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Hey All, We recently sold our 2021 E2. Sad to let it go as we really loved it and had done months of comfy camping in it. The reason we decided to go another way was strictly due to what, in our experience, was a lack of capacity, when not winterized, in winter conditions. We do the majority of our camping in those conditions and after extensive modifications and testing, we were unable to keep all pex lines from freezing. We just returned from a 10 day trip with our new rig where temps were consistently in single digits with lots of wind. Warm showers and no problems. Not the same finishing build quality but the drivability and functionality in cold is top of list for us. Very different animal with it's own pros and cons. The reason Im writing today is to make sure it is OK for me to keep active in the forum. I've been super impressed with the depth of knowledge and kind communications and can find no better resource for working through complex issues. I'd be appreciative if I could continue to monitor and occasionally interact. I've tried to update our status/profile but have not yet been able to do so. Any suggestions would be welcome. All the best to you all. Gerry

130 lbs of love and protection, Daishiro Gumi Kuma ("Dash").

I’ve had four different tow vehicles. Finally found the one that works for us. @HDRider thanks for doing this but please list which model trailer the owner is towing in your results.

Like others, we’ve been disappointed with the lack heating in the bathroom. In our Oliver, even the kitchen had minimal air flow and hot air was blasting under the bed. When I took a closer look at the duct routing from the furnace, the problems became obvious. There were two 4” ducts coming out of the furnace, one from the front outlet facing towards the registers, and the other from the rear outlet facing away from the registers. The front outlet was connected to the bedroom register with one 900 bend. It had the shortest run with the least turns, and twice as much air flow as the other two combined. The rear furnace outlet was connected to the kitchen register after making a 1800 u-turn. From there it was Tee’d and reduced to 3” to feed the bathroom. The 3” duct then takes a long and torturous path to reach the bathroom. The resistance from over 2800 of turns, and the longer run, resulted in much lower air flow to both the kitchen and the bathroom. I also found a hole from where the duct had been rubbing on the hot water valve, and the kitchen had a restrictively tight bend at the register. Fortunately this was a relatively easy fix, and the results were significant. Our 2022 Elite II has the Dometic furnace, but I suspect that other furnace brands could have similar ducting issues and it might be worth taking a look. The sketch shows how the duct routing was modified for better balance to all three registers. The bedroom and kitchen registers now feed from the high resistance u-turn at the rear furnace outlet. The bathroom has its own feed from the front outlet giving it the minimal number of turns possible. This modification involved moving the Tee which is under the kitchen cabinet. There is an access port under the forward kitchen drawers to reach the Tee and kitchen register, and it’s best to pull them right out of the access port to work on them. The 3” bathroom reducer stays in place and it gets a new duct directly to the front furnace outlet. The bedroom/kitchen gets connected to the rear furnace outlet. Rather than using flexible duct to make the 1800 u-turn, I used two 900 rigid fittings for less flow resistance. All of the parts needed for this modification are readily available at hardware stores. They usually sell duct by the foot, I bought 5’. Use sheet metal screws and foil duct tape for the connections to make sure they don't come apart. The kitchen register can be screwed together from the inside of the register rather than trying to do it from under the cabinet. I used an anemometer before and after the modification to measure flow, and a on-line calculator was used to get Cubic Feet per Minute (CFM): Before After Bedroom - 4” 100.7 53.2 Kitchen - 4" 39.3 65 Bathroom - 3" 11.8 30.2 Total 151.8 148.5 Cheers, Geoff

This is my old girl Oreo, my constant companion:

Nick at Providence Canyon SP in Georgia. Mossey

Any hull penetration can leak, at some magic moment or another. This is true of any camper. And, like any other roof. Start with the most likely/biggest area, and work from there. Duct tape has been our friend, on various campers, narrowing the field. Roofer friends tell me to "think like a rain drop, and do visual inspections. " That's all good, except visually inspecting caulk doesn't always tell the story. Covering areas, one at a time, with duct tape, tells the story, next heavy rain. A leak down the rear window can come from anywhere, if you're high in the nose, and the rear is the lowest point. Logic. Think like a raindrop.

The rear LED marker lights are below the Oliver sign but still an excellent point to note that they should be checked as well. Several of my marker lights have leaked. Your post also reminded me that one of the first leaks that I experienced was from the backup camera cable entrance point. That dumped a lot of water into the attic area. Thanks for mentioning the marker lights!

Don't discount the fact that one or more of the rear LED could be the culprit - and the water is passing along between the hulls to the Oliver sign cut away area. Just think'n... In either case, could be a good time to pop out the LEDs and the Oliver sign and re-seal the whole kit-'n-kabootle. Cheers!

I was initially looking at using Calyx as the provider for my Pepwave cellular router. But one limitation of the Calyx hotspot is that the card cannot be removed and used in another device. Well, it *can*, but it is not permitted. Some hot spots allow the card to be used elsewhere.

Our 2022 Elite II has the Truma Varioheat furnace. The Truma ducting is smaller, more substantial and, from what I can see in the photos, better installed. In addition to the mods detailed above, I recommend you consider adding a return air vent from the bath to the underside of the front dinette seat. Our Truma Varioheat system came with that additional return air vent. It really helps the flow of heated air.

I got to meet both Magnus and Oscar in Q. They are the coolest dogs.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I have learned a lot about tires and wheels throughout this inquiry! I have given up on getting new 15" wheels (this is a good thing). One consideration with my Oliver are the leveling jack pads. On my trailer, the pads are just 1" away from the tires when retracted. The 16" Ion wheels on my Oliver have a -8mm offset (about 5/16"). This moves the centerline of the tire away from the hub mounting surface (and the leveling pads) by that amount. I would not want the tires to be any closer! All the 15" wheels I could find had 0mm offset. So I'm sticking with my stock 16" wheels with their -8mm backset and 3300lb rating. That will save me a lot of money as well. I didn't know about those LT235/65R16 tires. Cooper makes them, the Discoverer HT3. A little wider (.4"), but 1.3" less diameter. So they should also fit as a spare as it has for other LE1 owners. Lucky for me, I have a friend close by with a LE1 with this tire setup. Tomorrow I'll swing by and get his spare and see how it fits on my trailer. Fingers crossed. Dave

@SeaDawg thanks for this data! Are you in Florida now? The Sunshine State with 8,400 coastal miles, 66,000 square miles of line-of-sight flat land and 22M people, mostly cell phone customers? I know you go to a Carolina home often, but likely not in February and I'm not aware of your Florida location. You should expect these numbers in major metropolitan areas. Prescott is in Yavapai County AZ (population only 240K). Our county is almost the size of the state of New Jersey which has 10M residents, or more if you count the illegals. 🤣 It's amazing to get these speeds up here, at 5400 FT altitude, in the mountains! I was running errands today and noticed the 5G symbol at one point on my phone. Ran the Speedtest and got 332 Mbps! Last year with AT&T we'd get 10% of this speed on our cell phones.

I just got off the phone with Oliver. I have confirmed that the first dealer is on board and now has the ability to start selling the Oliver Travel Trailers. They have two locations in Georgia. There are more dealers in the pipeline that will be located in other parts of the country.

Good luck with your new camper! Hang around here whenever you want. As Sherry said, once in the family you’re always welcome! Mike

This is another situation where experience gives us an edge. I don't care about "surfing the web," nor do I have to upload big files while camping, as working folks do. Yet another situation where time camping (sometimes involving frustration) gives us an answer to what we truly "need," and what we just want. If I wanted total connectivity, always, I'd get satellite, of some sort. I don't. But an emergency beacon, sure, when and if we're in the Yukon again. For most places we camp, in the USA and Canada, one of our phones "usually " works. One GSM, one CDMA. Even a very weak signal gets a text out. For emergency situations, I would never rely on tmobile or att. Nor verizon, even though we get better coverage with them than tmobile, in most situations. @Steph and Dud B, with both verizon and att/tmobile, you're covered in most situations. As are we. Out in the hinterlands,beyond cell towers, we'd need some sort of satellite sos.

You guys are true hard core adventurers, very much like the Vikings of old. I've enjoyed reading your posts and following. 🍻

She's a toy- she weighs about 8 lbs. 😁

This thread got me thinking. We use our Verizon tablet's hotspot for wifi when there's none available at the campground, and that usually works fine. But there have a been a few areas where Verizon coverage wasn't available, so we wanted a backup on another carrier for basics: email, light browsing, etc. No need for another high-usage plan. The Solis line of hotspots now come with 1GB of free data per month for the life of the device. That's not a lot, but it's enough for 40 minutes daily of web browsing or 20 minutes daily of social media apps (source: https://3g.co.uk/guides/how-much-data-do-i-need). That should be plenty for our occasional needs. Also, any additional gigs you buy from Solis never expire, so there's no waste. The Solis devices work on both AT&T and T-Mobile here in the states (they choose the best available at your location), and they also work internationally. They're relatively slow connections (which shouldn't be an issue for our use) and additional data is relatively expensive, but we don't expect to buy much. Seems like a pretty good solution for a backup system. We just received our Solis Lite unit yesterday, so I'll do some testing soon. Here's a link to it on Amazon: SIMO Solis Lite 4G LTE WiFi Mobile Hotspot, Local & International Coverage Router, Multi-Carrier Access, No Contract or SIM Card Required, 10 Connected Devices, 1GB/Month Lifetime Data https://a.co/d/fOrM7Fv

No worries. I will keep adding folks all along. I will slice and dice once most folks verify what I have.

Hard to believe that they are cooler than Reacher!

Here is what I have so far. Correct anything I got wrong. I had some trouble with abbreviations or the TV coding.

I’ve had 4 tow vehicles. Below is the latest.

Yes.

@Mark and Lorraine Nice set-up, brother! FYI: We just converted our SL to a dedicated "OTT 12vDC system" from their original 120vAC router - in fact, this message is being shot out ATM with the "new" config. You'll love it when you get to use it in a few weeks on travel - for us, because D's working from "home", SL has been a total game changer. Enjoy yours! Here's our mast config and ethernet wire connection - on this, quick 1-nighter, trip we're using the flagpole at the lowest height setting (6-foot) just to get Dishy off the ground: Cheers! A & D

Are coming to the rally as usual? If so, and it is still not repaired, I will personally take care of it for you. We might just make it a ‘how to’ demo for the group to watch and learn from. We can do it down at the Buckeye pavilion. Let me know.

@rich.dev posted a link to an extensive discussion on the Oliver sign. It's a really good thread. Also discusses appropriate sealants. My husband and I got sick of chasing the minute leaks of bubbles in caulk, etc., and went another direction with the Oliver sign/third light, several years ago. Mind you, it's more extreme, requires drilling holes, but we view it as the permanent solution. Still in beta, only three years in. 🙂 The Oliver sign is not that different from fixed acrylic portlights on sailboats, which typically leak after some magic number of years. In another ten years or so, I'll be able to tell you if our solution was best. Still in beta. But, as you know by now, I'm a big believer in synthetic butyl. It is not, however, an adhesive, so required mechanical fasteners, in addition to the superlative merits of butyl as a sealant. For good measure, we also applied a length of rv Eze gutter over the Oliver sign.

You are absolutely correct, the Oliver sign is a PITN! When my trailer was new the sign leaked four times in the first three years. I took the light assembly out threw it away and patched the inside hole. When we picked up our trailer I asked for several pieces of scrap fiberglass. I got this scrap because I wanted some patch material for just in case and I wanted the gelcoat color to match. I cut out a plug from one of the fiberglass pieces and heavily epoxied the plug in the hole. I later fiberglassed over the patch as well. So for the past four years I haven’t worried about the sign leaking.

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!

Fiona love her camping trips

OK... We're officially a 2-Husky family now. Our daughter moved from the Great SW to Chicago last weekend and left us with her "Oscar" (rhymes with Boxcar)... Here now in Wilcox, AZ on Mighty Oscar's (the black and white one) first-ever RV trip with his little brother, Magnus (the white one).

I've had this box on the tongue of my utility trailer for about 8 years. It's actually a very nice box. Gas strut still works and the lock works fine if you need it. I purchased mine at Tractor Supply. They usually have them in stock at their stores.

Yep, that looks like what I have. Thin aluminum and lightweight. You can lock it, but I never do since I don’t carry anything of value in it. I’ve had it longer than I thought, just checked my Amazon orders and I got it in October 2017. It still works fine, no dents or damage, does exactly what I got it for. Mike

This is Dolly. She loves camping and knows how to relax after a day of camping!😂

Here is a picture of my Oliver signage leak.