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WDW - I can't really give you much to go on regarding the Zamp. I have the Blue Sky with the 4 Trojan 105's and could not be happier. Given the relatively unique situation in which Reed and Karen seem to use their solar system and the general lack of negative comments about the Zamp, I'm guessing that for most people the Zamp is fine. But, that is only a guess on my part. I hate to say it, but, nothing really gives one good answers besides research in regards to their own situation. With regards to the water heater - I have the standard Suburban and can echo what Steve&Betty had to say about it. I never leave it on for more time than it takes to heat the water that I will need for a shower. In this regard - I bought a meat thermometer that came with the "meat" probe attached to a wire that is about 20 inches long ( https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017613C3C/ref=sxbs_sr_ss_b_1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3221812782&pd_rd_wg=VjNU3&pf_rd_r=KQKCYFV7KKYF7REM4FVT&pf_rd_s=desktop-sx-bottom-slot&pf_rd_t=301&pd_rd_i=B017613C3C&pd_rd_w=IyTDL&pf_rd_i=taylor+meat+thermometer&pd_rd_r=fa01d713-84c7-4176-b1a9-8995112f7810&ie=UTF8&qid=1509471050&sr=1 ) I placed the probe against the tank of the water heater under the Styrofoam insulation that surrounds it (there is a convenient seam right in the horizontal center of this insulation) , ran the wire out the cold air return for the furnace and attached it to the "read out/alarm". Setting the "read out/alarm" to 105 degrees (about the water temperature that I like to shower with) about ten minutes prior to taking a shower I then just go about doing other things until the alarm goes off. At this point I turn off the water heater and take my shower. There are a couple of things to mention about this. First, it saves propane by only heating up the water that you are really going to use. Second, by just using only "hot" water in the shower I avoid the momentary shot of cold water that one gets when using the shower head flow interrupter (taking a Navy shower of course). Third, I save fresh water tank water in that I'm not having to cool down hot water that is too hot and I save water that I would have used in trying to find the "correct" showering temperature. Obviously this saving water is not a problem if you are hooked to city water but that is a rare event for me. In the event my wife or fishing buddy is along, I simply repeat the process for heating the water. Virtually all other needs for hot water are taken care of by heating the water on the stove or microwave so that I do not heat 6 gallons just to do a hand full of dishes. Yes, the Truma is slightly better with regards to winterization and, yes, one does not have to think about turning the water heater on or off, but, there sure are a bunch of ways I can think of to spend the difference in price. Bill

Who would like to join us on a caravan to the Quartzsite, AZ gathering this winter? We plan to leave here (North Mississippi) in mid January, drop south to I-10 and travel west, meandering and stopping along the way as the mood strikes us. It will probably take us a week or better to get there. I want to arrive in Quartzsite sometime around January 24th or 25th so as to catch the end of the 35th Annual Sports, Vacation and RV Show. If you’ve never experienced the “Big Tent” it’s sure to be a memorable event for you. We will camp approximately 5 miles west of Quartzsite south of I-10, alongside the Dome Rock frontage road. This is where the gathering is held each winter. The gathering is for all brands of Molded Fiberglass Trailers! The dates for the gathering are: February 5th to 8th - Early bird Quartzsite Pre-Gathering (Monday thru Thursday) February 9th to 11th - Main Event (Friday thru Sunday) This is BLM and although you must obtain a free 14 day permit, there is no fee for camping here. This is pure boondocking, as good as it gets. There are no hookups of any kind, no parking pads, no picnic tables or fire rings. Just hundreds of square miles of open hard packed desert. Clear blue skies as far as you can see. February daytime highs are usually in the 70's and nighttime lows in the 40's. It must rain sometime, but we’ve never seen it do so. The wind can blow pretty good though. Water and dumping is available in town as are good places to eat, grocery stores and a laundry. There’s either plenty to do or nothing to do depending on your inclination. Currently there are at least four Oliver’s that have plans to go. Let us know if you are interested.

Thank you for your patience while we have moved our forums to OliverTravelTrailers.com. Here is a list of step you can follow to help you understand how to login, update your profile and user the forums. For New Users... Go here to register You will receive an activation email where you will need to click on the link to activate your account. You should be auto-logged into the website. You will receive a second email with your auto-generated password. We suggest that you copy that password, then go to the "Gear Icon" on your profile and click My Account. Find the Change Password tab and paste the password your received in your email into the "Current Password" field, then add your new password. For Migrated Users from oliverforums.com... For security, we did not migrate passwords. You will need to Reset your Password by going here first. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/password-reset/ Enter your email address or username that you previously used on oliverforums.com. You will receive an email with a link to Reset Your Password. Click the link to be redirected to our website and fill out the new password fields and hit submit. You should be now able to login to the website using your new password. How to Update Your Profile Step 1. Login to the website here : http://olivertraveltrailers.com/login/ Step 2. Go to the Forums link at the top of the website or go to http://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/ Step 3. Go to Your Profile... Once you are on the Forums Home Page, either click the link to your name in the Welcome message or click the Forum Menu and click "My Profile." Step 4. Click the "Gear Icon" on the right, just below your cover photo. Click the "Edit Profile" link in the dropdown. From here you can upload your avatar image, cover image, update your personal info and social links. Some items will not be viewable in a public view. See the Help icon for details on each profile field. Searching Members or Moderators You can search members of the forums by going to the Search Members link in the Forums Menu dropdown. Here you can search member by username or by Hull #'s of Oliver Owners. Oliver Owners - Hull # and Manage Referral Program You will find a section when editing your profile called "My RV or Travel Trailer." Here you can add your info about the year, model and floor plan of your Oliver Travel Trailer. You can also manage your preferences for the Oliver Referral Program. If you are willing to show your trailer to potential new customers, you can enable this feature here. I will be implementing this feature into a map where potential customers can locate a trailer to see. Personal info will not be shared on the website. Potential customers will contact our office and we will contact you to arrange a field visit. If you decide to go on vacation or take time off from the Referral Program, you can disable this at anytime by editing and choosing "No, I do not want to show my travel trailer to potential customers." You can re-join at anytime. If you have any issues. Let me know!

Bill, that is a great idea, if I don’t come up with a metric handle I think that will be an easy and permanent fix. Since I now have a new silver handle, I can mod both the rear cables, with a black handle for the black tank and a silver one for the gray tank - color coded! - and then I will have a spare I can drill to use up front, if that one ever fails. Thanks, John Davies Spokane WA

Randy, the black tank and all its associated plumbing is installed but nothing is going into it - there is no opening on top of the tank. I had to winterize the black tank flush line, and drain what little bit of water was in the tank after doing that. I used pliers on the nut.... I actually opened up the rear access panel a few months ago and found the handle busted and lying in the bottom, it did not happen while I was actually pulling on it. Regardless of the black tank, the other two will also fail because it is a beyond stupid way to secure a highly stressed part. John Davies Spokane WA

Well--WE ORDERED it. Hull number 318! It's set to start production in January, and we can change our options up until two weeks prior to production start. We chose a later production month to accommodate a May delivery. As it stands we ordered the following: Solar (the Zamp was the only option, but it comes prewired to accept additional panels). In the end I think it will work for our needs, and I really like the idea of not adjusting or modifying items that deal with electricity. Anderson Hitch- We have a 2017 Tundra that we purchased to pull our new travel trailer. I don't think the Anderson will be required, but I like the idea that I could pull it with my Tacoma on tighter and more demanding trails if need be. Fiber Granite- Color to be determined by my wife Shower track- I liked the setup that G&J Roaming & Rolling applied to their trailer. They are on YouTube and have been a great help in the decision making process. Tank-less Water Heater- I'm sure the conventional tank would suffice...but I like what Reed said "Why skimp?" at this point? Electronic Key Pad- I hate keys, and it just made sense Micro-Air Easy Start- We have an existing EU2000i, and I think this will be easy to integrate into our setup Four (4) Trojan T-105 Batteries with Hydrolink- This is going to open a can of worms, but I chose this setup for several reasons. I wanted the ability to recharge if they completely drain, and my understanding is the the AGM batteries can lose efficiency and ability after several complete discharges. Ideally this never happens, but If so, I think these are a safer route. Correct me if I'm wrong, please! 30Lb Tanks- First hand accounts sold me. We are in Alaska for the next couple of years so I'm anticipating heater usage! Cell Signal Booster- I read several things on this upgrade. Some say it's useless. Some love it. Obviously comes down to the individual user. What I tried to do was research the individual item, reviews and first hand accounts. This system actually received excellent reviews outside of the Oliver community, so I pulled the trigger. In the end, We don't camp to be around people or signal, so not a deal breaker either way. Any first hand accounts would be appreciated. My wife will undoubtedly decide and change her mind several times prior to production, so we might have more questions. Is there any one place to view different Oliver color schemes and combos, or did everyone just scour the internet for hours like myself? And pics or fabric suggestions would be appreciated. We have a small dog, and we are concerned about shedding and fabric feasibility. Now the waiting. I'm a MEDEVAC guy, so I have lots of downtime to lurk and surf the web for Oliver ideas. Thanks! -Alex

This doesn't sound right, your water heater should not be heating to the point that it pops the pressure relief valve. We had one of these in our first Oliver Elite. I couldn’t tell that it made much difference in decreasing the run time of the pump. I still have it with all the hoses and fittings in a box somewhere. If you install one, you need to have EASY access to the air fitting so that you can fill and check the pressure without jumping thru hoops.

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

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 was not obvious to me as to how to do this. This site helped me. http://noshockzone.org/generator-ground-neutral-bonding/