All Activity

Yes, you can Scotty and thank you! The grey trim matches the striping on the hull AND the lower body paint on my truck! 😎 I renewed all the outlet boxes with grey ones, even a new matching license plate light in grey! If only Lippert made a grey powder coated door lock! That would be a nice addition! And when I replace the door security glass with a grey-smoked glass maybe I should paint the frame in the same grey color as the fridge vents and other painted parts. The entrance door has 3 hinges. You leave them as-is and insert 2 friction hinges in-between the 3 OEM hinges. The screen door gets in the way while working, but you can wiggle the friction hinges into place. I just centered them by eyeball, drilled the first hole and mounted the screw to hold the hinge in place. Then 12 screws per hinge! The kit comes with self-tapping screws, but I prefer to drill pilot holes one size smaller. In the picture, the hinges that are riveted are the OEM hinges and where you see the square-drive screws is the friction hinge. A careful installation should only take a half hour. The door hook has no value when you are opening or closing the door in windy conditions. Often you have to fight, holding the door, while trying to get it hooked. With these hinges installed the door can be at any angle and I promise a 40 MPH wind will not budge it. 😎 Never again hear that BANG! And btw it is the bang on that rubber stopper that cracks the interior sheeting of the door panel. If you look closely at the picture, looking through the screen, you can see the cracking of the interior sheeting. If friction hinges were installed OEM, I'm certain they wouldn't be there. As soon as I had heard of these hinges on our Forum, 2 1/2 years ago, I installed them. Why aren't Lippert Friction Hinges installed OEM by OTT? Instead of the bumper and hook, they should be.

I'm with Patriot on this one. I wouldn't ever apply a suction cup to the fiberglass. I hang my bath towel over the truck tailgate for an hour, then fold it up and put away. If it's a late-night shower in the wet bath, the screen door handlebar is perfect to hang a bath towel. Chris hangs hers in the bathroom. The cheap black rubber on those suction cups is the issue. If you must use a suction cup on the hull, use the clear plastic suction cups, not black rubber. I use one of these for our outdoor shower, but I only stick it to the window glass. https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-Bathroom-Handheld-Mounting-Polished/dp/B07ZXB9FXQ/ And the thought of Vaseline or olive oil is really gross. These products will collect dirt when camping or towing and to remove them the residue, you will also remove the ceramic coating (or wax) in that area!

You should see what Will posted 1 hour ago. Less than 5min vid. He’s going to clean these companies up. Like Dave’s Auto Center will help improve diesel engines.

Can you replace the top or middle hinge without removing the whole door? In other words... Just kind of remove one hinge and slip the replacement in the same location? btw... I kind of like the grey trim stuff... goes with the stripes. Thanks, Scotty

That is amazing! Yours is just above the belly bar and ours just below. When you lift the curbside a few inches for leveling it puts the door handle rather high! And yes, if you installed the keyless lock, it would be right up on the window frame. The chrome on your lock looks great. Ours had wear scratches from key use and a little bang in the latch from a prior owner.

It is larger, that round section with all those numbered keys, plastic parts. Reminds me of the keyless entry system I had on an 80s T-bird. It was cool 40 years ago but they stopped putting them on cars long ago. I should remember to remove the "two emblems" before I renew our ceramic coating next time. I've removed every other label OTT plastered inside and out (about 20 of them)! In a post 3 years ago John E Davies wanted me to add warning labels to the rear emergency exit (just after I had removed them)! 🤣 I don't worry about code and insurance and all that rot. I need to remove the "black door bumper." I removed the door hook from the fiberglass last year (drilled out 4 rivets and filled holes). Just add Lippert friction hinges and you don't need any of that stuff. Best simple mod ever! Lippert Friction Hinge Kit for RV Entry Doors - White Over 90% of the feedback I've received on our grey trim has been positive! I'll mark you down with one other longtime Oliver owner as not liking them. It is my appearance mod theme! We love it over having 10 shades of white all over the body (see pic). Setting the bar awfully low! 🤣 I just replaced ours before it failed after 10 years of reliable service!

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!