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If noticed some members on the forum have colored maps in their signatures. You may be asking yourself "How do you do that?". Start by visiting this website: http://visitedstatesmap.com Select the states you have visited and choose the size you wish and click DRAW MAP. *Please be considerate to others views on the forums by keeping the image around medium size* Next you will be taken to a new page and underneath the map where it says "Copy and Paste Image URL:" Copy the url, for example mine is: http://visitedstatesmap.com/image/xlg.jpg - this is not your map unless you have been to zero states. This is an example. Now go to your forum Signature to edit and put in the url: It should now look like: If you need help please discuss below. Credits: @SeaDawg, @KarenLukens

I did some research on the web before I was ready to drill through the fiberglass. It was recommended to put down masking tape and drill through that to prevent splintering of the gel-coat. It was also recommended to wear a mask to prevent inhaling fiberglass particles.

Also, here is a previous post I made on my travel blog about securing our Ollie: https://cloudssoswiftrv.tumblr.com/post/172164330189/washing-and-securing-the-ollie-march-20-2018

One of the things I asked Oliver to do for me was to install a 12" counter extension to the right of the cooktop that could be folded down when not in use. I figured we could use the extra counter space, plus I wanted a buffer between the cooktop and beds for splatter. This is what they came up with - This was perfectly fine and exactly what I was expecting, and we've really enjoyed using it. The only thing I didn't really like was that the hardware was finicky and just didn't work well. And the top ended up about 9" rather than 12", so it was a little small. And we had asked if they could make a piece of fiber granite to match, but they'd have to make a new mould for it so that wasn't going to happen. It also would have been nice if the extension were flush to the counter. So maybe a lot of problems. But we were happy with it nonetheless. But one day when I was running some wires through the pantry, I had removed the countertop beneath for access and just naturally set it down on top of the counter extension. Well, it fit perfectly; and thus, a new project was added to the list. I asked Oliver if they would sell me an extra top and picked it up when I got my trailer out of service a few weeks ago. I believe they charged $150 for it. Since I was redoing the top, I figured I'd search for better hardware as well. I found several options, but the ones that stood out were these from Amarine. They're super heavy duty and stainless steel. They work much better than what we had, and look nicer to boot. The only problem was that they were about a half inch too long for the countertop, so they'd have to be cut to size. But worth the trouble, so I ground the ends off a half inch. If you don't want to go through that trouble, my second choice was these, which are small enough to fit without modification. I cut a ½" piece of plywood that I could screw into to use as the base for the top. A ½" sheet will sit flush to the lip of the counter, which is what I wanted, but to make the countertop flush to the existing counter, it meant the hinges had to be high enough that I had to grind out a small notch for each hinge to clear. No big deal - btw, a Dremel with a small sanding cylinder works really well on the fiberglass, and leaves a smooth edge and no chipping whatsoever. Wear a mask. Here are the notches - The brackets are easy, just mark the holes, drill, and screw. I used ¾" #10 stainless on the bottom legs and ¼" #8's on the top. And 3M 4200 along each leg and on each screw going into the fiberglass to prevent it from backing out over time. Since none of the surfaces in the trailer are perfectly 90°, I needed to shim something to make the counter level. I considered grinding down the latch that holds the brackets at 90°, but that would have been difficult and if I ground off too much, I'd have to buy another bracket. Instead, I decided to shim between the plywood and fiber granite and then glue the top to the plywood with more 3M 4200, which I'm using so much that I've started referring to it around the house now as Snowball Glue. It's only about ⅛" max to shim - I used some stainless washers that I had lying about and just glued them down in each of the corners. I found that the top was a bit warped, so I had to weigh it down while the glue set - See, I knew lead acid batteries still had a use. I let it sit overnight and in the morning, I had what's in the photo above. Cool. BTW, if you want to do this and have mattresses, then you'll want to check their thickness to make sure the extension will clear when folded. Measure down 12" from the bottom lip of the counter. If your mattress is below that, you're good. If you have cushions, then no problem, but you'll need to move one of the back ones out of the way when raising or lowering the top. More pics -

The numbers are in, the reservations made, and our fates are sealed. We have a total of 12 intrepid souls "doin'" level 2 of the Screaming Eagle Zipline on Saturday, May 5th at 1pm. Those 12 are: Mike & Krunch, Yvonne & Doug, Pete, Steve, Chris, Rob & Vicki, Debbie, Clair and Bill. The total cost per person including taxes, fees, and prayers is $97.15 which has already been paid to the Park. With the exception of Mike & Krunch, who paid previously, I will accept either cash or check at the Rally. If anyone has questions prior to the Rally, they can either post it here or via a PM to me prior to Wednesday of next week (May 2nd). After that I'll be at the Rally in site G-13. THIS should be a bunch of fun - can't wait to get on the line! Bill

We have the Proven Ind. lock and so far I like it. Takes a minute to get the hook in it and the Oliver hooks are so big only one will fit.

Medeco locks are part of the ASSA ABLOY Group. I have a house full of Medeco door locks and I am very satisfied with their products. The communications industry has used the Medeco brand of locks at remote and secure facilities for years. The locks and keys are controlled through the Medeco dealer network, so you have to buy from them. Check the dealer tab at this site for locations and additional information.

MontanaOliver, are you planning to run that chain through the wheels? It looks pretty large...

Thanks for all the responses, but I'm not worried about drilling gelcoat...done that many times, using the tape method that DavidS mentioned. But whenever I've drilled fiberglass before, it was to install a through bolt. That was pretty straightforward and drama-free, because the threads of the machine screw / bolt never engaged the material. I've never used a wood screw in fiberglass. I'm worried that when I drive it in, the fiberglass isn't going to give/compress the way wood does and then crack. Overland, thanks for the sizing info. I guess with such a large pilot hole you're not trying to squeeze the fiberglass nearly as much as I was thinking initially. MontanaOliver, I'd never heard of "grinding a negative flat" on drill bits before. Good to know, and thanks for sharing!

This what we’re using. It is an Abus padlock. It’s not going to prevent a determined thief but does provide some deterrence. I believe most thefts occur while in storage not camping. Mike

I can’t find much pricing info on Assa locks, do you have a link? I too like The Collar, it is solid and very compact, but the main problem is that it does not block the big hole in the coupler. A thief might be able to lower it onto a 7/8 “ ball and drive away. Adding a hardened 2 inch ball bearing inside your coupler would fix that. ... https://www.amazon.com/Inch-Chrome-Steel-Bearing-Ball/dp/B0074VCP8S/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1524662203&sr=1-4&keywords=2+inch+ball+bearing I am using this lock through The Collar....https://www.amazon.com/Stanley-Hardware-S828-160-Shrouded-Hardened/dp/B001V5IYT2/ref=br_lf_m_87a5jnww68ca6zo_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&s=hi I’m sure it isn’t nearly as pick resistant as the Assa, but it does feel and operate very soldly. It is heavy with a well shielded mechanism. It does not stick up like a disc lock. I would suggest a long Python cable lock through the wheels, but they are so very easy to pick. I do have one securing my cans to the tongue tray, it is a visual deterrent mostly. Stuff down low is much easier to cut, but that square chain looks pretty cut proof, if it will go into the wheel holes. Hardened chain is an absolute nightmare to shorten, you have to use a grinder or cutoff wheel and it is very time consuming. Layers of protection! Several cheaper solutions are worth considering, no thief wants to have to disable several locks and then he finds you removed the fuses for the jacks.... If I were truly worried about long term storage I would take off at least two wheels and remove them from the site. John Davies Spokane WA

padlocks: https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-steel-Padlock-Storage-locks/dp/B071LK4VQP/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=mewlhouse-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=19334b2c98c47a6ca25a2faca78cdf18&creativeASIN=B071LK4VQP cable: https://www.amazon.com/ABUS-10KS-Security-Chain-Sleeve/dp/B005UMCBL4/ref=as_sl_pc_tf_til?tag=mewlhouse-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=41354bf8662a346170a6b978c7b671ac&creativeASIN=B005UMCBL4

I like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Collar-Trailer-Bulldog-style-Couplers-Including/dp/B00HL2NM0K/ref=as_sl_pc_qf_sp_asin_til?tag=mewlhouse-20&linkCode=w00&linkId=c3d4c28a957d2958331759cc4e87c6f9&creativeASIN=B00HL2NM0K

Well those walls do have a plywood core. I looked at the cutout for the speaker in the closet per KountryKamper’s suggestion. You can actually see the plywood all the way around the cutout for the closet door frame. The total thickness of this wall is “real close” to 1/2 inch.

Absolutely. I've learned to go maybe one bit size up from what I normally might use. I just hold the bit in front of the screw and pick the largest size that still allows me to see some thread beyond. And I've found that you're more likely to crack the gel coat with the screw than the drill bit. Also, if you're drilling a larger hole and want to drill a pilot hole for the larger bit, then just drill enough to get a good centering divot in the gel coat. If you drill deeper with the pilot, then you're more likely to catch the edge of that hole with the larger bit and pop off a bit of gel coat. I think it's inevitable to have some chipping or crumbling around the edge of the hole, since the gel coat is so brittle, especially the white. But I've yet to have a disaster, knock on wood. The only visible scars I've made were inside the closet like I mentioned above, and then inside the battery box, where I drilled out a large hole to run 4/0 cable, but when I went back to the hardware store to get a grommet for the hole, they were out and only had one size larger. Stupidity forced me to try and enlarge the hole and the drill skipped and gouged the fiberglass about a half inch over. Fortunately it was inside the box and I've learned not to do that.

That is very disappointing. One of the best things about the Oliver, to me, was the lack of wood used. Now I find out they use wood in the highest moisture / temperature differential areas in the trailer? Sigh. I guess another one of my pickup tasks will be to pull any hardware mounted to those walls, caulk, and re-install. I understand re: people hanging stuff, but there are certainly other substrate options besides plywood.

Well we actually got our Ollie stuck in the mud this weekend. Or I guess technically we got the truck stuck trying to pull the Ollie out of the field we'd camped in. We'd picked a nice open field at Land Between the Lakes and we both knew that it was a bit risky since it was predicted to rain on Sunday morning. And per my earlier post, we also knew well that the soil at LBL is like grease when it's saturated. But the spot was at the top of a little rise and I figured that getting out we'd have the weight of the trailer in our favor. But of course to get the trailer turned around Sunday morning, I had to pull it around and off that little hill a bit, and the moment we got off of it we hit softer soil. Four low, diffs locked, all four wheels just spun. Fortunately we had our Maxtrax and a pair of bridging ladders and those worked like a charm. It was slow going, since we had to re-lay the tracks every 10 or 12 feet, but less than 20 minutes later we were back on gravel and washing off the mud. Moral of the story - you might feel like an idiot buying and carrying that stuff around, but when you need it, you need it. I highly recommend at least a set of Maxtrax in the vehicle, even if your only adventure off road is to pull ten feet off into your camping spot. Since we don't have a winch on the truck yet, had we not had the Maxtrax, our day would have involved a long hike in the rain to find a ranger or hunter to help pull us and the trailer out. Innocuous looking little camp site, isn't it? Maybe 60 feet off the gravel? Takes less than that to ruin your day.

They do use wood on the bath wall and the wall dividing the closet and bath. They showed it to me during our tour and said its the only wood in the camper. They said they do it because people want to be able to hang stuff on that wall. In ours I can see the wood inside the closet looking up at the speaker cutout. Here is a picture of that wall being set in place.

Our trailer was one of the last 'custom' trailers to be built. When we started talking with Oliver, custom was pretty much the norm and if you wanted to do something cool, they'd give it a shot. In fact we were encouraged by Robert Partee on our first visit to come up with some new ideas for them to try. But that was before they decided to dramatically increase production in 2017 with the second production line and all. Because we were sort of in the mix already with our trailer, and because they also new that we had cancelled a completely custom trailer from a different company to go with Oliver, they allowed us to continue with the modifications (and I think there were a few other trailers going through the line with ours that had some customization going on). But Oliver regretted having done so. With their new production line, so many new employees and older ones learning new jobs, it was just too much for them to pull our trailer out to make the necessary modifications before the next step was to begin. And they ended up missing a few things in line that were going to be simple but ended up being very difficult to retrofit in service later. And we had to take the trailer back to Oliver and leave it for another few months to finish stuff up later. In other words, it was a real pain for Oliver, and it tried everyone's patience, especially ours, and there were mistakes and miscommunication and missed deadlines, etc. However, we truly appreciate everything they did and in the end we have a great trailer. The irony is, that apart from one, maybe two of our modifications, I think it all probably could have been done faster and better if it just went through the line with normal options and then modified later on in service. And if anyone were to ask, that's what I'd say try to do anyway. Or, better still, do them yourself, which is what these kinds of threads are all about. Many of the things we had them do, I think now I'd rather have done myself anyway. At the time, it was too overwhelming for me to imagine doing them, but now that I've started to cross things off the list, the rest seem less daunting. But things like this counter extension I've essentially redone and so with 20/20 hindsight, there was no reason to have asked for it. Eventually there will be enough Ollies out there and coming off the line that I think some enterprising soul will have enough potential customers to open up an Ollie customization business. I could also see Oliver doing something like spinning off and expanding their service department into a customization business like that. That's what I've told them they should do at least.

It was a wonderful campsite, and that is the spot where I posted the GPS coordinates last week. We went on a guided tour of Northern India last November, which was a fabulous trip. I noticed that all of the trucks and busses had these tassels on the back. I asked our tour guide why, and she said they keep the evil spirits away. I kinda liked that, so I found some and bought them. From google I found they are often called Parandhi Tassels. We will see how well they hold up on the road, but they seem to survive on the back of vehicles in India. The vehicles in India have outrageous, colorful decorations.

Where’s Ollie? Ollie was in the Valley of the Gods, which was magnificent. This is BLM land, so it is free to camp. No water, no toilets no picnic tables. Just gorgeous country, and lots a privacy. No one was camped near us. View from our window. A few nights later we moved to Gouldings, a commercial RV park close to Monument Valley. The location is gorgeous, and you can see Monument Valley from the campground. The only problem is that the sites are quite close together, but that is common in commercial RV parks. The restrooms were clean, there were hiking trails to a nearby arch. I was most impressed with the fact that they have planted trees between the campsites, and they use drip irrigation to maintain the trees. Gouldings is close to Monument Valley, and we booked an all day tour led by a Navajo guide. It was amazing! On advantage of a Navajo Guide is that he took us through some of the back country, not open to non-Navajos, where we hiked up to arches and Anasazi ruins, where few people visit. Unlike most Anasazi sites, there were abundant pottery shards. One day we went to Bluff Utah for their Founders Day and Frybread Festival. There were a bunch of Mormon Pioneer events, but what we really enjoyed were the cultural programs put on by the Ute Tribe and by the Navajo Tribe. We were listening to Tony Hillerman audiobooks on this trip. Also visited Goosenecks State Park. It was a great trip!

Can't wait for the campfire and a few beers! Bill

If I were Oliver, my stock response would be "we can only recommend towing the trailer from the hitch on the front"