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Hello, I'm happy to find this Ollie forum. I'm dreaming of living full time in my Ollie. I'm a single woman, turning 70 this year. I'm happy to see this forum is here so I can here other's experiences and get some advice. Thanks for a member!

Good Morning, We are camped in our Oliver after making a trip to the Mothership yesterday. Last night, I tried to hook up the hdmi splinter that David (S) recommended. I wanted to see if I could use my cell phone as a mobile hotspot with my laptop to watch a movie on Amazon Prime displayed on the Furrio Television . It took me less than 5 minutes to make it happen. Thanks for the help from previous post. We are now jamming to Eric Church, Chris Janson and Luke Combs on youtube at David Crockett State Park at 5:30 am displayed on the television in a park with no wifi. Next stop Lake Guntersville. On by the way, I am not a techie. Usually a hammer, crescent wrench and a log spliter will cure most of my problems.

I have a V-10 6.8 L, 5R-110 tranny. Thirsty engine but robust. I wonder how the new 7.3 will compare? 288 hp, 4000 rpm, and 424 lb ft at 3000 rpm for a V-10. OK, maybe it will beat those numbers. Then the question is durability. 10 cylinders to spread the load over vs 8? It's hard to imagine anything more durable than a V-10. Oh well, only 150k on my V-10, and I'm just pulling an Ollie. It'll be a while before I need a new one.

Wow, UPS just dropped off a huge box on my front porch. I was just expecting them to send the fabric part of the blinds, not the whole thing frame and all. Kudos to AutoShade for top customer service.

Steph and Steve, I suggest you plan both the northern and southern Routes, and make final decisions based on weather forecasts. It sounds like your plan is to travel to TN as quickly as possible, and that means Interstates. The Interstates do have the best snow clearance after a storm. I do have another suggestion for you. We just traveled back to Utah from Southern California, and we were facing an impending snow storm. I searched for the Utah highway conditions, and found that the Utah Department of Transportation has a good Road Conditions website. They had a link to a smartphone app. We used this app on our drive, and it was AWESOME. (In my experience, iPhone apps are usually inferior to the web site, but in this case the phone app was much better.) The Map/Traffic view has links to all of the traffic cameras in the state, so you can get a live view whether the road has been plowed. The Map view has separate tabs for Traffic, Construction, Road Conditions, and Fx (Forecast, I think). We found the Fx/Forecast view to be extremely helpful, as it showed a forecast for road conditions in 3 hour blocks, presumably based on weather forecasts and anticipated snow plow activity. For example, midnight to 3 AM and 3 AM to 6 AM said driving conditions extremely difficult, 6 AM to 9 AM slushy road conditions, 9 AM to noon, road largely clear with occasional packed ice, and for the afternoon it said the road would be clear but wet. This information helped us tremendously on our drive. I figured other states might have similar apps, and I looked just now. I found apps for Idaho, Washington, Nevada, California, and Wyoming. I don't know if these apps are as good as the Utah one, but I am going to put all of them on my phone. Colorado DOT does not have an app any longer, but has a web site. Similarly, Oregon DOT no longer has an app, but there is a $2 third party app, and a rather clunky web site from the state DOT. Safe Travels!

Likely. I had the same happen just a few weeks ago. Fortunately I still had a tiny drip in the cold line so I just left the tap on until it cleared. Took maybe 20 minutes. Maybe try closing the two main cabin vents and run the furnace. That would get the maximum warm air through the duct in that corner and perhaps the area will warm up enough to thaw the line. Fortunately I don’t think there are any connections in the pex there, so you should be safe from damage. I wish there were an access hatch in the bottom of the closet - if so, it would be a cinch to thaw a frozen line in that corner with a hairdryer.

Steve and Steph: Welcome to the Oliver Family! I travel the northern path to get to Ruch, OR for the "Rat Race/Applegate Open" +/- Early/Mid June. I have done both routes and find that the "Southern Route" is pretty. Also slow in California, but really pretty up in the NE corner. The "Northern Route" has less drama and can be a a lot faster if you want to reduce stress and travel time. I would recommend going the Norther route via SLC to get TO OTT, then doing the Southern Route when going back to Oregon. Be sure to plan on a couple of days in the area of the factory so that you can take advantage of the great talents and info. Please tell Phil howdy from Geronimo!

This looks really promising for those owners who want a ton of low and midrange torque in a HD truck, but don’t want to go diesel.... I fit in that category. There are no power numbers yet but if it doesn’t make 525 ft lbs I would be really surprised. It will come with a new Super Duty 10 speed transmission. It is a two valve pushrod design for compact design and reliability, port injection instead of direct injection (no intake valve carbon problems) and it is designed to run under a heavy continuous load while producing decent fuel economy. This is one complaint of the smaller turbo engines - under heavy load they don’t provide great mpgs. This video goes into great detail about how the engine is designed; it is too way too much info if you are not a truck nerd. https://www.tfltruck.com/2019/02/heres-what-you-need-to-know-about-fords-new-7-3l-v8/ I have never been a Ford fan but if they came out with a 2500 competitor for the offroad Ram Power Wagon with this engine as an option, I would think really hard about it, for sure. John Davies Spokane WA

I just received a email with this link. I did not know it was getting a new transmission and heads up display. https://www.gmc.com/future-vehicles/2020-sierra-heavy-duty-truck?eVar36=MRM_eml_GMC_HR_T1XX_TR_0119_15679953022

I do everything possible to avoid huge metro areas like Denver and especially SLC which has nightmare 85 mph traffic. This is the route I would select, it is the same distance as the more direct northerly route through SLC but is only a couple of hours longer.... https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Jacksonville,+Oregon+97530/Las+Vegas,+NV/Hohenwald,+TN/@38.5453303,-105.2595069,4z/data=!4m11!4m10!1m2!1m1!1s0x54cf9c601d18ecf1:0xe8c70a05ce75c30!1m2!1m1!1s0x80beb782a4f57dd1:0x3accd5e6d5b379a3!1m2!1m1!1s0x887cb566fbeef5f3:0xc7adb44e4de67696!3e0 When you come back with your new Ollie it will be less snowy up high and you can do some exploring on your way back, I suggest western CO and southern UT especially. If you will tell us what you like to do, we can offer suggestions. Have fun and take lots of pictures. John Davies Spokane WA

It may depend on your comfort level. A may trip will be ok as far as weather, most of the snow and ice will be gone. You will always have good and bad weather days. As far as travel, Gps is always a sure way to get there direct, but mostly hi way driving. If you have the time. Most of the trip my wife and I took from Florida around the country was to ask people and campgrounds what routes to take between states great advice on scenic routes, back roads and secondary hi ways. And most of the time, the time frames came out the same. As long as you arrive safe and in good spirits that's all that matters. Safe travels.

These are really cool but like you said I wonder about integration with the Oliver. I had read about some of these when we were looking at new trucks last year but GM had some great year end close outs on the 2018 3/4 ton trucks and I figured it might be hard to get that kind of deal again. I think this is coming out on the 2020 models that they say are coming out this summer.

Well all right, I have some good news to report. I hooked up my Roku streaming stick (3600) and it works beautifully. The entire install took less than 20 minutes. Getting logged on and setup was about an hour and was a bit more frustrating, but got it figured out eventually. More tech savvy folks could probably do it faster. I ordered the Fosmon HDMI switch that DavidS referenced above. It's only 2" square. I also ordered an extra 3' HDMI cable to connect the Fosmon to the TV. I originally was going to install it in the overhead bin as there is a plug in there and easy access to the TV. After reading the instructions for the Roku, they mentioned for best results, not to place it inside a cabinet as this would reduce reception. I was also nervous about putting it in there anyway because of heat buildup and because we keep a lot of our clothing up there. So looking around, I decided to put it on the wall between the window and the TV. Fits perfect in there and is not so noticeable. It is also easy to switch between the Roku and the Furrion unit in this location. I velcroed it to the wall. Very solid. Hookup was easy once I got what was going on, thanks to posters here. Furrion (the HDMI that is currently connected to the TV) and Roku on the two input side . TV (the new cable I bought) on the output side. The Roku is powered by a USB cable that comes out of the end of the Roku and then plugs into the unused (thankfully) USB port on the TV. When the TV gets turned on, the Roku powers up. There is also a 120V adapter included if you want to power the Roku from a standard wall outlet for different locations. Can now play DVD when the Fosmon is switched to the Furrion (set TV remote>source>HDMI). Stream Netflix, Fosmon switched to Roku, (TV remote>source>HDMI). Or watch over air TV broadcasts via antenna, Fosmon switched to either Furrion or HDMI, doesn't seem to matter (TV remote>source>TV). All audio comes via the AV cables (on my rig) and was not affected by the add on whatsoever. One last thought. If you have the Wifi Ranger, you need to log in your Roku through this device with the password you created for it. Don't try using your home wifi password, it won't work. Thanks for everyone's help with this. If you're thinking about this add on, I would recommend it. We won't be watching much TV, if any, while boondocking, but when parked at home, and when at more "civilized" campgrounds, this will be a very nice option. Dave