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As we transition from Fall to Winter, I thought it would be a good idea to share our current weather conditions. If you are heading to the Pacific coast to escape the mountain snow, think again. It probably won't snow, but temps along much of the Oregon coast are dropping below freezing tonight. We live in SW Oregon, about 50 miles inland; elevation about 275 feet. This morning we woke up to 38 degrees. It's currently 9pm PST and the thermometer is already below freezing. Stay warm! Update: Nov 9 (Monday) temp was 27 degrees; most of Oregon was below freezing with snow on the central Cascade passes; this morning (Tuesday) it was 42. One nice thing about Oregon - these cold spells don't usually last long. Oregonians say, "If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes" 😏

Andrew that’s it! Thank you

Here is what we use, as we are avid cyclists. So keeping it fairly simple and straight forward, we added a topper to our TV keeping our bikes clean, dry, and out of view of prying eyes. A bike rack on the rear of the Oliver would require us to remove the bikes and then reload them into our TV to go ride a bike trail or tour a local town or sight see, not logical. Naturally if your TV is an SUV or Van this is not an option then your left with hanging bikes off the back of your Ollie, just not something we care to do. We can easily pack our bicycles, Gen, Yeti Tundra cooler and all camp set up gear with room to spare.

I did search “storage Elite I” etc. And came up empty. Can any Elite I owners verify that these Elite II storage cubby pics and features and sizes/locations are the same on Elite I (2021)? Or I can start a new thread (or a mod can move this or delete it?). I have wondered if there are enough diffs between I and II to warrant making a new “section” on the forum for Elite I stuff? Maybe?

Perfect weather for picking up Hull #676! Staying one extra day at DCSP.

Oh my that is SO beautiful! (I love snow!)

Warm here, too. We should also have cooler weather by months end. My son just sent me a picture from his back porch in Durango, he’s got the snow shovel out and it’s still coming down.

78 - sunny today = rain next few days - fall will be back come weeks end. 70 days, mid 40 nights - until turkey day - it always turns about that time.......

I see 6-11" of snow in the forecast for Snoqualmie Pass, over which I-90 travels an hour east of Seattle, for between tomorrow evening and Wednesday morning, and then the National Weather Service's "forecast discussion" for the area speaks of a much stronger weather system coming through toward the weekend with snow levels rising above and dipping below pass level - likely a very messy driving mix if this forecast holds. The calendar may say fall but it's getting wintry in the mountains here in WA for sure.

I love these but I don't have a truck... yet. 😁 https://www.gearhacker.com/best-mountain-bike-tailgate-pad-review/

Ford has a Service bulletin in regards to this. Depends on year and model. Think they reprogram computer to electric over hydraulic. Service bulletin number was listed on here somewhere...

Bob, I think this is what you are referring to. Towready 20142 7-Way Plug Adapter Andrew

This is the best advice if you plan on AC use while boondocking. You can get a nice 2K Watt inverter generator for under $500 that will run the AC. We tend not to camp where the weather is hot/humid. We can take low humidity warm/hot weather by sitting outside with a breeze, but if there’s lots of humidity we move on. Mike

Yeah it's been feeling like everyone is retired now...

When your tired of all the news and world problems. The best place too be.

Great minds think alike. Last night....here on Blueberry Hill.

I wish I could have captured a photo of the stars tonight in our little corner of western North Carolina. Amazing. Beautiful. I'm thankful to be out here, and seeing the beauty. Oh, and late night hot dog over the dwindling fire. Priceless. 😅

FYI, all factory truck backup cameras, and many aftermarket cameras, only work when in reverse. Typically they get energized when the reverse lights come on. This is not so great when you are zooming down the freeway in heavy traffic, and you are trying to switch a few lanes..... It is possible to rewire one so that it is powered all the time, and there is already an On/ Off switch inside the Ollie cabin. I don’t know if Oliver will do this, maybe a recent camera owner can comment. A Garmin BU camera can be viewed at any time, you just exit out of the map view and touch the camera icon to bring the image to the Garmin nav screen. As Mainic said, a camera is a highly desirable accessory, more so when you are flying solo. When backing into a campsite, it shows you that big rock or tree before you hit it. Otherwise you whack it with the bumper and yell, “what the heck was that?” John Davies Spokane WA

Agreed. Tonight's fire.

This looks like it would work well mounted on the existing oliver bumper/bike rack with different hardware: https://www.gowesty.com/product/made-in-usa/4335/front-mounted-2-hitch-receiver-for-gowesty-plate-steel-bumper I can't find the plate dimensions but it looks to be 4 inches.

Philip Andrews has made some posts on Facebook about the new brackets, with different gussets. I can't find his photos at the moment.

We keep our shoes in a bin under the bed which is kept as a full time bed. We also use a net laundry basket from Walmart under the bed along with another smaller net laundry bag for towels (bath and hand). There is enough room for another bin like the one for shoes as well. It has worked well for us. We can usually take enough clothes for a week and fit them into the closet. We do laundry once a week while on the road.

We carry extra clothing, coats, boots, etc. In bins in the pickup bed, as well. Three bins fit nicely under the Elite big dinette, if you keep it made into a bed all the time, as we do. One bin is extra bedding and blanket. One is often clothing. One is misc daily stuff, vacuum, etc.

We often carry a large plastic bin in the backseat area of the truck for extra clothes when we’re on an extended trip through different weather areas. Your Rebel has a cavernous back seat area, plenty of room to carry clothing that won’t fit in the trailer cubbies. Mike

Good idea on a separate thread specifically for Elite I stuff. It just might make it easier for members to find in the future. Also, I thought you said somewhere that your pup is a black lab. Certainly labs don't generally have a "license to kill" 😄 Bill

Lately, I've seen several posters "apologize" for questions. Not necessary. The search engine, though better than the old days, won't always give you good, nor current answers. While it's true that I've answered some questions many (dozens?,) of times, it's really not a big deal. What's a big deal is that your question is important. To you. Old timers who don't want to respond, won't. And with so many new systems in the newer trailers, your questions are helpful to all of us .

I'm a finance person, so familiar with Excel spreadsheets. Way back when I was in college (not so long ago second time around), I learned how to use Excel as a database, but since learned Access, which took some doing. Now that I'm retired, I fall back on Excel for planning. I just need to remember the data base functions to use it more effectively. I know, there are better tools in today's world, but I don't want to waste precious time learning new tricks, "old dog" that I am. And you don't want to know how many little notebooks of info I have laying around, the result of paper/pencil planning

Better than learning from mistakes!

By asking questions I usually learn something new everyday. It usually is what I learned yesterday was wrong...

SeaDawg just to add to your post. I showed my Ollie many times in the last couple months most showing were between 1-4 hrs long and I enjoyed every minute of it, I have met the nicest people. I encouraged everyone to join the forum and ask questions. It worked for me when I started on the forum a great place to learn. A big thanks to all the Ollie owners and veteran Ollie owners

Can we give multiple likes for this post? 😊 So true, we all learn from each other.

@DCdude sent me a PM asking me about apps that allow one to record travel destinations quickly and easily. The post that @topgun2 remembered is here, where I briefly posted about my notetaking strategy. As an academic, I have been taking notes for many years. I want my notes in an outline form where one can focus on the task at hand, with extraneous information still present in the document but hidden. I have used these outlines to plan and then write papers and grants, plan experiments, plan vacations, and also to both shop for my trailer. I currently use my Oliver outline to plan trips and to record information from research on items that I am considering purchasing for the trailer. I have used outliner software for many years now. Good outliners allow you to reorganize the contents (up or down, promote or demote), and have powerful search functions. The screen shot on the left shows what my Ollie outline document looks like. Some of the sections in blue (Power, Battery, Solar, Generator, Water Supply, Boondocking, etc) contain notes on these topics from my early research (before owning Ollie), along with links to websites, blogs, YouTube videos, and forum posts. Outliners work by having multiple levels, and on the right you can see how I expanded the Power, Battery, Solar, and Generator level, and you can see that several lower levels can be selectively expanded. Thus information can be hidden or revealed. Here are two screen shots from my Earlier Research section on trailers before I decided on the Oliver. When someone posted about a kitty litter box in an Oliver, I was able to find the solution I had worked out, but not implemented), in the Travel with Cats in the trailer? section, and posted it here. @DCdude's original post asked about recording information such as campgrounds and campsites. Here are screen shots from my Places to Camp section, showing how much info you can easily record via copy/paste. @ShallowGalrecently posted about a nice campground on the Mississippi River, and I put that into my list of campgrounds. So if you want to use try to use an outliner, what to use? Evernote and OneNote were mentioned. I have tried both, but neither were satisfactory for my needs. In fairness, I never gave them a full trial, like I have with other outliner apps, and I had been spoiled by more full-featured outliner apps. I just did a search found two recent websites that discuss outliners. The servenomaster.com web site describes what an outliner can do, and has info on a number of outliner apps. The zapier.com site lists what platform each outliner run on (Mac, PC, iOS, Android, Web), and lists some features, pros/cons, and prices. (They had the incorrect price for the software I use, below.) I have test driven many Outliner programs over the years, and for a long time I have been happy with OmniOutliner Pro, a Mac program. It is more expensive than others, but IMHO OmniOutliner is better than the others. I have used these outliners intensively for my work, so it was a good investment for me. There is an iOS version of OmniOutliner that syncs with the Mac; unfortunately, you have to buy the Mac and iOS versions separately. If you want to try OmniOutliner, I would start with the “Essentials” version for $20, which has fewer features than the Pro version, but probably fine for what is needed here. Mac App store link. A trial version for iOS is free to download; my guess is that eventually one needs the in-app purchase of either the Essentials version for $20 or the Pro version for $50. iOS App store link.

Guess it is just a foreign concept to me, to lock my self inside a boom box. But then we spend most of our time outside listening to the wind and Mother Nature anyway. Also doubt any better speakers would make our occasional old John Wayne movies sound any better anyway. That all being said I can't imagine it would be that difficult to mount 'quality' surface mount or boxed speakers pointing in any direction. Would think the smooth fiberglass would bounce the acoustics in all directions.

If you are looking for an app to record all sorts of miscellaneous information, I recommend Evernote. See www.evernote.com. The free version is quite capable. There are versions for all popular platforms, including WIndows/Mac/iOS/Android. There are also web clipper plugins for all major browsers, which enable quickly saving of webpages, or portions of webpages. Multiple notebooks can be created with unlimited notes in each. The search capabilities are good and keywords are also supported. Evernote is cloud based and capable of syncing to multiple heterogeneous devices. The premium (paid) version add capabilities, but I recommend first trying the free version. I have been saving info found on the Oliver forums in Evernote to be able to categorize useful information I might use in future.

Careful about retirement.. When retired you don't get days off and vacations. If you ski there are no lines mid week, they start the lift as you ski up. Mid week you can go into a store, get what you want and get out. If you go to the beach mid week you can watch the beach and surf, instead of where you step. Lots of times, mid week, you can get your choice of sites at campgrounds. Doesn't take long to plan on staying home on Saturdays and enjoy family...

Perfect, except I want one that shows every day as “Saturday “.

That bottom joint has a massive rubber gasket, if kept clean of debris it can’t leak. Even if it did, it would not matter since it is OK to introduce a little fresh water in there. Urine is a whole other thing, that is bad. When parked long term I usually have to run half a cup of fresh water from the sink faucet down into the coir every few weeks because it starts to dry out on top when not in use. But I live in a semi-arid climate. It may not be an issue where you live, but it will be if you visit the desert west. You do not need a shower curtain, but you will need to always rinse and then dry the walls after the last person showers, and also the floors, including behind the toilet. I use a California Water Blade followed up by a towel. And thanks for the kind words. John Davies Spokane WA

Water can get there, but if you manage humidity in the Oliver it isn't a problem. I've showered sitting down on the closed toilet and it hasn't been an issue.

Here's my procedure - Empty water tank. Open drain valve, both faucets, Truma drain, and turn on pump. Raise trailer nose and tilt trailer toward curb side. Allow to drain until empty, then turn off pump and faucets and close Truma drain and drain valve. Lower trailer nose to back level and tilt trailer slightly to street side. Mix ½ cup of bleach into 5 gallons of water. Set pump valves and pump all five gallons into tank. Reset pump valves to normal operation. Begin to fill the remainder of the fresh tank from the city water connection. While tank is filling, turn on pump, and run each faucet, both hot and cold, until you smell chlorine and all the air is out of the system. Allow tank to fill until water flows from the overflow by the door. Let sit for 24 hours. Turn on pump and run both faucets until all water is transferred to grey tank. Refill fresh tank . Let sit for 48 hours. Empty grey tank. Refill fresh tank and repeat step 5. Empty grey tank again.

I don't have experience with one of these toilets and off-season storage specifically, but... I think the bigger concern would be storing it in temperatures below the ~55 degrees F that they say is required for good aerobic composting, but above freezing. I stayed in a remote (helicopter access - fly in Saturday with backcountry ski gear and food and drink and fly out the next Saturday kind of thing) mountain hut up in the Selkirks of BC for a week once where they'd just installed an indoor composting toilet (BIG upgrade for guests!) whos composting was supossed to be happening down in the basement (I think it was a Clivus Multrum brand toilet but am not sure - similar in any case). A BIG upgrade for guest experience over having to hoof it a little ways from the hut to a pit toilet through bitter cold and deep snow. We were there in early April after about 12 guests, two guides, an assistant guide, and a cook had been pooping each week since late December. Turns out the basement location wasn't as warm as they had planned. It was not composting properly. It was a bit smelly in the bathroom - much like a National Forest vault toilet that's a bit ripe. But the big problem was what to do with the fetid waste filling the compost container. Wet. Smelly with bad bacterial action and raw sewage. not something that could be neatly shoveled out into the landscape. By the time we got there it was near overflowing and they'd flown in a few 55 gallon drums. One evening after a full hard day of guiding us up and down some fantastic ski terrain, the guides had to don rubber gloves and figure out how to get it all into the drums so they could be flown out and disposed of legally and properly. The smell that came out into the living space of the hut (think nice two story house like structure with 2-3 person bunkrooms and communal eating/hanging space and kitchen) was intense. It was so much worse for the guides. Not just the smell, but having to just reach in with buckets to finally get it all transferred, with the gloves almost meaningless in the mix. I don't know if you'd get a mini version of this experience from unheated storage but let us know if you find out as I won't be taking on that experiment 🙂