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Our winter trip to Quartzsite was the first long test of our NovaKool fridge. We left home December 20th and arrived back home February the 24th. The first three days on the road it was cloudy and rainy. I don’t know that I had to but, on the third evening I ran my generator for about an hour. Several days of travel out to Quartzsite we boon docked with one night on shore power. Four nights at Lost Dutchman State Park with a day or so of clouds. Ran the generator one morning for a couple hours. We were at Quartzsite for ten nights with mostly sunny days so didn’t need the generator. Traveling home was a little disjointed so there were some shore power days and a bunch of boon dock days but didn’t need the generator on the trip home. Our fridge typically draws about 4 amps while running. Sometimes running more than 50% of the time and sometimes way under 50% of the time. All the while holding fridge temperature at about 34 degrees and freezer at around 19 degrees. We did need to defrost the fridge on the way home. Don’t know if excess frost affected the cycle time or not. Anyway, with our typical power usage we were overall pleased with the ability of the Oliver LEII solar/lead acid battery performance. One issue which Lithium batteries may solve is the Lithium batteries ability to charge quicker than a conventional battery. There were a couple of times that there just wasn’t quite enough hours of sun to get the job done. The next day of full sun was able to top off the batteries. Either more solar panels, quicker charging batteries, or a little of both would solve that issue. I think that the standard LEII solar setup is right on the edge but is probably about 80% or so adequate. Testing continues....when we’re allowed out of our house. Great information Overland! Your assumptions are spot on based on your actual experience, others actual experience, and my experience so far. We liked the extra capacity and relatively quick recovery when loading room temperature items. With the extra capacity, we found that an extra cooler was not needed except maybe if camping many miles away from anywhere to buy food.

I just got off the phone ordering a Zarcor window and shade for the door of my Oliver Elite II. At present the only way you can get a white shade with a white operating handle is to call the company. I ordered mine with the clear tinted glass but if for some reason you prefer regular clear glass you can order it that way. The phone number for Zarcor is: 1-800-877-4797 At present the cost of this is $129.00 AND they will include free shipping. Bill p.s. If your door window has the 16 interior screws then it is "Style A" (inside window dimensions of 12"x 21").

I would like to keep my RV at home but our HOA frowns on that. I can bring it over for maintenance, cleaning etc but try to keep it at about 3 or 4 days. I did have a 30a RV plug installed on the side of our house. We store our trailer nearby at Boerne Boat and RV storage. We have a covered spot with electricity. They also have fully enclosed spots but they get a bit pricey. It’s a gated facility with lots of cameras and several hundred RVs and boats. Only one Oliver! Mike

Update - I had a little issue with birds trying to nest in the framework, but finally got that solved. I have come to dislike the center support column (JD, I feel you) so I plan to remove it, and add a full length support LVL. But will have to wait for the world to restart....Otherwise all is good. Ollieport - I like that - Tkx Bill. I somehow left an interior light on for a few weeks, seems I could never get the batteries back up with the little solar, and few sunny days, eventually plugged it in when I was doing the annual maintenance in my enclosed barndominium. It now says fully charged with the springtime sun.

I just completed my garage for my truck and Oliver. The total cost was much less thanks to Oliver making a quality trailer and the forum for information. My reasoning, I was looking to purchase a class a Rv, but I was having trouble justifying the high cost, high maintenance and high deprecation value and poor quality build. With the cost of the Oliver and my tv and this garage I was much less than a class A. My home sale price is higher rather than Rv depreciation. And no storage costs. It was a win win for us. Mike and Carol my HOA wasn’t to happy but nothing in the restrictions on the size that said I couldn’t.

Behind our truck, underway 🙂

This is the same cover I purchased some time ago and it fits nicely.

In researching this topic, I came across a post from BackofBeyond. He has built his own covered "Ollieport". Nice work and good inspiration.

We keep ours in a carport shelter in our backyard. The sides are covered to block UV from the sun as much as possible. Had an electrician add a 30 amp plug so I can keep it plugged in to keep the batteries charged. I like having our Ollie close for easy access. I can add pictures if it ever stops raining.

Just got some door jamb pictures from some Chevy 1500 LTZ - 5.5' bed ~1500 lbs and 6.5' ~1600 lbs payload - both baby Duramax. Pretty tempting with the offers that are out there, we'll see if HD offers catch up.

While there are a bunch of ideas to be found if you simply type "RV window shades" in the search box of Amazon, a fair number of Ollie owners have used this: https://www.amazon.com/CloZures-Controls-Privacy-Outside-fingertip/dp/B07FDKJFHD/ref=sr_1_29?dchild=1&keywords=rv+window+shades&qid=1585669649&sr=8-29 I've been told that these are available in white if you would prefer that and I know that there is at least one post here on the Forum concerning this product - try the "search" function. Bill p.s. I really do like the tinted window. The look of the bathroom window being non-tinted bothered me so much that I bought some "stick-on" automotive window tinting film for it and now it looks just like the rest of the windows on the street side of my Ollie.

We are on the Gulf of Mexico due south of Tallahassee. We began our journey departing Maine on February 3rd with plans to visit Charleston, Savannah, the Keys, Naples, Tampa, Destin, Gulfport, New Orleans, Natchez and the Trace, Nashville, and then to the Oliver Rally and then home. We did get to Charleston, Savannah, the Keys, Naples and Tampa. We are leaving here tomorrow for home. With limited services and most everything closing, to us, it just seems best to head home. We will end our trip 2 months early and that is disappointing. However, the 45 days on our first camping trip in our Ollie has been great. We learned a lot and met some very nice folks. We stayed in Cracker Barrels, State Parks, RV resorts, and private campgrounds. It has been an adventure. We learned about our Oliver. We hooked up, used a dump station, learned how to use the Andersen hitch, greased our Dexter suspension, fixed a broken tongue jack (operator error) and had our refrigerator serviced in the keys. We will return to Maine to wait this out and hope to remain healthy and enjoy a great summer. We will plan to go back back out next winter and finish part of the trip we didn't get to do this year, go further and do more next year. Stay healthy!!!!!!!