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This YouTuber has been doing a series on the lack of quality in RV's and dealerships. However, she heard about the Oliver and posted this video about an hour ago.

Let's just stick to answering the questions asked. Which you mostly did, thank you very much. @GAP please pass on John’s very thorough explanation of the retrofitting. I doubt it could be improved upon very much. The new owners probably have a valid (albeit personal) reason in wanting to change out the composting toilet for a regular one because there are also "SOOOOO many reasons" to not want one. One reason is medical. Most folks don't discuss their intimate bowel habits with the other members on an open forum. Even though it's true that 90% of new buyers choose the composting toilet, there is a plethora of medical reasons that these are not the necessarily the best toilet choice for everybody. The greatest obstacle to properly using one may well be the need to keep solids and liquids separate. What if your “solids” are usually mostly liquid. There is a wide range of problems that can cause chronic diarrhea; some of the most common causes include irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), inflammatory bowel disease (Crohn disease and ulcerative colitis), mal-absorption syndromes, like celiac disease, in which food cannot be digested and absorbed. There are also infections such as C. diff (also known as Clostridioides difficile). There are, as well, many other less common causes of chronic diarrhea. There is probably no drug on the market that doesn’t include “diarrhea” among its many side effects. Ten percent of Americans have Type II diabetes. The most prescribed oral medication for that disease is Metformin, but its gastrointestinal adverse effects such as diarrhea, flatulence, nausea and vomiting can be a barrier to its use and quite possibly make using a composting toilet very difficult. I seriously doubt there has ever been a discussion between a sales rep and a potential new owner that checked off 'composting toilet' on their order list about any of these issues.

I was happy to see Ray and Nancy Eklund on airforums got a brief shoutout at 1:18 with a screen shot a post of his. His posts were instrumental in our initial interest in an Oliver and boy was he right on regarding Oliver’s quality and functionality. He is certainly an informal brand ambassador!

Jason - Thanks for the hat. Bill

@John Dorrer: Try sending a few pix of the affected area - we may be able to come up with a collective "FIX" so you won't have to just "live with it". There's always a work-around, brother!

After several unsuccessful camper trailers and the nightmare that went along with the experience, we finally decided to order an Oliver. We made friends with an owner of an Oliver in a National Forest campground in Texas after seeing LE2 in person. Ours is now on order, due December 19. I have no idea what hull number it will be but we are certainly excited to get it. The wait, however, is a bit irritating since this is our time of year to camp. It will come soon enough. We hope the wait will be worth it. *Fingers crossed*

I'm not quite a Trekkie but I certainly love me some science fiction. Probably going to have to mount some lights under the egg now.

We are that kind of camper. We went from tents to a Class A with three slides. Then from there to various campers. This one is smallest, but we enjoyed tent camping so it will be perfect for us. Especially when my wife takes it solo.

Keeping to that theme, and being a Star Trek fan for almost a century or two.... I agree and believe that our Clan has a few Klingons and Romulans for sure. Even a Ferengi gestor. A bunch of Vulcan intellectuals (who tend to be detailed, long winded, but highly insightful). And one that I know very well that can claim DNA from all of these races. Luckily, most of the clan is just human enjoying our Space Egg traveling all over our Universe. But there a couple that continue to take their Space Eggs "where no Eggette has gone before". GJ

Nothing like people that go camping and bring the city with them.

Funny you mention the mother ship reference. You'll find a lot of folks have an appreciation for the Olivers, but don't get what kind of folks would spend so much on a "small camper with no slides". All I can say is if you haven't owned one you will never understand. It is a camper designed for a certain kind of camping couple in mind. That's why when you watch the testimonials, those that have an Oliver usually knew from the first sight of one that it was the camper for them. Just an FYI, you will find that some of the manuals posted on the Oliver University have updated versions available from the manufacturer web site. Just a few, but the few revisions contain import information. I wouldn't go looking at this point, but when you have your camper, if something doesn't make since in a manual, just look to see if there's an updated version available. Much of the tech equipment on board gets updated regularly by the manufacturer, so just be aware.

Downloading the Owner's manual and equipment manuals is a great idea. I have already begun watching the videos. Thankfully, there isn't much in the Oliver that differs from some of the other campers I have had in the past. My wife and I enjoy a lot of flexibility so travelling together for extended periods isn't too difficult. We have a Tuesday delivery scheduled. Hopefully, Oliver can stick to the schedule, but like I said, we are flexible. The mothership reference is quite funny. When she hears it, m wife will start calling Ollie people aliens.

You hit the nail on the head. I absolutely believe the positives will outweigh the negatives when it comes to its size. We love to disperse camp in hard to get to places and I think the Oliver will be useful in that regard. We don't spend much time indoors, so the size shouldn't matter much in the long run.

The "family experience" is definitely up my wife's alley. She is an incredibly outgoing people person. I, however, am opposite of that in many ways. Regardless, we camp because of nature. We enjoy peace and quiet, long walks in the woods, and the occasional Shiner Bock fireside with friends. If you ever met us in person, you would remember my wife and our crazy little dog and maybe the quiet guy sipping his beer at the edge of the fire ring. Happy trails.

Thanks, and yes, I am experienced. Not only with campers, RVs in general but backpacking. I would consider myself the intrepid outdoors enthusiast who generally gets so caught up in work I have to remind myself to get out of the house. To be honest, I'm not sure why I got so caught up in Oliver that I threw a lot of cash at them. Perhaps I recognized the quality when I saw it. Maybe it was the massive number of positive reviews. It could be the trail of worthless campers and RVs littering the highway of my past. Maybe I'm just crazy. Whatever it is, I am planning to enjoy this. In fact, I already have. This forum and Oliver University, as you have said, is quickly becoming my friend and a source of great knowledge. I have already watched almost every video I can find. Some, I have watched multiple times. Now I am delving into the forums. Great stuff here. Thanks for the welcome.

Thanks for the tips and warm welcome. I will definitely get in touch with my sales rep. In my case it was Chase Inman, but it looks like he handed me off to Josh since the last few emails I received were from him. Chase's wife is sick so I'm sure he has his hands full. I planned to spend at least one night at the Oliver shakedown CG, though I took the entire week off, so I have the option of staying longer if needed. I'm not a newbie to camping, so I'm aware that even with the incredible build quality that goes into an Oliver, it is still a complex beast full of outsourced equipment. I am hoping this will be an amazing experience for me and my wife, but I'm going into this with a headlight and wrenches on standby.

First, Congrats Second, Welcome Your story sounds a lot like ours

Jason - I'll add my "welcome" to this growing list. Yes, you have bought a camper. But, you have also "bought" a company that is more than likely actually different from any other company you have dealt with in the past. So many companies simply give lip service to things like quality and customer service but if your experience is like mine - that is all it is, "lip service". Yes, Oliver is not perfect. But, they will do what they say they are going to do, when they say they are going to do it. And, they will keep at it until any "problem" they created is fixed - not with a Band-Aid but actually fixed. The next couple of months is actually a very short time. You have a bunch to do. It is very helpful that you appear to be experienced campers with an RV. But, while the basic systems in an Oliver are much like those in other campers, there are nuances that are different enough that knowing about them prior to taking delivery should make your early experiences much easier. This Forum and the Oliver University are your friends and you should make yourself very familiar with them prior to delivery. We are here to help you! Just shout. Bill

https://www.slashgear.com/1440425/goal-zeros-skylight-camping-light/ Won't be any stars to see when the neighbors start firing these things up. 😪

Well played, sir!

Either that or Meriwether Lewis CG. Either way, it will provide a good opportunity to shake out all the bugs.

I'll try to remember to get some pictures when we drove up to the storage place to check on the trailer in a couple of weeks Thanks👍

My chili recipe can solve that problem! GJ

Some lithium batteries manufacturers, such as BattleBorn, do NOT want their batteries on a continuous charge when in storage and not being used. Keeping them on float at 100% is bad for their batteries. Recommend you ask that question to your battery mfg just to be sure. GJ

Lol. Sounds like something I would do. Then plan to do it! With a Tuesday delivery, I recommend you consider spending Tuesday-Thursday nights at David Crockett State Park in Lawrenceburg, then return to Hohenwald on Friday with your (hopefully short) list of issues to be addressed by the Oliver Service Department. Reserve a spot at the Oliver Service/Showroom facility for Friday night, as your Oliver may not be returned to you until the end of the day. If you have more time, plan to spend Tuesday night at Oliver Service, then Wednesday-Sunday at David Crockett State Park, returning to Hohenwald on Monday morning, if needed. We had a Thursday delivery, so we spent Friday-Sunday at the Park. I spent nearly all of those 3 days thoroughly inspecting and testing the Oliver inside and out, which left me too little time to really explore that beautiful state park. Once you finalize your plans, reserve a camp spot online. It is a popular park. We found that, even in November, most campsites were reserved many weeks in advance. The spots along Shoal Creek are the first ones reserved. Good luck!

I'm sure this has been covered but cannot find the answer in search engine. Wondering what it would take for an individual with modest skills to replace a composting toilet with a standard one on a 2021 E2. We loved how our composting toilet worked and enabled much better dry camping situation but have put our trailer up for sale and have been asked about the conversion process. Looks like the black tank and water source is super accessible. While on the subject, where to source a replacement toilet? Thanks much.

I went “here” and found these to be ‘non-friction hinges’, thus possibly the disparity in price Patriot noted. However, Amazon.us does offer a ‘friction hinge kit’ consisting of a pair. They appear to be the same as those rich.dev purchased from the Amazon.ca site, based on the compatible Lippert door Series listed in the product Description.

At least I'm still here! But, 4 eight year old lead acid batteries and a old inverter isn't going to do much to add to the question asked - sorry😔

LOL

Just joining in to say welcome! Your decision and your wait will most definitely be worth it! In the Summer of 2020, my wife and I were barely enduring a Colorado hailstorm in our pop-up trailer and decided it was time to upgrade. As I researched RV options, I found reports and stories of problems after problems. One of the guys I talked to said he wished he had just paid the money and waited for an Oliver. I said "what's an Oliver" and that was the begining for us. In a near-miracle, a 1-year old Oliver showed-up for sale in Denver. We bought it and have enjoyed it very much even though we only have time for shorter trips each season (still working full time). For us, the size is just right because it can fit in the National Park and National Forest campgrounds for boondocking, yet we have all the comforts in amazing, remote places without ever needing hookups. We've taken it to Canyonlands, Arches, Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Custer SP, Badlands, Gunnison Gorge, Great Sand Dunes and Rocky Mt National Parks in addition to numerous tucked-away, awesome national forest campgrounds. Absolutely no regrets in buying it and look forward to adventures with it for years to come. Maybe use the wait time to research and plan cool new places to take your Ollie 🙂

Good one GJ, go Red Bull! Actually your quote credited to me, “I’ve been using this grease from Reese”, is that of Frank C. I’m advocating the Mission Automotive Hitch Ball Lubricant. The ‘soiling’ issue as subsided since picking up a trailer ball cover from Academy, works great!

Try a few of the Stella cans and you probably won't care.

I use a spray can of white lithium grease instead of any "Water Proof" grease. Reason is that I had not discovered the "Red Bull" can approach (Max Burner's post). So my use of use axle grease (Pretty much water proof and permanently staining) came with time consuming challenges. Not to mention that I kept finding myself using Borax abrasives to sand off the grease (and a layer of skin) that always seemed to appear about 24" above ground. Or the buckets of Dawn dish soap trying to remove those stains from my 7-pocket shorts. At least lithium white grease is only water resistant and getting stains of me and my shorts is a lot less time consuming when I forget the Red Bull can! GJ

Yes 2 sets of the Lippert hinges, the door comes std with 3 non friction sets, I installed 2 of the Lippert sets in between (top and bottom of the stock middle set). I couldn't find the 2 pack on the Amazon.com site, bought mine from the Canadian site here ***Edit 15 Nov 2023 - and from US site here

Tomorrow, November 10th, is the 248th birthday of the United States Marine Corps. Founded in Tun Tavern, Philadelphia in 1775. I hope that my fellow Marines stop to remember all those with whom we served. The following Day, November 11th, is Veterans Day. Please take a moment to honor those who gave their lives in the service of our nation. Semper Fi

It would be a very easy retrofit, and the parts cost would be close to zero, because the new owner can sell the used composting toilet on Craigslist for $300. The flush toilets are easily obtained from many online sources, I have no idea about pricing... All the big waste fittings are standard Home Depot stuff. The fresh water flush line is already in place, as is the outside black tank flush plumbing (unless you removed them as I did). The tank level (indicating) system was pre-installed at the factory. I suggest that you tell the buyer this, but also tell them to USE the NH unit for a while before deciding. There are SOOOOO many reasons to have the NH, and anecdotally 90% of new buyers order that toilet. If they plan to stay hooked up 100% of the time, then the water wasting unit is a no brainer. But if they plan to visit lots of National Parks and forest service campgrounds, that flusher will never work well. Tell them how much fresh water they will save. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/1978-natures-head-composting-toilet-installation-in-an-oliver-big-thread/ John Davies Spokane WA

You will received training on all of the systems in the trailer the day you take delivery. Although excellent, it is like "drinking from a fire hose." To get better prepared to absorb all of that important information, review all of the videos available online in Oliver University in the meantime, until you could "teach the class." Also, plan to spend at least 3 days after pickup inspecting the trailer and testing all of the systems. We live in Idaho, so we spent 3 days at David Crockett State Park (had to do that, as my middle name is Crockett) thoroughly inspecting and testing everything we could before beginning the return trip to the West. We found a few defects, which the Oliver Service Department jumped on immediately after we arrived back in Hohenwald. We considered their response exemplary. We took delivery on our Elite II exactly one year ago today, November 10, 2022. The Oliver Service Department has honored the 1-year warranty better than any company with whom I have ever dealt. And, although after expiration of the warranty Oliver is no longer responsible to pay for parts or labor, they will still provide valuable advice in response to a service ticket. I have particularly high regard for Jason Essary, Oliver's Service Manager.

welcome to the family. I'm sure you will be pleased with your experience with Oliver the company and the camper they are building for YOU! That's the hardest thing to realize when going through this process, that you placed and order for a camper and Oliver has your name on it from the moment you sign your agreement, and that lasts for as long as you own your Oliver. This is hard to grasp especially if you've had multiple poor experiences with campers and dealers in the past. Either unfortunately or fortunately most Oliver owners have had many of the same experiences, or know of them first hand, and that's why they are now Oliver owners. They didn't give up on camping and their dreams, they just figured out the best way to make it a rewarding experience. BTW, if you have paid your initial installment and they have you on the build schedule, you have a VIN and a Hull number. Ask your sales rep to get that information for you. We worked through Josh White and he forwarded those numbers to us as soon as we were added to the build schedule. This is useful as you can get insurance quotes and other important information if you have the VIN. It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of the moment come delivery day. Just try to stay focused, there's actually much to do now until that date arrives. And go in knowing that these are still built by people trying to keep up with a production schedule. Mistakes happen and flaws get missed during QC processes. Oliver will make anything that needs attention right, and you will be their priority when you are there to pick up your camper. Try to allow time in your schedule to go through a good shakedown while in Tennessee. And anything that is found later is still important to them. Also remember its a high quality camper but they still have to rely on the quality control of their suppliers. Things still break. Oliver will help make it right if it does. Congratulations and enjoy the experience. It's unique to the industry just as the camper is unique in every way. Make sure to sign up for the owners rally in mid May. It's a great experience and you will make a lot of friends.

I have this saved from a post…can’t remember exactly who from and when, but if it will help I can send you the pdf

A phantom draw (AKA Parasitic loads) are the electrical draws from appliances that continuously suck power from your RV battery. Items like carbon monoxide detectors and other electronics with lights or display screens can be parasitic loads.is a loss The phantom draw on our trailer is 0.4 amps. That's 9.6 amps daily. On a typical AGM battery bank, you will have between 200-225 amp-hours available for use before they reach that critical 50% mark. Our trailer with no power input and those same batteries would be at that point in about 3 weeks. I'd warn that friend because there's no possible way those batteries won't be completely, irrevocably dead in 3-4 months. Even if he disconnects the batteries, AGM batteries will have a self-discharge or internal electro-chemical “leakage” of between 1% and 15% per month, depending on storage temperature. The warmer it is, the faster they will discharge. He basically has two choices. He can remove all the batteries, take them home and put them on a 3 stage charger for the winter OR he can go to his storage unit about once every month and pull the trailer into the sun or use a generator to run the charger and charge them there. Regardless of their construction, whether it's a "sealed" AGM deep cycle or flooded auto starter battery, a fully charged lead acid battery has a freezing point down around -55°C/ -67°F.

Thanks for these, you all. Lots of reading straight ahead. @Frank C and @Rivernerd - I hadn't realized that the Truma antifreeze mode was exactly meant for driving. I just read through the Truma section of the manual I inherited with my OTT - pretty confusing!! But the general strategy @Rivernerd outlines makes sense. Encouraging that the antifreeze kit is meant to protect the Truma unit down to -4°F!! Pretty sure I'm not likely to be out in that kind of cold. I'll read up a lot more before my next below freezing night.

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

If we got ourselves into that crazy situation, I'd "probably " attach our chains to the tow,strap clip. Every situation is different. A number if years ago, we got ourselves into a sticky wicket in New Hampshire. We attached , disengagaged, and reattached several times to get a better angle, with our 4x4 dodge. I'd try that first, vs tow strap, or winch cable, or combo, imo. If you do decide on a tow strap route, please make sure the tow strap is fairly new, and rated for the job. We've broken a few, over the years, that were older. The snap back could be lethal. Got a big hole in the tailgate of our dodge ram from inadequate/aged strap, trying to haul a tree out of the road. Had anyone been in the trajectory, it could have been deadly. Everyone was in the truck. Out of the way. We are very careful about that, tow strap or winch cable. Please do the same.

Do you have room to bump out the garage a few feet in back? https://www.exteriorrenovations.com/2020/03/17/garage-renovation-bump-out/ This one is actually rather attractive with the saddle roof.

However, if this trim piece had cracked or become notably loose then it just might indicate that your microwave is not held in place as it should be. And/or you have been down some very rough roads. This microwave is actually held in place (basically) by being attached to the upper cabinet via the screws that go through the two holes (barely seen in the photo below) at the rear of the metal piece that approximately spans the middle of the microwave. Once you remove the trim piece then reach in, grab the microwave and try to move it from side to side. If you can move it without too much force then it is likely that either this support attachment has come loose or isn't there at all. Jason Essary can assist you in making repairs - just open a Service ticket.

If your microwave trim is like this one then it actually does not "hold" the microwave in place - it is basically just a trim piece.

Those AlCan frost heaves are a real joy, aren't they? Spoke with a friend today who recently had the frame of his trailer (conventional construction) break in the yukon. Put a set of air bags on my F150 FX4 and am pleased with the result. Set at about 50#, they tame the porposing greatly.

I guess the bright side John is that if it wears enough, you'll have an extra element of sway control as the hitch settles into the groove. You won't be able to turn of course, but if you keep it straight it should at least be stable.