bases to get the mast vertical. But once aligned, I put a Sharpie mark at the top so that it will be easier the next time.

Hmmm, no place for tall items such as orange juice or 1/2 gallon of milk. I’d miss that. The freezer is at least double the size of ours, though.

This setup worked perfectly on our Labor Day family gathering! Thank Don, and everyone else who has paved the way for easier distance connections. On a related note, Flagpole Buddy had a 20% off sale over the weekend, so a suction cup mast for the Mini will arrive the end of this week.

Here you go:

We have quite a bit of chlorine taste at the home tap. So all of our drinking water goes through a 3 gallon Berkey filter. I know that's not a purifier, but it at least tastes good. When travelling, we use the Berkey to fill eight 1-gallon square water bottles, as found at Wal~Mart. We bought them once, and have refilled them dozens of times. The square jugs fit nicely on the floor of the closet, next to a crate where we keep the Keurig and a counter-top pitcher. (Actually, a Brita pitcher, but without the filter, which we found *added* a nasty taste.) Eight gallons lasts us a long weekend. For extended stays where we will have access to water, I can refill using my home-made filter system. I just use the output hose to refill the gallon jugs. Or if no potable water is available, I can use my Lifesaver Jerrycan water purification system. https://lifesaverusa.co This is what we used when camping in the square drop before we got the Oliver.

Don already answered, but yep, I did what he did but without the cigarette lighter portion. I used 12G wire, because I have a 100' spool.

Negative wire on the bus bar, and positive on an empty spot in the fuse box with a 10A fuse.

That’s what I ended up doing. I made up a wiring harness with the switch and cable to run to the fuse box, and fed it through the switch hole. Then connected to the POE injector mounted just beside where the wires came through. It worked well for me.

In addition to the induction cooktop change, it was also noted that the cooktop orientation will be changed back to left/right instead of front/back. I don't know if induction cooktops have a cover like the propane version, but it was nice having the cover protect the bedding from any splatter. Also having the cooktop oriented front/back gave more prep space between it and the sink. I hope the induction cooktop is an option, and propane is still available. Especially for buyers not getting the big lithium packages. We don't have any pots or pans in the trailer or at home that would function on an induction cooktop other than a porcelain dutch oven and the few cast iron skillets I still use. I wouldn't want to have to buy all new cookware.

This is the fuse for the CO2 detector. I needed to find it in the middle of the night at Camp Oliver the day we took delivery of Curiosity! 😵‍💫

In a different view, the flexible reading lights are different, with the switch on the base.

Thanks Mike! After seeing your setup at Lake Guntersville, I ordered and installed the same unit, although I used the adaptor kit you had recommended and simply tucked the wires away under the camera. Unfortunately, my experience was not as good as yours. I had frequent loss of signal, and terrible signal delay. To the point that a car would sometimes be beside me before it showed up as behind me on the display. But this only happened at highway speeds. It worked great when stationary or backing into a campsite. I thought it might be engine interference, so I put the truck in low gear at low speeds to get the RPMs up, but it still worked great then, too. Haloview Customer Service was useless in resolvingtheproblem. Looking at reviews online, this is a common complaint. So I'm now back to the original Furrion camera. It's not great, but it at least works for me. If anyone wants a Haloview MC7108 for a truck camper or backup camera for a car that didn't come with one, I'll sell you mine for $100 plus shipping. Cost new in June was $200.

That's why I changed to a POE cable to the Mini, as several others here have done. Here in eastern US, trees are everywhere, and I might need to get the Mini 50-150 feet away to connect. But instead of Starlink's router, I've connected it to my Peplink cellular router, so the cell connection can kick in whenever there's a Starlink dropout.

I already had. Nothing there. Maybe because I’ve never used pause since activating my account.

Hmm, I did not receive an email from Starlink concerning anything about pausing my account. 🤷‍♂️

It is a nice addition to my system, and has an inbuilt angled surface for easy alignment. But the subscription fee is $23.86/month! 🤣 I have a tripod adaptor for any of my several tripods, and I'm waiting to see what Flagpole Buddy's Labor Day sale is going to be.

@dhaig Thanks again for the tips. I received all of the POE bits, so mocked it up in the garage. Makita battery powering POE box -> thru-hull port -> 50’ Cat 6 shielded cable-> waterproof junction-> Splitter -> Starlink Mini. I really appreciate the idea of adding the short cable from the splitter that will make assembly easier. Once installed there will be a Cat6 cable from the POE box to my cellular router, and will be connected like you did utilizing the new switch in the basement. Works like a charm! Thank you, and everyone who contributed before!

Thanks, Mike. Yes, the Pepwave system is on all the time. But if that's causing interference, I would think it would also occur stationary and with the Furrion system. The Furrion has been reinstalled, with a new dash mount instead of the window suction cup mount. I might see if the 7" compatible display is available so I can see it without glasses.