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You will need 3000 watts without the EZ Start addition. With it, 2000 watts should work. We have a Yamaha 3000 that has always been able to meet our needs. It is left over from when we had our first Oliver that was not equipped with solar. Neither 3000 nor 2000 watts will run the air conditioner and any other accessory, such as the microwave, at one time. A 4000 watt generator might be able to do so. But this is definitely more generator than is needed, ie weight, cost. To prevent any nearby camping neighbors from hating you, make sure you buy a brand that is quiet. Below 60 dB is great.

Alison ... So do I. Please take no offense, but you need understand that towing any travel trailer in the high mountains in mid-winter is highly dangerous and very hard on the trailer itself, especially in states that use chemical deicers or salt. Sure you see all sorts of brakeless snowmobile trailers up in the passes, but they are corroded and blasted by sand and they sure don’t weigh three tons and cost $60k. A truck camper or a 4wd motorhome makes much more sense if you plan to travel and camp in the snow. Olivers are four season, but that means they are suitable for freezing weather, not for hazardous winter driving conditions. It’s often difficult in mild weather to find a safe place to pull off the road or to turn around. When the shoulders are bermed with packed snow, it could be impossible. You have good brakes on your Ollie, but when the roads are icy there is no way they will be safe. You will have to back way off on their power to prevent them from locking up, then how do you stop it? You can’t..... and how do you maneuver and back up in your typical parking area with no traction? If you insist on towing in winter, be prepared to see lots of damage to your trailer and the resale value will be greatly diminished. I am not even sure your RV insurance would accept a claim under such conditions ... it would be considered extreme or unusual use. Just as off highway damage is not covered. This is wonderful in a 4wd pickup camper, with a travel trailer it is just deadly..... Please think about this. John Davies Spokane WA

Finally we can contribute (I think) to the forum. We purchased this bug screen from Walmart Online. Used twisted wire to connect the screen to the Ollie

We're heading that way next week and plan to arrive around the time the tent show starts on the 20th. We usually camp out toward dome rock and usually have a group of Casitas, Escapes, a Bigfoot 25 foot, and our E2. New Mexico plates, no front logo, and pulling with a silver Dodge Ram 3500. Brad

Count the watts and go from there... On a 2000i you will only be able to run one at a time.

Dome rock it is then, thanks! Reed, we're at our sons house in Vegas, we're leaving here monday for lake havasu for 1 night, then on to quartzite for ?? Many days then I'm not sure where we're going, thanks for the offer though.

Happy New Year :) Sunrise New Year's Eve :)

We're a couple hours East just outside of Congress, Az if it's on your way :)

Many Olivers are gathering at Dome Rock- Bring Oliver Tee shirts for a group photo

“Congratulations! This is a great time to order since you won’t be constantly staring out the window wishing you were camping.” John Davies, I wish I could say this was true- we pick our Oliver up in June. But everywhere I go, I check out whether there is winter camping! We spent New Years in Steamboat Springs (Colorado), and all I could think about was that next year I can take my Ollie and camp out at Steamboat Lake Campground. I’ve made a list of all the campgrounds in Colorado that are open year-round! My husband thinks I’m crazy.

I check my water level in our batteries on a regular basis. We have been doing it for years, and it is no big deal. A regular 12V group 27 deep cycle battery is usually considered good for 30 months. With some normal care you could expect at least twice that. We have batteries in our boats, the camper, dump trailer, motorcycle, utility vehicles. As long as you keep them clean, watered, and charged you should have no problems. Bet we don't spend over an hour or so dealing with all of them. Time well spent. The camper comes with the same basic batteries that are in electric golf carts, and look how many of those there are and how long they last. Don't let the naysayers scare you, you can always upgrade later at the end of their lifecycle...

I was thinking of these: https://www.lowes.com/pl/Built-in-microwaves-Microwaves-Appliances/4294715795?refinement=4294805928,4294786927 But they won't fit in the Oliver's microwave cavity anyway. I'm considering storing a "regular" counter top toaster oven in there and then take it out for use. My family uses a toaster oven all the time, but all we use a microwave for is heating frozen stuff, which I'm not sure we'll have much of when traveling. Anyway, threadjack over.

I had to break off the little safety bumpers on the back so that I can scoot it back for the door to close. We just have to make sure we pull it back out when using it so it doesn't cook the rear wall.

Yep, that's it.

The 110V outlet for the microwave is in the overhead storage cabinet directly above the microwave. You can have them put additional outlets just about anywhere you want. Mike

I must say John, you did exactly what you said you would do a year ago. Cheers. Oliver is built to last. There is no doubt about it and the proof is right here in the forums, it's every single one of you. Thank you!

Thank you for the kind words. My wife and I just started thinking of names but I'd not considered Rumline. She's the admiral* so we'll see what she thinks. A "rhumb line" is a straight line course on a Mercator-projection chart. You can travel a rhumb line by steering the same compass bearing. As you travel around with a constant angle to magnetic north, your course will curve on the actual globe. A "great circle" route is the shortest path between two points and appears as a straight line on a globe, but it's much harder to steer one with just a compass. I like rhumb lines because while they're not the "best" or most efficient means of travel, they're really easy and good enough for me. I replaced "rhumb" with "rum" since I appreciate distilled spirits, rum included. Ha! That's great! By 15 years I didn't mean that's how long the Ollie will last, rather that I expect we'll want to move on to something else within that timeframe. Not necessarily another RV. But who knows. Either way, long before the end of the Ollie's useful life. * For the non-boaters, referring to one's wife as "the admiral" is a tongue-in-cheek statement reflecting the fact that while you may be the captain of your boat, she still outranks you. Happy wife, happy life.

Sorry for the necro-post but nothing in this thread is outdated. I come from a boating background. Instead of partying while in college I worked on boats. Ended up buying a cheap trailerable fiberglass sailboat older than I was and restored it. When I picked it up every deck and hull fitting leaked and there was about 6" of funky old rainwater standing in the bilge. The bow eye was nearly ripped out, standing and running rigging were trashed, wood was on its way out. But the hull was still sound and the wood was mostly cosmetic. The interior was also gelcoated fiberglass like the Ollies. I learned how to do minor fiberglass repair (and a bunch of other fun stuff) and in about a year I had her back in the water bashing up the California coast. My point is that even though this poor 25-year-old boat was completely neglected for the better part of a decade and had extensive water intrusion, it was easily salvagable by an idiot college kid. How? Because it was made of molded fiberglass with no wood in the structure. Fast forward to 2017 and I'm looking at travel trailers. I only went to one dealer and left disgusted by the cheesy construction. Cheap **** stapled to OSB, taped "caulking", rubber roof, are you freakin kidding me??? Then I start doing research and find that a lot of these things struggle to make it to 5 years old without serious mold or structural problems. Some don't even make it 2 years. No thanks!! I found the Casita trailers first, then Escape, and finally Oliver. I'm learning to like the Oliver floorplan but I immediately liked how all the interior structure is molded fiberglass, just like my boat was. And no wood! To me, $65k amortized over 15 years is a lot better than $18k over 2-5 years. Even if I don't end up keeping it that long or if buying several cheaper units end up costing less, not having to constantly worry about or fix problems is worth it to me. Yes I know fiberglass RVs still need maintainence. Like Buzzy said there's the peace of mind that comes with owning a high quality, well-built thing with a quality company standing behind it. So with that said, my wife and I just placed our order this week. Disclaimer: I talked about myself so much not because I think anybody particularly cares about me per se, but because I think my perspective or frame of mind may be representative of some portion of Oliver's target audience.

Had an interesting day with the Ram 2500 4X4, with a v plow on it. Had backed it up a slight incline at the edge of the driveway. Had it there so we could come out, plow the yard, and clear the driveway and road. It had over a third tank of fuel. Went to start it today and it just cranked and cranked. The low fuel light was on. We added a 5 gallon can of gas, and it started right up. Seeing it was only 12 degrees out we had been worried. We pulled out onto flat ground and the gauge registered over 1/3 tank again. Better to know that here at home than at a remote campsite, to keep the tank full or park on a reasonably flat spot. Guess a trip to the dealer is in order...

Our cell booster worked great at Fall Hollow the first couple of days we had our Ollie. Very little cell service outside the trailer, 3-4 bars inside with the WeBoost on. We were really happy we had bought that option. But at some point over the last month I realized that it didnt seem to work anymore. Did a bit of investigation, couldnt pinpoint the problem. Thought I was going to have to call the company. Finally dawned on me today - the metal toaster in the cupboard right next to the WeBoost was probably not such a good idea. Sure enough, the toaster has a new home, our cell service is much improved, and Im feeling a bit sheepish it took me so long to figure that out. Anyway, the moral of the story is if anyone is on the fencw about the optional cellular booster, its well worth the money as long as you keep your toasters away from it:p