franco-bolli

Try not to fall into "buyers remorse". You've done the research and chosen the best rig for your use.   Forrest River, while not perfect, is a pretty good brand compare to some of the other tin cans sold as RV's.  From the sound of it, the usefullness of this trailer may not be as important as the kids leave the nest or become less interested, especially if you camp where there is no wifi🙃.. When that day comes, you can move this trailer and it's idiosyncrasies down the line to another RV'er.

In any case, your first trip will create memories that will shared by the family for years afterwards. Some good, hopefully none too bad, but all part of your life story as a family.

I have this on the back of my trailer:
"going where everyone has gone before" Stole and modified gratuitously from Star Trek.

Safe journeys.

this is the belive it or don't category.

Here is a link to the original "buffalo wings" bar in Buffalo NY.
The link is to their "special sauce" if you wanted to try something authentic.

I used to live about 60 miles from Buffalo and travelled there many times, but never visited the Anchor Bar. Their sauce is also available on Amazon.

Happy cooking!

Our trailer frame was not produced by lippert, but still noticed a fair amount of surface rust.  A lot of it looked like pits from gravel. I spent a couple days under the trailer, sanding, wiping with alcohol and repainting with cold galvanized paint. 

It seems that there is a lot less attention given to protecting the frame, perhaps its planned obsolescence? 

I doubt you'd get much recourse from the $tealer for the rust, they just prep and deliver.

Thanks for the background information Kirk.

Even though we attended the Rock Springs event, what you described is very helpful.

If you have the TPMS system that is a stem screw ontype,  metal stems are highly recommended. 
When I first installed them on the TT, I could see a spot on the wheel that showed contact with the TPMS sensor, probably due to the centrifical force on the sensor.  
When I replace the tires, I had the stems replaced as well.

I also put the "extra" TPMS sensors on the truck wheels, primarily because they react faster than the OEM internal one's do. BUT, the OEM versions are part of the stem, so there is no replacing the rubber stem with a metal one, without screwing up the truck OEM TPMS.

I posted a long time ago, that I experienced a leak in one wheel that ( after much searching) turned out to be a defect in the wheel, behind one of the spokes. 

Fortunatly the folks made the wheel, sent me a replacement.

I used to hear a lot about "good SAM chapter" meetings and get togethers. Not so much any more. 

 BUT I am seeing storage facilities jam packed with RV's, so much so that they look like an RV dealers lot. I wonder if posting a flyer on the checkin office wall at local RV Parks for the Escapees would help.  I've often thought of posting  local HAM repeater frequencies on those same office walls.

16 hours ago, Ray,IN said:

ever heard of the(IOOF) Foresters? It was a very large and widespread benevolent social club for men and their families 60 years ago..

The "Odd Fellows" building in our town is now a museum.

I'm not as old as I used to be..

I haven't had a tire blow out in over 15 years.. Pulled an 8k Actric Fox 24-5L for 6 years, no blow outs with Costco (greenball?) tires at the time. I've had a flat or two, but those were relatively slow leaks. More recently I changed out the Marathon tires on my TT which were aging out and installed GY Endurance tires for the latest 7400+ trip. No issues.  They run at 80PSI and I did see some high pressures during the day accross Nebraska and Missouri  up to 90 PSI and tire temps at 100 degrees according to the TPMS. In the mornings, they were back down to 80 psi. oddly, the truck spare tire  with a TPMS sensor on it, read 100 degrees at times.

BTW, I had an alignment done on the trailer, prior to the trip. I had seen treadwear on the inside of the drivers rear trailer tire. No issues with this trip    I know the tires and suspension were working overtime, with all the crappy roads in eastern Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. They took some hard hits when pot holes appeared at the entry and exit of bridges.

@RV_  thanks for the heads up confirming Cleantechnica, Adfontes and the  Nature articles are reliable sorces of information.  Afterall, the one thing I've learned in life is that there is always more to learn.

On 7/20/2022 at 2:40 PM, RV_ said:

For media reliability here is a chart that shows most reliable at the top and least at the bottom and whether it leans left or right.

Please repost the chart.

When I mentioned "Li-Cycle" above was primarily because it's a publicly traded company where as I've not found any indication that Redwood Materials has made an IPO yet.  This being a finance and investing forum, it would be of interest to know when it does.
I see Redwoods' initiative has some big players with it and added another one last month.

TOYOTA joins Redwood EV battery recycling initiative

This interests me, as I mentioned above the plethora of EV's that will (or have) reach EOL soon and a recycling process would keep the batteries out of landfills.(off my soap box now)

BUT even this post is off the Sodium-ION topic, and  I apologize.

17 hours ago, Zulu said:

For sure and be careful what you quote.

I'm not sure what to do with this quote.

As I mentioned, a "quick" search of the web yielded much the same information on each site. Many of them looked like it was exactly the same information, slightly reworded.

Maybe I should have qualified my post with " without purchasing scientific white papers."?

I have to mention that with so much dis-information floating about, I've begun to question information from what used to be reliable web sites. I approach each new data point with skepticism now and try to find corroboration through other "reliable" sites.

Sodium-Ion technology looks to be promising, but so is the hydrogen fuel cell. Will either come to fruition?  My crystal ball is cloudy on this. 

a quick search of other web sites about the topic, yields much the same information on all of them.
One web mentioned that the team is working on removing Cobalt from the chemical stew that makes up the battery.

I'll be looking for methods of recycling these batteries. 
 

I see that there is at least one company with it's eye on the Li-Ion battery recycling market (finally) so that when all those early Prius and LEAF models out last the cost effectivness of replaceing the battery, there will be some where to recycle it!
Lithium-Ion Recycling Company Is Going Public - CleanTechnica

I wonder if the OP is even still monitoring this dicsussion. 4 days and no comments from them.

This site may help choosing a reliable, safe towing brand.

I've purchased their book " How to select, inspect and buy an RV"
as well as one of the PDF docs relating to the type/year I was interested in.

Apparently the author has passed away and there will no longer be updates after the 2021 model year.

Best of luck!!

RV.ORG

I use this one on the trailer hitch lock.  Paclock at amazon.

Here is another of a different style. I used the one above due to the hole clearance to the end of the lever. Packloc 2nd choice  Supposedly,  Paclock locks are more difficult to pick than others.

I'm not sure what I was charged for at Mammoth cave.. My Wife and I did 2 tours that day (June 10th this year). I see a single charge on my account for $25.01 from the nationalparks, but there are no refunds to the account. I picked up the tickets showing the access pass. 
 

FYI, I found this file relating to Loctite Threadlocking fluids.  It may be helpful.  There is a product selection tree that will help direct the buyer to the correct choice.

The file is 1.12Mb so I can't attach it here.
Cheers

7 hours ago, Kirk W said:

You may want to consider one of the products from Shade RV if they ever get them back in stock to sell.

@Kirk WDo you know anyone with one of these? How well does it work?  Probably need to compromise on solar panel exposuire..

7 hours ago, sandsys said:

Um. Not quite 7' tall at the corners and not quite 10' tall in the center? If he has anything bigger than a conversion van there's not much hope that would work for him.

Linda

OK. I went back and looked; he has a Scamp trailer pulled by a pick up truck so maybe. I wonder what an RV park would say about him setting this up?

I agree that the specific link provided might work for a pop up trailer, but it was intended as a thought provoker for the OP to consider one that would fit.  

I learned something from this thread as well,  most CG would frown on bringing your own carport. Good to know.

I can't recall where I heard that Autotransformers were frowed upon in some CG, SO I went looking for information and found this link in a competing RV forum.   It answered a few of my lingering questions and may have some information that you may find useful, once you get passed the discussion about RVIA and NEC codes in there. However, you may already know all of what is discussed in that forum.

Autotransformer discussion in irv2 forum

I'm not a mechanical engineer, but in my experience, the fiberglass pole would break long before the ladder would be forcefully removed while using the aluminum pole mount.

I guess it really depends on how solidly the ladder is mounted.

I agree there would be more stress on the mounts (both pole and ladder mounts) if the flag pole were made of aluminum.

I don't own one of these, but maybe bringing your own shade is an option?
Portable carport

When I worked for the radio company, taking care of remote repeater buildings, we did a combination of foam and steel wool.  Steel wool to block the hole, and then foam to close the hole and make it airtight. The rodents didn't like running into steel wool while digging in...

Can't do anything like that on a removable cord, so recently I've been using synthetic sanding pads to block up the shore cord hole while we've been out.   I loosely wrap it around the cord and close the door on it. It blocks up the extra space around the door opening for the cord.  They have a fair amount of abrasive to them, depending on the grit size you choose.

I bought the 16' fiberglass collapsable version from Flag Pole buddy.  I've only used it a couple of times and it has worked well in the light winds I've experienced.  I did end up buying a special american flag for it, due to the max size they recommeded.

I ended up with a 3' x 5' flag made by Annin ( I think its part number 002453)

I also got this, to mount it to the ladder in the back.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01CQ06ZN2/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's quite sturdy.  The bottom cup was a little large for the base of the pole, so I put my CNC to work to create a donut to make it a good fit for the pole.

Best of luck in your choices!

On 10/11/2021 at 5:40 PM, agesilaus said:

Most common is some trash stuck in the valve seat. We had it happen. Did a extra intense tank flushing, including a 24 hour soak with a bottle of Dawn and Calgon,followed by another full tank waterflush.

I wish that a good soak with Dawn and Calgon would have helped the issue I ran into about 22 days into a 35 day trip.   I performed multiple flushes(with in tank cleaner system) and soaks but some TP is very tenacious as I found out  while taking the valve out.  I should have taken pictures before I pried the piece of paper out of the way of the knife valve.  It would have been a cheap fix to just remove the paper, if the puppy hadn't stolen my valve gaskets and chewed them before I could catch her... 

I had removed a Bristol Valve and installed a Valterra. The job went pretty quickly once I got the insulation out of the way.

I had heard about using a plumbers silicon, but when I asked at the local Gander Mountain service manager, he had no clue. 

What brand or type of silicone are you using? Spray dry silicone? Silicone in a tube, like toothpaste (not RTV)? I presume it's being applied to the area where the knife blade contacts the rubber gaskets.
Thanks for your replies,

@Macodiva What did you find?

 I think the OP got more than they bargained for when they asked their question. 
I don't recall a request for moral, ethical or poltical opinions about the subject.

If you read through, they haven't commented (posted) on any of this since the question was asked about what they might encounter.