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Seadawg said : "Everyone has a different camping style. We treat the Ollie more like a very dry and warm tent on wheels, I guess." That is such a great statement. We bought the Oliver, as a step up from the van, which was a step up from the tents and on. We have looked at the more upscale and feature laden RV's with big engines, big gen set's and - well more. Stars in our Eye's - so to speak. Each time we pulled back to the simple basics - well, the Oliver excepted...... I have endeavored to keep Ollie simple and true - resist adding this, changing that, replacing the other- making it more than I needed. If I wanted all the features of home - I should stay home - was my mantra. The Oliver comes close - and with the addition of a stuffed GMC- it is almost - home. I must admit - I have grown really weary of the competition for space in the wilds of RV'ing in the Covid era. Escaping - is now staying home. Our upcoming yearly migration through the western US may be the last in Ollie - we have some other irons in the smoldering fire's of what's next. It never gets easier - now the damn bridge has to be considered - go south, turn right after a bit - head up, and take the other bridge. - Simple , yet - not. Not to mention the aftermath of the last wave of Covid campers who seemingly turned "Leave no trace" on it's head. To which the authorities reply in turn, posting closed and stay out notices where none went before. A stain hard to be removed, not to be forgotten. We shall see. I too often lift my gaze - - to the upper reaches of the industrial sized storage rack, where - resigned to their fate - the camping gear of the past - the tents, the packs, the miscellaneous stuff, lie in wait, longing for a return to action. A simper time - it was. Yet I know - the landscape has changed - perhaps forever. Could it be - that smaller, comfortable proverbial - place on the lake - is the answer - to the question. Warm - dry - and most of the stuff one needs - that Is Ollie. Simple. We will see how it goes - Come August - it might get much simpler. RB

Is THAT why you seem to like that stuff?😂

Ya know, you can haul a tent and an Ollie at the same time. The Ollie makes for a marvelous base camp if you don’t mind leaving it behind for a few nights.

Don’t do it man. Terrorists thrive on German techno. It’s like feeding gremlins after midnight.

I like everything about it, including the color. Except the price tag. Thanks for the share.

Our trip this past month was the first real test of our two new Battle Born lithium’s, 100aH each. We did a mix of no hookups (Harvest Hosts) and W/E. When we would wake up I would check my Blue Sky read out and normally we were down to 82 - 86%. That’s charging phones and iPads, Maxxfan running and when dry camping the furnace running all night. Our solar got us back to 100% pretty quick. I used the charger once when we had 30a on a cloudy rainy day. I’ve been debating about going to a third BB, not sure I need it. Mike

The answer to your question is Batteries! Unless you only travel from hookup to hookup, you'll always need a battery. Whereas if you've got a generator you don't need solar at all. I suppose with a generator you could do without batteries, too; but that would be a true pain. I have to admit that when you added your 12 volt fridge, I was trying to figure out how you were going to make it work with 300W of solar and 200Ah of batteries. I kept quiet though - you know how polite I am. 😂 600W of solar is about right 😁, and 300Ah of LFP storage is, I prophesize, where you'll end up. (I'd say 400 for anyone else, but you guys watch your usage and batteries like hawks.) Where you'll put that battery, I'm eager to see. My suggestion is to build up one of Will Prowse's kits, since they're pretty compact and you could sort of shape it to whatever space you have available. I'd bet that's what you're thinking already. I'd really love to do that myself, actually. It would be a lot of fun. °°° Side note for everyone to ignore - LFP batteries are really super nice, but for most they are a luxury indulgence. It seems like a lot of people right now just have to have them, which is fine, but man that's two to four grand that I'd want to find some other use for unless I really needed it. Until you get into DC fridge territory, the value isn't there. But if you have limited space and need a lot of power storage, then LFP becomes the only answer, at least until Russel figures out his nuclear mod. I heard the Nimitz is being decommissioned so there's a possible parts source. I'd get in touch with your local surplus store. I wish people would look at LFP batteries like they do Andersen hitches; i.e., a reluctant purchase that you want to make only when you have to. No one is looking for an excuse to buy an Andersen - at least I hope not. And yes I'm being hypocritical since I can rationalize a shiny purchase like no one else on earth, but still.

Annual maintenance and readjustments, along with cautious downhill technique of using the TV low gears to help maintain a safe speed, etc have worked for my 2008 Elite I's 137,000 miles so far. But disk brakes would be the cat's meow. Having only one wheel and tire on each side, I pay special attention to how things are going on "back there", combining regular maintenance with a tire pressure monitoring system so I can check the pressure and temperature health of the tires while going down the highways and hills. Failure to maintain our equipment in tip top shape is just asking for things to go FUBAR!

I am normally NOT a fan of what I call Primer Grey vehicles, though they are certainly easy to touch up if the paint gets chipped 😬, but this one is an exception, For some reason I quite like this “Anvil Grey”: 650 foot pounds…… It is not quite new, it has 175 miles of “Let’s see if we can smoke all four tires.” test drives. I am surprised that there is any tread left. Can somebody let me have $100,000 please? I can swing the balance. I don’t really like the roll bar/ light bar, that would have to come off. Definitely. John Davies Spokane WA

The answer, is probably "yes". Recently, we upgraded 200 watts of solar on our 2008 Elite to 400 watts of solar. We doubled our portable panel(s), also, from 100 watts to two 100 watt panels. We combined the old controller as a slave mppt controller to the mix in addition to the new mppt (blue Sky). Ran the wiring from the furrion port to the slave controller, instead of directly to the battery, via the original onboard panel controller, which we removed. We live on 2 105 ah agm batteries in our 2008. That's not a lot of power, considering we have a 12v dc danfoss/second fridge. I will caution others that we use very little power for other things. We have no inverter. We use a generator for any rare 110 applications, like power tools. Our test so far : Fine at home, with not much running. No need to plug in. Last camping trip on NC, partial day shade, 12 days, only had to run the generator once on 12 days, after two crappy rainy days, as blue sky meter showed less than 75% power in batteries . This trip, crummy weather. Overcast most of the day, full leaf cover. Still, only down by 5 hours at sunset. Ran the furnace fan a few times in the day (in the 50s in the morning here), but picked up enough sun that we felt no need to plug in the generator, though we used it to run some power tools. At night we set our analog thermostat to low, which is around 55 . We're fine with that. Others are not. We sleep well at that temp, and the furnace doesn't kick on. This is an experiment. When our current agms die, we'll likely move up to lithium. In the meantime, we're perfectly happy with over-panelling, and our current battery power . I'll update as we go.

🤣🤣🤣

If you’re suggesting that my New Music Friday posts are acts of terrorism, well… I’m ok with that.😇 💣💣💥

LOL, no. That was one of the reasons I posted. https://www.thedrive.com/news/39247/dealers-tack-on-50000-markups-to-2021-ram-1500-trx-pickups But I really love the look, especially the stance. Very like the Raptor, but also it is not a Ford, a plus for me😀 and it has a great big supercharged V8, no turbos…. John Davies Spokane WA

I love it - if I ever find myself needing to interrogate terrorist I'll force feed them this for a few hours - ,,,,,

I doubt you will feel the need for a third battery. Just my opinion.

I doubt you do. We essentially lived on 200 during our trip last November and it would have been fine had my battery monitor been in on the secret. Just with that little and a DC fridge, you have to be extra judicious with inverter use, and Mojave sun is certainly helpful. Not news to you guys. But I still bet 300 is where you end up! I say go for it on building your own battery - I'm serious when I say I want to do the same.

My new-to-me LE II has Southern Mattress pieces for the split beds, which are great for sleeping, but the original cushions for the dinette. The original cushions are pretty soft, particularly compared to my Casita's cushions, i.e., tend to bottom out. For those that have replaced the foam in the cushions or bought new ones, how did you spec the foam...or did you just sit on different samples at the upholstery shop? My 2002 Casita cushions were made in Waco, so I may just call and see what that shop can do, but thought I query the brain trust on here also.

Yes, this is basically correct - the "star wheels" are used even on the self adjusting models to "snug up" the brakes after servicing (usually the bearings) but the self adjusters should still work even if this set is not followed - its just that braking performance will be reduced until one has backed up enough times for the self adjusters to do the magic. The rubber plugs indeed may be missing but they do help keep un-wanted things out of the area and suspect that is why some engineer put them there in the first place - I always replaced mine when/if they disappear. I've had many campers and boat trailers over the years that have had self adjusting brakes and have NEVER had issues with any of them. Particularly with trailers that are routinely driven/towed over 5,000 miles per year and with boat trailers that routinely see water, bearing service at least once per year is necessary. Because of this I have always cleaned/serviced the brakes at the same time and I suspect that is the reason they have always performed well for me. Of course, on the other hand, I could just be one lucky dude. I'm not surprised that this manual process works - that is how it was designed. However, even though the process of lubing the EZ Flex system is simple, doesn't take much time, is not really labor intensive, nor, does it require any special skill, I still find myself reluctant to do it. This same thing would apply (at least in my case) to manually adjusting the brakes. I'd prefer to make sure that the self-adjusting system is working properly once per year when I have the hubs off anyway versus keeping track of my brake mileage, getting under the Ollie and spinning star wheels. Different strokes for different folks I guess. Bill

+1 We would be out camping & testing our single BattleBorn 100 AH Lithium battery right now, but delayed with the fuel shortage. We don't have factory solar on our LE2. Can't wait to get the new Lithium battery out for a real world test on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Testing at home has proved this battery requires less than 1/2 the time needed for recharging compared to the previous two type 27 AGM 12V 100AH batteries with our 100W Renogy solar suitcase. Confident on poor solar days recharging with the gen-set should yield shorter recharge times, will see. Thought our 100W Renogy Solar Suitcase was marginal and needed more panels until buying a single BattleBorn 100AH battery. We use LP gas to run the refrigerator when away from shore power and do not have an inverter. We have all we need with solar, 2000W gen-set, and LP gas when away from shore power.

But I thought that Maverick was nothing without Goose. Or, was that something else? In my experience, locking gas caps are much like "locking" anything else. A person that REALLY wants your stuff is going to get it. However, for the more casual thief it just might cause them to move on to an easier target. And, it gives the owner a bit of peace of mind knowing that they have done something to help their cause. In this regard, I recently installed front and rear "dash cameras" - at least I'll know what they looked like when they take my stuff.

The "easy" way to tell is to take a look at the back of the drum. If there is a rubber plug take it out and look for a "wheel" on the inside of the drum that can be turned (via the notches in the wheel). Turn it one way and the brakes tighten while turning it the other way loosen the brakes. These are manually adjusted brakes. Since I'm hull number 117 and you (Mike) are fairly close, I'd guess that you have the same brakes as I do - self adjusting. Basically these brakes adjust each time you drive the Oliver in reverse. These are not as finely tuned as the current Dexter "never adjust brakes", but, generally they do a good job. This is particularly so if during your annual wheel bearing job the brakes are adjusted properly when you hub is put back on. Right after this annual job your first few stops just might be a bit lacking in stopping power - that is because you probably haven't backed up the Ollie enough times yet in order to allow the self-adjusting mechanism to full work its magic yet. As long as the big magnet inside the drum is still good, the magnet is getting power, and, you have reasonably good brake lining, you should be able to get more that reasonable stopping power from drum brakes under "normal" circumstances. Yes, this is arguably ancient technology. Yes, disk brakes are easier to service and can provide more consistent and reliable stopping power under a broader array of circumstances. But, properly serviced drum brakes have proved to be a reliable source of stopping power for many years on many vehicles and trailers. Bill

Any old sharp bits or fine tooth metal blades or hole saws will be fine. Don't use coarse ones, or those intended for wood. TAPE THE AREA FIRST to prevent slips and foul language. I like the 3M blue masking tape, it can remain on for a week without getting hard to remove. Wear vinyl gloves, and use a coarse sandpaper afterwards to remove all the sharp bits, 80 grit wet or dry is fine. There is a reason it is called fiberGLASS! those shards can go under a fingernail or into your skin, and being transluscent, they can be hard to see and retrieve with tweezers. So it is best to avoid getting skewered in the first place. Drilled holes for screws should be countersunk slightly to remove the white gelcoat, otherwise it can crack and flake off when you drive in the screw. It is not at all hard, just take care and wear a mask for any dust. I like to place a shop vac hose close by, tape it to the surface if you need to, and run the vac while drilling. That will take care of 80% of the mess. Place some paper towels on the other side of the panel to catch debris that falls on that side, which is usually minimal for drilled holes, but it can be significant if you are using a jigsaw or sabersaw…. If the panel has a no core or a glass core, no worries; OTH if it has a wood core like the bathroom partition, you must seal the newly exposed wood to prevent moisture entry and rot. Several coats of marine spar varnish (clear) works great. Take a look at this thread, there are lots of holes there: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/5301-how-to-lithium-battery-powered-vent-system/ Post pictures! John Davies Spokane WA

Hey Ollie Owners! My name is Lexi Griffin and I work in marketing as an Intern with Matt for Oliver Travel Trailers and I have been looking into spots to add another rally to our roster! So far I have found that the Salt Lake City KOA is a great option and I am looking into the Jellystone Park in Larkspur, CO as well as the RiverRun RV Resort, also in CO. The idea is to have it in the fall, most likely in September time (but so far the weather in CO and WY may be too cold). If you want to suggest a campground, the sites need to have at LEAST 100 RV sites, preferably 150-200 would be best so we can get as many Ollie's together as possible. The weather at the site you recommend shouldn't get too cold or hot for the time that we stay there.

Here is one more option to consider. It works very well for us. Lifetime cooler from Walmart it serves multi purposes, takes up all the space in the basket just enough room on the back side to store two 2x6 wood blocks water tight, can be used for extra dry food or put food on ice which lasts about 4 days or just use as a anything storage. I also added a theft deterrent chain and lock on the back side. i also plan on getting another fuel pack for the other side of the basket. 4gals of fuel plus all the onboard propane I’m set for hurricane season.💨💦⚡️

I'm going to look closer at this once we have our Ollie in November - it's tough right now for me to envision and understand what is involved without getting my head down in the plumbing. One of the first things I'll be working on will be trying to improve the insulation and/or heat around all the plumbing. I know winter camping is more challenging but I'm an avid skier and with Covid ruining ski season last year and threatening again this season (hotel availability mainly), I'm thinking a winter camping trip to a ski resort parking lot may be in the cards sooner rather than later. Some ski resorts offer dry camping in their parking lots for free or a very nominal fee. One of the (many) challenges with this "winter" use case is using a bladder may not be possible due to the freezing potential. With a converted black tank and proper insulation and heating, that shouldn't be as much of a concern. Fun to think about!