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Way ahead of ya.. done and done like

Any good boatyard can paint fiberglass. Many types of paint for fiberglass still require waxing and care. Others don't. Awlgrip paint warns against wax, and most boat owners report 5 to 10 years of a beautiful finish, some even many more, with proper care. (Keep it clean, use non abrasive cleaners as recommended, etc.) If you decide to paint, have a long conversation about pros and cons of various available coatings. Paint is often much harder to repair than gelcoat. A wrap is honestly probably less expensive, and easier maintenance. Proper paint job on a fiberglass hull is many hours of arduous work. And, attention to detail. Many beautiful boats are painted hulls, but, they don't face rock chips. They do deal with abrasion from dock lines and docks, but not highway and gravel Serious consideration here. I wouldn't paint mine, honestly.

Debris is,still everywhere, even though many of rhe huge piles are cleared. The small sharp stuff may be still in the roads and streets. Lots of flats in our neighborhood, from leftover unseen sharp metals, screws etc As you come further south, be careful. Gas supply is much more normalized. Most stores are open. Most folks have grid power. Many neighborhoods are still sad looking but others are recovering to certain extent. Mine is far less depressing than last week. Welcome back.

I used to truly dislike paint, like as a teenager when my mom wanted me to paint over the natural pine paneling in the stairwell and lower hallway going to my bedroom. You can never get the wood back, but of course Mom was mom, Yes Ma’am! This thread makes me feel confident in letting our fiberglass sit in the AZ sun another 1-2 years without worry or care, love it! Then when I get some $$$$ saved, I will paint it the Dodge color codes of my truck. Not selling the truck, not selling the Oliver. This would look cool and the upper shell would still be white, but a little brighter white. The picture was taken after sunset, so it’s very dark. The upper portion is bright white. Notice the center rib which looks a lot like the joint on the Oliver between upper and lower shells. This would look awesome, IMHO.

I agree with @Patriot and if I were going to paint mine it would be perhaps a pearlescent white the main reason not having to deal with the gel coat issues. From my experience and others may disagree maintaining a painted vehicle is much easier than maintaining a gel coat over fiberglass.

Things get better every day. More of my neighborhood gets debris cleared off driveway and lawns. It's a little less depressing to look down the street, where furniture, cabinets, drywall, and memories of a lifetime were piled, yesterday. But, that doesn't mean hazards aren't there. Drive carefully. Crap everywhere on the streets. Fasteners, glass, and metal bits... And, as I said before, make sure spares are good. Tire plugs, fixaflat, and portable compressor may just be your new best friends. Most of my friends now have power. Not everyone. Worse with our friends up by Asheville. These storms showed no favoritism. My heart goes out to all affected. Samaritans purse has helped many here, and in Asheville area, if anyone is looking for a worthy place to contribute.

I took delivery of Hull #1494 on 8/30/24 from B&B RV in Denver. I drove it to the Black Hills of South Dakota and am enjoying the trailer!

I thought it would be cool to mount a Star Link Mini in there. **** My Bad.... I misunderstood OP's post. Thought Claudia was talking about the Winegard Satellite TV antenna. See Picture. Now if we someone other than me... can figure out how to get a Star Link Mini in there... we're golden. Back to my first un-edited post. Full disclosure.... I have not seriously explored actually doing that, nor am I certain that it would even be possible. Just wanted to put the idea out there in case someone more mechanically talented than me would steal the idea and write up a post with pictures, circles, arrows, and a description of exactly how this is accomplished. Then maybe I could think about it some more. Good Luck on the removal... Don't forget to take pictures. Scotty

Welcome! I have friends and relatives in the Black Hills. Enjoy your new Ollie. Taking it south for the winter?

During our recent rescue Oli from the hurricane trip #3 or 4, I'm loosing count, I noticed how dingy it looks. The TV is "polar white" and they used to match pretty well. Maybe all the tannin from oak and hickory tree detritus has taken its toll. I would like to paint wrap ours white, or maybe add yellow, red and blue dots and nickname it Wonder Loaf. COE East Bank Campground on Seminole Lake, near Chattahoochee, FL.

I drove south along I-95 today, from Savannah to Titusville, and there was a lot of debris on the interstate. Enough to force drivers out of a lane for about a mile in one section. Traffic was steady but not too bad, and I didn’t encounter any issues with flooding (contrary to the google maps warnings).

Just a quick comment on this proceeded by "it would need to be measured.", and I believe it's likely that a white Oliver would be cooler than one that was painted or had a darker color...but... The term used to describe the absorbtion or radiation of energy is emissivity. The highest (perfect) absorber or radiator has an emissivity of 1.000.. A perfect reflector has an emissivity of 0.... Close to 40% of the sun's radiated energy is in the visible area of the spectrum, but nearly 50% of the energy is in the infrared. So, while the white is reflective to our eyes, most plastics and normal paints are very dark in the infrared. You'd like a lower emissivity number to both keep heating from the sun to be low and to lose less heat at night. The ideal direction would be something like highly polished aluminum (but not anodized). Shiny white and clean fiberglass is much easier to maintain, and probably much lower cost. And white of the same material would likely have a lower emissivity compared to a color - particularly a darker one.

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.

WOW! Have not thought of that movie in a while. I DO remember watching it on TV when I was very young. It made an impression on me. And, I like almost everyone at that time did truly "Love Lucy". Thanks for digging that one up. Scotty

Think it was February of about the same year. By myself in ONLY a ‘76 Malibu, left Chicago late morning and got to a friend's house in Portland the next afternoon. Just looked it up on my phone map and that was over 2100 miles non-stop. Oh, the adrenaline of youth! About 10 years ago, drove my truck 1100 miles, Prescott to Austin nonstop. That was the last time for me! We left Prescott a full week ago and so far we’ve just entered west Texas, left Ruidoso this morning and spending tonight, free camping at Yoakum County Park. Our longest day driving on this trip will be 4.5 hours, average 3 hours a day. The beauty of a relaxing Oliver trip!

I don’t think 12” is too far. I try to keep all three of mine at 6” or less. Sometimes more, depending on the site slope.

Trim Lok does make some good products. I replaced the original trim of the propane cover with their "edge trim".

We’ve camped with overnight temps in the teens and had no problems. We also camped when the temperature never got above freezing for several days and had no issues. Especially if the daytime weather warms to above freezing the Oliver does great. We don’t enjoy very cold camping just like we don’t enjoy endless rain days. Even though the fire pit can warm up the Clam pretty quickly we try to avoid very cold weather. Mike

For the 7 pin I have always just looped in around the tongue so that it hangs straight down. Never had the dreaded ghost lights or problems with moisture. Tire covers... Prefer the type that covers both wheels. Couldn't tell you what brand because I bought them so long ago. The double ones fit well and have a bungee like chord to attach them which I never use... they aren't going anywhere. Important to use them to keep the sun off the tires. Good Luck and Happy Camping! Scotty

High Risk Low Reward. It takes 10-15 to winterize and maybe 10 minutes to dewinterize. You can carry a couple of small jugs of water and RV Anti-freeze to use in the toilet. We live in Indianapolis and can expect 0° - 20° for extended periods. We get South where it might get to 35° at night and dewinterize. We keep our Truma Aqua-Go closed and the filter stored until we are in wark weather My question is why would you even risk doing what you have posted. When pipes in your Oliver freeze and crack, many times it is in hard to get to places, resulting in added expense and major stress. It simply isn't worth the risk, when it only takes 10 minutes to dewinterize.

We have this mounted to our front storage basket. Works well. A little snug around the plug but that keeps stuff out. Optronics ACP7BP 7-way Round Trailer Harness Plug Protector https://a.co/d/gFsYSNO

Here’s what I do 1) Tug the 7 pin in between the fibreglass and aluminum beam, it’s a nice tight fit 2) bought kohree rv tire covers from Amazon, there are many options 3) I stuck green painters tape over the switch

Your northern location tells me all I need to know. I would really think about winterizing based on where you live. A few minutes of effort can forgo hours of locating and repairing a leak. Our Truma makes winterizing super easy.

You are very kind. As a retired attorney whose litigation practice included defense of auto claims involving life-altering catastrophic injuries, I am not so generous. Cutting corners with a critical safety system, like legally-mandated trailer brakes, is not "genius;" it is remarkably stupid and grossly negligent. Given this discovery of such sloppy work, Oliver would be well advised to verify the efficacy of trailer brakes on each Elite II before they allow it to leave the factory.

There have been other posts on trailer brakes disconnecting. What happened to me, and others, is that the brake wires in the axle frayed and shorted out against the metal axle, a Dexter issue. We pulled the wires and rerouted new wires on the outside of the axle, problem solved. Oliver service is aware of this issue, they looked at my solution last time I was there. Ours also failed in Colorado, so I was also happy to have a big truck with a big diesel engine. Mike