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EDIT 12/10/23. Useful link: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/6720-natures-head-compost-toilet-troubleshooting-user-guide/ EDIT 06/06/23. This is an Oliver factory installation, not mine. One member has assumed that I did this. There are a number of threads asking about this toilet. I hope we can gather up a lot of the talk here in one place. I think there has been one other installation in an Ollie but there have been NO published pictures of any kind, that I have been able to find, even from the factory. This is baffling to me. I really wanted to cut the dump station umbilical. We routinely dry camp and finding an open station during a busy holiday weekend or off season is not something I want to face. With the NH toilet we can get rid of our grey water with a 3/4 inch garden hose. In many western states it is legal and encouraged to run a hose out to a nearby shrub and let your water trickle into the ground. The black tank, drain plumbing and vent system are all completely retained. The factory folks are extremely reluctant to delete these parts, since they are part of their certification. If you wanted to reinstall a regular toilet, it would be a very minor job. The fresh water line is even in place, next to the wall. You could sell the used NH for $400 and that would pay for the replacement conventional RV toilet, with a lot left over. An RV toilet is less than $200.... I chose to charge the base with coconut coir rather than peat moss, since it is a renewable resource and doesn't damage the environment. https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=coconut+coir I made the mistake of just dropping a dry 2 pound brick into the bottom, adding water and then letting it hydrate. I ended up with WAY too much material. You need to do this in a bucket, outside, and then transfer the expanded stuff into the base, and the leftovers into gallon zip bags. The correct height is even with the internal agitator centerline. Any higher and it becomes difficult to turn with the handle. It takes about two gallons, I did not measure. There are many online sources with info. To summarize: Sit to pee, everybody, so there is no splashing. The trapdoor stays closed and your pee goes forward, and then down into the reservoir. Which you pre-treated with a half cup of vinegar, to kill the odor. That part is easy. To poop, open the trapdoor, finish the job, wipe and close the door. Give the agitator handle two or three turns. The poop and paper will decompose rapidly once the natural process gets going, which may take a few days. The fan keeps a steady flow of fresh air into the reservoir and out of the trailer through the existing roof vent. I never noticed any bad odors except the first days, before I figured out that Oliver had installed the wrong fuse, a 1 amp, which had blown. Once I installed the correct fuse (2 to 5 specified, I used 3 amp), the fan worked as designed. The fuse is located in the main distribution panel under the dinette table, right row, bottom position (UN-labeled!). It is best to put only the absolute minimum amount of RV toilet paper into the base. If you put a lot in, it wraps around the agitator and makes it harder to turn. Only stinky paper goes down - the rest (damp with pee) goes into the small covered waste can to be disposed of weekly. The can came from Walmart, $10 I think. Cleaning is simple: spritz the area lightly with a dilute vinegar spray and wipe down with a disposable baby wipe, toss in can. Done. The residual vinegar and wipes control any odor from the can. The pee tank is big but it will fill up faster than you can believe if you have four people using it! Empty when it gets to within an inch or two from the top: Flip the two side latches, carefully rotate the top off the base, remove the pee bottle and cap it. Dump it in any approved location - a pit toilet or a rest stop restroom. Rinse with fresh water a couple of times and recharge with half a cup of vinegar. Reinstall into the toilet and close and latch the top. The pee will eventually form crusty yellow deposits. The fix, I have read, is to add gravel and water and shake it hard, then rinse several times. In two weeks of use I never noticed any significant deposits. The longer you let the poop decompose the better. If you can leave it over the winter, dump it out in the spring and it will be totally benign. If you need to empty it mid-season, remove the pee bottle and vent hose, unscrew the two hold down knobs and lift out the entire unit. Carry it outside and put a 13 gallon or larger trash bag on top, flip it over and empty the compost. Refill with clean coir to the centerline. There is NO need to clean it out. Any residual material will just help the next batch get started. The organic waste you can double bag and put in the trash, or if fully decomposed, it can be spread out in the woods, but not near a potable water supply or garden. The way to keep the smell in control is to keep the pee out of the main reservoir. It's the urine that makes a pit toilet smell so bad.... If you throw up or have a messy poop, you can add a little more fresh coir to help absorb the extra fluids. I keep a gallon bag of the hydrated stuff in the overheard cabinet (along with a quart of vinegar) and haven't had to add any extra. The fan has a dust filter that is supposed to be checked every few weeks, by removing two Philips screws. I think that is way too often in the clean environment of a fiberglass trailer, unless you have a dog that sheds. You can put your hand over the left (inlet) opening and feel a light suction. If that isn't present, you need to clean the filter. The pee bottle sits in a sealed cavity to catch overflows, This is a problem since when you take a shower, a bunch of fresh water gets trapped there. I intend to drill a couple of small drain holes in the bottom. I don't care if the pee bottle overflows onto the floor of the head, at least that way I will notice it! unless it is dark, and I am barefooted.... that would be bad 😉 This is why you want to empty the tank before it gets too close to the top. Agitator handle: ours fell off right away, the shaft has a set screw with lock nut. It is very easy to tighten correctly. I am not sure why the factory guy couldn't do it successfully. Spares: I intend to purchase a spare pee tank ($40), spare lids, and a fan.I already have extra 3 amp fuses. ... http://store.natureshead.net I intend to wire in a small LED in the wire harness to show that the fan has power. You can probably hear it running, faintly, if you are in a very quiet area and don't have bad tinnitus, as I do. The Nature's Head is a cool device, but it is really just a fancy bucket. A solidly built, very expensive bucket. I wish the price were about $250 instead of $800. That seems about right for what you get. OTH it is very rugged, and long time users seem to love it. My wife still has some reservations about using it, and we need to get a short step stool since it sits so much higher than even a tall toilet. This one might work well, and it might fit in close to the base with a bungee cord around it for travel: .... https://www.squattypotty.com/shop/poop-better/classic-ecco I am still learning, but I have no regrets at this time. Questions? John Davies Spokane WA

Yesterday Ford updated my brake controller module in accordance with their latest service bulletin. I changed the trailer brake setting back to 'electric brakes' and had a chance to test it out today. I'm happy to report that the brakes now work as intended and no more troublesome "Trailer Disconnected" messages! Yay!

If I weren't getting a truck, and were able to have a dedicated tow vehicle, I'd want to take a look at a Ford Transit, which I guess counts as an SUV. They have great storage space and decent towing capacity and are reportedly very comfortable. They're also highly customizable and as a bonus, they look like they were made for an Ollie.

Many use a pickup to tow their Oliver, but an SUV works better for us for our non-trailering needs. Additionally, a pickup would not fit in our garage. I searched the Trailer Life Towing Guides and looked for vehicles with significant towing capacity. After a lot of research we purchased an Audi Q7, which has which has a maximum permissible trailer weight of 7,700 lbs. The car is really nice, and it is a dream in pulling the Oliver. We have pulled the Ollie up steep hills, and the car has plenty of power. Don commented on decreased cargo capacity of an SUV compared to a truck. While the cargo in cubic feet is probably less, the access is better in an SUV, since you can get at stuff from either the rear hatch or the side doors. That is an advantage. On our last trip we got a roof box, which gives us much more cargo room, and the advantage of two distinct storage domains. Certain things are stowed in the roof box, others in the car, making it easier to find things. David

This would work, but IMHO it adds unnecessary complication. If you were full timing, it might be beneficial. but it isn't hard to empty the tank manually. There might be problems with hard crusty deposits forming in the drain line. I am not sure if you could chemically remove those periodically. The deposits that form in the tank require some hard scrubbing, using a handful of gravel, some water, and shaking vigorously is a common method. You can't do that with a small drain hose. A composting toilet is definitely a different kind of system compared to a regular RV toilet and tank... John Davies Spokane WA

This conversation has been going on for a number of years now with many people wanting a convection. The Oliver answer has always been the same - the is simply not enough room to allow for one and meet all standards without a significant design change to the Oliver. Therefore, the answer has been to seek other methods - dutch ovens, electric toaster ovens, etc. Bill

Hi John, I too wanted a convection oven. When I toured the factory in January, I asked about swapping the microwave with a convection oven. Anita said a convection oven needs a lot more ventilation and so the spot where the microwave is wouldn't be large enough for a convection oven. She said to have one would take a whole new model for the trailer. She made it sound like it wasn't even something they were considering for the future.

Reed, I haven't heard back from Jason. Don't know if I will. Maybe you should call him, since you know him better than I do. We can do your tank at Bandon if you'd like.

Although I will have room in the bed of the F150, I am thinking about placing it in the main cabin of Ollie. I do not currently store anything on the floor and I thought it might be one of the first things I work on as I set up camp. I guess it will be a work in progress until I settle on a system of where I store each item. I realize the entire "kit" will be around 50 pounds. Buzzy

Mike - you will know that it is "powered" when the little green light that is right on that push button switch is lit. Bill

mmm...ahhh, Kansas. We will have to speak about origins..I'm from Kansas too.

We have the risers and we love them. But then again I designed them myself in 2013 during the build of our (then) unfinished Outlaw Oliver in order to have additional storage space for a very specific piece of gear that I wanted to be able to carry. Steve Parsons at Oliver built special molds to make them. Our mattresses are about six inches thick. If you can stand erect in our trailer, when sitting on our beds your feet would not touch the floor. When Parsons built the molds, I had a specific height requirement but he told me he was designing them so that the piece being made could be cut down to a lower height if someone so desired. Understand that by doing this you would also decrease the amount of under bed storage. My design specifications resulted in over 13 ft.³ of storage under each bed and has a compartment door that will allow the introduction of an object up to 10 1/2 inches tall.

It is a powered antennae, the switch is in the back compartment on the left side, if you don't power it up it will not work very well. We like it, it's comparable to our hd over the air antennae at home, in my back yard in the St. Louis metro area they both get 35 channels.

geO, It would be better if you asked this question directly to the Sales Office. My February 2016 delivery came with a wrench and socket for the wheel lug nuts, a sewer hose, a 25 foot water hose and a bottle of black tank "treatment". Since I purchased the Andersen weight distribution hitch, there was also a socket for adjusting the chains on it. Finally, there was a big hug from Anita which (almost) made me forget about the check I just wrote. Bill