Reed & Karen's Blog -

[KarenLukens]

John, I don't know what brand other then we can still buy them at an Ace Hardware. They were 12" with the blue ball in the video and they really stretch out strong. Then I also got a pack of small 6" from Amazon later on that don't stretch much but are perfect for my hoses.

[KarenLukens]

If I would have known that I wouldn't be able to edit my movie settings on my tablet, I would have made this first half public :) But here's the link anyway. There's actually 2 movies on the Bulldog Hitch and the second is also mostly on hand cranking the front jack but I need to upload it. I haven't hooked up to a house connection for a week or more because we are still boondocking after 7 months :)

 

 

 

 

 

[Overland]

Thanks for the video.  Reed, if you get a chance can you tell me what the approximate thickness is of the steel 'saddle' where the hitch connects to the trailer?  I'm having to get an adapter made for my hitch that mimics the bulldog attachment and the fabricator is asking me how thick the steel needs to be.

[KarenLukens]

Then here's the next installment -

 

 

 

 

Then I reloaded the Honda 2000i venturi and orifice cleaning for people having trouble keeping a smooth idle -

 

 

 

[ScubaRx]

You do know you don't have to remove the jack cover to use the manual handle.

[KarenLukens]

You do know you don’t have to remove the jack cover to use the manual handle.

On ours I had to because the bubble level was sitting in a solid mold with no opening beneath it. Or is there another way? I'm all ears Steve :)

[ScubaRx]

My level pops out of a hole, I assumed (ass, you, me, etc) that all the jack heads were all the same.  If that were a constant problem, I'd drill a hole under the bubble level.

[KarenLukens]

We went home for a few weeks to prepare for our next outing and now here we are at the "Scamp Camp Far West Rally" located in Quincy California and back on the road for another week :) We have 2 Olli's here again with John's and ours representing our favorite type of trailer, the Oliver Legacy Elite II. You can see his in the far right of this pic -

 

 

and then ours is located right at the gate and the first trailer that people see when they drive into the Pioneer RVCampground and once again we have had a large group of people checking out our Olli and surprisingly, some have watched a lot of our movies about the Oliver and our Gold Mining adventures :)

 

 

Once again, Karen's women's coloring group has come together and have spent hours talking and coloring together. It has become the favorite gathering place for the women and they have a great time. Here's one of the pics that the girls put in their trailers to continue working on tomorrow. Karen brings all of the supplies, paper, pencils, paints, markers, etc for everyone, if you've ever wondered what we carry in our Yakima box on top of the car, it's plum full of art supplies :)

 

 

We do love our little Goldilocks, she draws quite the crowd with all of Karen's decorative skills at work inside and out :)

 

 

Reed

[KarenLukens]

Then today, after helping a friend replace a broken spring on his trailer caused by a bubble in the steel during manufacture, he gave me a telescoping ladder. So I dug back into the archives... (the closet) and made a space for it against the front wall.

 

 

I put an old tee shirt over it to slow down the scratches, then put everything back into the closet, and now have my 330lb emergency ladder in place. Once again my 18" Crescent Wrench and 4" grinder got put to work, and this time they paid for themselves with our new ladder. I'm going to add v-mat to the top 3 sections that I don't need, to keep it from scratching the trailer when in use.

 

Here it is, tucked into its new home :)

 

 

 

 

Also, when we had the trailer built we had them add in a shower curtain bar like Buzzy's. We ended up not needing the shower curtain, so now it holds towels that need drying and then it doubles as a drying rack for Karen's clothes that need to air dry. Today was laundry day also, so emptying the closet was a quick and easy task.

 

Reed

[KarenLukens]

After 4 years of driving the Mercedes ML, we hit 100,000 miles on it and traded it in today on a new TV. The Mercedes was a great TV and most of its miles were towing either our Casita or our Oliver. Well... out with the old and in with the new, I needed a good 4wd to cross the rivers and be a dual purpose vehicle with both our Hummer and the ML racking up the miles, so Karen and I picked up a Chevy Silverado 1500 High Country today and it's maxed out with the towing options and will be a good TV for us. It's replacing both, the Hummer and the ML and comes with an 11,000lb towing capacity and a limited slip differential in the rear with 4wd. We actually took it off road a bit for the test drive and made the limited slip do its job. Today, we will be picking up a new receiver hitch and then Saturday, heading to Ojai California for the Lake Casitas Fiberglass RV Rally, where Karen will be putting on her Cobb Grill demonstration and cooking some goodies for the gang :) Then she also has her "Karen's Coloring & Chat" that she puts on with the ladies, where they all get together for a few hours and have a great time visiting and coloring together. It started out just being an hour at this Rally last year, and it has become one of the women's favorite things to do together. Lots of friends, lots of great times, and the Lukens are heading south this time :)

 

Reed

 

[Overland]

Great looking truck - I'd be interested to hear a review after your first trip.

[Maverick]

Nice looking truck.

 

 

[John E Davies]

Cool  Reed, I like pickups. What are the payload specs for your truck, fully optioned? WD hitch?

 

Regardless of the brute power of the 6.2 liter, I think you will miss the torque of your Merc at high altitude. I sure miss the power and fuel economy of my Cummins.... but I miss nothing else about that bone shaker truck,

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

 

 

[ScubaRx]

Hey that looks like our truck. Very nice. You'll love it. Did you get the brown or the black interior?

[KarenLukens]

Cool Reed, I like pickups. What are the payload specs for your truck, fully optioned? WD hitch? Regardless of the brute power of the 6.2 liter...

 

I didn't see the need to go overboard, the Duramax was there, it was nice, but... I wanted a soft ride so I stuck with the High Country 4x4/ 5.3 ltr with the max tow package. It gives me an 11,000Lb capacity with 1000lb tongue weight with no weight distribution hitch, so I'm good for pulling the Oliver. The ML was great but with all of the anti-diesel environmental lawsuits, Mercedes didn't feel the need to sell diesels here in the USA anymore... So I'm sacrificing milage by going back to gasoline, but we have a nice comfortable ride that won't beat us to death like the Z71 or the HD Duramax packages, plus we will be able to take the 4wd roads that I love and have missed out on with the Mercedes. I crossed streams with water half way up the door in it but it was a lot lower to the ground then the new Silverado. This is my 5th Silverado and it makes 3 that I have sitting here right now. I've got a 76 crew cab that is our all around Ranch truck with the snow plow, then a built up 78 Step Side with lockers that we use for dragging logs out of the creek and stacking logs on the decks. Both of which are beasts and would beat us retirees to death trying to drive long distances in them these days. The Crew Cab was my camping vehicle for decades but there's no comparison between the rides from back then in the 70's to now.

 

The High Country is a good off-road rig with Limited Slip in the rear end and a push button Limited Slip front end, so we won't be having anymore problems on the trails that we find for boondocking :)

 

Hey that looks like our truck. Very nice. You’ll love it. Did you get the brown or the black interior?

 

We got the Black interior Steve, basically I pulled in to the local Chevy dealer's parking lot in my Mercedes SL550 with the top down, Sat there until someone came out about 10 minutes later, told them what I wanted to look at and we went from there. They brought up the Duramax and a couple others and basically I chose this one with the Pearl white because it once again matches the trailer. This is a small town country dealership that lives off of its service, no salesmen run out to meet you in this town :)

 

It was a perfect, no pressure sale and Karen and I left the ML with them and drove away happy in our new tv later in the evening. This is the only dealership up here in the woods :)

 

Reed

 

 

Then here's a good PDF on the Chevy towing specs and how too's -

 

2017-chevrolet-trailering-and-towing-guide.pdf

[ScubaRx]

I've got a beautiful Leer topper painted to match that truck. It was on our previous Sierra

[KarenLukens]

We ordered the roll out tonneau cover because I'm going to try putting the Yamaha Grizzly 600 in the back, but we'll probably have to buy a smaller newer quad. I haven't checked that idea out enough yet but winter isn't quite here yet either and we will be back here in a couple of weeks. Man... plans sure can change quickly, we haven't even gone south to the Rally and now we're planning on going back north to Oregon after the Rally to visit family. Tomorrow I've got to shut off the water and winterize the house, then Saturday morning, we are heading down south to see the grand kids and then hopefully continue down to the Rally that starts Thursday at Lake Casitas County Park. You'll never guess what kind of Rally it is... Lol... :)

 

Reed

 

 

[DavePhelps]

Reed,

 

This is the exact truck I have been drooling over!! Curious if you took the 6.2 out for a spin, and more curious to hear how the 5.3 does pulling your trailer.

 

I was pretty set on the 6.2, but if the 5.3 is up to the task, then the mileage would be better. I've heard that the new 8 speed transmission has greatly improved the performance of that engine (well, both of them actually). Congrats on your new rig!

 

Dave

[KarenLukens]

I went down and picked up a new hitch and ball for it today. I will let you all know how it does after the Rally but with the 11,000lb capacity, I'm not worried at all. I didn't drive the 6.2 because they only had it in an HD and I've driven and ridden in the Duramax.

[KarenLukens]

The truck pulled Goldilocks really well and we had no problems going up over the different summits. It's a completely different feel from the Mercedes but you get what you pay for either way. There's really no comparing the 2 vehicles because they are so different, ie- diesel vs gas, Mercedes vs Chevy, car vs truck, but I was able to fit everything into the truck except my bucket of tools. Most of them I don't need everyday and this is a quick trip being that we will be back home next week, so I left them home for the first time to get the feel of all of the extra room that I filled up with the extra chairs and things for this Rally at Lake Casitas, CA. Anyway, so far so good and I love our new truck and have already been out 4wheelin in it and this is the real reason that we switched over to it. The Mercedes comes with an off-road package but it still doesn't have the clearance compared to the truck or the off-road capability. I've had to turn around a number of times in the Mercedes just because I wasn't willing to scrape the bottom over some of the boulder strewn trails that we travel, but that just comes right back to the car vs truck. The truck is more versatile when it comes to extreme off-road, it has the clearance that we need and it is going to take the place of our old 2005 Hummer as well, I hope... As far as towing goes, it's a good TV with all of the right controls built in and everything works fine. I did have to use my brakes more going downhill in the truck compared to the diesel Mercedes, but I knew that I was giving up that capability, going in :)

 

 

We were out of communication for a day and now, we are at the Lake Casitas Rally, set up and ready for it to begin today. We like coming in the day before and taking our time getting set up. And today Spike and his wife stopped in, in their Legacy Elite II to say high and we will be getting together this week and talking a lot more as they get settled in for their reunion here in the same town :)

 

Good Times Ahead

 

Reed

[KarenLukens]

We had a great time at the Lake Casitas Fiberglass RV Rally, Karen gave her Cobb Grill demonstration for everyone and made Spaghetti Squash Lasagna's for everyone and it went fast :)

 

 

Then she also was the hostess for the games, Stump the Camper and the Sit Down Scavenger Hunt, the awards ceremony and then she hosted the Color & Chat with Karen again that has really gone over well with everyone :)

 

 

We really love theRally's, I wish we were closer to Tennessee so that we could come to the Oliver Rally, but we're booked here out west as it is with lot's of fun times ahead :)

 

[KarenLukens]

Here's a few pics of our food cooked on the Cobb Grill :)

 

Pizza, mmmm good :)

 

Cinnamon Rolls are another favorite

 

 

Then last night we had Bacon and Blue Cheese Stuffed Sausage and Squash... We use it every day and cook everything and anything on it, from steaks, chicken & pork, to making bread, cakes, and even pizza :)

 

[KarenLukens]

I finally ran the new wire for the Truma today :) it took me a few hours but I now have the light and everything working inside. When we picked it up from the factory, I guess that they didn't notice on their walk thru, that the inside switch wasn't working and I didn't know at that time that it was a lighted switch. So I ran the new wire along with some paracord down between the hulls and around between the water heater and the switch and it works :) It's like we just picked up that Deluxe option! It feels good to see it working properly now. I had to pull the rear curb side door panel to get to the slide between the hulls and between the old cord and the paracord, it slid easily into place after unhooking and rehooking it a few times to get thru the tangled webs that we've all seen... Lol. I couldn't think of a better place to do this then at our favorite, Beach Campground, Emma Wood State Beach, here in California on the Pacific Ocean, and it sure was calming to look out and watch the waves between aching muscles :)

 

All's well that ends well, another fix is off of my honey do list!

 

Reed

 

[John E Davies]

 

Nice setup, but I hope you aren’t actually driving with your trailer cord dangling way down like that.... it needs a bungee cord around the tow bar to keep road debris from trashing it.

 

I’m glad you are enjoying the truck, do you feel it does well without a WD hitch? Any serious bounce on choppy jointed  freeways?

 

John Davies

 

Spokane WA

[KarenLukens]

Yup, I'm driving like that, it must be an optical illusion because it's higher than the brake cable and is zip-tied over the top of the tongue. The truck pulls fine, no need for WD, I keep meaning to get a full pic hooked up but Karen just keeps getting partials also, we're both enjoying the new ride and have been here on the beach for a few weeks :)