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…and then there were three at The Q:

The second one pulled by a dark pickup was us. We’re at Catalina State Park, Tucson for now. We noticed you on the eastbound side.

Truth is, we humans generally find extreme discomfort in change. Big or small, change is a challenge. Let's give the new plan time to grow, and mature. Oliver is no longer the fledgling company we took a big fly on in early 2008. The family management is smart, careful, and I'm sure they've thought this process through, very carefully. I'm rooting for them, and all of us future and current owners who can benefit.

I've been told that it is Oliver's intent that it will not matter as to the location that you chose to purchase your new Oliver or even to have that new Oliver delivered. In each case the price will be the same. Only time can tell how successful they will be and/or how close they will be able to get in fulfilling that intent. Bill

Love this. Growing pains are just that, but I know the folks that run Oliver will not change. Like you point out, they are actually responding to our demands in most of this. And they are doing what it takes to add strength and longevity to the company and brand. Down the road we'll have conversations around the camp fire about the old way and newer owners will tell about their experience. And life will go on.

There is another side to this. Part of the dealer pricing game is driven by the customer desire to "work out a bargain deal". This is only a percentage of buyers, but we all know folks that like to brag about the deal they worked on XYZ. Dealers love this mentality also as they love to play the money game to make a buyer feel like they pulled one over on the dealer, and reeling them into to purchase. It's not all just about pulling the wool over on the customer, but also making them feel they are getting a bargain at that moment and locking in the sale. What I'm saying is there's a percentage of folks that prefer the haggle and wheel and deal process over the fixed price, no haggle method. And dealerships are just used to working this way. I think an interesting characteristic about this topic is that before the dealer option, Oliver sales attracted a certain kind of customer base that made us very relatable. We liked the direct factory purchase arrangement, and for many that was a driving force in our attraction to Oliver. We are the kind of folks that have no interest in the haggle game. We are straight shooters and we perceive Oliver as being very honest, straight shooters as well. Cost is important to us, but value of product and quality of customer experience is more important to us. Buyers that prefer the dealer purchase process and working their deal will choose that route for their own reasons. In many ways it is customer driven.

This is the first time in seven years that we haven’t been to Quartzsite in the winter. Health issues this winter have prevented us from going. It’s fun reading about this year’s group in Quartzsite and the fun y’all are having! This reminds me of our first time there in our brand new Oliver (our first ever camper). Steve and Tali graciously invited us to follow them out there and back that first time. We had a blast on that trip meeting other Oliver owners. Steve and Tali have always reached out to others and made them immediately welcome to the Oliver family. We hope that all of the Oliver folks have a great time together!

The operative word in the above is "they". If you mean Oliver then the current answer is - NO. There is no change to Oliver's long standing policy regarding used Olivers. If you mean Oliver dealers" then I believe that the answer is - YES. These are independent dealers and if they currently deal in used RV's the I'd suspect that they will deal in used Olivers. And, if this is the case, that just might be another "benefit" to this new program for all of the current owners. This is particularly so for those that find themselves in a situation where they might have to get rid of their Oliver in a hurry and/or those that really have no knowledge of an Oliver but for a number of various reasons find themselves in charge of selling or disposing of the Oliver from an Estate or medical issues or .... Bill

These are the settings that Battle Born sent me to be used for the Blue Sky IPN Pro. The settings are based on my installation which consists of 3 batteries and are directly based on the Blue Sky setup procedure in the Blue Sky manual. Note the per battery settings.

Returned home yesterday afternoon from a 13-day Quartzsite trip. Spotted 6 OTTs during the 1576-mile run. Hull #’s 1441, 148, 50, and an unknown # were seen in person, 2 others were seen while driving on I-10 in the opposite direction. Not bad, IMO, that’s 0.46 Ollies spotted per day…. Ha! FYI: both of the OTTs on I-10 were spotted yesterday- the first one was at 10:50am westbound about 10 miles west of the AZ/NM border, white pickup TV. The second one was about noon yesterday at approximately mile marker 65 in NM also westbound being towed by a dark colored pickup. Anyone know who they might be?

We own lien free “XPLOR” Hull# 634 and our TV. With over 20k miles we have yet to see another TT that would serve our traveling needs better than our Oliver. Per OTT Sales and Service Manager Rodney Lomax “Everything you need and nothing you don’t”. 👍🏻👍🏻🇺🇸🇺🇸😊 @thirddoor I hope you can find a well maintained gently used Oliver on your time line. 👍🏻

There's much to like about our current trailer, but for all-around usefulness, the Olly is really hard to beat!

I absolutely agree with this. And, I too wish that more people could get a chance to have the experience that we did when dealing with Oliver in Hohenwald in the "old" days. Unfortunately, Oliver simply could not find any other way that made sense to try to satisfy all of the "demands" that were being made. In this regard, when "we" were demanding better quality control, Oliver had to take steps that many of us didn't like and even some of us predicted doom. What I'm talking about here is the move away from custom/semi-custom trailers to a more restricted list of options and choices without the ability for the customer to add on "stuff" that was not normally offered by Oliver. As it turned out it appears as though there was reasonably little effect on sales due to this decision. In the more recent past, "we" have been lamenting the lack of service centers (particularly in the west) and even some customers have made note that there were no "fairly easy" way to get to see an Oliver. Yes, Oliver could have developed their own set of service centers but we must remember that Oliver is not some large far flung corporation. Establishing and controlling these types of centers with renting buildings, adding inventory, training full and part time staff, etc. would be very costly. So, Oliver decided to take the path that we are now talking about. Our "cost" for this is the lament that others will (possibly) now not have the chance to have that same wonderful experience that we did. Oliver has stated that it is their intent for those in Hohenwald and the chosen dealers to be up front with customers about pricing. No, I do not know exactly what that means. But, given now over eight years of dealing and getting to know the owners and personnel at Oliver I have faith that they will do (or at least try very hard to do) exactly what they say they are going to do. Now, "I rest my case"! Bill

Amazing isn't it that the percentage is very close to the percentage "caused" by what is called "floor plan financing"? My comment of blame it on the bankers was a bit tongue in cheek. Without the bankers being involved we (the consumer) would certainly not have as many RV's on dealer's lots to look at and compare. Yes, this does make things a bit more complicated - for ALL involved (the consumer, the dealer and Oliver). But, if we (the consumer) want more and better service centers around the USA and Oliver wants more exposure for the purpose of sales, and Oliver wants to help us have more service centers, and dealers want more product to show to those that have never seen and Oliver and ..... I too reasonably enjoyed my purchasing experience back some 8 years ago. But, I still wish Oliver well in at least trying to help satisfy both its customer base, potential customers and its need to grow. As has been said before - hopefully this new way of selling Olivers will be a success. Remember, as has been said before, a customer can still chose to purchase a new Oliver in Hohenwald and all of us can still chose to have our Olivers serviced in Hohenwald. HDRider - I really don't know to what, if any degree, Oliver is participating in floor financing. However, since Oliver never got into the business of financing for the individual customer and since financing is not related to any of their businesses, I doubt very seriously that they would get into the business of floor financing. I think that this is particularly so given the vast array of "finance types" that are already offering these services. Bill

Unfortunately this situation is NOT the "fault" of either Oliver or the dealers involved - blame it if you wish on the bankers involved. As is customary in the automobile industry, the RV industry, truck, farm implement, etc. industries all have a "problem" in how to finance the inventory they carry in order to have product to show customers in their showrooms. So, the bankers step in to help. The general rule of thumb is that the bankers will finance up to 80% of the MSRP for the dealers. In turn, this is what caused most of the recent increase in the price of Olivers and the difference between the MSRP price and the "real" price out the door by any dealer (to include Oliver) will be somewhere between the MSRP and the price that Oliver would have sold the RV prior to using a dealer network. This is absolutely nothing different than the situation of when we venture into a car/truck dealership looking to purchase a new vehicle. Oliver has said that they intend to do whatever they can to make sure that there is little to no difference in the price paid by any customer regardless of where that customer decides to purchase the Oliver of their choice. However, in the real world that is full of legalities I suspect that this will be a bit difficult to do. Hopefully, the process of buying an Oliver will never become as distasteful a process as it normally is for buying a car/truck. But, in any case, you can "blame" it (yet again) on the bankers - not Oliver or the dealers. Bill

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!

Also a benefit for a potential buyer who has a a trade in on an Oliver….to save tax on the value of that trade in!

The Lithionics batteries Oliver installs have either internal self-heaters, or an external heating mat, to keep the batteries above freezing. AGM/lead acid batteries don't need this protection. It appears that the Epoch 460Ah battery has an internal heater, which makes it a solid value.

The top green LED tells you the Xantrex is receiving shore power. The center green LED tells you it's running off battery power. For some reason you still don't have shore power for your Xantrex. You need to determine if it's only the Xantrex not getting power or the entire trailer. Is your microwave working? What does the red power management display in the rear "attic" cabinet display?

Our Generac power plant exercises every Monday morning at 9 am and runs for 5 min. As soon as it starts I get a txt message letting me know it is in exercise mode anywhere in the US. After the 5 min exercise run, it shuts down and I receive another txt letting me know that it’s now on back standby ready to go. The company that did our install also monitors the gen during this time. I had the tech set the exercise mode up on Monday morning in case there was an issue. If our utility power goes off within 8 seconds we have full power restored via the gen. Generac was advertising in writing a 10 yr parts and labor warranty when we had ours installed. This pretty much sealed the deal.

Keep in mind that if one big battery fails you’ll be out of luck. If one or even two batteries in a three battery system fails, you can still camp with a single battery, something to consider. Also, I disconnected the charge line from my tow vehicle so have never charged the batteries while driving. Another thing I didn’t mention before is that lithium batteries like to be in a comfortable temperature range. The Battle Born batteries will work down to the low 30’s or upper 20’s degrees F and into something around 100 or so. Check out their specs. However at the extremes they will not charge. Again check out their specifications. I insulated the battery compartment door with 1/2 inch closed cell foam. Typically the battery compartment temperature is very close to the basement temperature.

I added a toggle switch to the charge line. This makes it available for future use if needed. Mossey

I cut a 4" vent from the back of the closet into the vanity in the bathroom. In my case, also added a 4" adjustsble vent in the door which is pretty much the equivalent as the vents now added standard by Oliver. After this mod, when the heater kicked on, I noticed that warm air from the cabin would get drawn through the closet. No more frost and condensation on the rear wall and clothes dried much better. Still would prop the door open if I had to dry things quickly.

These are the same settings I used when we replaced our 4 AGMs with three Battleborns, thanks to Ken!

If you presently have 6V batteries then they should be wired in a series and parallel configuration. I don't remember an offerings for 6V lithium batteries so you new 12V batteries will probably only require a parallel wiring configuration. That should be a consideration when choosing your batteries in order to reuse the existing battery cables if they are 4/0. I do not have any working experience the BlueSky charge controller, but I have heard great things about their technical support or perhaps someone will comment on that. Mossey

See my post dated January 26, 2023 above. I would add a vent under the forward dinette seat, not one in the aft section across from the main return air vent. The forward vent encourages air flow throughout the cabin area, whereas an additional aft return air vent would short-circuit air flow, limiting it more to the aft part of the trailer.

Thanks for sharing. My sister-in-law, in La Marque, TX has the Genrac.

Ours runs a weekly 15-minute “Built-in-Test” . The BIT results can be pulled up on the app. Its peace of mind knowing it’ll startup after sensing a loss of utility power.

Looking through this entire post again, I'm now planning on adding the 2" vent to the bath/dinette wall and upper/lower vents to the closet. Anyone have thoughts on adding a vent going through the wall that is under the street-side bed area so air can circulate from the area near the exterior shower region to the floor of the main cabin, directly across from the large return air duct to the furnace that's on the curb side? I'm thinking that with the added 2" bath to dinette vent, the warmed air from the bath would be able to circulate under the street side of the cabin, under the battery box and then be pulled back to the furnace without causing a loss of airflow to the furnace. Am I over thinking this?? albert

I can confirm that in my 24, however, looking at the Truma makes me wonder why it wasn't mounted 90 degrees since the current orientation causes a substantial kink in the air ducts. However, that would compromise the mounting on top the wheel well. Although I don't really see a problem with that. Return vents: Bathroom Closet upper and lower venting As seen in the pictures, they installed one above and below. However, it stays cold in there so without possative airflow using a fan, it is just dead space. I think a small DC power fan mounted on one of these vents would make a big difference, though I'm not sure if it is needed since there are no water lines in there.

The good thing is, the new Olivers have some amazing upgrades and they are starting to put them into some Dealer locations which make it somewhat more convenient to get one. And maybe they will now take trades since they are going to dealers?

One of the reasons we got rid of our fifth wheel and bought the Ollie.

My 2016 manual doesn’t have a diagram either. There was no diagram anywhere in the trailer. I’ve just had to figure it out over the years.

...... which is exactly what I said in the following sentence. : "Cost is important to us, but value of product and quality of customer experience is more important to us." It's all well and good to like haggling, but most of us chose the Oliver route knowing we would get our money's worth without the haggle, and we're glad for that, as indicated in the previous comment by @Rivernerd. I too am very glad I didn't have to go in to a dealership and haggle for a fair price and hope I was going to get treated in a respectable way. My only hope it that in the process of developing their dealerships, Oliver management puts a heavy emphasis on maintaining that level of honesty and respect for the customer. Honestly I have faith that's been the plan from the beginning. I'm sure customer surveys will follow the purchase process after the dealer experience to help maintain that reputation.

Not me. I am haggle man extraordinaire. I simply saw Oliver as the best value.

I've been told these are in our Owners Manuals, but mine is a 2016 and I do not see any schematic drawings in the manual for 2016. You have a 2023 and perhaps they would be in the PDF version of your manual online. What I've done is collect drawings other members have posted in this forum, every time I see one! When I copy a drawing of a newer OTT, I'm never sure the systems in my Oliver will be exactly the same, but they help. Hopefully others in the know will chime in.

From your link - There are companies out there with quality on their minds. Oliver, a producer of fiberglass trailers, is one of them. These campers are far more expensive than many of the fiberglass trailers I’ve written about, but they’re also several steps above in build quality than most trailers. I toured a couple of Olivers at the 2024 Florida RV SuperShow and left feeling like these were the fiberglass trailer equivalent of an ’80s Mercedes.

I don't "cringe," but I prepare myself for hours of diagrams, conversations, research and ordering, hours of installation, etc... Much more fun with upgrades than repairs, for sure.

Bigger is not always better, especially when you get older and maintaining a massive trailer or Class A gets to be a chore. I bought the OTT to get outdoors. I go home to be in a big house. Nothing beats the size, beauty and luxury of a brick and mortar home. I certainly don’t want wheels on it.

Yes, there are check valves at the water inlets as shown, but there is also a check valve at (or inside) the pump. If the pump didn't have a check valve, pressurized water in the lines while connected to a city water supply would backflow through the pump and fill the water tank. This is actually how most people find out their pump check valve has failed: the water tank keeps filling up on its own. Also, when using your pump, without an integral pump check valve, your system would lose all pressure as soon as the pump shut off, because the water would push back into the tank.

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!

My original battery setup was four 6 volt batteries. When I changed my batteries to 3 Battle Born 12 volt batteries several years ago, I basically connected the batteries in parallel in order to maintain 12 volts and provide 300 amps. I did have to make two new jumper cables between batteries using 4/0 welding cable. I also used the existing 4/0 Oliver installed cable that runs between the batteries and inside the camper. I also moved the #6 cables from the batteries to inside the camper to clean up the battery box, but this is not at all necessary for changing from lead acid batteries to lithium batteries. The only other change required (besides the previously mentioned Blue Sky setup) is to make sure the PD 4045 (shore power) charger is either switched to the lithium setting or as I had to do, replaced with a charger module that is lithium capable. My setup has been working flawlessly for about four years. I almost never turn on the PD4045 charger and depend on the solar setup to keep the batteries charged. We have a compressor type fridge which is used 24/7 and the batteries are able to keep up just fine. We are careful with power consumption but use what we need. Typically when boondocking we still make coffee every morning, cook breakfast in an electric frying pan, my wife dries her hair in the morning, we watch tv at night, occasionally use the microwave, charge cell phones and laptops occasionally, and in the winter the furnace is used. Again, we are careful with our power consumption so the above list of appliances used varies greatly based on current conditions and predicted conditions. Typically while traveling in the winter in the south west the batteries are fully charged by between noon and one o’clock. I carry a 100 watt folding solar panel and a small propane powered generator just in case and have used these once or twice due to extended overcast days.

Air would pull from an area with least resistance, if you were to add vents closer to the heater, it might reduce the effectiveness of vents near the bathroom causing dead spots. This just my opinion though.

I worked at a manufacture that sold exclusively through dealers. We carried floor inventory for the dealers. Like a bank, we charged them for it. We also did cooperative advertising that helped the dealer promote our product, and their sales.

My experience is very similar to @jd1923 and @Ollie-Haus. There is just something about trying out all the wrong stuff before finding the right stuff. Sure makes you appreciate how amazing the OTT is.

The check valves are shown in the OTT drawing to be directly inside the hulls at the City and Freshwater inlets. I found them to be along the back wall which can be seen in what I call the Oliver's trunk (see pics, btw a bad place for these lines to be and will freeze more quicky with these large brass valves, a strong conductor will release internal heat more quickly). When you blow out the lines, you are pushing compressed air in the proper direction of the backflow preventer (aka check valve), so no associated issue. There is not another check valve at the water pump. The backflow preventer has several purposes, but in an RV without one the water pump would continue to cycle continuously. The backflow preventer creates a necessary close system to build require pressure in the plumbing system. I have a thread on using compressed air to winterize. I have a thing about using chemicals when working, done 20+ brake jobs w/o Brakleen and the like, even when THEY claim to be environmentally safe, yeah right! We blow our tanks dry and refill several times each winter, since we camp from fall to spring and not during the summer. It's too hot down here! We use and need a good furnace and could care less about the Dometic cooling albatross sitting on the roof! I might remove it one day (fill a 14x14" hole) and mount 2 more solar panels! Glad it was your thread we hijacked! 🤣

Riverside Campground, Gila Box Riparian National Preservation Area, Safford, AZ. BLM campground $5/nt. Worth the 3 mile drive in on mostly paved, mostly single lane road.

I was told by the vendor that I bought the replacement cooling unit from that the gap is not that unusual and not to worry about it. It is completely sealed from behind the refrigerator when the new cooling unit is installed and sealed. The new cooling unit (backing plate) is sealed with spray foam and foil tape so that it is air tight.

For others that may experience this same problem, on my previous Chevrolet 1500 LT I was getting intermittent but often trailer brake disconnected warnings in the cab. Replaced the OEM brake controller. Never had the issue again. The issue has not resurfaced in my GMC 2500HD with about 3500 miles towing leading me to believe it was a faulty brake controller switch and not the trailer.