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We're very risk-averse, so I would wait until we reached Southern climes before dewinterizing and use bottled water and campground bathrooms/showers until then.

IMO, I would drain the FW tank and lines completely after sanitizing the tank and lines. Only fill the FW tank when you are south enough to not have freezing temperatures. Use bottle water until that time. The electric heater, although it might keep the cabin warm, may not keep the FW tank and lines above freezing unless you can get heat down in the area of the tanks and lines. Also, keep in mind that a larger volume of water would not freeze as fast as a small volume. Edit: The above statement is not suggsting to fill the FW tank during freezing temperatures. A full tank would not leave room for expansion and could crack the tank.

Not to highjack the thread, but - same here, @Patriot - we installed ours about a year ago, but had been wanting to do it for quite some time. Our installers wired the standby power system into the main house panel via an ATS which is in addition to the 6.8kW of solar on the roof. Solar's not going to help us during a power shortage as ours goes back into the grid as we don't have battery bank storage (soon to change). We have ten 300W modules in storage from another project that we're designing to power the "Man Cave." Currently it's energized by a 75A sub panel from the house. We want to make it completely self contained/off-grid later this spring. Just another "honey dew." HA! We've experienced actual power losses and the system kicks into action in 50 to 80 milliseconds after detecting grid power loss, the digital clocks in the house don't even notice the changeover. We're also glad we did this.

After several attacks on substations last year and considering our country’s electrical grid is ancient and not at all secure, we opted to have a 24KW Gen installed fueled by LNG last Jan. I really like being able to monitor Gen run times where ever I have cell service. Our installers did a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 job. https://neverdarkgenerators.com/ For times such as these we are soooooo glad we did. Patriot🇺🇸

As others said. We ordered on 9/21 and our delivery date was to be 6/29/22. In December 2021, I got an email from our sales rep asking if we would like to move up our delivery date to 3/10/22. It took all of return email.....yes, yes, yes. Someone must have cancelled. We took delivery in the morning, moved to the campground. We checked all the systems. Hung around to noon the next day. We had a couple of small caulking items they addressed.

I'll apologize for our cold weather during your visit. What cold weather? It’s 40 degrees warmer than at home! 😁 We went by MoJo’s today! We were at the Appleton Museum of Art. What a nice exhibit they have! I’m glad we didn’t do the boat ride today, as it was drizzling all afternoon. Current forecast for tomorrow is 70 and overcast, which will be better for underwater photos with fewer reflections. Maybe we’ll stop for dinner after. Thanks!

I imagine that the “old adage “ still applies far from the ocean since it originated more or less in a desert region a long time ago. Matthew 16:2-3!

So we moved to a campsite about 4.5 miles south of The Q to BLM land that outside of LTVA fee-areas. We're closer to the QuartzFest HAM Radio campout which starts tomorrow. The boys and I volunteered to help out the organizers by hauling their registration tents and accessories from their storage location in downtown Q. The QF started officially in '96 or '97 and draws north of 800 rigs from all over the US and Canada. It will likely start getting a bit crowded around here by this weekend! FYI: Here's the latest sun rise from the Sonoran Desert taken a few minutes ago: Cheers!

I ended up taking the rails and nightstand off. I ordered a custom mattress from Tochta to fit the space. Made a wood platform to span the middle and use the area underneath for storage and the dog bed. John

For those campers that may not know about BLM LTVAs (Long-Term Visitor Area), they were established in 1983 on public lands managed by the BLM throughout the Sonoran Desert of southern AZ and CA. The LTVA program allows visitors to camp for as long as 7 months between 15SEP to 15APR. Special permits are purchased at BLM kiosks at the LTVAs. A 14-day permit is $40, 28-day permits are $80, while a 7-month permit is $180. Payment must be cash only - exact amount. Unfortunately, Golden Eagle, Golden Age, America the Beautiful, and military passes do not apply to LTVA permit fees. Campers who wish to stay on the desert outside of an LTVA may camp in one location on underdeveloped public lands for up to 14 days in any 28-day period at no charge. After 14 days, short-term campers must move to a new site outside of a 25-mile radius of their original campsite. Short-term camping in the Quartzsite area is limited, but there are 5 designated LTVAs here. The LTVAs have various levels of dry camping - some have vault toilets, some have showers, some have potable water. There are limited waste water dump sites. All have dumpsters for bagged garbage. Since only minimum facilities are available at most of the LTVAs, campers must have self-contained rigs. This means rigs that have permanently affixed wastewater holding tanks of 10-gallon minimum capacity. So, how is the Casa Blanca behaving on the LTVA? Well, "sort of" as expected, it's been performing famously here on our 4th day on at La Posa West, about a half-mile south of "The Q". My only issue was totally "self-induced". Arrived at La Posa Saturday mid-afternoon with 100% SOC from a combination of solar and DC/DC charging during a 2.5 hour enroute drive from PHX. After a good sleep on night-1, checked the SOC at around 0530 Sunday AM and found it at an unusually low level at 36%. Racking my mind trying to figure out what the heck was consuming all the power from the BBs overnight, it occurred to me to check the Dometic fridge status. Sure enough, it was in the "DC" mode... Can't believe it escaped my checklist item to switch to "GAS" mode on arrival day. Lesson learned, for sure - the DC mode is extremely inefficient in this model of Dometic fridge. Don't get me wrong, its a good mode to use when under tow as the 27-28A from the TV smart alternator can handle the load from the fridge and still charge the BBs. So, it took Sunday and Monday to get the SOC back up to 100%. No biggie - the Honda GENSET still never saw the light of day and stayed in the back of the TV. With 340W roof-mounted solar modules and the Renogy 200W portable module the BBs were receiving a max of 310W during those two recharge days. The BBs were got to 100% SOC by mid-afternoon yesterday. Winter being winter, obviously brings low sun angles and short days. Campers should consider this when boondocking during this time of year. Just because you may have 540W of "solar modules capacity" does not mean that's what you'll get. Our roof-mounted modules are flat, as we have yet to install legs to adjust them for a more optimum angle to the sun - so they're kicking out only about 190W at mid-day this time of year at this latitude. Interestingly, the Renogy portable module needed to be propped-up to a steeper position in the early morning hours to achieve optimum angle to the sun. By doing so we got an extra 1.3A: If it wasn't for the "wall-to-wall" sunshine conditions here at The Q during the past couple days, the Honda would have been called upon to top-off the BBs! Notwithstanding the fridge brain-fart, it was a good feeling to wake up this morning to a 93% SOC. The BBs are expected to be topped off by mid-morning, maybe even before the pot of Black Rifle is "Winchester." This morning's main drill was topping off the fresh water tank. After switching the valves to "Boondock" mode: 6 gallons of fresh water was pumped into Casa Blanca in less than 3 minutes time, taking the fresh tank from 50 to 75%: Now it's heading to Q to refill the container, less than a 5 minute drive from the campsite. But first - a quick egg scramble for breakfast.... More later!

@SAR Welcome to the forum! To answer your original question about where to stay before delivery day? I highly recommend this place B&B -https://www.clarkthecrow.com/ You may want to book early or as soon as you know your actual delivery date. It’s a short drive 8-10 min drive to the Oliver Service Center. Mellisa the gal that owns the place is an awesome host and her accommodations are spotless and really nice. As others have said there are (7) water and electric only camp sites at the Oliver Service Center. There is also a dump station. One of these sites will be yours on delivery day. Your sales person will arrange that for you, just mention it. Note - As much as possible try not to take delivery on Friday. If you have any issues with your new Oliver they won’t be addressed until Monday morning. The service center is closed in the weekends. Congrats on your order, delivery day will be here before you know it! Patriot🇺🇸

I think all of this is acceptable. We just spent 4 days in sub freezing temps including a cold night on the I-210 bridge 140 feet above Lake Charles in Louisiana. I don’t recommend traveling with zero water in the fresh tank. We started out with clear water lines and nothing in the fresh but a full water heater tank. I was a little concerned about the WH but we filled up with water yesterday and fired it up with no problems. If you’re concerned about the water freezing in your fresh tank, study up on the thermodynamics of water freezing. I’d be more concerned with a full tank than a half tank.

I can count the number of power outages that we’ve had lasting more than 5 minutes at our home on one hand. That includes all the tornadoes and ice storms we have. And that’s over a forty year period. Almost all the power losses I’ve ever incurred have been due to squirrels shorting the breaker on a pole right in front of our house or some bonehead driving a vehicle through the neighborhood that is too tall to pass under the lines and pulls one down. Have you ever seen a squirrel that has been turned inside out?

Ollietime, Read conner77's post as well. It was very helpful to me. BTW, as of today everything is still good with the awning. I have no idea what went wrong with it initially.

Hi Ollietime, My 2022 Hull 996 has the Girard as well. It has a fwd end cap and an aft end cap. I took off only the fwd end cap, you'll see 2 ss screws on the end cap. I don't remember if there are any on top of the end cap. With the end cap removed I found the adjustment screw and rotated it half way in one direction, which made the problem worse. So I went back to the original position and rotated the screw half turn in the other direction and it was good to go. You may need more or less of an adjustment to get yours adjusted to your satisfaction. One word of caution...adjust in small increments as the motor must shut off automatically and you don't want the motor to continue running when the awning is fully retracted as you can burn up the motor. As I recall, I contacted Girard and they walked me through it. Best of luck :) John

I run an electric space heater in the trailer when we get freezing temps. We had several days in the teens this week and the heater worked fine. I open everything up so air can circulate between the hulls. I also frequently use a small electric cube heater in the back curbside corner. This has worked for years. I have occasionally traveled with the furnace on with no issues. We always run the fridge on propane when traveling, so the propane is on. Mike

I’ve never had any odd temperature readings on any of the four tires on my TST TPMS. I’ll be checking wheel temperature now too….

We will get the trailer moved so we can get to the outlet tomorrow will update if that works Thank you for all your input..

I had the same issue with the remote not working about 2 years ago. I removed the control board and thoroughly cleaned it (I believe with isopropyl alcohol and or vinegar as a mild acid). Reinstalled and it resumed working. Wish I had coated the board at that time. Issue has just reappeared after I entered the traIler and the fan was spontaneously running at max speed and the operator was in a dozen pieces. Original operator appeared to be cheap pot metal and replacement from etrailer doesn’t appear to be a whole lot better. Fan still works using the button board. Am thinking about pulling the control board again and cleaning and coating. May also install a voltage regulator. By the way, our fan fuse is in the sub-panel in the attic (7.5 amp). Hull number is 372 (2018).

Hey, @Patriot: I hear ya, brother... 100%! However, just FYI, back in the day, we actually carried (get this) two Honda Trail 90's on a custom front rack mounted to the RAM 3500 while towing the AS. Ok, it was certainly "double-butt ugly" - but never an issue functionally or operationally. Totally doable - never any cooling concerns. I always thought of what amount of damage would be generated by a deer-strike right down the snot locker...? Oh, well - that deer strike did happen while towing but many years later which is another story... Regarding OTT lights while carrying bikes - as you may recall, we use the 1Up also. My concern was with the visibility of the upper lights on either side and thought, "the more the better." So, we added an LED strip light as an auxiliary safety feature on the flip-down rear bumper. Both RED and ORANGE, the LEDs are clearly visible even during daytime towing hours. Turn signals and emergency flashers are ORANGE, running lights are RED, brake lights are bright RED. The mod is tied into the 7-pin harness in the port-side aft garage compartment. There's a post on it somewhere - but, essentially, we copied John Davies design. Works great. Solid mod. Cheers from "The Q"!

I can assure you that most owners will rarely be removing the table to look at a circuit breaker or fuse. And having to decipher what breaker is what for those that are not "down there often" will continue to provide frustration, if not foster mistakes that could have consequences. In all fairness, OTT takes great pride in their designs. The also cautiously, and where warranted, do over time modify them when warranted. And all owners very much appreciate their approach as it minimized collateral adverse consequences of changes. So, since this has been a PITA since hull 001, what's the real back story behind their not fixing this issue? GJ

It is extremely rare for Oliver to change a delivery date once it is set. Things like weather (particularly near the delivery date) can have an effect but given that your delivery is in April that factor should be of little concern. I'd go ahead and make the reservations. Having said that - I'd spend at least two nights in the camping area of Oliver. The first night you WILL be tired and it would be better to simply relax, have a nice dinner, settle in (i.e. more you stuff into the Ollie, make your beds, get the fridge at least partially stocked, look over (maybe) some of the material you will be given and then get a good night's sleep. The next day you can go through all of your systems and check all things to make sure they are as they should be and you will be right there are the Service area in the case you need help. All of this is done without the "worry" of also having to move and re-set up camp. Here on the Forum it has been said many times by many owners - try to stay in the area for a few days so that if you find something you don't think is working right you are only a short distance from Service. Good luck and it will not be long now! Bill

An interesting map that shows power outages across the nation. As I type, Oregon leads the field because of ice and wind events in Western Oregon. North Carolina, you’re in second place. Click on your state to see the numbers. https://poweroutage.us

Only after a good day of hunting! BBcue squirrel on a stick anyone? 😄👨🏼‍🍳😋

After a week of power outages after Hurricane Irma, sharing our 3000 watt Yamaha with the neighbors to keep a fridge, some fans and lights in each home, and our gas water heater going, we ordered battery backup for our solar-powered home. It powers one a/c unit, most of the first level of our home, and essential services, like the oven and microwave, one washing machine, and many other outlets in the workshop. (Yes, the kegerator is powered.) You will really enjoy it. Ours changes over so quickly I often don't know we've had an outage, until I check the app. Really came in handy two weeks ago, when a transformer blew on our street, and I had 30 people coming for a baby shower brunch at 10 am! No one knew, until they saw the Duke trucks in the neighborhood.

We've been members since 2012!

Always.

We're not as lucky, @topgun2. We'll experience several power outages annually, some lasting many hours to days. Always seen to happen in the colder months. But so long as LNG doesn't go off line at the same time as grid power - we'll be OK. That's why we're planning to make the "Cave" off-grid, worse case scenario - we move from the main house to the cave during extended LNG/Power outages... That scenario hasn't happened in the 19 years we've lived here... BUT....?

WE didn't lose power at all. In fact - we didn't get any snow and/or ice either. Virtually all of the reported snow/ice that hit NC was only in the high mountains (above 3,500 feet) mostly near the State border with TN. Bill p.s. while we are not protected from general grid issues that Patriot mentions, our sub-division has all utilities underground. Obviously, this prevents a majority of outages. In the 25 years we have lived in our present home we have experienced only one outage that lasted just over an hour.

So, I decided to move to a location adjacent to where the annual QuartzFest HAM Radio "campout" will start on Saturday. It's about 4.5mi south of the RV Show at MM99 on the west side of HWY 95. It's on BLM land that is outside of LTVAs, so there's no fee. Much less crowded - at least for now, this event usually draws north of 800 HAM rigs from all over the US and Canada.

I've had that ice plug form before as well. My solution was to add quick fittings to all those ports. Found rubber capped sleeves at a hardware store to fit over the male end on the quick fitting - the part that stays on the trailer. When I was carefull to drain water from fittings, it worked well. Otherwise, I just unscrewed the fitting and the female hose screw ports would almost always be free of ice. The fittings themselves would be plugged with ice but the screw on fitting was almost always clear.

Two great check lists. My only comment is that I rated this Forum very high in my list. Think about the potential for such a forum as a measuring tool of customer satisfaction and the type of people that buy their products. In this rating world, OTT is so far ahead of every body else in the Universe. GJ

January 11-15 Deb and I were at the Eggs ‘n S’mores Rally near Live Oak, Florida, with 237 other fiberglass trailers. Then on the 15th we moved to Salt Springs Recreation Area in Ocala National Forest. We’ll be here until the 20th. Tomorrow we’re taking a glass bottom boat tour at Silver Springs State Park.

OK, so I’ve been around town trying to get a definitive issue to blame this on, the weather presented some challenges since most folks around here aren’t used to temps in the teens. I got the tires off the ground, checked freeplay, spinning, looked at shock, etc. Checked with a level. Took to to an RV tech, he said shock is worn but still functional, recommended replacing soon. Bearings were okay. He thought tire balance may be an issue, also recommended a higher TP since these are LT tires and not trailer tires. I have them set at 50psi, so I will up that on this next trip. The Discount Tire guys said it could have been a missing weight causing a balance issue and they also recommended raising TP to at least 60psi. They did find a nail in the tire, right in the middle between treads that wasn’t very visible until the wheel was removed. So the bad tire is gone. We’re going to Arizona Monday. When we return I’m going to replace all the shocks and bearings. After 100K miles I think it would be prudent, probably should have done it earlier. I’ll be watching that tire, I do have a IR heat sensor which I haven’t used much, but will as we travel next week. Mike

Steve, I think your front receiver is a good idea for many uses especially parking an Oliver in a tight garage or storage place. I had briefly given a little thought to the front receiver as a bike carry location. We cover our bikes to keep the brand name out of sight and also to keep them clean. My biggest concerns were how much air flow would the bike cover block from our engine bay with the bikes covered and carried up front. It may be negligible or maybe not. The other concern was would the cover block any of my front lights with the bikes covered. Not sure of this out come either. My third concern, which really should be my first concern, is I really don’t care for how bikes look mounted on the front of any vehicle. Just me. 😄 So rather than go through the throws of installing the front receiver knowing I would likely never carry our bikes up front, the decision on my current configuration was easy. With the 1Up USA Super Duty bike rack with the bikes covered, my rear Ollie lights are lawful and very visible. I had my bride follow me up the road in our car while I pulled the Ollie with our bikes loaded as seen in the pic. All good on running lights and brake lights, and turn signal visibility. I also have a good view of the bikes from the Ollie rear camera. 12,000 miles running this set up, all good. This is an old photo, I have since added the 1Up license plate relocation plate to the rear of the rack. Have fun at Q! - David

Well you were right! Just came out of a two-day ‘Arctic blast’ across Texas. ‘Payback’ indeed, thinking all of my Northern Oliver comrades purposefully left their freezer doors open in retribution of my comments!

There is a small hole next to the USB port for RESET. Insert a pin and hod for a few seconds, the Furrion wi reset. Yes, prior Bluetooth connections wi be gone, but it is easy to reconnect.

We had our first Ollie sighting on Saturday. There's a dude here from MT with his new OTT - Hull number 14xx. He stopped by the campsite yesterday afternoon and we went through an hour or so of introducing him to many of the mods to Casa Blanca.

@Jason Foster I believe I'm starting to get your sense of humor!

Thank you all for suggestions. I called Furrion after nothing worked and they walked me through a hard reset of the system. That solved the problem.

Another quick suggestion is to turn everything off - Furrion, phone, etc- and then try connecting again. Bill

When your position is at the west-end of a given time zone, in this case only 25 miles east of PST, the sun comes up quite late in the AM. 0753, in fact: Nice having a room with a view (the not-so-Tactical OTT Operation Center): Cheers...

We ordered on January 28, 2022 and were given November 7, 2022 as our delivery date. No delay at all. That year they had booked all the production slots by the end of January. They are good at keeping to the scheduled delivery date. Try to pick up on a Monday or Tuesday, spend two nights at OTT campground, then another two or three nights nearby. David Crockett State Park is nearby. Best wishes on a smooth delivery. John

If there's space at Camp Oliver, spend two nights. Run absolutely every system the next day and night. If you have a bit of time, stay a few nights more at one or two of the beautiful Tennessee state parks in the area. A little more shakedown/gain familiarity time is great, and still close to Oliver if you need any advice or assistance.

My delivery date was spot on!😁

the likely culprit..thanks for the video. https://www.etrailer.com/Accessories-and-Parts/MAXXAIR/MA10-20281K-1AF.html

Hi Steve and welcome to the forum. Although the company designs the campers to withstand colder temps, they are by no means designed for arctic temperatures. But if you are in temps in the teens or above, the camper is going to do fine with a few precautions. Of course that's providing you run the furnace continually and are prepared for the unexpected. Propane supply would be critical and a back up generator and space heater would be a smart idea. There are some slightly vulnerable points in the basement utility space on the street side that need to be monitored. Other than that, they actually do pretty good. Of course if you choose a composting toilet and winterize your water system, you can actually do just fine in colder temps without worry. One thing you will learn with research is that there's very few if any mass produced RVs on the market that are designed for continuous use in frigid temps. And even the opposite weather conditions can be a challenge for many RVs on the market. We camped in north Texas late this summer and temps were in the 100+ range each day. Most of the campers in the park were struggling to maintain comfortable temps inside their RVs, many of which had 2 or three AC units on the roof. Our LE2 with the Truma Aventa stayed comfortable inside regardless and the AC compressor would cycle like normal when it reached temperature. We have yet to need the higher fan speeds to maintain comfortable temps inside the camper. A nice thing about the Elite 2 with the Lithium Platinum package is that with the large battery capacity and the 3000 watt inverter, you can still run the AC for an hour or two before bed to sleep in comfort even when dry camping, provided you have good sunshine during the day to recharge. We've experimented with this several times this summer and the system works great in that way. Few other campers have a factory available system that compares. Anyway you're in the right place to get honest feedback from owners regarding their experiences. Most of us are just ahead of you on the same path. We wanted one good camper that would fulfill our needs with as little trouble as possible and not look back. Stacie and I are convinced we made the right choice. Good luck in your research.

7months now and still good :)

This manual was downloaded from the Oliver University, which is in the Owner Resources section. It looks like the answer to solving your issue begins on page 30. Girard Awning.pdf Good luck, Mossey

@Foy_Mirna Well done!! We are seriously considering this but would like one half the length to put in front of nightstand so as not to block the entire aisle so we can still easily get to the overhead cabinets while standing in the aisle as well as being able to get out of the beds easier. If we had one half the length just to have enough “bridge” for our dog to sleep and walk across it would still leave some aisle for getting into cabinets and getting out of bed. Is this something you could do?