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Well here it is. It will be interesting to see how the the new Tundra refresh fairs through its first year.

This is Dexter's recommendation: Lithium complex grease, NLGI No. 2 such as Mobil Oil Company Mobilgrease HP or equivalent. It's easy to find an equivalent.

Can I jump in here and ask for a point of clarification? When this topic comes up it seems everyone talks about cell booster and wifi booster and I think the wifi booster gets only one aspect of it covered. The aspect everyone talks about is the ability to "boost" an existing wifi signal (aka the campgrounds wifi). However, my understanding is that the "wifi booster" is actually the Cradlepoint Wireless WAN which is much more then just connecting to the campgrounds wifi. True, it can connect to the campground wifi boosting it and then using the connected router to seamlessly provide an internet connection to all your devices. However, for me the real power comes in the ability to use the same cradle point WAN endpoint to pull connections from wireless networks (AT&T, Verizon, etc). It is unclear in the Ollies add-on package what type of Cradlepoint router comes with the install. I think this is where most people's comments of "using our phones as a hot spot" comes in. True, they play the same role assuming your phone can get a strong connection inside your Ollie. If it cannot people have mentioned this is where they just connect a MiMo antenna attached to the window to something like their Jetpack. Our Technomadia friends have a great run down on all this. This works as well. However, my understanding of where the Cradlepoint Wireless WAN can be really powerful is 1) The omni-directional antenna mounted on the outside of the Ollie allowing for strong cell reception (less interference and stronger antenna then your cell phone alone). 2) The ability to have dual sims with cradlepoint so it can stream your connection through whatever provider has the strongest connection and doing all this without requiring you to change the Wifi endpoint your device(s) are connected to. Am I over stating what that add-on provides? Like I said their specs are not clear on what the actual hardware is that comes with that add-on so not clear if it is the version that allows dual SIMs. Even with a single SIM though the idea of an externally mounted strong omni-directional antenna for a cell single connection is a win over just using your cell phone. Good thread here. I think there are fair arguments about the cost versus waiting for something like Starlink to be viable or the complexity of this for the avg. person or the subscription cost. All fair topics. But I think talking about the "wifi booster" as just a way to "boost" the campground wifi is really understating what it is.

Everyone, I received an email from Winegard indicating the availability of a new firmware version following an announcement in August. It is purported to improve the web user interface and enhance the SkyPro functionality. As many of you know, the WiFiRanger has limited use for most of us who don't have seasonal campsites at campgrounds that offer sufficient bandwidth to support potential users. I will be installing the update and will update this thread with my thoughts about the web user interface and any significant changes I discover.

BTW, I see that Battleborn have their standard 100Ah battery on sale for $799 right now, which is the best price I've seen since I bought mine in '17.

Yep, we will be checking the new Tundra out as soon as Asheville Toyota (Fred Anderson) has one to look at. Payload increase up to 1940 pounds, depending on how unit is equipped. Hybrid and standard 3.5LTT versions available. . As far as the front end/ grill goes, I'm fine with it. Looking forward to driving one, hopefully towing Ollie with one!

I have seen a lot of negative comments about the front end of the new Tunda. It seems a lot like comments on the Fiberglass RV forums about how sterile the inside of an Oliver looks to some people. The good news is that I will not have to look at it as I'm driving a late model GM, Ford, Dodge, Nissan or Toyota truck in the future. Mossey a Toyota owner for the last 20 years

Hey Zodd, what you say is true. I guess I should be more clear when I state why we didn’t get the wifi booster. When we ordered our trailer 6+ years ago, the Cradlepoint was not an option. The wifi booster was just a simple wifi booster, nothing more. I’ve looked at the Cradlepoint in recent years. For our data needs, our iPhones provide a good hotspot connection for our iPads and our MacBook. Mike

Zodd, I would guess that the confusion might come from the fact that Oliver changes their options from time to time. And since I am not shopping for a new Oliver, I had no idea that a Cradlepoint IBR900 was an option until you mentioned it. I doubt many people on this forum were aware of it either. There may be 3 or 4 owners that do have Cradlepoint's, but they did their own installations. So if Oliver is now offering it as an option, there must be a demand for it. But I haven’t heard anyone on this forum clamoring for an enterprise class wireless router as an option. Mossey

The picture of your PD panel label shows you have a 45 amp charger. If you turn of breaker 6 in the PD panel which is labeled charger, it will kill all of your 12v in the trailer as well as the charger circuit. Your battery box looks pretty typical for a LE2. Just make sure that the 3 red cable terminals coming into the battery box are taped up very well before traveling. You don’t want cables flopping around while you are driving. I believe the cable coming into the box on the bottom right is the 3rd red cable, but I can’t see it to be positive. Good luck and let us know if you have any more questions, Mossey

Hey Jeff, glad you and Liz found the issue before something bad happened. We had the same issue, our four AGM batteries were also in bad shape. The hold down straps had worn holes in a couple of them and one was visibly swollen, two were leaking. I replaced all four with two Battle Born lithium batteries, their basic model at 100aH each. We’ve been on several trips since then (January) and so far the two batteries have been plenty, even when we’ve been out with no hook ups for long periods. If you call Battle Born they will work with you and give good advice/guidance. You probably will have to replace a board in the fuse panel underneath the dinette. Battle Born has those also. I had a fellow Oliver owner and general smart technical guy help me with the replacement and cleaning up the cabling. Here’s a link to the thread I started in January - LINK. It has a lot of information, maybe too much. Keep us posted on your progress/solution. We’re going to be at Kartchner Caverns in January, maybe we can drive down to Sierra Vista for a coffee or something. Mike

Campsite favorites... Simple, just a few ingredients... often involve the campfire or grill... or maybe something you bring partially prepared from home... What's cooking at your campsite? Paul's Awesome Flank Steak... His claim to fame... Easy & delicious. 1. Go to Sam's club or your favorite meat market. Buy a nice flank steak (or two, as they usually come packaged at Sam's) 2. Lay out each steak on the cutting board and poke with a fork about thirty or forty times on each side. (Two reasons... tenderizes, and accepts more marinade.) Trim any excess tallow. 3. Get out your favorite marinading container... flatter the better, with a tight seal... Or a gallon Ziploc bag. Grab a bottle of your favorite marinade... Ours is Lawry's Teryiaki with Pineapple. Layer a little marinade on the bottom of the dish. Add a flank steak. Cover the top with a thin layer of marinade. Repeat if you're marinading more. Put the lid on, or zip it up. Swirl around, gently. Put in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours, turning the steaks every 12 hours. The longer you marinade, the stronger the flavor. Three days is about max. 4.Fire up the grill. Grill for about 5-7 minutes each side... They're thin... not a lot longer unless you're a well done fan. 5. Put the cutting board in a rimmed cookie sheet to keep the juices off the counter or table. Slice thin, on the diagonal, with a sharp knife and enjoy. Great with pasta, baked potatoes, or roasted red bliss & veggies. Figure about 1/3 pound per person... or a half pound if you're really hungry!. Leftovers are great on a salad the next day with croutons, onions, and bleu cheese. We grilled this tonite, and really enjoyed it. Hence, the post. What's your favorite campsite recipe? Sherry

On our most recent outing one of our battery tray latches failed. The pin on the left/fore side of the battery tray was totally missing as was the rivet/pin on which the rear of the latch pawl pivots. Fortunately I found the latch pawl itself loose in the battery compartment. Our temporary fix to get us home included tie wraps and, of course, duct tape to secure the latch pawl in place. The right (aft) side battery tray latch was not affected. Until such time we can arrange a permanent repair, I'm confident that our semi-permanent solution pictured below will serve to keep the tray secure. It consists of a stainless steel anchor shackle holding the latch pawl in place so that it cannot be raised whatsoever, thereby preventing the battery tray from sliding out. I found that the 3/16" shackle fits perfectly, with the anchor shackle pin fitting snugly in the holes. For reference the particular shackle I used is made by National Hardware, #N100-347 and available at Lowe's. Hopefully this information is helpful to those who may experience the same failure. Be safe everyone. - Brian

We stayed at Two Rivers Campground in Nashville for several nights a few years ago. Well run, friendly folks. We had tickets for the Opry and a couple of other events and it is very close to the Grand Ol Opry and Opryland. We don’t usually stay at commercial parks but this one was pretty good. There was another Oliver owner there at the same time. Mike

Yes it will, hopefully better than their first go around with electric brake controllers… It’ll be fun watching as things unfold, being longtime Tundra owners and fans.. We will be looking for a new TV in 2022 or 23, and it seems like there are some pretty good choices out there for 1/2 ton trucks. It’s the cargo capacity that is going to be a big factor this time around, and 1940 lbs would be great… but I suspect that applies to the 2x4 models, not the 4x4….probably not the crew cab either. I do look forward to giving one a test drive… maybe giving that new fangled back up system a try in a crowded parking lot full of brand spanking new trucks🙂 We will be looking hard at 3/4 ton trucks this time around…

The tray that Oliver uses is the MorRyde SP60-042 Utility Tray, inside dimensions 14" x 21" x 2.75". There's 12.75" clear from the floor of the tray to the bottom of the aluminum catch for the lock. The Battleborn 270Ah batteries are 21.3" x 11.6" x 10", so I don't see how you'd fit even one without removing the tray. Three of their standard 100Ah batteries will fit easily, and four will fit tightly; i.e., it will take some work to wire them up.

Couldn't they have designed a more intimidating grill??

Mexican Mac and Cheese. We pre-cook ground beef with taco seasoning, Then at the campsite we make a box of Kraft deluxe Mac and Cheese. Mix in the taco meat and your all set. This is a whole meal but also works great as a side dish.

Can't wait to hear how this update goes. I've always thought that the "old" interface was unduly complicated for most users. As a side note referring to the quote above: I've mentioned several times before that the WiFi booster is problematic when used in a typical campground setting due to the (usual) limited bandwidth of the system that the particular campground is using. However, I've learned that while on the road, the booster is very useful to me in that I can pull into virtually any fast food joint parking lot or Walmart or Lowes or Home Depot or small town library or ....... and not even have to get out of my truck in order to send/receive emails. If you don't have a cellphone or are trying to save cellphone expense, these WiFi boosters are great when used in this manner. Bill

I’m not either, but like other big design changes we’ll get used to it! Mike

Sorry that we will not get the chance to see you in Florida. Foy & Mirna really do put on a very nice event. Why not start your own mini-rally out in the Boise area? I know that Foy & Mirna would be more than happy to share any and all of the details about what they do. Bill

Crap! I was hoping for an 80 inch screen.😉 Hopefully I'll get a chance to see one in person in a couple of days, but, from the vids, I'm still not a big fan of the nose. Bill

I'll give them a call to see if the PD 9200 series will work with my PD 4000 series. Thanks. GJ

Fixed.

Zodd, You’re all good, just wanted you to know why there was a communication gap. Mossey

This will help you get a better idea of what I did. This install was done on our previous 2017 Silverado 2500HD with a Lear topper. A couple of weeks ago we took delivery of a 2022 Silverado 3500HD. The old topper will not fit so this will all be moved to a new one when it comes in. The yellow box is a programmable timer to cut power to the router after a selected time period. I found that it would run down both batteries with its 'constantly on' state if the truck is not cranked every 3-4 days. I set it to 4 hours and that has worked well for us. When camping, if we are going to stream movies at night I just crank the truck and let it run for a minute to let everything boot up. If we need it longer than that time, I just crank the truck remotely and start over. Inside the Topper... On the roof of the Topper...

I'd ask the folks at Progressive Dynamics Customer Service 269-781-4242. I have one of the Remote Pendants for the Progressive Dynamics Inteli-Power PD9200 Series Converters. It's yours for the asking if you find it will work for you.

I've a Cradlepoint system for five years. As Mike stated, I did my own install. However, I chose to mount it on our tow vehicle rather than the trailer. When we're in the truck we don't always have the trailer, but when we have the trailer the truck is always with us. This way you can use the system when you're not towing. We have a single SIM, IBR600 router and a multi-antenna dome mounted on the roof of the truck topper. The system they are installing consists of a Cradlepoint IBR900-120B router and is paired with a roof mounted omni-directional Taoglas MA1506.AK.001 Antenna. In talking to the plant manager the other day, the Cradle Point system will be offered on the 2022 models.

So, here's an update. Tried the furnace today and realized no air coming from the vent below the sink. A quick investigation found that the duct was not connected to the furnace. The knock-out hole on the rear side of the furnace was knocked out, and that's where the hot air was coming out. No one in the factory connected it. Since I picked it up in mid-July, here are the other problems I've had. No caulking around kitchen sink, allowing water to seep underneath and drip to drawers below. Put duct tape around sink for quick fix. Need to put silicone around it. Screen door misaligned, with big gaps allowing bugs to get in. Jason suggested tweaking it to try to close the gaps. Haven't tried yet. Lettering on light switch panel rubbed off. Mike sent out new panel. Lettering on Dometic stove knobs rubbing off. Waiting for new knobs. Xantrex inverter shutting off and not rebooting due to improper programming from the factory. This resulted in a new Technical Service Bulletin (Aug. 3), and after Jason helped me change the settings, the problem hasn't returned. In another post I shared an article about the horrible (really horrible) quality of SOB RVs and the nightmares those owners are having. In that post I promised not to complain about anything related to my Oliver, and I'm trying. I guess my point here is to remind new buyers to do a super thorough check of the trailer before leaving OTT. I spent two and a half hours at OTT before leaving and thought I did a thorough check but I missed some things. For example I turned on the AC because I wanted to make sure it really could run off the lithium system, but I didn't turn on the furnace. I will say that I'm very happy with the trailer and all the components. The composting toilet is easy peasy. The lithium pro package works great. The Norcold fridge is big and cold. The suspension takes rough roads like a champ. The KTT bed is super comfy. The windows seal tight. Yesterday and today I gave it it's first wash and wax, by hand. What a job. My arms are sore! But, with a little elbow grease I got all the bugs off and with the marine wax got the hull shining.

I can't look as I'm 4,000 miles from my Ollie, but one of the technical staff indicated that there is a jumper that can be removed from the Converter and dropped down a hole to switch the Converter from AGM/L.A. to Lithium. The black jumper has two pins that are in the top and middle slot. It is in the AGM and Lead Acid position. By pulling out the jumper, and putting it into the center and bottom hole, you have set the PD 4000 series Converter to the Lithium mode. Doing so will still put you about .2V short of the desired equalization voltage for many such batteries. If this is not what you are speaking of, I would SURE appreciate it if you could post a picture and maybe the ordering info for the Pendent. Thank you,

While we couldn't make it this year anyway, we'll have our Ollie LEII this February and will plan to attend next fall if we can. Thanks for organizing!

Thanks for the information, tips, and link, Mike and Carol. We will indeed call BB. It's good to hear from you now that we are back on the road after a too-long hiatus. Yours was the first Ollie that we got to touch and see in person. Yes, let us know when you get down to our corner of AZ.

I’m not sure if the progressive dynamics charger is 45 or 60 amps. Regardless I would probably disable that function and rely on solar to get you home. 60 amps is a lot for a single 12v deep cycle battery.

Since I am cheaper than Overland, I’m retired and he isn’t, I vote for a Battleborn battery or two or three. If you do decide to buy a "cheap" battery, try Walmart. Buy buddy swears by their deep cell lead acid batteries. Reno looks like a 10 hour trip so I don’t think it’s that convenient if your heading to Flagstaff, but as Overland suggest, call Battleborn first. You are in their neighborhood and they should be able to provide some guidance. Your Zamp charge controller should have lithium and lead acid settings, my 2017 LE2 did. Your PD charger may support a lithium setting with a jumper change, you need the serial number and confirm that with PD. Their support team is top notch and will steer you in the right direction. Did your camping neighbor check for voltage in the battery box during battery removal. You may need to turn off a breaker or two if there is still voltage on the battery cables. And post some pictures of your battery box wiring so we can offer wiring support for your new battery choice if you need it. I attached a Zamp manual below. Mossey ZAMP SOLAR ZS-30A Charge Controller.pdf

I'd say go for the cheapo battery to get you by. It will work with everything you've got, though the zamp controller has a separate setting for lead acid vs AGM, which you should change - choose the WET setting for traditional lead acid. It's in the manual how to do so, which is in the Oliver University section if you don't have it with you, but I think it's just pressing the battery type button until it displays the right type. The PD converter doesn't have a separate lead acid setting. As for the Battleborns - I'd call them in the morning to verify this, but I'm pretty sure they'll tell you that you will be fine at least temporarily hooking them in to your system without making any other changes. The charge profiles between AGM and lithium aren't that different. Your PD converter will eventually need a new board that has a lithium specific charge profile, which Battleborn may have in stock, and I don't know for sure if the Zamp controller from that period will have a lithium setting or not. I think it does, but hopefully someone else will know for sure (or just flip though the battery type setting and see if it shows up). Regardless, the nice folk at Battleborn will walk you through everything you need to do - I've found them to be extraordinarily helpful and patient. They'll also be able to help you find a good installer in the area. Or maybe just drive over to Reno and let them do it, lol. Sorry for the issues - best of luck getting everything sorted. It might be a good idea to ask the electrician if he can run through the very brief troubleshooting instructions for the converter, which you'll find in the manual. Just to be certain that the battery issue was't caused by the inverter.

Yes. Sealing gaskets isn't what it's made for, but someone here tried it a few years back and found that it does the trick. I sealed mine I think early 2018 and haven't had to redo it yet.

Thanks for that reminder, Mike. I'd forgotten about Don Thompson. Yes, we try to keep it honest and fair. The reason you won't see a lot of serious off road experience here, is twofold. Most of us don't go there. And, the Oliver is not built for boulder crawling, and river fording, imo. It's a wonderful trailer, purpose built for off grid, but not serious off road. Ask me again, after another 14 seasons. It's a great little trailer. But, like I said before, I don't think it's designed for Bigfoot hunting.

We have the "charge wizard" pendant on our pd charger converter, but we don't have lithium. There is a way to manually adjust to any of the preprogrammed modes, with the pendant. It will revert to normal when it senses battery is at appropriate level. We've only used it a few times, to test it. I don't know how it would work, with lithium. In all likelihood, much the same. Not as sophisticated as being able to change settings from your phone, or a screen. Since you have a four year old trailer, your pd charger converter (like ours) will likely have to be upgraded with a board, or swapped out, if you decide to swap up to lithium. Add that into your estimates. When/if we swap up in the trailer, we'll likely go to victron gear, like we did on the boat, and several others have done here. You may want to look at the pros and cons, as well. Going all victron gives us a good communication stream, and information. Solid stuff, imo. There's a lot to think about, in making the change. I'd also take a long look at Battleborn, and possibly a few other brands, vs Lifeblue, if it were me.

We have the 11000 BTU Dometic Penguin in our 2020 Ollie. We sleep extremely well and cool with it on low auto. We rarely have used AC lately since we camp in higher elevations. We never used our AC on our recent trip to Upstate NY, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. But these work great when we decide on silence and are much cheaper than a new AC. 😎

I have found the God send of all greese guns. Dewalt 18v cordless greese gun. I hated all greese guns, clumsy need three hands hold the gun, pump it and try to hold the end on the fitting. The cordless is great chuck snaps on pull the trigger Done. Shocking price for one, but what isn’t these days. Well worth the price after one use.