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Friday evening, our local RV Club had our annual Christmas Party. We're not big, maybe 15 couples, but we enjoy each other. One interesting fact is that after Beverly and I brought #241 home, 2 other couples have placed orders, so the Oliver will be the majority trailer brand in our club. Because I've served as president of our little club for several years, one of our members brought Beverly and me a great Christmas present. Ricki and her husband Tom came over to the house this summer when we had a party to show off our new trailer. Ricki took a picture, digitized it, and embroidered a nice hand towel for us. Of course it's too nice to ever use as a hand towel. If anyone is interested in something like this, Ricki said she could embroidery towels, shirts, jackets, etc. Drop me a note and I'll put you in touch with her. (She does small or large projects. She's even embroidered items for movies which has becomes a relatively new industry in our area.) Brad

I did call Jason Essary this morning, as Bill suggested I do, in order to inquire about the new now-standard exterior solar ports. Yes, they not only fit the mobile Zamp solar suitcase options but Jason added that other solar manufacturers also provide an adapter as well that will plug into this same Zamp port. Jason said the original Blue Sky system is superior when wanting a more powerful unit and the options for controlling it and fine-tuning, but they found it is complicated for some people. The Zamp system is automatic and is designed for trouble-free operation. Turn on the switch and everything is already set for you. No adjusting. Also, with the Blue Sky system, other perhaps not-so-handy operators adjusting things created a bit of a problem for themselves and Oliver with burned-out batteries and other inconveniences. Jason's explanation made sense and I feel better now for staying with the Oliver Zamp recommendation. Once I start modifying Oliver systems certain warranties will no longer exist. In addition, I have no desire to fool around with my trailer tweaking things and being an amateur engineer. I want to travel with ease and comfort, see the sights, relax, and enjoy our little home on wheels. The more the Oliver people can do for me in providing an easy accommodating switch and equipment that makes my life more comfortable I am willing to pay a higher price.

During the long wait for pick up day I admit to spending a lot of time lurking on the Oliver forum - so much great info and experience, thank you so much for all your contributions! But as a newbie to towing and trailer camping, somewhere in that process I began to get very anxious about the learning curve we were facing. There was so much discussion about the different systems and modifications and configuration options and work arounds and etc etc - all of it great info btw, this is not a complaint in any way - but it was all so foreign to me that I began to form the impression that this new life we were embarking upon was going to be a lot of work. It didn't take long in our Ollie for that anxiety to melt away. This trailer has everything we need and then some. Lights? Flip a switch. Hot water? Turn on the faucet. Below freezing outside? The furnace works great. Everything you need is there and easy to use out of the box. Yes, you do need to learn the systems...but not overnight. Over the last month we've slowly made our way further away from the mothership as we gained confidence in the abilities of both ourselves and our new trailer. The wealth of info in the forum has been an invaluable resource as we figure out how it all works and get our travel legs built up. But I'm very happy to report that nothing yet has felt like hard work...and that anxiety? Disappeared before we checked out of Fall Hollow after our first weekend:) We're Greg and Theresa Kopish, we'll be posting as Grumble and Twist. Looking forward to meeting you all at the rally in May! Twist

As a long time RVer I am a believer in the proverb” you are taking your house and your car down the road, things are going to break. Get them fixed, and keep on going down the road.” But, in reading all the Forum letters, it seems like a lot of problems could be prevented by more care and thought during the build process, especially for a trailer that sells for the price we pay. Our Ollie hasn’t been finished, but we have many notes from the Forum posts to discuss during our delivery.

I've been using cushions to keep the drawers from opening until today... Yesterday I found the magnets that I've been looking for at Ace Hardware, they are 07217, 25lb magnets made by "The Magnet Source". They're more then strong enough to hold the drawers closed by themselves and they fit the original strike plates installed in the Oliver's perfectly. I had thought originally about just doubling up on the original magnets until I saw these Yesterday. I just had to mark and lower the middle and bottom drawer screws on mine, the top drawer lined right up. I had some good 1/2" sheet metal screws with a socket head that made them easy to install and though it says that it will hold 25lbs, it's maybe 6lbs of pull to open the drawers. So they are snug but still easily opened by anyone. Here's more pics and a pic of both the old and the new... major difference. I ended up screwing them in all of the way and then backing them out 1/2 a turn. I also adjusted the strike plates out enough to hit the magnets and hold solid. We will be heading down a washboard road here in a day or so to really put them thru the test... Well, I will be going really slow anyway... but still :) Reed

Oliver did three 160w panels (I guess I should get out the tape measure and verify that's what I got, lol), and then they did two skinny 80w panels at the rear on each side, so 640w total. I actually think that the 80w panels look really good where they put them, and in fact wish that we'd have had some better communication when they were coming up with that solution - I'd have asked them to do three pair of 80w running down the sides and then just a single large panel lengthways on the roof, mounted directly to the roof rather than up on stilts. You can see here how they're mounted. The awning mounts have been raised and the panels mount to the back of those, then the inside has a little spar that attaches to the 'curb'. I honestly think this should be the new standard - compared to them I think the ones in front look like a real mess. From the side, they disappear as they look a lot like part of the awning. In fact I asked them to order silver awning cases so that it would all blend in. The only thing I don't like is that they're not perfectly horizontal, which drives me nuts...

I really don't know how I would deal with a situation like this. It has to be frustrating in the extreme.... I do know that If it were my trailer I would be sure to tell them to plug in to shore power if they moved it. Having custom equipment means the average factory worker there will be clueless about the implications of bringing it inside with the high-draw DC systems running. OTH, I do agree that there should be an "Oliver 911" number, somebody in a position of authority who is willing to answer text messages on weekends to deal with stuff like this. I am sure Oliver will make this right if your batteries are toast, but I think that is unlikely to be the situation. Good luck and keep us informed. JohnDavies Spokane WA

HID? If so there are plenty of OEM quality replacements that are way less; here is a Philips. The No Name versions are even cheaper. Don't ever buy stuff at the Stealer unless there is no other recourse. https://www.carid.com/2014-dodge-durango-bulbs/philips-standard-hid-bulbs-367225224.html John Davies Spokane WA

Reed, this is not completely accurate. You can easily install 3 x 160 watt panels on the roof. Back in 2013 when I designed the solar setup for our Hull #050, I used the Blue Sky equipment but the largest affordable panels available were 100 watt. We went with two because that's what "everybody else" was doing and all the early builds had this 200 watt configuration. Soon, the 160 watt panels became cheap enough that Oliver switched to them giving their trailers a total of 320 watts. I then added another 100 watt panel to my array to give me 300 watts. I like all my panels on the roof. I don't have to store, transport, deploy and worry about the theft of an "extra" panel. Best of all, it simply works. In full sun, 300 watts has proven to be more than enough to fully charge our batteries every day by 1400. Parking in the shade expectedly decreases our ability to charge, but the areas we typically travel to (Western USA) usually don't have shade anyway. An added benefit of the three panels is that now I have a large enough area to land our helicopter on the roof!