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With all the talk lately about not being able to access all of the fresh water in the tank, I decided to make a new suction line and improve the situation. The stock line on mine will only draw water down to about 1 1/2" deep before it begins to suck air. In a 35 gallon tank that is only about 4" deep, this means about 1/3 of the water is not available, or about 11 or more gallons left in the tank. The stock pickup is on the side of the tank and cannot get all the water. So I made a top fitting that goes down and picks up the water at or below 1/4" from the bottom. When I started the installation I leveled the trailer and ran the water until it began to suck air. Mine did that at a reading of 25% on the gauge. If the front of the trailer is raised some, which I did not do, the reading would still be the same when the pump sucked air because the gauge reads right next to the pickup. You could get more water out of the tank with a raised tongue, but the gauge reading would be the same when it sucked air. After I installed the new dip tube, I continued to draw water and it began to suck some air at 6%. So, mine went from 25% (approx. 8 gallons left) down to 6% (approx 2 gallons left) when it began to get some air. Others have reported as much as 38% remaining which would be over 12 gallons. At a 6% reading I began getting aerated water, but a steady flow. Finally, the gauge went to 0% left. At that point is was about 1/2 water and 1/2 air at the faucet, but still flowing, or spitting. But even with a zero on the gauge it continued to pump out another gallon or so before I shut it off. All of this with cold only, not water drawn from the water heater. So, the volume from 6% to 0% was totally useable, probably not for a shower, but certainly for drinking. This is a prototype that works well, but it might still improve a bit with the next one. The pickup touches the bottom of the tank, but draws radially from below 1/4". It adjusts to any small differences in various tanks. It can be pulled out and cleaned easily if debris ever clogs it. All plumbing connections, where the new line ties in, are easily accessible and the existing tank fittings are not touched. The stock tank drain is retained. The area of the tank where the new fitting is installed is easily reached and the tools to do it all fit in the available space. After clearing all of this with Oliver to make sure there is no conflict with forum rules or warrantee issues with them, I can send anyone that wants to do this, a kit with the following: the pre-made dip tube fitting, a Polyethylene tank fitting, the special spin weld fitting driver, a 1 1/2" hole saw (if needed), the pinch ring tool and a PEX cutter. I'll also provide step by step directions for anyone who is interested. You'll have to have a powerful router with a 1/2" collet and a drill to drive the hole saw. Or, I can help you with a set of directions here on-line and you can assemble the parts yourself. The parts required are: (1) dip tube assembly, (1) 3/4" spin weld fitting, (6) 1/2" PEX pinch rings, 24" 1/2" PEX, (1) 1/2" PEX ball valve, (1) 1/2" PEX tee, a small container of Rectorseal 5. The only real tricky part is the spin weld. Besides the special procedure for spin welding itself, you have to make a new hole in the tank and vacuum out the chips. Here are some pictures:

There's an idea! Plus we could hang out by the river, enjoy the Pine Nut Mountains and remember why it's so nice to be out in the great outdoors. In fact, we could probably host twenty or so right here! Tonight, I'm sitting here after 8:30 PM. Up on the porch and looking at the incredible Nevada sunset. Frogs are croaking, the sky is orange, the scent of sage wafting as the sky darkens. It's magical. A warm high desert breeze slides down the mountain after hot day. We call it the "evening performance" as the sun shadow crosses the eight mile wide valley and the day concludes. It's all worth planning the day around. So, with a barbeque, some great conversation, plenty of room to set up and the incredible Nevada sky, all while doing a few tank modifications, I'd say Yeah!!! We'd have Ollies till the world looked level. And everyone would be able to have more water when it was all done. It's the kind of experience you read about, with incredible Nevada and high desert scenes and stories. Too bad our coyote doesn't live here anymore or you'd all have her sitting in your laps and wanting to start a game. Can you imagine a Nevada sunset with a coyote in your lap? Now there is a western scene! I'll probably sit out here for a while yet. Our dog Gogo, is surveying the yard. Chiming clocks remind us once in a while. The frogs make me wonder about frogs in the desert. Venus will appear soon as the moon waits for the right moment, beyond a distant horizon, to show up. A fading bit of orange, silhouettes the mountains north of us and I'm reminded of why I went for this place to begin with. Enjoy.

John, The spin welding procedure is very quick and easy, but it MUST be done correctly or it would be a disaster since the tank is in such a difficult spot. I had never done it before, so I ordered the parts and practiced with a couple of fittings on a five gallon flat sided jug. The jug wall thickness is about 1/2 what our water tanks are. It also requires a powerful router with a 1/2" collet. 1 1/2 HP seems about right for these 3/4" fittings. A slight down force that will allow the router to come up to full RPM, the tool held perpendicular to the tank wall, steady but slight down pressure. Two seconds max time and then release the switch. Continue to hold the slight pressure until the molten poly sets. If done right, you'll see melted poly all around the joint and you won't go through and ruin the attempt. I found the pipe thread wanted to cross-thread, so I ran a 3/4" pipe tap into the fitting before the weld. It's remarkably easy, but scary. Here is a pic of the router with it's depth plate removed, the driver installed and the tank fitting in the driver:

Pete, Oliver hasn't responded to my phone message yet. I called Jason to talk to him about this, but missed him and left a message. Bu,t they did say, in their open letter, that they were going to hire an "expert" to solve this issue. It's really just a common sense approach to an obvious problem and probably the way they should all have been made. Normally, the side outlet they install would be fine if the tank was a tall narrow design, or had a sump in it. But with a flat tank, the side fitting leaves about 1/3 of the water trapped in the tank. This method completely solves the issue and the fitting can be easily pulled out if needed. Plus it leaves all of their existing plumbing in place and is installed in such a way that is easy to reach. The original tank drain is extremely difficult to get at, so any new fitting that would go through that hole would be so hard to install. I looked at it, but it's not practical to do it that way, plus, no matter what new fitting I designed to go through the existing hole, it would not pick up reliably below 1/4" like this new design does. It took a while to figure this out, assemble the parts, make the prototype and do the first installation with the spin welding procedure, but I think it's the right fix.

The 2018 rally of Green Eggs and Ham VIII will be held at Gunter Hill, Corps of Engineer (COE) Campground on the outskirts of Montgomery, Alabama on Wednesday, March 14th through Sunday March 18th. There will be a lot of green to be seen in Gunter Hill on St Patrick’s Day. The rally has a new Website that should give you all the information you’ll need to know. Beginning September 8, 2017, the Website will also offer online registration and rig fee payment through PayPal. Please sign up ASAP after open registration so all the Event Masters have a fairly accurate head count for their preparations. Green Eggs and Ham Website It’s not about what it is. It’s about what it can become. —Dr. Seuss

2nd Gathering - Eggshells in The Outer Banks (OBX) Rally, North Carolina Friday, Oct. 6th — Monday, Oct. 9th 2017 Dare to venture out and explore on Columbus Day Weekend at Camp Hatteras. Whether you want to climb above the high-water mark at historical lighthouses or just stick your toes in the sand, The Outer Banks is overflowing with pioneering activities. Spread your wings and discover The Outer Banks while sharing the nest with other fiberglass eggs. For further information, please go to www.rvcompass.com/OBXrally

I have the Truma AquaGo and I also have a shower curtain rod on the wall with the bathroom door. I have opened the bathroom door somewhat to allow AC air into the bath. The vent fan does a nice job of pulling the AC air in to the bath. The show curtain keeps. the main cabin dry. I can not say I linger in the shower, but the concept works for me. Might not work for others. Buzzy

I'm not sure if you can get a max fan in there, you could check into it, but for me, if it cut down on the head room, I would pass.

Let's have the next rally in Nevada and John can do us all! I have a big router but doing this would make me a little nervous.

Jason told me two days ago that they are developing a retrofit kit that can be done there in Howenwald, or sent to a shop or skilled owner for installation. They have to finalize the design, make sure it meets the various codes and certification, and test fit it them into a couple of trailers on the production line, before making them available. They want to make sure they do not introduce any new issues while fixing this old one... A wise move IMHO. I can wait until they have a factory fix available, since my trailer is only a month old. But John "Raspy's" fix looks solid, well put together and easy to do for somebody out of warranty. Thanks for making the parts available. Can you comment on the spin welding, and how hard it is to get good results if you have never done it before? I have seen videos of the technique. Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

I bought a "rabbit ears" antenna for $9.00 and a cable for $4.99. When I am near a larger city that is likely to have a TV station, I hook up the antenna and sit it on a table. I am careful to not have the Ollie between the antenna and the direction of the TV station. The aluminum insulation in the Ollie causes interference with the TV signal. If there is a TV station in the viewing area, I can usully pick it up. I have compared my antenna to the campground signal. Unless you put a booster on the campground connector, you get better reception with your own antenna. Otherwise, you are sharing a signal that is split with many others. The unit is very easy to store Hardrock

In general, military installations provide facilities to active and retired as a part of their benefits package. This includes the commissary, PX/BX, golf course, RV park, craft shops, lodging, etc. Active duty usually includes military, national guard, reserves, DoD civilians (civil service) and sometimes contractors. Retired is usually just military, DoD civilians are excluded. DoD civilians are also excluded from using the PX and commissary except overseas. Individual installation commanders have some flexibility, but their priority is to soldiers, sailors and airmen. Excluding veterans who served honorably, but did not retire, is not meant as a slight - upon ETS or resignation the pay and benefits stop. The benefits part of "pay and benefits" has eroded significantly over the years due to funding cuts and changing priorities. Our local supermarket has a better selection than our commissary and comparable prices to the commissary. We use Amazon, Costco and Walmart over the PX. Most golf courses are either closed down or open to the public. Officer Clubs and NCO Clubs have mostly closed down. Even the military RV parks are no bargain, they have to be self sustaining and so their prices will mirror what other parks in the area are charging. Most state parks and COE parks are cheaper. For example, our stay at the Fort Belvoir RV park was $50/night. Hope this helps to clear up some misunderstandings. Mike

Hello I was asked to post a picture what we had covered the front of our Oliver with on the trip to Alaska last year. We used closed cel foam maybe 1/8 0r so thick we bought at a flea market u can probably buy it on line it is the same thing that you use as a sleeping bag cushion, being closed cell you do not get any water or dirt that can get through and rub under the foam as you travel and the wind, rain and dust will not penetrate. I cut the pattern and applied it from the belly band down and the running light around the front. I taped it on with Non-Residue duct tape and stayed on over a month through the Alaska, Yukon Territory portion of the trip just over a month long and it held up great and came off easy and cheap.This is the best picture we have taken from the Yukon River after staying in a Provincial Park across from Dawson City. Thanks Gary

An Open letter from Oliver Travel Trailers Dear Members of The Oliver Travel Trailer Online Forum Community, Over the last two weeks we have seen an increase in people addressing quality and build concerns on our online forum. First off, we want you to know that when we fall short of your expectations, then we fall short of ours. We are dedicated to producing a quality product that can be passed down from generation to generation. Oliver Travel Trailers is different in many ways from other manufacturers. One of these ways is our transparency with our customers and potential customers. This is why we have our own forum. We would like to thank you all for your feedback. New and potential customers may not be aware that we monitor the forum and listen in an attempt to learn from the members. We are always striving to make improvements and take care of any and all issues that arise. We are far from perfect but will continue to get better, always working to build the highest quality travel trailer available. With that being said we want all of you to know we have heard your concerns and recently implemented a new 3 stage quality control inspection to our build process. This is just one of the ways we are aiming to be the best in the industry. Tanks have been a recent hot topic on the forum and we want all of you to know we are currently working with an expert in the industry to see what we can do to improve current designs. We will update you as we learn more. Wiring appearance has been another topic that we are addressing by working with component manufacturers to improve quality of appearance and function on all wiring harnesses. As we improve and implement changes we will share these improvements from time to time with our customers and on this forum. We have always gone above and beyond to fix any issues our customers are having with their trailers and will continue with your help to make Oliver Travel Trailers the very best. Again, we would like to thank you for your feedback. In the future, we kindly ask that if you have a problem or concern with your Ollie, please call us directly so we can help you. This will provide us the details we need in a timely fashion and expedite our course of action. Of course, if you ever feel we have not done enough to fix or improve your issues once you have brought them to our attention then by all means feel free to address it on the forum. We are confident you will find that given the opportunity Oliver will take care of you and improve our product at the same time. We will never be too big or too busy to do the right thing. Sincerely, The Oliver Family

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.

Not sure is anyone is interested, but posting anyway... our first real mod is done to accommodate our 18 pound furry traveling companion... she demands to sleep at the foot of our bed, but the twins in Ollie aren't big enough. So added a 18x30 cushion between the beds for her. The support is light weight, fiberglass covered nidacore. It's stiff, flat, strong and weighs a little over two pounds. The support can serve as a table if desired, and the cushion can serve as a back support up against the kitchen counter when watching movies. The support stows under the mattress when not in use. It's short enough so that we can still get out of bed easily at night.

Here's another winter project for you. Shortly after picking up Twist this past February I was in my workshop cleaning up a bit when I noticed I still had some left over cedar closet lining boards. So, I took the black mats from the two shelves in the closet of Twist, laid them on top of the shelving boards, traced the outline and then cut each of the boards using a band saw (one could use a scroll saw, small hand saw, or coping saw) on the inside of the line that I traced. I put the boards back together (each board is tongue and groove) and tested for fit. You don't have to be exact on the cuts since most of the edges are difficult to see inside the closet and pantry. A little sanding of the edges and then I took wood glue, placed a small amount in the groove and allowed the boards to sit overnight with a little weight on them to keep them from warping. I did this same procedure for the bottom of the pantry. Finally, I took the little scrap pieces that were left over, sanded them and placed them into the other overhead cupboards. This thin cedar lining can be found at Lowe's and probably Home Depot too. Now, not only does the closet and pantry smell nice, but, the cedar is a natural bug repellent too. Bill