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They are like fire hoses, they don’t shrink up just flatten out. Very easy to handle and use. We’ve been using these type hoses for years. I don’t have much patience for traditional hoses, especially in cold weather.

Sorry, I must have missed your mentioning the scuppers in your post. They do act like drain holes in the event of a leak. However they also act like vent holes particularly when you are moving down the road - much like scupper holes in a boat. Using the Venturi effect a difference in air pressure is caused between the outside air and the air between the hulls. This, in turn, draws air through the area between the hulls and out the scuppers thus drying the area between the hulls. The faster you drive, the more air that is drawn out. Physics. Bill

You had me concerned since I purchased my hammer locks some time ago and just now got around to installing them on the Savana. These have a stout cotter pin for an easy install and removal, if necessary. The rubber boots are a nice feature, but do add thickness to the chain connector link. However my stock chain hooks had good fitment, but the locking hitch pin was a close fit. You may want to consider replacing the chain hooks on your setup in order to make use of the hammer locks.

Amen! Unfortunately, I've know way too many members of the Oliver "Family" that have purchased their Ollies but then really didn't get the chance to travel with it as they had hoped due to all of those things that life tends to throw at us (health being the main one as we get older). Assuming that you can afford it - retire as soon as possible and get to doing all of those things that you have on your "bucket list" as soon as possible because you just never know what is coming at you. Congrats on your decision. I know that many people feel that we members of the "Oliver Family" are VERY biased. But, I believe that there is a solid reason for that bias. I assume that you have contacted Oliver about arranging to see one of the trailers in person. If they can't arrange something for you then come back here and let us know where you are located. One of us just might be traveling near you this summer and could arrange a meetup. I fully support and agree with Patriot's comment above about arranging a factory visit - do this if you can. Bill

A big thanks to @Ollie-Haus for passing along this RV water hose upgrade while at the rally. It’s hard to imagine not having to wrestle with our fresh water white Camco hoses any more when storing them in the milk crate in our Oliver basement. So based on Chris’s recommendation, I scooped up (3) of these Gorilla collapsible 25’ hoses while at Home Depot this morning. https://www.homedepot.com/p/Gorilla-1-2-in-x-25-ft-Marine-and-RV-Hose-GMAR0025/325990305 “Two is one and one is none”.🇺🇸🫡😊

Hello, I’ve been on the forum for some years and I’m closing into retirement and making my decision. Started with Ollie years ago, drifted over to the Escape, then Bigfoot camps as I thought the Ollie too expensive, small and overbuilt. Now with the tariffs I was forced to reconsider them as they are US based, and realized it was for me. Escape 23 is pretty expensive now for what you get. Bigfoot length/width was silently bothering me for handling, plus the old school decor isn’t great. I toured one, a big issue is interior height. My head brushes the ceiling and I barely fit in the bathroom. I’d have to crouch to shower. Plus I’d have to do a bunch of mods, they don’t even offer lithium, and the tongue weight pushes the limits on my TV. So with the Ollie I’ve got the interior height I want. The size is fine for a couples camper, plus an easy to tow and park size. Especially with the Black cushions it’s an elegant interior. Finally, I’m retiring from engineering and don’t really want to DIY. Done enough engineering projects in my time, once you start you’re never done 😅. The Ollie is the only one that comes exactly as I want. So I’ll be placing an order later summer Platinum twin Composting Street awning Platinum batteries (more than I need but might as well, plus I like the integrated heating) Now to make the horrific price easier I’m actually extending my retirement date. It’s free money if it’s past my nominal date, right? 😅 Only thing is I might actually buy sight unseen. No nearby dealers, nor LE II twin. Shouldn’t be a problem … Cheers

I wanted to be able to leverage AI to be able to ask questions about my Oliver and get an answer without searching through the owner's manuals. From any answer, I would need a link to the original manual source, so I could get more info or confirm the answer if needed. What I found is called "Google Notebook LM". The way this tool works is by uploading content related to what you want the AI to consider. In my case, I created a notebook and uploaded the specific year model PDFs from Oliver: After uploading those, you can just start a conversation, like this: The circles with numbers in them are links to the original PDFs that you can click and see the source information. I've found this to be a great research assistant for all sorts of things for free. If you're interested in this, you can get it for free from Google here: https://notebooklm.google.com/ Thought I'd put this out there for those that might be interested in this technology. - Steve

Here are the 2025 brochures we received in our SWAG bag.

Oh Ya!, that dreaded cold weather memory

Ouch, I'm surprised the drums were salvageable.

Agree John, this has to be better than trying to put that a hard white plastic mind of its own magical “Camco Geine hose” back in the bottle. 😂

Voltage is not ALWAYS a sure bet. When not under load, a wire may show full voltage, but not have the ability to pass the current to meet the need. My preference, which is a lot easire to check on drum brakes, is to check the amperage going to each drum. Having a clamp on amp meter is my first go to tool. Per dexter, the stock OEM drum magnets should show 3.2 to 4 amps each. GJ

Glad it did not turn into something worse!!! Etrailer folks are good to deal with. I plan to continue packing our Ollie’s bearings, replacing seals and inspecting brakes/hardware. A few here have the disc brake upgrade that is very nice. Happy to hear you were able to get everything fixed without breaking down on the side of the road and having to deal with that.

When we get home. Carry 3 water hoses cooler in the bed. This looks like a winner.

The main reason to go with an Oliver! When you get yours, please show me how this is done... 🤣(looks like we failed to convince you in another thread) Just celebrated my 70th birthday and no retirement plans here! I enjoy working my parttime semi-retirement job (contract instructor for the last 10 years) and hope to continue in good health for many years to come (vocal chords keep working)! Though I haven't punch a clock, 40+ hours a week, most of my life. Most of our friends in town are retired and they do about the same thing everyday (boring)! If I'm not working for my job, I'm always working on something else and I love it! We've enjoyed 47 overnights in our Oliver over the last 6 months and leaving for a 5-week trip just after Memorial Day, back home by the 4th of July! 47 overnights in 6 months days comes to 25% time away in our Oliver! If it was any more time cooped up in an Oliver, that becomes the job. That's just me, and Chris & I love sharing this life together!

OUCH!

If interesting, some more points in my thinking behind Ollie vis-a-vis Bigfoot/Escape/Airstream External ports All the sewer water connections flapping in the breeze under a trailer is pretty ugly, I've long thought. I love the bumper waste drain solution. Topping that, they moved the fresh water inlets to the rear bumper too, with now I believe only the black water rinse and optional propane near the front. Design is about obsessively refining small details, which I've done for my life, so appreciate the energy put into this. All the others including Airstream have them flapping in the wind Lower skirt Trailer frames are pretty unattractive - one of the great looking design features of Airstream is that they hide the frame behind the belly skirt, except for the fork of course. Ollie beautifully skirts this in fiberglass. And going aluminum, while it introduces new issues like galvanic currents (which they fix by having some zincs), is a better choice. I hate to see dinged and rusty trailer frames. Repairability The Ollie is eminently repairable - even the tanks can be pulled out without having to gut the trailer. Even with the double hull everything appears to be accessible Efficiency Speaking of towing here. We're electric so appreciate good aerodynamics. Two things, first is that the front space is filled with that propane bay. Towing a trailer creates a low pressure suckout between them which introduces drag, so filling that with something helps. The Bigfoot also has this. Two is the general shape, while there's plenty of roof gubbins which rob efficiency, it appears to be not too bad. Durability Hands down Oliver. Airstreams are beautiful but absolutely ridiculous. You know why they used Aluminum? I believe it's because all that post war scrap coming back, the early Airstream aluminum probably fought over Europe. It was cheap, and part of the mid century design language. Gorgeous, and like much mid century, impractical. And on the Bigfoot I was disappointed with the fiberglass build quality. To be sure it's more than adequate for the job, but there's something to being overbuilt. From the online factory tours it's obvious the Oliver is overbuilt in this department, with the beautiful honeycomb solution they use - strong and light. Now about that double hull ... To be honest initially (many years ago) this turned me off. Thinking of building engineering it's actually a bad design, as it creates three climate zones. Inside, between hulls, and outside. This results in the likely hood of condensation in between hulls, which they have to mitigate by having breaters. A house, for example, has a single vapor barrier, the Ollie has two which is the wrong way to go about it. With your house there's little possibility of condensation forming as there's just that one barrier. But does it really matter? I'm curious to find out if owners have seen this as an issue, and at any rate if I'm in a humid climate a small dehumidifier could be placed in between. Inelegant solution but sometimes you have to do that. Anyhow, one benefit is that the three zones should help with keeping the trailer cool/warm as there's a buffering zone between the two. So on physical design, size, design language, features, practicality, aerodynamics it wins hands down. Now about that price ...😅

No haven't followed the Mod section, see above 😅 Actually the engineering isn't done when I retire, my son is graduating in CompSci in a month and he's got a startup I'll be working for. I'll be mentoring on the engineering side but working in the 'creative' side. Not full time, but something I want to do anyhow. Good tip on the batteries, yeah maybe I don't know ... on the other hand time is money and I can earn that $10k in no time in my job, less time than it would take for me to DIY at any rate 😅 Thanks. Yeah going to Tenessee without a rig isn't going to work. I'm 'traveled out' (meaning flights/hotels) from years of intnl travel for work. Can't stand it, and my wife too. As for used that's not for us, wife is a germ-a-phobe and wants a clean trailer and not one with used tanks. Plus impossible to find the set of options we want. I bought $25k worth of ebikes a few years ago sight unseen - also part of my retirement gift - with 200% satisfaction. I'd like to see it but this works for fine for me if I need to. There's one or two owner trailers within an hour we could tour but none with the right size or options Thanks! Yeah I just said above I'm comfortable buying sight unseen and have done it before. In my work life you spend all your time making decisions and making something entirely in your head. You did a good job if the prototype is anti-climatic and an old friend. Anyhow by the time I make a decision on a vehicle, bike or trailer there's little need to actually see it I've found as nothing would change the decision. One small slight counterexample of that is my tow vehicle. I was deciding between the new Silverado EV and Sierra EV, but had an opportunity recently to see them together. What I found was the design language and presentation of the vehicles was a bit different than what I expected from the internet. Anyhow my decision switched from going for the Silverado, to the Sierra. This is different though - I've already been in a Bigfoot which is the only real competitor, and I've toured Escapes from the outside. So I pretty well know what it's like inside these things. As I mentioned the head room and decor with the Bigfoot ended up being the main drawbacks. Also the bathroom - I'm tall/thin and could barely fit in the Bigfoot drybath. I think the Ollie wetbath will probably work better. One, it's got enough headroom and two, since it's a combined space there's more total space. That Bigfoot shower barely fit me, I wasn't sure how I'd even use it, with a stool I guess. Already forgotten 😅 I've got some ridiculous raises recently, either because of the inflation, or maybe because they know I'm retiring 😅And also I've downshifted into a easier more relaxed job, so I'm now outstandingly overqualified and overpaid for what I actually do. I'll still be having whats generally considered an early retirement, just with a guilt free traveling rig and a pile of extra money to boot. Anyhow no need to retire tomorrow, with this rig being in California we have more than enough to do within a day's driving. Thanks! Nature and the arts is our thing, we spent grad school in Illinois but never went to the Chicago Lyric (Opera). Couldn't afford it 😅so we'll go back for a visit among many others. Yes the factory said there's a couple trailers within an hour - the nearest dealers are 12 hours away. But the local owner trailers are either single axel, and the other I think might be the double (which is important as it's the right size) but isn't the twin. That's fine - we might do it, but as I talked about above it won't matter much, by process of elimination there's really no other choice.

A little feedback after first time use of the hitch clamp on my weigh safe hitch. It worked as described on our recent 1200 mile rally trip and the hitch/receiver ran silent running this clamp. https://www.hitchclamp.com/collections/3-clamps I opted to install the hitch clamp inverted or fastener sides up. It can be mounted either way. I find it’s much easier to put eyes on it and allows me to easily check tightness of the fasteners periodically during the trip or when refueling. The fasteners never needed retightening. Very happy with this quiet configuration. Onward! 🇺🇸

That is a very substantial difference wow!

Glad to hear your positive review. It will be a space saver and much easier to manage. Thanks!

This is a great hose. I roll up ours into a milk crate and still plenty of room for the 30 amp power cord and a ridgid charger and drill. Recommend it with no reservations. I got mine at Home Depot or maybe Lowe’s.

Battery prices are falling - fast. Compitition is a good thing. Also, the RV market (both new and used) is still not in good shape after the Covid panic buying. Hopefully things stabilize soon. Bill

@DanielBoondock I have seen some very good deals/significant savings on late model preowned Olivers very nicely equipped on the Oliver Travel Trailer for sale FB page. Some prices so reasonable, it almost seemed too good to be true. In my observation well maintained and cared for preowned Olivers typically sell quickly. At a minimum, maybe consider the factory tour in Hohenwald Tenn, as it is well worth the trip. Personally, I would never consider purchasing anything sight unseen especially a travel trailer new or preowned, just me. I certainly do understand everyone has a different comfort level. A big Congrats on closing in on your retirement, there is nothing like the freedom of being able to do what you want when you want and not being on the “work wheel”. Patriot🇺🇸

All I do is when we return from camping trips, I pressure wash all the dirt off our trailer (and there’s so much dirt out here)! I hit the windows straight on with 3000 PSI water pressure and you see the dirty water come out of the drain holes first, followed by clean water. If I do not see this out of EVERY drain hole I would address this afterwards. As I am blasting the windows, Chris is inside with a towel to collect any sprayed water to the interior and there is generally little to none. And our Ollie can get very dirty!

Patriot- I did a search and your post was exactly what I was looking for! I'm upgrading my truck to an F-250 Super duty Lariat 6.7L Diesel...and I was considering exactly the hitch you bought. Because I don't have the truck yet... I can't measure it up to determine which "drop" to get and ensure our Ollie rides nice and flat. Did you need the 10" drop to make that happen... or do you just have multiple trailers that require it? I see that the hitch comes in several drops... 6", 8" and 10" drops also.

John, I never said that I was a non believer! I just asked the question hoping that the issue could be explained clearly. I’m not on either side of the issue.

This spring I ordered new Dexter Nevr-Adjust brake assemblies and new pre loaded drums for a 60k mile tune up. Since the trailer was at a dealer for the truma recall had the dealer install them. We had some smoke early on during break in drive was expected, stopped checked temperature of hubs and all was ok. Set gain to 5 and drove on. After the break in period at about 300 mi we were feeling really strange tugging braking. Stopped at our daughter’s ranch, pulled the drivers side hubs and found the brake pads had just disintegrated. The service centers best guess is that the self adjusters over adjusted and caused brake lining failing or we unfortunately got a bad batch. Lucky we were near a local shop that got us in Saturday and replaced all 4 assemblies with regular assemblies (not never-adjust) . They also inspected, turned the drums, repacked bearings and installed new seals. We’re working with e-trailer to get a refund as the assemblies had a 5 year guarantee. Now I’ve added an item to our 3k inspection which includes lubing Zerks, and now adjusting brakes as needed. I’ve heard of, but never experienced, failed never adjust, but now I’m in the camp that they are not welcome on our trailer. First pix note the crumbling shoes curb rear. Second pix- shoe all gone to bear metal. Had to turn drums (which were brand new). Street rear. Safe travels. Craig

Wow cheaper than our 2023, and we have less options! Platinum package only $5300, we paid $15900 in 2023!