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I prefer to buy fewer things, but buy quality. Thanks for the vote of confidence with my wife coming around to the idea. Thanks for your message.

I feel the price is sooooo worth the quality, compared to mass produced RVs. We looked at the R-Pod, several years ago . . . . nothing about it screamed quality; cute, maybe. In our throw-away world, I appreciate Oliver for giving us a better option. We are in the same place as you . . . . just went over threshold to our 70's. We prefer to enjoy our remaining RV travel years without fixing, repairing, and replacing an RV at regular intervals. I have little to complain about after 9 months with our Oliver. As a bonus, you get valuable support from other Oliver owners, and, more importantly, the amazing lifetime customer service/support from Oliver. I'd venture to guess that, once you make the move, your wife will be thrilled!

Nice flaps, Patriot! It is always good to see what accessories others are using. This was a major concern for us, too, before we took delivery of our Oliver. After we placed our order it took some time to find what was right for us to protect our investment. We ordered and installed this "Rockstar Full Width Tow Flap" prior to delivery of R-Villa on May 17 this year. Now, after towing with it for 4,500 miles, we are thoroughly satisfied and would purchase this flap again. The fact that it affords protection across the full width of the truck is a big plus for us. The ease with which it can be mounted and dismounted cannot be overstated. The most difficult part of the job is getting down on my 71 year-old knees! Seriously, it takes about 30 seconds to remove the flap by removing the two lynchpins (on either side of the receiver) and lifting the flap slightly up and rearward off the mounting brackets. The flap will fit in the bed of my truck with one end low and one end high; we now have an ARE truck cap installed which is not shown in the photo. (The flap is about one inch too long to lay flat in the bed!) If we are camping with the trailer parked for awhile, I can easily remove this flap to save fuel mileage while we are exploring. When we are ready to hit the road with the Ollie, it is a snap to put it back on. Available at: www.agricover.com

My home kitchen is at least 3 or 4 times the total size of my older Elite, so I get that. Like Susan, I'm a scratch cook, sometimes speedscratch, but I relax that a bit, camping. For short trips, or first week of longer, I do a lot of things at home. Precooked pasta, and bag with a bit of olive oil . I use a lot of 90 second microwave bagged rice, though I don't have a microwave. Pasta salad, potato salad, etc at home. When I prep, it's often outside, and I tend to prep commonly used items like peppers an onions for several days, stored in baggies. Indoor meals in bad weather can actually be fun. If you think the kitchen the II is tiny, take a look at the original Elite . It's all doable. 14 seasons, going strong. Tiny kitchen and great meals. Or, so says my husband.

The picture was taken about two weeks after "ice out", so guessing not much warmer than 34°. The car is all original, except has gotten a set of radial tires. 38,600 miles so far. Not perfect but close for 67 years.

I’ll start a retirement go fund me to speed that along.

I noticed this happening on our last trip. My temporary fix was obviously to stuff a sock in it. When we were back home I found that the plastic hood was deformed around the screw that mounted it to the inside handle. So this caused a small air gap around the plastic hood where it made contact to the frame. This resulted in wind getting underneath and lifting it open. The remedy was to use a heat gun and warm the plastic around the screw hole and then form it flat again. Once the plastic cooled off it stayed flat. I then added a flat piece of stainless steel as a back up plate. I did use some silicone sealant between the hood and the plate. So far it has cured the problem.

I'd love to hang out with you, and cook together. I'm not much of a baker, and I'm sure I could learn a lot from you.

Oli - The only additional thing I would have done (and maybe you did it but it is hidden under the SS plate) would be to apply a bit of sealant around that screw just to make sure that it would not leak. Great solution and nice work! Bill p.s. I also liked the sock and stick as temporary fixes.

SOP

As usual, there are two sides to this story. Is the fresh water tank usable in its present condition? - I'm guessing the answer to that is - yes. Did/does that tank hold as much fresh water as was advertised when it was sold new? - almost certainly the answer to that question is - no. What is the warranty from Oliver for this situation? I'm guessing that it was one year when the camper was new. Should Oliver warranty this type of thing for additional time? Given the nature of the "design flaw" and the relative expense of the fix I would say yes they should - and they did. How long should that warranty extend? Now, finally, here is the rub. It would be nice to think that "forever" would be the answer, but, that answer strikes me as a bit much. Indeed, given this "flaw" is/was known in the community an argument could be made that as part of the negotiation between the buyer and seller of any used Oliver this "design flaw" and/or its mod should come up during the negotiation phase. However, what does one do if the buyer had no idea that this was even an issue or of what the cost might be to fix the issue? What happens if the seller is not totally open and honest about this type of thing - assuming that they were even aware of the issue? Bottom line is that if it were me - I'd write a letter to Scott Oliver giving all of the details I could think of and reasons that the mod was not taken care of by the original owner (i.e. it was located in the far West and it was not practical to bring the Oliver back to Hohenwald for this mod) and ask for his help in getting the mod done under the same program that was used for other Olivers. If that is not successful then I would have to decide as to how much the mod was worth to me and caulk up the extra expense (assuming I decided to get it fixed) as an additional cost of buying the camper. Good luck! Bill

I find the cook stove the hardest to light after the gas has been turned off, just like the gas water heater it may try to start 3-4 times before the gas can get to it, or air has cleared the lines. I've had several RV's and all pretty much work the same, it's just the nature of the beast. I have found just because one gas appliance works and has gas doesn't mean all will work, especially on first light up after being shut off. Air in line is probably 99% of your problem. I'd say pretty common problem till all appliances have been used and gas is in the line to that appliance. trainman

Do you have the Bluetooth app for the inverter? If so, by turning the “Charger Ignition Control” switch on (#26), you can disconnect the charger from the batteries… it’ll take care of the inverter noise as it stops it from constantly trying to charge the batteries. There was a thread a while back in which NCEagle brought this strategy to light. I’ve been doing it ever since and it works great.

Your camp cooking sounds very similar to mine . . . . we should get together to share notes 😀

For the work, and risk, involved, $400 is pretty fair for a second owner. Spin welding is not really a diy kind of task, imo . Yes, it was an unrecognized design flaw.

Thanks for the info. Agree on getting accurate measurements from Oliver. Other than the garage door opening size, there would be no other clearance issues. I can maybe get an inch or 2 more on the height, but no more as it's a concrete structure. I'll be talking to Josh at Oliver more about this.

David, Very nice and sturdy Rock Flaps! Great work!

We're all waiting for Overland to retire so he'll manufacture his nifty sidemount invention for the Lagun for all of us... 😅

Lily Bay, Greenville, Maine on Moosehead Lake is always a favorite...

In OK weather we prefer to cook more complicated meals outside. We've mostly used the indoor stove for simple tasks like heating morning coffee water though we have cooked a few multi-pan meals when it was raining outside. We tend to cook somewhat simpler meals while camping than when at home in any case. Would I love more indoor prep space? Sure. Would I make the necessary trades to get it (wider or longer trailer or slides or such)? No. But that's me/us. I'm presuming you have some decent sense of your own camping style from use of your current pop up trailer and possibly prior camping as well. If you haven't camped a lot and don't have a sense of the actual flow of camping for you guys, you may benefit from renting some trailers of different sizes for a year or two of camping to get that sense. Life is full of tradeoffs and only you can decide what you're willing to yield in exchange for what else. The Oliver's kitchen (plus dinette top and those little ledges folks have mentioned) is only marginally more cramped than my wife's and my first one bedroom city apartment and we made some pretty involved meals there. Eventually I'm sure I'll add a counter extension similar to what Overland has, but it's not way up there on my to-do list yet. I may also add the Lagun table setup similar to his, but I think that's even further out and I may never do this. Even the nifty folding table is just more stuff to carry around and move from here to there etc.

When we purchased our Elite II we had a Tacoma. It was our first RV and we weren’t sure how it was going to work out. Most of our “new” Oliver friends were towing with half tons and advised me to upgrade to a larger truck. Sure enough, my range was very limited (150-200 miles max) and payload capacity was limiting. I traded the Tacoma after 6 months for a Ram 1500. Night and day difference. Then, most of our now “old” Oliver friends upgraded to 3/4 ton diesels. After 5+ years and over 60K towing miles on the 1500 I traded in for a Ram 2500 with the big Cummins diesel. Towing is stress free, no Andersen, great range and we can load just about anything in the truck we need. It is definitely not overkill. Mike

Well said! And I strongly urge anyone asking the question "how much can I tow?" to read Dave's statement above however many times it takes to fully understand what he is saying. I see the word "overkill" used a lot in this and other forums. In my opinion when it comes to breaking ability, weight of tow vehicle VS. weight of trailer and the amount of cushion or reserve left in the tow vehicles overall abilities that there is no such thing as "overkill" properly defined this would be "safer", "more reliable", "less stressful" and "much more enjoyable". I own a Ram One Ton and have towed 5th wheels, Gooseneck Equipment Trailers and Dump Trailers that are at the maximum of what my truck is capable of in all respects for decades..... In all of those situations myself and everyone around me in traffic were at a greater risk because of the fact my Rig was traveling at its maximum capacity... while capable and rated for it the fact remains its literally on the edge of disaster and I was responsible to keep it on the safe side of that edge every second. I do not consider this type of travel a vacation by any definition of the word. My reason for purchasing an Oliver is so that I can hook it up behind my One Ton and enjoy my drive more than I would with a 40' long 30,000lb 5th Wheel behind me so I caution those of you that are considering towing your Oliver behind any Rig that would be at its Maximum all the while you are in motion/driving for all of those same reasons. The physics are the exact same despite the gross weight being much different in the event of a sudden need to break or high wind or ice or another bad driver an Elk/Moose/Deer/Dog your still at a much larger risk of experiencing a catastrophic event that you could otherwise avoid with a larger tow vehicle that provides another type of "insurance" you cannot purchase from an insurance agent..... the ability to break, swerve and hopefully avoid a wreck in most cases. Good Luck to you all and please know we are not giving this advice because we want you to be just like us it is because we want the roads to be safe for you and for us and our loved ones and the larger your tow rig the safer we all are no doubt about it. Don't fall for the overkill hype!! Dan

Middle Fork Campground about 16 miles south/southwest of Buffalo, WY.

If you haven’t been to Amber Falls Winery near Hohenwald, you should go. Good wine, friendly folks. We camped there with HH for the first time this year although we’ve been visiting and buying their wines since the fall of 2015.

A growing source of Boondocking or Dry Camping (no hookups) is Harvest Hosts. The past couple of years we’ve camped at about a dozen HH locations, mostly wineries and farms. Sometimes you’re in a parking lot, sometimes just a field and sometimes out in the middle of the vineyard. We enjoyed camping at Amber Falls winery just outside of Hohenwald. We’ve camped next to a barn on a farm where we had chickens and horses all around. We’ve never had any hookups, although a winery in PA offered a 20a electrical hookup which we didn’t need or take advantage of. This is at Leyden Farm Vineyards and Winery in RI. Great spot and nice facilities. We enjoyed a glass of wine (or two) on their patio overlooking the vineyards.

Went down to the Wind River Range in Wyoming the 3rd week of July and just now finishing up with photos from the trip. We camped one night the Grand Canyon of the Snake River which by the way is a drop dead gorgeous canyon with some nice USFS campgrounds although close to the road. From there we headed down to the Green River Lakes area in the northern part of the Winds. Had crystal clear blue skies and no fire smoke until the last day. Great hikes beautiful country just an awesome trip. For anyone inclined to take this on be forewarned there is 20 or so miles of very rough gravel road to get back in there, no cell service for at least an hours drive out. Figure about 15-20 mph going in with a few patches of smoother gravel for a few but not many miles. To provide an idea of how rough the road is, we shook 3 of the window frame shades of their mounts, the solar controller in the basement became dislodged from its installment screws, one of the cables for the pins that latch the rear bumper broke loose. Anything not tied down was strewn all over the camper. I'm probably forgetting a few things. Trudi and I had briefly visited this place some 40 years ago and its been on my bucket list ever since. Highly recommended, I would go back in a heartbeat. Regarding true boon docking there are many places along the Green River to accommodate and initially this was our plan until talking with another family who tried it for one night but the bugs and ants were so bad they couldn't even get out of their camper, a Lance in this case. With those words of encouragement we opted for the USFS campground @$6 per night for the geezer crowd. By any measure the vast majority of campers here are tent campers, and the new rage of clamshell tents that carry on top of trucks, suvs and fold out into a top mounted tent. There are two loops here, one small higher the other a bit large and closer to Green River Lake. No reservations, its far too remote and in fact never saw a ranger and there was no camp host at all for the entire week. No problem at all getting a good site and most people only stay one or two nights. BTW the lake and campground itself are approximately 8,000 feet elevation give or take a few. Posting a few quick and dirty iPhone photos below. Green River camp above. Most of the sites here are very large probably between 1/4 or perhaps 1/2 an acre on average. Campsite at the Grand Canyon of the Snake River. Green River Lake sunrise with Sqaure Top Mountain. Preferred a b&w for this one. Beach at the far end of Green River Lake, about a 2-3 mile hike one way, we did the complete loop around with a few other excursions for a total of about 8-9 miles View from the west shore of the lake returning from hike up Clear Creek Canyon Clear Creek approximately half way to the end of the canyon where a natural bridge crosses the creek. Another view of Square Top on the route out from Clear Creek. I was nursing a plantar fasciitis one one foot this day so the almost 12 mile hike just about did me in. We had a few outrageous sunsets accompanied by a rising near full moon. Thanks for looking.

Not too far from the posted photo above is the infamous Moqui Dugway as it steeply descends off the southern end of Cedar Mesa down into the San Juan River Valley. Thought it might be an nice to provide photos of the general area where we've camped, boondocked, dry camped or however you choose to describe it, sort of why and what you were doing in the area in addition to where camped. Thanks for looking.

This is a cool thread, had not seen it before. I'll start out with a few in the early years of owning the Ollie. Goosenecks State Park, Utah. While there are some semi-developed campsites located back up the road with picnic tables and the likes we chose to drive further out on this bench, mesa, peninsula, reef or what ever you like to refer these geologic landforms. We were able to back right up to the edge overlooking the goosenecks as the San Juan River winds and cuts its way through land. Gorgeous evening, Trudi taking in the sights. Thanks for looking.

Plum Valley campground, Davis Creek, CA, in the Modoc National Forest. I had to put it into 4WD at one point, and the road had a little stretch with rocks and roots, but it was a good test of the Oliver in a real off-road situation. Had my co-pilot get out and spot me as I maneuvered through some pines. It's a tough trailer!

9200 is plenty, just pack more of your stuff in the trailer, keeping in mind that your tongue weight goes up proportionally (about 10%). NOT buying the tongue tray helps in this regard, keep the TW as low as practical. You still may run out of cargo load capacity in the Ford, but the towing number is fine. Try it for a season, then decide if it is going to be good long term TV. FYI if you don’t need all that extra seating, remove the third and possibly second row seats and store them. Together that might give you another 150 pounds of cargo load. Plus more actual space…. Install a cargo barrier and be safe. These are most excellent. They weigh nothing and can be rolled down and stored on the floor when not needed. https://raingler.com/collections/ford-expedition/products/1997-2017-ford-expedition-behind-front-seats-barrier-divider-net John Davies Spokane WA

@georgelewisray, there are two ignition control switches on the inverter. Switch #1 is for the entire inverter and switch #26 is for the charger portion only. So I don't mess with switch #1 and the inverter is always working. When I turn switch #26 to "auto on" the charger will be DISABLED (since there is no ignition circuit connected on the Ollie) and when I turn switch #26 to "off" the charger will be ENABLED. You will see this on the remote - when #26 is set to "off" the remote says it's charging the battery (e.g., "BLK" for bulk charging) and when #26 is set to "auto on" the remote says "NO" for the battery.

Elite II #688 also has the Lithium package with the Xantrex XC Pro 3000. I also use #24 (Charger Current) and #28 (AC Breaker for Load Share) occasionally to match and manage power better as described above. However, setting #26 is the best thing since sliced bread! I use #26 (Charger Ignition Control) to manage my Lithium charging the most (by far). Since there is no ignition control in a travel trailer, this switch can be used to turn the charger "off" and "on" via the software while you are using the inverter functions. When we are on shore power I don't want the batteries always topped off at 100% (not good for Lithium longevity), so I turn the charger off by toggling #26 to prevent the charger from holding them at 100%. This switch is an arm-saver since you don't have to manually reach under the street side bed and trip (or reset) the breaker between the inverter and battery.

Removal and replacement went well. The biggest problem was the removal and mounting, as the screws were difficult to reach. We dropped two while reinstalling, but were able to retrieve them. The new inverter is working as it should - charging when on shore power, transferring from grid to battery mode, and powering up on 12v. There is with no problem with communication between the inverter and the remote panel. I tested the outlets and all are supplying inverted and AC power. I did have to program the inverter for lithium batteries, as it came with default settings, which are for flooded batteries. Oliver gave us the settings, which are easy to change. I haven't had the opportunity to compare the new inverter to the old, in regards to fan noise, though I suspect it will be the same. According to the Xantrex manual and Jason at Oliver, the fan cycling is normal; the fact that the inverter is basically installed inside a drum most likely amplifies the noise level. The only work-around I have found to this annoyance while sleeping is to disconnect shore power at night as it seems the fan cycling on and off coincides with the charging function. Also, possibly when there is a high electrical load, though we haven't tested that theory yet. With the lithium/solar pkg, we can go the night without shore power and only lose a tenth or two of battery charge, assuming the AC or other high draw appliances (such as an electric space heater) are not being used.

Our Xantrex 3000 inverter does the fan kicking on every 15 min or so, like the OP reports, running for a few minutes when hooked to shore power. I asked Jason if this is normal and he says it is. Whether the noise level is as high as yours, I can't say. It isn't bad, but annoying, especially after we settle in for the night. I've thought about unplugging shore power at night. That being said, we have a new Xantrex 3000 waiting to be installed. The original inverter that was part of the Lithium Pro Pkg would not communicate with the remote panel (consistently). An attempted firmware update did not fix the problem; thus, Xantrex decided the inverter had a bad communication board. Oliver sent us a replacement which Jason will walk us through installing so we can be fully functional, in regards to power. We'll see if the new inverter fan does the same.

We had a mouse in our pop up trailer this past June at the ocean. I finally got it on our last night with a mouse trap. The third night he/she was running around while we played a game of RummyKube. I guess after spending two nights with us it felt like family.