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Our original thought for the vent, was the bathroom exhaust fan. If you go into the bathroom, turn on the exhaust, and then close the door you can hear the fan struggle hard to work. Open the door and you can literally hear the fan relax. If this is the case there must be a negative pressure (vacuum) situation going on. So, thinking the inverse might also be true, came the idea for the vent. Thinking that with the door closed, like when using the bathroom, there would be a positive pressure when the heater fan was blowing. So the vent would allow the heat duct to "relax" and allow the air to get out and to the return air vent, hence increasing the heat flow to the bathroom. As you can see by the candle flame movement there certainly is air flow. We did restrict the air flow to the duct opening under the bed so that that air did not go out and immediately go into the return. We think the bathroom is a lot warmer in cool weather. We could have done the same thing by leaving the bathroom door open, as some do, but find that inconvenient while using the dinette.

We routinely travel and store with blinds closed. I haven't (yet) had to restring the shades, 15 years in. In retrospect, I probably should have hung a little towel or something over the bath window, in storage, as well. The tp holder and access panel under the sink have some uv discoloration/yellowing from years of sun streaming in through that little window.

We keep them closed in both situations. To keep UV out during storage and to keep the interior cool and maybe reduce strain on the strings when traveling.

Closed always when not occupied to reduce UV damage is my recommendation. GJ

The cool thing is, we get older, but the Oliver doesn't age much.

Twenty years from now I will look like this guy sitting in the door of my 28 year old Oliver. Mike

I found accessing the fresh tank drain valve in our Elite I quite cumbersome since we leave the bed set up 100% of the time. We have the optional latex mattress which is heavy and awkward to move. So, I copied what others have done and installed an electric valve operated by a toggle switch. Works beautifully! BTW, when I removed the manual valve and inspected it, I saw a large piece of plastic debris wedged inside. Probably explains why it took so long for my tank to drain. Used the US Solid 3 wire electric valve and SPDT on/on toggle switch with flip cover to prevent accident activation of valve. All parts purchased through Amazon.

Not always my favorite but I'm going to miss him.

My wife made a little insulated curtain for the bath window. She had an unfortunate experience with frosted glass in our first trailer. Turns out, if you're close enough to it, and the lighting is good, it doesn't hide all that much. 😲 Didn't realize that until we'd had that trailer for a few years. Probably amused a few neighbors... 🥴

Got nuttin to hide but certainly closed while traveling and when I'm not there. UV damage and helping to prevent a bad guy easily seeing what I might have.

The Oliver is truly the timeless “Tennessee Jewel”.

I'd say that could be me a couple of years ago...back when I was young :)

I switched the supply lines around. The red line is now connected to the defuser under the bed from the right side of the furnace. It is a very short line about 3 feet in length from the furnace directly to the defuser. I disconnected it from the left side of the furnace and re connected it to the right side of the furnace. Then I shortened the other blue line by almost 2 1/2 feet and connected it to the left side of the furnace so that runs to the bathroom. The red line makes a tight 180 degree turn more than I would have liked but that’s the amount of line that I had and it may provide a little resistance to the air flow which is a good thing. I’m amazed at the difference it made in the bath room. Its hard to calculate the difference but It’s at least 3 time as much heat coming out of the bathroom defuser than before. And the other two defusers seem to be putting out just as much air. See video. Bill IMG_0165.MOV

A few years back I told a similar story regarding the reason I made a bathroom curtain. I was camping at Pebble Creek in Yellowstone National Park when just after taking a shower and drying off I looked out the open bath window and saw a young boy looking at me through the open window! Given the angles, he really couldn't see anything but in this day and age, I was concerned that he would run back to his campsite and tell his parents that this "old guy" was flashing him. As soon as I got home from that trip I made the curtain! Here are the parts I used for the curtain rod:

I tapped into a previous exterior 12v outlet mod. Much easier than fishing wires between hulls.

We rented a couple of trailers on-site at campgrounds before buying our first trailer. It was very helpful. However, we would never rent out our Ollie (or previous rigs). Too many clueless people out there and RVs are just too easy to damage.

I have a 2022 F150 which I bought brandy new in December of 2021: Weird but true. It's my daily driver and, unladen, gets roughly 21mpg. Towing my Oliver E2 with stock Goodyear Wrangler Territory P (passenger) rated all terrain tires, I would average 11-12mpg. In searching for a winter rated (3 Peak) tire, as opposed to a snow tire, I found plenty of information confirming that the average P rated tire is at it's outer limits towing an Oliver so best for low mileage on smooth roads. Very limited options for C&D rated tires (roughly 6&8 ply respectively) I opted for a E 10ply Michelin Agilis Crossclimate. Took my first winter trip which was 7 hours driving each way to and from a ski mountain in northern Maine. I go there often enough to know what to have expected with the Wrangler tires. Averaged 13-14mpg so noticeably better. Unladen, mpg dropped 1-2mpg compared to stock. Towed MUCH BETTER and seeing as how half my annual miles is while towing, the mpg balances out. As expected, the new tires are a tad louder then the stock ones but barely noticeable difference. Also slightly stiffer ride when unladen but perfect and much less squishy while towing. A whole world of improvement on snow. More appropriate for rough road usage and greatly decreased chance of blowing out a sidewall. Found a great conversion app for comparing differences between tires so I ignore the door sticker and run the tires at 45psi unladen and 60psi while towing. It's convoluted but, in short, as plys go up, it takes more psi to achieve the same carrying capacity so beefier tires need to run at a higher pressure to get to the factory tire spec. This is my 2nd truck where I tried stock and beefier tires while towing my Oliver. Similar outcomes in both cases. I'll use the stock tires during warm seasons but will retire them before they are at the end of their life and switch full time to the beefier options. Will try to keep them off heavily rutted roads and drive slowly when on dirt.

I've rented my 1964 Corvair, and I have rental property. I even rented a spare bedroom in my house for a quick second on AirBnb, but I can't imagine ever renting my Ollie. It's way too personal. No way. But, before I bought my Ollie I did rent a Jayco, an Airstream, and a Keystone Bullet, all on Outdoorsy. So it was good for me, but no way would I ever put my Ollie out there.

@topgun2, Back in the day when our sailboat "playlist" was a collection of songs recorded from our lp's to a cassette tape, Southern Cross was one we played every trip.... And then, there's this great song by Pete Seeger back in the Byrds days. Seems appropriate today. It is, a time to mourn. Rip. David, and Pete.

When storing either or but usually open. When towing closed.

Thanks. We put it up high so that any chance of stray water wouldn't get into it. In our year the wall is wood core. We did seal the core before screwing them together...

I only know of one Ollie that was rent out. There was a California lady who had a 2018 Elite II. Starting in 2019 she started renting it out. She ended up selling it in late 2020 because she could not rent it out much due to COVID. She sold her Ollie on the forum. With the new Oliver sale section on the forum you can not go back into past sales (which is unfortunate).

Rent out The Swallow? Never!😁. Paula

We are frequent winter camper taking my Oliver E2 to ski resorts in Northern New England. We have a composting toilet and, to date, have run dry, without de-winterizing the water system, for all these trips to allow us to quantify the issues the trailer has in sub freezing conditions and making adjustments to rectify. A summary of our experience with great input from others was outlined in this forum chain 3.75 Season Trailer?. On a trip last week, we used multiple digital bluetooth thermometers, adjusted to read temps consistent to each other, to different parts of the belly of the trailer. As compared to cold trips before our system tweaks to date, all previously problematic areas (= drop below freezing in areas w/water lines) worked fine when ambient dropped down to -5f. Amazing. The outlier was, you guessed it, the rearmost area of the garage behind the flimsy wall. In spite of venting into and out of that area and opening the bottom door in the cabinet between the beds, the temp at those water lines dropped below freezing when the ambient temps was in the low teens. Crazy making, especially as there is no reason for those lines to have been run through such an exposed area. My thoughts concerning next steps is to add cut off valves to those lines just behind where they feed past the furnace. The following image is towards the rear. Bottom of photo is just past the furnace. After the elbow, the lines feed into the garage. My questions to you knowledgable folks are 1) There are three lines, two of which are for the exterior shower. Which two? and 2) What is the third line? Is it the City Water feed? and 3) Considering that we will always start the season winterized, do you think it is necessary to add a cut off to all three lines if we dont use the City Water line? Once we address this issue and successfully complete a mid winter trip with the water activated, I'll share a post on the 3.75 Season chain to share update and gory details. I am also curious to hear if those with 2023 trailers, with the improved heating system, have run their water in temps below 10 degrees. Exotic as those conditions may seem to some, in many parts of the country, any mid winter night could be considerably colder.

Here are screen shots of the items I purchased off Amazon. You’ll also need spade connectors to attach wires to switch. I already had those, but they too are available on Amazon. Also some hose clamps or pex crimp rings with crimping tool are needed.

No, I never saw instructions. It’s fairly straightforward if you’re a bit of a handyman. Hardest part is maneuvering in the limited space where valve is located.

I do not use a buffer, nor do I recommend it (in my opinion). I do not want to wear down the thickness of my gel coat. I think that professional detailers are more experienced in the safe use of a buffer. I have owned 4 older fiberglass boats in the past and never used a buffer. (There have been other forum posts about the use of buffers and I think that a majority of the comments were from people that do not use a buffer.) On my past older boats, which had oxidation, I would use a fiberglass paste rubbing compound applied by hand with a lot of elbow grease and remove the compound by hand with a clean cloth. After removing the compound and clean the fiberglass, I would hand apply two coats of liquid wax, hand applied and hand removed. That process worked well. On my 2018 Ollie (which is left outside 24-7-365), I have never seen any fiberglass oxidation. I keep the Ollie outside during the winter. In the spring I wash the Ollie very well (sometime twice) and remove any remaining black water stains with the Meguiars 67 One step (liquid) compound applying it by hand and let it film over and then wipe it off with a clean micro-cloth. [The liquid compound is a lot less aggressive on the fiberglass that paste compound.] I then apply the Meguiars Professional Marine Wax by hand, let it dry, remove it using a micro-cloth and then apply a second coat of wax. During the summer I wash the Ollie as needed and if not shinny (but it usually is), I will apply one coat of wax. When putting the Ollie away for winter, I use my spring procedure. Over the years owning boats, I have used a number of different brands of compounds and waxes. Myself, I find that the Meguiars products are easy to install, easy to wipe off and holds up very well. Everyone will have their favorite products but after over 30 years of fiberglass maintenance, I like Meguiars the best (so far).

Some more pictures of the track mount that show a little more detail. Painted the track with white epoxy enamel since last pics and it now blends in much better. The locknuts in the front of the mount are only adjusted once when installing and the two knobs in the back are used to lock the mount in place while traveling and then left slightly loose while in use to allow the easy removal of the TV and access to emergency window. Used a 4" wide piece of white rubberized tape on the back of the mount to prevent marring of the track and add additional grip when traveling.

OK you wore me down. Sent Houghton an email asking about the evap fan control and option for internal condensation. We'll see how responsive their are.

That Ollie of yours sure polished up really sharp! Thanks for the tips and all the valuable pointers! Patriot 🇺🇸

Thank you for the report and product list. Very helpful post, though the task is daunting.

As you can see from the candle flame the return vent increases air flow. The inverse is true when the bathroom vent is on, with the door closed.

Yes my original plan was to do that. But I wanted to see if it would even make a difference before I went through the extra effort . This took me about 10 minutes to swap the piping around to try it and it worked better than anticipated. Next step will be to clean things up a bit and most likely run rigid pipe where possible. Bill

We have business properties and personal properties. Our Oliver is personal property will never be rented. If you need to rent your trailer, likely you can't afford it.

You’re hired! When can you do mine? Lol seriously, you did a beautiful job, it looks spectacular! Thank you for the list of products used.

It is getting more and more popular, people rent before they commit to buying an RV or motorhome of their own. I’d never rent my Oliver but I do think it’s a good thing and terrific option for someone not sure if they want a motorhome or towable to rent first.

Will do on the blue shop towel below the third tail light in the attic, its definitely worth checking.

Cool! I mean warm! Is there enough room at the rear connection to use one or even two adjustable hard elbows? I fear for your flimsy flex duct… https://www.homedepot.com/p/Master-Flow-4-in-90-Deg-Round-Adjustable-Elbow-B90E4/100033952 Do you have enough return air from the bathroom? John Davies Spokane WA

Renting out my Oliver is not going to happen.

Did you ever get your hull #?

Hi all. I’m new to the site and was also having difficulty adding my TV and Oliver trailer info into the signature page, or even finding the signature page for that matter. I was attempting to make changes using my iPhone and simply could not find the screens called out in the instruction for updating the signature page. I finally ended up using my iPad and “SURPRISE” everything appeared on my screen. So, if you’re having difficulty you might consider logging in via a different device. It sure worked for me! Jeff

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If you don't have time to do it right, I'd just tape it up with packing tape or clear duct tape, and not let it ruin my trip. Imo, it shouldn't have fallen, but I know it has. If it were me, I'd remove the entire strip, clean everything, and do it right. Pretty hard to clean and refasten, just a section, especially since its occurred at the curve. Even if you are out of warranty, I'd encourage you to open a service ticket, so that Oliver knows about the issue.

Apparently my trim got tired. Thinking about just replacing with 3M molding trim adhesive roll. Looks like what Oliver used. other suggestions?

This just happened to us, too. Too cold to deal with now. Our first trip this spring will be to OTT for some other warranty issues. They can fix this while it's there. Will probably tack it up with painter's tape for the trip down. I'm assuming poor prep work is the culprit.