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Hello I just wanted to post what we had done to protect the front of the Oliver from the Belly Band down. We were going to Alaska for the second time the first was in 2012 in a Casita and I had lots of little rock chips in the front section from all the gravel and roads under repair, I knew I had to come up with a solution. It had to stops the rock chips, the road solution that they use and all the course mud in the rain and watered down road sections. I put it on as we started the ALCAN and left it on till I was well back into the states. We traveled the AlCAN up and the Cassiar down into Washington state. I used closed cell foam with non-residue duct tape and it all lasted more than a month of freezing temps, rain, heat, and many many miles. Here is a Pic of what I did at least this is a alternative for the question that pops up on line often. Thanks Gary

Buzzy, 1 - No, I actually never did use the furnace. Approximately 30% of the time I had shore power and I take a small ceramic electric heater. For the balance of the time I use a "Mr. Buddy" propane heater. I found it interesting that the interior temperature each morning would be 10 degrees warmer than the temp outside (if it was 35 outside then it would be 45 or 46 inside). Unless I'm on the road, I virtually always have the bathroom vent open, but during the night all other windows and the MaxAir are closed. No heat is on during the night. First thing in the morning I would normally get up "to take care of business", light the Mr. Buddy and then jump back into bed for about a half hour while things warmed up a bit. See #3 below for a bit more info on this. 2 - Yes, on balance I was extremely happy with the solar. There was a problem in that the IPN was wired incorrectly thus giving me some readings that were exactly backwards. But, once that was figured out, there were really no issues. Yes, I did use the microwave and a 1500 watt toaster oven. I also usually had the audio system on playing MP3's or books on CD and virtually every night I would watch a DVD movie. Note that during the day (from about 9am to 4pm) I was not in the camper and I normally do not use a lot of lights. Having said all that, it was rare for the batteries to not be at or very near 100% and the voltage never fell below 12.5 volts. 3 - I do not use the "automatic" switch over feature on the propane tanks. I leave the shut-off valve on the tank I'm not using in the off position. This way, when the first tank runs out of propane I know it (either the cooktop will not light, or the fridge "check" light comes on or the water heater will not light. Obviously, the most "dangerous" item of these three is the fridge. But I have an external temperature monitor for the fridge and freezer in addition to the "check" light on the fridge itself. Between these two I can easily see if there is a problem. Yes, I did run out of propane on the first tank. I believe that this occurred about mid-morning one day while I was out fishing. When I got back to the camper, indeed the check light was "on" the fridge and the freezer's temp was up to 15 degrees (normally it is between -3 and +10). First thing I did was to try lighting the cooktop - it didn't. Therefore, I simply went outside, opened the "porthole" in the tank cover, turned the tank leaver and opened the valve on the second tank. Back inside I lite the cooktop and checked the fridge - it was already fired up. For reference purposes, the first tank lasted about 6 weeks. I almost always have the fridge on "automatic", I don't really cook complicated meals on the stove and use the microwave to heat water for coffee/hot chocolate in the morning. Also, when I'm camped where grey water can be released on the ground, I use a solar shower and external shower tent. This saves propane and both fresh water tank and grey water tank capacity. Even in the rather remote places I camped I never worried about replacing the empty propane tank. Since I moved camp every 4 to 5 days on average I usually passed a number of gas stations or went through a small town of some sort that had either tank exchange or a propane dealer. Having said that - I never did run out of propane on the second tank. I'm sure that it doesn't have much left in it, but, I had 3 full tanks at home and didn't really want to get another filled. 4 - I have only the WiFi Ranger. It worked great until about half way through the trip. Mind you, most of the time I was in locations that didn't have either cell or WiFi service. When in West Yellowstone the Ranger simply quit working - even two factory resets didn't get it going again. All lights on the Ranger show it is working, but, my tablet doesn't show the Ranger as transmitting a WiFi signal. So, Twist is back at the Mothership and Tommy is looking into the cause of the problem. When the Ranger did work I felt a bit guilty being able to get a strong WiFi signal and transmission rates while others camped near me were complaining about the lack of service and bandwidth. 5 - Yes, as I mentioned above, about 70% of my trip was off the grid and there was no electric, sewer or campsite water hookup. A couple of times (Ring Lake outside Dubois and Dead Indian north of Cody) there wasn't water directly available in the camp ground but even each of these had water (non-potable) via either a stream or a lake. I do carry an 8 gallon water container in the bed of the truck and on several occasions I needed to use it to replenish the fresh water tank in Twist. I can tell you that it works like a charm. Knowing that Ollie is your first camper, I also know that you have probably never experienced the "joy" of trying to pour water into the fresh water tank of a typical RV. Three times I had fellow campers watching me as I "magically" got the fresh water into Twist without working up a sweat! I never did have to get the water directly from the lake or stream, but, it sure is nice knowing that you can if necessary. Hope that answers your questions - if you have more, please feel free to shoot or shout. Bill

With the name of trytorelax this might be a great addition for you it is a quick pop up screen room do a google search for clam screen room and you will see it, the green one is the older style they still sell which does not have the flaps on the out side top to go over the rain panels to stop the rain from dripping in if touched. The newer Brown beige Clam has the flaps outside to go over the rain/wind panels and can come with screen windows you would need to get all 5 or 6 panels they come in sets of 2 or 3 in a package. You will also need some tie down straps for the sides if the winds pick up and done right can really take a lot of wind as we had in Lancaster Penn last October rain, wind and cold and worked great with the Gas fire pit inside. The clam goes up in two minutes and comes down just as fast and only needs one person to do so, the only two negatives or thing to know about is the screen is very fine and Hot in the warm summer months for day use if it gets 90 or above its hot with no breeze second it is 6.4 FT long so long if you have a truck short bed oops so better with the 6.5 bed and not really heavy maybe 25 to 30 lbs not sure. Hope that helps check it out you see lots of these now in the CG's.Thanks Gary

Hi Snowlakemike My wife and I have are on our way home from our trip to several of the National Parks in Montana and Wyoming. We have been on the road this trip for about three months so far and are now headed home to Florida. We are stopping in Hohenwald on the way home for a minor repair on Monday, August 29th. I hope my wife and I get a chance to meet you. We would be glad to answer any questions you might have. I have had an opportunity to meet most of the Oliver family members and many of the Oliver employees. I think my wife and I both agree that the Olivers are all about service and quality. I'd also go as far as to say that the Oliver family and the Oliver Travel Trailer employees are some of the most ethical people that I have ever had the pleasure to deal with. Not sure who you plan to be meeting with on Monday, but hope we can connect sometime during the day. We will be back and forth between the sales office and the plant as the repair is being made. Hap and my wife AKA 'THE BOSS"

Hey Mike yes the trip went really well, couldn't have been happier with the weather for where we were and how long we were on the road 3 months. Jona and I watched as you all picked up your Oliver and I'm sure we will meet up along the trail, we enjoyed our time in San Antonio. The clam was excellent, Lee has the old one and I have the newer version with the roof flaps which is much better in the rain but not for cooking in if you have the flaps on since it won't let the smoke escape like it does on the old one with out them. I hope that makes sense but yes we used ours a lot on the trip as we have for two years now especially in cold or wet weather put the sides on put the gas fire pit in the middle and you can be outside in any wet, cold, windy weather. Driving the casita for 4 years only really nicked it up on the Alaska trip so i'm fine in the lower 48 and in 2014 when we did the Maritimes/ Newfoundland we didn't have any issues there than lots of travel on Ferries. I would guess unless it is sealed or tight on the body for what you are talking about I wouldn't want to get any dirt or grit behind it so as to not scratch up the Gel Coat of the Oliver as the wild blew it around. I would do exactly what I did this time again if I was to the same thing over, hope that helps others for at least one solution or possibility to use.Thanks Gary

Hey Snowlakemike, I actually first heard of Oliver Travel Trailers on the Airstream Forum. It was in a discussion about the issues new AS owners were experiencing and someone suggested looking at Oliver because of their attention to detail and quality. We picked ours up in May and the only issue we discovered was a light switch issue that was easily fixed. We've been out every month since May and are preparing for a month+ trip from Texas up the east coast. I had our trailer in the driveway this week to take care of some projects and we found ourselves going out to sit in the evenings just to enjoy the cozy feel. Ask questions and take pictures during your tour. Hope to see you in the family soon! Mike

Snowlakemike, Welcome! You will enjoy your Oliver tour. The Ollie is our third camper we purchased used from the original owners. Our Elite II was 13 months old when we took it in for repair. The warranty covers the original owner for 12 months. The Oliver service folks took care of the issue for no charge. We did not buy our Ollie new, but the service tech told me when we purchased our Ollie, we joined the Oliver family! The Ollie is very pleasant to camp with. Plan to camp out west with the Ollie next year. Happy Oliver Campers here!

You will find the factory tour as being worth every bit of your time. Ask lots of questions of them, they will give you straightforward answers. Although I am not yet an Ollie owner I toured the factory in June and was very impressed. Once finances allow I will be purchasing one as well, as I am retired and am looking forward to the very adventures you referred to. Be sure to check out all the excellent posts on the forum and be sure to view Buzzy's well done videos, a work in progress, very informative. He has also posted owners manuals of various components that can be downloaded as PDF's. I read as much as I could of the forum posts before I toured the factory and that helped me ask pertinent questions once there.