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  2. I have boondocked at the foot of the Athabasca glacier and on the shores of the Gulf of Mexico. I am NOT Bear Grylls. It’s that easy. I have also done weeklong stays in sub freezing weather, and triple digit heat with hookups. Even easier. YMMV, but Ollie is easy to use, safe and durable IMHO.
  3. Hunker down Greg and family and all of our Oliver Friends along the Gulf Shore!
  4. Very strange! The fresh tank expanded enough to bow the floor. It was holding pressure, for some period of time, long enough to after the fact use the kitchen faucet to release pressure. Water coming out of the overflow seems contrary to this occurrence. Overflow (must have) occurred only after enough pressure was built up to balloon the tank. 35 PSI was enough to balloon the tank but not burst the tank or tank plumbing. If the connection was 60 PSI, like our home plumbing, the tank would have expanded more and at some pressure point the tank would burst or blow off a connected fitting. Of course, this is not normal. Good news is since pressure held, the tank and plumbing should still be good, but keep your eye out for leaking. When our tank overflows, it pours out heavy, measured in GPM like the open hose! I'm always rushing to the shut-off asap, so not to waste much water. The overflow is the only way to know for sure you have a full (small) tank of precious fresh water. You could use a gallon counter at the hose. I've never trusted tank monitors, haven't used our SeeLevel display in at least 2 years. Thank you for bringing this to our attention, but personally I cannot see changing our simple fresh tank filling procedure. IMHO, your tank overflow needs repair or replacement vs. change of process for our community. Anything but waiting for tank overflow would be a once or twice weekly PITA. I would try a flexible scope up the overflow tube. Remove any screen in the path (replace with new) and debris. Is there some kind of nest up there? Our old hull has no access panels under the kitchen drawers (as Bill pictured above). Your newer hull likely does. It would be great if you can reach in and disconnect the hose clamp to the overflow! (Someday I'll likely cut a trench under both stacks of drawers to have such access and replace that awful ducting as far up as possible.) I hope you find the reason soon so that you can get back to life as usual! 😎 We'll be reading!
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  6. @Skynyrd, there are several threads discussing this in the forum. Google "Oliver trailers forum Winter camping." There are weak spots in the plumbing that may or may not have been addressed with some of the changes in the more recent model years. Like @DanielBoondock says, any camper can be a winter camper if you want it to. I've seen Airstreams being used all winter here in CT. Full hookups, belly skirts, and lots and lots of propane. Not my cup of tea, though, and we also consider our Oliver a 3-season camper.
  7. Timely posts, as I am in a similar position. Having once towed (50k +) the Ollie II with a GMC 2500 diesel (in dogs' years - another lifetime) I can confidently say a 2500 4wd, crew is the sweet spot. As for engine - I now will go gas engine, GM 6.6, as for Ford has 7.3 V8 I believe. The dino burner is just not (to me) worth the extra initial cost, the pain of oil changes and DEF, and other associated issues. The engine braking was nice, but honestly the Ollie at max 7000 # never pushed us anywhere. Honestly other than styling, or personal like/dislikes I could go GMC/Ford - not any real difference in functionality. I prefer the styling of the GMC in certain options. I had a LEER on mine, and you really have to try to get close to payload limits - Oliver in tow, loaded up, stuff hanging off every limb, truck loaded like the Beverly hillbillies, and still well below. I guess you could carry lead weights and get close. but, I digress. So many ways to outfit the truck bed, sliders, shelves, etc - as I get (got!) older the drop tailgate option in the GMC is really a plus. Luckly, I don't need all my WW boating stuff anymore, so that frees up some space for other stuff I don't need, but have to have. Choices, decisions, options. Darn it, I need a beer, a nice reclining camp chair, and a mountain view, yes thats the ticket. RB
  8. Amen!
  9. Again, wow! I wonder what went wrong? We've filled that way dozens of times. Of course, 35 psi of non-compressible water can still do a lot of damage if it has nowhere to go, but you said it was venting out the overflow tube. Will be interested to hear if your tube is kinked or blocked somehow. Enjoy the rest of your, hopefully uneventful, trip.
  10. Yes, for sure anything prolonged at 32 degrees is 4 season and I'm not interested. For us the 4th season is - go south young man, go south - a little farther, perhaps. Now to be clear, we have spent a few nights in freezing temps at elevation (10,000) and all was fine and toasty. As we are outdoors folks, and generally the really cold temps preclude outdoors - usually. I'll take a south Fla beach, or the Texas gulf over the snow and cold any day. Waking up at 30 degrees, in a tent in Yellowstone was great. It's better in the Ollie, trust me.
  11. I was wondering if there is a wiring diagram somewhere. i don’t see it in the manuals
  12. Well i broke down and went into town and bought a voltmeter. the 60 A breaker is good. batteries appear to be good. there is a 1A in line fuse after the 60A that i should check. it’s getting really hot in the trailer since no AC but I only have one more day and then home. hoping for cooler weather at home to continue the trouble shooting. thanks for the reminder of the manual jack tool. I was beginning to panick but I did find it in the trailer. 😀 I had seen it before but had no idea what it was. so i can lift the jacks to get home 🤞 to be continued.
  13. I'm pretty sure you can use VHB to hold a rocket together - that stuff can be the bomb in certain uses,,,,
  14. Golfnut I owe you a beer 🍺 That’s what it was, I was only getting 40.6v at the plug going into the controller and I couldn’t figure out why. I thought it was hardwired from the breaker and didn’t know about the plug box. Thanks again sir!!
  15. I also like using 3M 4950 VHB tape for mounting to fiberglass. I tested several products and ended up preferring the tape. I used it to mount the solar panels on the roof of our Bigfoot camper, and it’s held strong for 18 years so far. I’ve been following your posts—and others—on the A/C upgrade and plan to tackle mine next spring. Right now, I’m leaning toward the Furrion Chill Cube, but I’ll keep researching over the winter and make a final decision in the spring. I may have questions for you then.
  16. Thanks DB - great overview and it helps. Thanks 2D, we can’t make the rally this year but hoping for next year. We are from Texas and currently in central Florida in a holding pattern due to the hurricane (but hoping to get home next week but I-10 and I-12 are going to be problematic) so we will see. We may crash the party 🙂 Yes on the Rec Pro water heater, use the hot water side to control the overall temp - same lesson we learned and I have also been removing our water pressure regulator to get the all important pressure for the water heater - that made a big difference as you stated. Thanks D&M for the notes - those are helpful in understanding what valve does what.
  17. If you have Lithionic batteries, there is a round push button switch on top of each battery. If they energized the push button will have a light on. Try calling OTT before they close for the weekend. They may help.
  18. Eric B .. remove btm drawer under the plywood hatch i think is were the refig is the 120 v outlet is ..loose plug?
  19. Hello everyone, I'm a new owner of a 2022 Elite II, first camper for us. Having trouble with my refrigerator recognizing when hooked to shore power. Sometimes I can get it on shore power and if I move the camper it starts all over again. I checked fuses and made sure connections were good. Does sound like a control board going bad? The refrigerator works fine on propane and DC, and works great on AC power whenever it can recognize when it’s available.
  20. Our 2022 is new to us this year, and I shared the same initial confusion when looking at the water‑valve diagram. While it’s a great feature to have the valve positions shown based on the function you want, I also wanted to understand the actual start and end points of each line. So, I enhanced the diagram and placed a laminated copy under the bed next to the water pump. Below is that updated drawing. Please let me know if you spot any errors in it.
  21. Love the name! Watch out for any bird like woman with a good vocal range
  22. Hello Apex #2 from Apex #1, Hull #1738, 2Dreamin👋 Totally agree on the dinette cushion backs, it was annoying every time we got up from the dinette so I see a solution in our future. City water connection is on the curbside and Fresh water tank fill is on the street side. We got the compost toilet and are very happy with our decision, this was after months of contemplating it, then deciding not to do it and then changing our minds after talking with the Whitaker's at Denali National Park in Alaska earlier this summer. We did fill the fresh water tank to test out the pump and also testing out the pressure of the pump for the tankless hot water heater (THWH) and that worked great. To set our preferred THWH temperature, I hopped in the shower, turned on the faucet hot water only while DH was setting the temp to 107 which worked great for both of us actually. Using only the hot water side of the faucet eliminates cold spots with the tankless. The only time we experienced any issues was while at a campground that had 'low' water pressure which reduced how hot the water came out, the tankless also works on water pressure, this is where the fresh water pump came in handy. We find the EcoFlow to be a dream to manage, so much easier than our Airstream Interstate set-up, even after we had all the wiring ripped out, soft solar panels ripped off and an entire new battery system, inverter, etc and solar panels installed. We love the ease of operation with the EcoFlow. Enjoy your new Apex!!!!! Are you going to the rally? We are in site F20
  23. By MY2026 its now accessible from a hinged hatch under the outside table that replaced the older propane fridge vent and there's no port under the drawer. You've got access to the back of the fridge, the overflow tube and further back you'll even find a 120V for the induction that theoretically could be used for something. Problem with the monitors is they get inaccurate unless you're perfectly level, and generally aren't super accurate anyhow. There's a new system in the 27's apparently, don't know if its actually much better.
  24. I live in Wisconsin and camp mostly in Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. We think of ourselves as 3-season campers and based on our experience consider the Oliver a 3-season camper. So for us it works just fine because we value our plumbing and hot water while we are camping. To be more technical, from our experience and what I have read, the Oliver is good down to about 20 degrees F. If that is full winter for you, then it is 4-season. It is not for us, and we don't want to be camping when it is less than 20 degrees F, so all is good!
  25. Four season is a squishy topic as its not defined precisely. You can use a canvas tent four season (our boys did it in Korea in hard winters.) It just depends on how comfortable you want to be, and how much energy you have. I'll break it down Cabin heating. Most people focus on this; it just depends on how efficient you want it to be. The Oliver design (double hull with radiant barrier) is more optimized for the heat (desert) than the snow (mountains). But it handles both excellently. My last trip went from the hot desert to the snowy mountains in March, it just took some propane. If you want a more efficient trailer in snow the Bigfoot is probably the only one better, but you're just saving some propane and personally I found it a cramped trailer. Now which do you want to optimize? Actually for heat is better because you need power to cool it down, which is scarcer than propane (unless you have an electric truck bwahahaha 🙂). So I think the Ollie is an awesome choice as it optimizes on the most energy scarce side of cooling. But any small trailer with decent insulation I think is fine in very cold or hot conditions (not Airstreams! There's a reason why they have two AC's and you'd better have full hookups) Humidity This is the more important issue; humidity management is the critical issue. On the Bigfoot (for example), I think its merely OK. Just anecdotal but I followed a couple who had one on the East Coast and dealing with humidity was a big deal. The Oliver however deals with this extremely well. no wood, nothing that can get damaged for one thing. I took it to Lassen the first week it opened. We lived in a deep fog bank for a week. Thick - you couldn't see the rest of the campground at times and it was a cold humidity which is bad. But the condensation was absolutely not a problem. The windows watered up, but as they're the new flush mount its outside the gasket, I just opened in the morning and squeegeed off outside. In the cabinets all the clothes needed to be pulled off the walls - yes. But the condensation just dripped down into what must have been designed in on purpose which is a condensation trip 'tray'. Impressed the hell out of me, Oliver raises the cabinet bottoms with a (honeycomb probably) panel, with a channel along the sides. This means it just drips down and collects there, I would just go and soak it up once a day. Only other thing was keeping stuff off the closet walls. Anyhow when I got it back down it took a day to dry out 😅But there wasn't a single trace of humidity damage or anything inside. Conclusion IMO it truly is four season. No trailer is perfect for all conditions or use cases. The Ollie optimizes somewhat more for hot than cold, but the advantage of is it's cheaper/easier to heat a trailer than cool a trailer. In roasting hot conditions the walls are cool to the touch due to an air gap, no heat channeling and radiant barriers. For condensation (hot or cold) its probably best in the business.
  26. I don't but I do check them regularly. Thanks for your suggestions - they make sense to me. Love your tag line by the way "die young - as late as possible".
  27. Looking for input and real owner feedback on your thoughts of the Oliver being able to handle 4-season climates. Appreciate all the information and perspective on this forum.
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