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Won’t be long now! We’re not too far in front of you (02.15.2021) and we’ve been doing the same. I’ve been packing up all of our goodies we’ll be taking along with us yesterday & today. We leave 1 week from today! Cindy

My son installed front and rear cameras in his Subaru WRX (you’ll see the big rear wing in the video). And they proved to be very valuable. The video was used as evidence in an accident he was involved in. The other driver tried to give the State Police officer a complete BS story about the accident, and my son just calmly said “I have video”. I wish it would have captured the look on the other driver’s face when they realized they were caught lying to the state trooper. I’m considering adding cameras to my tow vehicle. IMG_2904.mov

I have been using a mid range NextBase 422GW camera for a couple of years, the mount is struck to my windshield below the rear mirror. I spliced into a “switched” power wire (on with the ignition) under the dash and ran the cable up the left A pillar. It works extremely well, the video is high res (so you can read a speed limit sign or license plate number). This is VERY important - if the plate is blurry, the video is worthless. I have never had to use a recording in court, tho I have had a few near-collisions while it was going. Mine is set to run all the time, and it shuts down 30 seconds after losing power when the ignition is switched off. At night the video quality is impressive, especially when there is some additional ambient lighting like street lights. It has a few quirks, such as their Park setting, which activates the camera for 30 seconds after a big bump, which hopefully will record the bad guy driving away, unless the hit was from behind, in which case you need a second camera, in back. Unfortunately just entering and exiting your car a few times (slamming the door) activates this mode and it quickly depletes the too small onboard battery. I leave this feature off, I might engage it if I parked on a nasty urban street. You must use a very premium VIDEO memory card, if it has too slow a read/ write speed it will not record correctly. It needs to be big so there is plenty of room for video without it constantly over writing the data. A small card will work fine for recording accidents, but if you want to go retrieve a pretty section of your mountain trip a week later, you may find that it has gone... If your car experiences a hit, like running into car, or into a monster pothole, it will save one minute of video (first 30 and last 30 seconds) in a protected file that will not be over-written. All the settings are programmable using the touch screen or their app, you can have it add geodata and time stamps, you can edit and send a low res or hi res clip via email to the cops or your insurance company. You can view the video with the gps track overlaid onto a satellite map, with another side window showing g forces and road speed (computer only). You can insert your own comments too. Lots of cool features, but there is a really steep learning curve to all the editing features! I really wish that it would record time lapse video at 5 seconds per frame, for scenic drives like Going to the Sun Rd, but so far the software will not allow it. I have gone into the files and extracted and combined the short (up to 2 minute) clips into a very nice real time movie, but the camera is not really intended for that either. A Go Pro would be excellent. I do recommend these cameras, but OTH I have not used another brand. I decided based on reviews and videos. I carefully positioned the cam so it was 100% invisible to the driver, but he can still duck his head to see the blue power and red recording leds. At night they are not a distraction. Normally you set the actual display to be black when driving. I left a cable loop, so I can pop the cam off the magnetic base and plug the cord directly into it, to operate it off the truck’s power, tho it is easier to just use the Bluetooth app. I also added an adjustable polarizing filter to the lens, this really helps to cut glare on a sunny day. https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-dash-cam/amp/ Watch this and it’s additional videos, it shows what is so good about these. You can then compare features with other brands. I hope that helps. NextBase 422GW video reviews John Davies Spokane WA

I called Orbital Machine Works, the company that makes this item. The lady that returned my call said that they are still being made, but you put your name on a waiting list and the wait time is currently 1 year.

The sticky keyless door handle is frustrating and can certainly cause feelings of panic when you can't open the door. We encountered the same problem on the way home from Hohenwald and the issue persists. I am reasonably sure that the issue is the weatherstripping on the inside of the door is very thick (works very well) but sometimes prevents the door from shutting tightly enough for the latch to extend fully into the door frame. I expect in a year or less when the weatherstripping naturally compresses a bit, the door handle will work like a charm. The problem occurs when you close the door but the latch doesn't fully extend into the door frame. There is no way to tell by looking that the latch only partially extended into the door frame because the door looks closed and the deadbolt locks just fine. When you unlock the door however, the handle can jam and the only way to get the unlocked door to open is to first push lightly on the edge of the door to the left of the handle until you hear a "click" which is the sound of the latch extending into the door frame all the way. Then it opens just fine. If you are inside and the door handle won't open the door, pull in on the door (you may hear a click) and then the handle will open the door just fine from the inside. The unfortunate thing I have found is that if the door is otherwise closed but not locked with the deadbolt, it can open on its own when driving down the highway. This has already happened several times to me. I am now in the habit when I close the door from the outside to always push on the edge of the door after I close it to hear the "click". Then I always lock the deadbolt if I am towing so there is no chance of the door popping open on its own while traveling. I view this as a mild annoyance that will probably fix itself as the door's weatherstripping becomes a little bit compressed over time.

For anyone buying bearings from any manufacturer online, there's a relatively new app from the World Bearing Association that helps identify counterfeits. Search "WBA Bearing Authenticato‪r"‬. I used it recently on my ipad (IOS) and I think it's also available for Android.

The only down side with the concealing running boards, is when they conceal you loose the parking lot “door ding” protection. The standard running boards in my experience reeeally help prevent door dings from really careless people swinging their doors open. Our running boards protrude out far enough that the only ding will be on the door slung open by someone who is just careless. Just another view point. 😊

Our neighbor asked if I wanted to test drive his F-250 with 6.7L diesel & 10,000 miles. Debbie & I tested it on back roads and highway today. Handles great, supple ride, not too soft or harsh, plenty of power, and quiet, too. Can only imagine if we were towing Ollie, how we would need to check to be sure Ollie was connected. What a nice tow vehicle!

For what it is worth, I bought a Ford F-250, XLT 2019 model. In doing my research I found a huge price difference between the XLT and their top of the line model. A few options brings the XLT up to a very well equipped vehicle for a reasonable cost. I found a 6.7 diesel with the suspension upgrades and nice trim options I wanted...and even preferred over the top of the line models. You can add the chrome upgrade option, trailer towing package, 4 door, bucket seats, large nav screen, and a number of other features and still be 20,000 under the top of the line models. one thing to also consider by going to the 3/4 ton, is the heavy brakes, shocks, springs, transmission, axle, etc. that will give you years of added use over a 1/2 ton. I have averaged 19 - 20 mpg without the Oliver and 14 - 15 mpg with the Oliver. Yes routine maintenance is higher for the diesel, but also is the resale. I could not be more pleased with my Ford F 250. Steve R.

Congrats on your OE1 “shorty” and enjoy your time at David Crockett CG!! This is a perfect time to run ALL your systems and really get a good shake down in before your leave the vicinity of the mothership. Torquing wheel lugs, checking tire pressures and going through your safety check list before your long journey home. May your adventures be filled with miles of smiles!

Like many Oliver owners, and forum lurkers - I repack my own wheel bearings, grease the chassis, and anything else that needs doing. Recently I did my wheel bearings, Dexter has a decent video on the topic if your so inclined, and I ended up replacing both sets on the left side of my Oliver. Once I clean them really well - I do a close inspection to ensure they are good to go back on. I found some indication of damage - these are the bigger inside bearings. If you look opposite the black dot- between the black lines you can see what I'm referring to. You cant see it, but where the indention is on the top side between the rollers is a polished spot, indicating it rubbed on the bearing race. I'm not sure if they were manufactured this way, or if damaged during assembly. I put new Timken's in their place. So perhaps some of the failings we have read about may have come about from this sort of longer term wear. These had 13K miles on them, the bearing cups/races looked fine. Hope this is of interest to ya'll. RB

FWIW the state inspector here was *horrified* to see my tires at 85 and 90. Reduced to 55. He wanted to go lower. He’s been towing all his life. He is in his 60s. “YMMV.”

FrankC, the NextBase camera takes up to three external inputs, one of them is a rear "over the shoulder" lower res one that simply plugs into the HDMI port on right the side of it. They have hard wired hi res ones, for installing in a rear window for example. I don't know how far away one can be, but recording stuff off the back of the Ollie 35 feet from the dashboard will be a challenge. You canNOT record hi def video using a wireless camera. Here are some screen shots from my computer. The first shows the video file structure, accessed by plugging in the camera with a USB cable. It is a little hard to decipher, but the first digits are the date "year/month/day" So 210205 is Feb 5, 2021. The next digits are the time, Hrs/Mins/Secs and the last is just their sequential file system. So if you are looking for a specific recording, like a collision, and you know when it happened, you can find it pretty fast. Otherwise, you need to have the Gallery or preview or whatever mode picked, and look at the thumbnail images for a clue about where it was recorded. Hi res movies make for BIG files, each 1 minute clip is 220 mb, you can pick a smaller size or lower resolution and frame rate. Mine is 120GB. Here is the "NextBase Player" Mac computer application, showing the dash view on a bright day in shade: And driving directly into the low sun, with a polarizing filter. (Without one, it would be much worse): All kinds of cool info for that particular recording is located along the bottom... A speedometer showing current and max speed, average speed and distance travelled. A compass rose showing current direction, latitude and longitude. A long bar graph showing G forces in three dimensions, and a round version to the right showing the same thing as circles. If you have Internet, the map will show, and you can choose Google Street, Terrain or Satellite, and zoom in or out. And the track and position curser is overlaid on top of that. Basically it's everything a civil defense lawyer would love to have to show a judge if somebody plows into you, like your son's WRX incident.... EDIT: I just updated my camera firmware for the first time, and now there is Time Lapse, a 3 minute or 30 minute setting... A 3 minute video plays back in 30 seconds, a 30 minute plays back in 5 minutes. A little too fast a frame rate for me, but it will be fun to experiment with it. Here is a sample I found; ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9UziEtLlp6E John Davies Spokane WA

We are counting down the days to pick up #750. We have been reading and watching videos to try to prepare ourselfes.This will be a new adventure for us. To be honest, this is our first post on the forum. We both have gained so much useful information from you all. Thank you to each one of you. Andria

I just Progessive Insurance and they had two RV plans. One Progressive plan is just for the RV. The other plan is for your tow vehicle and the RV. I found them to be very competitive. Like all insurance companies, make sure to ask how they determine the value of the RV in an accident.

Congratulations on your new "Shorty". For those of us that have a long time still to wait for our delivery date (mine is 10/21/21) please feel free to share what you learn and experience. We can live and learn through your experiences and successes and will better prepare us for our delivery. We anticipate taking 2-3 days in the area before we jump into a long trip back to the Portland, Oregon area. What you experience in those initial days will be valuable information for the rest of us, the good, the bad, and the wonderful! Again, congratulations and many happy trails ahead for you! Carl

R & A, Greetings from North Dakota & Welcome to the Ollie Family.

TG Bill, Thank You. do not let my sense of humor in any way dismiss your sincere response. We have a 2010 GMC 1500, and Wifey will have to be pretty comatose to agree that I need a new TV, just so i now have On-Board TPMS. I have been looking at upgrading to a (new or recent) 3/4 ton, and came close to committing to a used one on the forum a couple of months ago; However the planets were not quite aligned, for it to happen. I will go with the 8 (4+4) remotes & Monitor and continue to look to that elusive truck. And it gives me one more screen to monitor... Not really, Co-Pilot does all that.

John, As usual a most excellent article on something you have either for your TV or TT. And the image in the article you attached, reminds me of the fine line between Safety & sensory overload... Avoiding this, BUT I can relate to this..docx

Not sure about all brands but my 2021 GMC came with 4 tire sensors to install in your trailer tires. The sticker showed it as a $50 option. These sensors send info to the OEM screen when you have the trailer connected. Not sure when this feature became available but would be worth checking to see if you have a similar option on your vehicles. John

For reasons mentioned - I prefer the standard - non moving. One less thing to quit working, adds a little more protection, and I actually like what they add to the Trucks looks. And for the title of this thread -the best TV - 3/4 ton - is with out a doubt - one that's paid in full!! RB Come on Spring - I am so done with winter - and yet it is just a TN winter.

Hull 737 has taken flight. So excited to be able to travel. We have been following the forum for a while and have gained so much knowledge from all of you. We look forward to meeting you soon. Safe travel to all.

TST system, one color monitor, 2 sensors and a repeater. I got mine from Alice at Accent my ride in Duluth, Ga. The price was 239.00. She can get other items too. Nice lady, she met me half way in the Target parking lot. I know the price was right...alot less than the TST company she gets them from. I did not need the repeater on my 17ft Casita but kept it in case I need one on the Oliver. They work great and I was so relaxed knowing with a glance at the monitor that all was good. It monitors the tire pressure and the temperature. As you drive the tires and axles warm up and you can see the increase in both and then they stay constant. Safety First! accentmyride@outlook.com

Guys - Please be a bit careful on this topic of tire pressure - at least for the time being. Certainly advice about "real world" "normal" tire pressures are well within the parameters of discussion. There is reason to believe that Oliver has historically set these tire pressures at the maximum recommended pressure due to a number of factors (legal, advertising maximum payloads, possible RVIA requirements, etc.). It is a very simple matter for the owner to reduce that pressure to whatever they want at delivery or after and then the owner is responsible for the care and maintenance of those tires. One of the Moderators has recently requested information about this subject from Oliver and I'm sure that the results of that inquiry will be posted as soon as they are available. Bill

Now THAT is really a great hull number! Enjoy the process and thanks for that first post on the Forum. Please don't be a stranger around here. Bill

Welcome to the Oliver family. I hope you don't have a long drive in the weather we've been experiencing across the country, lately. Glad you got the time to watch the videos. They really have helped many people. We'll look forward to photos of your new Ollie.

Welcome to the club -Andria. We are here to help... RB

We forum members are also horrified, why does the Service Dept not adjust them correctly right before delivery??? This has been a well kmown issue for many many years. Have you bought a TPMS kit for the trailer yet? It should be at the top of your Honey Do list. Get one that also shows the tire temperature. A properly inflated tire flexes a little (it is not rock hard), cushioning the frame and hull over rough surfaces and bumps. It will heat up a little as you cruise the freeway, as will the pressure increase slightly. It is neat to be able to check each one to see what is going on, plus the spare tire, which obviously won’t react like the ones doing all the work. John Davies Spokane WA

John, Jason can confirm you have a 5200 pound Dexter axle on a new manufacture Legacy Elite single axle trailer. Our LE2 has 5200 pound Dexter axles. Took the following Dexter bearing/seal numbers off of our Dexter axle build sheet. Crossed the Dexter numbers over to Timken & Chicago Rawhide numbers. Dexter also has a build sheet with brake, seal, bearing, and dimension information available for your axle when you give Dexter the axle serial number stamped on the axle. 2 Each Bearings Dexter # 031-029-02 or Timken # 15123 2 each Bearings Dexter #031-030-02 or Timken #25580 2 each Seals Dexter #010-036-00 seal or CR #22532 Hope this helps,

Congratulations and yippeo-kiyay! I remember that feeling back in early September. Just today we put our signatures on the final-final contract and emailed a .pdf off to our sales rep Anita down in Hohenwald. Next week we send our $½ down by check, and on March 24 "R-Villa" goes into production with a delivery date of May 17, 2021. The time has flown, what with COVID-19 and spending oodles on Amazon stocking up on stuff for the Ollie. You won't believe how much you will learn from this Forum! Don't buy anything until you've spent a month reading all the posts and searching through all the suggestions. There is a WEALTH of knowledge here! Enjoy!

Bill I am feeling special today, as I got the vin for the Elite I, same as yours, that will be picked up in 6 weeks. I will be looking forward to hearing from you about what you have learned the first few days about what may have not been told, or changes you made from recommendations for delivery team, such as reducing the tire pressue. Vehicle registration paperwork is on the way. Enjoy the ride. John

That is the exact same site that was assigned to us for our first couple of nights after initial pickup. We called and extended our stay another night just in case we needed to follow-up with Oliver on any issues that might arise. Excellent spot and easy access to bathrooms. Enjoy the stay.

Our 2021 GMC 2500 Turbo-Diesel is on order and will have the concealed steps; glad to hear someone else thinks those are a good idea. I drove a 2020 diesel and could not believe how quiet and was surprised how well it rode compared to our 2017 Sierra 1500. Right this minute I am looking at receiver hitches. I was going to purchase an Andersen (non WD) when I saw the "Weigh Safe 2-Ball Mount w/Built-In Scale" online at eTrailer. Now I am SERIOUSLY considering that one. I own an Aluma brand flatbed trailer which I use to haul my Polaris General, and the built-in hitch scale would be real handy for easy load distribution. I just need to determine how much drop (4", 6", 8" or 10" are available) that I will need for "R-Villa" (our new Ollie) when it comes. Any advice?

Very nice Steve, Congratulations!! I took delivery of my 6.7 Tremor back on Sept 1st and now have a whopping 4440 miles logged. So far we are very happy with the comfort level and highway visibility with the higher lifted Tremor pkg and how extremely quiet our cab interior is. I have since added an ARE Z topper, (5) custom Fuel wheels and (5) Nitto Ridge Grapplers and XPEL paint protection. I have found that the Nitto’s are a much quieter tire than the OE Duratracs. I did my first oil change the other day adding Schaeffer 5W40 full synthetic, yep 13 quarts. Extremely easy the way the oil pan and filter are configured. In the event you decide to do you own oil changes or just want to carry a spare fuel, air or oil filter, here -http://Dieselfiltersonline.com I have an account with Schaeffer oil and they ship a case to my door step within three days. Here is more info about the oil I use. https://www.schaefferoil.com/documents/244-9000-td.pdf Hope this helps! Enjoy that sharp new Super Duty!

Very happy with our Ram 2500. Tows our Oliver without breaking a sweat! Mike

We’re assigned site 60 for our pick up. Looks like a nice area. I’m looking forward to exploring the park. Cindy

The longest reservation available at any Texas State Park or COE park is 14 days which is a decent amount of time and there’s usually another one within a short drive. With the state park pass you get one 1/2 price night during a 2 night or longer stay. If you have the pass for COE parks for 62 or older camping is always 1/2 price. Hope you get things straightened out with your cell service and have time to relax and take it easy a few days. Cindy

Congratulations! We are also from Texas and will be picking up our Ollie II on 2/15. There have been a lot of posts from fellow Texans in the past few months who have either just picked up or just placed orders. We camp a lot in the Texas State Parks and Corp of Engineers Parks and hope to meet other Oliver owners in the future. Looking forward to more posts about how pick up and your stay at DCSP goes. Cindy

Bill, well howdy! PM me anytime. Hard to find many other Elite 1 newbies (like me!) — and assume you are not FT in it like I am. A whole ‘nother universe, really. I am always glad when my dumbth can help others in this. Obviously I am having some “difficulties” I did not need. Someday, when and if everything settles down, I plan to write a super-organized, clear, “wish I had known” “what I needed that I did not have” “is this supposed to be on fire?”-type of post here all by itself. Or, perhaps better, I’ll do it on my website, and with helpful tips and an honest review. Stay tuned. I will “follow” you here too, in a minute.

Congrats from a fellow Texan! I am in DFW and pickup in May. I lived in Austin years ago when I went to UT. I visit when I can as it is a great place . Good luck !

Congratulations, Bill. I hope you enjoy your shorty as much as we have enjoyed ours for 13 seasons. Looks like better weather for unloading the truck and setting up today. At least some sunshine 🌞 I hope you'll get time to run through all the equipment during your stay. Tennessee is a beautiful place to camp, but February weather is iffy. You'll definitely get the chance to see how nice and toasty it is in the trailer in the 20s at night. 🙃 We'll look forward to photos, later.

Bill - Amazing - isn't it? Just how can the "simple act" of picking up a camper take the entire day? Before I got my Oliver, the other campers I bought maybe took 2 hours (tops) to get delivered. Glad to hear that all went well and that you are now setting about the chore of actually moving in. At least you are warm and dry and (hopefully) rested. Let us know if we can help! Bill

Bill, Welcome to the family of Ollie E1 owners. It just seems like yesterday we picked up our Elite I Hull #664 on September 14. We also live in Texas and have really enjoyed exploring the State Parks over the past few months. Wishing you safe travels to wherever your journey takes you. Mark

Pick up day was long... I am currently camped at Davey Crockett Park. Yesterday I drove from Austin and stayed in a VRBO near Henderson. Drove to Hohenwald this morning and took a factory tour this morning. Lunch in Hohenwald at Southern Skillet, and then back to the Sales and Service office for payment, and walk-through. Walk-through took a little more than 3 hours. I left the Oliver Sales and Service facility at 4:30. I made a quick stop at the local auto parts store and I drove a portion of the Natchez Trace to the Davey Crocket park. Beautiful drive. Arrived at the park after dark, and in the rain. I have a truck full of stuff for the trailer, but I have all day tomorrow to get settled in. For now, I have electricity. I am warm and dry. And thankful.

Sometimes a little humor is good. Not every post will be serious and on topic. We have a number of members who like to inject some sarcasm or humor. Not a problem. As long as we don’t get mean, personal or too political we can read, smile and move on. Mike

After having had a Pex Elbow fail while camped in the middle of nowhere (details HERE in an earlier Sharkbite thread), I recommend all owners get Pex repair parts and tools in advance. After my experience I suggested a crimping tool with clamps ($26.99), and some brass elbows ($8.99) from Amazon. Also some 3 foot segments of Pex tubing from any hardware store; Amazon seems to sell Pex in 50 or 100 foot rolls. I also keep my Pex stuff in the water pump compartment.

For those looking to make their own gaskets, the manufacturer is ITC in Elkhart IN here is a link to the part listing, the middle photo is a dimension drawing that might help. The part number is 69710-CH-6.5K ITC LINK For those with the old ones, they are made by Diamond Group and their catalog is full of useful modification items DG catalog