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Tom, Here are the weights for our 2015 LE2 measured under each wheel individually and under the tongue. Five separate measurements with a certified scale, by Frederick at Bullards Beach, Oregon, last year. I am surprised that the rear axle is carrying more weight since it's an equalizer suspension system. I'm puzzled that the right rear is 325 lbs heavier than the right front. Also interesting is the galley side is heavier than the battery side. We were set up and camping on a level surface with some gear not in the trailer (approx. 200 lbs) and the tanks about 1/2 full. We have the (4) flooded cell Trojan T-105 bats, and two 30 lb propane tanks, about 1/2 full. Six gallon water heater also full. No solar on the roof. Left Front 1,155 Total left side 2,385 Right Front 1,160 Total right side 2,645 Left Rear 1,230 Difference right to left 260 heavier on the galley side Right Rear 1,485 Tongue weight with all gear aboard approx 10% average. Tongue 570 Total 5,600

Oliver vs Unimog, Angel’s Peak BLM campground south of Farmington NM. Nice couple from the Netherlands touring north and South America. Great free campground about 6 miles down a well maintained gravel road. Nine sites, I think, most of which are better separated than these two. But these are the two with a view so it’s a decent trade. On the other hand, the wind is gusting to 40 now so after a quick hike we’re hunkered down inside. Maybe the wind will blow all this dust off...

John D: I have enjoyed your "How To" on the efforts to protect the Mouse. Craftsmanship is supreme, and it certainly keeps a ton of potential damage away from your hull. Again, thank you for posting the additional pictures. After last summer's trans USA tour with our Ollie, I saw the light when I found road spray/grime on the front left and right side of the trailer. I know I need better protection than what I had. As a result, for some time I have wanted to ask you about your systems: A I was wondering what aerodynamic impact you have felt as a result of the installation of your system? B. It would be really fun to see pictures of it from the side at highway speed! Hopefully to assess the turbulent airflow impacts on the mud flaps. This would be helpful so as to: Gauge the probable angle of deflection of debris as it travels down the underside of the trailer. Optimize location of the flaps at speed. Assess the effectiveness of the as weighted flaps at speed. Possibly to optimize the hang angle by increasing/decreasing the lower edge weighting. Over time, I will emulate some, if not all of the systems you have so painstakingly designed, fabricated and installed. Thank you for doing so and for sharing the details in the "How To" section of our forum! Unfortunately, it is very likely that my efforts will be over several years. Would it be possible for you to rank order the systems installed or purchased (Stone Stomper)? By doing so, I can emulate your efforts in the order of most effective first. Stone Stomper Gravel Guard under the tongue of the Mouse. Truck rear tire mud guards Stone Guard in front of the Mouse step. Transverse stone guard behind the steps and in front of the twin axles Trailer rear mud guards Other? John I again thank you for your efforts here on the Oliver Forum. You consistently offer from the heart advice and many good ideas. Geronimo John

This is an easy and rewarding mod, and a lot of fun. I wanted to add some brightness to my new rear cargo rack and a couple of other places, and some non-skid material near the emergency exit. That last area should have tape there from the factory. Exiting out through the window, across the spare tire and any bikes or other cargo is risky enough, and then you have to step across a possibly wet and slippery bumper. Ouch... There are endless sources of inexpensive low-grade reflective tape but I chose the real deal, the commercial 3M "Conspicuity Tape" that is used on semi truck trailers. It is available locally but you probably have to buy it in 150 ft rolls for up to $250! Here you can get various widths in smaller lengths at a about a buck per foot. If applied properly it has a ten year life expectancy. I bought 15 ft of red and yellow in the 1" width. Shipping was $7.53. You should buy the correct width that is "edge sealed" ... don't buy a wider strip thinking you can cut it lengthwise since the cut will allow dirt into the cells of the material. Sealed edges prevent that, you only get some dirt in your cut ends. https://www.identi-tape.com/3M-conspicuity.htm [attachment file=3M Conspicuity Tape Instructioins.pdf] A smooth and clean surface is important. I sanded lightly with 360 grit sandpaper and cleaned with 3M General Purpose Adhesive Cleaner. Good stuff. I used regular 2" Gorilla black non-skid tape from Home Depot for the tops of the surfaces in back. Round the corners a little so the patches look neat and there is less likelihood of them lifting. I used a fresh clean roll of 1" masking tape to make guide lines. Don't use an old roll with dirty edges since it can contaminate the area with oils. Rollers are helpful but not necessary. Just make sure the colored and black tape is really pushed down hard. Here are ambient and flash pics of the areas I taped. Notice that the teeny round factory installed reflectors are quite bright, but they are very low down and possibly obscured by a rack or bikes. The tail lights don't reflect much at all. I was surprised by that. If you use a pressure washer be really careful around the tape, it is rated for 1200 psi at a foot distance. Don't get too close. I'll add some outside and night time pics later. I took my time and it was done in about 90 minutes. It was fun. Highly recommended! John Davies Spokane WA 3M-Conspicuity-Tape-Instructioins.pdf

We got the antenna and the cell booster. We don’t watch TV much, but have used the antenna occasionally for local news/weather. The cell booster has come in handy when we’re “out there” somewhere with a weak signal. You have to be close to the inside antenna for the full effect. If there is really something we want to watch on TV (usually sports) and have LTE we stream from an iPhone. I also installed a Sirius/XM receiver that is tied into our Furrion so we get all our news, sports and music channels audio wherever we are. Mike

Paula, this might interest you. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/how-to-garmin-inreach-powered-mount/ John Davies Spokane WA

I concur with Bill. On our maiden voyage with the Ollie we took a lot of back roads through Tennessee and then Missouri exploring the Ozarks and stuff, which was awesome by the way. But after a couple days of windy narrow undivided roads with no shoulder to speak of, semis coming the other way in the rain, cross traffic, etc, getting back on the interstate at Kansas City was a huge relief. I did not find towing on I-70 to be stressful at all. Took I-40 to California this past winter, no problems there either. Much less draining to drive on the interstate versus back roads. My recommendation would be to not avoid interstates completely. Certainly take your time, get off and see things, spend a day or two on back roads. But consider not doing back roads for the majority of your trip.

Cell booster definitely, it can mean the difference between making a call or not, it “can” be really effective in fringe areas. Not always. You need to be in line of sight with the transmitter. You can set a phone or other device under it and use that as a Wifi Hotspot for everybody in the trailer but don’t try to stream video. Verizon is the very best choice for the West, but it couldn’t hurt to have a second phone with a different provider, as long as they use different towers. Check the signal maps, see if they are different. Second awning, meh, I rarely deploy our curbside one, due to wild winds out west. They can really shake the trailer since the canvas acts as a sail, and they spring up unexpectedly so you can’t go on a hike with it out. They are indeed totally unpredictable in some locations, sometimes a fierce williwaw will appear and then be gone minutes later. TV antenna, your choice. I get news via Internet when it’s available and just do without the rest of the time. I don’t need to know the latest political scandal when I am off grid. Movies are done by dvd in the laptop or by downloading stuff by Wifi from Amazon Prime for offline viewing. The latter is most excellent if you have enough storage on your ipad or whatever. The TV was removed the day we got home and has been in storage ever since.... I do suggest a Garmin inReach to communicate with family and for dire emergencies. When there is no cell signal it is always comforting for everyone to be able to send a simple “everything OK, stopped for the night” message to your kids, and they can see your position on your inReach Public Portal map. And since it is a true two way communicator you can message your family to mow the lawn, or rescuers with details about your emergency situation. Way better than a SPOT. John Davies Spokane WA

Yikes, I agree, that looks very much like a cavity behind the gelcoat which should not be there. Start a service request with the Mother Ship and get a local fiberglass repair specialist, such as a marine yard NOT a kludgy RV dealer, to evaluate at it. Hopefully “cross fingers” it is very localized and not indicative of a bigger problem. I definitely would not ignore it. Gelcoat by itself has very little strength. You need to make sure that water and debris does not start to collect in there. BTW rock strikes can occur in the strangest places due to ricocheting off axles, frame or bumpers. They can even shatter rear hatch glass on the TV. And they occur on fine paved highways as well as on gravel roads. On a road around construction areas (new home building and road repair in particular) it is often a bit of metal like a bolt or a small tool which can really poke a hole... in a tire or in the trailer. I pulled a 3/8” allen wrench out of a tire one time! The key is to slow the rocks down by absorbing energy, and directing them back toward the ground. This is real overkill for most Ollie owners but it is extremely effective. I call it Chaos Management. Good luck. John Davies Spokane WA

1. I've used ours a lot, it's nice to be able to sit outside on either side, sometimes curb side is the parking lot, driveway, other people etc and street side is wilderness. On a side note, I'm near Winnipesaukee if you'd like to stop by and sit around it and decide on things with no pressure. PM me 2. We have it and have never used it. I use my phone and YouTube TV for TV and local news. 3. We have it and have used it a few times, it works really well for what it does, been in a no bars coverage area and turned it on and had 3 out of 4 bars 4G

I'll dig out the record tomorrow and post it.

I'm on board with KountryKamper. Have the same set up. Due to wind, I use our curb side awning sparingly. During storms, I retract it leaving about 42" exposed (at a high angle) as a rain shield so that we have a dry zone at the entry side. I use the Anderson Hitch as an anchor, centered up under the middle of the awning with two 550 Para-Cord lines up in a "V"shape to the awning. These lines are tight so that any uplift is first seen against the dead weight. If really strong winds are in order, I fill two five gallon buckets with water and dead weight them against the awning at the top of the two poles. If I had extra cash to burn, I would not get a second one. But if it showed up on my trailer, I would likely only use it only to replicate the above to give a dry path to the basement and outside shower.

The antenna also works as a FM antenna for the radio. We use it a lot for both TV and radio and would suggest it. Also use the Cell booster and it works good. Usually adds 2 bars to our signal. We don't have to street side awning so can't help you there.

I've been a Good Sam Club member for almost 20 years mainly for the discount they give at Good Sam related commercial campgrounds. After being stiffed by AAA two times I switched to Good Sam's roadside assistance about six years ago. Of course, since the switch, I've not had to use them. However, any time I've had a question they have been quick to respond. The question as to are these extended warranties worth it depends on a bunch of factors. Most analyses that I've ever read claim that if you can afford to self insure you will be better off in the long run. However, if you are THAT person that happens to have a run of bad luck and happen to have purchased one of these insurance policies, you will sing their praises all day long. In the immortal words of Dirty Harry, "You've got to ask yourself a question: 'Do I feel lucky?' Well do you ….?" Bill

Per Bill's (Topgun2) recommendation I just switched to Duragloss products this year. I just finished inside and out last week and the trailer looks great. Time will tell how it holds up. Mixed 4 parts 923 to 1 part 952 in a spray bottle and did the inside using a microfiber cloth. Only took 15 minutes for the inside. The outside 501 is just like waxing with any other wax except I did wipe everything down a second time just to get a polished look. So far I am very happy with it. [attachment file=20190318_114259(1).jpg]

We found that we weren’t using the cupboards above the dinette very efficiently, since some of the things we were storing there were not very tall. We solved this by buying two of these wire shelves, one for each of the two cupboards above the dinette. Before we got Ollie we were advised to get refrigerator bars such as these, to prevent stuff from falling out when the fridge door was opened. We found that stuff in the pantry shifted around during transit, and so we got some spring-loaded bars double bars for the pantry. We had put heavier stuff on the bottom shelf of the pantry, but things just moved fore and aft during transit, sometimes making a mess. I found the fruit box from the Farmer’s Market fit perfectly, and I could stack canned beers or soda two high in the box to optimize space usage, and they would not shift during transit. But the pantry bars were not enough. The major problem was not being able to maximize the use of vertical space in the pantry. I measured both the available space and the size of the opening at the pantry door, and then went virtual shopping at Amazon and the Container Store, looking at dimensions posted on the web sites. I ended up getting these Wire Storage Organizer Baskets from Amazon. They fit perfectly. GrumbleandTwist put an Ikea bag under the front dinette seat. I wanted something with a solid bottom and sides, as we wanted to carry our pressure cooker in this storage area. So I measured the space and again searched at Amazon and the Container Store. The problem was that bins large enough to use the space effectively are too big to fit through the opening. And then I had an inspiration. Have you ever seen InstaCrates, these collapsible storage bins? We got them at Costco for $7 each, and they are available at Amazon and Walmart for $12-14. We use them when organizing for our trip (foods or clothes), and to carry stuff out to the trailer. At the end of the trailer trip, we bring a bunch of collapsed InstaCrates out to the trailer and use them to carry stuff into the house. We love them. Well, I discovered that the collapsed InstaCrate will fit through the opening into the storage area under the dinette seat, and then I can open it up when it is inside the storage compartment. It works well for our needs.

We've been full timing in our Oliver since Nov of 2017. Here are some pics of storage solutions that work for us. It took a while living in the Ollie to really determine how we would use the space so I would caution you to give yourself some time. [attachment file=0311191047.jpg] [attachment file=163145] [attachment file=163148]