The channel follows the adventures of Cheryl & Ben Coles as they visit and review Ontario Provincial Parks as well as share videos on Do It Yourself projects, gear reviews, modifications, upgrades and tutorials for your travel trailer. In 2024 they started their 6th season of RU-vid videos. Happy Camping!
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Ben Coles 7-871 Victoria Street North Suite #185 Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2B 3S4
Great review about the Bluetti. Love the idea of being able to run the trailer off it. Do you know if it is it compatible with other solar panels? I have a go power 120w panel that I like to use and just purchase the unit.
This is the first time I've watched a full video because everything is so relevant that I immediately signed up. I regret not having come across your videos before, I would have saved so much time. I love camping in Ontario, the sites are clean and the people are so nice. My all time favorite so far is Bruce Peninsula. I don't know if it's in your plans, but if you're thinking about going to New Hampshire, this would be a perfect addition. I hope you continue to do more, thanks for sharing.
We just came back from McCrae on Monday so we just missed you. We also stayed in the South campground. We agree with your rating, opinion and overall thoughts on the park. But....when we arrived we were never given the information you were given. When we arrived at our site I was so upset, absolutely no grass! We were aware of the tree removal but didn't know the grass was now gravel! I called the gate about changing our site but he was not helpful at all, we were never offered a refund (which I would've taken as we were booked for 9 days). We did make the best of the situation, but it is not a park we will return to. As always, love your videos.
That's too bad that they didn't give you the pamphlet that they gave us. As we understood it, everyone was to be getting the pamphlet explaining the ongoing work in the park. We probably wouldn't go back to McRae because there are just so many other parks that are more to our liking. If we were looking for a park in the Orillia area for a specific reason we'd likely choose Bass Lake.
It was very nice meeting you folks at McRae and we agree in the north campground you need the outer ring for the privacy. I think you will like Bass Lake.
I wasn’t expecting that many trees to be taken down, however they are planting new ones. This park has a great trail for walking our dog, the path is manageable for most people with spots to exit back into the park if needed.
We live in Barrie so it is close for a quick getaway. The dogs love the water access points. Also a bonus they have doggie 💩 bags available at each end of the trail. Thanks for your take on this park.
Great video guys! I'm surprised Lake Simcoe is that clean and clear. I went camping at Sibbald Point Provincial Park and the water is cloudy. It might have been which way the wind was blowing but cloudy water turned me off at that Park. See you on the next one!
That's interesting. When we were at Sibbald Point two years ago the water was crystal clear. Maybe we lucked out at both parks at opposite ends of the lake and had the wind blowing the right way for us.
We were on site 113 in East Campground it was really nice. The kids enjoyed the falls. This park is tight though, some of the most narrow roads I have seen in a park yet. They definitely need to have a better layout for the dump station I think. So hopefully it sees some upgrades like other parks have.
I usualy never comment on video. But thank you so much for this video. I watch other video where people dismantle the toilet to get to this gasket and I thought what a shitty job to do. Then I came across your video. I said to my self it can't be that simple... Well I suited up ( put gloves on ) and gave this a try. After exacly 5 minutes I got this to work !!! I'll repeat your recommendation use gloves it will give you the courage needed. I also used curved pliers to help with that "shennagling".
Thank you for your fair and through evaluation/ review of Bronte Creek Provincial Park. You covered many topics and features of the park with accurate information. Thank you.
As far as we can recall there were lots of toilets by the various beach access points and they were in pretty good shape as well as the comfort stations.
Great video, and thanks for the explanation! I have a 2005 camper and am considering the swap. I understand that the converter I have now will only charge the battery to 80%, but would it be ok if I also added a 200 watt solar panel with a charge controller in conjunction with the on board converter? Would that possibly help with the charging of the LifePo4 battery? We only use the camper on Saturday nights at the racetrack and the camper will not be used all week until the following Saturday. Just curious of your input. Thanks a bunch!
I'm not an expert in this field. As I understand it the lithium batteries need a higher voltage than lead-acid. I think they need at 14.4 volts. If the converter isn't designed to provide that, it doesn't matter what the power source is. Now, if you bypass the converter completely and charge with a portable smart charger like this one amzn.to/3RoVKL0 that you connect directly to the lithium batteries, it will top them up for you.
They rent canoes in July and August only. They are only to be used in Kettle Lake, not Georgian Bay. I believe you go to the park store to arrange the rental.
Thanks for your videos. Just got into camping with a truck tent and my 2024 F150 with the Pro Power onboard (does your Ford have this? The 7.3 kwh option can power a 30 amp trailer). Anyway, I stumbled on your videos while trying to decide what parks to try out first. Did Earle Rowe last weekend and had a blast even with the rain. Balsam Lake and Sibbalt point are my next bookings. Then might go further North. Have you guys done Kap Kig Iwan? Looks like a super nice park.
You have the truck of my dreams! No more worries about getting an electrical site when you have a 7.3 kwh generator built into your truck. Our truck is a 2016, well before they came out with the electric/gas hybrid with the built in generator. Our RU-vid channel is going to have to get a lot bigger before I can afford to get a new truck.😊 We haven't been to Kap Kig Iwan yet. Probably a place will look at next year.
I searched everywhere for a video to swap out lead acid batteries with lithium ion, as well as the converter upgrade. I found many, but none of them were as detailed as yours. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these!
I just got the AC70 this year. I'm tent camping this summer so we'll see how much power I end up needing. Considering getting the pv200 panel too but I was just wondering if the comfort stations had outlets I could top up at, so thank you for mentioning that! Love that I could also charge up with the car too so seems like I have lots of options.
I would think that the AC70 would be plenty of power for tent camping. Charging from a wall outlet is many times faster than charging from a car. If you're lucky you can get about 100 watts from the cigarette lighter whereas withe AC70 charging from a standard AC outlet you can get 850 watts. With the AC200L you can get a max of 2400 watts from an AC outlet although the max I have seen so far is 1400 watts.
That's great info, I had no idea how much I could get from a car. Will definitely consider saving up for a panel, they look like great quality. Also very happy to see Bluetti supporting you guys, I'm glad I chose their powerstation, super excited to try it out! 💙
Thanks for the review. We live nearby as well and we had never visited. We took a drive up a few days ago for an afternoon paddle. We parked near the ruins and had easy access to the launch area. They have installed a canoe /kayak launch which was great to try - sure made it easy. The cliffs/rock formations are stunning but we were a bit disappointed/surprised at the small size of the kayaking area. The water had a lot of algae blooms unfortunately and I presume this will increase as the summer warms up. A nice little park and glad we did a day visit. Thanks as always! The bloopers had me cracking up - love it!
Awesome review! We have an older version (BLUETTI Portable Power Station AC200P, 2000Wh) and never thought about turning off the inverter! That’s an Awesome tip!
Turning off the converter made a big difference for us. I hated when 700 watts would be pumping out as soon as I turned it on and I just wanted to use the microwave for 2 minutes or we wanted to watch TV for two hours and we used up 70% of the power station because it's charging the trailer batteries at the same time.
Terrific review Ben! Might be a dumb question, but, can it be recharged with a 30 amp plug from one of those Parks Ontario outlets and would there be any advantage to doing that vs. the standard 120 plug/extension chord?
Unfortunately, it has it's own proprietary plug that plugs into the charge port of the power station and the other end is for a standard 120 volt plug. If you had a 30amp to 20amp adapter that you could plug into the 30 amp outlet on the pedestal then you could plug into it. I'm not sure if it would give you more watts going in. I've only ever received 1400 watts going in even though it says it can take 2400 watts in. I'm going to try that next time to see if it can bring in more watts which equals a faster charge.
Great review. Portable power like this has many advantages for sure. Before buying one myself I’m looking at options to keep it outside the trailer (connected to my 30amp rv plug) but keep the unit out of the elements. Solar panels that can’t take some rain is a bit of a disadvantage.
I keep it on the picnic table bench under the trailer awning. I use a heavy duty bicycle lock to lock it to the picnic table. You could buy some all weather solar panels from somewhere and use them. They likely wouldn't be as easily portable and transportable though. There are always trade offs when figuring out what works best for you.
Another great product review. I have a 1000w jackery power station, which I used a lot during car camping & using my Instant pot, but it is not powerful enough to get the AC going in our new travel trailer. I might just switch to Blueti. Thank you for sharing.
You should list the parks with and without a toilet a shower or hot water You think I'm being rude but the truth is no one wants to go to the bathroom outside or in a out house It's not difficult to put a sewage treatment facility
That's an easy list. Every park we've ever reviewed has comfort stations with toilets, showers and hot water. That's standard for front county or car camping in Ontario Parks.
I'm happy to have found your video today. I need to do this job. I was dreading taking the whole toilet off. I don't know exactly what @karenknight2205 means and I was thinking the blade may get in the way of the reinstall.
The instructions that come with the seal says to remove the toilet and remove the seal through the underside. That's why they include the floor gasket in the package. We found it was easier to just remove it from the top without removing the toilet. I'm not sure why she had such difficulty putting the new seal in. I found that was the easy part. Taking the old seal out can be hard to do pulling it out with your fingers.
Been a fan for many years! Here’s a suggestion: Give top three sites for each areas of the campgrounds! Keep up the good work and hope to met you two one day! 👍🏻
I get what you're saying but it would be nearly impossible to do. We would have to look at and assess every site in the park which we don't have time to do. Also, whether a site is good or bad is very much a personal opinion. Everyone looks for different things in an ideal site. We'd probably tick off a lot of people too, by making those sites harder to get in the future. I get where you're coming from but I don't think we'll be incorporating it into the videos. Thanks for the suggestion. Many of the things we show in our videos are as a result of viewers like you offering suggestions.
