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Here are three mods/aids that have been made on our Ollie. The first was done by the previous owner, it’s a handy way to grab and close the door. Much easier to find and grab. The next was simple and driven by my inability to remember where the fresh water tank drain valve was located. I fastened two bright yellow zip ties onto a water line above the valve. The tails stick straight up and are easy to see. The third was because I like to sleep with minimal sheets and blankets, and when my posterior touched the interior wall, it was chilly. I split one of my old Ensolite backpacking pads down the middle and tucked the halves between the mattresses and inner hull.

Not so inexpensive - but a couple quick and easy modifications installed this morning: 1. We became tired of hassling with the curly safety wires during hitching operations. Found some sturdier chains and hooks on Amazon, a 3/8" steel spacer, a grade 8 - 5" x 3/8" bolt and nylock, and with @topgun2's suggestion some 1" wire comb and a couple zip-ties - voila, new safety chains for about $65.00: 2. The key pad numbers on our keyless "RVLock" started peeling off a few months back. The standard configuration is a thin numbered membrane over the keypad area. For an extra $5 for a total of about $22 including shipping we received an upgraded pad. It should really be the standard pad unless someone wants to regularly replace the thin membrane all the time. The thin membrane before I started peeling it off completely with needle nose pliers: A judicious application of GOOF OFF to remove the residue of both the weather gasket and the thin membrane: The new fully rubberized number keypad neatly replaced the original white gasket: Carefully removing all the residue from the original weather gasket with GOOF OFF, replaced same with provided new weather seal: New rubberized keypad should last awhile longer than the original... Thoroughly cleaned off door surface area and mounted repaired keyless locking mechanism: One and done - good to go: Cheers!

I use these to get hair out of traps. https://drainweasel.com/ I throw them away rather than clean them. I keep a 3-pack in the Oliver and at home. The kids even got them in their stockings one Christmas🎅🏻 Like the old saying goes “Unclog a man’s drain and you help them that day. Teach a man to unclog his own drain and you help them for a lifetime.”

And you won't have to do it again for him.

Many, or at least some, of those "guests" may be registered members who don't bother to log in.

I would guess about 70 or 80% of owners are members. A lot of trailers are on their second or third owner, so those trailers would have 2 or 3 forum members. Others join to look and get info before they order a trailer - some order and some don’t. Some are members while their trailer is being built. As far as I know once someone is registered they stay a member even if they sell and never log back on. I can remember some years ago when if we got 20 online it was a big deal! Times have changed! Mike

Oh... and I've often wanted to say thanks to Topgun2 (Bill) for giving me a great tour of all the little ideas you showed me on your trailer. Ours was only about a week old at the point and we didn't know much at all at that point. Since then I've incorporated several of them! Bill and Linda Ruble were a big help to us at that first Oliver Rally... helping us to understand "everything black tank and how to maintain it". The combined experience of this group...and know how (oftentimes from their long careers in technical fields) makes this group MORE HELPFUL than even the Oliver service people and I think they are great... but personal experience with these trailers in the real world is pretty hard thing to beat.

@Wandering Sagebrush, so often, the simple path can be the best. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks, we must have a clog. We are taking it in for maintenance tomorrow and will add that to the list. We drained grey and black before we took showers. I was not clear about dog. I don’t wash my dogs in there. What has gone down is just the normal shedding they do that floats in the air along with dirt tracked in despite a rug. We will be more careful if this going forward ! We are at Fort Robinson,NE. It is a very nice campground. Good spacing between sites. We have a view of prairie, buttes and wildflowers( some bugs and bees getting in with door opening).

Borrow a drain snake and try clearing the plug mechanically instead of chemically.

Well, just like in your home’s shower, there is a J shaped trap that stays full of water to keep out sewer odors, if the tank valve is open (handle pulled forward) and the tank isn’t full, there isn’t much left to cause this except a clog. I don’t recommend caustic stuff like Draino, that could damage the seals in the tank valve. Maybe someone else can suggest an “RV safe” drain cleaner. Don’t let hair go down there! And don’t let food go down the kitchen drain either, both will cause stinky odors and problems with the valves. The outside shower is the best way to rinse off a dog…, John Davies Spokane WA

A nice (and unexpected) Jackson Brown cover…

Yes Art, I remember. I guess I always had that in mind. When I purchased my '03 Ram, back in 2004 barely used, it had the BFG AT tires on it. I replaced them with the Michelin LTX tire of that era, and I can swear they lasted near 100K miles!

Here’s a suggestion for making the dinette more comfy. Not exactly elegant, but it does a reasonably good job, and you don’t get in trouble for stealing a cushion from your significant other. It’s just an old floating boat cushion…

An Oliver Elite 2 from Tennessee, parked in Loop B with a great view of the Spearfish Formation “Red Beds”!

I wonder if "NM" didn't refer to national monument.

Understood. Frank's practice surely accounts for a lot of the guest activity. Personal preference, no biggie. What's interesting to me is this: So, there's (maybe) 1,450 Oliver hulls manufactured to date, assuming that most of those (but not 100%) of those owners are members - who are the other 6,667 forum members? And what are they looking for online? Potential buyers? General RV/Camper enthusiasts? Spouses of owners? One-time sign ups/Zero returns? All the above? At first glance, I guess it shows the folks at Hohenwald that there's a market base out there for the product. Thoughts?

I’m on here daily to browse as a “guest” just to see what’s new on the topics, but I’ll only log in if I will be commenting, and then log out again.

I'm with you on that Rick... regularly here... but rarely have something original or useful to contribute. That said... I think I'm nearly an Oliver RV specialist (🙃) with all the things I've investigated based on the problems and most importantly, the solutions that others have experienced with their Ollies. My goal is to resolve as many problems at home so that they don't happen while traveling. We just came home from 10 weeks traveling to the PNW and now back in driveway. Here, I have fixed the chintzy little (twice broken) plastic toilet flange with a stronger metal one. Then I finally got to inspect the gears and replace the grease in (all three) of the stabilizer gear boxes. This has been something I've wanted to do since JD's post on the subject. Knowing how to do things like resetting the refrigerator, cleaning the sail switch on the furnace or resetting the Truma hot water heater (after accidentally putting it into "clean mode"), understanding the EMS error codes and about a dozen other things are game changers because of what I've learned from all the forum contributors. I like to say "I'm busy fixing things that aren't broke... before they get worse." I hope I don't get thrown out because I don't post often! I think I'm an official signed in "member"? All this said... HELLO everyone! I like our forum!

I am one who reads the forum almost daily but generally only log in if I think I have something to contribute to a conversation. My guess is I am not alone

Have you ever been in an Elite I? The rear bed (big rear dinette) is full size, like 55" wide. The side bed (small dinette) is only 24" wide, and six feet long, in ours. Kind of like sleeping on a couch. How tall are you? The boxer will have to learn to sleep under the rear bed. A friend of mine extended her small dinette bed to 30 inches, with a slide out hinged support she made. Of course, that reduces the aisle by 6", but can provide a more comfy bed width. Good luck with your decision. Do make sure to tour the smaller Elite I before you commit. It's a great trailer for one and a dog, or a couple. Ours has been our summer "home" for 16 seasons, and we love it, but good to dee and test.

I agree. Matt and I talked at the rally about putting some restrictions in place concerning non members, as well as members who never post.

Thank Bill, much appreciated!

We went with he 400Amp busbar for the positive terminal connections needed at the BB battery bank. The 250Amp one would likely work but we're dealing with a potential max of 300Amp in the bank so that's why we used the 400Amp option with 4/0 cable all around. The original configuration used 1/0 cables. For an unknown reason, the PO did not tie down the bank. On our model, the strap hard points are stamped into the fore/aft rails of the battery tray. We used 1.5" wide 5-foot cam buckle tie downs which worked perfectly between the BBs. Similar to what you did, we wedged polyboard cut-to-fit in the gap on between the BBs and the tray rails. Any moderate bumps could likely bounce the BBs around w/o the tie downs - the tie-down arrangement provides an element of "piece of mind." Let me know if you need a pic of the tie-downs... We're happy with the mod and a full credit "shout-out" goes to @Geronimo John for his assist in making this mod come to fruition! Good luck with your battery switch install! Be sure to post pix of the project....

This is a great article on the high country around Durango/ Ouray/ Tellurude. https://expeditionportal.com/colorados-million-dollar-highway/ Be prepared for snow at any time up there! John Davies Spokane WA

If I’m under 50% I usually fill the black tank to 75 or 80% before dumping. I then close the valve and fill it up again to 60 or 70%. Then one more time, usually only about 50% and that dump is usually clear. I’m usually outside and Carol is inside letting me know where we’re at. If I do it by myself, I’m inside watching the level before going out and opening the valve. Mike

The following is only for those that have the regular toilet. Although those with "composting" toilets have their own list of issues, this is not on it and will be of little interest to them. There is another scenario where the black water can fill the bathroom floor (and beyond) during the black tank flush and dump. (cue the Twilight Zone theme music) ... Picture this, if you will... You've hooked your black flush hose to the outside port and begun to fill your black tank in preparation for dumping. The black tank dump valve is closed as is the shower drain back-flow preventer valve. The black tank needs to be monitored during this step. I do it by holding the toilet flush valve open with my foot on the flush lever while peering down into the tank with a flashlight. Others may simply watch the readout for the black tank on the SeeLevel Tank Monitoring System. However you want to monitor the filling of the tank is largely irrelevant, but you do need to watch it. Consequences will occur if you do not. Everything is running smoothly until a stranger appears at your door and is proclaiming to everyone within earshot that this is the coolest trailer he's never seen, where is it built?, what does it cost?, what is its weight?, how does it pull?, how do you like it? and on and on. Now you're distracted, and in trying to answer his questions, you forget that the black tank is filling with water. Ten minutes later you discover the bathroom has six inches of NASTY water in the floor, it is all around the base of the toilet and is now spilling over the threshold, out the door and into the main cabin. But, it's not overflowing from the toilet, and you discover that the poop and pee is coming up through the shower drain. How could this happen? The black tank plumping is not connected to anything but the main drain and does not interface with the shower drain or gray tank system in any way so there's no possible way it could be doing this, right? But it is doing this. Nasty, Creepy, Perplexing but entirely possible once you understand how the bathroom is actually plumbed. As the water level in the closed black tank rises, it can not escape into the toilet bowl because you’re not paying attention and the flush valve is closed. Neither can it escape down the drain because the black dump valve is closed. Pressure inside the black tank is beginning to rise also as the air trapped inside is being compressed by the rising water. At this point, I can personally advise you to NEVER depress the flush lever. If you wonder what will happen, go ahead and try it and report back here. Now your black tank is completely full and the water has to go somewhere. The increasing pressure inside the tank will begin to push the water up the vent pipe that terminates through the roof from inside the closet. The same pipe is used to vent both the gray and the black tanks. What most do not realize is that this vent pipe also serves as the drain pipe from the bathroom lavatory into the gray tank. As the water level rises inside the vent pipe, it will eventually reach the connection between the drain and the vent pipes. The black water will now enter the drain pipe and, taking the path of least resistance, will flow down the drain pipe seeking entrance to the gray tank where it is stopped by the closed shower drain back-flow preventer valve. Now its only escape is up through the shower drain and out into the world. Just when you thought you didn't have to worry about anything else.

@Ronbrink I happen to be over at Lowe’s this afternoon and scooped up a (4) pack of these furniture sliders. My plan per your suggestion, is to install these on the 4 corners of my Truma C36 insulated cover length wise. This hopefully will make it slide easier on the bed rug then out onto the tailgate bed rug. Thanks again for the mod idea. Patriot🇺🇸 I installed the above furniture glides and they really work great. We can now slide the Truma out with out giving us immediate access without having to lift it off the bed rug. A keeper.

Ron, Great idea, thanks for sharing. 👍🏻👍🏻 Patriot🇺🇸

@dewdev and @rangered, I am using the existing cover inside. So nothing was changed out except the rooftop unit. And my understanding was they did use two gaskets when installing. I know I am using the existing condensation lines because I can see it going out them.

@dewdev I decided to not connect the two external condensate lines from the AC to the internal (Oliver) drain line. I did not want to compromise the weather seal between the new FreshJet AC and the roof of the Oliver. To connect the two condensate lines to the internal line it appears you would need an extra roof gasket. The two condensate lines run (sandwiched) between two roof gaskets. For the time being, I have capped off the internal drain line that leads between the hulls. I may change my mind and reconnect the lines at a later date. I was able to use the existing thermostat control box from the old unit. Note: You may not be able to use your existing inner ceiling cover from the old Penguin AC, the four main mounting bolt holes on the FreshJet are spaced further apart. I replaced my ceiling cover a couple years ago with one that was more flush with the ceiling, thus allowing me to have more head room in the Oliver, being 6’5” tall I needed the extra space. It is a more universal fitting and I was able to use this replacement cover without any problem. You may want to check with Mary (RoadLotus) on the type of cover she is using.

I'll leave any on line research to the owner, but I will pose a question that will need to be answered. What does Toyota and the owner's manual say about using a weight distribution hitch on that particular vehicle. It sounds like it's within the tow rating, but payload does not define tongue weight capacity. Some vehicles don't allow WD hitches to mitigate tongue weight. Just saying this is another limit that must be considered.

We have dry camped at several HH locations and have really enjoyed the experience. In fact, we stayed at a winery just down the road from the factory after we picked up our trailer and it was awesome. I recommend.

We have used HH for three stays now and love them. We have stayed at one with full hookups, one with electric only and one that was completely dry. They are great to stay at and well worth the subscription cost (we have the additional "Boondocking" subscription as well). Hope that helps you in your decision making. Appreciate your great Youtube channel! Photos are from HH locations in Minnesota and Missouri:

Been there, done that, fully experienced the "mini-'Ol Faithful" right in the head (both of them)!