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Heading back into TN after spending a couple nights at Guntersville Lake State Park in AL. Met some great people & showed off the 'Clever Beast numerous times. Its amazing how the Oliver draws a crowd! We experienced a sudden storm on Tuesday & would have lost our awning for sure if we hadn't been there. Several trailers lost them. Thankfully we got it in without problems. The winds were strong enough to crush our Clam, which also survived. The park was quite busy with all hands on deck helping each other. After 11 hrs without power we truly understood the advantages of owning an Oliver. We are headed to Fall Creek Falls State Park now. Clair stopped at a Walmart in the Dunlap area so He could take a power nap. As soon as we were stopped there was a rap on the truck window....a very nice woman asking if she could see our Ollie. Clair went over and spoke with her husband while I showed her thru. I could tell that they had already done a lot of research. Another amazing day....Such fun!!

Yesterday I replaced the defective battery tray, after obtaining all new mounting hardware. The original battery tray was mounted with four 1 ½ inch x ¼ inch self drilling/tap screws which were stainless steel. And four ¾ inch x ¼ inch self drilling/tap screws which were not stainless steel. The replacement hardware was four 1 ¼ inch x ¼ 20 with flat washers and nuts with nylon locking. These can be reached from the inside of the trailer which allowed me to use washers and lock nuts. However on the four that can not be accessed from the inside of the trailer, I used #14 x ¾ inch screws with flat washers. All hardware is stainless steel. The failure occurred because of the sliding rails on the rear had plastic rail stops that just came apart. The new sliding rails have metal end stops; also the sliding rails have more rivets holding them to the battery tray. The new tray is a direct fit for the old tray but much better built. I have attached several pictures that you can see the sliding rail rear end stops on both the original battery tray and the replacement tray. Also I replaced the battery stiff wire with a much more flexible wire while I had the battery tray out of the trailer.

This morning I looked out and had these lights illuminated on the Oliver. They had came on sometime in the night without a tow vehicle hooked up or other input to make it happen. I looked at the schematic in the owner's manual. No clue there for a source of power except maybe at the plug. We had a long soaking rain fall yesterday. I looked at the plug, nothing obvious for water intrusion. I whacked the plug a couple of times on the trailer frame and the lights went out. For prevention I sprayed some WD40 into the plug to displace the moisture and will keep it covered from now on. Darn plugs can be a problem with moisture and or corrosion.

Bruce, For info on the cellular boosters, I would check out Technomadia's page http://www.technomadia.com/2014/08/how-we-keep-online-illustrated-tour-of-our-rv-mobile-internet-setup/ Section 3 on the page is Cellular Boosters & Antennas. BTW, Technomadia are former Oliver owners.

Hardrock, How do you upgrade to a queen mattress? I'm curious. I think our 2008 is just a little wider than a full. I've always used Queen sheets, because it's easier with the length. Not that there's a big difference in width. A full is around 54 inches, standard, and a queen is 60. The length is the big difference in standard mattresses. The nomenclature, and sizing, is all over the place in the RV world. In one class c that we delivered, my feet reached the bottom of the RV queen.. and I'm only 5' 4" I don't know anyone with an original elite who uses an Anderson hitch. I'd certainly agree with you there. We're closing in on ten years, and 100,000 miles on our 2008. We have 2 100 watt panels, added nine years ago, with two agm batteries, and almost never camp with hookups. But, we don't require power after dark for much. Sherry

Rougebooks I have a 2016 Elite. I have towed it more than 6k without a Anderson hitch. The lighter model, the Elite, does not need a Anderson hitch. If sway control is your concern, there are electronic units that are very good and hassle free. Regarding the length overall, earlier models have removable tongues that shortens the length when storing the trailer. The interior size is great and you can upgrade to a queensize mattress.

You won't need the Anderson No-Sway Hitch, especially on the 18.5' trailer. The inverter? Yup we use ours daily and it's paid for itself. Randy nailed it for that answer above. As far as the solar goes, the Zamp package that they are pawning off is really overpriced and you can get a much better system installed by a Solar company. Plus, I believe that the Elite has only 2 batteries to begin with, so you're going to want a good MPPT Solar System like the Blue Sky that many people sell complete with the shunt and IPN remote for far less then the $2800.00 high price tag that Oliver is charging for their incomplete system. Why do I say it's incomplete? Because the Zamp system doesn't have a shunt, so you can't get the complete read out on battery percentages, amp draw, etc... without one. All good quality Solar Systems use a Shunt to get the readings needed to be able to completely monitor your batteries in every way. Any system without a shunt is incomplete garbage... I copied and pasted this from one of my other answers on the Zamp Solar. - "The problem that we are finding is that in order for an old school PWM system like the Zamp to compare with the Blue Sky or any other MPPT, is that people need to always add a 3rd pannel to make up the difference. We have found that the 320watt pannels with the Zamp controller just isn’t enough. Oliver is now adding in a Zamp auxiliary plug in Port on the side of the trailer but in reality, they need to be adding a 3rd 160watt pannel to the roof of all of the new trailers. And this is the BIG difference between the 2 types of systems. The 320watts of solar pannels ran fine and is recommended with the Blue Sky but by changing to a cheap Zamp controller they didn’t finish the system by adding the other 160watt pannel to the roof to bring it up to 480watts, which is what is needed with a PWM system. Either way you look at it, Oliver had the perfect system set up for the 2 160watt pannels that they put on the roof for the Blue Sky system. Now, we need to either upgrade to 3 160watt pannels on the roof, which will add that much more weight to the roof… Change out the Zamp controller for an MPPT, which will add the weight back under the street side bed, or carry àn external ground based 160watt Solar system that needs to be set up on the ground, which will add the extra weight plus an added controller to the tow vehicle. We have added the 100watt Solar Suitcase to our Olli and still it just isn’t quite enough to fully charge the batteries most of the time. But it adds 100 of the needed 160watts back into the system and really helps us out." Now for you RB, with only 2 batteries and depending on the amount of extra space that you have to haul extras, maybe a mobile system will be all that you need. As you can see from my above quote, I have both systems, one on the roof and one mobile. If you go with the rooftop mount then try to get a 480watt+ system if it will fit. Also research and see if you can add batteries anywhere, maybe up behind the propane tanks. 2 batteries will be fine if it's just you but if you add in a wife, etc... you will want as many as you can get. We sold our Casita with one battery because it wouldn't run a CPAP all night and hold a charge. As far as other options go, if you are a do it yourselfer, then install the options that you want yourself. So far we have had numerous electrical issues with ours and it has all been due to poor workmanship on Olivers electricians part. Having Oliver install the options could be a good thing, but it's just not, some of their employee's really don't care about the job that they do these days. If you have read my blog, you will read about most of the issues that we have had. Now we have an electrical problem in the front jack and last night our upper cabinet lights went out. I've been working on this trailer non stop it feels like since we picked it up in February, BUT!!! I really enjoy getting to know everything inside and out, and I'm really happy that we bought our Oliver and I enjoy that feeling of fixing something and knowing that it has now been done the right way :) Like the watertank fix, the sewerline fix, the fridge fan fix, etc... Besides, it's a trailer and they will always need constant maintenance. I have a few videos also listed in the video section of my profile page, they're more technical and not just opening drawers and doors and they will give you some more insight into what you will find under the hood so to speak... <span style="line-height: inherit;">Reed</span>

It’s happening! We have many rally sign ups coming in. If you haven’t RSVPed and paid a rig fee yet, please realize that several folks are currently at work on the rally and we need your full registration sooner than later. Budgets for things like your social morning coffee, gumbo feast, chili feast, firewood, welcome bags, etc. are being planned in 2017. The longer you wait to fully register, the less we can plan to accommodate you in the rally. That’s how event planning rolls, folks. An earlier notice contributes to more participating fun. Please follow the three simple steps to make this grand event happen. For the many of those of you that have already completed the registration process, THANK YOU! If you need assistance in completing registration, please contact Jeannine through email, found at: http://www.rvcompass.com/GEHrally/contact.html