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In the interest of making the solar panels much more cover friendly, as in Calmark storage cover, and to just add a touch of finished look to the panels to match the color of the Oliver, I fabricated a permanent guard from 1-1/4" PVC pipe. It's notched out such that it just sits over the perimeter of the solar panels and fastens through the panel frames in 6 locations. No need to remove, but if the panels need service it takes about 10 minutes to remove in one assembled piece. I'm sure not everyone's cup of tea but I think it serves the purpose well which it's intended. I made a straight jig out of a 12"x60" piece of plywood with two 2x4's attached to hold the pvc rigid. I used a guide on the side of a circular saw to cut the pvc into the needed profile.

Our camping property is a forest conservation area, by our choice. one year, we awoke to what sounded like short, intermittent bursts of hail, first night back, in months. It wasn’t. There was a squirrel nest in a tree above us. We were "invading " their space. As soon as they figured out we were harmless, the barrage of nuts quit. The creatures were all here first. We see the bears often, usually in the distance, but they want nothing to do with us. A raised voice, or a bark from my 9 pound dog sends them packing. Keep a clean campsite. Our permanent neighbors do same. Put food sources out of sight and scent. At public campgrounds, make sure everything attractive is packed away, and all doors and windows are closed and locked. You have no idea of previous occupants. Bear, and other creatures, can learn that that campsites are an easy "foodsource". None of us want that. They become at risk, if they become accustomed to human food and contact. They'll eventually "invade" a human space,,and become subject to relocation or demise. Please do your best to let wild life continue to he wild,,and respect their space. We just share it with them, at their pleasure.

Chris: Great idea and creative execution! Well done. Not only looks great, is functional, but the curved edge is more aerodynamic as well. In the world of PVC, the big box store white PVC is designed for underground use. The Gray PVC is designed for electrical usage that is often used above ground and exposed to the sun. Just like black tie-wraps, the gray/black products have UV inhibitors, and generally speaking the white ones do not. So if one is going to paint the PVC, I suggest using the UV inhibited PVC. OR if your decals use gray as part of your Ollie's theme, then the gray PVC could be used as is. GJ

So... here we are in Wilcox, AZ wine country attempting to avoid sub-freezing temps in Northern NM. It's 75F here without a hint of wind. Harvest Hosting for a couple nights at Pillsbury Winery near the Chiricahua Mountains and Dos Cabezas Peak. OBTW: the new install of the Victron DC-DC charger is pretty awesome... Above pic shows the proximity to the Vinyard at Sam Pillsbury's ranch. Tough duty, but someone has to do it. Cheers to all... stay safe!

Old backpacking habits die hard, as space/size/ weight still matters, as much as great coffee matters. This GSI pour over filter has been in use for well over a decade, along with the pot I use to boil water, having survived countless backpacking adventures , and now lives in hull 997. I use a paper filter, so little water is wasted on clean up. It folds flat, takes a beating, dries fast, weighs nothing, brews a great cup, too.

It's a minor issue, but sitting at the dinette or lying in bed we found the touch lights can be glaringly bright. I discovered that a 4" PVC sewer-pipe connector has a flange that is the ideal diameter for slipping over the touch light to create a light shade. To create a shade I cut off the flange from a connector using the band saw. This is the cut end that slips over the light... This is the finished end that becomes the bottom of the shade: The shade slips over the light and stays in place with a friction fit, but a bit of 3M double stick tape provides insurance: Dinette touch light, without shade: Dinette light, with shade: Galley lights, with shades: Shade installation does not appear to have any effect on light operation--they still turn on and off by touch. I suppose that the flanges could be cut with a hand saw (hack saw, coping saw?), which would likely require some additional filing and sanding. Also, the shades could be painted white, but for now we've stuck with plain black.

Along with a fresh wax job, that pvc frame made installing the caver very easy. Started at the back and unrolled towards the front. Then stood on the bumper and pulled the cover back and down until it was centered on the camper. It was so smooth and slippery the cover just glided into position.

Same here. We replaced our cracked original lug nuts with a SS type described earlier in this thread - over 10k miles since, no issues after torquing to 95 lb-ft. We examine our lugs as part of our pre-departure checks, too.

When I had my Oliver serviced on Oct 20th, Oliver had no concerns about the SS lugs I mentioned I was using. I feel sure if there was a safety issue or concern service would have thrown a caution flag. All good. All said its just nice to have options. I prefer SS over chrome plated. Glad to hear your results and hopefully you will never have an issue with the OEM set cracking/peeling off. 👍🏻

I had previously heard (and it was discussed here on the Forum) that the touch lights were not going to be present on the 2024 models. However, I've not heard anything additional on this subject. Bill p.s. It has also been confirmed that the upper fridge vent on the exterior of the Ollie will not be there anymore - i.e. the outside shell will be smooth. However, the bottom fridge vent that turned into a collapsible table will continue to be the table.

I too found it necessary to hook up the signal booster to my Tiretraker to prevent "lost signal "alarms. I attached a 12 volt male cigarette lighter plug to the signal booster and when I tow, I plug it into a receptacle in the rear of my vehicle and secure it to the side with a piece of velcro tape. It is easy to remove and store when not towing. This approach should work in any of the cigarette lighter ports in the Oliver as well and only takes a few minutes to set up. No trailer wiring involved.

People like that are why we can’t have nice things.

Don’t know about you folks but it’s time for a cup of coffee however you choose to make it! Mossey

If anyone is interested in using a Melita, and making coffee in a thermos, here is the filter holder that works best. They’re about $12-$15 online. They take a #6 filter. We use unbleached filters.

After detailed discussions with @Geronimo John regarding a DC-DC Charger installation, we finally got around to making it happen. There's a ton of posts on this mod/upgrade, so we're not going down the rabbit hole to the end - just saying that it's a worth while mod to consider. Essentially, our concern was the 12AWG DC circuit from the 7-pin connector supplying an inadequate DC current to the OTT while towing, especially during the hours of darkness when there's no solar input to the battery bank. So, we decided to go with the Victron 12/12 30amp Bluetooth unit to be compatible with our other Victron devices (Smart Shunt, MPPT Solar charger, and the Cerbo S-GX multiplexer). We decided to upgrade from the OTT factory PWM solar module controller to the Victron MPPT unit. We also added the 7" Victron Touch to monitor all our AC and DC input/output activity which has been a game changer for us. Here's a series of pix that may satisfy the curiosity of those interested in efficiently charging the battery bank. FYI: We've got 3x BB's and ran 1/0 cables from the TV's smart alternator to an Anderson plug installed at the hitch, then 4 AWG cables from the Anderson through a Blue Sea Cable Clam to the Victron DC-DC charger installed under the aft dinette seat. The cables were snaked from the forward bulkhead under the toilet to the forward dinette seat, under the dinette table, to the aft dinette seat area: Below shows the location for the Victron Cerbo S-GX Touch Screen... This is the location where we mounted the new Victron MPPT Smart Solar Charger, upper street side compartment where the old PWM solar charge controller was mounted: We mounted the Victron remote solar controller monitor to the right of the Touch Screen... Building the Anderson plug for the OTT with 4AWG cables... Below shows the Blue Seas Cable Clam hull penetration adjacent to the 7-pin cable... Victron DC-DC Charger mounted on the street side wheel well/aft dinette seat next to the Progressive surge protector... Note the 50amp breaker between DC-DC Charger and the battery bank. We installed another 50amp breaker between the TV alternator and the Anderson connection: Pulling 4AWG cables from the hull penetration under the head sink thru the front of the toilet and to the aft dinette seat area... Thanks to @ScubaRx - Steve gave a great suggestion for snaking wires through challenging areas using a stiff plastic strap for securing pallet loads... One and done. I'm going for a cold one...

https://www.cnn.com/travel/blue-ridge-parkway-section-closed-feeding-bear/index.html

Everytime we are in Yellowstone it is amazing the amount of stupidity we see. There is something else between their ears and it isn't a brain

Thanks John, and I appreciate the tip on preserving the integrity of the material. Per the link you provided I think I’ll paint the frame with a PVC furniture paint. Like any PVC you buy at the big box store, this has scuffs and stains on it so it’d look better painted anyway and would shield from the sun. Regarding the CAD software, I subscribe to AutoCad LT. I believe it’s around $400 if paid annually and there’s no contract. If you let it expire you retain your account and can renew at any time. You also have the option to pay monthly at a slightly higher cost if you only want to use it occasionally. I don’t know if it’s Mac compatible. There are other 2D and 3D software products out there that are cheaper but being an old dog I didn’t want to have to learn a new system. It works for my needs. Oh and you can transpose the image colors when printing.

I'd love to join you! But, even if you offered to pay the speeding tickets I don't think I could make it in time from Western North Carolina.😁 Bill

@Ollie-Haus : Looks great, brother! Need to add this to the "To Do" list, ha! Awesome job. Thanks for posting...

Ah! Right on! Saturday morning in Wilcox, AZ at Pillsbury Winery... Black Rifle Blackbeard's Delight and a wee dram of Kahlua for a couple of "Cafe Ricos".... IMG_0320.HEIC

@Ronbrink: Good call, brother. The Blue Sea Systems ANL fuse is on our radar screen. TKX!

Right, the extreme summer heat here in Texas this summer was a bit too much! Just know the fuse option is a good fix.

The Hario pour-over is ceramic and the beaker is glass. I also use a pre-heated ceramic coffee cup, no plastic.

Excellent work Chris - Wow! It also looks way better than the raw edge of the panels too. 🙂

Take a photo of it?

While you are In Wilcox Also try Bodega Pierce Winery & Tasting Room

Yep. Our Hull #1291 has a full-strip magnet which holds the door closed. We like it a lot.

Tourons

Don't leave your Truma water heater on when driving. Put it into antifreeze mode, with the the antifreeze unit installed and running. That is what it is for. You can then turn it to Eco or Comfort mode when you are off the road camping and need hot water. When we travel in cold weather,we still run our 3-way fridge on DC. This is to avoid driving into a gas station with the open flame that the fridge propane setting requires. If driving in temps below freezing when not winterized, I would leave the furnace running on propane at 65 degrees F or higher, to keep the plumbing from freezing. But, I would pull off the road outside any gas station and turn it off before refueling. I would then pull off the road again after leaving the gas station and turn the furnace back on. Think about what could happen if your furnace tried to ignite fuel while parked next to a gas pump. It would be like lighting a match! With this regimen, monitor your propane levels. Depending on the size or your tanks, you may run out of propane every 3-4 days.

More than a few of use a 350 amp BlueSeas master switch to eliminate any parasitic losses. It for sure would solve the problem and provide an emergency cut-off for peace of mind. GJ

I use this very small Mr. Coffee machine. For travel it sits in the sink along with other items. At less than 10" tall, it could go elsewhere though. Works great. Doubles as a water heater if on shore power. GJ

It is a ritual. I go slow. I have learned exactly when to remove the heat. It makes two perfect cups, or at least to perfect as I have come to coffee. I have a friend with some fancy $1,000 rig that makes the best coffee I have had. I can't commit to something like that even at home. Our home pot makes good coffee, but the Moka pot is mo' betta.

Nothing earth shattering, but I thought I’d share some observations regarding freezing or not freezing items inside the camper during cold weather. Our Elite II is often parked on a piece of lake property we own in north central Minnesota. It’s strictly boondocking. We were up last weekend and ran the heat for about 24 hours before we headed home. We shut off the heat when we left. Tonight I’m back up and noticed some items were frozen, some were not, depending on their location. The weather has been in the low 20’s to mid 30’s during the last three days since we left on Sunday noon. It’s now Wednesday evening and I’m back. I’d winterized everything on a previous trip, so I’m dry camping. The composting toilet makes this possible. My analog recording thermometer is mounted above the microwave and to the left of the cabinet door. It recorded a low of 20°F. My digital battery shunt said it was 25° in the battery compartment when I got here around 5pm. The 1 gallon dog bowl on the floor of the bathroom is frozen. A 1/2 full 5 gallon water jug stored on the bathroom floor is frozen. There were four disposable one gallon plastic drinking water jugs from the grocery store on top of the composting toilet. None were froze at all. The contents of the pantry including drinks and canned goods were all fine. The contents of the refrigerator were all fine. This included eggs, pickles, beer, drinking water, and condiments. (In the name of science I opened and enjoyed several cans of beer tonight just to be sure cans from both the top shelf, bottom shelf, and door were all fine!) The take away? Don’t store anything on the floor that you don’t want to freeze. Anything off of the floor or in a cabinet was fine. Not sure how long it’d be fine, but for this one data point it works out. (Saturday is the start of Minnesota firearms whitetail deer season. I keep the camper up north all fall as a base to bird hunt ruffed grouse with my pointing dogs. Since the orange army is taking over the woods for a couple of weeks, I’ll move the Oliver home for the winter and put it away in the back yard under a carport.)

Our 58 tr3, Paul's college car, still runs ,and has a prime spot in the garage. Do we win ? 🤣🤣🤣

I've done off and on research on the Acorn vs Bulge Acorn Nut dilemma since I first posted about these lug nuts and questions were raised over a year ago. What Frank said is true, there is less contact area with the wheel from the nut. From what I've read, there is an approximate 6% decrease. Otherwise the fit is perfect. I was unable to find anything in solid Stainless Steel that stated they were of the Bulge Acorn design. I've driven over 10K miles after installation. I torque to 95 pound-feet. There has never been a time I've discovered a loose lug nut. I do check. Bonus Information... that any good engineer would already know, but that I've only recently discovered, (I might have known it 53 years ago when I took physics at Ole Miss) Alert readers will note my use of “pound-feet” instead of “foot-pounds”. Are these units of measurement Interchangeable? The short answer is NO. They are each separate, distinct units of measure. The “pound-foot” (lb-ft) is a measure of torque. Torque is a measure of the force that can cause an object to rotate about an axis. The “foot-pound” (or more accurately, “foot-pound-force”), is a measurement of work. Work is the measurement of force over a given distance.

The “acorn” type lug nuts (intended for steel wheels) will fit (same thread size), but they have less contact area with the wheel. The “bulge acorn” type lug nuts are recommended for aluminum wheels to provide a larger contact area (since aluminum is softer than steel) to prevent the aluminum surface from deforming and causing loose lug nuts.

What a wonderful effort! Many many thanks. I have some thoughts that may be worth a cup of coffee..... I am suggesting an "Old School" approach to short cycling that likely you have not seen done. In the olden days (IE. before transistors and electronic controls), if I had a T-stat sensing bulb that was in a difficult location (that we could not change), and the cold air was causing short cycling, we would first try shielding the sensor from the air flow. If that did not provide relief from short cycling, then we would add thermal mass to the sensing bulb. Thermal mass would work on a small thermistor as well I suspect. Try putting the thermistor into a small plastic pill container with a hole in the lid for the cable. Leave the lid hole sort of open, maybe even put a hole in the pill container bottom. Then tape it to the wall and note what happens. Then move it around the space. If the short cycling persists add thermal mass to the container with the thermistor and repeat. Something like a few small glass beads. Need more dampening, add more glass beads. The increasing thermal mass of the weighted container will ameliorate the output of the thermistor. That will delay temperature rise and fall as the unit cycles. Thereby delaying both start and stop. Basically extending the run times and off times as well. i am thinking that should the drain line approach be feasible (No answers to my question above about that yet.) then a thermal mass enabled thermistor in the attic with an air port via the smoke detector just may work. On the other hand there maybe a different thermistor that would do the same thing. But first proof of concept would be the first logical step. GJ

I bet they are going to the Airstream model. Any Airstream owner can go back to the factory and camp in the factory campground to have service done. Or, they can have service done at their nearest Airstream dealer. Mike

It appears to have been successful for two other respected fiberglass manufacturers, Bigfoot and Northern Lite, that I know of. We'll just have to wait and see how it works for Oliver. I too, wish them the best. I don't see that as a negative, if the chosen dealers are Oliver- specific trained, and dotted around the country (and who knows, maybe Canada?), it could afford many of us a much closer access to Oliver service. We are about a 12 hour drive-time trip to Hohenwald. I can only see that as a positive.

We've loved all our (6? 7?) Canadian trips. First, with the Ollie, was to revisit Lake Sharbot, where my husband spent many summers with friends and families, then in to an around Erie,,Ontario, Michigan and Superior, top of the lakes trip. It was. so. Darned. cold. in July, we had to find warmer clothes. Unexpected. But refreshing . 🤣 I still have a too big pair of sweatpants from that trip. I should just give them away. We love our Canadian neighbors, your beautiful parks, your welcome, and especially our travels through the Yukon, and our camping friends there. (My husband is from Buffalo, and I'm from Minnesota, so "almost" Canadian, in our original climates.)

Lol…yup wave the flag for the handful Ollies up here!😜

Oh I 100% know there was no disrespect, just thought I’d chip in from the far north!😊

….and Canada!

Just a little back story! I purchased Hull 193 in January 2018. Used Oliver's were hard to find in those days and I wasn’t really looking for a used Ollie, I wanted to order one just the way I had been planning to for over 2 years while waiting for retirement. When I found #193 on the Fiberglass RV forums in November 2017, it was by accident, my retirement had come 5 months earlier than planned and I was surfing the net and just stumbled onto it. So I ignored the ad for about a month because I wanted to order my own. So finally thought I’ll just go look at it, it might be too good to pass up, and it was. When we attended the 2018 OTTO's Rally, everyone welcomed us enthusiastically and we then went to Hohenwald after the rally and the Oliver Service Department fixed the fresh water tank pickup tube issue that a few LE2's of the vintage suffered from as a warranty issue. We dropped the trailer off in Hohenwald in August of 2018 and the service department converted our full size bed to a twin bed model. And we haven’t needed to go back since. I don’t know if OTTO's that buy directly from the factory get treated any better than we have been but I can’t imagine they do. Now I’ll give my thoughts on the death of the Classified Forum. 1. I appreciate the fact that OTT's has provided the general public and OTTO's a forum for us to talk about, seek advice and help from other OTTO's in a friendly and non judgmental setting. 2. OTT's has never asked for my opinion on how to run their business, and they don’t offer any advice on how I should run mine. 3. I am happy that they are receptive to new methods of running their business and hope they remain a viable company for many years to come. 4. They recently announced that they are moving to a dealer sales and service business model to supplement their present in house model. This should please owners that do not live in the southeast. I hope this new approach supports the sales and service for present and future OTTO's all around the United States. And if that comes at the sacrifice of the Classified Forum, that’s a decision that OTT's should make, it’s their money in the pot. And I support that decision. After all, my Ollie isn’t for sale! Mossey

See my post in another thread. My trust level over 16 seasons with the family is very strong. Please take a deep breath, and continue to have confidence in the Oliver family. They care about not only their customers, but their employees as well. I don't see that changing, no matter what, honestly. Back during the 2008 downturn, and the hiatus, Oliver continued to not only give gainful employment to all their employees, albeit often in other jobs, but continued to support our "orphan" trailers. And, they paid the fees to keep our then very tiny membership forum going. Som of us, like mountainborn and I, with more computer background, kept it afloat with our expertise, and no admins. (I do appreciate our admins.) Was I upset/angered by the decision to drop the classifieds?. Yes, of course I was. Absolutely. I was quite angry. But, if they feel that need, we'll figure out other paths. Will we continue to be the best possible group to join, for access to experienced Oliver owners, who actually have factual answers, based on experience? Yes. We will. It's not my job as a volunteer moderator to offer marketing suggestions. Oliver has a paid team for that. The benefits of having Oliver trained and certified service centers dotted about the four corners could significantly outweigh the loss of classifieds for many folks farflung from Hohenwald. We'll see. I'd encourage all of you to do as I will. Take a deep breath, and see how this works out. I know, personally, from my solid experience with the Oliver family, that the commitment to contiinued exemplary customer, and technical, service will not change. Its in their DNA. Sherry Oliver mod since February, 2008. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9710-classifieds-change/?do=findComment&comment=98284

No, everything about sales and service in Hohenwald will remain the same.

When I repaired my fan cover I had to replace my old gasket. I used a adhesive backed foam molding that comes in a roll from the hardware store. I match the thickness of the old gasket which was thin about 1/8 of a inch, so far that has been working.