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I'll add to what Ollie-Haus says above - these blocked sites are also available at a lower price than the standard price. Place those calls now - operators are standing by!😇 Bill

Thanks. I already reserved my site a couple of months ago. I will now register with Oliver for the rally. I am looking forward to meeting all you folks.

We met them just this afternoon and they indeed made us feel very welcome. We showed up this year before the "big show" is over with hopes of becoming a little more knowledgeable with our solar setup by hanging out with the solar experts/vendors. But after talking for a while with Steve, I think I got lucky concerning all things solar . John

Just went onto the Oliver Rally page on the web site and registration is now open. For folks that are new, You must first reserve a camp site. They are still blocked off for the Rally so it's best to call for reservations. The on line reservation system will look like the campground it booked full. That's because the blocked out sites for the rally show as reserved even though many are still available. The second step is to fill out the form on the Oliver site once you have your camp site reserved. The required fees with this part of the registration covers the group activities pavilion fees, including a wonderful catered meal at the conference center, T-shirts and other misc.

Rather clever…

Great! Please be sure to stop me and/or drop by Twist to chat. I'd love to meet you in person. Make sure that you bring a small notebook, camera and comfortable shoes. Also, think hard about bringing bikes with you. The Lodge sits up on the hill and you'd have to be a fairly good biker to even think about peddling up there. But there's plenty of parking both there and at the other venues in the Park. Once more detail of the agenda comes out, you should have a chance to decide which "official" presentations you would like to attend. Be sure to leave time on your schedule for doing both "nothing" and for doing "nothing but walking around". Don't be afraid to simply walk up to any Ollie door and knock if you are interested in a mod you see. And/or walk into any group that has gathered and introduce yourself. Chances are pretty good that you will know at least one or two in that group from here on the Forum. I'm excited for you! Bill p.s. also, don't hesitate even for a moment to walk up to people like Scott Oliver, Rodney Lomax, Matt Duncan, etc. and introduce yourself. They really are nice people.

FYI for those on the fence about attending, the park only blocks out camp sites for the rally so long. At some point about a month or so before the rally, the block is made available to the general public again. This is so they can utilize as many sites as possible once all potential rally attendees have had ample opportunity to commit. Point being, if you wait too long to commit you may lose out. If you have to cancel more than a week out, the cost of canceling is minimal.

It is a pretty simple modification to add a DC/DC charger to a lithium battery setup, and it can be done any time in the future when it's convenient to do a one day project. It wires directly between the tow vehicle battery and the Lithium battery on the camper via relatively heavy wiring depending on your current settings on the charger. It does add an additional tether connection at the back of the TV from the camper. Many have added this and it provides safe and fast charging of the lithium batteries while driving.

I'm allowed to be stupid at least once a day according to my wife.

Let me see now.... You, an Ollie owner, along with a BUNCH of other Ollie owners. All the mods, all the collected knowledge, all the direct Oliver stories versus a bunch of people that just want to take a look at your Ollie? Hard decision?

You made my day (almost) - I just knew that there must have been SOMETHING I remembered from Geometry class.😁

I thought we did.....😊

Follow this link to the 2024 OTTO's Rally registration page: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/events/oliver-owners-rally/ Krunch and I are thinking about a group outing on Friday for those not interested in the golf tournament. A few years ago we went to Cathedral Caverns SP for a cave tour. I think there were 15 to 20 Oliver owners that went on that day trip. The caverns are about 30 miles away from Lake Gunterville and was a very nice adventure. If anyone has any interest in going spelunking, please respond to this message and I start a list and make arraignments with the park. Follow this link to the park website for more information. Mossey

A 30' AS Flying Could weighs 6,600 pounds. My back of the envelope calculations puts a 30' Oliver at approximately 6,300 pounds. A 30' AS Flying Cloud starts at $127,500. Another back of the envelope calculation puts a 30' Oliver starting at about $97,000.

Well, if we all pitched in...... 😁

I understand that EACH of the molds costs between 2 and 3 million dollars. I'd bet that there would/are some real interesting conversations within Oliver about dropping that kind of money versus how much the finished unit would cost versus just how many of them could be sold. But, to help answer the question - I don't see why a 30 foot Oliver couldn't be built. Bill

I had a similar product mounted under a RetraxPRO Tonneau Cover, but ditched them soon after converting to an A.R.E. bed cap. These boxes require a lot of ‘swing’ space for convenient access (as designed) and are very restrictive as to the size of items placed within. Although they can be accessed in place simply by opening the lid, one would have to crawl onto the tailgate to get into it. Honestly, I found them useless when the bed is packed to the tailgate with camping gear and better use of the space they encumbered.

DONE😊

I suspect weight is a consideration. The Flying Cloud is 8' wide, so there's more material there. A comparable OTT would be heavier, but probably still within reason. As for technical limits, I don't see why OTT couldn't build something that big. There are 30' fiberglass boats. I think the closest RV comparison would be the Bigfoots, but even they only go up to 25'.

I haven't added wheel well storage yet, but this looks like a decent option for a bill. VEVOR Truck Bed Storage Box, Lockable Lid, Waterproof ABS Wheel Well Tool Box 6.6 Gal/20 L with Password Padlock, Compatible with Tundra 2007-2021, Driver Side, Black | VEVOR US

Yes. That tax on my Oliver was painful.

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

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.

Sounds like a good idea. I am in spot D08. Any and all are welcome to stop buy and say hi. Mimosas and Bloody Mary's start right after coffee.

For most of us winterization is now turning into thoughts of getting ready for the Spring camping season. However, I just received a notice from Harbor Freight that the "Multi-Use Transfer Pump" is on sale for $4.99. With the addition of a plastic fitting (similar to THIS ONE) - see pic below - you will be all set to pump anti-freeze into those exterior ports next Fall. p.s. I just noted that Harbor Freight failed to correct the price in at least one location - but - the price has been reduced from $7.99 to $4.99!

It will be great to meet some of you in person. I will be in site F23. I don't have a name for my Oliver yet. I am a good biker and look specifically for hills like that. My wife has an ebike, so she won't have an issue. Plus, I'm not sure I can resist the allure of the Mountain biking trails and single tracks in the area.

Count Steph and me in. Dudley

I reserved and registered for the Oliver Rally. As far as the Eclipse Rally goes, that was in April and only 4 hours away in Fredericksburg. I don't know anyone there and I was just going to meet people. The Oliver Rally looks like what I was searching for to begin with. This Eclipse Rally was mentioned here:

There are other things to consider though: 1. where is the Escape Rally? closer to home? a place that is more to your liking? 2. does one have friend that are owners or serious potential buyers of an Escape that you or your wife would like to camp with? 3. its hard to believe that the Escape Rally is being held at a facility that is any nicer than where we have the Oliver Rally - but - different strokes for different folks. Either way I'm sure that you'd have a good time but since you will have a fairly new Oliver I'd think that it would be a great benefit to really get to whole enchilada and give yourself the chance to actually see and hear what mods, decoration, and possibilities there are for that new baby of yours. And, there are always "professional" presentations that will give you the "right" way to do things. Even if you really don't care about all that info that will be there - you will find it difficult to find a place that has so much to do and see as this Park. The views are stunning, the lake has world renowned fishing and boating, hiking trails, zip lines, golf, a lodge with good food and a town that has restaurants and shopping. If you don't have a good time at the Oliver Rally it will most likely be no one's fault but your own. Bill

For those lines I do exactly the thing that I do for the other lines that have faucets (i.e. the kitchen and the bath) - I let the water pump simply pump the anti-freeze from the winterization port through the water pump to the outside faucet (both hot and cold water lines) until I see the pink stuff coming from the shower head. Bill

We sure did...🤣

I'm in - if you'll have me. Bill

Well - Besides allowing a water leak to drain, the scupper holes allow any moisture to evaporate from within the hulls. Primarily this moisture is the result of water vapor due to cooking and (more importantly) human/animal induced vapor due to breathing and evaporation from the skin. The scuppers were designed as they are in order to create a Venturi effect that actually draws moisture out from between the hulls when the Ollie is being towed. Bill

With your longer hose, you'll need to position the shower head where you want it, I purchased this item, not for dishes, but first for showers: JONKEAN Chrome Handheld Shower Head Holder with 2 Hanger Hooks, Strong Adhesive Shower Head Holder, Adjustable Shower Wand Holder Wall Mount, Bathroom Waterproof Shower Handle Holder No Drill Need - Amazon.com The white plastic shower wand holder slides up and off of a clear flat mount, so when towing or not using it comes off and fits nicely in the shower opening. It's available as a 2-pack, so the second mount can be positioned elsewhere, like attached to camping stations as shown above. I will put my 2nd mount lower to rinse feet, our dog, maybe a large grill pan, though we wash most dishes inside. The second item is a suction cup version which should work well on polished fiberglass: OUO Suction Cup Shower Head Holder Handheld Showerhead Bracket Adjustable Shower Holder, Removable Handheld Showerhead & Wall Mounted Suction Bracket - Amazon.com

I read the second option was coming. If it is now available, and two 300AH units fit in the Oliver battery bay, CERTAINLY purchase your option #2. You have the redundancy mentioned by @mountainoliver AND 600AH OMG, for only $200 more! Spend another $200 on $2000, 10% more and you can likely boondock through a WEEK of RAIN! I'll upgrade to this Epoch solution in 1-2 years. Please continue to post along the way until you are finished. We have the same Blue Sky, since our hulls are of similar vintage. I too hope there is not much additional investment. Thanks, and best wishes, JD

As Ollie-Haus implied, the "future use" would be addition of a DC/DC charger, which enables you to take advantage of the otherwise wasted power spun off by your tow vehicle alternator. With a DC/DC charger, you eliminate the risk that you will burn out the tow vehicle alternator (which can happen with LiFePO4 batteries, because they can pull so much power).

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!

Not sure if there will be anybody left, but we’re planning on a Q visit for a few days at the end of next week on our way to Lake Havasu.

Now it's time for true confessions, dang it. On the way to Lake Guntersville for the 2022 OTTO's rally, we stopped for groceries about 30 minutes from the campground. While Krunch went shopping I walked around the Ollie checking tire temperatures and the Andersen WD hitch chains and noticed that the 7 pin connector was laying on the ground. Apparently I hadn't plugged the connector in properly when hooking up the Ollie that morning. The cord had fallen out and the outer sheathing as well as the sheathing for 6 of the 7 wires inside had worn down to bare copper. We proceeded to the campground after a tape repair job on the wires and cable. I reached out to the Oliver Service Department while at the rally and they had service personnel scheduled to be on site and they were able to deliver a new cable to me. I did another temporary field repair to hold me over until I reached home. I added an outdoor rated junction box attached to the frame in the propane box and made a splice repair there, so that is where I added this toggle switch. Mossey

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.

You are welcome John. We have been very extremely pleased with our Gen so far. 👍🏻

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.

Thanks Fellas - exactly the kind of info I'm looking for! I'm leaning toward a single Epoch 12v 460Ah (https://www.epochbatteries.com/products/12v-460ah-lifepo4-battery-ip67-heated-bluetooth-victron-comms ) ... a single unit so no series/parallel wiring needed - should be a straight switch of the Neg/Pos from the dual 6V series/parallel to the single Neg/Pos poles of the new Epoch (am I missing something on this?). So, no new cable should be needed and, in fact, I can do away with all of the series/parallel interconnects - will certainly make the battery compartment much neater. I can easily switch the shore power charger to LI and I'll connect with the BlueSky folks to confirm the settings (might be a bit different than with you aforementioned (3) BattleBorns?). Getting really excited, too, about the economics of this. (4) Trojan t-105 6V AGMs = around $1200 - $1400 for (1) Epoch 460Ah = around $2000 So, for me the add'l cost to upgrade to Lithium amounts to only $600 to $800 ... makes the upgrade very palatable! One other item I've uncovered is that Charging the Lithium from the Tow Vehicle is questionable in this arrangement ... anyone with thoughts? ... worst case scenario I can disable the tow vehicle charging (remove/cut the specific wire from th7-pin?) and, in emergency, recharge using a generator?

Ha! That’s amazing! Stayed 2 nights at Picacho Peak SP in their “rustic” area (no hook-ups). Awesome hiking there. Enjoy The Q!

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.

2". I expect that is what Oliver had in stock, as it is the same size as the supply air vents. One could easily substitute a 4" Valterra vent for even better air flow. EDIT 3/9/254: 2" is incorrect. The Oliver installed vents are 3". My bad!

A little pricey @$349 as shown, but this is the best mini kitchen we have found yet. Attaches with vacuum cups and takes up very little storage space. Seasucker Kitchen station

I am trying to replace mine with the 45 degree zerks. I am having a hard time getting first old ones out to replace them. The nut part looks like it may be getting stripped when I tried a channel lock on it to screw it out. I am assuming they are screwed in and not driven in and I have to screw them out. What size wrench should I be trying? 1/4 inch

In preparation for my ARE truck cap, I recently had installed (1 hour at $120 - the installers have a forklift) a Cargo Glide, 100% extension, 1500lbs cargo capacity, stops at every 12 inches. Crawl around in truck bed looking for that chair I thought was packed, careful not to bump my head on the truck cap, simply slide the bed out and take a look.