Leaderboard

This morning I was stopped in a parking lot in Lake Havasu City, AZ, while sitting in my truck with my trailer in tow, planning my route and drinking coffee when a woman sporting a big smile approached. We have all had this happen before so I rolled down the window and prepared to start answering questions about Oliver Travel Trailers. Not this time. The woman introduced herself and I was caught a bit off guard as I knew there would not be yet another request for me to show the inside of my messy trailer. Her name was Evon Oliver. She asked my hull number then the discussion quickly turned to Family, growing up in Michigan and things to do while in Lake Havasu City. What a wonderful surprise this morning talking to a delightful Lady.

In 2018 or 2019 there was a group of us camping at Quartzsite. The Olivers drove down from Lake Havasu to join us with Jim’s personal Elite II. One evening we all decided to go out for dinner as a group. When “check” time came the waitress said it was all taken care of. There were at least 20 of us there, the Olivers are generous and kind. Mike

Last June we stopped for lunch at Petoskey Brewery in Petosley, MI. After lunch we were sitting in the truck with our Oliver in tow and a young lady knocked on the window. She introduced herself, as Ciera, Evon's granddaughter, and the granddaughter of the late Jim Oliver. She is working for I believe her uncle, Scott Oliver in his modular home construction headquartered in Linden, TN.

Whaaaat? Y’all about to get two weeks in the electric chair for blasphemy. 😇

This is our second year of striking out during the freezing season. After going through a similar discussion last year considering the risks of freezing and the associated subsequent potential grief verses the benefits of just staying winterized until reaching the non-freezing part of the country, we decided the stress wasn't worth the benefit of being de-winterized for the journey. That said... This year we de-winterized in southern Florida at which time we discovered a significant problem with our Truma Aqua go on-demand water heater, which, had we de-winterized before the trip, may have been discovered prior to leaving Colorado (although the problem may have occurred from the jostling during travel...so...who knows, in any event, the WH is now repaired and working as expected, we did however have to go over a week without using it) Bottom line, I don't think it's worth risking freezing one elbow or pipe etc. given the grief that would ensue after finding water dripping out from between the shells so we opt to use bottled water and only de-winterize once reaching warmer climates. The only exception for us is IF we plan to stay in a cold location long enough to justify de-winterizing for the stay (say a week or longer) and then re-winterize for the next leg of travel. That's a personal. The Ollie is fine to be de-winterized in the cold while being used and heated on site. It's questionable at best however to be going down the road in sub-freezing temps as to whether the furnace will be able to keep enough heat between the shells to prevent EVERY valve, elbow, connection, pipe etc from freezing. My Advice: Bottled water Scramble south ASAP If you need a shower before your arrival to warmth the added expense of a night in a motel will pale to the cost of fixing a frozen water line. Albertt

I'm assuming the attached email went to all on the Oliver mailing list. RV show season is coming up and it appears Oliver is utilizing partner dealers to show Ollies at various locations. This makes it pretty clear who the chosen dealers are in these cities with each one referenced by each RV Show city. I live near Denver and was not familiar with B & B RV before seeing the name in this Oliver email. In looking at their website it states they are a "boutique dealer specializing in unique, off-road, off-grid, lightweight travel trailers" and they do list Oliver among their manufacturers. I'm pleased to have a small, specialized RV shop as an authorized Oliver dealer here in Colorado in the event that I need service beyond my basic mechanical knowledge. Anyway, this makes it pretty clear which dealers were selected in Oregon and Colorado to join those already listed on the Oliver website in Georgia, North Carolina, Massachusetts and Virginia.are a boutique dealer specializing in unique, off-road, off-grid, lightweight travel trailers Gmail - Dan and Teresa, Come See Us at These RV Shows for 2024!.pdf

Awesome! You now have more insight than most into what a wonderful family the Oliver's have. Serendipity happens.

It ought to be beefy for $750. Then add the optional license plate relocation kit. https://1up-usa.com/product/license-plate-holder-2-0 We really like our 1 UP Super Duty rack, like anything you pay for quality. USA made. 🇺🇸 https://1up-usa.com/product/2-super-duty-double

Your TV is a F350 Diesel Lariat Tremor pulling a $100k trailer. They know.

We picked up on a Monday. That worked well for us. I agree to pick up early in the week. John

This is what I was planning to do with our new Ollie, same procedure I used with our Escape and Casita. Live in the South Texas, so we do get an occasional below freeze temp. 1. Drain all tanks (black, gray, fresh). 2. Turn the HW heater values to bypass, 3. Drain the HW heater. 4. Blow compressed air (40psi) through the lines to eliminate any water (taps, toilet, outside shower). 5. Run water pump for a few seconds to remove any water. 6. Pour small amount of anti-freeze in traps, including toilet (seal). Our Ollie will have compost toilet and Truma HW, so the process will change a bit. Still learning how to maintain lithium batt in cold temp. thanks

Yet another ‘out of this world of Oliver experience’! Thanks for sharing and clean up the mess, you may not be so lucky next time!

Not sure if this photo helps or not. The rack that engages the tire does allow some adjustment for fenders. (Arrow points to the adjustment holes) We have a set of Trek 920 touring bikes with full fenders and also this set of Specialized “Rolls” which have full fenders. I trust the way 1Up secures the bikes, however I still use a back up Velcro strap on each wheel securing the wheel to the 1Up rack where the wheel and tire are secure in the rack. Just incase for some reason the rack ratchet mechanism should fail. In this pic I don’t have the Velcro straps on, but it shows where I install them. Hope this helps.

I ended up getting one fat tire kit to space the side pieces out far enough to clear the fender stays. My bike has an aluminum rear fender, so I use the optional foam roller to clamp down the rear. Deb’s has plastic fenders, so the foam roller deforms it when clamped down. I ended up adjusting the longer, thinner fat tire clamp so that it slides underneath the fender.

I was able to read battery data while driving all the way back from our trip. It was of greater interest, since the batteries had less charge and this was the first time I ever ran a DC fridge while driving (LP off). We only have lead-acid although a decent 450AH. We ran our inverter most of the time, played DVDs, the TV and soundbar, the furnace overnight, an electric tea kettle the first morning, a little microwave and batteries were down to 79%. The next day was cloudy, only got up to 85%. Next day boiled water with LP instead, down to 75% and back to 85% on a sunny day. The sun is really low during winter, isn't it? Seemed like it hardly came over the deep canyon walls where we camped. Ran the fridge on DC today, 3 hours back with a lunch stop, batteries got down to 67%. Plugged into shore power and back to 100% in a little more than an hour. At least that's what Victronconnect reported. It should really take longer, as the charger kept giving lesser amperage all night. BTW, now that we're back home, Oliver parked behind our shed, the dongle is performing better than ever! Before we left, I had to be near our LR window. Now anywhere in the living room it connects instantly. So as a test, I walked past the LR, behind our double-sided real granite stone fireplace and it connected. It took 3-4 seconds longer to connect but did so without timing out as it had before.

@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🇺🇸

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

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.

Spice up your galley with my Galley Spice Rack! I'm thrilled when customers seek something new from me. This spice rack, designed for late model Oliver Galleys, features a single row with nine spice jars. It easily fits into standard drawers, allowing up to three racks in a full drawer and one in the smaller drawer under the sink. Secured with Velcro, this rack is crafted from American Red Oak, priced at $39 plus USP shipping. Explore my complete Oliver product catalog here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17XFL_5ine1WusHVKYguUBRmkj2KnJUN_/view?usp=sharing

Charley is the "Liver & White" Springer, from Texas Springers English Springer Spaniels in Aubrey, TX | TEXAS SPRINGERS He's going to be 10 years old this summer, and we got him as a pup when we lived in the Austin area (past homes in Georgetown and Lakeway, TX). Honestly, he doesn't care whether Dad does it right or not. Just can't wait to get out, sniff his new surroundings and lay on the camping mat to post guard! Poor guy has gotten older and with a torn left CCL and our new tall mattresses, he now has his own new doggie mattress situated between us on the floor. He whimpers looking up for 5-10 minutes and then lies down for the night. I have no idea how some of you share such little space with your dogs! He's also 65 LBS and were not lifting him anymore! More on our Burro Creek visit when I collect my thoughts and download a few pictures. Thanks to all who commented!

Excellent work John! Would you happen to have a picture of your work before the mattress was added? Rails off, showing your platform and how the nightstand was either cropped or removed. That would be a great addition to your post. Thanks

Thank Thanks for the picture. It does help. My has a Magnum Nomad. It has fat tires and full fenders like your. The velcro straps are a good idea. The front tire doesn’t look like it will be a problem but the rear tire is covered. I thought about removing the fender but the wife handed me divorce papers so i backed off. Lol

In a pinch, I would have done the same! I didn’t opt for the QC ports, as a cost savings measure at purchase, but was aware that copper gas lines were installed ‘fore’ and ‘aft’ with Oliver builds. Early in ownership, I tapped into the ‘fore’ with a ‘T’ fitting for a regulated extension hose accessible via the screw port, and simply removed a fitted plug on the ‘aft’ line to add a QC valve. However, prior to converting to these convenience gas ports I camped a few times either using the 1# or 20# propane tank. BS supplied regulator in use with 20# tank. Tap into existing regulated line for ‘fore’ QC port. I didn’t want the QC port to exit underneath, as Oliver installs, but rather higher to save my back and other intended use. Short hose extension and QC valve connected to a 10’ extension hose for the ‘fore’ QC port. An elbow’s reach into the port to operate the valve. 10’ extension hose staged atop the tank of proximity to the screw port. The hose is simply routed out of the screw port and attached the another hose extension(s) for use with the BS or fire pit, as well as intended use with a small generator, as needed, positioned either on the trailer tongue or TV tailgate. ‘Aft’ installed QC valve once fitted plug was removed. Adapter for BS QC attachment. BS to the Oliver’s ‘aft’ QC port via a 15’ extension.

This link shows the Amazon price history for the Victron Smart Shunt. I'm not a math major but I don’t see a 30% inflation rate for this product. Mossey https://3cmls.co/US/B01CGFF8Q2

Be sure to pay "special attention" to those exterior ports when blowing out the lines. These have back flow prevention valves in them and it doesn't take much frozen water to destroy them. Bill

Ya think? 🤣

I plugged the VE.Direct Smart Dongle directly into my SmartShunt IP65. If you have the Victron Cerbo, it appears it has three (3) VE.Direct ports (see pic), so should not be a problem. When I purchased my dongle, I was not sure if I was going to end up with 2 male connectors (or 2 female? very hard to see), so I purchase this kit which I did not need. I believe you can daisy-chain as many connections as you want and also make extension cables if needed: Amazon.com: 20 Sets Mini Micro Jst 2.0 Ph 4 Pin Connector Plug Male With 150mm Cable & Female : Electronics In fact, if you want to mount the dongle up high for better reception, you can cut off micro 4-pin connector, drill only an 1/8" hole through the fiberglass and then solder a new connector after passing the wire. Not a bad deal, 20 connectors for $8!

In Minnesota, back in the day, we'd just camp winterized. Some of my friends who routinely travel south in the winter just leave their trailers winterized, and work with water jugs. Dewinterize when way south of the Mason-Dixon. That would be my (risk averse) choice. Plus, easier to work on sanitizing/flushing in the warmth, in a comfy campsite with full hookups.

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.

We've been members since 2012!

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.

You may have been reading one of my posts. I did that modification and wrote about it in the forum. It helped, a bit, with the limited capacity of these trailers to be used non winterized but when temps dropped into low teens for extended periods, the water connections would still freeze as would some of the pex lines. Others have claimed to have better luck with this but I spent close to three months winter camping spread over two seasons and leaned into the mods to improve cold weather capacity and never found my Oliver to be trustworthy when it was colder than that. Eventually gave up and started camping with water in jugs. Luckily had chosen the composting toilet option so this situation was less than ideal and way south of what I expected when we bought the Oliver but certainly survivable.

Sooo, I spoke to a tech at Truma. I've laid down plenty of miles with the unit on and never had a problem but the tech pointed out that another potential problems is the negative pressure could force the fan to run in reverse which would likely cause the fan to fail. Odd after so much success but scared me enough so I now drain the unit till I can sort out the problem with the antifreeze kit.

I checked the outlets. This afternoon. Open ground older house electrician put new outlets in for mom. Probably wasn’t a ground wire in the old outlet…

I would use the 30 amp cord to the Ollie and use an adapter at your garage outlet. Do you have a EMS or a polarity tester that you can plug into your garage outlet to confirm that it is wired correct? What is the amperage of your 120 volt source in your garage? If it is only 10 amp that may be the problem. What do you mean the "Ollie made popping noises"? What was making the noise. Was it the EMS in the attic? Did you look at the readings on the EMS in the attic when it was making the popping noises?

Have you checked to see if the outlet is wired properly ? Open ground,open neutral will cause a surge protector fits (If so equiped)

Dead Horse: great location near Jerome, AZ... Jerome reminds me of Bisbee, AZ not far from Tombstone - may stay there on the way back to NM. Safe travels @Mike and Carol! Cheers!

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

Since we rarely carry bikes, I'd say oooh, tiny dog on the hunt. Me? I'd never want an expensive bike up in front of my truck. Period. Covered,or uncovered. For many reasons. Expensive bikes on a front hitch, not in my wheelhouse. Other opinions may vary. Front hitch for backing trailer into odd situations, absolutely .

I have asked this question before, and no one has ever answered. I am not sure if that is because no one knew the answer or just weren’t interested enough to reply. Why not use a front receiver that can be bought for any full-size pick up for barely over $100 and carry the bikes there? They will all support up to 500 pounds and they are all 2 inch receivers so any bike rack would work. In addition, the front receiver has multiple other uses. I actually don’t see how anyone gets by without having a front receiver.

Sure does look like Charly knows when to let Dad do all the work, but, still keep an eye on him just to make sure that he does it correctly.😊 Bill

Also look at the Quikrstuff Mach 2. Apparently Quikrstuff was formed by the original inventor of 1Up rack, and the Quikrstuff is a redesigned 1Up with a bunch of improvements. Here's a nice video comparing the 1Up with the Quikrstuff

Hey, Jason: That's some fairly restricting criteria, brother! You may need to consider moving up to a 2" receiver - if possible on your new rig. If you can do that, then recommend looking into the 1Up system. They have various models, designed and made in the US, and high quality. They're one of the most "bomb-proof" racks we've found available, IMO. Just north of 8k miles since installed last year (80% of those miles with bikes attached) - we've not had any issues. Rock solid on the 2" receiver with or without bikes aboard. In any case, if you find a rack that meets your specs, please share that source! Cheers!

A couple of folks have explained how to use Google search to find info here. Here's one:

Mine was too

While having the Truma retrofit done which usually takes two days, we opted to book a two night stay at Meriwether’s Retreat Bed and Breakfast. This is without question one of the best B&B’s we have ever stayed at. Miss Melissa the owner is an amazing sweet gal catered to our every need and then some. The homemade breakfast Quiche, fruit, granola and all the personal touches that she provided were top shelf! Our stay was excellent. We wanted to pass on this awesome place to stay if your going to need accommodations while your Ollie is being taken care of! Patriot🇺🇸

Thank you all. Now I’ll have to learn to turn down the charge rate

I see it as a huge win for all of us. Especially for keeping the great Service Team and taking some of the work load off them as the number of new Oliver sales has grown so much in the past few years. OTT Service Department fields a huge number diagnostic questions every day. They also financially support this forum at no cost to the OTT owners. Their efforts is leveraged by the OTT owner Pro's who are some of the best in the country. Combined it is hugely beneficial to both OTT and all of us. By having remotely located Service Centers, informed owners using this forum and the Mother Ship Service Experts can get to a dealership pretty well informed as to what needs to be done. This is a win for everyone!

Do we know, yet, who the Oregon dealer is? As an Oregonian, I'm curious.

7months now and still good :)