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Lighting is everything … Oliver does a fantastic job with lighting, there’s a ridiculous amount of it in such a small trailer, but it’s all white. Not restful at night, a reddish light just like a campfire does wonders for slowing you down at the end of the day before going to sleep. And the problem is LED’s are just too actinic, you can’t get a bare LED to soften up, but is there a way? Philips figured it out with the Hue system. I think Hue lights work by having an inner phospher coating. So, use tuned LED’s to excite the phosphor which then gives broadband emission. At any rate its the only LED’s I’ve seen that look good. We’ve got them all over the house and my family is addicted to the soft, warm reddish glow at night. Here’s what I did in the trailer. Now the theory of lighting says three levels ideally. Upper, middle and lower. Oliver follows this, except the upper lights are down spots, ideally you have up spots and the ceiling reflects. Here you can easily get two level lighting with Hue Get a Hue bridge and these lamps. Two desk lamps (for the twin), one for bedside and the other for the dinette. The lampshade looks dark green but that’s reflection, it’s all a soft matching white. Internal battery and you can plug in the charger to the TV plug as shown Two Hue under bed down lights to illuminate the floor. This is surprisingly pleasing and effective, just hide the wires under the carpet and use the plug as shown. Attach with two 3M Commander velcro-velcro non permanent strips and they’ll stay in place for travel. No internal battery, must be powered. And corner of the kitchen. Again battery powered, you can see the charger cable which plugs into the kitchen overhead socket What these do is give soft, out of your eyes ambient light that - while it’s white here during the day - can change color to dark reddish at night. The placement is perfect to cover all the major hidden areas and it creates a triangle of coverage. I can’t tell you how comforting it is to come into a strange place and have your trailer interior lit up with such soft perfect lighting. Then for the outside get the party lights - all controlled by the same Hue bridge (link to the item as I don’t have them set up at the moment. Put them under the awning, suction cups on the side, etc. Plug into the outdoor socket. https://www.amazon.com/Philips-Hue-Festavia-Ambiance-Dimmable/dp/B0FML94K5G These aren’t cheap but you get what you pay for!

So's your Ollie - nice pic! Bill

Mill Creek COE , Lampe Mo. is pretty darn nice

We should have a pinned Forum Post dedicated to LOW CLEARANCE. Thanks for sharing this.

The Little Golden Gate Bridge near Eureka Springs, Arkansas 9’5” clearance Rolling through the Ozark Mountains from SW Missouri, Mill Creek COE on Table Rock Lake to Eureka Springs Arkansas Dam Site COE Campground on Beaver Lake Running the backroads we ran into the single wide , 5 ton limit , 9’5” Little Golden Gate Bridge sorry we didn’t get better pictures, on a tight curve with traffic. had to back up about 100 yards 😳😳😳

Prior to the shutdown, Oliver was planning something similar to this. The stripped down model was even supposed to have a steel frame, though the aluminum frame was an option. Attached is the brochure for it, along with the options list. sport_22(1).pdf

There are not many decent replacements available, but the iRV RV62 was a good fit on paper. However there were fitment issues because Oliver miss-drilled the Furrion mounting holes so they weren't covered by the IRV faceplate, and the Furrion opening was cut to large so that the IRV mounting screws were on the very edge of the cutout. This was fixed with white JB weld to strengthen the edge holes, and a 3-D printed Bezel to cover the miss-drilled holes (can hardly tell there is a bezel in the picture). Let me know if you need one, I made extras. I'll probably do a post on the modification pretty soon because just the improvement of the controls makes it worth doing. BTW, I'm also annoyed by bright LED's, to the point where I posted a modification on how to dim the main panel switch LED's with in-line resistors. It's called something like "I was awakened by flashing blue lights." The IRV unit goes dim when off, not too annoying at all. Cheers! Geoff

Taking pressure off the wheels did it. Easy peasy after that. I ordered some zerk caps too. I don't think the zerk was clogged.

With some HUGE Dometic A/C unit up top too! And it looks like OTT had to add a full length (glued-on) platform for that klunker A/C to sit on! What a shame (my rant to follow)... 🙃 I know many of you are always interested in what's new in Ollie-land! But would you trade your Oliver for a new one, if you could? Not me, as I'd have to make all the same corrections and upgrades all over again! It took me two years the first time, but knowing what I know now I could work a 6-month plan to rebuild our wonderful mods! 😎 The only way I would start over, would be if Oliver would sell a hull with no installed options for HALF the cost! No A/C installed, no fans, just the 14x14" openings with the appropriate wiring run. No roof accessories at all, no cable or charging ports down below. And on some future hull design, OTT could shape a round-flat area for the bathroom fan so these fans can sit flat vs. being forced to the curve of the hull by the torque of the installation screws! You'll see this when you replace the fan. No chargers, inverters or batteries, so I could choose Victron and Epoch over limited company brand name offerings. No switches, breakers, busses, and especially manual water valves under the beds! ALL electrical controls installed in one spot, under the rear dinette seat (as ours are today). Why not motorized ball valves for winterizing and boondocking settings? We use the boondocking configuration, adding water from TV tank to FWT about every other week we travel and I certainly would not lift the curbside mattress to do so! 🤣 And for that matter, keep your mattresses or seat cushions as we're going to upgrade them anyway, so why add cost for items that are more often than not replaced. No TV please! Many prefer not having one and we replaced ours with a Samsung 4K 32" Smart Monitor with speaker bar. The radio or Bluetooth speaker are unneccesary too. Don't we all already have a Bluetooth speaker? We have an extra one just for camping, sitting in the nightstand drawer. Windows are no longer flush to the hull. That could be an issue over time with the front edge always taking highway winds. NO silicone caulk please, and no caulk at all on windows and accessories that already have butyl or integrated seals! No nothing installed where any contract installer would need to drill holes into the hull. Please allow me to install these items with VHB tape or other means (including rooftop solar panels without mounting screws). I've sadly removed 40-50 drill-holes from our hull, adding fiberglass fill and I truly dislike this kind of unnecessary repair work. No entrance door hook, drilled into the door and hull. Just add Lippert friction hinges instead. Please install D52 axles on Alcan Springs, or I would have to do that again too! Except for the OEM rooftop solar panels and MaxxFan, every item I've mentioned in this post, everything attached, has been replaced in our hull with something better! After 1700 hulls manufactured, over 10 years later, does OTT truly know what us "Oliver Owners" like and dislike about their travel trailers? I've list enough items, but could keep doing so... These items are not on the company radar! My vision isn't for most of you who want the complete Oliver with your choice of options. But for me, what I've described would be utopia and it would be fun to do it all again on a clean hull! 😎

@HDRider hey -- thanks for the help! And I just answered your question about zerks, and I hope it helped you out. Gotta love the OTT Forum. :)

I had a lot of difficulty in the past -- but resolved my issue. You say you know why, but didn't explain the root cause in your post, so I don't know if my issue was the same... My best solution was to use this: Tandem Trailer Tire Changing Ramp -- it takes the pressure off the tire that is being obstinate. Works like a charm! I hope this helps you. ADDED INFO: I bought some spare zerks as one of mine was messed up. They do come out, but I think it took a tool (I had a very nice guy help me in southern Colorado do that; I provided the spare zerk and he replaced it because I didn't have the strength or the right tool at the time.) MORE ADDED INFO: I always keep my zerks covered with those yellow grease fitting caps, and I believe they are a plus. Grease Fitting Caps

Turns out my receiver is 2.5” not 3” I went with a BW tow and stow with a 5” drop. I am very impressed with the quality of this hitch.

Thanks good points. Yeah it’s just HDMI straight to a small DVD player. It’s possible a different DVD player wouldn’t have this trouble. I’m an audiofool and have Stax electrostatic headphones at home as my reference. Small enough to bring with me if I wanted, but I just am looking for decent sounding audio for movies. This unit is boomy and hollow, typically they’re going for pizzaz and bass boom without any definition. If I could find a discreet pair that has a tight, relatively detailed sound that would work fine. What did you replace the Furrion with? I’ve thought of going back to the standard setup and have a blank space in my wall - if I can run the cables.

Meta thread of small mods and things I got for the trailer and found worked well, for your entertainment and interest … First up, the Kelty Trash Pak garbage bag It’s big and fits perfectly attached to the front Seabiscuit box. Made to attach to a back spare tires or other places, there’s lots of strapping so plenty of options. If animals are around you can hang it or put it in the truck. It’s waterproof, super sturdy and big enough to separate out compose vegetable scraps, recycling and trash. Quick, it’s been discontinued and is on sale for $90, so get it while you can if interested from Kelty, REI or or favorite outlet. Second in that picture is the Icon Trailer lock. If you follow lock picking - like the Lock Picking Lawyer channel where he picks hitch locks in under a minutes, you’ll know that most locks don’t slow anybody down who has a little determination. Brute force they can drill out, either the cylinder or the body. This lock is nearly immune to all that. Case hardened steel with a structure that’s hard to cut. Anti drill spinner on the lock, and a tumbler system that’s very difficult to pick. In addition I have a chain around the wheels that’s similarly hard to remove, I’ll detail that later. Finally in that picture is CG Gear RV mat over by the door. It’s double layer loose woven plastic material that was designed for helicopter temporary pads for the US Air Force. They needed something that could be thrown down in the field apparently which wouldn't hold dirt or sand. Indeed it just drops through and it always stays clean.

there is also reference to the "little yellow Zerk Covers/caps" that has a collar that will fit around the zerks, and the cap which will cover the bearing where the grease is introduced. "we may have broken some leaf springs to and from Alaska & TUK, but we had the cleanest Zerk fittings on the ALCAN..." B~Out

Don't le me put you out. Searching prior posts with a key word zerk is a bit overwhelming. I got 187 pages. That is a an idea. I did try that. I have a lot of equipment with zerks. Easy to take out and clean. I don't think the Oliver zerks come out. Normally I just take a socket and screw them out. There is no nut-like shape to the Oliver zerks.

I'm sorry but I do not currently have the time to look for the rather long discussions about zerks not taking grease that we have had previously here on the Forum. Nor have I recently looked at the video. But, many of the zerk issues can be resolved by taking the load off the the suspension or making sure that the little ball in the end of the zerk is not stuck shut. If it is a zerk "ball" problem then the solution is to free that ball by tapping (gently) with something like a "nail set" or replacing the zerk (these are not expensive and are available at NAPA and most other automotive stores and/or Tractor Supply and the like. Hope this helps! Bill

I don't know what audio equipment you have, so this is probably not relevant. However, my system also had sync issues and it sounded like an echo chamber. This was because the Furrion stereo and Vizio TV were connected together with both HDMI ARC and Optical Audio cables. Sometimes the TV speakers would come on through the Optical cable, at the same time the stereo speakers were on from the HDMI. The Optical and HDMI have known sync issues and there is no reason to have both in this configuration. The Optical should be disconnected because sometimes it takes a minute to realize what's going on. I just finished replacing that awful Furrion unit, and my only regret is not doing it a long time ago! I replaced it because of the poor controls and Bluetooth, and I had also planned to replace the speakers for better sound. But the new unit works and sounds great, so I'm keeping the speakers! Cheers! Geoff

no problem. B~Out

I have three zerks that will not take grease. I understand why. Does anyone have a suggestion on how I can get them to take grease. I am not expecting any real revelation, but you folks amaze me all the time.

I have watched the video Multiple times

Sorry about that - I should have checked before I opened my mouth 😵‍💫. Or, I should read better in that you were referring to the Missouri River - NOT the State. In any case - While I too live in a fairly "rural" area it is not quite as "out there" as you are. If it helps (I really doubt this) I too have had "issues" with deliveries. Just this past week a new pair of hiking boots that were supposed to be delivered in 3 to 5 days actually took almost three weeks! Of course I agree with you in that the rural lifestyle does have its advantages - the bear walking through the yard this morning and the bobcat last week. Heck, I was stopped at a traffic light the other day as the 4th vehicle back and complained that we now have "traffic jams"! Bill

Bill, if we lived in "Missoura", we might have the part in a day or two... However, we are in West Central North Dakota,,, when I track orders, usually it is "UPS", it may say "out for delivery" for a couple of days until it arrives. Not to say the rural lifestyle does not have its advantages. Our nearest (one i have had the best luck with) RV service center is about 360+mi & 6hrs R/T. However, a google search now shows an RV service center in Williston ND. Tomorrow when they open, and if they have the part... i will head north 90 miles r/t to buy it, and while there evaluate their Service Center. B~Out