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Happy Veterans Day As a veteran myself I understand at least a bit of what fellow veterans gave to our country and I certainly thank them for the time and sacrifice they spent/gave on behalf of all of us. We should all give at least a few moments today to reflect on what time and sacrifice means to all of us. Bill

I would suggest a bigger bogger truck. 😊😊😊 Seriously, we have a GMC Canyon with a diesel engine. But we tow with our Silverado 3500HD diesel. Move up to a 2500 or 3500 and you’ll be set.

Happy Veterans Day! Sincere Thanks to All of Our Veterans!

T & R - Absolutely no reason to be hesitant replying to any question. Specifically, your response to the question asked is right on the mark. Indeed, there have been many discussions here on the Forum concerning this exact subject (and with other similar tow vehicles to the Colorado). The tow rating is not the only limiting factor on these "mid-sized trucks". Heck - even 1/2 ton trucks tend to run up against limitations due to payload capacity. Thanks for your reply. Bill

Congrats!

We tow our Elite II with a 2019 SR5 Double Cab Toyota Tundra, which is technically a 1/2 ton truck, but has many features common to 3/4 ton pickups, like oversize disc brakes. We opted to try to make the Tundra work, as we already owned it when we bought our Elite II. With an Andersen weight distribution hitch, the Tundra is an adequate tow vehicle for two of us, with gear, towing an Elite II. I don' feel like "the tail is wagging the dog" when towing--with the Andersen hitch. As noted by Topgun 2, a more important limiting factor is payload capacity, not listed "Towing Capacity." Towing capacity is calculated with nothing but an average-sized driver in the tow vehicle. If you plan to drive alone, with minimal gear, you might barely squeak by with a Colorado towing an Elite II. Another important factor is the curb weight of the tow vehicle vs. the trailer. If trailer weight exceeds tow vehicle weight, the "tail" may "wag the dog" in some conditions--not good. The curb weight of our 2019 Tundra SR5 Double Cab is roughly 5600 lbs. An Elite II weighs just over 5K lbs. empty. We put more of the gear and people weight in the Tundra than in the trailer, to increase our tow vehicle-to-trailer weight ratio. As noted above, this is just adequate, in my experience. The curb weight of a new Chevy Colorado is listed at between 4164 and 4827 lbs. Had I already owned a Colorado when we bought our Oliver Elite II, I would not have been comfortable "getting by" with one. I would have chosen to "bite the bullet" and trade up to a 3/4 ton. So, I recommend at least a 3/4 ton tow vehicle. You will be much safer, and I expect, enjoy the towing experience much more.

I second everything Tony says. I had an F150 with a 10,000 lb. towing capacity. I never had any issues with it. Early this year, I upgraded to an F350 and I must say pulling my Oliver is a much better experience with the F350, especially when going downhill.

I'm hesitant to reply to this since we're new Oliver members/owners but the rule of thumb I've been told is trailer should be no more than 80% of your TV's rated tow capacity. For your Colorado that's 6000#. I think towing right at your rated capacity is also going to cause more wear and tear on the TV. Another consideration is your towing experience. If you're crawling up hills at 45mph in a 70-80mph speed zone it's not going to be pleasant. Lot's of questions on this forum on towing so try the search function, or better yet search with Google. Tony

FYI, the ignitor is polarity sensitive and can be damaged if the 12v power wires are connected wrong. The part number for a new one is 50804 and they are around $40. Check with one of the on-line RV parts stores, and don't trust them if they don't have a contact phone. Or you can try calling Dometic directly. I once had trouble identifying a part for that stove, and Dometic was also unsure of the part number. They ended up sending a box of various parts for free! I think I called them using one of these numbers: 📞 Please contact our support team: 1 (818) 253-1322 Toll Free: 1 (866) 840-0321 📞 Please contact our support team: 1-800-544-4881

✅ Successful Furnace + CT Thermostat Integration After A/C Swap (Tosot Unit) Hi all — following up on my earlier post where I mentioned trying the Dometic controller from RV Surplus. Turns out that board was not the correct one for our Oliver furnace setup, and it would not communicate with the Dometic CT thermostat (kept throwing E1 code (no communications with the board). TL;DR: If you replace the factory Dometic A/C (mine is now a Tosot), the only way I found to keep using the Dometic CT thermostat to control the Suburban furnace is to reuse the original Dometic control board from the roof A/C. The CT thermostat did not run the furnace without that board in the circuit. 🚫 The Wrong Part I Initially Ordered I'd edit my previous post about this part, but I don't appear to have edit access to my older post. For clarity, the controller I first tried — which did not work — was: Dometic™ OEM 3316230.700 (9600024570) / 3313199.000 Single Zone CT Thermostat w/ Control Board (Cool/Furnace) – White Even though it says Cool/Furnace, this is a Single-Zone CT control board, not the CCC2-style logic board used in the Oliver. It will not communicate with the Oliver’s Dometic CT thermostat → results in E1 error. This board also lacks the correct communication architecture that the Oliver’s factory wiring uses. So if you're replacing your original Dometic roof A/C with a Tosot and want to keep your CT thermostat to run the Suburban furnace, this part will not solve it. I only had success after re-using the real factory control board pulled from the original rooftop A/C. ❌ What did not work Purchased a Dometic “furnace controller” from RV Surplus Installed and wired it per previous guidance CT thermostat would not see it → E1 comm fault That part was a standalone freeze/temp sensor board and not the actual Dometic furnace logic board the CT needs to handshake with. At least that's my understanding of why it wasn't communicating and turning on the furnace. ✅ What did work Removed the original Dometic control board from the old rooftop A/C unit Installed it in the ceiling cavity where the wiring drops down Connected the original Oliver comm wires (blue/white) and 12V power leads; basically connected all the wires I cut back to the wires on the original control board. Connected the furnace R/W from the Dometic board to the Suburban furnace leads Plugged in the original Dometic freeze sensor (or you can use a 10k resistor) to avoid E5 Thermostat rebooted, initialized properly, and now Heat mode functions just like factory. The Tosot A/C runs stand-alone on its own remote — the CT thermostat now just handles the furnace. 🔧 Mounting Notes There was no enclosure around the board in the original AC, so I repurposed the housing from the incorrect RV Surplus controller. Trimmed two corners of the board to fit and secured all wiring. Everything is clean and protected behind the interior ceiling shroud. 🎉 Result CT thermostat works in Furnace mode No more E1 or E5 errors Oliver interior remains OEM-clean — no separate thermostat needed Tosot A/C runs independently on its own control system 💡 For others doing a swap: If you want to retain your CT thermostat for furnace control: Do not discard the original Dometic A/C control board. It must be reinstalled to act as the furnace interface. The Oliver wiring uses the Dometic bus — not simple furnace contacts — so the board is required for the CT to communicate. Thanks to @RonBrink and others who paved the way on this mod — his wiring was slightly different, so I'm sharing this as a variation in case it helps the next person who uses a Tosot (or any non-Dometic) replacement A/C. Pics attached below. Let me know if anyone wants a wiring diagram or parts notes.

Can I be the "flag guy" for that drag race between you and Patriot? - Please!

Bill, Thanks! It has the 6.8 Mini-Zilla gas engine, a de-stroked 7.3 Godzilla, with 10R100 transmission. It's an old school gas V-8. Really like how it tows Ollie, too.

We just moved up to a F-350 and really enjoy towing Ollie with it. On our previous 1/2 ton tow vehicles I added rear suspension systems to reduce rear end sag, these modifications are not needed with the F-350 when towing Ollie. Really like the increased payload with the F-350, a couple of our past TV had to monitor the TV weight with Ollie connected to be sure we did not exceed the TV axles & gross weight.

Hello all, We purchase a 2019 Oliver Elite II, hull number 448 on Sept. 9th, 2025. We been talking about buying one for years. About 4 years ago we were visiting friends near Nashville and stopped by the Oliver plant to take a tour. At the time, we wanted to buy one, but decided it was a bit too much money for us. We put it off, but in the meantime, I had joined the FB used Oliver trailer group. I saw one come up for sale that wasn't far from us, so I talked to my wife about going to look at it. She we in, and a few days later I was towing our new, used Oliver home. It's our first travel trailer. We haven't used it yet. The previous owner had problems with the Truma AquaGo water heater and removed it. My wife will want warm water when we do use it, so I was able to contact a local mobile RV Truma installer. We should have a new one installed tomorrow. Next I want to overhaul the suspension and tires. After that, I think we're ready to plan some trips. 🙂

Welcome to the group @ChristianD from #110. Enjoy and learn all you can about the camper and adventures.

Reading your post peaked my curiosity about the Truma, particularly from the mention of a Temperature Sensor. . . which is typically part of the thermostat. So I looked-up the Combi and sure enough, there is a Temperature Sensor that is separate from the control panel. Accordingly, there is a temperature off-set adjustment in the control panel to account for temperature variances depending on where the sensor is mounted verses the room temperature. Perhaps that was inadvertently reset, which could account for your temperature miss-match. I’d check that first. Review your manual for instructions on how to change the off-set. I don’t know where the sensor could be mounted, but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find by following the wire from the unit. It’s probably a simple thermistor, basically a resistor that changes resistance with temperature change. These are easy to test with a multimeter in the Ohms setting. If the resistance value changes with a little heat applied from your fingers, then it’s probably okay. Let us know what you find and good luck. Cheers! Geoff

My error. This is a pic of my Truma and a pic of the temp settng running and a differnt temp gauge so the difference after running for awhile. Was 70 degrees inside and furnace still running. I can turn it off manually but, doesn't turn itself off when it reaches it's temperature. Any suggestions would help...

GJ thank you, my friend! Given I’m spending this kinda money… I’ll add 40 hours of my labor to make things right! A detailer can work around these, but with a little extra effort, the overall finish will be much better! 😎

We've had quite the opposite experience in our 2 1/2 years with hull #113, manufactured 10 years ago. Though I have read everything on our Forum since and I do see many more issues in late-model hulls vs. the oldies but goodies! I've worked a LOT of upgrades, but only a few repairs. And every issue I've found is when we were home. 130 days on the road everything has worked, no issues while traveling, knock on wood! I found a breaker wired in the wrong direction. I have issues with how OTT wired things, but no electrical failures to-date. I've upgraded and rewired everything anyway. I recently found OTT forgot to fully weld (tack-weld only) the mount to one stabilizer jack. OTT blamed Barker, but actually OTT makes these welds as part of the standard installation procedure. I made a new bracket with $10 of steel. We also had two small welds fail on the frame, two cross-members were hanging on one side. Local guy welded them for $75. We had a drawer latch fail, the orange colored connector to the slide, just $10 and 10 minutes to repair. Now I have extra parts if another fails. Prior owner complained of a noisy Suburban furnace, so OTT install an Atwood furnace back in 2018. Likely prior owners had worked through other issues of which I would be unaware. The interior panel of the entrance door is lightly cracked, but this is from wind banging the door. This will not happen anymore now that Lippert friction hinges are installed. We love our Oliver as it is now with my upgrades (inverter A/C coming soon)! We purchased a used Oliver at a good price and I do not expect anything out of OTT since it's long out of warranty. Yes, I would feel differently if we paid new price and had 21 issues listed to date. I don't see better quality out there. Even Winnebago, that some consider to be the best, is not better. We plan to keep our Oliver and leave it to our son when we are done with it. Don't want another brand, don't need something better. If I found this crack on our hull, I would leave it alone and just keep an eye on it. Often bodywork on something small is worse in the long-run! They will likely just do something cosmetic, some fill on the surface. Which is fine, but certainly not worth a trip to Hohenwald for me, in my opinion.

Yep I did know that. Thanks.

Least we not forget - virtually all of our Olivers still have the Oliver name at the "third brake light " position. As this discussion lingers on I would hope that everyone would re-read my post in this very thread from this past Saturday at 2:38pm. We are working on finding the real and complete story on the situation with decals. I will post back here when I have answers. Again, please be patient during this process. Bill

Why would a for-profit company forego having their name and logo on what they are producing? Makes no sense. In fact, IMHO, they could be charging a fee for leaving the graphics off since it is reducing their advertising and name recognition.

Thanks all for the warm welcome. Today was step two; getting a new Truma AquaGo Comfort installed. The previous owner had removed the original because it didn't work. We now have on demand hot water!

Yep, square cut opening for the water heater. This is the location of the crack. Considering that Oliver is a fiberglass company first, not to mention the premium prices they charge for their trailers, I'm really disappointed that they would cut corners like this (both literally and figuratively). I'm sure a good boat repair shop could figure out a repair, but would they be able to remove and reinstall the water heater with its associated gas line, plumbing, and wiring? We could go back to Hohenwald Service, but we've had sloppy work there, too, and it's a long drive. My wife just came in the room and suggested maybe we should get this fixed, then sell the trailer. Really sad to hear that because this was her dream camper. (And, for those keeping score, I missed one on my previous list. This is actually #22. 😕)