Leaderboard

Here is a link to the article with photos and video. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/elevation-camping-part-1-5-part-series-larry-mountainborn-harmon/

I've used several hoses for our Oliver. I threw the Rhino hose in the trash can and bought a Valterra D04-0450 Viper 15' Sewer Hose Kit from Amazon. You can get it either at Amazon or Camping World. I also bought a 10 foot Valterra extension hose and attached it. Now I have a 25 foot sewer hose that stays permanently attached to the Oliver until I take it off when I get home for cleaning. I have never had the Valterra pull apart like the Rhino. Unfortunately the part that goes into the sewer hole will not fit into the rear bumper compartment so I just detach it and keep it in a breadbox in the rear storage compartment until needed. If you do a little research, you will find out why the Valterra is much harder to pull apart than the Rhino which scared hell out of me every time I used it. For water hose and black tank hook up, I bought from Home Depot three Garden Hose Quick-Connect Kits. They cost about $7 each. I screwed the male ends into water connections on the trailer black tank, city water, and water tank connections and leave them permanently attached to the trailer. I leave the female connected to trailer male section until I start to use it, then disconnect the female - screw it onto the water hose, then reattach it to the trailer, then turn water on. The Quick-Connects make using water lines very, very easy. When traveling, I screw the black dust caps onto the Quick Connects. I'm sure your quite confused by my pitiful attempt to explain all of this, but if you purchase the Quick Connects and play with them for a few minutes you'll get the idea. Can't make any suggestions for rainy days other than to say that in 2013, we bought a new 40 foot Tiffin diesel pusher which we had for about seven months, until a very large semi totaled us. We bought an Oliver Legacy Elite II and have traveled for about 40,000 miles all over this country, including Alaska. Ask the Oliver folks and they will tell you this is true. We loved the very expensive Tiffin, but my wife and I love the Oliver much, much more. Sometimes at our home in Florida but today we are in Wyoming. Hap

On August 5th, 2016 My wife and I set out on our annual trip to North Carolina to escape the steamy weather of Northwest Florida. Our plan was to work our way up the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and into Virginia, then maybe on to PA as time permitted. My first mistake was thinking I could tough it out with a torn Meniscus in my left knee. It soon became apparent that the act of kneeling, stooping, hauling, and all the physical activities associated with setting up and breaking down camp place a huge strain on the knees and pain became a constant companion making me a miserable companion. So after only ten days we gave up and headed home. A few things learned... Camping is physical and you need to be healthy. Some things on the Oliver are just not designed for function. ie. The sewer connection is very difficult to reach when your newly purchased Rhino hose separates from the fitting. I will be modding this to extend that connection to outside the bumper. Lesson learned...always check the connection before opening the gate valve. The water connections are just inconveniently located. Not only must you kneel to access them, they are underneath the trailer so you must kneel And reach. OK if you are healthy but a real struggle with a bad knee. Again I will mod these somehow so they are easier to reach. The fridge is way small, and again down low so that you must kneel to gain access. Holy cow...even the $30,000 Escape has a 7CU fridge mounted at eye level. Rain. What can I say. Just no good solution to living indoors when it raining and your campsite is a lake. 100 square feet and no comfortable chairs gets old after a few days. One good thing we learned is that the shower curtain my wife made works great and having a shower inside the trailer is a real bonus. I suppose we all will experience some bumps in the road and this will not be our last less than good trip. In the twenty months we have owned our trailer we have had over a dozen great outings, all in the Southeastern U.S. and all but this last one have been great. I see the surgeon tomorrow and hopefully the knee will get repaired soon. My new mantra is "Always check your sewer connection".

Just a quick note on my 5 cents. This is my second truck and have used the camper top both times. I put the doors on the side that way I can put the items like chocks, leveling blocks, water connection, etc. right there for when I sent up camp. The second thing is make sure your truck bedis 6 1/2 ft long to fit items like your clam. Third I would say to not to buy one hight than the truck cab as every once in a while you have to go into a parking garage and I have been in some close ones. Thanks Gary

Buzzy, That's good to hear. Also looking at the roof rack like you have with removable flat cover bed option. Taking time to to make the best decision.

Ha! thanks Buzzy, but it is a "bit" cramped! I have a Pelican cooler for ice, no 12 V fridge yet, but great idea! Going to get a small propane grill to complement the Coleman white gas stove. Small tent for the outside camping experiences. I have truck/motorcycle/backpack camped for years, and of course you now know how wonderful it is to have an Ollie compared to roughing it. Since this isn't going to be the year for me for an Ollie, very sad to say, I'm headed out West either late September or October to the Utah/Moab area where I have been several times in the past. Going to get a good bike rack (hitch mounted) and do some MTB trail riding.

We put the EZ Flex on our trailer yesterday. Had a friend, I work with, come over to help. He has a fully equipped welder truck and a boatload of tools, so with the air tools it made the job really easy. His air hammer popped those bolts and old bushings right out. We were all done in about 2 hours. The old bushings were shot, you wonder why they even make a product with plastic bushings that you can't grease, and has a very short life span. Stan