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There has been a lot of discussion on what's the best tow vehicle for pulling your Ollie. Now, I'm not advocating using a KW T800 as a TV, bit you sure would have plenty of diesel power, although the fuel mileage would eat you alive. I used to bring my truck home on occasion, and when it was backed up to the trailer, I thought, that's kind of a cool picture. Stan

Hi guys, I have been offline for a long time and wanted to tell you a little about my trailer "Mouse". Soon I will start new threads on certain topics, with pictures, but for now I have copied my email to Jason and Anita. Hi Jason; We had a great trip back to Spokane but it was physically exhausting. We put 3025 miles on the trailer after delivery. It tows beautifully behind my full sized Ram 5.9 diesel and I got 14.5 mpg combined, with a best of 16.4. Several times I was really glad of its compact size. Its width matches the width of my truck’s fender flares. if my mirrors clear, so will the Oliver.,… We took it from Durango to Ouray over a TWISTY 11,000 ft pass and it did great, except for the drawers all dumping stuff everywhere…. Hey Anita, we made it home without getting ticketed for the missing travel permit, but I sweated bullets every time we passed a cop, which admittedly was not very often. (Note: Anita was unable to give me a temporary tag since the lady who does it was on vacation. The trailer travelled "naked" the entire trip.) There are several items that need to be addressed, and some that I just want you to be aware of, and to pass on, to avoid future issues. I hope you will send the needed parts directly to me so I can avoid having to go to an RV dealer. As an ex-aircraft mechanic I have the tools and skills to do the work myself, correctly and professionally. Problems and defects to be corrected by Oliver: 1 - 4G Cell booster flashes red/ green all the time and does not do anything. The antenna has a small metal ground plane, but is it actually big enough? Also the plate appears to be plain steel and is already rusting! Can you supply me with a bigger stainless plate to fix this? I would prefer a flex antenna if it is available, to prevent breaking it off on a branch. 2 - Drawer slides are still screwed up. The bedside table drawer immediately broke one stop free from the wood. I duct taped it closed for the rest of the trip. The other drawers all open in transit on twisty roads and dump stuff onto the floor. I believe that they are not yet damaged. I would like to install stainless latches in all drawers (except the tip-out sponge tray) to match the ones already used in the pantry and closet. I would be happy to pay your wholesale cost for the latches. Please send me: Qty 1: set drawer stops (L and R) Qty 3: non-locking latches Qty 3: locking latches and keys Qty 6: striker plates (Note: I want to replace the two non-locking latches in my propane access hatches with locking, and will use those inside for in the cabin drawers. The third locking latch will be for the bedside table drawer for extra security.) The drawer problem is a serious one and you definitely need to fix this on the production line! The screws are too short and they MUST have additional secure locking latches. Simply slamming on the brakes is enough to cause the rear drawer to fly open! 3 - Dining lights switch at main entry is defective. The one in back is fine. Please send me: Qty 1 - dining light switch. 4 - External solar port: wires are unprotected by split loom, completely unsecured in both bays, and NO FUSE is installed! Should have a 10 amp. Please send m: Qty 1: Yellow inline fuse holder and 10 amp fuse. 5 - Hot water heater failed on propane. AC element works fine. The board is bad. There is power to the solenoid and the indicator light, but there is no ignition. The unit cycles three times, then locks out.I checked the board and verified that it has power and ground. The breakers are not tripped. Please send me: Qty 1: Hot water heater control board (module). ______________________________________________________________ For your information only. Please pass this on to your crew. A - Wheels: were not balanced. I had the work done en route for $50. I think they should be balanced there, before delivery. Or at least make it an option. B - Natures Head: fan was inoperative for first three days. I traced the problem to a blown fuse in the main panel. It was a 1 amp, and was supposed to be 2 to 5 amps. The fuse location was NOT labeled! I labeled it and installed a 3 amp fuse. I think that you should install a small green LED in the circuit near the toilet so it is easy to see that the fan is powered. C - Natures Head: agitator handle very loose and fell off. I tightened the jam bolt and nut. D - Hot water was tepid, never reaching full temperature. I found the valves at the outside shower wide open (bypassing) and closed them. E - Refrigerator quit after three days, display panel was completely dead. I found the fuse loose in the socket. The fuse was visibly cocked down and the prongs were spread so that they did not make tight contact. I squeezed the prongs together to fix it. Please ask your electricians to be careful not to tweak the fuses in their holders. F - Solar panel knobs: loose after 100 miles. One was a full half turn loose. I modified them by drilling holes in the knobs and securing them with white nylon wire ties. It is very easy to VISUALLY check from the ground if they have moved. I think it is MOST IMPORTANT that you do something to secure these fasteners! Most owners would not think of checking them routinely. This should be a Service Bulletin. G - Atwood Air Command display was set to Centigrade. I switched it to Fahrenheit (press and hold Down and Fan buttons). H - Zamp ZS-30A Solar Charge Control: missing literature. I will download and print it out. It is recommended that owners check and re-torque the terminal screws after 30 days. Make this a Service Bulletin. I - Dexter axle and brakes literature missing. I will download. J - Bulldog couple literature missing. I will download. They recommend to LUBE THE BALL and other moving parts. This coupler can be a real bitch to latch if things are even slightly mis-aligned. Do you have any suggestions? I plan to grind a 45 degree bevel on the bottom of the coupler opening to help it slide down onto the ball, past the ball flat. I would install a round top ball, if I could locate one. K - Furnace: smells “hot" on initial start, each time, used three nights. Is this normal? L - Loose and unsecured wiring: pretty much everywhere. I secured the rats nests with wire ties. This may meet RV standards but it is very disappointing to find in a premium trailer. And do you really need a 12 foot video cable for a three foot run to a bluray player????! M - Seat cushion foam: really poor quality, can I order some denser stuff? The supplied foam has zero support. Disappointing! Or did I get a bad batch? N - TV installation: it really is in the way! Especially with the ten inch mattress. I removed it and the bracket completely. There was no way to get into the under bed storage area. It needs a swing out setup that stows under the rear cabinet. O - Checklists: I will write a Travel and Camp checklist and post it at the entry door. Maybe you could do this at the factory. P - Twin beds: are not really twins, they are 30 inches wide (not 39”). You should list this in the sales literature. My linens are way too large and will need to be cut down. Q - Pantry: needs a light! R - Under bed and under dinette storage: Would be MUCH more useful with removable rimmed trays that would provide a flat floor while protecting nearby wires and plumbing. S - Overhead cabinets: need ventilation in storage, perhaps short lanyards to hold them open six inches (risk of mildew). Use diamond stone to make a bevel on the SHARP EDGES of the mirrored doors!. They are real head knockers when hanging down! T - Fantastic Fan: green light is way too bright at night, needs a shield or cover with tape. U - Mud flaps: needed to prevent road junk from collecting on water connections, underside of hull and rear jacks. Should be a factory option.. Thanks for your prompt attention to the main numbered issues listed at the top of the page. John Davies Spokane WA

If you can get into Montana, do so. I absolutely love that state and would live there in a heartbeat if they could just eliminate the bitter cold in winter. The SW corner is very cool, especially if you like ghost towns and isolation. Helena is good for a couple of days. The Beartooth Highway out of Yellowstone's lightly used NE entrance is jaw dropping cool, but monitor the weather for a warm day with dry roads to do the transit. It is still getting snowed on now and then.... If you are into classic firearms, go to the C Sharpes gun factory in Big Timber (central MT). Also the Cody firearm museum in WY. Whoa, that is amazing! Tell us what you like to do. Hot springs, lookout towers, rough camping, fly fishing? Etc... For specifics about MT, WA and ID, feel free to ask. Are you coming near Spokane? I have a big driveway.... Do you have an America The Beautiful Pass yet? It is a must have for Federal lands, including the wonderful Corps campgrounds along the waterways. It will save you a bundle of money, especially the Senior Pass. John Davies Spokane WA

Just be careful with your quality inspections to make sure you understand what you are looking at. Deciding that something is not the way you might do it, or not how it's done on an airplane, or at a factory you used to work at, etc, is not finding a problem. A problem is if it doesn't work, or there are clear signs of poor workmanship, as Reed has found with stripped screws and cross threaded bolts. Those are real problems, and maddening ones. I have found wiring issues with mine and even posted about them here. My exterior lights quit working and when I investigated, I found a rats nest of Scotchlok connectors crimped onto a single power wire that was unsecured and had failed. Very poor workmanship indeed, but it is not a shop floor shortcut so much as a poor design. I'm sure it wasn't some unskilled workers, but an Oliver design. My batteries are wired very poorly too, but I'm working on that. Regular #8 or #6 house wire that is likely to either pinch, or wear and short out, supplying all the power from four T105 batteries. We may tend to think that Oliver is doing everything to some higher standard, but there are areas where they are sort of winging it and some design demands are leading them into some quality issues. Fortunately, they seem to be responding to feedback and standing behind their trailers, but some of the stuff seems like it's just common sense and should never happen, like overhead doors that don't latch well enough to stay closed and the television interfering with the blinds and damaging them. Another thing I noticed right away was the suspension. Oliver uses the cheapest suspension design offered in the industry. It has simple plastic bushings that are not serviceable and known for failure. I've had these on other trailers and they are not designed for high mileage. In a "Legacy" design, I wish they would install greasable links with heavy duty parts instead of charging more if you want them as an option. I have already upgraded mine. The initial reaction when stepping into an Oliver is that "this is amazing", and it is in many ways, but it's still a travel trailer and it's still in the development stages. As far as the overall shape, fiberglass construction, frame, and towing manners; excellent. I'm very pleased with mine in so many ways. It's so good in some ways that I tend to think it's some kind of a magic thing that has no faults. Not quite. I'm still scratching my head as to why they went with a small spare tire and eliminated the ability to go with a tire that matched the others, that is until everyone noticed and began to worry about it, then they fixed it. Mine is an earlier one and I have to run without the fiberglass cover to mount a standard size spare. Then I look around and cannot believe humans can make a complicated fiberglass structure this beautifully smooth.

Here's a different diesel option for, if Dodge and EPA ever see eye-to-eye. Just drove from Pensacola to Salt Lake City, with a stop in Canyonlands NP. Mileage hooked to trailer shown in photo. My actual calculated mileage was slightly higher.

I'm currently a Building Official but from the time I was in High School, for the next 30 years I was in manufacturing. I ran a plant that made flight control systems for military and civilian aircraft. This equipment was mostly actuators that controlled flight surfaces like flaps, tail rudder, pitch and yaw, for Black Hawk helicopters, F-16 Falcon, YF-22, F-14, Boeing and Airbus. Most of the components were manufactured in house, but we also had a substantial vendor list. In that high volume and high precision environment I learned one thing: You cannot INSPECT quality into your finished product. On paper, a thorough inspection process at intervals of manufacturing a product looks good. In reality however, the inspection process becomes the proverbial 'Chinese fire drill'...feedback from units in service in the field identifies problems, engineering isolates cause, manufacturing may (or may not) change methods or materials. That fire gets extinguished, but in the months of tunnel vision type focus, other fires ignite. This is inevitable as the production must continue to meet customer demand. Minor problems related to the manufacturing process appear in different settings or sub systems, and the chasing of the tail continues. Granted, a huge issue like axles failing or something catching fire may 'stop the presses' until the issue is resolved. That does not seem to be the case here with Oliver Trailers. From what I can glean, the 'problems' are related to the manufacturing process and vendor issues. In the type of environment where the product is a travel trailer, the standard of each task is very difficult to illustrate much less define. This is because it is imprecise work done mostly by hand. The main issue here would be the training of the operator or performer of that task. Let's look at a totally hypothetical 'problem'...rats nest type unsecured wiring behind the round hatches. In a plant like Oliver's one or two personnel may be the key components of this operation. Joe and Bill are meticulous in their wiring methods, everything tied, secured, shrink wrapped, etc. Bill took a position in the whirlpool manufacturing line, Joe is on leave as his wife just delivered their second baby. Does the wiring process stop because these two experts are not available? No. The foreman assigns the next 2 capable people but they aren't nearly as fluent in electrical workmanship as Bill and Joe. But the job gets done albeit with the possibility of future failure. And this potential human fault is at every step, from molding to chassis welding, to systems installation. The key to quality in an environment like this is to develop standards, high standards, and provide training and cross training to employees to ensure these standards are met. It does not eliminate inspection but instead shifts the concept of quality from inspection into the manufacturing process itself. Focus on the process. This began with Demmings and ended up with ISO-9000 and beyond. This I believe, is where Oliver should put forth great effort. Oliver has an opportunity here. The RV industry as a whole is experiencing a surge in demand that it hasn't seen in 25 years. Oliver makes a unique product. They are also by industry measures, the most expensive/ sq.ft. of anything out there. They must step up as the innovative producer they are and garnish that innovation with a reputation of unparalleled quality. I don't believe they are far off from it. What they do or fail to do within the next 2-3 years will affect the future of their trailer business.

I posted this twice ..my human error Lukens.

Other than the IPN remote being wired exactly backwards, a support jack weld that failed and a propane detector would not stop its alarm (no fault of Oliver) I have basically had no issues with Twist. All of these issues were promptly addressed by Oliver and they even upgraded other items that I had not mentioned - battery cable size increased for instance. Hull # 117 was built just as the production was starting to increase and as a result I would have actually expected more issues. Is/was it "perfect" - no - was it better than I thought even for the $55,000 that I paid - YES. And the big yes is mainly due to the people and company that stand behind what they are selling. With regards to the Ouray - how about four 30 year old guys from Saint Louis attending a two week course on International banking in Boulder. They rented a station wagon and headed out for the "free" weekend between the two weeks. Probably alcohol was involved, but when someone sees a line on a (paper) map it seemed like a good idea at the time. What could go wrong? How about a blinding thunder storm with big hail at the top? And, the transmission basically failed on the way down? All four made it out alive, but, the rental car guy was not happy when the wagon was returned with a smoking transmission. Bill

On our way to lead the Southern Utah Tour a month or so ago, we drove up from Durango to Silverton one afternoon. We had thought about spending the night in Silverton but decided instead to drive on over Red Mountain Pass to Ouray. It is a steep and winding road with sheer drop offs and no guard rails. The pass was at a little over elementary thousand feet. We had been told by the locals in Durango not to do it, but I don't take orders or unsolicited suggestions too well. The drive was beautiful and well worth the time spent. Although Tali says it was a "white knuckle" experience for her and she wasn't driving!

This is GREAT!!! Thanks for sharing.

Purchased the ALEKO 15A to 30A adapter plug for my Ollie. While testing the Honda EU2000i Gen-Set with Micro-Air Easy Start 364 installed, it worked great running the Ollie's 13.5K Dometic AC at 86F outside air temp today. Appreciate the ideas in this thread:

Thanks for the pic. We hope to make it up that way before we retire from active retirement. Today is THE day we have been hoping for. We are out in our Ollie in an extended trip and finally in territory neither of us has visited before. Idaho is a brand new state for us. It is early morning and we all remain here through tonight before moving to Yellowstone tomorrow (more new territory). Anyway, Idaho is beautiful; and bacon is involved-Oliver, never before has a boy wanted more!

Mike, Fine photos and looks like a great trip. We were camping at Pokegama Dam Campground on the Mississippi River in Grand Rapids MN when we learned Grand Rapids is where Judy Garland (Frances Ethel Gumm) was born. Visited Judy Garland's home and museum there:

Hi Sherry From the experiences that we've had dealing with CW, I'm personally amazed that they are even still in business. "Makes me appreciate the little guys even more." When we are traveling and at home, we always try to find and use one of the smaller guys. I'm sure that it depends on which CW shop that you deal with and that some are better than others, but I really try to avoid dealing with them. On our way home from our last trip, we stopped in Hohenwald and had the wheel bearings greased and a couple of other out-of-warranty minor issues taken care of and received very good service at a very reasonable price. Thanks, Jason, Dustin, and Justin

Double post? Would you like me to delete one, Kelly? Sherry

Sounds like one heck of a first trip John :) 1) We put the cushions from the dinette in front of the drawers with a couple of pillows to block them from opening if we are going to be on curvy roads. 2) The Bulldog Hitch is great as is, but... You sometimes need to push it over from the drivers side so it will click onto the ball before trying to crank the jack off of the ground and close the lever. Just set the tongue on the ball, take it down a touch on the switch, and then push it over into place. That hitch is great, the best that I've ever had. I wouldn't grind it down. Look at it from underneath and have someone lower it while you watch it hit the ball. 3) The furnace needs a few days to burn out, that's normal and it took a few days for us also. 4) We thought about a pantry light but but the ceiling light is right above it and with the pantry full, like ours always is, a light wouldn't work for us anyway. 5) When you take the fantastic fan off of auto, the light goes out. We never run it in auto, we just set it on low mostly. Welcome to the club of 2017 owners :) Does the water heater work OK now? Is it the Suburban? Make sure that the Zamp controller is set to your type of batteries, basically AGM or Wet Cell. Looking Great :)

You don't need a pigtail, just a long enough 20amp cord to reach the generator. They do provide a 30amp x 3' twistlock pigtail also when you buy the generator box for the front and this adapter works best for me. It's simply plug & play :) Either plug it into the outlet and run a short cord or from the 3' pigtail - straight into the generator. Like you, I don't want my 25' cord to walk away. https://www.amazon.com/ALEKO-L15-30-Electrical-Locking-Connector/dp/B01CO5FXJQ/ref=pd_sim_60_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B01CO5FXJQ&pd_rd_r=C3Y05J7R70QWS2W94JKG&pd_rd_w=DMY8d&pd_rd_wg=f4pv8&psc=1&refRID=C3Y05J7R70QWS2W94JKG