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I attended the Non Rally last week and thought I would list, (not in any order) what I saw/learned from all the Oliver Guys/Gals I met. I made my list, starting on day one of things I thought would be of value to me, maybe others also. I don't have pictures of each of these, but maybe the "Guilty Parties" could follow up. On a personal note, I did experienced a Flat Tire on my TV, which needed a new tire. Also had an Andersen Hitch Link failure, which I'll cover separately. The Gas Shortage wasn't a big deal, but I did see several Stations that limited purchases. My list: 1. Reflective Red/Silver Tape on the lower parts of their Oliver, like you would see on a Semi Trailer, to improve visibility at night. Great Idea! 2. Motion Detector Lights mounted on all 4 sides of the trailer, I liked this idea to improve security. 3.Andersen Hitch Pin Handle, available from Tractor Supply, 8000 lbs capacity. This replaces the "Bat Wing Pin" and greatly assists in pulling the Pin in/out. 4. Mount a Level on the Front Basket or front of the trailer, that is visible in the TV's Back up Camera to assist in leveling (side-side). This tell you when you are level, without having to get out of the TV and checking several times. 5. Umbrella Storage PVC Tube mounted inside the door. 6. Entry Door Clear Window Kit, I go to add this. 7. Bed Mattresses, KTT or Southern or just Cushions, I am still on the fence! 8. Screen Door Towel Bar, of course. 9. Andersen Hitch Chains, Link or Dog Bone connectors? 10. Trailer Jack to change a Flat Tire. 11. Reverse the Window Shades to improve privacy! I've already done this! 12. Extra Back-Up Lights mounted on Back Bumper of the trailer. I likes this idea and plan on adding these. 13. Business Cards, great to exchange when you meet people. 14. LPG, Fire Pit. both Outland and Heiinger offer them. No wet wood to try to get to burn! 15. Apple/Sirius Radio added to the Oliver, must have. 16. Apparently the 2021 Olivers have added an extra 3 way Switch, in the lower Panty Cabinet to turn on/off the Courtesy lights, nice addition. Overall, the Non Rally was a big success, I understand there were 28 Olivers in attendance, very nice time. I look forward to next year's Rally!

Month #11 with our Ollie stored here in our back yard on a 12X55’ pad we had poured. We have had zero issues with any critters entering or making a home inside our Ollie. We always remove any food source if we know we are not going to be traveling. I have installed S/S fine mesh screens over exterior appliance inlets and exhaust vents. I also cover our AC unit after every trip to preclude and Carolina Wrens from building their dream home. 😄

The morning coffee view. Persimmon CG.

Hello fellow travelers!! New year-New Day- Where did Ollie stay today -we are winging it - almost all flipping trip. As the Memphis I 40 bridge has traffic a little slow - we left a day earlier and went by way of West Helena Arkansas, Never been here before -so -why not - And then up to our next stop, and a few more - on the way to Park AZ. So a few strokes on Rec.gov and we snagged a great spot on Enid Lake Mississippi. Persimmon Hill CG is another wonderful COE facility with a geezer pass $12. Spot 50 - on the end of the point - overlooking the lake. Well kept and many miles of park roads to ride/walk. Well worth the time if you are in the area. I hope many will contribute to this 2021 Summer posting. I am going to try to keep it going - depending on the digital domain availability. Verizon that is ------- Our loosely made plans - are to traverse the heartland - I-40 until we hit the in-laws home at 7500 ft' - stay awhile then head out - to ????. And where are you my fine fiber glassed friends? To steal from the Who - Where are you, where where - tell me- where are you- because I really want to know.... On the road again, RB,CB and the Dog. And to edit - fuel prices went up in AL, and down in Mississippi. Interesting - must be the tax base.

Hello All! I am a CG owner and as a result have seen every size and type of RV there is and a few "things" that would not fall into any class of RV. I must admit that I was not aware of the Oliver by name until this month and that is a result of my interest and research into smaller 5th wheels for my own use that led to the Escape in Canada that led to Oliver in Tennessee and my decision to purchase one shortly after understanding exactly how they are constructed. I am a semi-retired builder both commercial and residential so I had no difficulty seeing the quality of the Oliver and it fits my desire for a smaller, quality, RV that I can drag around the country without white knuckles behind my One Ton Ram. I have most of you to thank for shedding more light on the Oliver RV as a whole and your candid stories, questions and answers were a huge part of my decision to move forward with the purchase of an Oliver. I have spent several hours snooping around in this forum and I appreciate most of what you all have to say and share with one another and I look forward to more of the same. That being said I will be avoiding one or two of you mega posters 😉 If any of your are ever in MT near Butte look us up and mention my name and this forum if you need a spot for the night you will benefit as a result. Safe Travels and Happy Trails Dan

Dan - Welcome! Glad you have decided to stop "snooping" and come on out into the really fresh air. 🥰 Obviously, let us know if you have questions - even the "mega posters" would be happy to add to the totals. Bill

The spring arm Mike is referring to is highlighted in the picture. Mossey

Has anyone investigated or formed a plan on how to deal with the seven years of bad luck resulting from the breakage of said mirrors?

Did you reposition the spring arm that connects to the cover? I recently rebuilt my fan when the gear housing self destructed. In order for the cover to open and close correctly the gear must be aligned correctly. If you merely disconnected the linkage then the gears should not have been affected. The spring arm needs to be connected to the support frame that raises and closes the cover. Here’s a pic with the arm attached to the frame that the cover attaches too after I put the new gear assembly in. This is the spring arm of my destroyed gear assembly. Here I’m holding the spring arm off the cover support. Spring arm disconnected from broken gear assembly.

Mice have to get there, first. Get a creeper. Look under your Ollie. Engines are wide open. Ollies aren't.

There are also pre and post towing checklists in the 2021 model year manual (which can be found on the Oliver University section of the Oliver site).

Welcome to the forum! Maybe we'll see you next trip to Alaska. Or, somewhere else on the road...

Hey Dan, welcome to the group! We really enjoyed our trip through Montana and plan to return. We’ll definitely check out your RV park! Mike

There are also a number of these types of lists from various channels on YouTube - KYD immediately comes to mind. Bill p.s. check the Oliver University for this and for a bunch of other stuff that will make you delivery much more enjoyable.

We installed it just prior to putting it away for the winter. I’ll post an update once we get a chance to use it.

We leave everything in during the Michigan winter, including the mattress. Prior to getting the Froli system for the bed, we did put the mattresses on their side, and a couple buckets of Damp Rid helps.

We live in the country and park our Oliver on our property under a CalMark cover. The only mouse intrusion we’ve had is in the spare tire cover or the bumper. No damage. You should be fine parking it at the farm.

OK, lets just assume that the mice get inside - what are they going to eat and/or drink once inside? If you take those things away and plug what few "holes" there are in the exterior then lets have a party and chew on some fiberglass?😁

I used my white ones for a template and let the roll heat up some in the sun. Then cut them to length and they fit perfectly. After about 2 months they were all about an inch too short, so having some extra was a good thing for me. If I did it again, I would cut them long and force them in the corners better than my original attempt. If you are replacing all of the white window seals on an LE2, I think your measurements are short. Using your measurements, I come up with 205" or rounding up to 18'. Curb side bed window = 60" Street side bed window = 60" Dinette window = 60" Bathroom window =25" Mossey

In the Asheville, NC area we are slowly getting back to "normal". Yesterday's news claimed that some 25% of North Carolina gas stations are still without gas. In my local area, one out of the three stations nearest me usually has gas for at least part of the day and its never the same one of the three. I guess that the lawn mower will just have to wait for gas for at least another week 😁. Bill

Have a great trip!

Caulk Fight! 🔥⚔️🔥

Sir Overland: Not to far - I have mine on order - Advanced Small Modular Reactors - INL Waiting for 1/100 scale. RB

Maybe at the next non-non rally (aka real rally or Oliver rally or ....) we can arrange a intro to fly fishing? Its really not that hard - ask ShallowGal! Remember - trout don't live in ugly places (for the most part). Bill

I do this virtually every year. Some of the best trout streams and lakes require a backpack. The way I figure it - if I'm going to hike four or more miles into a spot, fish all day and then hike another five or so miles back out, why not just take the tent and sleeping bag with me? I can be a bit more relaxed as to the time I get to the trailhead, hike in, set up camp all in a relaxed manner. Fish a bit in the afternoon and/or evening and get a good night's sleep. The next day I can fish in the morning, pack up camp and take a relaxing stroll back out - or, decide to stay another night or two if it suits me. No crowds, no hurry, fish that rarely (if ever) see an artificial fly and nature. For me, it doesn't get much better than that. Bill

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.

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

Well, it's true that I once heard of a guy who could run his AC all day off a broken 50W portable panel, and another who's trailer glowed with the light of god after just looking at some lithium batteries online. But despite that, I'll stand by my four years of experience with both that neither are magical. Math and science and the law of averages apply, and so I would strongly advise anyone who's thinking about spending thousands of dollars on electrical goodies to place a higher stock in the more pessimistic estimates of what you'll get for your investment.

+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.

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.

I actually prefer nuclear, Of the lone wolf design. Lacking that - you are spot on, MMMM, Free shake Shack for a vaccine - never mind - look a squirrel. Ok I am done. Good question. George Westinghouse's namesake has helped here - thank you Ocean pup. RB

I've posted in other threads here and there about my experiments with speakers in the Ollie, but thought I'd make a separate topic. I don't think we have one for Sonos stuff, through I know we've talked about them in three or four other speaker threads. Anyway, any excuse to talk music. Background for those who don't know: We got our Ollie back when Oliver allowed customer modifications, and one of our mods was to eliminate the entertainment system completely. So no TV, radio, or speakers at all. My idea at the time was that we'd have a car stereo place do a really nice system for us. The cost of that though was prohibitive, and at the same time I was starting to look at wireless speakers for the house, so I decided that was the route to go with the trailer as well. Apple had just come out with their HomePod, so I figured I'd try one, use it in the kitchen when at home and move it to the Ollie when we travelled. I won't review the HomePod since they've discontinued it, but suffice to say that I think they had good reason to do so. I wasn't impressed, and it was kind of a pain both in and out of the trailer, so it went onto craigslist. But the idea behind it wasn't bad. My next experiment was a Sonos Beam, which did impress me, and is still in the trailer. It's a different philosophy than the HomePod was, since it's permanently mounted, but I decided on it since it would fit perfectly under the attic. In my opinion, it's not a bad solution especially if you have a TV and want a soundbar for it. It certainly sounds much better than the HomePod - even though it's still a single speaker, and fixed at the end of the trailer, it has a much broader sound than you'd expect. Though one of the drawbacks is definitely that it doesn't really immerse you in the music, at least not the way I like. There are two other drawbacks to mention: one, it's 120 volt so you've got to be plugged in or on your inverter for it to work; and two, it requires a wifi network for your trailer (which I think is included in the latest Ollies?). Overall though, thumbs up. The sound is really nice, and one of the things Sonos does well is in the way they have you tune their speakers to the space when setting them up. Basically, you walk around the space waving your phone around like a nut while the speaker plays tones, and at the end, they recalibrate the EQ of the speakers to give you the best sound and eliminate any boominess. For a small space like the Ollie, that can make a big difference. So we've been pretty happy with it. But of course shortly after I installed the Beam, Sonos came out with the Move, which has a similar form factor to the HomePod. But instead of plugging in, it's battery powered and so is truly portable. In fact it's waterproof to boot, and has a rugged rubber base so you can rest easy taking it outside and using it around the campfire. Plus it can be charged via USB and has Bluetooth audio in addition to WiFi, which means you don't need a WiFi system in the trailer, and don't need to use your inverter to power it. So sure I had to get one, took it with us on our last trip, and REALLY like it. It's easily the best sounding Sonos we have - it's larger than the Sonos Ones that I've been populating the house with, but smaller than the Sonos Five, so the sound is predictably somewhere in between. It just has a really nice resonant quality to it. As a single speaker, it has the same drawback as the beam, but AirPlaying to both simultaneously gives you a really great, immersive sound all through the trailer. With the bonus being that you can grab it and carry it outside. But like the Beam, there are three drawbacks: one, it's a bit big and cumbersome, so kind of difficult to find a spot in the closet or wherever to stow it while traveling; two, you can't do a stereo pair with the Beam (though if you have two Moves, you can pair those); and three, it costs over $300. But to justify the cost, the speaker isn't dedicated to the trailer like the Beam is. Ours has its home in the house, gets taken out to the patio, front porch, etc. Drawbacks aside, had you asked me yesterday what I thought the best system was for your Ollie, I'd have said buy a Move. Or two, if you want stereo or the ability to have music both inside and out at the same time. But ... in the mail today came the tiny Sonos Roam. It's a portable speaker like the Move, but small enough to fit in your hand, and I have to tell you that for such a small speaker, it really packs a punch. Not as good as the Move, of course, but inside the trailer, it actually comes surprisingly close, thanks to the trailer itself adding a great deal of resonance to the sound. Outside, the Move crushes it, but inside the trailer, it's difficult for my somewhat older ears to distinguish them once you've got the volume levels even and fiddled with the EQ (Sonos allows you to set a separate EQ for each speaker, and since the setting is held in the speakers themselves, they'll have the same sound whether you're playing through their app or through iTunes, Spotify, etc.). In fact, in the trailer I think the sound from the Roam is pretty much on par with the Beam, if not a bit better. Daddy bear, momma bear, baby bear, and a shy smokey bear: The size! This little guy could go anywhere - the versatility is fantastic. Bluetooth or wifi, so like the Move it will work without dedicated wifi in the trailer. It has a better waterproof rating than the Move, so you could actually drop it in a lake, if you need to do that. It's half the price, has USB charging (plus wireless charging), and you can stereo pair two of them together. Add velcro to the back, and you could mount them wherever you want, inside or out. Move them around the trailer depending on where you're sitting, etc., then grab one off the wall and take it out to the campfire. Drawbacks? None, really. The Move sounds better, but the versatility of the Roam trumps that, imo. So today if you ask me what I'd recommend for sound in or around the trailer, by all means get yourself a pair of Sonos Roams. They come in white, too, though I don't know if their white is color matched to the Ollie.

tl;dr - absolutely buy this, and depending on how you use your kitchen sink, maybe buy this. When we started looking at campers/trailers one of my requirements was that we should be able to go for a full week without refilling our water supply, using an estimated 7 gallons of water per day for both my wife and me, which included a daily shower for each of us. That was ~50 gallons, so we knew we couldn't get that with the Ollie, but were hoping that with some diligence and an extra 12 gallons carried in the truck that we could stretch a calculated 6 days into 7. That never happened, and of course we actually slid the other direction, getting more like 5 days - 3.5 from the trailer tank and another 1.5 from the extra water. I think if we really ran the tanks dry that we'd have gotten 6 full days but we never had a situation to really test that, mostly since we'd start to get nervous around the 20% mark and would go find water. Then last year I replaced the kitchen faucet, and the new one had an aerator that really had no flow restriction at all. It was rated at 2.5 gallons/minute vs 1.5 for the standard Delta faucet Oliver uses. And it also has a short little lever that made it hard to adjust to a small stream to save water. We could do it, but it was a pain. I realized last month though that the faucet would take a standard sized aerator, so I decided to buy a few to test them out. The ones I got were better, but made my cool kitchen faucet seem average, and I couldn't have that. But a little internet sleuthing led me to The Mikado. It restricts the flow to an amazing 0.35 gallons per minute and has the coolest spiral spray pattern you've ever seen. At only 0.35 gpm, I imagine you'd get pretty frustrated if you wanted to fill a glass of water; but we use bottled water and only use the kitchen faucet to do dishes and wash hands, so that low of a flow rate actually works out perfectly for us. We lost the ability to switch between two different sprays, but we never used that feature anyway. With that success, I decided to take on the shower. The highest rated low flow shower head I could find is the High Sierra. It's not a looker by any means - it's downright ugly. But it seemed like anyone who's ever rated shower heads has placed them at the top of their list, and it has a flow rate of only 1.5 gpm vs Oliver's 2.2, so I put my aesthetic sense to the side and ordered it. In its favor, it feels great in the hand - very heavy and solid, and it also has a trickle feature like the faucets Oliver used to use, which is great for keeping the water warm while sudsing up. Not in its favor is that I found it nearly impossible to connect to the hose from Oliver's faucet. I ended up having to order an oddball adapter and then modifying that to make it work. (It would have been easier just to have swapped out the entire faucet, which is what I'd recommend anyone else do.) But even with the adapter, it does slide back into the faucet just like the original, so apart from being a pain to make work, it does work just the same. But I have to say that this shower head is truly amazing. It has a surprisingly forceful stream that feels as if it's using twice as much water as before, if not more. It works so well that I didn't believe it was only using 1.5 gpm and had to test it myself - which made me even more surprised since I actually got a little less. I'm not exaggerating when I say that this really transformed the shower, and I highly recommend it to everyone, whether you're trying to save water or not. But it is ugly. After both of those mods, I thought I'd see if lowering the water pressure would make any difference, and found that 40 psi was about the point that I started to notice some drop off in the shower output. The sink stayed the same regardless what I set the pressure at. In fact it will actually run for a good while with the pump off, just from residual pressure in the pipes. So I've set both the pump and my external pressure regulator to 40 now, which I suppose helps my plumbing and maybe makes some dent in water usage though I doubt much. The result? 8 full days this past trip with both of us taking showers each day, split roughly 5/3 for the Ollie's tank and the extra gallons in the truck. So 2+ extra days of water while at the same time improving the quality of the water at both the sink and the shower and being able to lower the water pressure. Really A+ results. I don't know how often we'll actually need a full week's worth of water, but on this last trip it worked out well for us since only once were we someplace that we could actually hook up the trailer to a hose, which meant a lot fewer trips to get water. Also it means a little less stress and obsessing over water use, which is a good thing. By the way, the replacement aerator may work with the stock faucet, but I'm embarrassed to say that somehow I've lost mine* so I can't check. *Along with the sink. How do you lose a sink?

Gas is a $1.00 more where I am. Prices started to steadily rise beginning in February. Pretty discouraging.