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Cptdondo, you are smart to do the math. Your stated load rating seems qute low. What year is your truck? Older pickups can’t carry squat compared to newer ones. My ‘06 Ram 3500 5.9 Cummins SRW 4wd had only a 2800 lb rating. The Gen 4 trucks carry lots more weight. If you load down both passenger compartment AND the bed, your truck has little or no room for the tongue load. My suspicions about folks towing the Elite II with a light duty pickup are: They are solo or travel very lightly loaded. They are over gross and don’t care. They are over gross and don’t yet know it. If you get a trailer with all the bells and whistles and you want to travel with full tanks, lots of personal items, cast iron pots, ammo, generator, tools, bikes, etc etc, you won’t like the way your truck drives. So, you can try to keep the trailer as light as possible, use an Anderson hitch always, and worry about it constantly, or get a bigger truck, use a dead weight hitch and load her down heavy, no worries. It is a dilemma many prospective RV buyers face. I tow with a Land Cruiser 200 (8500 lbs max/ 850 lbs tongue) and know I am close to maxing out the truck, but OTH the vehicle is so grossly overbuilt that I know it will take the load without any issues. I personally would never try to tow with a half ton pickup truck with similar load ratings. I would worry about busting the rear drivetrain. I expect to hear some dissenting opinions. Welcome to the forum. John Davies Spokane WA

@ John D: I like your set-up. High and tight, out of the mud and not underfoot. With the gauge at the trailer, it also pretty much guarantees that you will not accidentally leave it on the faucet when you depart!

Thanks John. That pump is similar in capacity to the one I have. Since I keep my spares topped off and my tires inflated properly any non-junk compressor should work adequately well. The ones I'm considering would have an air reservoir to blow out window channels, etc. Since neither can operate an impact wrench, I'm beginning to think the differences between them are academic. BTW I bought a Viking jump pack the other day like you have. I'll probably keep it in my jeep since I have a 770 amp jump starter for my tow vehicle, a V10. Very impressed with the little Viking.

I have had a number of junky “emergency” compressors that never worked well, they either burned out, or they just were not strong enough to deliver the needed volume of air. I have been carrying this unit for several years and I like it a lot. It definitely isn’t as well built as the more expensive brands but it works great. For the price I think it is hard to beat. https://www.amazon.com/Smittybilt-2781-5-65-Universal-Compressor/dp/B004K25GMG I did swap out the fittings for regular quick disconnect ones, put a swivelling clipon air chuck on the end, and added a compact 25 ft x 1/4” hose for extra reach. I use it mostly for airing up the 33 inch truck tires after offroading. It takes about 60 seconds per tire to go from 25 to 35 psi. It slows down as the pressure rises, another minute gets them to 42. I give each tire a minute, then go to the next, then finish off. That way if the motor decides to take a dump there will hopefully be at least some air in all the tires so I can drive to a town. Or I can use my backup hand pump, the dinky mountain bike one I use for the airbags. Or maybe not ..... LOL. The pump uses heavy clips for attaching to your battery and you should run the engine while using the compressor. It draws a lot of amps and you need to keep the voltage up to make it run well. If airing up a trailer tire, which I have never had to do, I would pop open the battery drawer and connect the pump leads there. Did that help? Is there a reason you aren’t happy with the viair clone? Any of the battery powered pumps you mentioned won’t be any use on the road, they are meant for a trim carpenter driving small brads. Pshtttt pshtttt! You would just flatten the battery trying to get a lot of air out of them, and the cfm rating is WAY too low. John Davies Spokane WA

Unusual permanent colors and coatings should be avoided for several reasons, the main one being that if your trailer hull gets damaged it will be extremely difficult to match a wierd color or coating that has faded over time. Plus it would make the ‘glass repair much more labor intensive. The rougher bedliner coatings cannot be buffed out or protected easily by conventional waxes or magic potions like Rejex. Once you spray a bedliner on you are stuck with its appearance, good or bad. You can regularly apply a UV protectant like 303, but that is about it. I think anyone who has a sprayed in bedliner in their truck will agree with me that it is impossible to keep looking new. I agree that a vinyl wrap makes great sense if you want to add color to an appliance white Ollie....but I like my refrigerator just the way it is, with no side swoosh graphics, just the Oliver logo. John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks to each of you who responded for the help with my connector. With your help and the grace of God, I was on #10 east by 9:30 am. Currently traveling from South Texas to South Carolina.

Excellent point. Let me restate my effort as a desire to gather pictures showing the different ways people Oliver camp. As you rightly point out, a "Best Practice" is in the eye of the beholder, and circumstances certainly influence methods. Being a complete newbie, I am the least qualified to recognize a "Best Practice" when comes to Oliver camping. Hopefully the pictures will simply give me ideas and help me prepare my mind for this new experience. Another example (and picture) from a thread I will never be able to find again was a 30amp male connector attached to an inexpensive voltmeter and current checker meter (technical name) used to test shore power connections before connecting the Oliver. This picture represented one way to check shore power before hooking up the Oliver. I am sure there are other good ideas about safely connecting to shore power at campgrounds. These are the type pictures that will help me prepare for blastoff in April 2019.

Take some extra time and do it the way it should have been done at the factory.... http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/how-to-junction-box-for-trailer-harness-repair-or-extend-the-harness/ Good luck. John Davies Spokane WA

I'm guessing that since she doesn't want to change beds - a flashlight between the teeth is also out of the question?

You need to squeeze on the orange tabs underneath to release the drawer from the closing mechanism. If you want to know more, I believe the drawer closing mechanism is the Movento line from Blum. I was able to download some instructions from their website I have attached their instructions on Drawer Adjustments and Removal. [attachment file=Blum Adjustments and Removal.pdf] I also have found some videos, and .Blum-Adjustments-and-Removal.pdf

Check out our blog, https://travelswithollie.com. Blog posts are categorized by state/province. Hope you have a wonderful trip!