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Like many, we started with more than we needed, and also find we don't have a few things we could use. My suggestion, start with your best guess, spend a week or so out in your Oliver, with and without hook-ups, and you will discover your needs. Don't worry about weight, I doubt you could fill it up enough to exceed the weight limits. As JD stated:"Storage space is more of a concern than weight, the Ollies all have a great payload. They are like little bullet proof tanks". After repeated uses, you will continue to refine what perfect is.... We have been out - exploring the western US for the last month and a half - mostly off grid, small NFS and the like, and what I've discovered is this: The Ollie design and execution works very well for camping - anywhere. Off -grid - with the composting toilet, and solar - we don't need fancy campgrounds and hook-ups. And arriving and leaving your stop for the day/days is a simple hook up, and go. It fits almost anywhere, planning for the next stay is very simple, we made one reservation the last 40 days..... and it wasn't needed after all. However, you must plan for the fri and sat stays, get your fcfs spot and stay for two nights, Sundays and the rest usually worked out well. Pots, pans, don't need many. The Magma stuff is good, but we just take the few we need from the home kitchen, as for all the utensils, misc. other stuff - it is your choice to finesse. We have a crock pot, and a drip coffee maker, for those few times we are on shore power, and a stove top perk coffee and the Dutch ovens for the times I feel like biscuits, or some sort of cool meal. I also carry my old trusty propane cooktop for the pleasure of the big breakfasts day - bacon outdoors is a priceless smell. Webber "Q" with propane hose and conversion/elimination of the regulator - priceless. The Webber exceeds my expectations - a rare thing. We use it almost every day. Don't think we ate out once, except for a breakfast/coffee when actually traveling. Buy a camping "carpet" - keeps a lot of dirt, and such out of the Ollies, we use one of the medium ones, and a few small throw rugs at steps, and inside. I store a lot of stuff in the truck/TV, extra water (7 gal), grill, chairs, ez-up, tools, Dutch ovens, charcoal for them, and such. The Glamping accessories. Enjoy, explore, gloat - repeat. (I felt a little guilty - all the comforts of home- amongst the other less fortunate campers) And for those BIG 5th wheels and motor coaches relegated to the large cosmopolitan campgrounds, why bother. You do not need a gen set - unless you don't have solar - or you need the AC. I may indeed purchase the smaller Honda just for AC when we are NOT at altitude in the summer. I hate, well dislike, the cramped spots in the proper shore power campgrounds, not to mention the $$ for such little electric. And boondocking with temps above 90 at night is not agreeable…. RB

We are up for a Texas Hill Country micro-Rally for sure, sounds like a lot fun, to quote Willie Nelson - just can't wait to get on the road again. Our schedule to pick up the trailer has veered off plan a bit. Our tv developed a mechanical problem and it may be fixed today or possibly on Friday, so we have missed our original pick up date. The factory has been very accommodating with scheduling and all is well. Probably just as well as the jet lag was a bit worse than we expected. We currently in Cullman AL. Craig

My search for a travel trailer began when my wife saw a Casita in our neighborhood while on a walk. The Casita steered me to Oliver after a few weeks. i have been in the Furniture business for 45 years starting with Antiques and quickly moving to Antique Reproductions of solid oak Like round Oak tables and Roll Top Desks. For 25 years we only sold Furniture we could guarantee for a lifetime. When I buy things that is what I look to buy. My first factory visit April 2017 Anita told me about Viking Fiberglass propane tanks. I investigated and purchased two of Vikings biggest tanks. They weigh half as much,last 5 or 10 times longer and you can see how much is in the tank. When I went to pick up our Oliver Elite II #266 in October 2017 Anita had turned anti Propane tanks. A Tennessee company Lite Cylinders made 55,000 defective tanks they were to recall but they went bankrupt. Viking tanks are certified in over 130 countries. They are so much easier to lift in and out of the Oliver Propane housing. I have been moving heavy furniture for 45 years but most people haven’t and most of the girls aren’t heavy weight lifters. They do cost more. The 22lb cost me $299 landed for a pair.

Attached you will find some of the documents from the Rally last month. You can download the following PowerPoint Presentations from Google Drive. Camping for Dummies: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rxnkwYLQUtrpQ58Ikc-kfI1aRTCrEK8G/view?usp=sharing History of Molded Fiberglass by Ian Giles: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LvezYWimCBAZIQDAFEIT7_dOqr-9flV7/view?usp=sharing 2019-OTTOR-Anodes-Workshop-Handout.pdf Truma-Cheat-Sheet.pdf Truma_Decalcification_Full-100-color.pdf Truma_Maintenance-and-Winterization-100-color.pdf Truma-AquaGo-Comfort-and-Comfort-Plus-Control-Panel.pdf Medical-History-Forms.pdf End-of-Life-Workshops.pdf

Thanks John. As for the Canyon, VERY pleased with the decision; I think it is the perfect TV for my needs; More than adequate power for my setup. Max Combined GVW is 13,700: Ready to go with full fresh water tank I am looking at around 10,000 CGVW. Fuel mileage is phenomenal for a pickup (34+/- without the Ollie and 22+/- towing). Venturing west of the Mississippi I am sure the mileage will take a hit. No plans to do that anytime soon. No this is not a commercial for the Canyon! I had a Honda Ridgeline, nice truck but NOT stout enough for duty with an Oliver. Thanks for asking.

John - this was VERY helpful. Thank you! Knew i could count on you all for some great advice - thanks again!

The Wonder Egg (Legacy Elite #14) weighs just under 4000 lbs fully loaded with water and clothes & food for extended camping. I have about 90 lbs in the back for my bike hitch, bike rack, and bike - no basket on the front. My current tongue weight is 400 lbs. Without the hitch/rack/bike hanging out the back, it is 440 lbs Although the Wonder Egg's axle has a max load of 5200 lbs, I could never imagine stuffing another 1000 lbs of gear into the trailer.

Those comments are probably completely dry weight. Your 500 lb tongue, at 10 to 15%, means your loaded weight should roughly be between 3400 and 5000 lbs. I think 5000 is the gvwr of the elite. I know our tongue weight is somewhere around 400 or 420 loaded for camping, with propane and some fresh and grey water. What are you carrying on the tongue, or storing far forward? Do you have a basket on the tongue? Is your trailer towing pretty level, or down on the tongue? I'm curious, because I don't think our older trailers are any lighter than the new Elites. Sherry

I agree that what you pack depends on how you camp. We rarely eat at restaurants. We grill most of the time and so I have a Weber Q1000 gas grill and a small Weber charcoal grill. We have a couple of pots and a medium size pan and that’s about it. Sometimes we take the instant pot but it rides in the truck, we’ve made chili on a rainy day more than a few times. We carry less now than when we picked up, so I’d go light and add as you see what your style is. Mike

The Magna sets are super nice but bulky and rather heavy. We have been using a cheap aluminum nesting camp set that is super light and works well enough. I think a toaster is more important than a fancy chef’s cook set ;) But these are all very personal choices, get what makes you happiest. Storage space is more of a concern than weight, the Ollies all have a great payload. They are like little bullet proof tanks. Consider a small HEPA air filter if you camp in the west, to take care of smoke particles, plus a generator if you need to run your AC off-grid. And an outdoor grill, either a propane one connected to your Ollie, or a Cobb charcoal model. .... https://cobbgrillamerica.com/collections/portable-grill Enjoy your new toy, please post pics. John Davies Spokane WA

The bases are much larger diameter than steel bases, so you would have to buy the Viking double mount for $40. You would also need to lock them, which I don’t bother doing with cheap ones. John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks for posting. Two full 22 lb Viking bottles would weight about 32 pounds less than my two full 30 lb steel bottles. (A 30 lb steel bottle weighs about 25 pounds empty.) I have been trying to get my tongue weight down and this would be one way to do it. Of course I could always go with two 20 pound steel cans .... that would give a similar weight reduction, with a slightly lower propane capacity, but without the high cost or sex appeal of the ‘glass ones.... Steel bottles have to be recertified at 12 years and then every 5. They don’t have a certain life expectancy, they just rust out at some point. Any propane supplier like Amerigas can do it in a day. The Viking bottles have a 15 year life, BUT they have to be recertified every 5 years from the date of manufacture, and only at specific shops. The closest one to me is 225 miles away..... I guess you could empty them and ship them. Since they are bulky it would probably cost $30 each way. I have no idea what the cost of recertifying is for either type. https://www.vikingcylinders.com/support/find-requalifier/ I used to have a 4500 psi carbon fiber compressed air tank, for a PCP air rifle, it had similar specs to the Viking tanks. And similar problems with getting it recertified. For most people these limitations and the very high cost (you can buy a new steel 30 pounder on eBay for $37 shipped) don’t make any sense at all, unless want to see the fluid level, or you want to be way cooler than your neighbors at the KOA.... John Davies Spokane WA

We are picking up OTT 483 at the factory tomorrow then staying 4 nights at Davy Crockett campground. We've been anticipating pick up for a while now and are excited to get started. This forum has been a great help to us and a big thank you is in order to you folks who regularly share information and offer valuable advice. We are new RVers and in the spirit of helping someone else who may be new to this and picking up their trailer soon, we hope to post about our experience once we get back home to Louisville. Everything from the orientation to towing and backing (first time for us) to how the trailer and its components performed. Ed

Check the cotter pin, aka split pin, that keeps the step rod in place. There should also be a thick flat washer on the rod.

I can say that when I was researching trailers and when I first saw and understood the construction of the Ollie's steps is when I fully realized how superior this trailer is to the others.

No matter what power source you use, 30a shore power, generator or inverter/battery power, you should better understand power management. Your Oliver camper was designed with the 30amp power in mind so your factory installed components are designed to work within the constraints of 30 amps. The inverter option that we currently offer can provide about 15 amps of power to the 120v receptacles before it will max out and shut down. Generators can vary based on their rating but they will be constrained to the 30 amp max that the camper is designed for. How does this impact you or your style of camping? Campground Camping with 30a Shore Power What happens if you go over the 30 amps? The breaker will kick just like at home if you turn to many appliances on in a single room. This situation typically will only occur when you are plugging in high power demanding appliances or devices in the camper. Every appliance that you want to add to your camper should first be checked to see how many amps are required to power it. Many hair dryers can pull 1800 watts of power which will immediately take up about half of your available power. Add in a space heater and it may just put you over the limit. What this means is that you must be conscientious of what is plugged in and pulling power. The worst thing that could happen is it would kick the breaker and you would simply reset it and turn some things off that aren’t being used at the moment. Boondocking with Generator Power When you are connected to a generator power source you are limited within the 30 amps but also the max amp that the generator will put out. A typical 2000-watt generator will only supply 15-16 amps of power so this means the max power is limited to the generator and if you are demanding more than the generator can supply it will kick the breaker on the generator. The generator may continue to run but will not be supplying power into the camper. Some of the components in the camper like the Dometic Penguin II A/C will demand much of this power especially when the compressor engages (Start Phase). The optional MicroAir Easy Start does help to contain this short fast burst of power to about 11 amps but that is about 75% of what the 2000-watt generator supplies. Once the compressor moves into the run phase it requires less power and drops to about 9 amps. The compressor will continue to run until the cabin temperature reaches the requested temperature on the thermostat. The compressor will then disengage or shut down. Once the cabin temperature drops below a certain threshold the compressor will once again enter the starting phase which requires 11 amps of power. This is where you may run into an issue that is normal. You may have a coffee maker running or a laptop plugged in or a combination of any other type of added appliance that under the compressor running stage falls just under the max 15-16 amps provided by the generator but when the compressor re-enters the starting phase it can cause it to jump over the max long enough to kick the breaker on the generator. No worries, all you need to do is practice power management and unplug something temporarily and reset the breaker. TIP: When using a generator, the surge protector may see it as an ungrounded power supply and stop all power from entering the camper. The best resolution for this is to plug in a neutral ground plug into the 120v receptacle on the generator. Boondocking with the Inverter The optional inverter is a 2000-watt Xantrex inverter but it actually only supplies about 1800 watts of power. If you remember from earlier, we mentioned that many hair dryers require 1800 watts of power. Power hungry appliances they are! This means you are even more limited to what you can use at the same time or even by itself. The inverter is connected to the 120v receptacles and also the microwave. The microwave by itself will pull most of the power supplied by the inverter so when running the microwave on inverter power be sure not to have other things plugged in and running. Also keep in mind that the inverter is dependent on battery power. The inverter pulls battery power and converts it into 120v power. So, with this option you must manage both the available battery power and inverter power. For instance, the microwave under 120v power uses 12 amps but the converted rate from 12v battery to 120v through the inverter actually means you are using about 135 amps. Has this gotten a bit confusing yet? Putting it simply, you manage the 12 amps required by the microwave from 120v to the available amps of 15 amps provided by the inverter. With the 135 amps you simply need to know that this is draining the batteries at a much faster rate as they cannot sustain that rate of power consumption for too long before loss of 12v power would occur. However, the inverter will shut down before total power loss from the 12v battery system will occur as it requires at least 10.5v for it to operate. The good news is that the microwave is usually only used for short periods of time. You would however want to apply this way of thinking to other appliances that you may want to use while on inverter power so that you better manage the available power.