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I am actually on day 3 of a 2 week shake down test of my recent self install of: 2-Zamp 170w panels, a Zamp 3 port roof box, Victron 100-30 solar charger, 2 - 100ah SOK lithium batteries, a blue sky cutoff switch for the solar panels as well as the appropriate circuit breaker and the proper sized cables and lugs. I had previously installed a blue sky battery cut off and a Victron 712. My 2019 has the PD4060 with the lithium jumper. Our camping style doesn’t call for an inverter and I want a less complicated system. I did all of the work myself and have probably $3k total in it, including the harbor freight lug crimper tool and wire locator. I learned a lot and the project was fun. I totally relied on AndrewK’s instructions and lots of advice / encouragement from Andrew as well as ScubaRX and Mike Mossy. These guys are the best!! I have kept the PD charger circuit breaker switched off when we plug in and batteries are quickly getting back to 100% by midday from the panels. I’ll give further thoughts as I get more familiar using the system. The Install took probably 2 full days by my self but knowing what I know now, to do it again I could pull it off in 10-12 hours. Probably less with some help. I’ll give further thoughts as I get more familiar using the system. So far I really am impressed

Wood is a beautiful natural resource and one that I feel fortunate to work with daily. This mahogany extended dinette for hull 444 was crafted from a single timber 13” wide and 10’ long. Applying the satin polyurethane last night took my breath away as its waterfall grain with tiger stripes popped out. Only a few times have I had the pleasure to craft with wood this unique. NOTE: As of August 1st, I will be increasing my prices by 15 to 20%. I do not take this lightly and can only hope prices will come back in line over time. All the materials I use in my craft have seen an unprecedented rise in cost, especially wood. For those who have orders in process, you are grandfather in at the current pricing. If you are planning to place an order, all new orders until August 1st, will still be honored at the current catalog price. I will be publishing a new catalog on August 1st, with the price increases. My current catalog can be downloaded HERE

The antenna dome actually has 7 separate antennas in it with 7 corresponding cables that have to enter the Oliver somewhere. The gray box is just a junction box that I fed the 7 wires into through the pictured cable gland fitting. Inside the junction box I have a marine thru hull fitting that goes through the Oliver's roof and into the cabinet that all 7 wires run through. My reason for doing it this way is that I expect the Oliver to outlast the technology attached to it and I wanted to future proof as much as possible by allowing for upgrades without further modifications to the Oliver hull. The cable gland fitting is similar to ones we successfully used on the ship in harsher conditions than I expect to encounter with the Oliver. As for the mount, it's fabricated out of 1/8" aluminum plate. When bolted down, it's actually very rigid and sturdy. When designing the mount, I considered putting some bracing on it but decided not to. It would take a lot more than a bird strike to bend the mount. That said, if hit hard enough, something will give. I would rather the antenna mount gave than the fiberglass it's bolted to.... I didn't want a flagpole or any kind of retractable mast that had to be put up each time its used as we also use the router while driving. The SIM cards are on the back of the router and would be impossible to access with the router in place. The wing nuts make it easy to take the router down for access as needed and also leave the option of removing the router and using it in the home if we want. (We live in a rural area and home internet options are not always the best or most reliable) The antenna dome does have a built in ground plane so an external one is not required but I figured the flat aluminum mount can't hurt! 🙂

For our friends and neighbors, and our few Canadian Oliver owners, happy Canada Day as you celebrate your heritage.

I recently installed a Pepwave MAX BR1 Pro 5G cellular router on our Oliver. It was part of the ‘Speed Demon 5G Mobile Internet Bundle’ that we purchased from Mobile Must Have. We’re just completing our first trip with it from Washington State to Minnesota and back. So far, we’re very happy with its performance. This is a fairly expensive setup and definitely not for everyone (or the faint of heart with required hole drilling in the Oliver roof!) However for us, with my wife’s need for a high speed and consistent connection to the internet for her work, it makes the difference between being able to travel or staying at home. On this trip we spent 2 nights in a campground in North Dakota where my regular cellphone kept alternating between 1 bar and no service. Using the Pepwave, my wife was able to work and have conference calls on both Zoom and Teams without any problem. The Wi-Fi also works while driving. Until my recent retirement, I was captain on a ship that had both Cradlepoint and Pepwave equipment onboard. Both companies make very good, professional grade equipment. There were two reasons I went with the Pepwave over the Cradlepoint option that Oliver offers: 1) Cradlepoint no longer seems interested in supporting individual users. Their focus seems to be almost exclusively geared toward enterprise solutions. 2) I wanted a router that was capable of utilizing 5G as it’s now being rolled out around the country. The Cradlepoint option offered by Oliver does not have 5G capabilities. The MAX BR1 Pro 5G accepts two SIM cards so we have a Verizon as our main data plan and a T-Mobile card as a backup. The sloped area behind the air conditioner seemed like the only place I could go through the roof with the antenna wires and mount and have a clean installation in the upper back cabinet. Because the antenna works best if it is above any metal obstructions, I fabricated the mount so it was just proud of the air conditioner and adding as little additional overall height as possible.

Thermacells are the best! And the newer ones are rechargeable and use a cartridge rather than a pad. Very simple to use. We keep two in the camper and another 4 at home for patio use!

Probably wouldn't work with "big hair." (Most of us gave up that style decades ago, though.) Big hair could become a "sticky situation."

I found these on Amazon . Various colors The black would hide the bug carcasses, and we could "pretend" they're decorative.

Or, if you have a Harbor Freight close you might try one of THESE and save yourself a few bucks. Whatever you do - DO NOT test these things with your hand, foot or even someone else's body part. Don't ask me how I know this.🤪 Bill

Seadawg, yes, the backing plates were part of the standard construction, at least on our 2019.

I will add that my 100w Renogy suitcase with charge controller and an extra 20’ 10A cable weighs in at 31 pounds. Mossey

Be sure to check the dimensions and weight of portables. I have two 100's from GoalZero. They are heavy! Charlie.

Those oru kayaks look amazing. Even the tandem that converts to a single weighs less than a 200 watt zamp suitcase solar kit. Even I could handle that by myself. Website shows they sell backpacks for the lighter singles, so you can walk them in to more remote areas more easily. @Kirk Peterson, which model do you have? Do you find the estimated assembly time and water rating (calm, choppy, etc.) from the website to be accurate? Of course, I realize your experience level is much higher than mine. We don't use our kayaks much, and then only in calm water /perfect weather.

I was thinking the same thing when I saw the pic of the roof rack and its load on the Toyota, if I were the police I might stop you just to see what's going on. trainman

Thank you for the additional details. The more details you share, the more impressive your modification becomes! Mossey

I find these strangely satisfying. They work great on flies and mosquitos, but maybe not gnats. https://a.co/9jomJiJ

Agreed, why not simply call the Service Center or email them. Jason or Mike will surely give you an accurate quote. It won’t be cheap, but it will surely be done right. I have had nothing less than excellent support from Oliver Service.

Selling our beloved Oliver recently was a bittersweet experience. We had six wonderful years of great camping experiences with our cherished Ollie. I enjoy photography, and I have taken a lot of pictures of our Ollie in beautiful locations. I went through my photos and selected the best to share here. I then asked myself how to present these photos. By chronological order, or maybe by geographical location? I looked through the EXIF data for the photos and looked at the time when the photos were taken. I noticed that nearly all of the photos were taken in the early morning, late afternoon, or early evening, the Golden Hour of photography. So I decided to present these photos based on the time of day. In the Best Possible Light. Morning photos 6:31 AM July 19, 2019 Deer Creek State Park, near Midway, UT 6:32 AM May 7, 2018 Oliver Rally Lake Guntersville State Park, Guntersville, AL 6:43 AM May 4, 2019 Jalama Beach County Park, near Lompoc, CA 6:53 AM April 5, 2018 Valley of the Gods BLM land, near Bluff, UT This is not a campground, but open BLM land and camping is free. No water, no toilets no picnic tables. Just gorgeous country, and lots of privacy. This is the most spectacular campsite we had in our travels. 6:54 AM June 3, 2020 Lake Jordanelle State Park, near Park City, UT 7:18 AM May 19, 2017 Kodachrome Basin State Park, near Cannonville, UT I distinctly remember taking this photo. It was very cold the night before, and hard to get out of my bed to take this picture. I had sized up the location the previous night and knew that this would look good in the morning light. 7:49 AM March 20, 2019 Goose Island BLM Campground, near Moab, UT We had a great campsite right on the Colorado River. BLM campgrounds are primitive, with a fire pit, a picnic table, and pit toilets. 8:21 AM Sept 17, 2017 Rain Forest Campground, Lake Quinault, WA Afternoon 3:04 PM April 5, 2018 Valley of the Gods BLM land, near Bluff, UT 3:21 AM April 6, 2018 Gouldings Campground, near Monument Valley, UT 5:34 PM August 30, 2019 Rush No More Campground, near Sturgis, SD This was part of the Inyan Fiberglass Rally. 5:44 PM August 25, 2019 Horsehead Campground Angostura Recreation Area, near Hot Springs, SD This was part of the Inyan Fiberglass Rally. Evening 6:09 PM April 15, 2017 Upper Big Bend BLM Campground, near Moab, UT This was a small campground, with a really small spot to put the trailer. I was still new to maneuvering the trailer, but I was able to back Ollie into place. A bigger trailer would not have worked. 6:29 PM April 4, 2018 Valley of the Gods BLM land, near Bluff, UT 6:31 PM April 28, 2018 Piney Campground, Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area, near Dover, TN 6:37 PM September 7, 2017 Whitby Island, WA We were on our way to Olympic National Park with my sister and her husband and their Casita, when we “driveway camped” at a family friend’s place. 6:38 PM September 21, 2016 Rivers Trail of Tears State Park, near Cape Girardeau, MO We picked up our trailer on September 20, 2016, and spent that night near Hohenwald, TN. This was our first night on our own, at a campsite overlooking the Mississippi River. 6:42 PM October 15, 2020 Castle Valley, UT We were camped with our friends and their Airstream on their land near Castle Valley, UT. 7:04 PM April 9, 2022 Watchman Campground, Zion National Park, UT This is special to us, as this was our last trip with Ollie. 7:17 PM April 4, 2018 Valley of the Gods BLM land, near Bluff, UT My favorite Ollie picture. 7:34 PM May 18, 2017 Kodachrome Basin State Park, near Cannonville, UT 7:40 PM April 13, 2017 Upper Big Bend BLM Campground, near Moab, UT 7:42 PM May 3, 2019 Jalama Beach County Park, near Lompoc, CA 7:58 PM March 28, 2019 Goose Island BLM Campground, near Moab, UT Our propane firepit right on the Colorado River. 8:07 PM September 10, 2017 Hobuck Beach Park Campground, Neah Bay, WA 8:40 PM May 18, 2017 Kodachrome Basin State Park, near Cannonville, UT This was our first time using our propane firepit. 9:09 PM May 20, 2017 Kodachrome Basin State Park, near Cannonville, UT I hope you enjoy these photos, and that you enjoy camping in your Oliver. -- David

Shades of Chevy Chase? 1980s vacation?

I’ll be interested in how it works out long term. It is much more accurate than doing it manually! I still keep a spreadsheet with mileage, name of where we stop and number of nights. There was a time when spreadsheets were cutting edge, now I guess they are old school! If anything describes me it’s “old school”. 🤪

I wasn't sure myself and found an excellent article that pertains exactly to your question. The determining factor is whether you have an internal "bonded" neutral and ground... or not, which is called a "floating neutral". Check out this article and you might find it helpful. I did. An interesting thing is that two major inverter generator manufacturers (Honda and Yamaha) have floating neutral which means you need to put on an external bonded plug. Many of the others have internal grounding hard wired inside the generator. It would be worth your time to read the attached article. https://www.rvtravel.com/rv-electricity-generator-neutral-bonding-basics/