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Just local RV dealers service department rate charge. Has nothing to do with Oliver. No idea what Bretz in Missoula (official Oliver Service) charges but would guess it not too far off.

The differences from one year to the next with the Oliver travel trailers is amazing. Looking at @jd1923 door and lock compared to ours and where they decided to install the lock. Doubt I could even fit one of the RV Locks into that tight of a space. Looks like we will be content with the one we have which is fine.

I don’t know that a black lock detracts from the appearance any more than the two emblems immediately to the left of the lock, the black door bumper, or the grey fridge vent. We haven’t been “locked out” of the trailer by either failure of the RVLock - but still have enjoyed not having to remember to take along a key for 5 years. Compared to everything else that has failed or broken in the trailer - the leaky windows, water heater that shoots out flames, black tank dump valve issues, massive air leaks, appliances that unplug themselves, freezer hinges that break, interior belly bands that fall off - and an air conditioner that is not compatible with human life - I’d say a door lock that requires service every two years is actually pretty good. (Is this horse dead yet?) I wonder what the actual failure rate is. I’m hoping there are folks out there that have RVLocks that -haven’t- failed?!

The 24' Casita Discovery width is 8 ft, which is wider than the Oliver and will require extra care while maneuvering corners or pulling up to a crowded gas station . . . doable, but different. Also the interior wall covering is not the Casita "Rat Fur" short napped rug-like covering. It is an almost smooth marine grade, felt-like headliner which comes in two shades.

Through general searches on the internet about protecting RV's from rock chips, I came across a repair facility on the east side of San Antonio who had a video about applying it to the bottom half of a high end Class-A motorhome. I figured if it was good enough for a $500k+ diesel pusher, it was good enough for The Wonder Egg. Unfortunately, they no longer offer Vortex coating. Good luck on your search. If you apply any sort of protective coating, you should still use some sort of rock guard protection between your tow vehicle and trailer to back it up. I use a Rock Tamer fitted to my F150.

Ouch is right, and todays hourly rates are totally ridiculous. I owned an auto repair shop back in the 90's and was charging 42.50 per hour and was getting attacked by customers over it. Dealerships at the time were 50-55. Of course the dollar has lost over 50% of its value since then, but that should have only doubled the hourly rates from that period.

Is that the Oliver rate?

I understand and yes, upgrades are spendy! We also use our camp chairs for drying towels which work great too! 😊

@Patriot, unfortunately we don't have the rear receiver on our Ollie so no bike rack. As I remember, Oliver wants >$1000 for the receiver mount. For that much money, I'd rather put racks on the TV. Tony

Don, @dhaig thanks for the post. I did read the whole thread and I remember you mentioning using clips to hold drying items on the bars but I must have missed the ring residue part. These new cups seem to attach pretty securely but they're very clean since they are new. Since they were only attached for a few minutes and left rings I was concerned that long term use might make the rings more permanent but I'll get some auto detailer to keep in the Ollie. During my thread reading last night I found a thread mentioning using a solvent to remove plasticizer from new plastic. I may try this on the cups. I set the suction cups on some of the pink rigid foam insulation in my shop and it stuck to the foam. I've used water on suction cups on the TV windshield (TPMS monitor, GPS) but not petroleum jelly because it's hard to reach the base of the windshield to clean off. Shouldn't be a problem on the side of the Ollie. I have also read @John E Davies thread on making an inside clothes line. I liked the idea but didn't want to drill more holes so I took your suction cup idea and applied it to the inside of the Ollie. Harbor Freight sells single suction cup lifters, so I bought two and use them on the ceiling or high on the walls for a drying line inside the Ollie. Must be different material since the single cups haven't left rings. Tony

I really like My Ollie. I want to see the Oliver company do well. God bless all ya'll.

Oliver just sent this out to owners on June 30th to those who have opted receive their regular marketing emails.

We never did purchase a suction cup style bar. Our 1UP USA Super Duty bike rack it works great as a towel dryer or we just use our camp chairs. Necessity is the mother of invention. 😎 Old photo after our Truma Aventa factory install which Oliver did a stellar job on. We are so glad we got the low profile Truma when we did. One of our top retro mods.

These came from the Hillman drawers at Lowe’s. I can’t remember why I bought 2 sizes other than I found that 2 sizes would fit so I bought both. One may have rounded edges and the other square edges. Bill

@Tony and Rhonda, take a look at a prior response to a similar question I had made on 12/30/24, appearing on a prior page of this thread. (Also includes tips on using clips to secure towels to the rack under windy conditions), When I first fabricated my towel rack I had tried to fasten them to the gelcoat dry. The suction cups would not retain grip to the trailer gelcoat, so I tried dampening the black suction cups with water. While the suction cups appeared to be holding firm to the body of the trailer, inevitably, the suction cup on one or both ends of the rack would loose grip and fall to the ground. Sometimes the suction cups would loose grip in a few minutes and at other times hold a few hours. The suction cups would leave a ring mark on the trailer gelcoat which I was able to remove with some auto detailing cleaner and a rag. I learned a trick from another OTT owner who owned a business selling bird feeders which mounted to window glass using suction cups. He had followed the thread I posted and had made a towel rack to use on his LEII. From his experience mounting bird feeders with suction cups he learned the trick is to use a very thin coating of petroleum jelly (Vaseline or equivalent) on clean suction cups prior to mounting them to the body of our LEII. The petroleum jelly enables the suction cups to achieve a much stronger bond than by dampening them with water. He had also recommended, as an alternate to the petroleum jelly, applying extra virgin olive oil.to the suction cups. I found both the petroleum jelly and the olive oil were much more effective in achieving a strong grip with the suction cups. The olive oil I found would leave a slightly green ring pattern on the gelcoat. The petroleum jelly leaves a slightly yellow ring. In both cases, I was able to clean off the residue from the gelcoat using the auto body detailing cleaner. I find the petroleum jelly slightly less messy to apply. I have not tried any other substances which could provide adequate suction cup hold to the gelcoat, but not leave some residue. So, for over three years I have used the petroleum jelly predominantly and just accepted I would need to clean the residue rings when I do post trip cleaning of trailer. About a year ago I did a thorough cleaning of the trailer exterior and applied a coating of Turtle Wax Hybrid Solutions Ceramic Spray Coating. I was motivated to try the ceramic coating to reduce the effort (or need) to clean residue from insect collisions from the front of the trailer following a trip through insect heavy areas. I have been pleased with the results of using this ceramic coating product. The insect collision residue on the nose of the trailer is much easier to remove AND as a bonus, the suction cup residue rings also clean off with little effort. So far this is the best approach I have found for having a functional exterior towel rack which would stay in place and not drop the towels on to the ground. I invite suggestions on other approaches. In any case, I am pleased you found my towel rack design appealing. Regards, Don

They are called grommets. Door-Mounted Holder Grommet: 5/16" Inside Diameter (ID) with a 7/16" Groove/Drilled Diameter. Body-Mounted Holder Grommet (Approximate): 6mm (.235") Inside Diameterwith an 8.7mm (.343") Groove Diameter and a 16mm (.631") Outside Diameter Ace Hardware or and hardware store has grommets but also you can likely find on Amazon.

Mine died. Any idea how to get a replacement? I guess I'd also like to know what non-dummies call it. 🤪

We got a tour of the new, bigger Casita last month in Sesquicentennial Park Campground (Columbia, SC). For what it is, it is really nice. Of course it's obviously not the quality of an Oliver. But it's also half the price. And it had a dry bath and a full-ish fridge with a dedicated freezer. It will make a lot of campers really happy.

Will just released another BB video. He's got a BB BBQ for the 4th!

Resurrecting this old thread from @dhaig with a question for those who used the Harbor Freight suction cup lifters (https://www.harborfreight.com/4-58-in-85-lb-dual-suction-cup-lifter-59689.html). I assembled this towel bar with the HF lifters. I tested it on the side of the Ollie for about 5 minutes, then removed it. The black suction cups left black rings on the gel-coat. The rings wiped off but I'm concerned. Has anyone else seen this? Thanks, Tony

If they can afford it. This new larger Casita is almost exactly what we paid for our Oliver at the time in 2015. In today's dollars it wouldn't be worth (to me) spending $100K ± for any sort of camper or RV including the Oliver. Like so many here we also looked at the Airstreams back in the day, lovely interiors but thats about it and way too many issues with them. Oddly I have never understood why the Oliver and Airstream are compared to one another so often other than their somewhat similar exterior shape. Aside from that they have very little in common. The Oliver being more utilitarian and Airstream more of a luxury accommodation. We also looked at quite a few Casitas in those days, cheaper for sure but just couldn't quite gravitate to love them. Also looked at a number of Escapes which were sort of ok with only one floorpan that made much sense that being their 5th Wheel. Interiors looked a bit dated and same for the Bigfoots at the time. I still have a lot of respect for the Bigfoots but they don't look as sleek as an Oliver by any means. All that said regardless of cost I wouldn't be interested in a larger Oliver. Might be nice once you arrive but lugging the thing around would not be appealing let alone getting into some of the smaller tight spaces one can do with the current Oliver. Heck I have a hard enough time getting ours into the driveway as it is.

True enough but there will be 7 of us owners there. Assuming the forest fires don't get us it should still be fun. And I will just happen to be in Colorado at that time so for me it makes sense. Nevertheless, I AM looking forward to the "real" Oliver rally in October too.

On our radar and happens to hit at the tail end of our first, months-long trip south, for winter. Hoping timing will work out and it allows us to make our first Oliver rally!

I agree with Lance on this. We drove over to Rice, TX to look at Casita’s when we were in the process of buying. We also looked at Airstreams at several dealers in the area. We weren’t comfortable with the Casita interior even though is was more affordable. At the time, a 23’ or 25’ Airstream was more than we wanted to spend and we were put off by many of the owner reviews on the Airforums. I think this new Casita will sell well and will take some sales from Oliver, but most discerning buyers will recognize the differences and stay with Oliver.

It’s on our calendar. We’ve stayed at Lake Livingston State Park and like it. Looking forward to seeing a bunch of Olivers there! Mike