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A little history of the movie… The trailer used in the film is the 1953 36-foot Redman New Moon model, which sold for US$5,345 (equivalent to $60,869 in 2023). The new car used to tow the trailer is a 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible with a 125 HP flathead V8 engine. During the scenes of Nicky and Tacy pulling their trailer in the mountains, their 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible is replaced with a larger but similar appearing 1953 Lincoln Capri convertible. The distinct Lincoln grille is clearly evident in a shot as the car rounds a curve. The trailer from the movie was made in Alma, Michigan. After filming, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz kept the trailer used in the movie at their home. That actual trailer, or one of the actual trailers from the movie is currently at "The Cove RV Resort" in Blythe, CA its in their rv storage. Since Blythe is only 20 miles west of Quartzsite, we should make a pilgrimage over to see it.

I’ve had to replace the antenna once. If you want to remove the antenna completely there are a few steps. The antenna has the upper part big disc) and the lower part (mount) that is screwed to the roof. To disassemble there are three steps 1) the top part (dish) of the antenna is pushed straight down then twisted. This unclips the top of the antenna from the clips on the shaft. 2) With the top removed the top part rca cables can be unplugged from the top of the antenna. They will be tucked into the roof later. 3) Unscrew and remove the base shaft. You’ll need to cut the sealant to get it loose. Finally tuck the wires into the roof and cover the hole with a suitable body material and seal it with a marine sealant like 3M 4200.

Texas State Parks do list alerts, including burn bans. The attached came directly from the Inks Lake Site. Other Texas State Parks have burn bans restrictions listed on Their site. This burn bans has been in affect since 10/4/24.

A white object reflects all wavelengths of light, so the light is not converted into heat and the temperature of the object does not increase. I bet Oliver took this into consideration when designing the first Oliver. I like the white and will keep it OEM.

It’s great to be back in Texas, what a well-run state! Business is key, great schools and sports, very well kept roads and great city/county/state parks. Not all the public lands of the west, but so much more open space than back east. We moved to Georgetown Texas in 2006 and moved out of Texas end of November 2014, so it’s been 10 years. I’ve flown in for business a half dozen times, driven from FL to AZ in 2018, but this is our first real visit to Texas in 10 years and we can’t wait to see old friends and new! Not considered a Boondocking state, though it appears every city or county in West Texas has a park with free camping. Some have free hookups! 🤣 Did groceries today at H-E-B, Big Spring TX. Given all the inflation of the last 3 years, prices considerably less than anywhere in Arizona, or likely most states. Last night we stayed at Yoakum County Park and tonight we are at Foster Creek Park, west of San Angelo. It’s not Yellowstone or Zion, but we have more fun at small quiet places I’m sure you know what I mean. Thanks for reading. Tomorrow we’ll be one of the early birds arriving at Inks Lake SP for the Rally! Come by campsite #71 to say hello if you are attending!

Pay close attention to the Combined Weight Rating. Rough math on my part would be ... 500 lbs. tongue weight. 400 lbs passenger weight leaving 600 lbs for cargo. Do you have a cap? That would subtract a lot. But if not, payload should be a GO. On the 7000 lbs tow rating. The mfg. will usually figure that on the truck being completely empty with a 150 lbs. driver. Every pound you put in the truck subtracts a pound you can pull for the trailer. Easy way to figure would be: If you max out your 6,000 lbs GCVW on the truck and you have a 12,000 Combined weight rating ... The max tow is now 6,000 lbs... not 7k. It sounds like you are going to be fine. But if you are out west and your wife want to stop at the "Rock Shop" .... you might have to have a discussion on exactly how many rocks can be brought home. Do not ask me how I know this... Best of Luck and again welcome to the family. Hope we see you at some future rally. Scotty

Here are some pics I took of the "Jelly Bean" before being owned by Brandi and Winston Schaffer and becoming the Bean. I guess Oliver was restoring this trailer and brought it back beautifully. Not all Olivers are white. Enjoy, Scotty

Just a heads up, I recently had to replace the window rain gutter trim around my windows because the original trim was never brought down far enough along the edge of the window and they were starting to peel and come off exposing the 3M tape and simply not doing the job intended and leaving longer black streaks than I like. DO NOT PURCHASE THIS PRODUCT FOR YOUR OLIVER: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D98165TN?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title&th=1 It's horrible. It was purely my decision to go ahead with the install even though the color was a bit off and not nearly the quality of the original gutter. The tape is crap and even though I installed on an 85 degree day and let it sit for days, the rounded corners lifted on the first rain and it looks awful. Again, I knew that there was a chance that I'd have to peel it all off and start over..but I took the gamble. Just know, it's an inferior product. The lower price point should have tipped me off... I'm hoping this product is superior at more than twice the price: https://recpro.com/rv-rain-gutter-trim-with-adhesive-backing/?srsltid=AfmBOopQirOHpRVjMz9qYBNAXXOuiSK1bDn8mqsrwrVR8CRQd1liPtrE Let me know if you have had better luck with RecPro. My research suggests the original product was made by Essential Products called EZE RV Windshield Gutter, but I can't find it anywhere. Live and Learn, Sigh, Claudia

Just pulled into site 71 and noticed 3 Olivers on the way in! Already met neighbors CJ and Maureen from Oklahoma! This is going to be great. Thanks again @Donna and Scott!

It is posted on the Inks Lake Site.

Claudia: I recommend you cut and paste the above in to the Amazon Reviews. It is to the point and honest. GJ

Just think how pleasant it would be to hang out inside the black Oliver on a 100+ degree day, particularly with a Demonic air conditioner. We like our Oliver white, and we love our Truma AC.

In my opinion, if you are going to frequently be running ac wo shore power , the best solution would be a Generator like the Honda EU 2200 and a Truma installed soft start on your ac unit. The eu2200 is at my limit of lifting comfort. I run mine on gas, but propane would likely work as well. I don’t have a soft start on my Truma yet, but it seems like a reasonably priced option as long as the mobile tech cost to install it is not too prohibitive. I have been holding off on the soft start hoping a DIY option becomes available in the future.

PLEASE do not take my following comments personally. In the case of FIRE, always error in caution. Living in a state where fire danger is serious. I have not lit, nor allowed anyone to even light a candle on our property, let alone a fire. Love fireworks, but have not used them in over 20 years. State parks do not declare fire danger conditions nor burn bans. There are Texas state parks in 20+ counties. State counties or the NFS will declare fire conditions. The Prescott National Service governs all fire restrictions in our area. We study their website to see if we can light a fire, go trap or target shooting, or even ride a dirt bike in our forest. Generally, none of this is allowed during our dry summers. Central and west Texas can go through many years of drought. The Hill Country of Central Texas was in drought for 7 years when we lived there years ago. I was a true pyro at heart, loved fires, but have grown up and become responsible. Today I will only light our LP fire ring plumbed to our Oliver LP port. Nineteen (19) Hot Shot firefighters died in Yarnell AZ and our community just mourned the 11th anniversary of this loss: https://azstateparks.com/hotshots/the-hotshots/about-the-hotshots Come visit, hike the trail, and maybe like me, you may never want to start a fire again. We just visited Ruidoso NM and it’s such a shame to witness their loss, and from what I understand, caused by man.

I called the park office this afternoon (Texas time) and the gentlman I spoke to indicated that propane fire pits are OK if you choose to bring one along.

2020 Ram 2500 TX License US76MA 2016 Oliver Elite II TX License HT26B I got a “could not deliver” message on the email. See you soon. Mike

luv ya Scotty! 🤣 At times, I have to curb Chris on this issue even with our 2500 Cummins! Gotta see this movie in full, the trailer doesn’t do it justice! Also, what an AMAZING trailer, built over 70 years ago. Also crazy, pulling this beast with what I believe is a 53 Olds (1/2 ton at best). I’ll take one for $1,800, even $18K, likely today worth $18M, but it would not truly make a mountain climb in Arizona, with or without her hidden ROCKS! We’ve got to rent this again!

We will stop by with a bag of HEB-tos 🙂 (HEB corn chips)

A few days ago we confirmed our prepaid reservation with TPWD and they gave us a link to print our camping passes. Our vehicle info is in our signature line. Texas plates are RKY2365 & B565011 for our TV and trailer respectively. We plan on making a pot of real south Texas chili (no beans) on Monday afternoon to share with the group at site 68. Nothing against beans, but they deserve their own pot.

@ScubaRx you beat me to it. I also suspect a painted Oliver might be easier to maintain vs the gel coat which constantly needs waxing, ceramic coatings etc. No doubt it would also cost a good sum of money to have one painted properly too.

Fiberglass can be painted beautifully. Look at the last 70 years of Corvettes. I’d have it professionally done. All three of the colored shells shown above were painted. Oliver never used a colored gel coat.

We spent 3 days and nights in Wonderful Ruidoso NM! They had bad fires and floods early summer and the village is still working cleanup efforts. Still an amazing beautiful place, wildlife walking around feeding on grass in town. Ruidoso is one of the true gems of New Mexico! We wrote earlier re the “White Mountains.” The area surrounding Ruidoso also uses this name: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/lincoln/recarea/?recid=78583 Last March we met a fun couple at a public Pickleball court while camping at Casa Grande AZ. They invited us and we took them up on this visit. Great hosts showed us around town, made us dinner, bought us dinner out (we tried to pay)! New BFFs and we played PBall all 3 days with a great group of locals and Texans that frequent this resort town. We stayed Midtown Mountain RV Park right in the village. We are often Boondocking and there’s good campsites everywhere but for 3 days wanted to be close to everything! https://midtownmountaincampground.com/ They had some sort of LED lighting system that made all the light speckles in the photo. Nice quiet place for being in town, good bathrooms, friendly owner. Elk and wild/feral horses in town, bear a mountain lions in the surrounding hills! We will come back often! IMG_3822.mov

The fiberglass shell can be manufactured in any color and, in fact, Oliver made a few colored units in the early days. Changing the gelcoat color after the fact would be difficult, if not impossible. However, some people have put wraps on their Olivers, some of which are really cool. A much better option if you want to change the color.

My first rain gutter install was a total fail. I did it in sunny 80 degree weather, perfect! Unfortunately, we went from 80’s to 40s overnight and all the corners popped off. I reinstalled in 90 degree weather and overnight low was high 70s. Left the tape on for 24+ hours. It’s been years now and no issues. Pay close attention to the weather! Mike

Our Hull # 050 has exactly 11 inches from the floor of the garage to the bottom of the rear jack feet. BUT, our early build came with the (then standard) 16" wheels and tires. The standard for the currently produced trailers is 15" wheels and tires which might make about 1/2" difference.

Tank size needs to be a decision based on how you camp and your physical capabilities. We have the 30lb tanks. 20lb tanks are easier to handle but we enjoy the extra capacity. I can still lift the larger tanks so we’ll stay with them until I can’t. We’ve never had an issue with running out of propane while on the road. I usually carry a 20lb tank for our fire pit. Between campgrounds with propane, Tractor Supply’s and other locations refilling hasn’t been an issue. Mike

We have dual 30# LP tanks and I agree it was a worth the upgrade at least for us and to swap out to 30# tanks after our first year based on our camping needs. In our recent 7400 mile 48 day trip we were really glad to have the larger tanks. We only had to top off one of our 30# tanks 3 times during this entire trip. Many CGs out west if not all, have LP available or will tell you where you can easily purchase it. Everyone needs it at some point. If you don’t have adequate pay load capacity with your TV, or are concerned about tongue weight, or physically cannot lift a full 30# LP tank then keeping the 20# tanks is probably the right thing to do. Honestly I am not even sure an E1 will accommodate 30# tanks.

First off... Welcome to the family. And, welcome to the life of choices! So damn many choices! I would not get the 30 gallon tank upgrade. We did in 2016 and have now switched out for 20 pounders. I find the using the 20 lbs size makes things simple on the road. Stop at HD or Lowes or where ever you can switch out a tank and off you go. You can run one empty or near empty... switch to the other and then swap out when convenient. Lifting those 30 pounders gets old fast. Sorry JD. Also the 30 pounders add more WEIGHT. And speaking of weight as mentioned before. Tongue weight and payload weight in general will be something that occupies your mind. Start by checking the inside driver side door for your trucks payload number. Don't forget to subtract any additions you might have added to the truck like a cap, or slide, or fancy winch bumper. Then subtract the weight tongue weight of the LE1. (About 10% of total trailer weight so maybe about 500 lbs. guesstimate) THEN subtract weight of occupants and gear. (I put wife, me and dog together so no one gets singled out.... don't ask how big the dog is) Do you still have a positive number? If so, I guess it's ok to add the tongue basket and generator. But remember you won't really know how the numbers add up until you get it all together and run it over the scales. Like I said... choices. But you already made the best choice with the Oliver. Not only for a great camper but a great community to help you fret over all those damn choices. Good Luck and Happy Camping, Scotty

Search on this on Amazon. They sell 25' lengths. I put the trim lok site link in my reply because it was the company site. If memory serves you can do one LE2 with a 25' length, but you have to be careful. Scotty Trim-Lok Drip Rail, White – 1/2” Height, 25’ Length – PVC Plastic Rain Gutter for Cars, Vans, and RVs, Easy to Install Flexible Drip Rail Molding to Control Water Runoff, Durable 3M Tape Included

You want the Trim Lok Drip Rail with the 3M backing tape. https://www.trimlok.com/plastic-extrusion/drip-rail The 3M adhesive is awesome. Put it on #145 in 2016 and still doing the job. I would actually be afraid to take it off now for any reason. It's part of the trailer. Good Luck Scotty

BBQ?😁

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