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Sorry for the delay. Yes, we are on the road and I'll post some pix when I get a chance. Last night was incredible! The Texas panhandle between Amarillo and Erik Oklahoma. Twelve tornadoes reported. Extremely heavy rain and hail. Continuous lightening for many hours. People parked under overpasses. A semi blown over. And we were tooling along in the darkness. Excellent! Love it! We stopped at the rest stop at Erik, OK and it was full of trucks ducking out of the chaos. I was wondering how strong the wind would get and if Ollie might get blown over. A lot of it was a cross-wind, and it was pushing us around. My 1 ton Ram/Cummins is about as stable as they get, but still....... Ollie was a real trooper and just followed along totally stable with no sway control. We could not hope for a more stable design! After we stopped for the night, water was sheeting down the windows as Ollie rocked from the gusts. I sat, with a glass of wine and smiling, while looking out the widows at the proceedings. Too loud in here to talk comfortably. Then the power at the rest stop went out. This morning, Ollie and the truck are nice and clean. We'll press on to Big Piney Rest Stop in Arkansas tonight and then to Florence Alabama for a couple of days on the Tennessee river next to Muscle Shoals. It took us a couple days to get out of Nevada with a stop at Valley of Fire, east of Las Vegas and some on-line business. But now were cranking out about 450 -550 miles per day. Had to stop at Meteor Crater for another look and at Rudy's Texas Bar-B-Que in Amarillo. Fuel is getting gradually cheaper as we go east. Still getting water up into the shower pan each day and don't know why. The gate valve is closed, we haven't used the bath sink and the pop-up drain is down. Oh well. See you guys soon! John

[attachment file=170538] Santa and Mrs. are safe from our return from Howenwald! ❤️??

It's been a long wait but we finally picked up hull #414. It was produced in Dec and was in fact the last 2018 made. The delay was at our request due to the need for a hip replacement combined with winter weather; forcing us to wait till now to take advantage of our new home on wheels. Here are a couple of pics and we look beat but I think everyone does by the time they spend all day going over their units but it was well worth the wait. We camped at David Crockett State Park for three nights and then headed back to VA stopping in Christiansburg at a winery to spend the night, taking her home on Monday. Looking forward to seeing everyone at the rally and expect to learn a lot more while there. (Not sure why the one pic is turned sideways. It was that way when I imported it.) Can't find the rotate option either. Paul & Donna

You could also purchase a trailer ramp for changing flat tires no jack needed.

I've had a bit of difficulty posting a "welcome" given I've been on the road a bit. But, better late than never? I'm not sure that knowing my new Oliver was completed I could wait months to pick it up. However, now that you have it you can proceed to start adding even more things. See you at the Rally! Bill

Good to see you got your trailer and all is well, our hull number is 489, setup for July 8th delivery. Did you stay local for a night or two, they have set us up a Dave Crockett State Park. trainman

Sorry, just saw this. That sounds great. When I replaced the suspension/greased the bearings (level in driveway), I'd forgotten the inner seal (1st time doing) and it was up on its jacks for more than 24 hours, without wheels, no problems, as a precaution I lowered it to it's lowest level and placed lumber cornerways under the rear frame (just in case). In my opinion, placing any kind of jack under an Ollie would be more of an emergency situation, than what I did above.

Great pictures! See you in Alabama... Mike

Oh yeah, I did forget to mention that! The main and eyebrow circuit boards. These had been replaced several times but apparently Dometic buys these from lowest bidder. They sometimes don’t communicate correctly or are overly sensitive to incoming power etc.? There was one Dometic tech who understood the situation and was able to really think about the problem and knew that they had a set of perfectly matched boards. These seemed to work. Can’t really explain “electromagic” ! Anyway, thanks to everyone for the input along the way.

See you at the Rally! Congratulations!

Congrats.

Monday in The Valley of Fire, east of Las Vegas. On our way to Guntersville.

@Try2Relax: I agree on the Jacks. My practice is to leave Ollie attached to my tug. I make sure it is in park and the truck emergency brake is set and exit the vehicle and LOCK IT. I then take my chocks and put them on the tug. By having the bulldog fully engaged, and my tug chocked, I know that the trailer/Tug are NOT going to move. I then use both of my rear trailer jacks to raise the trailer in a level manner. Other than violate the current owner's manual on this topic, do you see any other "Gotcha's" that I may be missing? Thank you,

Of course you know that you don't have to be owners (yet) in order to attend. You sure could get a great head start on knowing about your new Oliver at the Rally and you'd have some fun while doing it too. Bill

That is an excellent question John. The two older ones will not be sleeping in the trailer. Our kids are home bodies who would stay inside all day and night if given the chance. We have been renting trailers on and off for a number of years and found the smaller trailer makes it easier to encourage them to spend more time outside. Not to mention storage space at home precludes a trailer that is much larger/wider without ponying up a ton of money to store elsewhere. I come from along line of tent campers and that is where the kids will be on our camping trips. That also means more quality husband and wife time separate from the kids ;) Richard

Don, Sorry to hear about the woes of your travel experience up this way. I feel your pain! FWIW, this is not a new situation with fires in just the last couple of years. I've lived in Montana for over 40 years and yes there were always threats of fires and a few cropped up from time to time, probably the most famous being the Yellowstone fires of 1988 but even that was unusual in those days. I used to live here for the summers, certainly not the winters, having frost bitten my feet a couple of times with long cross country ski trips. Anymore summers are a season of dread, I'm dead serious about this. Air quality here in SW Montana is awful now although our fire season started considerably later than all of our neighboring states, mostly due to the extreme winter we had with heavy snow. But we get smoke from fires in other states as far away as CA, NV, OR and or WA and others. What I am getting to is we have been experiencing wide spread western fire seasons such as this for what has to be a decade ± a year or so by now, and doubt there will be much of an end to it anytime soon if ever. I can understand those who want to come earlier (May & June), and you can certainly do that but understand there will still be lots of snow in the mountains meaning hiking becomes very difficult if not impossible unless you're an extremist. For active people you might end up with a windshield tour of the area rather than a true outdoor adventure unfortunately. Weather can also be highly unpredictable during these months too. Its not at all uncommon to experience 1-3 foot blizzards and snowstorms during April and May, (they are a given in Mar-Apr) here in Bozeman at just under a mile high. I have photographs to prove it too. But on a good year May and early June can be downright gorgeous with snow capped peaks and green grass and fields that defy the imagination. Just don't expect to bag too many peaks during this time. Lower elevation cycling is generally good however during this period, albeit a bit brisk and chilly at times. Come prepared. Feel free to contact me directly for any future trips, be glad to provide an on the ground report. Hope this helps, but probably not too encouraging.

Agreed, my last two summers have been pretty much ruined by the beginning of August. Visibility has been horrible. I have smoke and dust allergies too, so I cannot stay outdoors very long when the particle count is above 75. Thank goodness for room HEPA filters. Another thing to be VERY conscious of when rough camping is to never stay in a dead end campground. Pick one with at least two ways out, preferaby in different directions. They need to be routes that you can tow your Ollie over. It would really ruin your vacation to be incinerated, or to be helicoptered out and leave your truck and trailer behind to burn up..... I am not kidding, this is important around the West when you are in dry and brushy timberlands and desert. A SPOT or preferably an inReach should be part of your emergency gear, and keep it turned on and in a handy location, not buried in some storage compartment. Within easy grasp of the driver is best, in case you are trapped in the front seat. I keep a small hydropack with my inReach hanging behind the driver seat, it seems to keep a good satellite lock in that location, and I keep the inReach running when I grab the pack for a short hike. Speaking of packs, you should have a sizeable, well equipped bugout bag with water pouches, purifier, food bars, bear spray and/ or big-bore firearm, first aid kit, firestarter, space blanket and the minimum gear you need to survive outdoors for at least a couple of nights. My big “carry” BO pack is in the back of the truck, along with extra emergency stuff in a bright red duffle, and an extensive med kit.... Stay aware, prepared and safe. John Davies Spokane WA

I have the Truma AquaGo and I also have a shower curtain rod on the wall with the bathroom door. I have opened the bathroom door somewhat to allow AC air into the bath. The vent fan does a nice job of pulling the AC air in to the bath. The show curtain keeps. the main cabin dry. I can not say I linger in the shower, but the concept works for me. Might not work for others. Buzzy

Oliver trailers are designed to be lifted by their own jacks, the only caution would be lifting one too high on its own, so as to not twist the frame too much, so use both in the rear or all three as desired. The three built in jacks provide 9000lbs of lifting capacity (together). Oliver only warns against extended time on them, as in storage situations. I replaced my original Dexter setup out to EZFlex with the two rear jacks, no problem.