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Email sent. Mike wrote on Where's Ollie something like, this one is "good enough to frame!"

YES - same on my Hull #117 Bill

This is exactly what we have. Was OTT installing these back when our hulls were made? I assumed it was OEM but maybe previous owner upgraded. I realize many newer ones look like what Bill showed above. The shut-off on ours was tight but works well after a CLR soak. In shower head mode, pressure not so great but good enough.

We have a crew cab long bed. The long bed is good for storage, especially if you have a large Clam screen room. The downside is maneuverability. Our truck and trailer combined are about 45' long. Makes it harder to back into some campsites with narrow roads and trees.

"Red sky at night - Sailor's ...." Pretty.

Daisy Barn campground just outside of Niagara Falls

Really apreciate all your informative posts. And it looks like I opened up a can of worms on OEM DC-DC with the ENs in the comunity. OBTW the CA in GregCA are my initails. I am actully in Navarre Fl close to Pensacola

Was going to just do a cover, but like the cap and bed slide idea. May have to consider something like this to make life easier. Yes please send me some pictures

Thanks for the input. Didn't even consider payload and assumed a 3/4 ton would be plenty. Just based on numbers from what I know now, I should have about 2,500 lbs. of payload left after people, pets, and Oliver with 2 e-bikes are accounted for. Hopefully will be enough. Thinking back, I must have been a disaster waiting to happen back in my Casita/Ridgeline towing days. Was looking at a cap but probably leaning towards a bed cover to keep things locked up and dry.

Ironically, I just went through this when our awning began to jam because of a piece of debris. I was really annoyed that the bottom end cap screw was inaccessible and went hunting for a right angle screw driver. But even with that the screws were pretty locked up and took an effort to remove. I ended up replacing the bottom end cap screw with a hex cap screw so I could (next time) remove it with a wrench or socket. You won't realize how good @Tom and Doreen tips above are until you need them. 🙂

Jd, If driving with an open truck bed will make me feel like a kid again, I'm all in🤸‍♀️

Taylor and Dave are exactly right. So how do we get away with a 2500 diesel with only 8800 GVWR? We don't have a cap. I don't want to drive a truck with a cap again (after 18 year with previous truck). Then since we don't have a cap we don't need a slide. Cap and slide could be 500 LBS, more on a long bed. We ALWAYS carry a FULL 35-gal fresh water tank in the bed (300 LBS). My truck toolbox, who knows what it weighs now full, but it has extra hubs for both truck and trailer and other parts, tools to do most roadside repairs (no maintenance stuff, I do that at home). I can change a hub, even press a new axle bearing with tools always in the TV. Check with our friend Steve who has the tools on board to do anything Oliver, almost anywhere! Best wishes @ScubaRx! I like this statement and I'm an engineer who has actually taught statistics. I forget where Dave lives, but Taylor lives in that quiet part of CA near OR and I believe it rains a LOT and has that salt ocean air! He must have a cap. I love the fact that we don't need one. Yeah, sometimes I worry about theft, but try to keep my head up above those kind of thoughts since we left the west-side of Chicago 32 years ago! I LOVE an open truck bed, makes me feel like a kid again with a first truck, just pile up the chairs, break camp in minutes, reach in and grab anything, it's easy! But if you travel in rain a lot an open bed would be a PITA! When we see rain is coming all we do is put our two camp chairs in the truck (if we're in the Oliver), or in the Oliver when towing. The toolboxes are waterproof, the fridge is covered, and the rest of the stuff will get wet whether in the bed or at the campsite. The extra weight of the Cummins is likely equal to the cap and slide in a long-bed truck. And 2WD over 4WD saves 100s of LBS! Except for body height, 4WD would be a plus! But what a pain to repair! I did the starter motor in a 4WD 4Runner but first had to remove the front driveshaft to do so. We're certainly not light packers but I still have over 500 LBS available capacity when fully loaded (in both the TV and TT). No kayaks for us, but that little Weber grill is not enough, we have the dual-burner Napoleon, much heavier. We have lots of cooking equipment, pressure cookers and more, can cook over our fire ring with multiple attachments. Then there's a truck bed Dometic CFX5 45L fridge full of water and meats, etc. A diesel truck is more expensive, but our older 2WD Dodge Cummins was actually 20% of what the same truck, 4WD brand new would have cost. Diesel fuel prices today are worse than ever, diesel now being over $6 and $2 more than regular gas per gallon! I still MUST have the exhaust brake, just drive one down a hill and you'll know. Greg from CA, this is just a bunch of my ramblin's, things think about, consider or dismiss. Like Taylor wrote, "Calculate." Start a spreadsheet and keep working it. You have loads of time, think long on what you want, so don't rush the order! 😎

Hey Everyone, Hull # 145 2016 LE2 Furrion Chill Cube A/C upgrade 10/1/2026 We finally gave the heave ho to the noisy jet engine Penguin 2 air conditioner and installed the Furrion Chill Cube with heat pump. Installation was done at Miles RV in Hendersonville NC. Performed at under two hours of shop labor and included the installation of a Lux Pro thermostat to control the LP heater. When installing the Furrion the heat and A/C will operate independently so a new thermostat will be required. For reasons unknown to me, the Dometic thermostat that used to run both will not work with just the heat. The Lux Pro works fine and shows the current temp in the display. You have to turn the fan from auto to on and the heat from off to on and then control heat with the up / down setting for temp. After that it cycles on and off normally. The Furrion A/C is controlled independently with either the remote or the buttons on the air distribution box. This concerned me quite a bit, but in talking with the shop supervisor, he said his tech guys would have no problem. And, they didn't. Why I chose the Furrion A/C: Two main reasons... 1.) NOISE and 2.) Energy use. The main difference between the Furrion and other units is how the compressor / fan combination operate. The fan is not a round propeller type, it is a cylinder. That may be one of the reasons the A/C is about 4” taller than other comparable units. Our height went from 9'8” to 9'11”.... still under 10 feet but will avoid underpass's that are less than 10-1/2' in height. The compressor is variable speed... that means instead of the compressor tuning on and off when holding temp, it will, well... vary in speed. We are planning on a 900 ah lithium upgrade in November and expect the run time on this a/c to be measured in days. JD has reported on very good run times and I expect the same type of performance. Testing so far has been plugged into a 20a outlet with moderate temperatures. The 20a outlet is not a problem because the Furrion does not require a “soft start” add on. It's soft start by design. It also has what they call a “gear” function that allows you to set the power consumption at 50%, 75%, and 100%. All tests have been done at 50%. There is quite a bit of difference in noise depending on the setting. When the fan is set to auto, and the ambient and set temp are 8-10 degrees apart, it can be loud. The fan has a turbo mode and when that kicks in it's up about 65+ db. However, when you set the fan to low and the ambient-set difference is 4-5 degrees it is whisper quiet at about 52db. Very easy to hold a conversation. We were in the trailer with low fan and the A/C dropped the temp 5 degrees in about a half hour. All in all, I expect that it will be noisy when first turned on and trying to cool down the trailer from high temps to reasonable ones. Then when holding that reasonable temp it will be very quiet. Oh... and HEAT... I set the heat on 85 degrees with the ambient temp at 70. The unit took a short while to start, but when it did, the noise was very low at 51db and the air coming from the vents was nice and warm. The gear function does not work when heat is selected, so I did not leave it on very long. I have carried a ceramic cube heater and a Buddy Jr. heater when camping in cold temps as back up in case there was a problem with the heat. After the battery upgrade, I don't think I will need to do that any longer. There are some other nice features. There is a timer that can be set to either turn the unit ON or OFF. Nice if you are arriving back at camp after a hot day exploring or to set to turn on an hour or so before you arrive at your campsite. Our "Flying Sea Turtle" turned 10 years of age (notice I did not use the word "old") this summer and once we have the lithium upgrade done we will be set up for the next ten. Thanks again to John for his extensive testing and reporting on this unit. Furrion owes a commission on my unit. All for now... Happy Camping, Scotty

Snake Credk Recreation Area in SD on Missouri River. Site 21E on side of lake is Electric only but great view.

Don't forget that diesel engines and their ancillary equipment are much heavier than gas engines. That extra weight reduces your payload. With two exact trucks, one diesel and one gas, the gas truck will have around 800 +/- pounds more payload than the diesel.. Which for me personally, if payload was an issue, I would purchase a one ton diesel and not a 3/4 ton. Like Taylor.Coyote said, carefully assess your payload requirements! I must say I'm loving my gas 3/4 ton GMC. Just came down Cabbage Hill out of Pendleton, OR (I84), a six mile 6% grade, and didn't use the brakes once. I have the E1 however. Dave

Assuming you will put a cap on your truck, you might consider a bedslide. No more getting on your knees fishing/searching for stuff in the back of the truck bed. I would pay double the price we paid if that is what it cost to have one. Best purchase we made outfitting the truck…. lots of different options. If you intend to put a shelf over the bedslide, your cap needs side access to the shelf. You should also understand the different load capacities of the sides and how it can impact how tall they are above the truck bed to ensure gear clearance under the shelf. I have 17.5" between the top of the bedslide and the bottom of the shelf, this clearance works well for us. if you want, I can send pics to give you ideas

We can recommend the F250 but you should take the time to calculate (really calculate/don't estimate) your payload needs BEFORE you purchase. In our case we have 4x4 short box 6.7 power stroke. Coming from a 1/2 ton, we assumed stepping up to a 3/4 ton would give us carefree payload. After installing a roof rack system, bedside, truck-bed height shelf over the bedside, A.R.E. cap, trailer hitch and full width mudflaps our usable payload is no longer carefree. We are NOT MINIMALIST and have lots of gear such as kayaks, camera gear, extra 30 gallon water tank for boon docking and a gas grill that taps into trailer propane are just for starters…. I've put the truck on the scales, we end up sucking up all the payload. The bottom line: We have to manage how much we bring to stay within our payload. Initially, I turned to maintaining a spread sheet with the weights of people, dog and each piece of gear before heading to the scale. Fortunately we have a nearby logging truck scale we can use for free. Over time, I learned the combinations of gear without using the spreadsheet but do run to the scale before we head out on a long trip…. Likely the difference between the gas and diesel will add enough payload that the F250 will do the job. The F250 is not overkill and you may want the F350. You are buying an amazing trailer. We wish you the best of luck.

Article below includes design for dc/dc charger back in 2019-2021 the factory refused to even consider adding a dc/dc charger for customers. As Jd stated we also used 4awg in the supply from truck back to the dc/dc unit. I don’t understand how a 7 pin can possibly supply adequate power. At the rally I’ll ask what magic they are using at the factory. https://4-ever-hitched.com/blog-articles/f/lithium-battery-upgrade?blogcategory=Electrical+Upgrades craig. Hull 505 2019

I don't see any margin in fact they're below spec (see table). This table only goes to 600" which is 50 ft and roundtrip for DC-DC wiring from the battery bay in the Oliver to the starter battery in a full-size truck is closer to 80 ft. The tables are ultra conservative being concerned for voltage drop which is less of a concern in RV charging. But STILL! Note row 3 where 20A on 12 AWG wire is only good for a 120" or a 10 ft run. I went with 4 AWG wire for the 50A Orion on a cost basis, while some were warning go with 2 AWG. It is what it is and the 7-blade wiring is only 12 AWG. You'll fit right in here! 🤣 Got my hydraulic crimpers and cable cutter when I first got into this 2 years ago! (Used once on eBay, they only used a couple huge dies). You'll have a new hull and can order your options. So, you won't have the 20 +/- mods I've done, but perhaps a few regardless.

You Dog you!...

Thank you Dave there is definitely resistance when you push and pull the lever. Still working on getting that drain stem out if I can do that then I’ll just use a stopper in there when traveling hopefully that will eliminate the problem. Thanks for the help. Ron

I fully agree until you want to run an efficient variable-speed A/C on inverter/batteries. Not required most of the time in the PNW but most often in the SW. With DC-DC charging, we can run the Chill Cube A/C while towing and SOC% will be the same as when we started our drive!

Thanks for the info! Seems odd they would design an unsafe system, and they must have some margin. At the very least the fuse would blow hopefully before any smoke. But this would lead to a bunch of service calls they would have to deal with. Don't even own the trailer yet and thinking about mods already and I always wanted an excuse to get pair of hydraulic crimpers. But, before I get mod crazy, I'll wait to see how we camp first. How hard was it to run wires in the TT? Is there a bulkhead where the trailer wiring goes into the TT to fish the wires or do you have to drill holes?

Recently spent time in Theodore Roosevelt National Park -- the North Unit Juniper campground as well as the South Unit Cottonwood campground. Both are well situated within the park areas. view from my campsite at Juniper Campground, North Unit .... where the Buffalo roam.... Cannonball Concretions at the North Unit the new Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library located near the TRNP South Unit (but not associated with the park) is worth a visit, allow yourself at least 4 hours and be sure to buy your timed entry tickets ahead of time, so you can choose your preferred time of day There is a lot to do in the Medora ND area, including hiking and historic sites to visit. Of course, I was also busy playing some RadioSport (Parks on the Air -- aka POTA).

Thanks for the input. And yes diesel would be nice, but I can't justify the cost of ownership when towing a trailer this size