Leaderboard

Don't EVER let someone rush you - that is really when bad things happen. Usually a smile and a wave will settle things down a bit, but, having someone(s) watching you only adds to the amount of pressure that you may be feeling. So, the answer to your question is - it depends. Its all good advice from those above depending on the particular situation. Bill

If you are in the process of backing in and someone drives up, they wait. If you haven’t started then you should let them go by. You’ll get better at the backing part and most folks remember how it was for them and show patience. There are a few out there that don’t, they are the exception rather than the rule. Mike

On our way from Bardstown, KY to Fall Creek Falls State Park, TN we stopped by Hohenwald to see the new sales office and service area. We had a good visit with all the Oliver folks and were impressed with the new building. We stayed the night at Amber Falls Winery, a Harvest Host location. We’ve been to Amber Falls many times as a result of our visits to Hohenwald. We had a great tasting and a quiet evening in the vineyards. Camping in the vineyards. View from my chair. Filet Mignon with some Amber Falls Cab.

I've waited longer than that for someone who was obviously new to back into a tough spot. Probably all of us have. And, most of us remember our learning curve, too. I would say if you sense an obviously impatient person waiting, and you've kept them waiting several minutes, go ahead and take that second loop. It might clear your head, and give you a different angle of approach.

I personally use string trimmer line (STL) as a pull wire. It's slick and won't snag on anything, the tensile strength is beyond what most people could break with their bare hands and it has very little stretch in the lengths I use. Beginning on the roof, I would cut the connector off and wrap the STL around the old coax (for about 8 inches or so) and attach with electricians tape, then gently use a pull-pull, see-sawing method (takes two people) to work it backwards from the roof and into the trailer. When done, the old coax is gone, leaving the STL inside the trailer. Don't cut the STL from the reel once you have it completely through, just attach the new coax to the STL, again with electricians tape. That way, if the new coax slips off the STL during the pull there will still be a way to start over. You can pull the new coax back to the roof and reattach it to the STL. I would pull it through from the roof top down into the trailer, the same direction you pulled the old one out. When all is good (in place and tested) you can pull the STL back out and rewind in onto the reel. If this procedure is used in an area where you might want to pull future wires, I cut the STL somewhat over twice the distance to be pulled and coil up both ends and leave it in place. Saves a lot of cussin' next time.

Soooooo, last night of the first part of the trip. Gonna stay the night in an old junk yard. Route 66 Junkyard Brewery Grants NM. It is a harvest host stop. Have some brews and stay in the lot that was the junk yard. It is a different kind of place🙃

I have an aluminum box on the tongue to hold chocks, blocks, gloves, etc. It has been very handy since it’s the first thing I open when we arrive on site. The generator (when we take it) is in the bed of the truck. We only use the generator to charge batteries when the solar can’t keep up so being in the bed is no big deal. It’s also only 37 lbs so it is easy to lift.

BTW I should add that I came to my opinion while van camping and therefore pretty much never being the one causing the wait - I was always waiting. But anyone with even shreds of situational awareness and empathy will just look at their phone or talk to their partner or see what interesting radio stations might be out there to distract their impatient monkey mind for the very few minutes it's going to take.

BTW the impatience is likely to be worst (based on tuning into my own type A - ness 😉 ) in first come first served settings in that period of mid morning through mid afternoon where the rats are trying to find the limited number of pieces of cheese in the maze and they know other rats are already exploring other parts of the maze. That may be a setting in which to more quickly go to the "take another loop and clear your head" move.

Patience varies but generally my sense has been that my job is to wait patiently for even 5 or so minutes if needed. Even if I have places to go and people to see. IMO it's their problem not yours.

We've carried the same Yamaha 3000 watt generator over 150K miles on the front of two different Oliver's. Wouldn't have it any other way. Fuel goes into the generator tank. Fill it up when you get fuel for the truck.

What he said X 1000

I'll answer some and let others fill in blanks as well... 1) Clean - Lithium Batteries don't out-gas acid vapors the way Lead Acid batteries do. So there isn't a need to clean them. Maybe wipe down surface dust but no real need. 2) For Lead Acid Chemistry batteries (wet or AGM types) a full battery cycle happens when you get below 50%. Lead Acid batteries prefer to be kept charged up as it will prolong the life. If you let a lead acid battery get below 50% repeatedly it will cause damage as the lead plates get damaged and the result is a battery that won't recharge fully, nor provide power under load. 3) Video about battery compartment: This refers specifically to AGM or Lead Acid Batteries. They've not yet produced one about Lithiums. A Lithium battery doesn't need to be vented to the outside. Depending upon the specific lithium battery you may need to be careful about the "outside temperature" while using the battery. Lithium batteries can be discharged in cold weather down below 32F ...but unless they have an internal heating element or heating blanket they can't be charged if their temperature is below 32F. 4) Lead Acid batteries should be monitored and charged once they have discharged to 50% state of charge. Lithium Batteries can be taken nearly to 0%. In the case of the Lithionics Batteries like the GTX315, it's suggested a reserve of 15% be used as the have an internal heater that will use about 10% of the capacity in cold weather. 5) Not sure why that 50% statement was given. Storage of Lead Acid and Lithium are different and each battery manufacturer has their own specific procedures. I would suggest looking at the specific battery manufacturer's storage requirements. 6) How to disconnect ? It depends upon the specific trailer and which options are included. If you disconnect from SHORE POWER then the batteries will continue to function and run all the 12V items in the trailer. If your unit also has an Inverter/Charger, then when you are disconnected from SHORE POWER you can turn on the inverter to also run AC appliances like the microwave and items plugged into outlets. If you have the 3000W Inverter and Lithium Batteries they are also wired to be able to run the Air Conditioner for a short time. 7) The Lights are LED and very low wattage. But take the microwave as an example, the wattage is listed on the sticker inside the door frame. Typical is 1500Watts. If you can see a sticker on an appliance Wattage can be calculated from that sticker. Watt's = Amps x Voltage Calculation Example: Device sticker says 110V and 15A = 110x15 = 1650 Watts. Another way is to buy a power meter, plug your device into the meter, which then plugs into a wall outlet and it measures the wattage real time and shows it on a display. 8) On the web there are "Wattage Reference" charts available that give typical values for various items....simply add up all the watts your using to see the total. For Safety - In your Oliver, every place you plug in an item will either have a "circuit breaker" (for AC devices and plugs) or a Fuse (for DC and USB's) on the Oliver. 9) Storage: Lead Acid vs. Lithium Lead Acid: Trickle chargers, or maintenance chargers are used specifically for lead acid batteries and provide small amounts of current to keep your battery topped off but not overcharged. The lead acid batteries will still emit some gasses and this is why they don't want the battery box vent's covered in any way (like with a slip on cover). In the case of cold winter storage it's better to take the "lead acid" batteries out of the trailer and put them in a garage or shop on a trickle charger. This is one I use on my bench for my extra AGM batteries that I use. " Lithium: For lithium batteries, just charge them up and turn them OFF. (That's for Lithionics which have a built in switch.) 10) The inverter is a device that converts 12V DC Power from the Battery into 110V AC Power. Inverters come in many forms but the ones in the Oliver are high quality "Pure Sinewave" inverters that mimic the power you get from typical house plugs. The total output wattage of the inverter is one of the key specs. Oliver offers either a 2000W or 3000W inverter depending upon your configuration. A 2000W inverter can run a Microwave (about 1400W) and maybe a couple of 60W laptop chargers, and your lights all at the same time. In our Oliver - Hull 505 there are only 3 things that are mounted in the trailer that run on AC. The Air Conditioner, microwave and refridgerator (when on AC mode). Anything you put into the "ac outlets" is also running on AC, like a Computer Charger Brick, an Instant Pot or a VitaMix. The TV, Stereo, Vent Vans and all lights are all running off of 12V DC. If you plug in a cell phone or iPad charger into an AC outlet, it's converting AC to DC for your phone....in those case you would use less energy by plugging USB Charged Devices directly into the USB or Cigarette Lighter ports in the Oliver. (That way your not converting from AC to DC and wasting energy.) Hope that helps: Check out our Blog here and don't forget to look at the "Oliver Trailer Outfitters Guide" link to Amazon on that Blog. https://4-ever-hitched.com Craig & Rose Short Hull 505 - Galway Girl

While Battle Born batteries are very popular in the RV industry, Olivers choice of Lithionics brand peaked my interest. This video may explain the price of the option.

My version of Houghton AC install. Start out by cutting 120 volt power to AC and 12 volt power to furnace. Next remove the plenum of the Dometic Penguin II on the inside of the Oliver. This will expose a group of wires that are in a black sheath, these are the control side of the wiring for the AC. These go to a LCD relay board that controls Cool/Furnace/Heat Strip that is mounted up in the AC. You will also see a metal electrical 4" x 2" Handy Box that will have the 120 volt power supply for the AC. Both sets of wires can then be disconnected and the four bolts holding the AC on can be removed, this allows you to remove the AC from the roof of Oliver. The Houghton AC will not be using the Dometic thermostat that's mounted on the wall because it comes with a remote but your furnace still needs the wall thermostat which works with the LCD Relay Board. I wanted to preserve my old AC with the LCD relay board intact for resale, so I purchased a replacement board mounted it in a plastic box. I installed it in the area where my tank monitor is with the access through pantry. Where I disconnected the control side of the wiring harness from the AC I then connected wires long enough to be routed back to the new LCD relay board that is mounted next to the pantry. I then connected those wires to the relay board. One other item is the relay board has a freeze sensor that needs to be hook up or you will get a error message. That sensor is mounted in the cooling fins on the AC, so I had a temp sensor left over from a refrigerator repair I did a while back and that worked as a replacement. The Houghton comes with a roof mount frame, this gets a sealant applied to the under side of it and that is set in the opening in the roof, I used Dicor Lap Sealant. The roof has a slight radius built in to it to help shed water so the flat roof mount frame will tend to teeter in the opening. I applied the sealant to the under side of the outside mount frame and put it in the opening with four bolts in place. Then I put the inside mount frame in place and hand tightened the nuts with very little force. This assured me the all was lined up properly. I smooth out what squeezed out by dipping my finger in water and forming a bead around the frame. I let this sit for 24 hours before installing the ac. When I torqued the bolt to 9 ft lbs I looked up on top and saw a couple spots where my formed bead had some small bulges but I'm satisfied that I have a good seal. I made the 120 volt connection to the AC with waterproof connectors and discarded 4" x 2" Handy Box so I would have less obstructions in the air passageways. I also used aluminum foil tape to smooth the transition between the two mount frames. As a sidenote halfway through the install I thought of a different way of doing the wiring for the thermostat. If a person replaced the LCD thermostat with a older manual style you could do away with the LCD relay board. If you look at the first picture that shows a group of wires that are in a black sheath, these are the control side of the wiring for the AC. In that group of wires there are two blue wires one with a white stripe. The one with the white stripe is hot 12 volts DC and the solid blue is the wire that goes to the furnace relay board. So re-allocate the existing thermostat wires by doubling them up ,two of them hooked to the solid blue and the other two hook to the blue with the white stripe. Then at the wall hook the two thermostat wires that are hooked to blue with white stripe to the power in on the new manual thermostat and the other two to the power out. The reason I would double them up is because of they're small gauge. This would do away with having to pull wires and using the LCD relay board. Also save you having to toggle through the unusable modes (heat strip, cool) on the LCD thermostat to get to the furnace mode. I am very pleased with the sound levels of this AC, you can easily have a conversation between two people without any difficulty of hearing each other. Plus it also has heat mode and dry mode. I should have done this write up sooner when it was fresh in my mind. Oh well. Paul PS I also installed the Micro Air EasyStart. I wanted to ensure that my Honda 2200 would be able to start the AC from eco- mode. You can see from the pictures it was very tight space to mount the unit. The captured inrush amps before installation was 67.1 and 48.9 after install.

Just watch out for that "dog"!😵

Last week before we picked up it was suggested that a "Where's Ollie" thread might be good for folks to post pictures of where they've been, maybe with a few comments about the location. I'll get it going.... This is Hillman Ferry State Park in KY at Land Between the Lakes. Nice campground, with lots of lake water activities. You can get a site right on the lake to fish from!

Thanks to all the staff at Oliver for a great delivery! We are traveling home after one night at the old sales office in Hohenwald, two nights at David Crockett SP, and now tonight we are at Cumberland Falls State Resort Park in KY. Many thanks, also, to Foy Sperring for our fabulous countertops, drawer dividers, and shower mat. Such luxury! We regret a bit that our ARE Truck Cap did not arrive from the manufacturer in time for the trip. I was told there is a fiberglass shortage. Perhaps due to COVID? Who knows. Thankfully, our dealer loaned us a brand-new tonneau cover for the journey. Whew! Boy, do these trailers pull smoooooothly! 4BD73794-9B5F-4B4F-AEFB-38CAB39A23CF.heic 1F3E5195-5718-4602-AB81-E11CAE949EE2.heic

The week of June 7, 2021 there will be upwards of 10 Elite and Elite II Maine owned Oliver Camping Trailers camping at the Lobster Buoy Campground in South Thomaston, Maine. Individuals that are considering purchasing a new Oliver Trailer can come by to meet and talk to the owners. Checking in at the campground office first is necessary.

Thanks MIke! That totally did the trick. Now to read more from the other replies. Take care, Chris

Knowledge is 10^3 power.

Sorry, all the HOW TO titles are reserved for modifications and service info. Forum stuff does not qualif,y, it says so somewhere …. 🤪 Thanks for your attention, I hope everybody has a great Memorial Day weekend. John Davies Spokane WA

Your Hull #110 has the same solar setup as our Hull #050. Hopefully all your equipment is all still in tip top condition. As Sherry stated Blue Sky equipment is very dependable, It's not as simple as the subsequent Zamp system but it is far superior in its capabilities and the amount of information it can provide to the end user. The Blue Sky IPN-Pro is both a programmer and a display for the solar controller. It is also very finicky. If it has been disconnected from the system, ie unplugged, had the batteries changed out, turned off the solar controller, etc. then it will have no display until it sees a full battery state of charge (SOC). When the battery is fully charged, the green light will not be solid (indicates still charging) rather it will have a fast blink. It is unlikely that the indicator will reach the fast blink stage with the onboard charger alone. But, if you pull the trailer out into full sun it will come back to life. Sometimes this will happen in a few minutes, but depending on the SOC it could be a few hours. Once the display has been restored, it will operate normally from then on. Once you get everything going again, you will need to get the system properly set for the new batteries. Call Ryan at Blue Sky for guidance.

You can get the model info from inside the trailer - no need to get on the roof. Just pull the filter cover and look inside. There's a sticker with all the info. My guess is that if you're hearing it clearly that it's the internal fan. I can't remember if you can see it with the filter out, but even if not, you might be able to get a hand on it to spin it and see if that's the culprit.

Maybe I should have capitalized "HOW TO" so people could see it. 😛

Does the display under the street side bunk display the same information? I think you can disconnect the phone wire from it that goes to the remote display to restart the remote display. We had solar controller wiring issues with our trailer and that is how I remember it. Do you have the Blue Sky documentation? If not you can get it through the Oliver University site. Since your unit went from 6v AGM to 12v wet cell you probably should look through the set up procedure and for equalizing, etc. I would be concerned about the wiring also since you went from batteries in series to parallel configuration. Battery physical security and case clearances with venting should also be checked.

I was able to 'snake' my new cable by using the old cable. The "secret" was to make sure there was no sharp edges where we spliced the cables together. The splice was a simple, but secure, wrapping with multiple layers of slippery electrical tape.

The batteries are replaceable and I had installed new ones a couple months back. And per the TireTraker site, a low battery in the sensor gives either a “no signal” message or a “sensor” warning icon indicator on the monitor. But I’m getting intermittent incorrect pressure readings indicating a leak. I’m thinking a bad sensor or interference. I’ll contact TT.

Great write up! Still holding out hope the OTT will make the switch to this or one of the other available quiet units. No excuse in my opinion that they continue to install the painfully loud Dometics.

Nice! Thanks for all the great photos. In our older ac, only the furnace has an analog thermostat, so, no problem with the sensor when we installed the Houghton smaller (ac only) unit.

Yeah, when the tide is way out but incoming it can be surprising how quickly a two foot high flow of water crosses a hundred yards or so toward the land. It's not zero risk on outgoing tide but the risk is for sure lower, especially if you watch several wave sets come through to see what's going on. But yeah sneaker waves are real. We really enjoyed walking both Ruby and Beach 4 during this stay, and of course the beach right at the campground was handy for several nice walks. I think I like Second Beach even a bit more than Ruby but now I'm splitting hairs I suppose, and I can't take my dog there. There are some beaches between Bandon and the CA border that I am fully smitten with but it's a MUCH longer drive from home. Will be heading down there (with reservations at Cape Blanco and a few other spots in-between here and there for before and after) in late October when the weather is often surprisingly awesome on the coast. The beaches down along the Samuel Boardman corridor are pretty wild and of course the beach at Bandon is super photogenic. Here's a pic from Second Beach (currently closed due to being on tribal land, due to COVID concerns btw!) four or five winters ago, when I was staying at nearby Mora campground, which used to be FFS all year but now is on the reservations season along with Kalaloch Beach CG during high season 😞. Mora is also "boondocking" per the definition being used here.

I don't know about the 2021, but I don't believe the dometic thermostat in the 2020 is bluetooth capable since on my thermostat there is no bluetooth icon at the bottom of the thermostat. Dometic makes one that is bluetooth capable like in the manual, but it shows a bluetooth icon on the thermostat as in the drawing you reference above. The thermostat in mine has just a plain white face at the bottom of the thermostat.

Dark horse podcast. Mostly - some kayak ww stuff. Nerdly yes.🤪

Ok i had to pick one of the highest $$ today. As everyone was hi priced today. As an aside -since I was a little pup I have had memories of a place called "Clines Corners". I once had a CC pocket knife - long ago lost. So for some reason I seem to stop in on my westward trekking. It is nothing special. But we stop. Go figure 🤔

My awning does the same always has. I crank it to the end back off a half turn and then back in it goes right in. I tried the little bit of adjust available with no success.

Might want to check to see if there is some debris in the channel at the top of the frame where the fabric meets it. There is a little trough there. Maybe somethings is wedged in there.

Hi Brian, I don't understand what you are asking. So my apologies if you already understand what I am telling you. Once the primary cylinder that is selected by the propane change over lever runs out the regulator shows red. You can have both tanks open and when the regulator shows red it will switch to the other tank. You will know the original tank is empty because it is red. See about 1:30 in the propane tank video here: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/travel-trailers/videos/

It is smart thinking in the new employment era. Work remotely from the one bedroom apartment. Or work remotely from the apartment on wheels looking out at the ocean, mountains, lakes etc. I know where I’d be working from if i had that opportunity.

I think your observations are right on. In the case of my son (38) and family I’m sure this venture into the RV world isn’t temporary. They relocated from Houston to Durango because they are big outdoor activity enthusiasts. Hiking, biking and skiing with an occasional Ironman triathlon thrown in. Now, instead of making day trips to local areas to hike and bike they can pack up and go for the entire weekend. Both kids also hike, bike and ski, so I believe they will be RVer’s for a long time! Also, the first few weekends they went out he had paper plates on his new Powerwagon and on his 27’ NoBo! Mike

Hi all, my wife and I are getting our new Legacy II at the end of June . We could use suggestions about what to put in our dedicated tool kit in the trailor. Does anyone have a list. Thanks in advance

Chris here. If all goes well, we will be picking up hull #110 on Monday. Though reported earlier on the forums as selling for a very high amount, the dealer came to their senses by the time we came upon it and had dropped the price considerably. Looks like new inside and out, really. Someone took great care of it. I myself have been researching RV'ing and travel trailers for seven years now; certainly didn't rush into anything. It's time to stop watching YouTube only. The Oliver is in EXCELLENT condition from what we can tell. We've visited it a few times and gone over it quite thoroughly. I've been watching any Oliver videos I could find since 2015; not too many out there by private owners. Erika and I will ”attempt” to change that. We'll see how we do. We're both software support and video editors (desktop recordings). The only immediate concern we have is the rear Oliver sign and if it's sealed well enough. Does anyone have a link to a how-to for the rear sign? More to come as these TT n00bs get their feet wet. No more tents for us. Also, kudos to the dealer. They even took it camping one weekend and said it tows excellent. They could have tried to sell us an anti-sway or weight distribution system, but said that with my 2020 RAM Limited with 4-way airbags and 3.92 differential (for towing ability), it should not be necessary and to try it first before buying that extra gear. That's a good sign. We're looking forward to upgrading some basic components and making it our own. We'll supplement the 4 new flooded lead acid batteries with our two 1000 watt Jackeries. The trailer does have the 320 watt panel and everything seems to work well. More to come, Chris

I watch a lot of nerd youtube. Will Prowse is my favorite.

Mike . Yep. Thats why we decided to take the bait. Gonna find a way to make good camping without rez. Lot of boondocking planned. Will use various apps and see how it goes.

I love the idea of a touch screen. And the look - I love simplicity and also futuristic design. But I really really hate touch screens in cars. The glare is too distracting at night and they take too much attention to operate. Physical buttons and knobs all the way. The easiest cars I ever had to drive were my two Saabs. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they modeled all of their ergonomics on the data and ideas they got from their military jet division. (Night panel buttons - jeez I miss those.) There were a trillion friggin little buttons in those cars, and yet it actually ticks me off when I think about how intuitively everything was arranged, how I rarely had to even halfway glance at a control to adjust it, and how much I have to suffer through bad design decisions whenever I get in a car today. Even the chunky controls in my F150, like them though I do, suffer from every knob being the exact same shape and size (special place in hell for that design team.) I hate touch screens in cars. It’s entirely form (and cost) over function. In fact now I’m going to bed angry from just thinking about them. 😡😂

We are starting to look at next year. Hopefully there will be a Ollie rally in Guntersville in May and from there we head to Alaska. Looking for any info from those who have already made the trip. We want to concentrate on Alaska and the Yukon for this trip. We plan to be out of Alaska mid September.

I just noticed this this morning: Canadian Border closure just been extended until June 21st. I do not know how this affects travel to and from Alaska. I will stay tuned.

Welcome and congrates! When I took delivery of my hull #117 in February, 2016 there was only one person that had a video tour of the Oliver posted on YouTube (Windcrasher). It was a good video showing just about all the features of the Oliver and I bet I watched that thing 50 plus times - there was no such thing as the Oliver University either. After that a good Forum member posted a number of videos on various aspects of the Oliver but after encountering some family problems and nefarious people on YouTube he took most (if not all ) of those videos down. Since then there have been a number of "reviews" by various people but they tend to be somewhat generalized in both information and content. Regarding your concern about the rear "sign" - you might want to send a PM (private message) to SeaDawg. I know that they have worked on theirs and would be happy to provide whatever help they can. With regards to your tow vehicle - I assume that it is a 1/2 ton pickup. If that is the case then you might want to investigate the use of the Andersen WDH a bit further in that these hitches are generally "required" by all of the major manufacturers for vehicles under warranty. It could also affect your personal liability in the event something happens while out on the road. Assuming that your batteries are good then I think you will be surprised as to how well the solar system works. In the years I've had mine, I've never been below the mid 80's in remaining battery capacity (and that was after 4 straight days of rain camped in a site that had fairly heavy tree cover) and in full sun the batteries are virtually always back to 100% by no later than 11am. Bill

I'd always thought "boondocking" referred to dispersed camping - i.e. using places where it's legal to camp but not in an established campground, and campingin a campground w/o hookups was "dry camping." But I'm happy to go with the local flow here on this forum and thread - the point in this threat being places where you'll be happy you have a camper that lets you break free of hookups! Here are a few views from a sweet dispersed site on BLM land just east of Capitol Reef NP off of the Notom Road. There are SO many spots like this near CR and also the Grand Staircase Escalante NM.

This is Round Pond Recreation Area at West Point, New York. Campsites are spread around the pond with picnic pavilions, boat dock and beach area. Sites are nicely spaced, we couldn't see our neighbor - the next site was about 30 to 40 yards up the road. This is just across the road from our site looking across the pond. This was the third week in October.

My mom was from Nova Scotia and about 6 years ago I did a 10 day motorcycle tour of the entire province mostly by following the coastline. Fortunately I was able to see moms sister shortly before she passed away. It's a true gem of an area and as you mentioned, some of the friendliest people you'll ever meet. Hope to return some day in a Oliver.