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Last night was our 100th night in our 2023 Oliver Legacy Elite II “Curiosity”! While not a big deal for a lot of campers, it is a milestone for us. Thank you Oliver Travel Trailers for building us a wonderful home away from home!

I DO NOT make reservations over a couple of hours in advance and only then if it’s 105F outside and we need A/C for the night. We have traveled many thousands of miles without any reservations and not one single time have we ever not been able to find a free place to camp. The are fairgrounds, rest stops, city parks, empty lots, city campgrounds, Walmart, Cracker Barrel. We’ve even been invited to spend nights on people’s property. Drive into any small town and find the police department. Ask if there’s a place to park overnight. We have never been turned down. Many times they will accompany you to the place to park. Don’t overthink it, it’s easy to find free places at the last minute. We took a 15K mile, three month trip to Alaska and only paid for three nights camping and that was by choice.

I also recently experienced hairline cracks in the corner the exterior cowling of my Truma cover. I called and spoke withe a super friendly Truma Rep and explained what had occurred and was promptly sent a new exterior cover at no charge for the cover or shipping. I have had nothing short of stellar service from Truma reps with questions or ordering a new cover. I received the new cover in approx 3-4 days via fedex. Our Truma Aqua go came with a 2 year warranty. When we purchased new in 2020 Oliver actually filed our warranty with Truma. This must be done within 6 weeks of purchase. Pro tip 😊- you may want to add your tow vehicle, YM and Hull # to your signature. It will assist members of the forum to help you with questions you may have.

@jd1923 -- Thought we'd finally meet in person, JD! We'll see you down the road, eventually, brother - take it easy! Here's a snap of @johnwen's OTT and @ScubaRx's Clam during a pre-sunrise puppy duty for Oscar... with the wind chill factored in its a balmy 25F here this AM. HA!: At last count, there's 6 OTTs and a BigFoot... I understand there may be more coming later this week. Staying on the warm side of the "Main Hatch" for a while - take care, all! Best,

For those of you who have been less than impressed with the tiny, difficult to use remote that came with the Furrion DVD player - stereo that came with your Oliver - thankfully there is an upgrade available. Though a Furrion dealer I contacted said that there was no full sized remote available, I looked on Amazon (where else?) and found this: Universal FUTVRS1-BL Replaced... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094NHGK5B?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share for the money, it seemed worth a try - even though a vendor on Amazon I also contacted also said it “will only work with TVs”. Oddly enough, this remote arrived with two stickers that said just “Remote”. They were stuck clumsily on the front and back of the remote. Since they were obviously crudely stuck on, I peeled them off. Sure enough, it says “Furrion” under the stickers. Dunno why they bothered sticking them on. At any rate, the remote controls the power, volume, DVD player functions, AM/AM functions, input/output functions - and probably stuff I haven’t even figured out yet. I haven’t tried to actually tune the radio yet, but I suspect that will also work as well. If you’ve been as frustrated with the tiny remote as I have, then you’ll enjoy this upgrade!

@Steve Morris On behalf of all Floridian's, I will say "we do all we can to make our visiting Snowbirds feel right at home". Mossey

We too have recently contacted Truma CS regarding cracks developing in the water heater cover. When you call you have go through the menu process and usually wait in a queue for a few minutes, but once you get a representative they are quite friendly and helpful with no push back. With one five minute conversation we had a new cover ordered at no cost, and it arrived promptly in three days. I’ve utilized Truma customer service on three other occasions in the past two years with equally satisfactory experiences. I feel Truma and their products have served us well thus far.

OK - a random idea following @Steve Morris's impressive milestone.... Back in the day when flying aboard navy aircraft carriers, it was a big deal to celebrate every 100 landings on a specific carrier and especially every 100 NIGHT landings on that particular boat. Each air wing had its own flight jacket "Centurion Patch" with the number of landings 100, 200, 300, etc. including the name of the carrier (Nimitz, Constellation, Ranger, Oriskany, etc.). The idea is we design a patch, coffee cup, hat, whatever that celebrates multiples of 100 nights in an OTT. The most coveted was the "Black Centurion" patch signifying 100 night landings. Thoughts for coming up with and designing "Oliver Centurion" swag?

Steve, again congrats on your special milestone! You got me thinking, and then of course I had to count! 🤣 In 19 months, we're at only 54 nights. Still working part-time and had much maintenance and mods to do in our first year of ownership. With a week soon to Quartzsite, another 7-10 days around AZ this spring and very soon to come will be our longest trip ever to Minnesota and back, with many points between, from Memorial Day to the 4th of July! We will hit 100 before the end of this long trip, 25 months into Ollieland!

My Mod post linked below - By eliminating the furnace duct under the beds, replacing torn ducting, adding an intake filter to slow intake off the floor, creating more pull through the basement, helps considerably in this. Then adding vents from cabin to closet, closet to vanity, toilet area to dinette area basement helps to circle cold air below and around the cabin back to the furnace intake. Some have added cabin vents on the streetside, though I went without those to force basement air to and around the lower rear of the Oliver, as GJ mentioned where "freezing water systems" can exist without the furnace running and good basement ventilation.

Congrats…to the next 100!!!

In a recent post in the thread - "Truma has QC issues…. I mentioned that I had used a mod with a meat thermometer in order to - " tell me when the water is at about 104 degrees. Then I simply take a shower using only hot water (i.e. I do not "mix" cold water with the hot in order to get the temp back down to a comfortable level). This saves propane by not heating the water to 140 degrees in the first place, saves water because I don't have to mix the hot with cold (wasting that water until I get the mix right), and saves me from enduring that short burst of "cold" when taking a navy shower and turning the water back on." This mod is fairly simple- First purchase a meat thermometer that has a "cabled" probe on it like THIS one. Next - examine your Suburban water heater to determine how the Styrofoam insulation has been placed over the outside of the water heater. Note that most heaters have this insulation in two halves that meet at about the middle point of the heater (top to bottom). Gently lift the insulation and place the meat thermometer probe between the insulation and the water heater tank - try to get as much of the probe as you can in direct contact with the tank. Secure the probe cable to the outside of the insulation and tape the two halves of the Styrofoam insulation back together (note: at this point I also added a layer of reflextix insulation over the areas of the water heater that I could reach. Finally, route the end of the meat thermometer cable such that the end that plugs into the "read out unit" comes through the fresh air return grill under the street side bed. To use - plug in the meat thermometer read out and turn on the water heater. As the water inside the tank heats up you will note the "read out" on the thermometer will start to rise. It will not show you the actual temperature of the water inside the tank because the probe is on the outside of the tank. You will have to determine what is the temperature on the "read out" that equates to approximately 104 degrees (that is the temperature that most of us take showers plus or minus depending on how hot you really want to take your shower). In my case the "read out" will show between 93 and 95 degrees. At this point, I simply turn off the water heater, get in the shower and using ONLY the hot water, take my shower. Yes, there will be a few seconds for the water to turn hot when you first turn on the water but I usually "catch" this water in a small container (if I'm really watching my water usage). The use of the stock "shut-off" valve on the shower head for "Navy" showers can be used without the momentary shot of cold water when you turn the water back on - this is due to the fact that you are only using the hot water with no cold water being on at the same time. When not using the heater, I simply unplug the "read out unit" and store it one of the kitchen drawers leaving the meat probe wire barely hanging outside the furnace fresh air return. At one point I did fashion a holder for the "read out" unit and placed it near the fresh air return grill. However, I have since removed that because the "read out" unit is not very heavy and is fairly easy to read just hanging by the cable. Questions? Bill

Yea, so much for staying warm in Florida. 3.25 inches of snow already on the ground here at Blackwater River State Park NE of Pensacola, with another 3-4” in the next 24 hours. Over night low is forecasted to be 16*F…

Hello. Love the name and the story behind how you came up with “curiosity”. The graphic on the front says it all. Last November my wife and I bought a used 2022 LEI we have named “My Imagination”. After hearing about “curiosity” we wanted a name that reflects a similar note for our future travels. Thanks for sharing.

Hello kids. Over the past 3 years my Dometic RM 2454 eyebrow board was responding to a few tricks to get the fridge started; see previous posts in this thread. First, hold the "On" switch in for a few seconds. When that gave no joy, pull the panel out and unplug, then replug the connector. Finally, pull the panel out and shim the connector with a strip of paper towel. Once it started it never crapped out. Yesterday, it refused to respond to any of these. BUT....... I found the eyebrow and power boards are now manufactured at Dinosaur Electronics. Here is a link from a vendor that carries them, for the eyebrow board. You can find the replacement power board (Black Box outside) on the site easily. https://www.rvshop.com/Eyebrow-Board-Replacement-2-WAY-3-WAY-Dinosaur-Electronics-DE-ADJ_p_79109.html The Black Box Dometic boards should have the part number on the front of the box, in the smallest imagineable font. Mine is part number 385071201, and RVSHOP carries a Dinosaur board to replace it. The eyebrow board will supposedly will work with the OEM power board. I will order both in a few weeks and re-post. Just spent $4000 on my Jeep and F-250, tight right now. Jim PS: I am quite happy with my Oliver, but I will NEVER buy another RV without ordering a full set of boards that are proven to work. This will be a non-negotiable. This way, companies like Dometic can't stick you with garbage that breaks, with no repair parts available, so then it's "Whoopsie Poopsie, $2500 for a new fridge install!"

Two for two now, where the same cause is creating the same issue. The cause is the electric space heater, period. Your electric heaters are significantly over-heating the upper cabin. Try using an infrared gauge, and measure and compare the temps of your ceiling to that of your floor while running these heaters. You will likely measure a 20-30F difference when its cold enough outside. The electric heater is adding little to no heat in the basement, the lower cabinets, beds and seat cushions, flooring, the ENTIRE lower hull! Heat can escape the hull above in so many small orifices and the significant heat differential at ceiling creates a turbo effect, forcing this abundance of heat out in any available path. Heat loss through the fan vents, gaps in the A/C seal, the door and windows, the fridge vents, the perimeter around the sewer vent, through the upper cabinets and out everywhere OTT drilled holes for awnings, exterior lights, cameras, etc. Simple fact, the cold air coming in from below must be equal in volume to hot air escaping above. The furnace vents allow the largest opening to the basement below, path of least resistance is where it is coming into the cabin interior. The cold air from the entire basement (and exterior) is being pulled through the furnace ducts and because these ducts are under the curbside bed, it is your curbside wall and likely under that mattress where condensation is accumulating (colder surfaces). Those of us running the furnace are creating hot air below in the ducts and pulling cold air in through the intake in exchange. Just run the OEM furnace as designed and the issue that is bothering you will go away! Being frugal is good, but use your LP (prices coming down soon). Run your OEM furnace when you need to warm your cabin. The electric heater should be used for secondary or back-up heating purposes ONLY. I haven't use one and will not carry one with us. In the next few months, we will add the Atmos A/C with heat pump. The heat pump will be our backup, but we will still run the furnace as our primary heat. We much prefer an evenly heated cabin, not breathing hot air blowing in our faces.

Unfortunately, you would likely be horrified if you saw our Ollie. It definitely isn't spit-shined sitting out in the Florida sun. But, oh so comfy! And our 2 golden retrievers love traveling with us. Life is good.

Interesting replies to you original question! My original thought was that you were simply hitting the road and making one night stops until you got to the "destination". My bad! I had mentioned the Cracker Barrel in St. Joe even though it is not all that far from where you are starting off. I mentioned this particular CB because it is one of the better ones and certainly no matter which CB it would be, they are not a place to "camp". These are simply meant to be a place to get off the road and catch some sleep. Another place that I've stayed is a bit further up the road - Big Lake State Park, near Mound City, MO. Clean showers and restrooms, big shade trees, electric and water and dump, play ground and is right on an oxbow lake. Easy to get to off interstate 29. Bill

Certainly a big deal - Congratulations!

Currently at Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park near Live Oak, Florida, for a fiberglass camper rally with 236 trailers. Tomorrow we head to Blackwater River State Park north of Pensacola for six nights, Fort Pickens on the Gulf for another six. After that we head to north central Florida to Salt Springs National Recreation Area in Ocala National Forest for almost two weeks. A short cruise out of Jacksonville to the Bahamas, and the north to Savannah, maybe Charleston, and then home. We should be back in northern Ohio by March 1st.

100 night - nice! Just starting to feel like home? Be safe out there. Bill

Congrats. We keep a list of nights. 2024 was big for us ,105 nights. 2025 is scheduled to be bigger.

Doing what it takes to stay warm. 😁

More important than number of nights is $/night. I’m finally under $1000! 🤪

105 degrees actually sounds pretty good right now... 🥶

...and don't forget about "Harvest Hosts". We've met some awesome folks over the years while staying at HH venues!

Let me know if you pass my way and you are welcome to stay as long as you want... We have all kinds of room, power and water, and there is a dump station about 5 miles away.

KOA is high dollar. We have never stayed at one. We may someday if it is the only real option.

I have often thought for very cold weather, that if we could just run our furnace fan on continuously (vs. it cycling with the furnace burner), many of our freezing issues would be ameliorated. Especially on the curb side. The benefit could be expanded to the Aft Port corner (where we generally first see freezing water systems) with the inclusion of an under bed return air duct to that area. An idea I suggested some time ago..... GJ

Better to go with the rough and scruff than not go at all. Life is all about the pushing through the scuffs. I need a dog. Can someone talk to my wife?

Our Truma AquaGo has been relatively trouble-free since we purchased our 2018 LE2 (#344) in 2000. I say relatively because on a 4-month sojourn, each night we stopped, the AquaGo, propane was no longer supplying the AG. When I tapped on the solenoid (much like my 1968 VW squareback), it would work fine for the rest of the evening. It seemed like a solenoid issue, but you can't simply replace the solenoid on an AG - it is mated to other parts and is not user-serviceable. I set up an appointment at the Truma Service Center in Lakeland, Fl which was not convenient (a 6 1/2 hour drive) . Also, their first availability was months out. Nevertheless, we confirmed the appointment and drove up there months later. The tech confirmed that is seemed to be the solenoid. It was easier and not much more expensive to replace the entire unit so we gave him the go-ahead. But when he started taking the unit apart, he noticed that a wire had become corroded and consequently was not in contact with the connector. Thus, all he had to do was replace the connector and it has functioned flawlessly ever since. And, the cost was negligible. I remain quite happy with Truma. Now, however, the nearest Truma service is at a Camping World 4 hours from us and we are within the recall. A mobile tech's travel time is not covered in the recall.

You are my new hero.. I want to be like you.

We have travelled extensively for months at a time during the height of the busy season and have never had a problem finding last-minute campsites despite (except that one time in Missouri on the 4th of July) not having many reservations. We stay in order of preference: COE campgrounds, state/provincial parks, USFS campgrounds, Hipcamps, a few HarvestHosts, and when we have to, private campgrounds (KOA in Boone was particularly nice on the J loop). We have never had to revert to Cracker Barrels, WalMarts, or Cabelas. We do plan a few days in advance and rely a great deal on Campnab to let us know when vacancies open up at certain desirable campgrounds. We use RVParky to identify sites in the general area where we are going, and have actually found google maps to be exceptionally good. Campendium often gives us information about specific campsites, and Campground Photos as the name implies, shows pics of many specific sites. Bottom line: no problems.

I just signed up with DYRT. I have tried RVParkey and RF Life. One of those sucked a lot and the other sucked somewhat less.. I let mu Harvest Host expire. I could never use it when we needed it. Hosts never called back, or nothing appealing appeared on my route. I will reserve my main destination, but reserving every little stop along the way there and back takes the fun out of it. It seems less of an adventure planning the stops. I like to explore and go where the road takes me. I did that for years on the bike, but doing it towing my house might be tougher. Trying to adjust.

I have to agree with Bill, here. Over 9 years on our 6 gallon tank and the only maintenance has been changing out the anode, a simple 10 minute task. Noise isn’t an issue either, we run it on electricity when we have hook ups and it’s pretty quiet. 6 gallons is enough for two showers in a row with some left over. If you need to heat water quickly you can run it on both electricity and gas. I know the Truma is new technology and offers some nice features, but our good old hot water tank and good old gas furnace have both been simple to operate and maintain. Mike

You need to have windows cracked to allow airflow. You need to be using a dehumidifier. You need to use the trailer furnace to heat under the bed. This is really operator error. Please don't take this the wrong way. Worst thing to do is keep the trailer closed up. You need to know when it is time to move to the furnace. The furnace will also help to remove moisture When camping with temps below freezing we crack curbside and dinette windows, 1"+. We really have never had a condensation issue. Best of Luck.

Not sure where cold air is coming in, but since it is the curbside check that basement area and climb under the trailer in that area. There are 3-4 LP lines that exit the hull to the frame below (Furnace and HWH are easily visible in the rear and further up are lines for gas range and a 4th if you have a LP fridge). Not sure of your hull # but in our older hull all caulk around the LP lines had moved and there was an 1/8" to 1/4" opening around the perimeter of the drilled opening. I STRONGLY RECOMMEND you store the electric heater for a while and run the furnace. It will heat up that basement area and you will not have the condensation and cold wall between the bed and window. You must have seen my mod post on this. Now that I've done this work, closing the heating duct under the bed and adding an intake filter the furnace works great now and is much quieter. Electric heaters save money with paid hookups of course but LP is cheaper than the issues you are having and perhaps more. You mentioned Florida, where it is always humid. When we travel somewhere colder, I like to know the furnace is not only keeping us warm but the hulls, the floor, and inside the basement areas to keep the plumbing above freezing. An electric heater will only keep the cabin and upper inner shell warm.

Sorry I don't have a specific answer to your question, but maybe this will help you search to be more productive. I like you find the builtin search to be lacking. I use a Google search and limit it to the forums. For example you search criteria might be as follows: site:olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/ cold air entry The site limits to whatever you want to limit your search, then just enter your search words. Hope this helps.

I agree with the necessity of planning on our travels east of the Mississippi River, we live near St Louis. But we’re planning on leaving soon for a month in Texas and I won’t book anything more than a day in advance, we’ll just wing it. But you do have to be flexible, and having a fully self contained rv frees up a lot of options.

When we plan a destination, I have found the need to book ahead for good parts of the trip. We will be in Washington, Oregon, and California after Labor Day. State Parks in Washington have a 9 month booking window. Montana just dropped their state park booking window to 3 months. For us we want the main part of our trip booked for State and National Parks. The negatives are forking out the money so far in advance and issues if our tow vehicle has issues. You are really traveling in prime season, so you might find places booked You can always hope someone cancels. We booked State Parks in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina for after the rally. Florida has a 12 month booking window for residents and 11 months for non-residents. I book as soon as the booking window opens. I spend hours planning our trips. I use Mapquest to set maximum 4-5 hour drives. I use Dyrt Pro to locate one night stops. We use Harvest Host. I enjoy the challenge. Each Oliver Owner is different and many just roll the dice, with little planning. To each his own. Good Luck.

Other than Friday and Saturday, I’ve never had any trouble booking reservations same day or day in advance, anywhere west of the Mississippi River. There are exceptions of course, but I’ve taken 6 week trips out west and paid for camping just 3 nights, between harvest hosts, ultimate c.g., rv Parky, blm etc…. My favorite campgrounds are c.o.e., they’re always on water and with the American the Beautiful pass, they’re half price.

Cracker Barrel in St. Joe, MO Note: quite after 10pm Byre Lake Park - GPS 43.93009, -99.83665 Note: the bar/restaurant located right at the exit off interstate 90 has cold beer and a great burger. The park is located about 6 miles north of town but is free (electric is available if arranged in town in advance). Quite and plenty of room. There is a pit toilet that is basically OK. Bill

I use a Y valve on the CG shore fresh water source for my extra hose “camp hose”. The rear bumper makes a nice shelf to support my water hose. My Andersen levelers came in handy as the slab had a slight fall to the street side to allow water to run off. This was at Teton Valley Resort in Victor, Idaho last fall, we love the Tetons. And this was a really nice base camp.

My wife won't let me get a hoe.

Exactly! I intercepted the hot water line under the sink, and sent it to the diverter instead of the faucet. One outlet on the diverter then went to a "T", in turn going to the faucet and shower mixer. The other outlet went back to the fresh water fill, into a "T" placed just after the check valve. I briefly thought of adding some sort of temp sensor inline with the recirculation line, but instead, I'll just run it for 10-15 seconds until I get a feel for how long it typically takes to get hot water to the tap. Attached is Mike's flow chart for the system. He and I use a Scandvik SCA10623 single lever mixing valve without on/off feature for the diverter. Here's the link where I bought all my fixtures. I have mine oriented so that pointing up goes to the faucet and shower, and down goes back to the fresh water tank. https://www.mauriprosailing.com/us/product/SCA10623.html dog house bath remodel.pdf

I used Milwaukee multi material hole saws and drilled slow and steady in reverse. I did all of the layout on blue tape over the fiberglass and used new hole saws. If you are really uncomfortable drilling the holes, call Oliver service and request some scrap fiberglass pieces to practice with or find a place in the Ollie you would like to place an air vent and practice in a location that is less visible. Maybe an air vent in the wall between the toilet and the basement area below the front dinette. Mossey

Now with graphics! We put them on today, and it took longer than I expected. A big Thank You to Robin at Banana Banners for making these for us!

Update: Power into the ignitor (outside) board is OK, all fuses there (3 of them) OK. Appears to be the on/off switch itself. Must be pushed in for a while, firmly, to hear a relay click outside, then inside board lights up. Will not stay "ON" reliably though. Next step: Pull inside board and clean contacts, re test. This image might be rotated, the black AC power cord is at bottom.

Fixed it.

Jim, it would be a real shame to have to replace the whole fridge for want of a $100 part. I know it was difficult to find five years ago, for me. I think I finally found a beige one on Amazon, then a black one at an rv service center in Arizona. If I remember correctly, there were two different eyebrow made for the same fridge, and which one we needed depended on the serial number. Did Dometic at least give you that part correct part number? We replaced our rm2454 with a truckfridge, about 4 years ago. The hardest part was removing the old fridge, as in the Elites, the space between the shower wall and the fridge wall is too small to remove the Dometic fridge in one piece. Paul had to disassemble it, and take it out in pieces. Otherwise, we'd have had to remove the shower wall and the entry door to get it out. The truckfridge was just barely small enough to get through that narrow space, with maybe an 1/8 inch each side to spare, because it doesn't have the enormous cooling unit hanging on the back. The pros--The truckfridge has worked very well for us. It cools down quickly, and maintains temperature well, and it works consistently! It's maybe .5 cubic foot larger capacity than the Dometic we replaced. It was about half the price of a comparable marine fridge. It fit in the cavity, and I gained a small shallow drawer beneath it. The cons--it uses 60 to 70 ah a day, and we typically rely on solar for our power needs. We've upgraded our rooftop solar to 400 watts, but still have only space for 2 group 31 batteries, 105 ah each, in our Elite. So, I have to deploy portable solar if we camp in the shade, or break out the Honda every few days. I don't think the unit, especially the door, is as well insulated as the marine versions. I can see the outlines of the door shelves in condensation sometimes. The handle is a bit chintz, but it does stay closed during travel. The freezer is really tiny, like a shoebox, but it does make ice quickly. We often camp for six or eight weeks at a time, and if it's humid, I have to defrost the freezer every 3 or 4 weeks. (In all fairness, the dometic freezer iced up, too, over time.) The freezer door is also a poor design, held in place with two thin plastic pins that are the "hinges", which will break if you operate the door with too much ice build up. (I know from personal experience. ) The replacement door is expensive and hard to find, so if you go that route, keep the freezer defrosted! If you have other questions, I'd prefer you ask here, rather than pm me. These questions pop up every so often, and I think it's better to make comments available to everyone. I think the 3way is actually a great boondocking fridge, as it uses so little power and propane when running on gas. But I have to say, I love the reliability of my truckfridge, and its size made it possible for us to do the swap ourselves. An Elite II has a wider opening, so swapping in a new 3way isn't as troublesome.