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@John Dorrer did I miss this info in the thread? What type of hitch do you use on the truck? I just upgraded my hitch on my new truck to a Shocker hitch, but I only have two long test drives under its belt. I was just wondering if a shocker-like hitch could reduce any excessive bouncing when hitting bridges or other repetitive oscillations on the rig.

I’ve only had one window leak, my fault all it needed was a go cleaning of the track.. I use old shoe laces in the the weep holes there work great..No more leaks.. just cut them about 2 - 3 inches and a slight tilt to the rear of the camper.. Try to stay cool out there..

Also in hill country is Guadalupe River sp. Place is an absolute little jewel. Hill country also has a LOT of Army Corps of Engineers reservoir campgrounds that often have nice views. Strongly echo all the callouts for Mustang Island. If you want to boondock, the national sea shore south/west of Mustang Island permits it and is beautiful.

Yeah, 100% on our short term radar, just not today 🙂 There's more than you would think, between National Parks (Big Bend for instance, you can't "boondock" but there are a number of park-interior primitive campsites you can bring a trailer to), state parks on the gulf shore, and National Wildlide Refuges! The difference in public lands was definelty something that took getting used to, moving down here though. Our primary immediate use is going to be gulf shore off grid camping. The awning is pretty mind-bogglingly expensive at 5k though, and the x23 has 400 on the roof. Back of napkin says a 400w folder + the roof solar should be sufficient. Per dc to dc, that's good to hear --- I like that it's off the shelf with the new trim (it's not really a new model, imho.) Long way of saying I think we're going to opt out of the awning for our build. Thank you for the info and thoughts!

Agree, started participating in this thread almost 10 years ago. At home working on Ollie, it’s raining, so cannot finish everything today. Hopefully will be on the Blue Ridge Parkway camping soon, will take some “Where’s Ollie” photos, too!

Look at using King StarBoard for a better waterproof mounting board. It can be cut and shaped using regular woodworking tools. I get mine from McMaster Carr but there are less expensive places to get it. A shipment from McMaster Carr usually arrives the next day depending on where you are. I think I have ordered some from TAP Plastics https://www.tapplastics.com/product/plastics/cut_to_size_plastic/king_starboard/526?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21137328659&gbraid=0AAAAAD_hg_I8XrL-S3Ima0ZSWbIsffsZk&gclid=CjwKCAjwmdLSBhANEiwAkREMN3hswfK8uVUE38-cgCmjAoCwEzeXRTPZLhht1xFJJ1A8-NIIMHzIkhoC2_gQAvD_BwE I don’t know why that link has to have so I much gibberish in it. Bill

Same Obeaming as Ronbrink for over a year; we like them alot and so much better than O original junk. Used high quality double tape with no problems and easy.

Never thought it would last this long! Since we’re not able to travel for a while it’s inspiring to see everyone else contribute with really interesting places to keep it going. I had our Oliver in the driveway last weekend for some maintenance and at one point I just sat at the dinette and thought we’ve got to get on the road soon! Mike

Where's Ollie is my favorite thread and it's 10 years old! Thanks @Mike and Carol for getting it started!

Last year I found the same issue with the screws coming out of the pvc mounting boards. Service had no suggestions to offer except to replace the pvc mounting board. I don't think the pvc material is the right thing to use for this mounting board, but that's what they use. My brother and I discussed this issue and came up with a simple solution. On my Oliver (and others might vary) there is enough space below the pvc board to place a narrow strip of thin plywood -- just long and wide enough to use to sit below those locations and to reinstall some longer screws through those clamps. I keep checking the existing clamps, and have tried adding some superglue in with the screws, and that has worked on two of them, for now. I don't want to have to take everything out to fix this issue. I don't have the tools to cut this piece of wood, but that is my plan. @Galileo on an Elite II Twin Bed model, it's below the curb side bed close to the stove location, where the plumbing equipment is mounted.

Not near enough yet. I towed ours one hour with a Lexus GX470, around town on flat highways, got home and would never do that again. The GX is closer to a half ton truck than a Tacoma. After that, I would only tow with a 3/4 ton truck. Trade in your Tacoma for Tundra 5.7 at least! 🤣 Not enough information here to help you. Haven't boondocked before but is it something you really want to do. Not much boondocking it Texas at 98% private lands. Boondocking opportunities west, but then there's mountains! There are Oliver owners that say they boondock, but they also book 1-2 months at campground/RV Parks, so they really don't camp much without plugging in. How much money is the solar awning upgrade option? Cost is always a criteria for consideration. We have 320W rooftop solar and a 400W suitcase which we rarely use. The awning PV would be of very little use to us since we have only used our awning 4 times. With solar up there, maybe I would use it more, or would have to for solar. And when camping a campground site might be the wrong direction for the awning. I park when boondocking to find level ground and for wind considerations which might not afford sun on the awning side. We have a 50A DC-DC charger that we use much more since we don't stay at one campsite more than a few days. In 180 Oliver overnights, a week is the longest we've stayed in one spot. Solar is better for sitting in the BLM for the 14 day limit. DC-D charging is better for those who break camp every few days. The Victron Orion XS 50A is our favorite electrical upgrade. Explain more about your future use plans so we could better advise.

So heard back from Oliver. There will be an external access port, and you'll just route your own cable back to the ecoflow itself. If you opt out of the awning, there will be one of three ports open. Maybe this is the same grommet they provide for stuff like starlink cables now? Importantly, no external charge controller is needed because that's integrated into the EcoFlow (which vibes with their published info.)

When I first tried to get one of my track liners out with a small screw driver it also started to crack. I was extremely paranoid to continue on. I tried other things to clean the tracks. Then I final gave it another shot. when I loosen the sides with the picks I do at least 6-8" ahead. Then using the 90 degree pick I place it under the bottom side of the where I am trying to pry that side out. Since I get it out far enough to grab with my fingers I pull it up a little then continue to work it with the picks while slowly rotating the side side out. I still had one side start to crack. I have no idea if those track liners can be purchased to replace the old ones. I did get daring on one window a slide the track liner one way be a few inches. It was snug so I stopped not wanting to any more damage to the fragile track liners. I do agree, these windows suck! What happens when these windows fail completely? Is there a way to salvage this expensive shell to make it back into a usable camper??? I know that components in the camper are going to fail. There are things that will be hard to replace, Like the bathroom door/ handle, the fridge, all of the windows. I know that many Camper Trailers with 22K miles and 6 years old would have started to fall apart already. But these are not a cheap A-- Trailers. I bought Oliver for the quality and longevity and not an Airstream. Sorry for the rant.

We actually like the Velcro. I don’t know if others had this small storage area shown to them as a “secret compartment” - but I think the Velcro is more apt to keep it that way. Anyway - we go in that compartment so seldom that there’s not a huge convenience or time saving benefit for us. I’m also fond of leaning on that surface or putting quite a bit of body weight on it while extricating myself from the (king layout) bed. So making it readily movable will make it easy to bend those slides at least, and likely to send me crashing to the floor in the middle of the night at worst.

I don’t think I’ve seen any white plastic (PVC) pipe - only PEX. Where is there PVC?

Can someone check me if I'm wrong here --- since the EcoFlow input port 1 handles both alternator in and solar in, the dc to dc port on the x23 should be able to take an incoming portable solar, and shouldn't need an external charge controller because they're integrated into the hub? You will need an adapter for whatever type of plug your solar uses to the dc plug though. Edit: I've got a call in with Oliver tech support and they're going to call back with details tomorrow.

My windows may be a bit different. Mine font really have much of a “felt” liner. They have a rigid plastic inner track that is inside of the frame channel. I tried to (gently) pry it out, but it started to crack. I do have the pick set similar to what you used. I guess I could see if I can draw the sides of the plastic track in, the whole thing may lift out of the channel. It isn’t a “U” channel - more of a squared off “C”

Quite a difference in camping sites!

Over the past few days I’ve looked through all 39 pages of this thread. Very pretty pictures of “Where Is Ollie”. I have pictures of a not-so-pretty location. During late September, 2019 our Oliver was here for a few days We were parked near the base of this building A hint as to the location A screenshot from the campground’s website At the next campground after my one-and-only venture into NYC our Oliver was parked here. A much better looking location. September 30, 2019. And then again in June of 2026. Libby’s Oceanside Camp, York, ME. One of our favorite campgrounds. Bill

Congrats!

Thanks for the context and pictures, it's appreciated!

On my Oli, I removed the rubber track cover and exposed the end of the felt track insert. I used two picks from my small O'ring pick and hook set to loosen the sides of the track and lifted one side of the track and then gently pull the one side up and rotated the track out of the slot. I was able to exposed the track bottom within about 3-4 inch of the center divider. I was then able to enlarge to drain holes and completely clean the inner track bottom. If you can get the Felt track insert up, then you will have a lot more room to get a small tube of chalk in the area and force it through the hole.

If anyone's got any thoughts here I'd appreciate it. Right now we haven't optioned either the solar awning nor a second awning. We don't boondocks un our current trailer, so we don't have a lot of context there. My thinking is that: 1) We'll park when boondocking where the awning is going to be much more useful on one side than the other. 2) The solar awning sounds great but just sounds like something that would wear prematurely, and obviously isn't flexible. 3) A 400w foldable + the roof solar should be sufficient if there's good sun. We've got some time to nail this down and would love people's thoughts.

@johnwen be careful of rigid connections to things that move or vibrate like at the water pump.

I'm glad a lot of people have had success with this mod, but we haven't. One variable that seems to be different is that we have Foy's extended pantry countertop. I don't know if it's heavier or what, but every time I take the trailer somewhere, the countertop slides open; it doesn't stay closed. Now I have to use a hook-and-eye fastener to secure the countertop since un-doing the mod is not an option.