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The Truma Aventa (13.5K BTU) definitely cools better than the Dometic Penguin (11K BTU). Having done the upgrade I have experienced both. The Truma lowers temperature much more rapidly and maintains it easily. Because of the higher BTUs, it does not run as long, leading to somewhat higher humidity. There is a Dehumidify Mode that will drastically lower the humidity (and temperature). It works very well. The Penguin ran longer, but humidity could still get pretty high under some circumstances. Both machines use Oliver's internal condensate drain plumbing. The downside of the Truma is its price. Carleton, if you're going new, I suggest ordering the Truma package. It will cost less than upgrading the AC post sale, plus you get Truma's on-demand water heater (AquaGo). Both the Dometic FreshJet and the Houghton RecPro cost considerably less, but Oliver will not install them at this time. The big reason to go with something other than the Penguin is reducing noise. It is quite loud.

That is correct. The Truma Aventa 13.5 BTU AC requires a 3000W gen. Presently per the Truma rep I spoke with a soft start is not available. The rep also said Truma is supposedly looking at a soft start solution.

rich.dev thank you so much for the diagram. Better than the one that is on basement cover. jd1923, here is a picture of the deck plates on the Curb side. The forward deck plate is a 6" and the aft deck plate is a 8" which replaced a 4" deck plate that I had a hard time getting my arm any farther than my elbow. I bought the deck plates from West Marine. I like the lift handle. You lift the handle and twist the 90 degrees, and the deck plate comes right off. The deck plate are not water proof, but it really doesn't matter inside the the cabin. The only thing I didn't like was the color was off white. They said it was "white", but as you see they are not pure white. I can reach all 4 configuration valves from the forward deck plate. From the aft deck plate I can reach the hot water shutoff, the fresh water drain, and 2 of the configuration valves. Note that you have to change all of the valves by feel, but I have no problems reaching, finding and turning the valves.

MobileJoy: Concerning your Lithionics batteries: Each manufacturer has their own winterization procedures to follow. Some, like Battleborn have different procedures depending on how deep of a freeze your location could experience and how long your absence will be from the trailer. So I recommend that you DO follow your MFG's winterization process. If you situation is unique, such as my Battleborn's, with my 8 month absence from the trailer, and wintered where they can see a -5 degree F temperatures for up to a couple of weeks at a stretch; then call your MFG and discuss your situation with them directly. Regardless, I recommend not having your propane system active for any long term non-attended storage. If you don't have a master 12V on/off switch, I would strongly consider adding one. With lithiums for normal winter storage (say 3 months), the parasitic losses are typically not significant enough to worry excessively about. But having a BlueSeas 350 amp master switch sure lets me sleep better when away for so long. Not to mention the ability to turn off all battery power very quickly should we smell smoke inside the trailer.... It's just a good idea and an easy DYI add. See Max Burner's post about the install we worked on this past summer. Your statement is correct for most Lithiums that need to be charged/discharged during winter extreme conditions. The use of heated batteries allows one to charge and discharge their system at will. However, if you don't use your trailer in extreme freezing conditions, then you don't need to worry about use of the batteries because they are shut down at the master switch, or in come cases by button's on each battery. Such is my case and many others. So having the heaters is good and necessary for the Cold Weather Owners for sure, and generally not for most other owners. One other option for fringe weather owners that use their lithium battery powered trailers in early spring and later fall where they may get short periods of very cold conditions. By installing a cabin air ducted fan system to the Litho battery box, (Such as John Davies and others have documented), you could get by without the expensive battery heaters. There is also some benefit to having such mods during extreme hot weather conditions to help keep the battery box temperature closer to the interior temp of you Ollie. Best regards, GJ

Trixie the Adventure Beagle

Keep an eye on the OTT "For Sale" section of our forum. If you find one you like, check out the owner's posts. It is amazing what you can learn about the history of their trailer as a result, and about the owner's skills as well. To you above list of upgrades if purchasing an Older OEII, I would add upgrading the Invertor to 3,000 watts, a Victron Orion DC-DC 12-12 30 amp charging system, and of course a 350 amp BlueSeas Master Switch and Victron 712 Smart Shunt to your list. Maybe adding solar or at least a solar suit case or two if it does not have solar already. Each of these efforts have been done by many owners and how to do DYI documentation here is off the charts helpful. To do the project listed, you will need normal tools, plus assorted hand power tools, a hole saw of the proper size, dedicated cable cutter, and a hydraulic lug crimp for starters. First spend some time with your used Ollie and try to understand all of the systems before doing any DYI mod. Please take the time to really study each project and look at all the different ways of doing each of them well before buying anything. Questions? First search the web. Then Google search the web. You'll get more items to digest as their search engine seems to be better than ours. If you still have questions then ask them on one of the threads for that mod. Just know that there may be several threads for a given topic, and each of us posters generally like our way the best....but some times the other thread has a better. And most importantly, looking at them all you likely will come up with an even BETTER way for that DYI effort. With our new Houghton A/C and 3 ea Battleborn 100Ah batteries and 3,000 watt inverter we can run our A/C for almost three hours in hot conditions. We routinely charge our BB's with a Progressive Dynamics 60 amp charger. When we need to run longer and do not have shore power, our Honda EU2200i generator works great. Some owners have the older Honda 2,000 w inverter and it is equally successful. However, some other brands of 2K generators will not pull the load. Lots of posts on this topic! IMHO, only for special needs situation is there a need for a super expensive and heavy 3,000 watt generator.... On the other hand, if you are Full Timing, and you discover some gold nuggets, then the Honda 3000 watt inverter generator would be the best on the market. Then you have a lot of power flexibility. I recall a recent post about this generator and that it fits in our front aluminum basket. GJ GJ

I'm going to disagree that the cracks are merely cosmetic. In the parts of the country where we get snow and rain, water and ice melting chemicals get between the steel core and the stainless steel covers. The steel core rusts and bulges the covers. Now a socket won't go over the stainless cover or fit correctly, even if you pick a bigger socket. Since the core can turn to a rusty mush, the cover falls off and you're left with a vaguely hex shaped nut that doesn't fit any tools in your box. Your best attack is taking an undersized impact socket and hammering in onto the rusted, undersized, nut. I've also used a pneumatic chisel and a plasma torch to cut them away. I hope you have a full set of tools on the side of the road if you have a flat tire and bulged lug nuts. Cracks in the stainless cover exacerbate this problem. My opinion is from 25 years of teaching high school shop, including auto mechanics. 16 year old kids that bring their cars into the shop are usually driving rusty hand-me-down cars. GM vehicles come to mind as consistently having an issue with these type of lug nuts. I think I had to replace all the nuts on my kids Honda Element for the same reason too. In the SW you'll probably never have an issue, but for anyplace with regular snow and moisture, in the long term they're a bad idea. It's not just a cosmetic problem for many of us.

We’ve camped in 100+ temps often, normally when we’re trying to get out of south Texas to cooler areas. The old Dometic in our trailer does fine keeping the interior cool, although it is a bit noisy. Texas heat usually includes a fair amount of humidity. Western Slope in CO will have significantly less humidity. We camp there often since our son and family live in Durango. Mike

For about a year now, Oliver has been offering the Truma AC package on new units. Our Hull #1291 Elite II has the Truma air conditioner. It is much quieter than the standard Dometic. I don't know if it cools any better than the Dometic, but we used ours last August on a couple of 100 degree F days in direct sunlight at 4200 feet in Idaho. The Truma AC effectively cooled the cabin down to 75 degrees F, which is where we like it, and kept it there. I would not fear leaving pets in the trailer during ambient outside temps of 100 degrees F, with a Truma air conditioner running. Of course, you must have shore power or at least a 3KW generator to run the AC for more than an hour or two, even with the Lithionics batteries Oliver is now offering with new units.

Our previous Dometic Noise Maker A/C, and current Houghton are both 13,500 BTU. Both were used over the past five years at Tinker AFB, OKC OK. in 108 degree full sun conditions. Both of these A/C's were cycling which tells me that they had a bit of spare capability in them. Note that I did keep the sun side window shades drawn, and had the awning extended about 3' for some wall shading. Did not go beyond this distance due to local thermals passing by occasionally. If you buy a used Ollie, plan on replacing the Dometic Penguin II A/C. New OTT offers a much better A/C now. GJ

110# of Huskies in the back coming home from our first 2-dog adventure - they pretty much take up the entire back seat...

We've camped in humid 90s a few times. The Dometic A/C on our trailer quickly brings the interior into the 70s and keeps it there, even in full sun. It is loud, though.

Actually the stuff that Oliver has used for insulation has been similar to Reflectix but instead of being basically "bubble wrap" in between the foil it is a foam composite of some sort. Here are a few pictures which show how and where this is applied to the shells prior to them being joined together. Bill

For insulation, there is a layer of 1/4" thick (I think) reflectix installed between the hulls. Mostly installed, I should say, in that insulation has gaps in some corners (such as behind some cabinet areas. Layers of reflectix in our trailer are not taped together at seams, so there is room for air movement at corners and reflective joints. Theoretically, I would love to see more insulation between the hulls (reducing loads on the AC and furnace), but air and space between the hulls is what lets moisture (if present) seep toward the bottom of the hull and out one of the scupper drains. Reflectix helps reduce radiant heat transfer under a hot sun. It probably also helps with conductive heat transfer. There is still ample space between the hull walls, so I'm not sure how much it helps with convective heat transfer. I have found the combination of double hull walls, double-pane windows, and AC effective in hot western weather, at least into the low 100°F range. Our 2021 AC is noisy, but gets the job done. Battery compartment can get warm, especially at high charge rates in hot weather. All of that said, we prefer to seek out higher elevations and/or shade on hot days.

This is neither Mechanical nor Technical, but more maintenance. Not sure what other channel to place this. Hope it helps our new-comers. Someone on the Oliver Owners Facebook page saw my first video and asked me if I could video record actually how to clean the tracks under the windows. So, it was a beautiful day and I figured I'd see if I can clean and record at the same time. This is kind of new to me. https://youtu.be/-oEpon3iaPc

Just passing along: Heard back from Rodney Lomax, Sales Manager at factory about a few minor changes to 2024 model year: No big changes as many happened last year. 1) Delete both street side water ports from side of trailer Simplify down to just 2 ports for water. ( These side mounted ports get lots of grime and road abuse. Moving to rear should help.) 2) Move current street side fresh tank fill to left side of rear bumper. (Like the current boondocking port on right (curb) side.) 3) Change right rear boondocking port valves so it is both the regular pressurized input line….and a boondocking port. (In 2024 Only 2 ports for water on rear of trailer) 4) Rework body moulds to remove the inset used for upper fridge vent. New fridges don’t need that vent. The trailer will then be streamlined all the way to the door on the upper hull. 5) The exterior solar port will no longer be standard but will be a dealer option for customers that wish to have it. (Note: Several owners added their own solar ports in the past.) 6) There is a possibility of a bathroom door change but that is still in the R & D phase and may not pan out.

Hi! We are looking at an Oliver (Elite II, specifically), and are wondering about the performance of the insulation & A/C. We currently own a Provan Tiger, and even though the A/C is great, it can't stand up to direct Colorado sunlight due to the poor insulation. We are moving to western-slope Colorado, and temps of 100+ and direct sunlight are going to happen, and for the sake of our dog we'd like to keep the inside of the camper to below 80 degrees. Is the insulation of the Oliver enough that it can reasonably cool the space with a good size AC unit?

Some years ago, we visited the Custer area and stayed in a commercial CG on the outskirts of Custer City. While there, we had two credit card purchases that seemed somewhat “unusual”, but not enough so that I stopped the process. After we left the area, we received a call from the fraud department of our bank alerting us to a few significant purchases made in England. 😳 We locked that card, requested a new issue, and used cash on the remainder of the trip. I suspect the merchants in England had to eat the loss. It could have been a coincidence that it happened after leaving there, but I don’t know. Don’t let a merchant take your card out of your sight, and don’t allow a merchant to use a device you don’t recognize. The first incident is what occurred at the CG, the second was at a famous tourist attraction. Caveat emptor.

We have a 2019 EII and ours is activated with the wall control and shows as another option to select just like the A/C or furnace. It's nice to have another heat option (especially if you're running low on propane) and we sometimes use it in conjunction with an electric heater that we plug in next to the closet. We, of course, use our furnace when it's really cold outside to keep us as well as the trailer components warm.

JD: Spot on from the guy that has been there and done that! Thanks for your caution and taking the time to remind the new guys. IMHO, the removal process as JD has documented in his posts is a PITA. With advent and now widespread installation of Litho's with suitcase/rooftop solar, the capability of our DC systems is to the point that we can seriously consider removing and replacing the frig with an inverter frig. Even though I have a huge supply of JD's service parts from his efforts, I likely will be adding to it and passing them along to another OTT or SOB (MaxBurner Term) :-). Until I have the time to do so, I do recommend adding supplemental twin fan exhausters as I have posted (and others with other fan units). By increasing the airflow/heat exchange you are lowering the temperature and alleviating some of the risk of these three-way gas fired refers. Once again, IMHO, this is just another reason to ensure your propane and smoke detectors are replaced early (For sure no later than 5 years service). GJ

Just put in the order. Cost about $100 with shipping to Connecticut. Ordered in black for longevity. Any of these sort of plastic or vinyl bits that are on the outside of a vehicle can be treated with 303 which is an aerospace UV protector similar but better than armor-all. I'm thinking the black will never show the fungus stains. Thanks much for pointing me in the right direction.

I soiled my myself and clothing many times from residual grease on the hitch ball before addressing the issue. I really, REALLY like this product, mostly because it is clear and won’t stain!

I also agree with the points made above. However, in my case when the trailer was being towed home from delivery by Oliver, I checked the torque on all nuts. My wrench slipped on one of them and that was enough to deform the skin. I was unable to get the wrench back on that nut while on that trip. To get it off, a socket had to be hammered onto the nut. At the time that this happened, I didn't realize the nut had a skin and thought the nut itself was deformed. I figured it out when I got home and decided right then to replace the nuts.

There are many posts on our forum about our life safety detection systems and consequences of what can happen when things go badly. For this post, I am trying to highlight one simple step that each of us need to do when leaving our Oliver unoccupied and unattended for extended periods of time. But first, some info about propane. Both of the LPG gases, propane (C3H8) and butane (C4H10), are heavier than air. Propane is about 1.5 times heavier and butane is 2.1 times heavier than air. In a stagnant air situation, they will pool at the lowest level they can reach. Good news is that propane will only ignite within their upper and lower explosive limits (LEL). Said differently, the lower explosive limit is the lowest possible concentration of a gas that will burn or explode if ignited. The upper explosive limit, is the highest possible concentration of a gas in the air which will burn or explode if ignited. So, keeping your life safety detectors in good working order is an imperative. Doing so gives us great protection when using Ollie. However, the purpose of the below is to call your attention to a potential hazard that most of us have not likely considered…. What about when we are gone for months? BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front): It is imperative to shut off the propane tank valves and totally kill & secure the power to your trailer if it is left unattended for long periods of time. Scenario: You are going to be away from your Ollie for several weeks or months. Unknown to you, there is a super small propane leak in your Ollie. It is so insignificant that it does not set off your propane detector. For long duration storage, to minimize battery losses, you have turned your master 12V electrical switch to “OFF”. You have removed and secured the shore source and power cord. So electrically your trailer utility wise is dead. But, this time you forgot to turn off the propane tank valves and did not place the propane auto switch-over in the center position. In your absence, the small leak continues to leak. Eventually, it it pools in a low space and continues to grow. Eventually it exceeds the LEL for propane. For the fire/explosion triangle, you now have fuel and oxygen. But since there is no ignition source, no fire/boom. Weeks or months later you return to Ollie. You pull out your Arrival Check List and proceed to uncover and unlock Ollie. You carefully check for wasp/hornet nests as you carefully open the door. Then you open up the trailer windows. With your flashlight, you check all areas of Ollie for things that may have changed in your absence. Things like pest intrusions, leaks, spills, canned food or wine bottles that froze hard and then leaked, or any of a host of other things that can happen while you were away. Part of your Arrival Check List process is to open up the hatches and look there too. When all looks good and you do not smell any weird smells from the above sources, or the distinctive “rotten egg” smell of mercaptan (The propane mal-odorant), you turn on your 12 Volt master switch to power up the trailer lighting. Another quick look...all is good. Then you fire off the Max Fan for fresh air, and you can safely connect up to shore power. Next you turn on the refrigerator and A/C. Miller Time! But this year, a family member is the first to Ollie and they have just a bit of trailer experience. Their first mistake is not to follow your Arrival Check List, but instead they plug in Ollie to shore power. Boom. So, for long duration unattended time frames, please ensure that you make safe your propane system by isolation from the tanks and killing the 12 and 120 volt shore power systems by turning them off and locking up any means for them to be activated until you have inspected your trailer for unknown hazards. Mahalo, GJ

Sorry, I did not mean to turn this into a discussion about batteries. I only mentioned the storage procedure I use (recommended by Lithionics) to indicate that I do have electrical switching going on in the battery compartment. Without an added battery box circulating fan, I do not see any leaking propane finding its way in there. With the tanks shut off, I do not see small propane leaks as a storage issue. I do understand your points about unique circumstances leading to lower explosive limits being reached. For us, we do not provide unsupervised access to our trailer to anyone else, we religiously make sure the tanks are off when in storage, there is no available shore power at our storage location, and I don't think we have a master DC cut-off. The Lithionics batteries can be turned off, but then they would have to be removed for cold weather. I will look into adding a master DC cutoff switch. This would kill all power to the trailer while allowing me to leave the batteries and heating pads turned on. GJ, a big thanks for this advice!

Sure Ken, I agree now seeing your explanation. The pics I observed above, appeared to be only the wrap and the mating surfaces looked solid. You supplied a sound reason for the cracking. Given rust within created expansion to cause the cracks, to the point of not allowing the 3/4" socket to fit, yep you got a problem. Given the interior threads would be as rusty, they could fail with time.

We can run our Dometic A/C with our 2000W Honda generator but it's my understanding that a 3000W generator is needed to run the Truma A/C because it doesn't have the soft-start feature.

I contacted RV Save about their products. Below is their response. GJ +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ From: customerservice rvsafealarm.com <customerservice@rvsafealarm.com> Sent: Monday, November 6, 2023 7:05 AM Subject: RE: RV Safe CO/Propane Detector Good morning, Thank you for liking our product! We will be keeping both the Propane and the Carbon Monoxide / Propane combo. Nothing is scheduled to change. Regards, RV Safe LLC 11441 Markon Drive Garden Grove, CA 92841 714-934-8512

I hope they are close to the same size as the touch lights. As our touch lights fail, I would love to replace them with switch-operated lights.

I learned the 2024’s will not have touch lights they will have lights that use an on off switch to operate the light per OTT service. Patriot🇺🇸

Thanks all. Yes, the plan is usually to be at higher elevation, but even then the poor insulation on the Tiger can't keep up if I'm in direct sunlight. But, we will be full timing at points, so we don't always get the luxury of getting high up. Geronimo John: good advice on replacing the A/C. We generally like buying used, then tinkering until we get it to where we want to be. So, for an Oliver it'll be Lithium, sounds like a new A/C, composting toilet, etc.

We stayed in 100°+ temperatures last summer and did fine. We had to travel into the heat for a family memorial service in New Mexico and then to Southern Missouri. It did great in dry and humid conditions. We had to use a generator or be hooked up to shore power. We also learned to set the fan to low speed and let it run. This way only the compressor cycles intermittently which is muted by the constant white noise of the fan. For us, this is way less disruptive for sleeping.

I am just a newbie. We are planning deliver of our Ollie in Mar 24 (followed by nearly simultaneous retirement). When evaluating RV options, Airstream almost won. Mostly because I live 15 miles from a full service AS dealership. I'm not a moron, but I'm also not an automotive engineer. The promise of having competent technicians 20 minutes from home was a big plus for the aluminum guys. In the end we committed to travelling from FL to TN yearly for expert evaluation/maintenance/advice..... If this lessens that commute, I vote Yeah. Everything I've written should be colored by the knowledge that I have no clue whether such actions will eviscerate the soul of the company. I pray not.

Ours usually reads 100% well before water comes out the overflow. Not exactly precision instruments.

Snow Foxes

Airborne

Mule deer crossing a stream, taken from the Pa-Rus Trail in Zion NP last October... Heron, also taken from the Pa-Rus Trail in Zion NP

https://www.pellandent.com/RV-Window-Seal Pull your flexible seal, then match the profile with the one on the Pelland Enterprises web page to ensure you get the same one.

Ebony is the black Lab - 12 months. Maggie-Lou is the yellow, 22 months. Both are Southeastern Guide Dogs. Ebony is a Guide-Dog-In-Training. Maggie-Lou is used for breeding Guide & Service dogs.

The Andersen greaseless ball has served me well with no noticeable or excessive wear with the bulldog hitch and no greasy mess to clean up and zero squeaks. I shed no tears when we sold our Andersen WDH after purchasing a TV that does not require a WDH.

I wondered if anyone did with trailers this weight. For decades, over a succession of under 2000 pound sailboats and now my squaredrop trailer, I've used a stainless steel ball and a four layer thick square of waxed paper. Never a squeak, no wear, no mess. A boat dealer told me about this method back in the '70s or '80s.

Big? Fritz is only 92 pounds, Ketzel a mere 72. To be honest, it’s tight, really tight. Fritz can’t even turn around between the beds, he backs out.