Leaderboard

Yes they do fit nicely. The crates themselves are pretty light weight but you can load them pretty heavy as they are very sturdy. I use a boat hook attached to a piece of pvc pipe to pull them out. Good luck, Mike

To say its Hot in Florida this summer is an understatement. Add to that the humidity and you don't want to be outside. But just how hot is it? I wanted an outside remote thermometer for our Oliver just so I would know what I was walking into. Found an inexpensive one at Amazon with good reviews from - ThermoPro TP60 $18.00. http://a.co/dVuRtBu Took only a few minutes to setup and it came with batteries. I used heavy duty Velcro on both the backs of the remote and the display. Placed the remote unit under the solar panels on the wiring hub and the display unit next to the AC thermostat. Now I know. Oh look, its only 88 degree outside with 84% humidity... at 8am. Heading to the pool,

We got home a couple of days ago with our new Ollie and I thought I'd share some thoughts that may be useful to other prospective / waiting buyers. On factory options: ■ Solar is hands-down the easiest choice. Keeps batteries topped off all the time. Allows you to run the fridge on DC while driving and not run down the batteries. Yes it charges off the tow vehicle wiring, but I doubt this would be enough to keep the batteries charged when also running the fridge. ■ The Lagun table was the worst choice for us. I liked the idea, but in practice the table is too bulky in storage (a 3" pipe sticks out from the bottom of the table, plus the arm is not small either) and we're too worried about scratching the surface. We don't like leaving it up while sleeping, and since we're already converting the side dinette to a bed every night for our son, we don't need yet another daily stow/deploy operation. Also now that Overland has pioneered a better mounting method, I would never order this from the factory; do it yourself and get a cleaner solution. ■ The KTT Latex Mattress upgrade was definitely worth it for us. Very comfortable and slept cool in the warm weather we experienced. Yes we had the AC on but we turned it down (raised the thermostat) for bedtime. Man that thing is loud! Anyway we also bought the plastic looped mat to enhance air flow after following this thread. We ended up buying Hypervent from Defender since it was cheaper and looked to be the same material as Aire-Flow. ■ The WeBoost cell booster was a win. We camped mostly in state parks on the way back, many were far off the interstates. It gave us a functioning connection in several places where we otherwise had none. Sometimes it didn't give us a functioning data connection, but even being able to make/receive calls and text messages was great. However having to hold your phone close to the antenna mounted over the dinette is not ideal. I want to plug the output from the WeBoost into a mobile router to enable our devices to connect anywhere in/around the trailer. One day. ■ We ordered the shower track but haven't purchased a shower curtain yet. Wiping down the toilet seat and area around the toilet is not fun. Plus a lot of water seems to collect there so it really saturated our towel (that we keep only for that purpose). So the jury is still out on the shower track but I don't think that having a curtain will be useless. ■ Truma tankless water heater was great. When on full hookups all three of us took nice long showers and never had to worry about running out. Maybe not "needed" but neither is a $65K camper. We got it for the performance but also the ease of use and maintenance. I found Reed's posts on this topic influential (which of course I cannot find right now). Other noteworthy stuff we bought: ■ 18" milk crates. Overland mentioned this in his Snowball thread. I was excited to essentially have the basement packed before we left home to pick up the trailer. I bought these because I wanted to organize my stuff logically: blocks chocks and jacks went in red, water hoses and filters in blue, electric and gas in green. Black stays in the garage and is where I put the hitch, tow mirrors, etc. Perfect. Except that when we picked up the trailer, there was this white plastic sheeting material closing off part of the basement area so the milk crates wouldn't fit in width-wise. I had to crawl in the basement and unscrew the sheeting from a stringer and then the stringer from the floor of the basement. I re-installed the plastic sheet all the way against the rear of the trailer with duct tape to protect the wires and hoses back there but now the milk crates fit. I can get all three in plus my toolbox and Viair compressor, and everything is so easy to pull out and find what I need. Suh-weet! ■ Water filter. Thanks to DavePhelps in this thread for turning me on to RVWaterFilterStore.com. We bought the two-canister Essential system because it seemed like the best compromise between cost, effectiveness, and convenience. We were very pleased with the results. Always had great tasting and feeling (for showers) water even when the campground water was kinda harsh. When we got home and my wife showered in our house she remarked "Meh, unfiltered water...." Also the build quality is very nice. ■ Bed sheets. After much consternation we ordered custom sheets from CustomLinensDirect. They were very soft, well-made, and fit perfectly. We supplied the measurements 75"L x 29"W x 8"D (this is for the KTT Latex mattress upgrade). We bought the 300TC sheets but they also have 500 if that floats your boat. We also bought a few sets of sheets from two different sellers on Amazon as backups and for our son's bed on the side dinette. They were allegedly 300TC Egyptian cotton but after washing just once (and dried on delicate) they were very rough feeling. ■ Plates. We found Corelle knock-offs called Oftast at Ikea. These don't shatter into a billion little shards like Corelle but are still tempered glass so you can use them in the microwave unlike melamine or acrylic. They're also super cheap: less than $1 each. We switched our 4-year-old to these dishes after we discovered them in February and none have broken yet, other than the two I broke for testing purposes. I also want to thank Reed and Karen Lukens for compiling their Amazon Wish List. We didn't buy close to everything on the list, and sometimes we bought different items than what they recommended, but it was a great resource to see things we might have forgotten or not thought about.

I am not sure I can help you on the foam part I got mine at a local flea market in Murphy NC for about $2 a foot and it was about 4 ft. wide so pretty cheap. Before I found this I was thinking about the foam pads they lay under sleeping bags that are also closed cell foam so not to let moisture thru. The duck tape was the low residue tape and only took about one roll to put the foam on and took an hour at the most. I cut the foam at home in Florida to the shape i wanted and applied it to the Oliver when we got into British Columbia right before getting on to the ALcan. The tape held for an easy 6 weeks on the trip to Alaska thru Alaska and back down the Cassiar Hwy. into Washington State then I removed it. It held up great and let no intrusion of the mud and heavy rains or water we encountered and you will I guarantee you will go thru the same. What ever you do you will enjoy the trip , try not to rush your self, and check out Haines and Hyder Alaska for Bear watching if your there during the Salmon runs. If you go to Valdez be sure you cross over to the Salmon Weir on the other side of the bay both times we were in Alaska there was a Mother Grizzly that can down every evening with 4 cubs to feed on the salmon alone with the Sea Lions and eagles. Any way good luck the most important area to cover is the areas on each of the front corners inside from the running lights. Thanks Gary Here is a picture of the better halves from Dawson city waiting on the Ferry to cross from the Provincial campground. This was doing the Top of the World Hwy.

Mingy - As per Sherry's suggestion on the gutters - https://www.amazon.com/RV-Gutter-Ultra-White-UW025004/dp/B00LE0CC24/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1546265260&sr=8-8&keywords=rv+gutter If you decide to get this product there are a couple of reviews of it here on the Forum. Remember to clean, clean and clean again before applying and (if you can) only apply it when you know the temperatures will be warm - above 80 is very nice. Bil

Those crates fit pretty much perfectly in the basement. I use three plus some smaller containers from amazon to fill the space behind them (four milk crates wont fit). Those small ones I access from inside, while the milk crates are easily retrieved from the outside hatch. Electrical in one, hoses in the second and larger spare parts in the third. The small containers are for electrical bits, plumbing, nuts and bolts, and misc. repair parts. So generally I only get into the two milk crates that sit by the outside hatch. If I have to get to any of the others, something has gone wrong. Camping gear, first aid, tools and recovery gear go in the truck, since we might need that stuff when away from the trailer. Like Maniac said, a couple small crates in the back of the truck work great for storing chocks and stuff like that. The ones on amazon aren’t as well made as what we used to procure from behind the grocery when in college. I’ve broken two of the handles on mine already. I wish I could find some of the old wire ones.

Interesting specifications. I would be concerned pulling an Ollie E2 with only 260 lf-ft and a 20 gallon tank. Hopefully the diesel version will remedy these low numbers.

We tie a light line (rope) to the crate to pull the crates out. We have an extendable boat hook we use to push them in. The boat hook has the double benefit of being able to screw on a brush to wash the Oliver with. You might want to consider having at least one standard milk crate. A 20 or 30 lb. LP tank will fit in there securely. The crate keeps the tank from rolling around when you take them to refill.

What a great way to score some Father/Daughter time!

EZE rvgutter, a available at campingworld ( on sale right now) or amazon, is what we use. Get the bright white, not the colonial. Sherry

Just today I installed this one in the OOII. It has 8 sensors and I put them all over the place. 1-Outside under the propane cover (I've had another one there for years and it has worked out fine) 2-Inside the fridge 3-On the water heater tank and covered with styrofoam insulation. I intend for this to tell me how hot the water is so I don't run the water heater excessively. 4-In the Bathroom, up high on the wall just right of the door. 5-Inside the Upper rear Cabinet. 6-In the rear basement by the incoming water plumbing. 7-In the front basement under the dinette by the black valve. 8-TBD, I may put it by the water pump or I may install it inside the cabin. There's already two other thermometers inside, one in a digital clock and one inside the remote for the Maxxfan so I really don't know what I'll do with the last one. All these wireless sensors provide temp, humidity, and heat index to a common monitor. I stuck them all up with command strips. This unit is also available with three and five sensors if you're not as big a believer in overkill as I am!

Now that's a view! On my bucket list.

So, did you get much chipping around the edges of your guards? Have you considered getting the vulnerable areas sprayed with a commercial quality bed liner instead? Your choice of a soft material has the benefit of dampening the ricochet effect of stones, so they don't bounce off quite so hard. How did the frame and axles hold up to all that gravel? I have thought about hanging two or more 1/8 inch rubber (mudflap material) strips right across the width of the frame, in several locations, to knock down airborne stones. I have not heard of non-residue duct tape, can you elaborate? How do you think a Stone Stomper tongue net would have worked in your situation? Did you get much damage to the back of your truck, or see much gravel on top of the bumper? Sorry for all the questions. I am on a never ending quest to reduce gravel damage to both TV and trailer..... Thanks for the commentary. John Davies Spokane WA