Jason Foster

Looks like I dodged the bullet on this. Any ideas what might be causing this?

What the heck? It is 1am but I am going to go check mine out right now. 😨

TLDR: We drove to Tennessee, then to Arkansas, where it rained, got sick, drove home and forgot all the pictures. A few bad pictures are at the bottom of this wall of text. Our adventure started on Sunday December 17. It was sunny and cool and stayed that way all the way to Tennessee. The first leg of our journey was my wife's idea. She wanted to extend this trip a little longer, so she talked me into leaving a day early with an unnecessary layover in Hot Springs, AR. We left Longview, TX, at 9am. Traffic was good and we made very few stops, so we got there at 1pm. After checking into the hotel, we drove around and ate at a fast casual restaurant named NEWKS. We have one of these in Longview, so we knew the food was good. With not much left to do, we went back to the hotel and stared out of the window overlooking the lakes. Monday was cooler but still sunny and bright. We left at 7:30am after eating the hotel breakfast, which wasn't that good, but it was free. We made good time until my wife noticed the big blue and yellow IKEA warehouse in Memphis, TN. Unfortunately, we stayed in there...let me clarify, we got lost in there for several hours. Thankfully, we didn't spend much to escape. They have a lot of very interesting stuff but most of it was about three times what we wanted to pay for it. I really wanted an expandable light globe that looked like the Death Star, but I resisted the Dark Side. We bought just enough to get a free bag then left. The rest of the drive was uneventful. After six hours, a stop at McDonalds to load and unload, we arrived at Hurricane Mills, TN. Once we got well past Memphis, the drive started getting pretty, but not amazing. We filled up the diesel tank for the first time here. After checking into the hotel, I drove over to Loretta Lynns Kitchen for some greasy food, then we called it a night. Tuesday started to get interesting. We drove down Dyer Road and feasted our eyes on some Tennessee back country, arriving at Oliver at 7:45. Our appointment wasn't until 8:30am but we got in early, and Hannah walked us through an exhausting power course. I had already learned most of the systems on Oliver's website, but my wife needed the hands-on training which lasted past lunch. My hats off to the people at Oliver. They are some down to earth great people. I made the right choice when I splurged on this trailer. Lori got us squared away on the paperwork and Chase stopped by for a chat over coffee. They had another couple scheduled for delivery later in the afternoon, so we rolled out onto the on-site campground and stayed the night in our new Oliver LE2. It was a cold night, but we stayed quite warm. Sadly, I failed to get pictures because I was too excited, then too tired. We planned to get pictures when we got to my parents' house the next day. That didn't turn out the way I expected. Wednesday started out nice. We slept comfortably, the trailer performed admirably, i.e. nothing was broken or messed up. Since we didn't bring any food, we skedaddled on out and hit 412 back to Arkansas. We slept later than usual, so we skipped breakfast and grabbed brunch at Subway. The trailer pulled like a dream. After big, hefty and obtrusive monsters, this thing slipped through the air like you would expect something with the name of Airstream to do, only much better. It didn't wobble, it didn't bounce. It is so well balanced; I hardly knew I was pulling a trailer. Obviously, my fuel mileage suffered some and the Cummins didn't have as much pep, but I can't say enough about this. I love it. Sadly, the trip started to go downhill once I started going uphill at Alma, AR, and it had nothing to do with the trailer. It started raining. Thursday, rain. Friday, rain, Saturday, rain. Sunday, rain. Did I mention, it rained? We arrived at my parents' house on Thursday at 8:30pm to rain. We parked the trailer, unhooked and got it leveled in less than 10 minutes. I was soaked but still had a great time. Obviously, it was dark, and the trailer was filthy, so we didn't get the pictures we had planned on getting when we arrived. But this week gets better. First the rain, then I couldn't get my dad's power to work with the trailer. Thankfully, we had enough foresight to purchase the 390 AH Lithium package. Since we had no power coming in and the solar panels were denied the glory of the sun, we were careful not to overindulge our electronic resources. Some coffee in the morning using an electric tea kettle, (I know, I need a regular kettle that I can use on the stove.) and a little TV at night kept the tanks above 50% for four days. Saturday, it went from bad to worst. My dad got sick with some kind of flu on Friday. Then my mom got sick the next day, followed by my wife. My sister, who works at the hospital never contracted this illness, so she elected to stay and take care of them while we drove home. Halfway through the drive on Sunday, I started feeling bad. Though I always try to look for the silver lining in adversity, it took some sunlight once we crested the Ouachita Mountains to liven my mood. We got home after dark. The rain had stopped but my wife felt terrible. I got her in bed and left the trailer hooked up to the truck for two days before I got the energy up to back it in, level it and hook it to some good power food. It was an executive decision on my part. I monitored the batteries using the LI3 app, making sure they didn't drop too low, and I left the heat on in the trailer at 60 degrees to combat the early morning chill. Once I got the trailer hooked up, I finally talked myself into some pictures as follows: The first two images are of the outside northeast of my house. The third picture is of our messy interior complete with dog bed. Fourth picture me not feeling too good. We are planning to spend a few days this weekend at Ratcliff Recreation deep in the Davy Crocket National Forest. Though not technically its maiden voyage, it will be the first for what we bought it for: Camping, not mooch docking. I will get pictures this time. I promise.

Sadly, though I indeed have the capacity to dive deep into the proverbial rabbit hole, I am entirely too lazy to dig to the depth of self harm. 😞

Wait, how do I achieve this level of Rabbit Holiness? This is literally my life dream.

I noticed that you said chairs twice. Ooof. How many, exactly, are we talking about here, my dude?

Same. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. All the twist locks I've used over the years work fine with the exception of that ridiculously flimsy, woefully and ineffectively threaded, plastic locking ring.

I prescribe to the Less-is-More philosophy. My wife and I have two stainless steel double walled coffee cups. That's it. If neighbors come by, they better bring their own cups if they want to sample the good stuff.

Being a welder with the skills and the equipment, I can't justify $1250 for a box. I may wind up building one when I am bored.

It turns out that the electrical service at my parents was faulty. I plugged up at my house and it was fine. Now I have a water leak below one of the windows. lol

Very likely. My parents fancy themselves as a jack of all trades. I checked their wiring with my mom’s 20 year old voltmeter but it was probably just as faulty as the wire and breaker. I finally gave up on it. The batteries stayed charged enough before we left for home

The only power draw was the Xantrex. My wife and I got sick with an upper respiratory virus so we packed up and came home. I haven’t plugged it in here yet.

Xantrex turns on and off continuously using 20 amp plug. It was working fine at Oliver on 30 amp. Any ideas?

I picked up on Tuesday but it doesn’t seem to like 20amp power. The power keeps shutting off and turning back continuously. Trying to figure it out.

Darth Maul approves.

Thanks. That looks incredible. May have to try it next time around.

Why does it need to be so complicated?

I am one of those guys that has to keep his vehicle looking and smelling like it just rolled off the showroom floor. Of course, it gets dirty from daily use, and we do eat in our vehicles, but periodically, I get that itch to detail it to perfection. It just so happens that it always happens before the trip. Now that you mention it, I do believe my cleaning routine may just be a subconscious way to verify that it is in good working order. Regardless, I travel much more comfortably and calmly in an immaculately clean vehicle. We are planning on leaving on Sunday now (my wife's idea). We will stay in a hotel in Hot Springs, AR. Any good things to do there with a dog, anyone? Then travel the remaining distance on Monday before our appointment on Tuesday. I know that the excitement of finally getting our Christmas present will eventually wear off, but this trailer really is a means to an end not the end itself. At the end of the day, it is a tool to allow us to do the things we love.

Legend has it that Elon wants an Oliver. He is just waiting for the devs to install the Fart Mode system so he can feel at home.

We talked about this being our Christmas gift to one another and decided to not go all out on other gifts except for socks and stuff. I will upload some delivery photos, but it may be a few days after the excitement wears off. Thanks, y'all.

In my area, looks like DSF will be chosen. I'm not fond of big cities; However, having a service center close to me is a win if I just need to pick up a part.

That's a pretty good spread.

That is photoshopped. This, however, was taken off of Google Maps when I was researching the drive to and from Hohenwald.

Do you have a pet tiger named, Hobbes?

I had to read that twice. First time I read, "No one ever has bears around the microwave."