jd1923

We only get mosquitos a few weeks a year, once monsoon rains get the area wet enough (August +/-). No flies either though we ran through a lot of them to and from the Oct Texas Rally. Brought a couple home in the hull to the fate of death in the Arizona dry! 🤣 However years in the Midwest (stewardess on board?) and in Texas (those little nasty B-words) brings back bad memories. I always do yardwork in Jeans and long sleeves, hats and gloves even in the heat of the day. Always have two fans in my garage. One blowing at ankle height and the other chest height. As far as travel, we prefer not travel in those areas or seasons. Might have to miss that trip to Alaska. It's too far anyway! How are the bugs at the big rally on the Lake in northern Alabama?! Also, too far, maybe someday.

Gross, all that pink stuff in your FWT! Not easy to rinse without half filling and dumping it a few times. I only use air as a winterizing agent! 🤣 We travel with an extra 35-Gal FWT in our truck bed, using the Boondocking valves all the time! We can be off-grid for ten+ days when needed, given we can let a little gray water out in the back country. Turning two switches sure beats lifting a 10” mattress! The third switch empties the FWT. The picture also shows the heater duct delete and the added air intake filter housing.

And don't forget to remove the government regulated restrictor in the head of the faucet! When I used to travel for business a lot, I had a wrench and pliers in my suitcase so I could remove the restrictor from the hotel shower head. Got a decent shower instead of the designed trickle! Later I would nicely reinstall their device, prior to check-out! 🤣

This pic shows the motorized ball valves I installed. More important to flow is the upgrade to the water pump! This Made-in-USA pump is 5 PSI higher and 0.4 GPM greater flow rate which is a positive yet conservative upgrade. I believe the variable speed motor also provides for greater flow rates when in use. This pump should last forever (can run dry for hours) but it's not near as quiet in my application as they claim. It could be my steel bracket holding the valves acts as a sound conduit. I should add softer rubber footings when I get under there this week. I could also insulate this bracket and the basement cover that sits above this area. I certainly hope to fix the leak before getting into additional mods. I truly hope the leak is obvious and easy to reach! 🤣

That was lucky! 4-5 weeks ahead I looked at both parks plus ALL of the Maricopa Regional Parks. There was not a single night available for the week of Feb 24th, in any local park between Prescott and Tucson. Then two weeks out a Thursday night at Catalina opened up and I grabbed it. A few days later the Monday night opened at Lost Dutchman. That was our first night out and I like when the first day is less driving, Lost Dutchman being half the distance to Catalina from our home. Then a week before Catalina had a Wednesday opening so we got 2 nights, at two different sites of course. I wondered, what would they do for a flood? Our visit to Catalina SP was OK, not great. After the first night we moved to the new site at noon and had the day to investigate. I wanted to see the town of Oracle AZ and drive into the north end of Coronado NF to take the back route up to Mt. Lemmon. We got a few miles past Oracle and there was an obvious Temperature Inversion. All of the dust from the dry conditions of the valleys were trapped so that we were driving through a huge cloud of dust! After sneezing a couple of times and the look of things we abandoned our trip. You could not see through the haze at all, not a single view of Santa Catalina Mountains while climbing up! One reason for your visit was to meet friends who had recently purchased a home in nearby SaddleBrooke Ranch. We played pickleball with them and others in the community on two evenings and had a great time. Dinner at their home the first night and a good strong hot shower the next morning! Drove up to Wickenburg for our last night, taking a detour around Phoenix to Gila Bend, Buckeye and up. We often prefer driving the back way up Hwy 89 to Prescott vs. I-17 (currently on a 5-year construction plan to widen it). This picture was taken from Constellation Park (found on Campendium $10/night) looking down at the town of Wickenburg. There was one site left available at 5PM! It was a short and sweet trip and we're back home today for the day of rest!

It's important to me. I've done a lot to improve water pressure and GPM flow rates. I replaced all OEM valves with motorized ball valves with true 12mm ID. The OTT installed valves were 1/4" ID (see picture, drill bits shown are 1/4" and 3/8"). Every 90 (too many of these installed) and ALL PEX crimped connectors have 3/8" ID. Newer hulls do not have the 1/4" ID brass valves but instead more of the other valves shown center of picture with 3/8" ID. The Oliver plumbing system is then a 3/8" system. If they had used SharkBite everywhere it would be a true 1/2" system.

My son’s first USTA tennis tournament was on the grounds of Texas A&M!

Welcome! Pretty soon the forum cops will suggest you add a signature including hull and tow vehicle info. Some write a book with all mods info… and others do something simple like ours. Very nice first pic!

The Santa Catalina Mountains from the Catalina State Park of Arizona. Was dry as bone here, no real precip this season, daily highs in the 80s!

Again, thank you Mike! I would have not looked there first, or second and it’s so down low on the floor. I did have it closed for two months since I had winterized late November and just turned it back on the day before the leak occurred. Do you believe in coincidence? Let you know in a few days, TY!

Thanks Mike. This leak could be of my doing when replacing manual valves with electric 18 months and 50 nights out earlier, but not likely. I will figure it out soon and let y’all know when I know! We had two broken frame welds upon purchase, but I will say, two years and 64 nights out camping, this is the first failure in our quite wonderful, very well built OTT! 😂

Out on a camp this week. Left home after positive tests of our new waste valves, no issues there. First night at Lost Dutchman after filling the Fresh Water Tank (FWT) all was good, not a drop for 24+ hours. Second night, parked at a friend’s house near Tucson, in their driveway we had an obvious leak out the curbside rear, but as we moved at different levels it would leak at any weep hole but front left, TG! Y’all know for sure, I’m the working sort but not during the time when we are away enjoying life. So we only turned on the water pump when needed. I tested the City Water connection, same thing, which means it’s not in the connection. What do you think would be the cause of the leak. My hope is it’s obviously and easy to reach. We’ll be home tomorrow. I’ll put the beds in the house and run a fan down there to dry things out! Good news RH here is <10% so no mildew. Will let you know what I find but would like to know if any of you had this experience?

Yeah and BTW, please do not travel Arizona without reaching out and stopping by. 😂

Yeah, Duh! Cut me off Val, before I have a Bromance issue with you! 🤣

Yep, ours too and we still have them. I upgrade a lot of stuff, but since this is in the area of liability insurance, I figure OTT is responsible if I do not touch what was installed by the manufacturer. This should receive comment! 🤣

I wrote a mod post on this. I strongly suggest moving the bus under the street side bed to the area under the rear dinette seat. Blow a fuse and remove a bed, what was OTT thinking?! 🤣

Hit a deer with my ‘84 Goldwing Standard, coming home one night in Georgetown TX. Saw her coming and kept it up on two wheels as she glanced off the side of my bike. Heck, the raccoons in suburban Chicagoland are larger than the deer in Texas! 🤣

Very similar backgrounds, the two of us were west-siders, 6 years in N VA on the way to 9 years in Texas. Our last cold winter was ‘99 unless you consider VA cold. I worked for that late great 20th century manufacturer of communications equipment, also headquartered in Chicagoland!

My first job was installing stereo systems in cars which led to working through college installing aftermarket kits (alarms, cruise controls, etc.) Install 12-16 automotive accessory kits a week at every named dealership and a few Oliver mods are quick and easy! Love your quote here. I also enjoy the repairs! Like buying an old motorcycle priced low since it doesn’t run and driving it in the neighborhood a few days later! The of course restoring it fully. Not the 10-hour day I used to work but a half day teaching (my paying job) followed by a few hours in the garage. Or half the year when I’m not working, a half day on a repair and playing pickleball or going on a hike in the afternoon! Call me nuts, but I/we have always worked our own yard work, and always on properties with acreage! Don’t understand how full-timers survive, being without a good home attached to the ground! Couldn’t be without my 3-car garage with wrap-around work benches, toolboxes, cabinets and shelves, besides our two outbuildings for more parts and tools. Love when I do repairs using hardware and parts I hoarded from decades ago! No trip required to True Value or The Depot. Most members here online rave about being retired, not me. Like my life working occasionally. My uncle retired at 51 after selling his half of 3 Chicago restaurants. Moved to Port St. Lucie and although he was a near scratch golfer, got bored, disliked his retired life, feared reinvesting in something new, passed of a heart attack while on a riding mower at age 64. His brother, my father worked everyday of his life until he passed at 92 years. I won’t be at either extreme! I’d be gearing up for spring yard work soon, but with no real rain or snow in the last 5 months, this will wait until after the summer monsoons! 😂

I understand, but it’s too much money. What I’ve done to our Oliver in less than 2 years would be near $20K in labor! And that doesn’t include the total restoration of our tow vehicle. I rarely buy new vehicles, last time was in 2001, don’t like warranty claims or insurance, so we go with minimums. Close to 50 years wrenching for me. Turning 70 in April and I still prefer to do my own work. Hope I can when I’m 80, although very few parts of my body don’t hurt these days! 🤣

Rounding error! 🤣

True although as the article states, “Propane is stored and delivered as a liquid.” And later it states, “These meters include a volume correction device known as an automatic temperature compensator.” Given delivery is adjusted for temperature, when you buy a gallon of LP it should be the standard weight of a gallon at the standard temp 60F. If it’s a cold day your getting less actual volume, but the gauge in the dispensing tank is temp-compensated standard. The person filling should be trained, but if not, do not allow much more than 6.8 Gal on the gauge to be added to an empty 30# tank! (4.5 Gal for 20#) Temp swings up and down is why the tank should be only 80% full. The 20% gas portion allows for expansion and contraction. The cold tank filled with over 8 gallons had no room for expansion, so it had to be released out of the tank when the temp increased.

My understanding is that Ford caused the Firestone blowouts that caused I’ve 450 accidents and 250 deaths. Ford was getting complaints that the Ford Explorer of 25 years ago drove too harsh, “drove like a truck.” A ford exec sent a service advisory memo to the dealers, asking tire pressure to be reduced to 26 PSI from the Firestone spec of 33 PSI! Ever wonder why only Explorers had these blowouts and not the F150 of the era that had same drive train and tires? Ford caused the demise of Firestone, arguably the best tire company of the 20th century, certainly the greatest market share. The public stopped buying Firestone tires. Their stock plummeted trading at pennies on the dollar when the Japanese parent co of Bridgestone Tires bought them out. Henry Ford and Harvey Firestone created a partnership that lasted for 7 decades until this time. Henry II married the Firestone granddaughter in the 50s. At least this is how I remember the story.

I’m with you 98% except for tires where often OEM is satisfactory and better performance can be found easily. OEM auto parts yes, sometimes performance aftermarket. I restored more than 10 vehicles to original condition. Can’t stand an old car chopped or moded in any way. It’s like they wrecked an old car and has no future use even for parts in a boneyard! Anderson, no grease, no problem. One less thing to maintain. Yes grease collects dirt and grease on the hitch ball has wrecked many a good pair of pants!

The thought of instant hot water is nice, but not Truma given all this! Our old school Suburban with 6 gallons water weight and the waste of draining often… But it’s running now 10 years and I like the choice of using LP or electric. This trip we heated the tank twice on inverted battery power, using about 10% of 600AH!