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It will be interesting to see the implementation of their plan. For me, it’s not going to change anything. I will continue going to my local family owned RV repair shop. He’s been working on my trailer since early 2017 and also does several other Olivers. A good RV repair guy can effectively work on Olivers even if they aren’t Oliver Factory Trained. Mike

Hey guys, Phil here with Oliver Travel Trailers. It is important to understand that we as a company have not made any decisions to partner with any other entities at this time. It is simply a consideration to offer the best service from a handful of service centers/dealers to our customers who live the farthest away from Tennessee. We do NOT have any plans to mass produce the Oliver. Quality will not suffer as we will still have control of manufacturing and inspecting the trailers before they roll off the line. We haven't lied to or mislead anyone, rather, we have reached out to you, our family members and best sales force for your feedback. Thank you for those who have responded with your concerns. We are reading and listening to each of them and taking them seriously. Please let me know if you have any questions. Have a great Labor Day weekend!

I truly don’t think they are looking to sell at hundreds of dealers across the country. If they strategically place a few on each coast and Midwest I think it will be quite helpful to have a trained certified Oliver tech at these locations as opposed to just in Tennessee. If they sell them through these few locations it will still be a needle in a haystack where you can purchase an Oliver. I have faith that Oliver will be incredibly selective and make sure their product is represented in the right hands. Give them a chance.

Hello from Amanda, Brent, Claire, and Sarah. We recently purchased hull #976 and can’t wait to put it to use. This is our first “Travel Trailer” kind of as we also own a Turtleback Expedition we are selling. I consider the Turtleback to be an overlanding trailer and it definitely has a different set of instructions. We have been gleaning tons of information from the forum and Facebook group and really appreciate everyone’s efforts to document their upgrades, ideas, and solutions. We look forward to meeting some of you in our travels. -Brent

Doesn’t matter. We have two excellent techs that has worked on our Oliver, one at a RV dealership and another that’s a mobile tech, neither are on Oliver’s payroll.

The end is near and…😂

I can't express how disappointed I am. I just bought an Ollie. This is what I received via email on 8-18. "While no definitive decisions have been made at this time, we wish to be transparent and keep you informed every step of the way." Six days later, this was published in RVtravel. "Oliver Travel Trailers, a family-owned company with a legacy of 18 years in manufacturing premium-quality travel trailers, announced that it will be establishing a dealer network to sell and support the Oliver product line." Definitive decisions had indeed been made before 8-18. It was dishonest to reach out to current owners for "feedback" when the decision had already been made. Since the decision had already been made, current owners were not part of the process. Which is fine. But what I am seeing now is the polar opposite of why I bought an Ollie. Had I known this was going to happen, I would probably not have bought one. I was a brand manager and director of sales and marketing of a similarly positioned product, I know how this is going to end. It always does. Business history is full of examples. There will be struggles over the pricing structure. Dealers demand margin. Product content will be removed and the savings passed on to support dealer margins. If a dealer needs 10%, can the price just be increased $10,000? Of course not. Inevitably, there will be a push to cut quality and content costs and pass that on to the dealer. Will Ollie finance the floorplan? If there are 10 dealers, will there be 20 new Ollies on the lots? If an Ollie costs $50,000 to build, will Ollie park $1 million on dealer lots every year. A glossy sales brochure won't sell a trailer 5x the cost of the competition and dealers won't finance the floorplan. Newly hired production managers will focus on quantity. Quality will plunge as experienced techs building a complicated product will leave and marginally literate workers will replace them. Social media will fill with service nightmares at new "partner" dealers and there will be stories of Ollies being returned under lemon laws. Unethical sales practices long synonymous with RV dealerships will have be used to sell Ollies. The cost savings and sales increases the consultants predicted will not materialize. Profitability will be exhausted and hedge funds with no RV experience will buy the struggling business. Original hull prices will increase. Post expansion hull prices will plummet. The only question is what is the timeline of this process to play out. It takes decades to build a brand. It takes one bad strategic decision to destroy it. This is that decision. Print this. Put it with your build sheet. Reference it 5 years from now.

Oh, wow. If I were 20 years younger, I'd be applying to open a little outlet to show and sell Ollies, and hire a couple great techs to work on them, in my zone. Many years ago, I was a service manager for a computer and business machine company. (Eventually became vp of the same company.) We sent our techs to training at the motherships, Atlanta and New Jersey, anytime a new model came out. I sat on the national dealer council for one of our brands for a number of years. The brands provided training classes, and documents/manuals, and we footed the bill for transportation and hotels and meals. This is not the end of the world, imo, but a quite likely positive change, and a broader reach, which, I think will benefit many owners outside middle America, if Oliver can recruit the "right folks". Big "used car" type dealerships aren't interested in a brand like Oliver. Not enough margin. Not enough volume. But, quality folks like quality products. I think they'll find at least a few quality, smaller outlets to keep things right. If not, back to the original model, which is not going away, according to the email. Without any outlets or service centers in place, I personally think their announcements were frankly premature. Oliver has always been customer-centric, and were just trying to be transparent and honest. Full disclosure: I'm a moderator, and continuous owner of #12 since February, 2008. First I heard of this was Katjo's post.

Being on the road 11 months out of the year is a challenge for us concerning service. If I can fix it on the road with help from a phone call to OTT or help from this forum, I fix what I can and save the big projects for OTT when we go in for our annual checkup. I think it's worked out great so far and , yes, it would be nice to be able to stop into a place we're near to see a qualified Oliver technician. We're out of warranty anyway but I'd much prefer a tech that has Oliver experience to do the work. John

Note the Oliver supplied "supports" beneath the fan picture. I used these same supports when installing my new fan. Unfortunately, I do not have a picture of where and/or how the bottom of those supports are attached. But I do hope this helps you. Bill

@dhaig, @CRM, @topgun2 Thank you all and others I may have missed. The additional pictures help a lot. I actually have the same Beech Lane fans so I was especially interested in how they did that. I will work on it tomorrow! We are heading to Colorado, Utah, Arizona in a couple of weeks so that will be a good test for it. Thank you again!

@Ray Kimsey and @CRM, my apologies for not including the detail photos below in my original posting. The fans come mounted together as an assembly. Mounting hardware is included in the kit. In the first photo below, at the right rear of the fan a flange can be seen with a Phillips head screw circled. This screw and a matching one on the left side secure the upper part of the assembly to the sloped MDF panel which forms the top of the rear compartment of the refrigerator. At the lower right another Phillips screw with a large head clamps to the front vertical edge of the vent opening. A hex screw attached to the front lower right of the fan frame holds a small rectangular bracket which clamps to the rear side of the vertical edge of the vent opening. Together, these two screws form the clamping mechanism to the vertical edge of the vent opening. The same arrangement holds the lower left side of the fan to the vertical edge of the vent opening. I editing the photo below to to brighten the interior details. Unfortunately, I do not have the exact dimensions of the upper vent opening. My recollection is that I did a quick measurement of the vertical height available inside the opening and concluded the 5.5" height of the fans would fit. Amazon lists the dimensions of the 2 fan assembly as: 1"D x 12.5"W x 5.5"H. The Beech-Lane website does not list the dimensions of the fans. My trailer is in a storage facility about 35 miles north of my home. The cables for power and remote control run up the left side of the compartment, across the sloped MDF panel behind the fans and up into the right corner of the compartment into the area behind the microwave oven. Our ELII is a 2022 model. I do not know if the size of the upper vent opening has varied over model years. I hope this helps clarify the mounting method. Don

what would an Oliver Certified Tech be certified to do that any reputable RV Repair guy can’t already do?… weld aluminum? Fiberglass work? I’ve never had our camper serviced by OTT, as when we’ve had issues it’s been thousands of miles away from the mothership, and I do the general maintenance myself. My experience ( this is not a complaint ) with the service dept has been to be directed by them to contact the manufacturer of the component that’s having issues directly… whether Xantrex, LifeBlu, etc…. Which has always worked out fine.. When issues have been beyond me, I’ve found Moble RV repair guys who are certified by Norcold, Dometic etc and are therefore connected to those companies and can deal with warranty issues etc, and know what they are doing because they do it everyday… this has worked out fine too. What I’ve found is that if you need an RV repair guy and you are in a campground, ask the folks that run the place for advice… ask the folks that obviously are long term campers at the place as well.. they will be quick to tell you who to have work on your camper, and who not have work on your camper.. Or at least that’s the way it’s worked for us.

Hello Amanda, Brent, Claire, and Sarah Welcome and happy trails!

@abcsfam aka Brent, Welcome and congrats on your Oliver! Lots of great info here on mods, do it your self repairs and a community that enjoys helping others with Oliver questions and occasional trouble shooting. Who knows? maybe we’ll see you at next years Rally at Lake Guntersville SP! Happy Travels and Happy Camping! Patriot🇺🇸

You sound as if you think Oliver Travel Trailers, as you know them, is going away. I don’t think anything is going to change. They are just trying to get more exposure to their products.

My 2010 has the same size vent, but I don't have the depth available near the top of the opening to be able to fit the 5.5 fans.

Thank you Topgun, I have a 2020 and as far as I can tell there was never a fan installed. That is why I put in the 2 3.5" fans. Running on propane in the summer was not a good option for food safety. The picture does give me some ideas though. Thank you!

Welcome, and I love your clever user name! Nice to see a young family enjoying an Oliver. We'll look forward to photos of your adventures.

Hello and welcome to the Oliver family! Happy camping!😃

Welcome! Congrats on your “new” Oliver. Hope to meet you out on the road sometime - Mike

The LED light looks like it will be good. We’ll test it out on our next trip coming up fast! This is before the rain shield. After rain shield.

You just articulated my fears. I don’t know if this will be the case, but it very well may be.

You have a way with words, John. Ha!

Here is the “How to” video of how we added two shelves inside the closet.

One of the largest Airstream dealers in the nation appears to now be owned by Lithia Motors, one of the largest automobile dealer networks. I don’t consider that good for the Airstream brand, and would hate to see something similar happen to Oliver.

We gave strong consideration to AS. It was like visiting a used car lot.

Given the activity on this thread, it seems that this is an issue generating big interest with Ollie owners. How could it not? We're all connected on a deep emotional level to our trailers, and by extension, the company. I understand that this development makes good business sense, and that a business has to grow or die. I'll admit that I'm often resistant to change. Many of us remember this and this as our first experience with OTT. Now, this is the first experience for newcomers So, the company has already been growing and changing. The challenge for OTT is to carefully thread the needle on this development. Reputation is gained slowly and lost quickly. If a RV service center in, say Boise, can provide the same knowledgeable, quality customer care as Hohenwald, then it's a win-win. If not, the average Ollie owner may simply want to deal directly with Jason Essary and his staff, which would defeat one of the goals of this plan. I'm guessing that the sales and service people at OTT are so fantastic because it's their company. They're invested. I simply can't believe that a contracted RV sales and service center will have that level of investment. The Oliver will be just one of many RV lines they sell and service. If the company is looking for more exposure, they could push the "See and Oliver Near You" program. Existing owners are the best salespeople the company could ever find. They could also continue to take the trailers to RV shows around the country. SOB sales and service have such a bad reputation, I just don't want that to rub off on the Oliver. It might be interesting to consider the Airstream model. Airstream is one of the biggest competitors to the Ollie. They don't sell from the factory. They do have independently owned authorized dealers who only sell Airstreams. I'm not saying that's what I want to see, but it allows those owners to trust that when they take their trailer in for a service, the staff will know what to do.

Here is a really interesting discussion of this rugged kit. I wonder how well it could be adapted to an OL2? Because the frame already has a stout steel subframe it should be an ideal platform.... the 3500 pound units use 6000 pound rated spindles and bearings. Woohoo! https://www.off-road.com/blog/timbren-axle-less-trailer-suspension-review/ These sell for $760 per axle at eTrailer. https://www.etrailer.com/Trailer-Leaf-Spring-Suspension/Timbren/ASR35HDS02.html I would go whole hog and add disk brakes at the same time. OTH I would be very reluctant to be the first to do this, from cost and liability reasons. I wonder if the factory would consider building a test mule for high speed highway stability testing and off- pavement testing....? Any idea how hard it would be to completely remove the subframe, do this mod and then reinstall it? It doesn’t appear to be difficult, if it is not bonded too ferociously to the aluminum. I think this would turn an Ollie into a stellar gravel/ washboard trailer. Because the stock springs are incredibly lame for this use. Discuss please. John Davies Spokane WA

I tried installing 5.5 fans on mine too but it was impossible to make them fit. Maybe differing clearances based on year of hull and fridge model?

@MAX Burner, one of my friends installed that I'm her Casita. It definitely helps with the lighting, but she doesn't care for the lens and little lights. She finds it distracting. (I agree with her.) I think your "disco light" label is quite appropriate. 🤣 in contrast, the nice, evenly lit ring on the maxxDome is lovely.

I have a set of 3.5 inch fans where I did a very similar install. My question is how were you able to secure the 5.5 inch fans? I would like to use the larger fans, but cannot figure out a way to do it. I secured the smaller fans to the upper vent cover, but the larger ones seem to prevent me from closing the cover. Maybe you could post a close up picture of how they are mounted. I can't tell from the first picture. Thank you!

Humans are for the most part idiots and they will always tend to ignore the bad lessons learned in the past, in favor of decisions that yield immediate rewards… this is the reason wars happen over and over. It is illogical to expect a different outcome when you repeat an action that history has shown to have unfortunate results. I have no desire to buy an electric car, but I am very curious to see how that works out, with car dealers refusing to inventory new units, tens of thousands of cars remaining unsold, and fears about lost revenue from the Service departments, how is this going to play out? https://www.topspeed.com/uncomfortable-truths-about-owning-electric-car/#evs-generate-some-environmental-problems I believe that Oliver buyers for the most part are affluent enough to not mind paying “too much” for a trailer. But if the quality, service and content plummets, that will no longer be the case. Thanks for the detailed analysis, I agree and am very saddened by this news. I truly hope it ends well for Oliver. John Davies Spokane WA

I have a 2022 and just got back from a trip and found the exact same problem. I do not see how this would happen if the nuts had been properly tightened. Will attempt the repair today and will be changing to the nylon style nuts. Thank you for the post. No warranty repair option offered.

I got my new fan installed today. Checked this thread a couple of times just for sanity checks! I think it’s a worthwhile upgrade. Mike

I just received a “PolyPRO 3” cover made by OVERDRIVE fromAmazon . This cover looks similar to the one earlier in this thread, except it is sized and sewn specific for “egg” campers from 13’ to 16’. Since my Legacy Elite is approximately 15 1/2 feet, I thought it would fit OK. Just completed a dry fit (didn’t cinch up the ties) and the fit is acceptable. I do not have solar, but I think it would cover the factory panels fine. I’ll be putting it on for the winter sometime around Thanksgiving and we’ll see if it makes it through the winter. I am mostly concernecd about leaves and sticks since we live in the deep woods and do not have a way to keep it under a roof.

I only replaced the original fan with another single fan. I don't usually camp in very hot locations and I think that the standard single fan does a fine job. However, if you are camping in hot locations and/or want to get ahead of "global Warming" then a dual fan setup might help.😁 It should be fairly simple to construct a mount for the two fans versus the single. Bill

Where I have bitter ends of bolts sticking out with extra threads showing, I like the idea of giving them the "Vice Grip Nut Retainer" trick. Best to do so about 1/4" from the bitter end so that should you need to remove the nuts/washers and lock washers you can drive the nut off and reinstall another new one on clean and pretty much undamaged old threads. The obvious advantage of having a means to retain the hardware, is that should you notice its loose, you just need to tighten things up.... with a bit of Locktite as suggested. The alternatives are to either double nut (more weight and cost) or center punch the bolt end to make nut loss, and replacement more difficult. But the VGNR approach costs nothing and saves time, adds no weight, and prevents loss of hardware in the first place. Good reminder so THANKS! GJ

No need to replace the bolt if you bugger the bolt threads, it is a simple matter to run a thread die down the bolt to clean up the mess. On stainless it is helpful to coat threads with an antisieze (I use lanolin) in order to help eliminate the galling that is common between stainless bolts and nuts.

From the pics - it looks to me like this cover would fit with the solar panels in that there appears to be plenty of fabric below the step area on both sides. Bill

That does look like a nice cover and for the price you can buy three for the price of a CalMark cover. There doesn't appear to be an access door but again - for the price. Let us know how it makes it through the winter. Bill

Or just install the centerpoint suspension like I did and be done with it. Takes all of an afternoon. I ended up with about an inch more travel plus the extra cushioning. Of course, you can adjust the height by changing the pressure. It's a good, practical solution.

Updating an older thread - here is a great install video from etrailer.com. Install Timbren Axle-less Trailer Suspension The more I read and watch, the more I think that this would be a great low maintenance option for an Ollie, for lumpy forest and ranch roads. The thing that worries me most is that I haven’t read any reviews for tandem trailers. How does this system perform, are there any sway concerns, or tire overloading issues? A standard tandem spring setup equalizes the tire loads, this would not. I think this would be a great winter project, along with electric over hydraulic disk brakes, but I still am not ready to assume all the R&D risks. That is something for the Hohenwald team to do..... please! John Davies Spokane WA

The Bruders are definitely interesting, but I’ve never figured out how their kitchen arrangement works for both inside and out, height wise. We seriously considered importing an Aussie trailer before we bought an Ollie. But then we ran across some owners with bad experiences and no options for a remedy - structural issues that couldn’t be fixed without sending the trailers back to Australia. Prior to that, we were looking into a heavily hyped teardrop that looked the part in every way; but as it turned out, the owner was taking big deposits left and right without any skill in how to actually produce them. Fortunately, in both instances we found out before parting with any money. Both companies later went bankrupt. Just goes to show that the basics really count. There’s a lot of eye candy out there but always ask two questions before you buy: one, is the company stable, experienced, reliable, and do they stand behind their product; and two, do they make a product that is at the most basic level solid, durable, and thoughtfully designed? If you can answer both of those questions with an unconditional ‘yes’, then give them your money. The details will work themselves out. But if the answer to either question is ‘no’ or ‘no idea’, then give it a hard pass.

You won't find any production trailer manufacturer willing to make one-off modifications this extensive. Oliver and others have limited to no engineering capabilities, instead relying on component suppler services, like Dexter, for this expertise. For an Elite, you're talking about a complete sub-frame redesign.

😀 Well said, but we should keep trying with stuff like this. At some point, maybe when RV sales are in a deep slump, they will decide to offer more “adventurous” options for us, the fringe market. It certainly does NOT hurt to keep asking. John Davies Spokane WA

Highly unlikely that you'll get Oliver to make that change. It's a DIY job for sure. Besides, Oliver's m.o. for the past two or three years has been to carefully study what owners want, have researched, implemented, are satisfied with, etc., and then do something different.

I just looked closer at “Mouse”, and the subframe mounting bolt heads are facing out, so they are blocked by the fiberglass. I sure wouldn’t pull off the hull, tho, I would just drill access holes in that lower fiberglass lip. But in reality, I think having the trailer up high on a hoist in a proper shop would provide very easy access, to cut off the shackle and shock mounts, and to trim some of the cross angle-iron braces. Counting the removal time for the straight axles, I bet the entire conversion could all be done by a pro with a plasma cutter in half a day. It could all be done by the owner with a saber saw and angle grinder while lying on the ground, but that is a job I probably would not enjoy, not even a little bit. 😳 Oliver could easily do this at the factory as a pre-build option. They would just need to have a few extra subframes lying around, ones with galvanized finish but without the brackets and hangers. Installation labor on the production line would be minimal. Considering that they buy the parts at wholesale and the buyer would get a credit for not installing the EZ Flex axles, springs and four shocks, I think a $2000 price tag for a factory Timbren option (with Dexter electric brakes) would be very reasonable. Would you pay $2000 for this setup? I definitely would. John Davies Spokane WA

I would be willing to install this just to eliminate all the grease zerks.

You’re right. For some reason I was thinking that the bolts on mine faced outward, meaning you’d have to pull the hull to get them out of the hole. But I just checked and they face in. The Centerpoint does add 1” to the travel.