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I am making some modifications in my Victron smart battery shunt. I originally installed it inline just before the Xantrex inverter, but because the other wiring returns to the negative post of the battery on the side mount, I wasn’t seeing the current usage and missing the complete Victron picture. I needed a bus bar to connect to the main ground bar to see this draw. I purchased a Blue Sea 4 port bus bar and installed on PVC that I epoxied to the inside of the pantry fiberglass wall in the basement. I ran two additional 1/0 gauge battery cables with the appropriate lugs, one from the bus bar to the load side of the shunt and the other from the bus bar to the negative side of the inverter. The battery side of the shunt is connected to the 1/0 cable that originally connected to the negative of the Xantrex. I have now ordered the cable with lugs to connect the main ground bar to the new bus bar and will connect it to the chassis ground after removing the cable that connects to the side mount of the battery. I will leave the original cable in place, disconnected, labeled and secured I should see all flow at that point I will attach some pictures after the install is completed l

The camper shell works out great for the bikes. I like the looks of Patriot's system, but I'm lazy so I just leave the front tires on and lean the bikes to get them through the back door. Once in the shell they can stand up straight and I just use tie down straps to secure them there. I have a hitch bike rack that I've used over the years when my truck bed was full and we still wanted our bikes - but I don't like that much because the bikes were always filthy after a trip - including fine dust and dirt in the chains, etc. I like them inside for sure. I've only had to take my shell off maybe a half a dozen times in the 14 years I've had it. I have an easy system where I can take it off and put it on by myself - takes about 30 minutes for each. I use a pair of 2' x 4's suspended from my garage ceiling by ratcheting straps. I slide the boards under my topper and then ratchet it up off the truck and drive off. Even so, I think if I had to take it off a lot more often I'd think twice about it too. I see why you might be hesitating to get the bigger top... not quite as easy to work with as the tonneau covers. Good luck - so many options.... 🙂

We used Painted Cowboy (Daniel Jakus) to haul ours to Denver where we met him and picked up the Olly (we're from central Oregon). He's hauled lots of Oliver trailers and was very professional and his rates were reasonable Saved us a trip across the mid-west last summer, which was totally worth it. I feel like Oliver did a very thorough job inspecting our trailer, we only found one slightly loose screw on a drawer latch. Before picking up the trailer, we checked out all the info here in the forum, videos and Oliver University, which left us well prepared to begin traveling in our new Olly.

Love my ARE cap... Fit and function are the best!

I was thumbing through Victron's products and ran across their new(ish?) Smart Shunt, which I hadn't seen before. It looks like a great alternative to their BMV-712 battery monitor, which has become so popular with Ollie owners. With the Smart Shunt, there is no external display to worry about - the bluetooth module is built in and it communicates directly with the Victron Connect app on your phone. As a bonus, it appears to be about $50 cheaper.

Well, that was a key missing feature so I'm glad they got it sorted. I'd like mine to spin counter clockwise, though. You'd think that option would be in the profile settings.

Air skirts...like in a hovercraft?.. Interesting concept. A steering wheel by the rear window?where do air keep th life jackets? Where do I hang the numbers? So many questions...

I know that bus bars are not rocket science, but, it is still nice to see a quality piece. Bill

I don't see anything out there yet as far as reviews, etc., as I think they may be too new. I suspect they would work as well as any other skirt if it fits - I was interested due to it's simplicity and portability (cost aside). Skirts can be made for free using snow if one so desires, but I'm willing to pay for something if it's innovative and works. So skirts.... no I don't plan to live full time or camp through and arctic winter in my Oliver. But... I want to insure that if I'm on a winter camping trip and it gets pretty cold (Rocky mountain cold) for a few weeks or even a few days in a row, I won't have to pack up and leave because my plumbing may freeze. I actually prefer to chase storms in the winter as opposed to run from them. I'd love to hear from other owners about this if they have cold weather experience in their Ollies. There really isn't a ton of information to go on in this forum as far as owners sharing cold weather camping experiences, but I've read the few posts I could find and there are definitely comments and common problem areas in and around the basement and/or plumbing called out. Everyone has tried various things to move warm air around better from the living area to the basement, etc. I'd rather use skirts if they would accomplish the same or make the best in the industry even better? In the end, it's $$ for skirts or $ + time for electric heaters and fans and heat tape and insulation, etc. Have any owners tried or run some tests in the cold and found skirts to be a waste of money on an Oliver? If not, I'll be running some tests with makeshift skirts and a bunch of temperature sensors at home before I splurge on anything. If it saves money (less propane/elec in the Winter and Summer), headaches and potential damage, then it pays for itself pretty fast.

Here is the bus bar on the table top before the install.

No, that is not part of the bumper. We discussed frame rollers a while back, in a bike rack thread.....I think a rubber bumper would last approximately 0.1 second before getting peeled off. 😀 A steel skidplate would work. John Davies Spokane WA

Yes, I did think about that. We have used our rack on the pickup. It tips back so you can access the bed; the tailgate will open as well. I appreciate all your comments. I'm sure there is something we haven't thought of. No solution is perfect; just need to find what works best. At least there are options 🚲 🚲

Is there an RV junkyard around? Some of the SOB (some other brands) fall apart before the toilets do. Get parts or whole fixtures from them?

Susan, With an 8’ bed on your tow vehicle I would think it sure would be much easier to just use a extremely stable aluminum plate fork mount (pictured) and you would still have more than enough room for plenty of gear. I was able to carry all our gear in the short bed of our former TV with this configuration. Do you have a topper or camper shell on your F 350? With the new SD Tremor we will have more than enough room for cargo with a 6 3/4 bed and ARE topper and actually room to spare. The Pros I can think of - bikes are clean and out of the weather, secure bicycles, and you can just leave your bicycles In the bed and then take them with you when you want to ride and enjoy explore a local rail trail or town or park. Not unload off the Ollie or rack and reload them into your TV bed to take them somewhere...more unnecessary work IMO. Another plus is you won’t have to take the “bike rack” off the Ollie and add it to your TV. Just leave them inside the truck bed/topper until your ready to ride. It takes me maybe 8 min to remove two bicycles and remount the front wheels, not at all difficult. If your carrying cargo to fill an 8’ bed of a super duty you maybe want to rethink/reconfigure how much your carrying. In the attached pics I have loaded a Tundra bed with a Honda Handi generator, adult XL and L bicycles, a Yeti Tundra cooler, 2 chairs, exterior pvc carpet, small table, Weber Q1200 and other misc camp set up gear. Not a whole lot of room to spare, but adequate. Once we take delivery of our new ARE Z topper I will post up a few pics of our bikes and gear stowed in the bed under the new topper. Fooling around with tongue hitch heights, securing bike racks or baskets hanging off the Ollie or rear bumper is just not for me. Really another totally unnecessary checklist item. Again not to forget bicycles are high theft and easy targets. With our new TV and the extra cargo room we opted to mitigate most if not all the above concerns when hauling our bicycles. If your TV was an SUV than you would be even more restricted/limited in both cargo room, capacity and CGWWR weight limits, I would say you are back to square one with a rack hanging off the back somewhere. That not being the case, your F350 8’ bed you are in fine shape. Naturally one size does not fit all. We choose the KISS principle. 😊Our bicycles are fairly expensive, professionally fitted and we take great care with them. Do you have a topper? Best of luck in your decision. Just another view point for thought.

My receiver is 22" from ground to center, 23 1/4" to the top inside edge. Oliver has told me (and there are numerous confirmations on this forum) that 23.5 to the top of ball is optimal. Just so happens that if I use a hitch without rise/drop, I'm super close to 23.5" unloaded. I found through simulated load testing (using a 600 lb. tongue weight and several hundred more pounds worth of camping gear in the back) that my truck will drop about 1". I have air springs, so I can just add air to bring my truck back up to 23.5". If I didn't have the air springs, I could have used the longer shank ball with stacked washers or found a hitch with a 1" or so rise. Using my example, you will be 1" low when unloaded and somewhere between 1-2" low when loaded. If you drop another 2" with your receiver, you will be 3-4" lower than recommended. I don't know if that's within specs - seems based on Oliver's response it may be fine. I think if you used air springs (relatively inexpensive and easy to install for someone with basic mechanical skills) and some stacked washers on the ball you could get pretty close to level. Another option is just get a camper shell for your truck and the bikes will stay nice and cozy in there. That's what my wife and I do.

Greetings, September in Washington would be great or Utah. For us, Washington would be our first choice; second Utah. It would be great to meet other Oliver owners. Safe travels to all!

So the top of the receiver opening is 22 inchs? Add 2-1/2" for the ball and your at 24-1/2" to the top of the ball. My LE II is 23-1/2" to the top of the coupler socket and 600# will drop my 3500 3/4". If your F350 sag is similar, seems to me a 0-1"rise would be a good starting point.

Sorry. My comment was based on the adapter/extender you linked in the earlier post. These are in fact limiting.

It is easy to check, have you measured your receiver height with the truck loaded for travel (with a simulated cargo plus tongue weight)? I used a 2.5” drop ball mount on my 2006 Ram 3500. It worked perfectly. I used an extended shank (extra long threads) ball with hard Grade 8 washers to fine tune the coupler height. If I remember correctly, I only needed to add a couple under the ball flange to level the trailer perfectly. But that truck had oversized 33” tires, all trucks are different, so you need to measure. Go to the landscape supply place and bring back a couple of yards of dry bark or something, so you can measure with the truck squatting a little. John Davies Spokane WA

Yeah, we ran into a small group of recumbent bicycle riders who normally have a HUGE post Labor Day rally there but this year due to COVID just had an unofficial gathering of a fairly small group of the more dedicated regulars. They said they love the logistics of the campground for their rally which sounds like tends to use something in the neighborhood of 100 of the over 470 sites (about 170 full hookup sites and about 300 sites with electrical and water, plus a handful of tent only sites, yurts, cabins, and hiker/biker only sites, as well as a large group site that they said they always book for things like booths and other group activities). BTW we learned about the nicer early fall weather there from a captain from the Ilwaco WA coast guard station, and she explained that it has to do with the difference between the air and water temperature not being as conducive to fog as in summer when the two temperatures tend to be closer to each other. The folks from that station have some amazing stories to tell from being out around the sand bars at the mouth of the Columbia in bad winter weather. They do this in boats that can (and sometimes do!) flip upside down and back up again. Yikes!!

Susan, Our Diamondback on a 2016 Tundra is the SE model. Hope these photos help. https://diamondbackcovers.com/products/diamondbackse?variant=32626020089955 Edit: If you are asking about bed rails that locking rods insert into, bed rails were standard on our SR5 Tundra and probably many pickups. They are almost flush with the top inside of the pickup bed: Measuring from bottom of cover: Measuring from top of truck bed: Exterior lock lever: Interior lock:

I got a Leer - dealer was close by - got the Leer - has been a great product. Didn't see a big difference between the two major brands. Color code to your truck, fit and finish are great. I built some dividers for the interior storage. 40K miles - all looking good.

We’ve got 12 months of camping left before we winterize. Will re-assess in 12 months, but will probably go for another 12 months! I think I know quite a bit about my Oliver, but since we’ve never winterized I don’t have a clue how to do that. Mike

Overland, Good eye...I was also looking at this as it requires no wiring to a display/controller. At present I'm trying to figure out where I would mount this in the battery box. I would need enough cable length to pull the batteries out of the compartment. I'm setup now with 4 AGM's. If I do go forward with this I'll post.