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Hi Malcolm, I used stainless panhead sheet metal screws (not wood screws) at the top and at the bottom. They don't need nuts on the back. The load on those screws is really really low. Unless you plan to fill the drawers with horse shoes or ammo.... Drill a pilot hole the size of the minor diameter (unthreaded part), or slightly larger, and then countersink lightly. The gel coat will not chip and the screws bite down really hard. I swapped the supplied plated screws for stainless, from Ace. I think they are 10 x 3/4", basically whatever is a snug fit in the holes. I have been using these straps for a few trips now and they work great. No issues at all, other than remembering to install them before towing. John Davies Spokane WA

I started finding stray hardware in my overhead cabinets, I took a closer look and found this: The holes are sized for a number 8 screw. The installed hardware is a number 4 FINE thread screw with a number 6 COARSE thead plain nut run down it. Whoever did this had his head in a very strange place indeed. The plain nuts rattle loose and the screws fall out. Then your expensive door can bang open and break out the hinge screws or worse. Simply unbelieveable! Here are the 8-32 x 3/4 stainless panhead screws and nylock (self locking) nuts that I installed. The washers are optional: For most of the latch plates I was able to get them to adjust back far enough to eliminate play. Some ran out of adjustment (probably the reason the too-small screws were installed) so for those I ground part of the head off the screws and also filed the slots in the brackets a little longer, so I could get more travel back.. I also checked and tightened as needed all the hinge screws. Please check your hardware, let us know here if you find the wrong size installed. Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

It is looking like IRMA will be round two. Best of luck to all and especially our kindred Oliver owners in the Florida area. Most of the "old timers" have been down this road. But, this appears to be a bit of a different beast. Please be careful! Bill

John Davies wrote: "Drill a pilot hole the size of the minor diameter (unthreaded part), or slightly larger, and then countersink lightly" This should be emphasized whenever drilling holes in gelcoated fiberglass. The countersinking is an especially important detail that takes no time at all. Oliver really needs to start doing this as there is fractured gelcoat around every mounting hole I have looked at. The pilot holes have been undersized and not countersunk, not good practice, and so easy to do it right to begin with. For exterior holes, the countersink also creates a thickened area of sealant around the fastener, which creates a much better weather seal. Any boat builder who knows what they're talking about would say the same. Dave

Thanks for your quick response John. We are leaving in 2 weeks for Zion and Grand Canyon with fellow RV'ers and want to get this done before the trip. I have the straps and footman loops on order and expect them very soon. Again, thanks for this great fix for a concern I have had for a while. We have had the drawers fly open while traveling and found the mess on the floor. Not fun when some of the spill was spices and seasonings. Not a happy wife! We have reservations for the 2018 Rally and hope to meet you and so many fellow Oliver owners to thank them for all the input to better serve the experience.

I think the keys to successful septic system dump have been outlined by others.. Reed, canoe 12, and raspy. occasional use, ( or use consistent with the bathroom rating of system), no harmful chemicals in the RV black tank, and no huge gush of input to upset the tank balance. The Ollie black tank, though sufficient for many days without hookups, is not that big, honestly, in septic tank terms. We discharge to septic on our camping property. I grew up in the country, on septic. We're careful about introduction of harmful chemicals, and non-friendly paper products. No issues, in nine years. At home, a sewer clean out/rv dump next to the garage is a great feature. We have super picky plumbing inspection here, and the issue never came up in our build. Everyone needs clean outs...right? Sherry

I installed an 1100 gallon septic tank and used sections for my field. They are about 3' wide and 2' and make up about 150' of leach field. There is no way they are going to clog up. Since the Oliver tank is only 18 gallons or so, I figure we could easily exceed that amount in a day with regular household use. Plus we are gone a lot and the system has a lot of time to process what is in the tank. Doesn't seem like a problem unless we happened to add some destructive chemicals, which we don't.

Most campgrounds, especially in rural areas, use septic systems. The campground we used to stay at had a line every Sunday, at the dump station, at checkout time. Black tanks, gray tanks, bathhouse, and a 4 washer laundry dumped into a 500 gallon holding tank that was pumped to a 1000 gallon septic tank. The distribution box fed 7 lines. In 15 years never a problem. Normal sites would feed 10 to 20 of them by gravity to a 1000 gallon tank. Never a problem. There usually is nothing put in an RV tank that isn't normal for household use. Even todays' "stink pretty" additives are septic safe. And a house usually put a lot more water to the tank with long showers, washing machines, and dishwashers. Can't see where a little from an Oliver would ever be a problem. And here in the east, and most places, it is illegal to dump gray water on the ground. Even at Burning Man, in the parched desert, gray water is evaporated by various means, and never surface dumped. An outside 'cleanout' sure beats the pleasure of running a blue tank...

It's simply common sense... We have 18 gallon black tanks, which will not overflow MOST septic tanks unless you have a home made old 50 gallon drum and leach system from the depression era... Your not going to force anything into the leach field unless you dump directly into the leach field side of the tank past the baffle. If you have a 30, 60 gallon or larger black tank, this could cause a problem but the 18 gallon Oliver tank isn't going to make a dent in a normal 1500 gallon baffled septic system. If you have a cleanout port between the house and the tank, it will work fine but you don't want to dump directly into the leach line side of the tank. Basically know your septic system, mine works fine and I have a cleanout/ RV port built into my 1500gallon baffled 2 tank septic system with a 21st century domed leach field. I'm not a dump station for everyone but needing to dump my 18 gallon tank every couple of weeks or more isn't going to hurt my septic system at all. Would I dump a 60gallon motorhome tank into my RV port? Nope, but if truly needed, the tank could be dumped in small amounts and then flushed clean with water after.

The problem I had with the overhead door latches was that the flange was set too high and the catch doesn't get a good hold on it. Consequently, the doors open while driving. So I spaced the flanges down with a piece of plastic sheet that I cut to fit that was about 1/8" thick. It required new screws and nuts. I chose nylock nuts too. You can easily check the adjustment by carefully pulling on the release and seeing how far it moves before the door opens. If you just barely move it before opening it should be adjusted. If you move the handle about 1/2 way before it releases, it's fine. The spacers can be washers, or a piece of plastic sheet, or whatever. I used a left over plastic venetian blind slat from a house project and simply cut out the required pieces at about 1"x 1/2" and drilled the screw holes in it. I bought screws that were about 1/4" longer and nylock nuts. I think they are 6-32 screws. This is an easy fix and works well.