Galileo

True - but until I got out the real level and tweaked my LevelMate Pro+ it sometimes wasn’t perfect. That, and the cats require that I have a positive way to keep the door open. (Yes, just as in Jurassic Park - where the Velociraptors learned how to open doors…..)

Johnny Carson fan? 😋

I figure a “professional” thief is kinda like a squirrel going after your bird feeders: That’s their business 24/7 and they’ll outsmart pretty much any “squirrel proof” feeders you have and find a way to chow down. Luckily, crooks that dedicated don’t waste their time on spare tires or propane tanks - they go after art, diamonds, and gold - or - they run for state or federal office.

Dunno how big that nut (hex) would be, but based on the cars I used to see sitting up in milk crates, the crooks come with lug wrenches…. As always, locks and other measures “keep the honest people honest”. The only added “security” device I’ve added is the locking receiver pin holding the Andersen WD hitch in place. I actually chose a less common one, as the common ones have an undercut right where it counts that weaken the pin and make it easy for crooks to snap off the end. I don’t use the cheap Camco hitch coupler lock because it looks like a weak die casting that could easily be broken. I saw a fabricated steel one at Camping World - but it was kinda pricey. When I’m feeling flush, I may buy one.

Well hell, that’s simple! Your spare tire is secure because it’s impossible to ride off with a heavy tire and rim on a stolen bike! 😋 But seriously, we might want to add bikes to our camping gear, but it’s one more toy you have to keep safe…. We generally find that campgrounds are pretty safe. That said, some parks aren’t as well-secured as they should be and vagrants of a sort seem to show up late - after the staff is gone. They shower, crash, and depart before the staff arrives. I’ve seen beater pickup trucks cruising through campgrounds and marinas looking for anything that’s not bolted down or attended to. (The assortment of mixed booty tossed in the back is a clue.) Had to scare off a few suspicious looking characters in the past couple of years. Generally, eyeballing them really good tends to get them to speed up and depart .

Curious how that worked out….. We opted for the Oliver after deciding upon a fiberglass trailer, discovering that the Casita was too small, and not wanting to venture to the PNW or BC to look at the other FRP trailers. We had looked at cheap “Coleman” trailers (like $12,000 at the time) but we’d had bad experiences with typical “built-up” motor homes that that shake themselves apart and leak after 3 weeks. (The last one we literally had to give away.) I am and remain impressed by the construction of the Oliver over the stick-built, aluminum covered trailers. Anyway - we heard that Oliver resale values were “high” or “great”. Salesman even said you could sell it used for most of what you paid for it. That said - just curious what people have seen used Olivers going for and/or how much people bought (or sold) their used ones for. BTW - saw my first “Bowlus” trailer today. I looked them up and they’re gosh-awful expensive. I don’t care for the looks, and that pointy back and and flimsy bumper look like they’re inviting a rear-end collision by one of the many tailgating drivers out there…..

THIS is why I feel the need for R/O in the Oliver. Wife and I TRY to drink more water (except in Italy or France of course - where wine is less expensive…) and I was literally alarmed as I saw we were going through a 24 bottle case of water every day or two. The gallon jugs cost more than the equivalent number of 16.9 oz bottles, and the 2.5 gallon jugs are even higher - and still add to the plastic in the ocean or landfill. I had this issue licked last season with my portable (no tank) R/O system. I’d fill 8 1-liter recycled plastic bottles and fill our totable water bottles or coffee maker from those. Unfortunately, I seem to have left my R/O system (and my pressure regulator) in storage in Texas. So we’ve been pretty bad for the environment lately. 😥

Thanks! I’ll try to keep the wild(er) conspiracy theories to a minimum. Since I’ve sworn off Facebook, quit using LinkedIn, never tweeted in my life, and don’t know nuthin’ ‘bout Tik-Tok, Instagram, or Etsy - this is pretty much my only “social media”.

I guess I’m in the other camp - using the FWT only when I can’t get a water hook-up. Downside, of course, is unless you’ve done research, you don’t know what you’re gonna get out of that campground tap. I always travel with all tanks empty. Primarily for the weight savings. That way, I can feel better about my cast iron cookware and my wife’s skin care products….. If we camp at an “electric only” site, there’s always been a potable water tap on the CG someplace. So I’ll stop on the way in and put in maybe 25% in the FWT. Once I had to stretch 200’ of hose to fill after I forgot to tank up. I carry a collapsible 5 gallon potable water “tank” that I -could- use to tote water if I had to. I’ve found ways to avoid carrying 40# of water though.

Back in the bad old days (late ‘70’s, Chicago) my father’s moto home had the spare tire stolen off the rear bumper bracket more than once. He - a machinist - made a pretty involved stainless steel bracket and lock that finally solved the problem. Though I haven’t done it - yet - I plan to (better) secure our Ollie’s spare by drilling a hole through the end of the stud behind the license plate and running a lock through it much as you describe the LP tanks. I guess I’ll do the same for MY LP tanks - even though they’re the “ho-hum, just a plain old 20# steel BBQ tank”.

We’ve been using bottled water as well - but it’s frightening how many bottles you can go through. I bought a stand-alone R/O system to refill liter size water bottles. At least that way, I could claim a little of that “saving the planet” karma. Yes, R/O does pretty much remove everything from your water (not PFAS perhaps…) but I figure there’s more potentially bad stuff in water these days than good stuff anyway. As for R/O “waste” water - if you shower in campground “city” water, or local water that you fill your FWT with, then R/O waste water likely only has 20-25% more “bad” stuff than the water you’d normally be bathing or dishwashing with. (Figuring 4 gallons for every gallon of R/O water produced.)

Guess it just depends where you (like to) travel. Cold weather isn’t our thing. That said, our “escape” to Florida was less than optimal as the record cold weather and rain followed us. We rarely use the cooktop. I got an inexpensive induction “hot plate” that I can use outside or inside. We’re stingy with hot water, and I’ve only run the furnace a dozen ”cycles” in two months (Jan-Feb). I contemplated the 30# upgrade when we bought, but didn’t think it was critical for us. That, and we seem to be near enough to places to refill propane that we can refill one as soon as it goes empty and gave several weeks (at least) leeway before we’re even close to using the second. I guess if we boondocked more (or at all really) it would be an issue. Seems we’re almost always near or passing through a town with a hardware store that sells propane. That without even stopping to do a short-filled “Blue Rhino” tank. (Only 15# of propane in that 20# tank!) For us, being without electricity is a bigger deal - but not to the point we opted for Lithium or Solar.

I’ve got a few nits to pick about the LEII - but not sure either of these would make my top ten list. The only thing we thought the bathroom door needed was something to hold the door in the open position. For this, we added a simple magnetic cabinet door catch. Come to think of it, I think we only wanted to keep it open was because depending upon how level the trailer is, it tends to close even if you want it to stay open. (Probably because we didn’t want a cat trapped in there.)

Though we’ve run into a few rude, noisy, encroaching, obnoxious folks -luckily not too many. Sometimes, it’s the result of a poorly laid-out campground. When the fire ring, picnic table, or grill are on the street side - sometimes people don’t know which is theirs. There’s a few sites like that here at Fontainebleau State Park in Mandeville, LA. Those are perfect when two families wanna bring their trailers and share the space between them. Otherwise, not so much. Most obnoxious ones are when folks totally blow off the people/vehicle limitation. At Flamingo Campground at Everglades NP - there were no fewer than twenty trucks with boats on trailers congregating at one camp site - drinking and guffawing late into the night. Camp host? Safely segregated far away from all campers. They finally departed about 11:30pm. Still, the mosquitoes are the reason I won’t be back there.

Thanks @rideadeuce - I looked twice at the flame king site and didn’t see it. Oh well. I’m gonna have to go back and look at my steel tanks. Thought they were 11-something pounds - but the Amazon listing says the aluminum ones are 13.7, so I must be wrong. I used to be pretty anal about monitoring my remaining propane by weighing them. I got over it and actually ran one out. I guess it had to happen.

Just now I did. I haven’t used one with UV before, but could be interesting. I never thought I needed that feature because I’ve always been hooked up to “safe” water before. Tested, treated sources. My concern about the one in the video is that it’s only got a flow rate of .4 gpm. The nice thing about the conventional ones I’ve installed is that they have 4 gallon (supposedly) tanks - so the system can crank out water at a trickle, but when you want it, it’s ready there for you. That said, the room that the tank takes up is a major factor. The one you posted the video for has an optional .4 gallon tank. Still not much. Then again, I’m not filling a lot of big pasta pots or filling 3 or 4 water pitchers for a big dinner party from the trailer. I probably have too many higher priority projects on my to-do list to take this one up soon. Just curious if anybody else has gone down this road.

Very cool! Was looking at that Flame King site to see if they made aluminum ones in the 20# size. Looks like not. We don’t use enough propane to rationalize 30# tanks - I just had one refilled that lasted almost a year. Though, I wouldn’t mind reducing the weight. If memory serves, the steel 20# tanks weigh in at about 11-1/2 pounds each.

Which is why you’re unlikely to find me in the Everglades again. Bern there, done that, sprinted from the trailer to the truck and back - and decided NOT to cook outside or try to even get a campfire going. (Really!)

Damn! You really DID automate it! Very cool - definitely above my “desire” level. I see you have the Levelmate Pro. We added one our second trip out. I don’t find that the circular bubble level on the top of the tongue jack to be very accurate or have enough resolution. I like that IF I remember to plug mine into the USB power (I removed the battery entirely) that I can get leveled side-to-side without having to getting and out of the truck sux times. It tells me how low a given side is, I position the right number of stackable blocks, and drive onto them. I can verify it’s laterally level, shut down, chock and unhook. Easy! (I even have the Levelmate app on my Apple Watch!)

Yeah, that knucklehead wearing a sweatshirt when it’s 80F is me…. Long pants always. As for the road you mention - I got one of this stone guard “mudflaps” looking thing that slides over the hitch ball carrier. Haven’t used it yet…..

Just half yanking your chain… I just ask because having to look at a diagram and then (properly!) position four valves has tripped me up before. Last winter I mistakenly configured the valves to “Boondocking” when really wanted “winterize”. I wondered where a gallon of RV antifreeze went before I figured it out…. For me, I don’t change those valves often enough to want to motorize them - even if it is a royal pain in the butt to lift up the access panel, anti-condensation mat, seat cushion, and 3” mattress topper (king bed) to get to the valves.

You mean that rubber washer with the 1/16” hole in it? So long as we understand that government regulations are axes and not scalpels we’ll be fine. Doesn’t make a lot of sense to reduce toilet tank size to half - and then have to flush it twice… Not to throw the baby out with the bath water of course, but rushing a technology into the mainstream often is counterproductive. Like compact CFL bulbs. Me? I like my old kerosene lamps and wood stove!

I found that @KarenLukens mentioned this in an o-l-d post, but didn’t see that it got much traction. I’m a bit of a water purist (ahem) and have installed R/O water systems in all of the last four homes I’ve lived in and even gave one a a Christmas Gift to my sister and BIL. (I can hear the snickering..) Even when you have great water available, I like to get rid of as much chlorine, fluoride, lead, etc, etc, etc as possible. Also - regardless of how clean my “fresh” water system is, I’ve never drank the water from an RV or marine water system. (I’ve seen the crud that builds up in the lines…) Without adding chlorine or maybe iodine to water, even “good” water will go bad and can start growing stuff. I was curious if any water-nuts out there have installed R/O systems in their Ollies. NOT “whole house” systems, just ones to supply drinking & cooking water. Of course, the main problem to solve is “where to put the tank?”. The filters are pretty easy to find a home for. It looks like there might be enough room in the curb side basement - and it’s close to the water valves and pump. I’d likely set it up so it only filters water while hooked up to city water, and delivers it to an auxiliary faucet near the galley sink. Maybe even feed an instant hot water thingy for tea or instant beverages as well. If the “wastefulness” of an R/O system is a concern, that “waste” water could even be diverted to the main fresh water tank - where it could be used for toilet flushing and handwashing. Any others have thoughts?

I honestly haven’t done much at all with PEX even though it seems it’s the “in” water supply standard. I’m a soldered copper kinda guy. I like your practice of heating and bending instead of elbows, and I have seen a couple of “sweep” brackets in the Oliver holding PEX bends in place. When you installed the motorized valves, did you find a way to have a button or switch to select “Normal/Boondock/Winterize” and control all four valves automatically? 😋

$30.99 for 72 hours worth of refills. I forget is we had 2 or 4 of the lanterns, so apply the appropriate math. I’m aware of the wind factor and don’t think we had much adverse wind happening. For me, it just didn’t seem that the juice was worth the squeeze. 4 lanterns running four hours an evening and that $30.99 is gone in 4 or 5 uses. That said, I’m glad that people have found workable and effective ways to avoid being eaten alive and spilling your beer/wine/Manhattan when trying to swat a mosquito. I’m still looking for the solution that works for me!