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Larger Dinette Table Having a properly sized dinette table contributes significantly to the pleasures of life in an Ollie. That’s how Sheila and I feel after I modified our dinette table to add 4 1/4 inches to the table’s length. What a difference a small amount of additional space makes. We find it more comfortable, now have room for morning computers and coffee, and indoor dinners are more gracious. Also, I can now put both elbows on the table if I want to. We have had a desire for a larger dinette table ever since we picked up our Ollie (hull 217) and got some experience under our belts. We camp as a couple, never set up the third bunk, and don’t like having a table that is too small because of the bunk design issue. Oliver wasn’t interested in making a larger table when I broached the subject. Why mess with a successful product? But hunkering down to avoid corona virus gave me some extra time, and I used it to modify my existing table to see if I was on the right track. I worked up a design that used material from my leftovers bin, and which would allow me to undo the mod if it didn’t pan out. Unless you are really looking for it, the additional table length is not readily apparent. Aesthetically everything still looks proportional. The added length doesn’t interfere with the refrigerator door, and there is plenty of room to move about. While the pictures below show what I did, this isn’t really a how-to-do-it report. My goal is to stimulate Oliver. My hope is that the powers-that-be at Oliver will order a mock-up of a table like mine to be made, sit at it, and confirm for themselves how much nicer it is. It is my hope Oliver will then authorize a supplemental mold for laying up the larger table, offer it as an option to new buyers, and make it available for purchase by existing owners. I would be one. If you think you might like a larger dinette table too, please tell me in a comment to this string. I would like to ascertain if there is actually any demand for this, and if so, report same to Oliver. And if you are so inclined, please contact Oliver directly as well. Best regards, John Shkor SailorAshore

The Facebook group was definitely promoted a few times here when it was first started, but was met with pretty much the same responses as above. Personally, I think Facebook is the worst thing about the internet. It’s essentially anti-internet in both its conception and implementation. Further, their resistance to policing disinformation, collection and selling of personal data, and inherent involvement in related political issues makes them in my mind something to actively oppose. Likewise, I see no benefit to a similar competitor other than the possibility that it might drain some of facebook’s appeal and power.

This is a picture of my last workstation, 2 - 32" and 3 - 24" monitors on a sit/stand desktop, so I get the big monitor thing. Your question got me to pondering the problem. My first thought based on Sherry's suggestion about the dinette and the fact that your traveling solo frees up one side of the dinette, was a Lagun mount on the side of the dinette seat under the table. Then I thought about mounting it to the shower wall, but that would be too far away for my taste. So here are a couple of options for both of my thoughts. I do think you should live with the big monitor temporarily and try it in different locations to see where you would like to mount it permanently and then find the best solution. Mossey

We have the same setup and it works fine below 7000' as long as you have the soft start. I can't say how it does above 7000' because we have never needed it or tried it at those attitudes.

I have been working on a Drop-Leaf design for another customer that would increase the size of the pantry countertop for serving and fold down for storage when not in use. Something similar could be done for the front edge of the dinette. I will post pictures once I have a prototype of the pantry drop-leaf.

Or another already existing option is just contact Foy Sperring and have him craft a larger custom wood dinette table. He does amazing work and still ships directly to Oliver or to existing owners. Our sales rep told us about Foy.

There is a rather large efficiency difference in propane vs gasoline. That generator has a max output of 2200 watts with a continuous output of 1800 watts. This is based on using gasoline. A gallon of gasoline has 125,000 BTU’s. A gallon of propane has 91,700 BTU’s. As you can see, the output is significantly lower with propane therefore it can’t produce as many watts.

We have been using a Pro Breeze 150 SF (1200 CF) dehumidifier in our Ollie plugged into shore power while in storage here at our home. We emptied this dehumidifier every 5 days. It just was not enough machine to get the RH down to a target range of below 50%. This smaller unit has struggled to bring the RH down to 68%. So we ordered the next size larger 250 SF (2200 CF) and are going to give it a try. Hopefully this new unit will drop the RH to less than 50%. We monitor internal temp and RH humidity remotely from our home with a remote weather station - channel 1 & 2. Channels 3 under curbside bed and 4 is located in the battery compartment. Is anyone else using a dehumidifier while their Ollie is stored? Care to share what your using?

After a 10 week wait we took delivery and install of our ARE Z topper yesterday. We recently upgraded to a larger more comfortable, much more powerful TV and like stowing our bicycles, Gen, and other camping gear high and dry out of sight and out of mind. I had upgraded rubber bulb seals installed vs the cheap foam tape that flattens out usually within a few months. The foam tape when it flattens out can result in a potential topper bottom edge bed rail paint rub, a no go. Another tip, I had the installers secure the tape to the bottom rails of the topper NOT the bed rails to avoid any cleaning of adhesive on the bed rails should I decide to remove the topper temporarily. This is our third ARE topper over the years and I can report that the fit and finish and Iconic Silver paint match is spot on excellent. Totally worth the wait. Just a bit of feedback for anyone considering an ARE camper topper.

The first of the storms passed through SW Oregon Friday . . . . . a bit of wind and a two hour power outage. Kudos to our rural cooperative power company for restoring power so quickly. All day we had on and off thunder showers and a bit of thunder/lightning. Rainfall total for this stage of the storms was 3". Saturday afternoon and the wind is picking up again. Probably in for more rain; hopefully no power outage this round. Snow on the Cascade passes; chains required on Hwy 138. Looks like rain for most of next week with snow continuing in the mountains and central Oregon.

Hi GAP, I also have the Honda 2200 and I've had the Hutch mountain propane conversion kit for a while. I prefer propane (hope to not have to carry gasoline) and I will be testing this soon as we pick up our trailer this week. So if you are not in a huge hurry, stand by and I'll let you know if it works as soon as I have a warm enough day back home in NC to do some quick tests. We have the Lithium package which also included the soft start. I will likely buy the companion Honda down the road and convert that to propane as well. I eventually need 30 amps to charge the pair of Lithiums on days where solar can't keep up.

It was the HD. Here is a link: https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-20-Pint-Dehumidifier-ADEL20LY/310574305 The price was 159.00

That's exactly what I was thinking about. A long arm mount that could stretch over the 54" bed in the daytime, push back into the sw curved corner at night. Replace the tv. Work from the small dinette. A monitor that big can't be right on your nose, anyway.

Good for her!! Some former colleagues of mine did some good published research work that showed a significant increase in productivity for several typical office work type tasks on a multimonitor setup. It's worth the expense in fairly short order for most employers. My desktop at home has a 24" monitor and a color calibrated high gamut 26" monitor (the color accuracy is important for the photo editing I do with this system). When on the road in my van doing photography, I make do with my laptop for initial culling and "test edits" but I have learned to wait until I get home to do any heavy lifting as on top of it just being significantly more efficient with the two screen setup, I also don't need to redo a bunch of work due to not having a really great color calibrated high gamut monitor (i.e. high range of colors displayed and in a consistent fashion i.e. a given red on two uncalibrated monitors can look quite different but will look the same on calibrated monitors). As for the OP, I also wonder about perhaps replacing both the TV mount as well as the TV in the Elite - i.e. if there's some sort of monitor mount that would drop down and out far enough and hold well enough to work. I'm guessing not - among other things the corner location seems like it would make it tough to get a good ergonomic and securely mounted setup. But I am guessing they reinforce the fiberglass at that mount point... Someday we may be able to get virtual reality goggles that put multiple high resolution monitors in front of you in virtual space. This is a use of the VR tech that a lot of people actually might use. It would be perfect for a small travel trailer.

All the 2020's have an outlet there. I am not sure when it was added. The GE has a bucket and also the option to add a hose to have it drain. I am emptying mine every other day or so. I may shut it off when it gets colder. It becomes less effective below 41, but then the humidity usually drops when it gets that cold here. We are expecting our first freeze here next week. I think they are show 29 on Tuesday morning.

No, it doesn't sound insane to me. Both my husband and my daughter would be lost without dual, though smaller, monitors. Our daughter started a trend at her new company, when one of her conditions of hire was dual big monitors, three years ago. Now, all her department has them. Me, I'm retired. I can work from a largish phone.

The small dinette is a little less than 24 x 24. If you put it there, you'll block a lot of the window. And, in not sure where you could mount it I'd look at a wall mount in the corner, over the bed, especially with a curve screen. With a three way adustable mount, so you can bring it closer. This is a topic you should discuss with your rep. How heavy is 5he monitor,? Can you also use it to stream tv?

I purchased the Pro Breeze 2200 for ours, but it would not get the humidity down below 60%. So last week I went to the local big box and picked up a 20 pint GE dehumidifier. The GE is a bit large to carry along on trips, but I am happy to report for storage it is working great. I have it set to keep humidity down to 45%. It dropped the trailer to that in less than an hour. I have had a slightly larger GE in my workshop for about 4-5 years and it has worked continuously without problem, so that is the reason I tried another GE. I don't know how Western NC compares in humidity levels with Raleigh area. Hopefully, it is not as bad, but I am guessing it is probably the same. We will use the Pro Breeze when traveling.

And, @Susan Huff, so many of our tech/mechanical problems over the years have really been user issues. I'm not embarrassed to say so. Every new system is a learning curve. My learning highway probably looks like the dragon's tail ride, lol. Today, Paul and I installed a Phyn water leak sensor system for the house. His plumbing was flawless. The tech side was much more complicated. Sometimes, there are little details missing in the manual, or app instructions. I went through the app a dozen times, including faq several times, and then spent an hour on the phone with two great techs in California. Everything is working now. If I had turned on location on my android phone, and paired to the 2. 4 net, instead of the 5 band, it would have saved 45 minutes ... (that bit of info is not in the instructions, anywhere.)⁹ Tech is great. When it works , and we understand it. And, have clear instructions. Even then, I can manage to mess something up, sometimes.

Or if you are an old hot rodding fan you could use the Moon Equipment company “moon eyes” logo that was on so many hot rods and land speed record cars back in the day. 🙂

Not ruined. Even without amenities, the Ollie is still the best tent we’ve ever owned.

This is indeed my biggest concern about my notion. I'll be using the camper for a while before settling on a bike plan in part due to this concern. I want to see what our usage patterns are. If we want to use the bikes in the near term (less likely due to our getting the camper in late December, with plans to use it a decent bit through the temperate PNW "winter") we can simply bring the bikes inside our E250 van which will double as TV for the time being. We do this on many day trips - it would be kind of inconvenient for camping outings given how we use the inside of the van while traveling. It will be interesting to see how much of that van interior use on travel days shifts to the interior of the Oliver. I'm sure we'll still do things like make lunch in the van, as it has a still-happily functional dometic fridge (which the bikes block when in the van btw) and a microwave (we use the microwave most while on the road for reheating leftovers for quick hot meals) and a furnace and a Fantastic roof vent we can use to keep it comfy in the van during breaks on all but the most brutally hot days.

One critical different between MeWe and Facebook I see that I see, and that the google article did not address, is on business model. Facebook's customers are their advertisers and others who buy data about users/members. Our attention and Facebook's surprisingly detailed and accurate inferences about us* are the product that Facebook sells. On MeWe, we are the customers - they commit not to sell our attention or data about our usage of the platform. They have taken a bet that they can convert enough users to their premium subscription service to make a go of it. It's going to be a tough road ahead for them frankly, though recent political fun may help them a bit in the near term. If you want to see how Facebook's business model impacts the nature of the experience along with your privacy (or utter lack therof) there, watch The Social Dilemma on Netflix (the interviews are great, the "dramatizations" a bit corny) or check out the Social Dilemma web site. I would not be shocked if MeWe has *security* issues that may negatively impact users andn their privacy, but they do not have fundamental business model issues in terms of seeking to exploit intimate knowledge of your social media activity for profit, at least afaik. *e.g. see this article on 2013 work from a former colleague of mine who worked with a team to show that your "likes" on Facebook can be mined via machine learning to predict things like your sexual orientation, your food preferences, etc. This article goes into a bit more detail on this work, and how it led to the Cambridge Analytica use of Facebook data and inferences built atop it during the 2016 election (whether this constituted a "data breach" or privacy violation is hotly debated - you can make your own decision as a potential Facebook user 🙂 )

That's a good suggestion to look at when we install our new panels and controller this winter, Steve. Thanks. I really don't remember much about the wiring. The interesting thing is, our bluesky returns to normal quickly, "resetting itself" as soon as soon battery capacity reaches 100 per cent. Sometimes it will jump from a 78 per cent reading to 100 with a short time on shore power, or full sun. We know it's higher than 78 from meter checks. And Susan, most of the time we charge solely on the fixed solar. With good sun, it's entirely reliable. Oliver doesn't use Blue Sky anymore, anyway, but we actually really like it. We have Victron on the boat pv system.

I was with Cisco. I have lots of other colleagues in the industry who also will not use Facebook due to it's history of abuse of peoples private data. They were often used as an example of how to put your business at great risk by ignoring data privacy policies and best practices. I also have a Facebook account where I don't friend anyone, I don't post anything and I use it just for the MarketPlace - which I do find some value in from time to time. I like that if I google my name it still doesn't find this site (yet). 🙂

I totally agree, I used to be in the information security business with IBM. After 10 years of avoiding Facebook (after IBM), I finally had to join so I could get information being shared for work. I use it for work only, I do not post, and I have a very restrictive account. I don't friend people, infact some of the crap facebook sends me just pisses me off. (Ok off my high Horse). I know that Oliver just like any other business with a web present is not secure. I will be staying here only for my Oliver information. I like this web site. It is friendly, full of knowledge, and supported by an honest business. I love the "internet introvert" comment.

I got strange readings from ourBlue Sky IPN-Pro for a while. Until I figured out that not everything was running through the shunt. After a little negative re-routing all is good. The main problem was that the onboard charger's negative wire was bypassing the shunt therefore the IPN-Pro did not see any of the power going into the batteries from it. Check the grounds from your charge controller and converter/charger and make sure they go to the shunt before grounding out to the trailer.

I worked in the information security industry before retiring a few years ago and Facebook still has a long way to go before they regain my confidence in their information security and data privacy policies. MeWe is very similar and and a newcomer to rival FaceBook. I'll wait and see quite a while before joining. I'm sticking to this forum. This is the only forum I have ever joined in my life (so far) because I see great value in the honesty and helpful tips everyone provides. I'm going to remain an "internet introvert". 🙂

I'd be curious to know if the Facebook Oliver mods would support recruiting people away from the facebook group and on to MeWe. If so, godspeed! 😀

I belong to a few "split communities" with overlapping membership circles between forums and FB. Some folks just prefer the social media platforms as a single place to go. I find the forums generally better for finding and re-referencing old threads - they are more broadly browsable and tend to be a bit easier to search as well. But more eyeballs seem to go to the social media platforms. That's just the way of it. I've read claims that "forms are dead" which may be premature but I see why the claim is made. I love the notion of MeWe - we users are not products to be sold to advertisers on that platform, unlike Facebook. Unfortunately Facebook has the lock-in of an overwhelming network effect of all the existing users' friends lists, and the fact that that is where nearly all social media users are. I spent July off Facebook and on MeWe, and I prefer the design for the most part and the business model is frankly what's needed to not have creepy platforms whose interests are selling our attention along with data and increasingly sophisticated inferences about us based on our usage patterns. But the hallways loudly echo there right now.

Looks great ‘Patriot’... Love the setup...And I have to say begrudgingly (Toyota Tundra owner) the Ford looks awesome.... I’ve also been very happy with my ARE cap too.. the fit and finish is the best, and no leaks... i did also add a tailgate seal to keep out the dust... Added roof racks cause the dogs are pretty spoiled and like their space...

That's good news on the Truma. There are some plumbing spots on the Ollie that don't get good ventilation. One of those areas is right at the fill ports - the plumbing is in a tight channel along with a good bit of wiring and then covered with the basement floor. Unfortunately, that's where the check valves are. It's a sensible spot for them to be, if your goal is to minimize the amount of water that will spill out when you detach a hose, but it's a bad spot if your priority is to keep them from freezing. I've only had a line freeze twice, and neither were with the trailer winterized. Once was the cold line to the bath, but it trickled enough that it cleared up in a few minutes with the water on. The other was at the fill ports when we had to travel all day through freezing temps. We had some water in the tank, so we could use the plumbing; but if we hadn't, then we'd have been out of luck since both water ports were frozen solid. I also had one check valve fail - not leaking, just stuck open - but I don't know if that was freeze related. Could possibly have been related to the above, but I don't know for sure.