Bye Lectric, Hello Maui Summers

While camping at Cattail Cove State Park in Nov 2023, our Canadian neighbor had a compact, folding “Maui” e-bike. I was unfamiliar with the brand but it resembles the Qualisports Volador I was considering buying to replace our Lectric XPs.
We love our Lectric XP 2.0s E-Bikes but at 65+lbs each, they are hard to travel with. So we often bring our much lighter conventional Zisso folding bikes. They are much easier to ride but work best on flatter terrain like Yosemite Valley.
I considered the Lectric XP Lite but didn’t like it being single-speed. We prefer to peddle and only use the peddle-assist on hills, so having 7-speeds is important. Plus the Lectric XP Lite equipped is close to 50lbs and we wanted something closer to 40lbs. Unfortunately, the lighter the e-bikes, the more it costs or the smaller the wheels (14″-16″). Qualisports has several lightweight 7-speed ebikes around $1000. So when I saw the Maui e-bike, I had to check out its specs and compare it.

The Maui Summer, from Canadian-based Maui Bikes, is their lightest e-bike at ~41lbs. It has 20″ wheels, 7-speeds, and a seat-post battery. No suspension, lighter frame and a 350w motor so it’s a much lighter design than the Lectric (the Maui Jack model has specs much like the Lectric XP, including the weight). The Maui ebikes have really good components (see list below) & are folding for easy transport. So the Maui Summer is perfect for our rv-lifestyle. Availability in the USA is via their US website maui-bikes.com with a Florida warehouse.
Because of their excellent Black Friday pricing, we bought us two Maui Summers. We’ve tested them on some local trails and they performed great. There are some compromises compared to our Lectric XPs – we miss the suspension & fatter tires for trail riding plus the rear racks. But because they are 25lbs lighter, they were much easier to load/off-load. Plus both fit in my Tacoma truck bed without needing to be folded. We will definitely enjoy taking the much lighter Maui e-bikes in the RV on our next trips.

Maui Summer

  • Pros:
    • 350W BAFANG motor
    • XD-E300 Hydraulic disc brakes
    • Removable battery.
    • Bike weight – 41lbs (19kg)
    • Misc: CHAIN – KMC Z7; CRANK SET – PROWHEEL, 46T; REAR DERAILLEUR – SHIMANO Tourney 7-speed; ROTORS – 160mm; TIRES – KENDA 20 x 2; MOTOR – BAFANG 36V/350W brushless rear hub motor; BATTERY TYPE – SAMSUNG 36V/10AH Lithium battery, integrated in the seatpost.
  • Cons:
    • Weight capacity – 250lbs (114kg) – not a con for us but lower than the Lectric by 80lbs
    • Rider height – 4’6″ to 5’8″ (seems short but that’s what they list)
    • Range: 22-32mi (35-50km), which is plenty for us but ~30% less than the Lectric
    • The coiled battery cable hangs down below the crank housing. I’ll zip-tie it so it can’t catch on anything.
    • Price when not Black Friday: $1100

Lectric XP 2.0/3.0

  • Pros:
    • Motor: 500W (850W peak) geared rear hub motor
    • Top speed: 28mph (45 km/h)
    • Range: 45mi (72 km), but actually less if not peddling a lot IRL
    • Battery: 48V 9.6 Ah (460 Wh)
    • Lockable battery
    • Max load: 330 lb (150 kg)
    • Rider height: 4’10” – 6’5”
    • Rear robust rack
    • Suspension: front fork suspension; optional seat post suspension in the Comfort Kit
    • Fat 3″ off-road tires
    • great warranty & US (Arizona) support
    • a pile of new accessories
    • Price$999 with great accessories
  • Cons:
    • Weight: 64lbs (29 kg); actually more like 66-68lbs w/ racks & accessories

Similar specs:

  • LCD screen that displays your speed, battery status and odometer throughout your ride.
  • Folding 20″ frame
  • Removable battery
  • Charge time: 4-6 hours
  • front and rear LED lights
  • On demand half-twist throttle
  • POWER ASSIST – 5 Levels of power assisted pedaling
  • SHIMANO 7-speed trigger shift; SHIMANO 7-speed 14-28T gears
  • fenders included standard, although Lectrics are sturdier/heavier
  • Folding Pedals.
  • Kickstand.

A few issues with the Maui Summer I’ve noticed that are not deal-breakers for me:

  • No mount holes for rear rack. Unlike similar ebikes, like the Qualisports Volandor, there are no threaded holes on the frame where you can attach accessories like a rear rack.
  • The LCD controller manual (King-meter K5317 LCD) doesn’t list the full settings. The manual lists settings from P01 to P13 and our controller has settings from P01 to P20. I contacted support & they sent me a link to a pdf of the same manual. Perhaps there was a firmware update?

RV Dog Playpen

On our trip to Lake Havasu we brought our dog Bodhi and Ollie, my eldest son’s dog. We’ve traveled with Bodhi before and he’s always been on-leash when outside the RV. So we decided to buy a fence like we’ve seen around other RV, so they could be outside without being on a leash. Ollie jumps high but we figured a 32″ high panel would be adequate. Plus we wanted to keep the weight down – a 16-panel 32″ high set is ~57lbs. The similar 16×40″ set is 72lbs.
We’ve never used a fence pen so I looked for one with great reviews on Amazon & recommended by RVLifestyle.com. We bought the FXW Rollick Dog Playpen from Amazon. We would have ordered the FXW Aster 16×32″ but it wouldn’t ship in time for our trip. Both are very similar but the Aster is silver & $20 cheaper.
The pen was easy to setup and we ended up using all 16 panels, placing the two gates at the front & back of the RV. Ollie escaped within minutes so we had to block under the stairs where there was a small gap. Using our Starlink carry bin & a shoe storage box kept him from escaping again. If possible, I’d create a complete enclosure and not use the RV as one wall.
When I ordered the pen, I added two (rather-pricey) storage bags that hold 8-32″panel + 9 stakes. It’s a significant additional investment but unless you have a good storage compartment. A necessity for keeping your panels in good shape.
The enclosure breaks down in about 15mins. The 8 panels fit snug, like a glove, in the well-constructed storage bag. Since one bag holds 8 panels/9 stakes, they weigh a little over 30lbs – manageable. Both bags fit in the bed of my Tacoma perfectly so that’s how we’ll carry them on future trips.

Tacoma Mod: Sumo Springs Jul 2022

Our GeoPro G19RD has a tongue weight of ~420lbs. When the truck bed is loaded for a RV trip, the weight of cargo plus the GeoPro causes hitch sag. There are a variety of solutions to improve the truck’s rear suspension but Sumo Springs are easy to install and simple. I opted for the black ‘1,800lb’ version There are two others colors: blue = ‘1400lb’ light-medium duty; and yellow = medium-heavy duty (not designed for the Tacoma). For everyday driving & light duty, the blue would typically replace the stock bump stops. But if you tow a trailer, the black higher density is better at reducing hitch sag.

I installed the Sumo Springs using a socket wrench to remove the nuts holding the bump stop u-brackets. Tip: turns out you do not need to completely remove the u-brackets, just loosen, since the stops only need 1/2″ of foot clearance to be removed. The Sumo Springs replace the (surprisingly small) stock Toyota bump stops. I did not need to jack my 2020 Tacoma TRD Off-Road 4×4 up since there was enough clearance. I did the installation on level ground with tire blocks to insure the truck didn’t roll over me.

Since the hitch will dip ~1″ before contacting the Sumo Springs, the difference isn’t clearly perceptible in the sideview photos. But I did see a difference in the rear fender clearance of Tacoma when loaded & hitched to the GeoPro. Plus the tow ride has definitely improved with much less ‘porpoising’ and less overall tail bounce. It is a firmer ride but since there’s less bounce, it’s a worthwhile improvement.

Starlink for RVs

Update: Starlink for RVs 2022

After nearly two years of rv’ing and relying on our cell phones &/or campground wifi, we decided to try Starlink for RVs. Residential Starlink service in our area is scheduled for sometime in 2023. So when Starlink for RVs was announced & became immediately available, we bought the antenna & service. We had planned on testing the residential service ‘on-the-road’ when traveling as some RV YouTuber’s demonstrated. But a legitimate, roaming, mobile satellite internet service appeared to be an easier solution. Plus we can use the antenna & service at home when not traveling – this is currently being tested since Starlink for RVs is throttled. A speed test at home can get over 200mbps then, a short time later, get only 22-30mbps.
On our 1st trip w/ Starlink, to Yosemite, there was zero cell service & campground wifi was terrible/non-existent. We were online in several minutes once the antenna was set on top of our travel trailer & the router powered on. Although partially obstructed by trees, we were able to stream DirectTV, Netflix & place phone calls. Starlink’s speed varies quite a bit due to congestion, throttling, partial obstructions, and the ‘growing pains’ of new technology. But having any reception in an area without cell service is wonderful. Stay tuned for continued assessment & comments.

SmallWanders Logo

We do not typically do a lot of customization to our vehicles, let alone our travel trailer. We’ve had our GeoPro several months and the only mods we’ve done are to make it more liveable – bed extension, table reduction, sink counter extension. I know many people add a lot to their RVs to make them more homey. But so far, we’ve keep ours pretty stock primarily cause we like the way it looks. BUT one thing we truly enjoy & appreciate is when RV’ers add a logo or exterior sticker that uniquely identifies them.

I dabbled in Graphic Design in college and enjoy logo design and fonts. So I thought I’d design a logo for Howie our 20ft GeoPro G19RD. Starting with a few Adobe Stock vector elements, I came up with a these ideas.

Adobe Stock provides vector illustrations, usually in .ai format, so I subscribed to Adobe Illustrator in order to customize the stock art. An Adobe Stock subscription is required separately and allows you to download 20 pieces of vector art per month. Vector art is preferable so you can scale the image, edit & add elements, and produce print-ready artwork.

I found wrapping the text easier to do in Adobe Photoshop so I converted the .ai to .pdf and imported it. Choosing the right font so it’s legible from several yards away is important. Once typed in and positioned in Photoshop, browsing fonts will change the text in the logo dynamically so it’s easy to see which works best.

Printing – so doing a sunburst graphic requires a continuous tone printer. The popular (on Facebook’s RV groups) Etsy decal designer Jenny of JadeDesign couldn’t do it. She does wonderful monochrome RV-wide decals and could do the two or three-color versions. But we wanted the continuous tone version to go along with our GeoPro graphic.
So google-searching ‘vinyl decals for rv’, I ordered from two vendors: BestOfSigns.com and StickerApp. BestOfSigns.com was 1/2 the price of StickerApp. Both had easy to use online logo upload portals and order forms. BestOfSigns was the first to complete our order and shipped in one week, ordered Aug 18, arrived Aug 30 from India. StickerApp was ordered on the same day, Aug 18 and arrived today Sep 2 from Sweden.
They both turned out great but the BestOfSigns UV ink is matte finished. The StickerApp is glossy so the colors are more vibrant and font legibility is better. I do not know if I could have had both as glossy. On the order page for BestOfSigns, you picked glossy, matte, or uv. I did not see an option for glossy+uv. But the BestOfSigns decal came with instructions and a squeegee for applying the decal. StickerApp only had the decals.

Customizing Howie: New Dinette Table

The standard dinette table in the Geo Pro G19RD is designed to convert into a full bed. It is 52″ long 31.25″ wide which takes up a lot of space in the rear of the trailer. It can be difficult to sit on both sides of the dinette. The table has to be slid from one side to another to squeeze in & we are not big people. So we decided to install a different table when we do not need to convert the dinette into a bed.
There are many videos on installing a Lagun table arm into van conversions for a small, swing-arm table. Once we decided to mount the arm on the right rear bench behind the lower cabinet door, using the aluminum bench seat support. We tried a variety of cardboard tabletop sizes and decided to try two – 31.25″x28″ & 36″x28″.
36″x28″ is about as large a tabletop weight-wise as I would use on the Lagun arm. It requires both shims on the mounting bracket to maintain a level tabletop surface. The underside mounting plate is off-center so when pivoted, the table sits evenly between both benches. The table can be pivoted towards the rear wall when not needed for meals. Installing the tabletop using screw knobs allows us to swap table tops easily. The mounting plate uses t-nuts or threaded inserts to make the tabletops modular. Changing the dinette table to a smaller, pivoting table makes it extremely versatile & handy. Plus it really opens up the rear of the trailer, making it feel much bigger.
The second tabletop’s 31.25″ dimension allows the table to span the benches and be used as a bed board. It is only 28″ long so definitely a single bed. I also cut a third 31.25″x48″ board that we may try next trip since we need the full size dinette bed. This board will store under a bench cushion and be used once the table arm is removed. We’ll experiment and update this page once it’s tried.

Customizing Howie: Bed Extension

Following a thread in the Geo Pro Facebook group, we built an bed extension to convert our E-W bed to N-S. Starting with a 4’x8’x1/2″ piece of finished birch plywood from Home Depot, we had them cut a 41″x44″ piece. I used a hole saw, jigsaw and router to make holes for aeration & weight reduction. The extension is pulled from under the mattress, even with the bathroom door trim, about 16″. This allows the bathroom door to still open freely and there’s enough space to exit the trailer if necessary. We had a custom cover made ($40; http://coversandall.com) that’s 16″x44″x8″ and filled it with 8″ of high density foam (Amazon). I’m 5’9″ and my wife is 5’1″ so this is long enough (54″+16″=70″) for us to sleep N-S. Plus the dog can sleep in the nook under the window. No more crawling over each other in the middle of the night. Next addition will be a small shelf for my phone & glasses near the TV.
Note that the fire extinguisher was moved by the TV. If you use a Beddy on your mattress, this will not work. We leave the sheet & blanket tucked but pull them over the cushion at night.

2021 Update: since the single cushion was 8lbs & awkward, we’ve been trying 4 seat cushions instead. Designed for patio chairs, these cushions have ties on one side used to secure them to the chair back. I installed four D-rings onto the board so we can clip two pairs of seat cushions to the rings. These cushions form the mattress extension and are covered by bedding. They don’t look quite as ‘professional’ but are softer and easier to take down & store.