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Hi All - We just placed our order for an Elite II for a completion date of March 26. I was about to give up looking for a replacement for our Scamp that we have had for years, then came across Oliver. Somehow Oliver stayed below my radar screen, which was too bad since it is basically what I've been looking for. The resources on this forum and on youtube are great. A special shout out to DavidS who agreed to have us look at his Oliver. (It never happened because of the weather events before and after Thanksgiving.) He also provided some great insight on what add-ons he liked. Can wait to put it to use here and around western Wyoming. Best, Jason and Sonja

Hi guys and gals! Over the years in my career at Oliver Travel Trailers I have had the pleasure of meeting most of you. I read the forum and the owners Facebook page often and it is amazing to see so many of our veteran owners helping our "newbies" with their questions and concerns. I absolutely love this group of people and appreciate each and every one of you. We get so wrapped up in the business end of things here at the sales office and I don't know if we show our appreciation often enough for the many field visits that resulted in our clients buying Ollies or the expert advice given to the novice campers. So today, I say thank you from the bottom of my heart. I wish you all a happy holiday season and prosperous new year! - Phil

For sometime, my wife and I have been unhappy with sleeping on the cushions that come standard with Elite Travel Trailers, not to be confused with the larger Elite II, standard with mattresses. I purchased a single sized foam mattress but this too was unwieldy, not fitting either bed well. I had talked to other Oliver owners and was referred to Southern Mattress located in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. I contacted them and they indeed confirmed they would custom make a mattress for my Oliver Elite. My conundrum was how I could configure the mattress to access the components and storage areas under the seats. A full sized mattress would be just too much to lift and hold in place as I pulled out storage items, much less to try to work on a component (electrical, hydraulics, water, etc.). As I explained this to my wife telling her I wanted to split the mattress in half, she pointed out it would be very uncomfortable, sliding down in the crack. She said " split it where the bench ends, 1/3 and 2/3s. The crack will be at your knees and you will not feel it". I contacted Southern Mattress and they agreed to cut it where ever I wanted it cut. I traveled to Rocky Mount, North Carolina and found this to be a family owned company. I arrived in late afternoon and the owner took me to his home. There, we hooked up my trailer with electrical and water on a pad next to his home. The next morning I pulled my trailer to the factory and they began to make my mattress. With each step, they asked me to approve the work, include changes I wanted made, etc. they measured the trailer, made the pattern and asked if I wanted extra room to be able to put bed linens on the mattress. The pattern was a good fit for the 2/3 - 1/3 combination. In short, I was very pleased with the mattress. I selected a 5" firm foam with another layer of soft memory foam. That night, I had the best sleep ever in my Oliver Elite. I also had a mattress made for the smaller dinette/bed. I used the single sized foam mattress that I had purchased earlier in the year. Southern Mattress did not object to this. Again, they cut the foam to the 1/3-2/3 combination. Each matress was covered in a premium quality quilted cover, fire retardant and straps sewn in to make moving easy. The mattress was double sewn all the way around to reinforce the straps. By noon, I was on the road, headed home. That night, I slept for the first time very comfortably on my new custom-made mattress. It now slides over easily and stores on top of the other matress while I access the storage and component areas. If you are interested in a quality mattress, custom made, they now have patterns for both the Elite and the Elite II. They can custom make you a mattress and ship to you. They do not press the mattress in a roll. Rather they box the mattress and ship it to you. Southern Matress Company 1812 Cokey Road Rocky Mount , North Carolina. 800-227-8701 Below are pictures of my mattresses in my Oliver Elite. Coy

Paper Towel Holder Like many OTTO’s, I have had misgivings about drilling holes in our Ollie but I have slowly gotten over it. I have changed out my curb side porch lights and they required new mounting holes. Then I moved my television to the center position and as DavidS mentioned, that job was a big step in getting over the trepidation of drilling holes in fiberglass. So during our trip to the rally and Mississippi and Arkansas we camped without disconnecting the TV several times and since I had less to do setting up, I was often the first into the Ollie and I noticed paper towels unraveled and in the sink or on the floor. When I whined about it, Krunch said suck it up, it happens all the time. Little did I know living in the dark as I do. So the suction cup mounted paper towel holder had to go and I remembered Overland’s posting about the countertop extension and the subsequent postings about paper towel holders. Overland used this one and DavidS used this. I chose the Kamenstein because of DavidS's endorsement. It has a bottom that is pretty flat and it might work with VHB tape, but I was going to screw mount mine. There is a lot of good information in the forum about drilling fiberglass and using fasteners like this post. I have followed the advice of other OTTO's and I am using masking tape to mark my hole location and to minimize gelcoat damage. I mounted my new paper towel holder above the sink where the old suction cup mounted one was located. I started with an 1/8” pilot hole then used a countersink bit. Then used a 3/16” bit and the countersink bit again. And I finished with a 1/4” bit and the countersink bit again. Then I was off to the neighborhood Ace hardware store where I picked up 2- 2 1/2” #10 pan head bolts, 2-#10 fender washers and 2-#10 nylok nuts, all in stainless. And then I found the holy grail, stainless t-nuts. If those would work I wouldn’t need the nylok nuts, but I would need shorter bolts, so I picked up 2- 2" bolts. I was planning to use the pan head bolts inside the upper cabinets and the nylok nuts underneath the paper towel holder to reduce the rubber mat distortion inside the cabinet. With the t-nuts inside the cabinets there is barely a ripple. I did use the fender washers between the bolt head and the paper towel holder base to minimize the bolt penetration and thread lock on the bolts. Hope someone finds this useful. Mike

And I loved meeting you at the rally last May. You actually remembered my name everyday!! Blessings to you and your family!

One thing we found is that the adding a Lagun table with a foldable top transformed our twin bed area into a great multipurpose area. Having both the dinette and the ‘lounge’ is awesome - we never felt cramped in our Ollie but now it feels downright spacious. Swapping out our mattresses for cushions made a difference too.

Ahatter, like on any other forum you’ll find a lot of experts here who are dying to tell you what not to do with your trailer. As for the rest of us - get out there, do your thing, and report back. Preferably with pictures.

I drove I70 west through Denver and up and over the Rockies last March on a trip from Minnesota to Moab, Utah while towing our Elite II. Had to drop down to Kansas to avoid ice and snow in Nebraska. I70 was shut down to clear avalanches for an hour or so someplace around Silverthorne, CO. Parked next to lots snowmobile trailers in the CO mountain pass rest stops. There was packed snow and ice on the pass everywhere. The Oliver behaved itself and stayed back behind the truck where it belonged. This winter driving was in addition to a few trips towing in snow during hunting season in MN. Being from Minnesota I’ve driven on ice and snow my whole life. Towing the Oliver, or any travel trailer, in the winter isn’t exactly routine, but certainly possible. My 200 series Land Cruiser had AT tires at the time with the mountain snowflake rating. It would have been even less stressful with my current set of dedicated snow tires (I have three sets of tires now; all season (daily driving), all terrain (trips out west, hunting season), and dedicated snow). My Oliver has the Michelin tires The worst part of driving in the winter is the road chemicals. All the alloy on the trailer frame/bumper/storage basket has lost some of its luster. One of the stainless handles on the propane cover has started to corrode. The coupler and shocks are showing rust. Its not horrible, and it still looks good, but it’s not new looking anymore. The fiberglass and anything above the belt line is still as new. It might bother some people, but I Just see all the fun I’ve had with it. If you need it to look like new, leave it parked. Otherwise go have fun. Obviously I’d rather use it than keep it pretty while in storage. My camping season would only be six months long if I didn’t risk winter weather. It tracks fine on winter roads if you drive according to the conditions. hth, Ken

Pantry Lights We have used several different battery powered, motion detecting LED lights in our pantry. And we have never been happy changing batteries or waving a hand to try getting the lights to come on. I have seen Snowballs pantry LED fixture and really liked that application, so I went down that rabbit hole looking for my own solution. These are the lights and switches I used. Lights Switches Door magnet Frame switch Results

We asked for the one in front of the toilet but Oliver gave us the one over the door by mistake. So I ordered the parts and installed it myself, and now we have both, lol, though the one over the door just get used as an occasional towel rod. It wasn't hard, but I did have to do a lot of eyeball work to get it lined up just so against the curved front wall. I put mine higher and in front of the cabinet to give more headroom over the toilet and I lined it up with the bottom of the cabinet door so that when open the door sits on the rod at 90° and acts as a shelf. Very convenient. The curtain keeps the toilet area very dry, with just a little splash around the sides.