jd1923

Last time out, we stayed one night... Let's call it a shady campground and I don't mean the fact that it was up in the woods! Too many homeless today living out of cars and vans! Last year we drove into a city park in central NM and as soon as we pulled down into it, we headed right back out! No way Chris and I would have spent a night there. It was like one of those refugee scenes from a disaster movie! I worried about the Mini since I had to place it a distance away from the Oliver to get clear sky. I fell asleep that night leaving it out there and in the morning I quickly looked out the dinette window to thankfully see it where I had left it. If they take our Mini, there goes the $450 plus tax we paid, $20 for the wiring kit and another $140 for my 10Ah DeWalt battery! All brand new stuff and they would probably even take the milk crate that I use to prop up the Mini above ground! The next loss is continuing the rest of your trip without satellite connection, and bummed re the loss. There is no way simple way to lock down a Mini. Lock it to what? Stretch out 50' of cable with a 50' chain? 🤣 We just have to be careful.

I tried to help, notify our fellow Oliver owners of this good deal, but this is quickly going into the "snooze you loose" category! I truly respect the way they handled the charges. When ordered, they put only an AUTH on my card. They did not fully charge for the item until confirmation of delivery. Both charges and the $5 credit are still pending on my account today, should close tomorrow after the holiday. Nine days ago, the price was as listed below. When I started this thread, it had gone up to $228.65 and I just did a refresh today and it's $279.65! Maybe they had old pricing on their website and after selling one to us at little profit, they updated their pricing. It's still $50 plus tax less than pricing anywhere else. I paid $150 more for our Starlink Mini vs. the sales price today. With this purchase I'm about even!

It can take a pouring thunderstorm, also rated for 100 MPH winds to be roof mounted. Just as long as you use cables with the waterproof seals which they supply anyway, you’re good to plug in outdoors.

Definitely, good advice! The one I listed comes in 12’ and then we have a 12’ with a splitter that we use for grill and fire ring.

NP You're welcome Steve & Mary Allyn! Let us know if you get one. I was amazed at the price with this reseller, and even with their recent price increase, it's a still $130 savings off vs. Amazon with tax. They emailed me after delivery to ask if all was OK. I replied to thank them positively, and they replied again with another $5 discount if I would post a review on Trust Pilot. I would have done so anyway. This newer company is legit. They seem to sells mostly tires with deals on some other products. Yeah @Geronimo John, like most LP appliances, except for high-pressure cooktops, you just need to remove the regulator in lieu of the Oliver onboard regulator. I didn't see the Napoleon hose and purchased this one, half price of the name brand. You just need two 3/4" or 19mm wrenches to change it out in a minute. Went for the 12 ft hose so we can tailgate without adding our Y-extension that connects our fire ring too. On short overnight stops, I can be lazy and not even lift it out of the truck! On cold nights and short stays, I've also fired up our fire ring just sitting in the front Oliver basket. I had some 1/8" thin rubber stock at home and cut a 2x3' grill mat. There are many fitting silicone mats for purchase on Amazon too. Any hose like this works. One this model you would not use the extra fitting used for 1# tanks. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NCXY39M/?th=1 Chris slowly seasoned the grates the day before in our oven (could have done it in the grill set at a low). We fired it up yesterday. It went right up to 400F in literally 2 minutes. Then I lifted the lid a few minutes to let it cool down, put both burners on the lowest setting, and temp sat constantly at 180F. Don't think this was possible in the Weber Q which stayed pretty hot on low. Two-burner control, indirect cooking and the griddle option should be nice. It's a bit bigger, though it still fits nicely in the back of our truck with room for our lawn chairs to the side of it. Countdown 4 days 'til we leave on our 5-week trip! (longest trip to date for us)

What’s happening over there? This is as bad as them telling @John Dorrer $1000 to replace the main battery breaker (that went bad) with an ANL fuse and holder ($73 parts retail and an hour of labor). Ours has the #113 plaque which must have been added during a 2020 service. I would pass if I had to buy one. And come on, #45 is a true classic! Hopefully Bill can talk some sense in them…

Yeah Ken, I tried this when you first mentioned it to me. Didn't help on our valves. I found the reason when I got inside of the valves. The black cable was hard to pull due to 2 bends in the 12' cable. The gray valve had soooo much goo on the blade from past owners putting who knows what soaps and/or additives in the drains. I did silicone grease those rods per your advise during the install. A few trips and dumps later bother valves are still very smooth.

OK, I think I understand. You run power and Ethernet (or POE) cables to the Mini and connect to your internal router. Nice!

In our 2 years, we haven't been able to make one yet. I never know until I'm offered an event calendar for work. However, Fall season is more likely an opportunity for us and the weather has got be be better, certainly given the rainout which occurred this year!

I'm not much for out the window solutions in vehicles. Why not use the outdoor 110V outlet? We still have the included 50 ft wire and charger kit in the box. Over time and weather use of the long cord may become painful. It's nice to carry dish and battery and not worry about extending a cord and winding it up to leave. I just place the dish on an upside-down milk crate, always have a couple in the back of the truck. The battery solution can be expensive if purchasing outright, but we've had the DeWalt tools for years and I would not have had to buy more if one had not go bad last time out. Found an open-box 10 Ah 2-pack on eBay and these and a couple small ones will power up the Starlink and all the other tools we use. You also need the larger Ah for the leaf blower which cleans dirt-road dust of of the Oliver in seconds, clears debris from campsites and I use it every so often on outdoor rug. Nice to have! But I get it, the cable and 30V power adapter is in the kit, no additional expense, yes KISS! Best wishes, JD

WOW, congratulations to you, Sir! 😂

John, if you like and when you make it out to Arizona, buy the parts I listed above (just $100 with tax and including a backup fuse) and in an hour, we'll make the change. Service costs for custom work (most auto/RV service) is crazy these days! I could not afford our Oliver and tow vehicle, let alone the many other vehicles on our property if I had to pay for service. It's a labor of love! Hull #113 made it to the Mothership for service twice prior to our ownership, but not likely again. It's too far (that cost alone is infeasible for us), too much in service costs and it's well beyond warranty! I have a service policy here. When one vehicle breaks down, I park it until I have time to make the repair. In the meantime, I switch insurance to another that is ready to go! We also have cars for fair-weather driving and AWD trucks for winter. My insurance agent loves me! 🤣

Lately, either black or white, many will fail right out of a new pack upon tightening!

More info - https://www.napoleon.com/en/us/grills/products/portable-grills/travelq-pro-series/travelq-pro285-pro285-bk

We've been toting around the little Weber Q for years, long before we got our Oliver. I've gotten tired of this old grill, the folding side shelves, the rickety rolling stand. Recently, we became interested in the Napoleon PRO285-BK Grill. There are high-end models with built-in stands, but I thought they would be heavy and awkward to stow. It's a little bigger and heavier than the Q, but beats adding a second cooking device, like having a grill and a Brookstone (this has optional griddle inserts) and it offers indirect cooking, given the 2-burner design that cannot be had on a single-burner grill. List price is $329 plus tax (was $299 on Amazon last week, but not anymore). Then I found this company. I was a little skeptical at first, with their Chinese-like name (a Kansas Co, shipped from Hayes KS). And then when Trust Pilot and other online sources said good to OK things about them with a few years of history. I made the purchase last Sunday, they shipped Tuesday and we received it today in excellent condition, only a few scuffs on the box. You cannot beat this deal! Today the price is $228.65 but they do NOT charge shipping and NO sales tax! I paid $201.75 TOTAL last week, OMG. 🤣 Are you looking for a new grill? https://sansujyuku.com/product/napoleon-travelq-pro-285-sq-in-black-portable-liquid-propane-grill-pro285-bk/ We also purchased these extras. Leaving soon on a 5-week trip and can't wait to eat the food Chris cooks using our improved cooking equipment! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00L6EMW0U/?th=1 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B077SLW6L4/?th=1

Agreed, our first trip we went over the $50 plan. With 10 overnights in NM and AZ, 6 of which we ran Starlink. The other 4 nights we were in Albuquerque, where our cellular router had good service. I would call us the opposite case. We stream news programs, 1-2 hours in the morning, stream YouTube or Prime shows 3-4 hours in the evenings, not worrying to conserve. Starlink billed us $50 to start and another $36 later, $86 for 5-6 days connected. The $50 plan is fine for when you travel just one short trip within the 30-day billing cycle. We're leaving on a 5-week trip next week. I will re-up on the $50 plan to start. Then our billing cycle starts the 5th of the month, so starting June 5th I will upgrade to the unlimited plan for one month and ahead of time I will pause service (so not to forget) for the 4th of July when we will be back home. Starlink is a convenient and worthwhile Internet service for all of us who travel where cell service is spotty. I started a fancy wired installation and found out on two trips that a simple battery setup is easier so to position the dish anywhere around the campsite, though I prefer when I can have the dish positioned in the truck bed for issues of theft or wind. In the picture you can see my fancy wired installation and our battery setup. I went the DeWalt route since I have many DeWalt tools and bring DeWalt leaf blower, vacuum, Sawzall, 1/4" impact, flashlights with us that share a set of batteries. The adapter is a $20 part on Amazon. I just purchased two new DeWalt 10Ah batteries (the one pictured is 4Ah) and one 10Ah battery should be enough to run from morning until late at night when I fall asleep. The battery will be dead the next morning and then I can replace it with the second charged battery. I have our extra DeWalt charger mounted in the Oliver attic on a shelf above our Blu-ray player! It sure beat a wired solution!

Yesterday, I remounted what I call our PJ baskets because the original mounts had failed. I had used 3 zip-tie anchors which you can see in the pictures above. The supplied tape on these zip-tie anchors are bad. Then I rehung them with 3M VHB 4950 on the same mounts which lasted longer but eventually failed. So I came up with this flex bracket idea, I cut 14" brackets from a coiled supply and applied one long strip of 1" VHB and then cutout three 1/4" openings to fit the zip ties through. BTW, it's not easy to get your body back in these corners with level in hand and mount these squarely with the VHB wanting to grab on first touch. This time, these mounts will be strong enough to hold bricks! So my heavy jeans, and whatever overnight will hold nicely (except when in MN this June, due to @SeaDawg's tick warning!). We also put our bath towels in the baskets after they have dried. These are handy! Most of the metal is hidden because of the spacers I added keeping the basket up to the top of the bracket. The only weak-link are the zip-ties (these are 50 lb strength, but zip-ties today are more brittle than they used to be) but they replace easily. These brackets are not going anywhere, and again, as in all of my installations, no holes drilled into the Oliver fiberglass! Obviously, we sleep feet to the rear. We're heading out on a long trip next week, so it's going this way for now. After our trip, I'll take them down over the summer and apply a white vinyl trim tape to just cover the metal brackets and then she'll be pretty besides strong! No more clothes piled up overnight on the dinette seats, nice!

Turns out I was wrong about the 3/4" version being thinner than the other. I remembered the 1" version being thicker, turns out now that I have both new rolls, they are the same as you can see in the picture. I was going to return the 3/4" but given the lower cost, flexibility of having both and how often I use this stuff, I will keep both rolls! So the 3/4" is a better cost per square inch. Sometimes having the 3/4" width would work better and sometimes have the extra width would be preferred. For this fan either would work. The only thing that is important in my mind is the the outward facing edge is completely covered by tape, razor cut in the same oval shape, otherwise you would see a dark gap where the tape doesn't come the the edge. Just cosmetic, yet important.

That's cool, fall dates!

Oh man, I bought mine a month early! I hate when that happens, but love the product and service. Anybody reading, don’t have one? Buy now or be the lahooosier!

It’s just my rear leafs must be worn, hence a 2” drop when I hitch tongue weight <580 lbs. Our current Ram is the 2nd Gen Cummins GVWR 8800 lbs. For 18 years I drove an ‘03 (3rd Gen) 4WD SB Quad Cab GVWR 9000 lbs. That truck had such greater towing capacity. When we moved to AZ from VA, I pulled a 26 ft race car trailer, full of family belongings. Combined weight was 21,500 lbs and it only slowed down on I-17 in AZ pulling a steep incline out of the Verde Valley, while semis were moving 35 MPH. Your 2014 is likely 5th Gen (?) and certainly has an improved suspension over the current state of mine. Be careful with suspension changes but I’ve read Carli is good equipment.

We don't need no schtinkin' cameras! Our OTT installed 10-year-system camera system has never been used by us. Fired it up once and the screen is certainly low-res, never used while traveling. Been backing up trailers for 40 years without cameras and will continue to do so. When I cleaned up our front roof, I removed the forward camera, the cell booster and the Winegard dish, followed by a lot of fiberglass repair! Our rear camera is still back there and should be removed sooner or later. Don't like driving, especially towing, looking at screens while eyes should be on the road! Old school thinking here, but I also believe a TPMS system won't help in a blowout situation which is the main safety issue re tires. I've had a habit for decades of visual inspection of all tires before I ever sit in any vehicle, every time. I'll check all 8 tires when towing for proper shape, meaning tire pressure is likely still as I had set it, every time I'll tow the Oliver, a 360 walk-around, check the hitch connections too. The apps we use, Apple Maps, GasBuddy, Waze, Campendium, etc. are either running on Chris' phone or on mine only when I'm on breaks, not driving. Looking forward, concentrating a mile up the road, is something I realized to be extremely important from when I first riding motorcycles a long, long time ago and ever since. Most others are not looking, thus we must.

Flow in a DC circuit is in two directions which you can see when you observe the battery or inverter apps. If it is showing -A then current is flowing from the battery (source) to the load that is using the current (inverter or any DC device, lights, etc.). When the app is show +A a connected charger is supplying current back to the batteries. The breakers used for RV and marine use are directional, meaning they will only "break" when there is a ground fault on one side. They are generally wired so that if the B+ is grounded somewhere in line past the breaker it will break to protect the batteries. In this configuration, if the 4/0 cable was to be grounded before the breaker, like say someone wrenched the positive cable to remove it from the battery post and they accidently hit the negative with the wrench, or the B+ and B- cables touch in any way, the breaker would not break and the battery would quickly overheat and fry if the connection was allowed to persist. Likelihood of this is relatively low, so hence the use of breakers is common. BTW when removing battery cables always remove the negative first and when installing always connect the positive first so that you do not create this situation. There may be another rare case, though I'm not certain this case is true, where somehow a shore power connected charger pushed way to many amps to the batteries. Highly unlikely, but the fuse would protect in this case and the breaker would not (the breaker only looking for ground fault, not excessive current in the opposite direction). Confusing stuff, right? Breakers are generally less dependable in their design as noted in the experience of many of you in this post and others. And the options available today with rare exceptions are cheaply made in China. They are convenient for those that do not want to replace a fuse and great for household use where to ground the wrong side you would have to have the power panel open. When a fuse blows there is definite reason. Have an extra on hand, but do not install the extra until you determine the cause of the blown fuse, as the fuse is not blowing itself like the defective breaker.

Yep, Chris usually has Waze going while I'm driving. It does help with these issues.

Time for anybody needing to replace the main breaker, get a fuse and fuse holder instead. Fuses protect bidirectionally, meaning they will protect the power source (battery) and the load, inverter and/or other loads. Breakers are OK for like a 40A or 60A DC branch, but not on the 4/0 cables between battery and inverter. A fuse will protect a ground fault at the batteries or at the inverter and a breaker will only protect one side, depending on which direction it is wired. In our older hull, OTT had wired a 250A ANL fuse and holder between the batteries and our original 2KW inverter (check inverter manufacture's spec for correct fuse amps). When I upgraded our inverter I only needed to get an ANL for higher amperage. You can even better protection with Class-T fuses ($$$) but ANL will perform much better than the breaker shown above and certainly is good enough. I would suggest these. The Blue Seas holder is rated to 750A. They have a smaller 300A holder for less money, but this one is nice, with two pairs of mounts which allows you to change the fuse without loosening the battery cables. The second link assumes you need a 300A fuse. Enjoy! 😂 https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Block-Insulating/dp/B001VIVWAW/ https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-5133-300a/dp/B07D1VJ7BM/