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We've had the same issues with our blackwater valve cable. Impossible to pull out and when closing the valve, it never closed completely so I always had to go back into the trailer to push on the metal stop to ensure it was well-seated. In the last few days, we installed a Barker AutoDrain. The switch is located along the upper edge just inside the basement. We placed it there because the switch is too large for the space created when we removed the black tank handle. We also located it where we felt the risk of damage would be reduced, but we still need to be careful when stowing supplies in the basement. As long as we are talking black tanks, I have been perpetually annoyed when, after dumping the black tank, having to go back into the trailer to turn on the water pump so I can wash my hands. To address this minor annoyance, I added a marine-grade, water-pump switch that is mounted where the black tank valve handle was previously located, and I can now turn the water pump on and off from outside next to the shower. No more going in and out of the trailer at the dump station to wash my hands.

That is either a manufacturers defect or you are using some of those 30 year old “you never know when we might need these” zip ties. The only ones that ever failed out of the pack are the ones that couldn’t resist the gorilla grip test.

The red arrow is not the window frame, it’s the window shade. Here is an Oliver video that shows how the window shade is removed/secured.

Heck - some of us are scary enough even without getting dressed up! However, a mask just might do me some good.😁 Bill

I'm using the KISS method; I plug it into an outlet on my Oliver and let the tiny cord go through a window, choosing the window that best fits for open skies (changes depending on where I am parked). I don't use it at all when I'm driving, but I DO carry it with me (even when Oliver stays in the cg) because if I get stuck somewhere with my truck, I can still reach out via cell phone using Starlink. All in all -- Starlink is a great service.

Just so I have a clear understanding of this issue, is it the frame of the window shade or the actual window? Mossey

John if I understand your description properly you should be able to snap off the shade first. Pull from the bottom then lift off from the top. Once the shade is off the frame you should see several nuts around the circumference of the window frame. Before tightening those you might need to apply some caulk between frame and Oliver body. This shouldn’t have happened regardless of road conditions but should also be a fairly easy fix, albeit an aggravation. My guess is a few screws/nuts were not completely tightened during the build and vibrated loose. Good luck

Nice. Increasing the surface for adhesion makes sense. I have also noticed that the white zip ties seem to break down much faster than the black ones. UV light perhaps is to blame since the black ones are more UV resistant.

Here you go

John, three words tell the story “made in china”! I used to have a giant pack of T&B wire ties. They had a stainless steel ratchet piece molded in. Once you pulled them tight you could not get them to loosen. They even lasted forever outside. It’s a different world now.

All looked good. I was able to snap the window shade back in after checking that the connection points were secure. Thanks for the help. John

I see there’s a bit of a gap between the window frame and inside wall (black arrow), when you have the shade removed check to see if the screws that secure the window frame (red arrow) to the main window are not lose, but pay attention not to over tighten them, they strip easily.

I'm not much for out the window solutions in vehicles. Why not use the outdoor 110V outlet? We still have the included 50 ft wire and charger kit in the box. Over time and weather use of the long cord may become painful. It's nice to carry dish and battery and not worry about extending a cord and winding it up to leave. I just place the dish on an upside-down milk crate, always have a couple in the back of the truck. The battery solution can be expensive if purchasing outright, but we've had the DeWalt tools for years and I would not have had to buy more if one had not go bad last time out. Found an open-box 10 Ah 2-pack on eBay and these and a couple small ones will power up the Starlink and all the other tools we use. You also need the larger Ah for the leaf blower which cleans dirt-road dust of of the Oliver in seconds, clears debris from campsites and I use it every so often on outdoor rug. Nice to have! But I get it, the cable and 30V power adapter is in the kit, no additional expense, yes KISS! Best wishes, JD

Can you PM me the name of who you talked to about this? Bill

I'm just going to purchase the whole shebang. I would like to stay married🤣

I'm happy with Fall dates, as it fits well with my typical 'return to home' routine after a summer journey, and it should be nice weather. Should we have a costume contest for the Oliver Rally?

Mike, I'll say it again, Thank You for your service! Mossey

John, if you like and when you make it out to Arizona, buy the parts I listed above (just $100 with tax and including a backup fuse) and in an hour, we'll make the change. Service costs for custom work (most auto/RV service) is crazy these days! I could not afford our Oliver and tow vehicle, let alone the many other vehicles on our property if I had to pay for service. It's a labor of love! Hull #113 made it to the Mothership for service twice prior to our ownership, but not likely again. It's too far (that cost alone is infeasible for us), too much in service costs and it's well beyond warranty! I have a service policy here. When one vehicle breaks down, I park it until I have time to make the repair. In the meantime, I switch insurance to another that is ready to go! We also have cars for fair-weather driving and AWD trucks for winter. My insurance agent loves me! 🤣

I’m committed to my 50th reunion at West Point in Oct ‘26 (class of 1976) so we won’t be attending. We’ve got plans already for all of Sept/Oct. Fall at Lake Guntersville should be nice, though! Mike

John, Sorry to hear this news, and its the first I have heard of a window frame coming loose. Can you provide any photos?

Both of my drain valves were extremely difficult to open and close as well. I used some silicone plumbers grease (the same stuff that I use on the toilet flush valve) and coated the metal rod that the cable connects to. The valves now operate very easily. Probably better than when new.

I got it. This was totally my error. I was clicking on the wrong place on my profile. The instructions were clear, paste on signature. Sorry for creating a cluster "F__K"🙃

@John and Debbie Is it the window frame (black arrow) or window shade (red arrow) that’s loose?

Thank you for your service! Hope to see you at another future Rally -- or on the road!

WOW, congratulations to you, Sir! 😂

Lately, either black or white, many will fail right out of a new pack upon tightening!

Off the top of my head, I can't remember the name of the window frame mfg - but - I do know that it is not Lippert. There are a number of posts here on the Forum regarding the re-stringing of these window frames. I know from personal experience that doing this job is not the most fun but it is not really all that difficult either. And doing the re-stringing is a bunch less expensive compared to the purchase of a new frame unit. Bill

Changed out the inverter breaker. Turned batteries on, then inverter breaker, and finally solar. Waited a few minutes and turned on the inverter at the remote. Everything fired up. I then placed a cup of water in the microwave for 2:15 minutes and it worked as it should have. After speaking to Jason E. at the Mothership in February, Oliver is no longer installing the breaker system. They are installing a more robust fuse. JD, I agree with you on the use of a fuse vs. breaker. I asked Jason what the cost to switch out and it was, I believer over4 $1,000. Jason suggested I stick with the breaker. Hopefully this will last for awhile. I bought 2 breakers, so I have one in the closet.

Sept & Oct are very popular shoulder months for those of us who travel long distances. It will be interesting to hear what attendance will be like. We won’t be attending.

Same. I ordered mine with the camera. Total junk. However, if I have some bikes back there, it might be useful to keep an eye on them. I did the same until I had two blowouts in the same camping trip. I now use a TPMS device that keeps track of not only pressure but temperature. I use this in addition to the old school method of "kicking" the tires.

I agree, but if they are going out of business, they simply don't owe us anything.

Perhaps a company like this one can help. https://www.steelerubber.com/camper-rv/window-sliding

We just reserved site #79, arriving on the 19th as well. I put our names in the Google doc.

Like you, we really gave the 50GB a month “frugal” try, and quickly realized it was a no go for us while on extended trips. The unlimited roaming plan works best for us now and then we pause service when we arrive back home.

Agreed, our first trip we went over the $50 plan. With 10 overnights in NM and AZ, 6 of which we ran Starlink. The other 4 nights we were in Albuquerque, where our cellular router had good service. I would call us the opposite case. We stream news programs, 1-2 hours in the morning, stream YouTube or Prime shows 3-4 hours in the evenings, not worrying to conserve. Starlink billed us $50 to start and another $36 later, $86 for 5-6 days connected. The $50 plan is fine for when you travel just one short trip within the 30-day billing cycle. We're leaving on a 5-week trip next week. I will re-up on the $50 plan to start. Then our billing cycle starts the 5th of the month, so starting June 5th I will upgrade to the unlimited plan for one month and ahead of time I will pause service (so not to forget) for the 4th of July when we will be back home. Starlink is a convenient and worthwhile Internet service for all of us who travel where cell service is spotty. I started a fancy wired installation and found out on two trips that a simple battery setup is easier so to position the dish anywhere around the campsite, though I prefer when I can have the dish positioned in the truck bed for issues of theft or wind. In the picture you can see my fancy wired installation and our battery setup. I went the DeWalt route since I have many DeWalt tools and bring DeWalt leaf blower, vacuum, Sawzall, 1/4" impact, flashlights with us that share a set of batteries. The adapter is a $20 part on Amazon. I just purchased two new DeWalt 10Ah batteries (the one pictured is 4Ah) and one 10Ah battery should be enough to run from morning until late at night when I fall asleep. The battery will be dead the next morning and then I can replace it with the second charged battery. I have our extra DeWalt charger mounted in the Oliver attic on a shelf above our Blu-ray player! It sure beat a wired solution!

Yesterday, I remounted what I call our PJ baskets because the original mounts had failed. I had used 3 zip-tie anchors which you can see in the pictures above. The supplied tape on these zip-tie anchors are bad. Then I rehung them with 3M VHB 4950 on the same mounts which lasted longer but eventually failed. So I came up with this flex bracket idea, I cut 14" brackets from a coiled supply and applied one long strip of 1" VHB and then cutout three 1/4" openings to fit the zip ties through. BTW, it's not easy to get your body back in these corners with level in hand and mount these squarely with the VHB wanting to grab on first touch. This time, these mounts will be strong enough to hold bricks! So my heavy jeans, and whatever overnight will hold nicely (except when in MN this June, due to @SeaDawg's tick warning!). We also put our bath towels in the baskets after they have dried. These are handy! Most of the metal is hidden because of the spacers I added keeping the basket up to the top of the bracket. The only weak-link are the zip-ties (these are 50 lb strength, but zip-ties today are more brittle than they used to be) but they replace easily. These brackets are not going anywhere, and again, as in all of my installations, no holes drilled into the Oliver fiberglass! Obviously, we sleep feet to the rear. We're heading out on a long trip next week, so it's going this way for now. After our trip, I'll take them down over the summer and apply a white vinyl trim tape to just cover the metal brackets and then she'll be pretty besides strong! No more clothes piled up overnight on the dinette seats, nice!

Mountainman: That would not be from the torsion of the spring packs, but more likely from worn shackles/links. Glad you are happy with your purchase. GJ

For your 3B route you also pass the Atomic Museum Experimental Breeder Reactor-I. If that type of history is of interest to you I highly recommend it. We enjoyed the self-directed tour a lot and found it very educational. We also did Craters of the Moon last year and hiked into the Lava Caves which was very enjoyable. If the weather turns hot while you are there make sure to bring water as it can get very hot in the sun walk over all the black lava rock. It is very cool scenery. While in Twin Falls along with the Shoshone Falls Park the Scenic View Perrine Coulee Waterfall is cool as well.

In the past, several people have gotten camping spots for the next years rally. At this time I don't know the exact dates yet and wanted to advise not to secure any spots for next year until I can finalize the dates. I will be speaking with the campground and shoring up the dates and will let everyone know as soon as they are set in stone.

Thanks Zodd. It appears you can pause but each activation costs at least $50 for one month service. This makes more sense than what I had written which would be too good a deal! I found this on Starlink.com: https://www.starlink.com/support/article/37bb3b47-9525-7224-5f0a-6d016ce26975

I purchased the SL Mini after following Patriots exellent write up & review started back in July. I purchased in December when they offered a discount that seems pretty often. I am a newbie. and learning so much about camping with the Oliver. My wife still works fulltime remotley. So I wanted SL so we could still get away some and still meet her work obligations and seemed the MIni would meet the need. I want to do alot of Boondocking once I get up to speed (With the help of the Oliver family) Things I have learned by only one 12day trip to South Fla. The Mini worked great but only had minimal tree coverage at the campsite that has been stated affects coverage. Some have shown trees with small opening to sky and still worked though not optimal as no obstructions. I left it hooked up 24/7 to a adjustable extention pole I had at home temporarly mounted to the front bumper and no major thunderstorms. (Thanks again to Snackchasher Tacky flag pole article). I bought an adapter attached to the mini that attached to the pole. (Just experimenting with different ways for fun and used other mounts near the ground.) all worked fine. The speeds do go up and down I guess to the way the satalites cross the sky but never interupted abilty to work or have internet acess. It was also used for You Tube TV no issues. I tested its connectivity all the way back to home in NE Ga from South Fla sitting on Truck dash ( I know not optimal just experimitng) even after being off interstate going backroads still kept connectivity everytime I would test speeds though they would go up and down. Im sure it would drop off here and there. The pricing and pausing was always a grey area and never could get exactly how it worked. What I have experienced is this. You get roam $50 for 50GB with option to pay per GB after that or $165 Unlimited after day and half needed more GB as Patriot also expericed. I elected Unlimited after it turned me off. Whenever you purchase your data that is your aniversiry date each month. You can pause at anytime but it will continue to work until end of your month you pay in advance. You only get prorated when you turn back on for that next month not when you turned off. (Say if your date is the 1st and you turn back on the 15 your prorated for days left in that month only theres no rollover and will continue until end of the month or date originally signed up. Hope this helps some thinking of purchasing SL its a gamechanger in connectivity everywhere as long you can get some open sky more the better of course. It gets even better with Mods by Snackchaser(12v hookup) and others which save battery power or longer runs from camper or signal strength if needed by using the 12 cord or the ethernent and remote router if needed. I will leave that discussion to them Snackchaser JD1923 and many others which are wizards with there knowledge in this area.

As for the original hub bearing manufacture my SWAG would be made in China bearings like the rest of the Dexter bearings. And yes, you would need to carry a spare hub. At the time I had our 3500# axles swapped out according to Jason at Oliver there were more than 200+ Olivers running the never lubes with zero failures reported to Oliver by owners. And so far no reported failures on here or the FB forum. My local Dexter dealer said they have never seen a reported failure on this particular hub. Not saying that you won’t ever have a failure as anything certainly is possible. They are never lube, not never fail. I could easily carry a spare hub but choose not to as these are available from Dexter and most shops. These 5200# axles are admittedly IMHO overkill for an OLE2, so I just don’t get overly concerned about a bearing failure. I really like the noticeable stopping power of the 12” drums on level roads. That said, with my diesel engine brake I rarely use truck or trailer brakes on long descents like Teton Pass or some of the higher passes in Colorado and areas out west or even here in the Blue Ridge Mountains. There are trade offs for sure. If it’s within an owners budget, I say have at it.

When flying solo with Ollie, it is more of a challenge to find a stop for the night without prior planning. I for sure know where all the Interstate Rest Stops and free federal lands are along the way. That helps especially out west. However with my spouse on board, it is a LOT easier. I drive she finds the options based on how long we want to travel that day. In the mountains where snowmobiles run there are lots of huge parking lots near trail heads, with near zero people there during non-snow months. Another option for sure. GJ

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

That is one of the most inspiring posts yet. Thanks

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.

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

They put us on their November calendar. After running our trip, every time I sat on the old cushions, I thought it would be a shame to merely reupholster with new cloth yet keep the 9-year-old foam. When we dropped them off, I asked about new foam. He said the quality of foam for seating they carry is far superior to what we showed them in the old cushions. We went with 24x25" bottoms with 5" new foam (1" taller) and with the batting and fabric, the cushions are closer to 6" tall. We had 2" clearance under the window frames with the old cushions. The new ones just fill the opening and stay nicely. Went with the original sized 4" foam for the seat backs. All new foam, batting, fabric, zippers with newly corded edges. Chris loves the color given her Red, White and Blue Oliver theme! We spent just under $500 out the door. Which for me was better than the $350 for upholstery only. Soon, she will look as good as she tows or provides inverter power!

That’s so interesting! Thank you for the history on the numbers.