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@taylor.coyote lives north of you, on the California Pacific coast. Can't wait until we see an Oliver picture without that ugly dinosaur, the NOISY Dometic P2! How do we live with it? Two years was way too long for us! Truly, it just takes 4 bolts and heave the _____er off the roof!
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Hardwire your LevelMate Pro for under a buck!
jd1923 replied to Snackchaser's topic in Ollie Modifications
Never buy a battery-only operated device when a simple 12VDC connection is available, period. The Oliver (or any RV) has infinite locations to wire in 12VDC with just two simple crimps! 😎 - Today
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I’m fit, I used to always weigh 240+ now 220 LBS or less. We played 2 hours of pickleball today, and generally play 3 times a week. We play against couples in their 50s, winning more often than not, just us in our early 70s! 😎 No fricken way I’m washing/waxing a vehicle anymore! After 50 years of keeping every vehicle I have in A+ condition, my energy for wax-on/wax-off has grown extremely weak! I’ll pay $100 to have a neighborhood kid work all day long washing my truck! Paid $2K for the best Ceramic Coating I’ve ever seen (just one guy, he kept our Oliver for 2 weeks). Taking our hull back to “the guy” for our first annual decontamination wash. I could not believe when just last week he said, the annual will be $180 (based on how I kept it untouched). God bless you Dan! I truly enjoy reading “Dan’s Mods!”
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We need my good friend, our friend @Geronimo John to chime in! He showed us an ice maker he travels with and I purchased a larger unit which we now use everyday at home (use distilled water to minimize cleaning). Still planning on the Oliver Rally this year, though I missed registration (have a campsite). 😎 We're bringing the icemaker with us for sure, for campground wanderers that need hydration! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09133YZL4/
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the dog house get's a new refrigerator
DanielBoondock replied to mossemi's topic in Ollie Modifications
Oh that’s a good idea, don’t know why I didn’t think of it. The one thing I miss about the freezer is having ice cubes, I’ll keep ‘em in the cooler. I need a bigger buffer battery, the small Jackery runs out overnight. I can tell the truck to stay on and power it for however long but its overkill I got a small dedicated drink cooler behind the drivers seat with soft drinks for the road, but my full sized Montague folding bike has been going there now. We eat a lot of veg and good stuff isn’t always available. Four of these store in the fridge part of the cooler, two in the Oliver and eight of the smaller ones also in the Oliver. They have little packets that capture - I think it’s C02, which wilts vegetables. Cut cabbage for example will literally keep for weeks without wilting or browning, its amazing. Anyhow great way to organize the veg https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-GreenSaver-Produce-Keeper/dp/B00TO8X0BA -
I'm with Dan on these comments, but many like and use the Calmark cover. I sold our Calmark a couple years ago to Gary in Minnesota. I would not have purchased one but it came with the deal used. I'm sure up north it keeps the snow off! We had 2 ft of snow once on our Oliver, but that kind of snow around here only blows in every few years and it will always melt in a couple days. 🤣 We all have different needs. Don't forget the rub marks on the gelcoat, unless your storage is well out of the wind. Down here, if I left a cover on, even for a couple of weeks, we would have 3 kinds of nests under the cover and the Pack Rats would chew the fabric all along the bottom edge to make their nests! I also like the rooftop solar showing, so I can leave it unplugged most of the year. 😎
- Yesterday
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Mossey replaced his over a year ago, so these days he could let you know how noisy the new Nova Kool is on DC. Given you have the 3-way Dometic (we have the same model), if you have it truly set on DC the inverter does not need to run. First push it to AUTO and then sensing 120VAC from the inverter it will automatically switch to AC. Then push the other button to switch from AC to DC. The DC light should then be ON. I have very good hearing and the Dometic fridge on AC or DC barely makes a sound, most people would not hear it. When running on LP you can hear a slight clicking sound when it's lighting the gas and then it too should run awfully quiet. The absorption fridge should be quiet in all three modes. Low noise is the only benefit of having absorption vs. a compressor fridge (and LP of course). Running the fridge on inverted AC is such a small load, about 1A on 120VAC (10A on DC), you should not hear the inverter unless your sleeping above it there would be a very light hum. The only time I turn off our inverter because of noise is if our LiFePO4 batteries are very low and the inverter is in full charge mode, producing full out 120A DC. Full out charge should be easy to hear, but when merely running the fridge, not. Noisy inverter, or a noisy 3-way fridge? It could mean there is an issue creating the noise. Is the sound coming from the fridge, your inverter, or both? Make sure your fridge is actually on DC, turn your inverter OFF if you have to and see if the noise is still present in DC mode.
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Chatted with another owner who reported the same error code in Facebook. They tried the hairdryer hot air blown up the vent. No luck for them 😞 Hard part about switching out is everything is controlled via the Truma control panel. So putting in a new furnace is no small tasks. Will wait until I am closer to mothership to consider an undertaking like that.
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@mossemi I just tried running my (original 2018) 3-way Dometic Refigerator on DC batteries. When I did, the charger/inverter ran the entire time. Made for too much noise when trying to sleep. Do you notice that as a problem in your installation and/or how did you eliminate that issue?
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@pfin3 We did not want to deal with using toppers. Just another item to move. We bought KTT mattresses in 2020 and still love them. More comfortable then the mattresses at home. I used Hypervent matting under the mattresses, which we strongly recommend to be installed. They are a little on the heavy side but are manageable. We chedked out the KTT mattresses and the Southern Mattress company mattresses. The KTT mattresses are made in Connecuit and we drove there to pick them up and saved shipping costs. Richard, the owner, was very nice and easy to deal with and he made them a slight bit stiffer, at our request, then his usual mattresses which at the time Oliver used. I am not sure if Oliver still buys from them if mattresses are requested instead of the standard cushions.
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Better stay with a 3-way fridge, unless you're plugged in. Running on DC overnight takes too much power for AGM batteries. We do, and it must stay below 10F to keep my Qt of ice cream cold! Glampin' right?! 😎 We also make ice! Two of these fit in one corner of the Dometic freezer, taking very little room. I refill one each night so we always have ice available for those adult beverages! https://www.amazon.com/Molds-Silicone-Trays-Large-Square/dp/B0771YDNCY/ @Ronbrink was first to have one of these in his TV. Like you, he has the dual-zone CFX which is great! At first, I didn't want to use the space, but I went with the single compartment CFX5 45L which just fits in this space by the passenger door. It's so nice always having cold water with us, and not only in the cabin. Often when traveling, we buy a load of meat from a local farm or butcher shop. I'll remove the drinking water, set the CFX5 down to freezer temps to carry the box full of frozen meats, yum! Some people go to museums. That's not us. We shop the great local food markets. Leaving to SW Colorado this Wednesday! With both fridges half empty, our first stop is always the Delores Market! 😍
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Thank you
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I posted elsewhere about my debate of Cal-Mark cover versus Graphene coating. Coating all the way is what I determined. A cover traps moisture when its wet, and turns the trailer into a greenhouse when it’s sunny. On a cool day I had just a plastic tarp on the roof and couldn’t believe how much heat that ceiling radiated inside. Plus you need/want the trailer to be clean before putting the cover on. Whereas coating protects on and off the road, eliminates UV damage, makes it trivial to wash off and the trailer looks spiffy out and about. Covers are more meant for conventional trailers which have leaky seams, the Oliver doesn’t need it, storage conditions depending
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Amazing ceramic coat job near Lake Norman NC
DanielBoondock replied to Omward Bound's topic in General Discussion
He works by himself? How long did he take to do it, what coating did he use (Glidecoat?), and did he double coat? Also did he do all the externals too like the awnings, plastics etc. Just curious to compare notes -
Cleaning/Washing Cushion Fabric
Tony and Rhonda replied to Tony and Rhonda's topic in General Discussion
We decided to wash the cushion covers. Unfortunately there are no care instructions in any of the covers we've checked. Oliver didn't have any guidance either. We started machine washing our cushion upholstery covers. Washing in a front loader on delicate/cold with second rinse. Adding regular laundry detergent and oxiclean. The upholstery fabric is synthetic and comes out of the washer almost dry. A few hours in the sun (air drying) finishes them. We also turn them inside out at some point to make sure they dry completely. We would not attempt machine drying. The washed cushion covers look the same (no discoloration) as before washing but they smell better. Not sure if the upholstery had some type of stain treatment but the washed covers feel better too. The edge piping also had a little fraying after washing but we clipped or melted the frays. (Nylon or polyester fabric so you have to be very careful if you try to melt the frays.) Freshly washed on left with a pile of removed frays at bottom. Piping fray after washing, before repair. The most difficult part is removing and reinstalling the foam from the covers. The covers are a very tight fit and the zipper opening is smaller still. The smaller the cushion, the more difficult. We have a standard bed and the small cushions used in the corners were a challenge. Strong hands are useful. We found when removing the covers, our foam had stuck to the seams of the covers in some places. Not sure why this happens. We found it's best to run my hand along the fabric seams to separate the foam from the fabric. There are also a lot of fabric strings on the inside of the cover from the fraying seal allowance so we have to be careful not to pull on those when removing the foam. After drying, we cut off a lot the frayed fabric strings to make it easier to reinstall the foam. Getting the foam past the zipper can be difficult. We found that squeezing the corner of the foam with one hand and pulling the fabric end over the foam worked best for us. Strong hands are very helpful here. Once the foam is inside to cover we had to stick an arm between the cover and the foam to help position the foam, especially in the corners. We're working through the cushions a washer load at a time. The covers take up a lot of space in the washer when dry but not nearly as much when we so we started with four small covers by themselves and we're working up the number and size of the covers we wash at one time. We also plan each wash so there's no confusion on which cover goes on which block of foam. -
Welcome! We bought a lightly used 2019 Elite 1, had it a few years. We never used the rear table and kept the bed made. It had a custom made mattress from Southern Mattress the previous owner had installed. It was OK, but it was heavy and tall. I reluctantly sold the Elite I and bought a new Elite II with twin beds (my wife won that battle:) Before we took delivery we ordered custom fit memory foam mattresses from Tochta, we really like them. They can probably make one for the E1 if you want. We prefer the single piece foam mattress over the multiple layers. . As you know, there is a large space under the bed in the center. This is where our dog bed was, our large Labrador liked sleeping under there. It can also be used with a storage bin, or a 12V auxiliary refrigerator. We carry one of those in our truck, fill it with frozen food. https://southernmattressnc.com/ https://www.tochta.com/
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Can I ask what brand your topper is and did you have to modify. Thank you.
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the dog house get's a new refrigerator
DanielBoondock replied to mossemi's topic in Ollie Modifications
Do you actually use a freezer compartment? The Dometic they're installing now (or the '26's at least) have a removable one, and its much better as now I have room for taller stuff. Annoying that jams, pasta sauce and the like doesn't fit anywhere except on their side otherwise. I also have a Dometic CFX5 75 in the truck for when we need more stuff. The compartments are individually settable via Bluetooth or front panel, to freezer/fridge. Being an EV there's lots of power in the bed, I have a portable battery plugged into that which tops off when we drive, and powers the cooler otherwise. I got this on sale but there's equivalent cheaper ones Anyhow the other advantage is no more ice buildup since its just a fridge now. On the downside, their design is for moisture to collect on the top area (former freezer) and it drips down which is annoying. This is actually their design ... anyhow easy to 3D print a collection tray and funnel it to the drain hose which I'll do at some point. I believe (can check if you're interested) a Dometic NRX 130C with dark stainless front. Freezer compartment is removeable as mentioned, it has a latch which props it open when unpowered to keep airflow going through it. Really a nice fridge I like it -
Welcome to the significantly smaller subset of Elite 1 owners! We also keep the rear dinette down it its bed configuration, and continue to use the original cushions. At the bottom, 1” of pink foamboard insulation, covered by a layer of Hypervent. Then the cushions, topped by 2” of memory foam, icy cool mattress pad and a sheepswool topper and a fitted sheet to help hold it together. Happy travels!
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Forgot to add, in 4k miles the only non superficial damage I found is the lower half street has three pin pricks in the lower part. On the curb side there's a single bigger rock strike near the propane housing, again in the lower 1/4 section. Even with the graphene I'll put a wrap on it for the bigger ones. I don't want to go with mud guards because one, it'll disrupt the underbody airflow and two, there's no way to attach them. The whole underbody is one smooth surface for aerodynamics. Applying it is easy, just use a little soapy water to position, main problem is cutting it to lay over the area well. Exaggerated but I think this would work. If anybody has any ideas on this one ...
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Pretty rare out here on the West Coast, I'm the only one (registered) North of SF. Though I did see this rare bird in nearby camping hotspot while mine was being built last year. I bought sight unseen and was really impressed with how beautiful it looks on the road. I took it as a good omen
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Congrats! Pics or it isn't real 😄
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Fresh Water Tank Overflow Condition
DanielBoondock replied to Wayfinder's topic in Mechanical & Technical Tips
Agree, I need to retire so I have the time to keep up on the forum 😅 I've been debating whether to ceramic coat the plastic bits - this tells me yes definitely worth it. Even if you don't coat the trailer, the smaller parts are super easy. Glidecoat is multi-surface, you can do fiberglass, metal, glass, plastic, and for these parts you don't need much. Just clean, you can do some light compounding/polishing with a microfiber towel if you want, or just don't bother, and apply two coats. Just get a small bottle of Glidecoat which isn't expensive, there's a 15% Labor Day sale going on. Anyhow if anybody wants to do this feel free to ping me for help -
pfin3 started following New to us, 2021 Legacy Elite 1
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Lurked in the halls for a few years and finally found an elite 1, hull #939. Tow with a 2017 Toyota Tundra and don't even realize it's back there, lol. We plan on just leaving the rear table down as a bed and sleep on the cushions, but feel it could use a little more luxury. Ou question is, what toppers would be suggested from those that'd have them? Can't wait to hear some suggestions and really can't wait to get the Oliver out for more trips.
