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Hello to all! We are the new owners of a 2019 LEII, Hull 514, as of last week! We have owned travel trailers for about 20 years and started seriously looking at fiberglass trailers about 6 months ago. We are looking forward to our first trip in the next few weeks. We plan to do a lot of boon-docking in out-of-the way NFS campgrounds for trout fishing, hiking, etc. and our large toy hauler was NOT suitable for that. Hull 514 did not come with an inverter or any solar, so I am installing Lithium batteries and an inverter over the next few weeks and then will add some solar charging capabilities. I'll probably create a post about that project after I'm done in case it helps others who are in the same boat. I have already enjoyed and gathered great ideas reading about the various approaches others have taken on this forum. We will likely convert to the Twin layout eventually as well. I also plan to swap out to 30 lb Propane tanks and add my LevelMate Pro this weekend (both from my current camper). Anyway, just wanted to do a quick intro for this very active and informative group. Glad to be in the family!

OH MY! I'll keep a better eye on the grandkiddo's for sure now. Maybe raise them all when they are around.

My likes and not likes: LIKES: Removeable floor for outside cleaning. Big size refrigerator 6'8" ceilings Ducted AC/Heat Shower (Dry Bath) NOT LIKES: Rubber torsion axles. This is a deal breaker for us. Had one on a Jayco, will NEVER have another) Low sewer connection Hose storage (Where would you put the 90 degree connection and all the other little things we carry in ours?) Front window (Rock Magnet) Front upper window (Heat Load and future leak potential) Upper cabinet doors (Prefer OTT's options) Convection/Micro at knee height Pantry (As where is it?) TV (Placement on side of trailer. Not viewable from anywhere as displayed in video Dry Shower (Takes up too much space needed for storage) For us prefer OTT's design Black mold looking accents in cabinet tops Several storage areas should have a means for installing shelving Overall, for a first production model, I think their design decisions will appeal to many first time owners. But their design needs some adjustments, just as what The Olliver's did with their first OE... make some and put them out for review and upgrade suggestions. In a few years they would have a trailer that could compete head to head. But with plans of smaller and larger versions, frankly it does not appear that such a slow rollout and improvement of this model is their game plan. In a nut shell: I would not swap my 2018 OTT OE2 for a brand new one of theirs. GJ

Yes, good thinking, and don't be afraid to let it go longer to lower SOCs in-between recharging.

My apologies on my incorrect post above on cost of replacing the interior blind with a brandy new blind. I just got off the phone with Mike Sharpe at Oliver Service and he quoted me for one brandy new blind the cost is $393.00. This includes shipping to your door. (Shipping could vary a little) I mistakenly quoted pricing for 2 blinds in my previous post which was incorrect. If you want a completely new blind, you must order and pay through Oliver Service. Oliver places the order with the company who actually has to make the blind. They don’t stock them on the shelf. Once made, it’s packed up and shipped to your address. Cheers!

Us too Bill, but thankfully the second owner replaced them May 2021. Total cost was $761 for the set almost 5 years ago (2x as much today?). We also have the bright white frames and I've seen the yellowed ones in older hulls. Sure glad ours are now 5 vs. 10 years old! Two years ago, I removed and hosed them and they've Looked good and worked well since.

Ran across this video just posted to youtube... They are clearly targeting Oliver LEII and Airstream FlyingCloud 23fb as their competitors. Starting price on their website is $88,900 but it looks to be inclusive. Several things are appealing. The larger sink and upright fridge/separate freezer would sure be nice. Don't think I like the vinyl flooring. Those manual scissor jacks at the back make it look cheap. Above them are copy-cat 3-piece Oliver-style tail lights - just tunred diagonal 🫤

My quote might be off now that I think about it. $400 sounds about right John. I think Mikes quote to me was for replacing two blinds.

Doing the final string tie is the only tricky part. I looped the string through the end of the spring and pulled it out enough I to tied my know (a couple of half hitches). Before you start, note the tension in the spring and try to match it with the new string. If it’s too loose the shade won’t hold its position, if it’s too tight it will be hard to adjust. I had to adjust both of the ones I did. One was too tight and one too loose.

Yes, we're connected with the usual parasitic draws plus the internal heaters. Lithionics says leave them on the charger all winter while the internal heaters are being used but I don't like leaving them on the charger 100% of the time, so I've been letting them drop a bit, then bring them back to 100% SOC once every couple of weeks.

I purchased my Hypervent material on Amazon. I only installed it under my twin mattresses. Over 5 years, I have not had any problem with mattress moisture and it can get humid here in New England in the summer. In the winter, I do put the mattresses on edge on the hypervent material. I personnally would not overlap the hypervent. I have seen on the Oliver forum where some people have also installed it up on the sides of the mattress against the wall (I think even with the top of the mattress).

I believe that ScubaRx will do it for a "sharp stick in the eye". 🥲

The bill is in Ollie (stored) for 4 new bright white shades in 2019, believe it was around $700 for 4. Will check next time I visit Ollie.

Dan, I think Mike Sharpe told me $750 to $800 per window shade. 😳 Mike said they have to be ordered through Oliver and the company will make the shade and ship it to Oliver and then Oliver Service ships them to you. This quote was last October when we stopped by Oliver Service. As @topgun2 said the price will motivate me when the time comes to DYI shade repair. Edit- I think it was $700 for two new shades, not per shade.

A new contender in the fiberglass RV market for the US: Awaken RV -https://share.google/Zzpg4orVpsEvoSdpL Nice looking exterior. Autoevolution reporting a price of $82,500 and dry weight of 5500#: https://www.autoevolution.com/news/awaken-rv-s-fiberglass-morningstar-flagship-camper-is-here-to-shift-how-american-s-camp-257902.html

When I blow the fresh inlet it’s just to clear water from the lines into the fresh tank. Then I switch to the city inlet and do step 10. I think he may have reversed fresh and city inlet his instructions. Mike

@tallmandan You beat me to posting this. As someone looking to purchase an travel trailer in a few years, competition is good. Without seeing this in person it is hard to judge everything. Plus it would be nice to see the construction process to see how that compares. A few of the highlights for me: dry bath, larger refrigerator, nicer windows and shades than the current Oliver implementation, off-road suspension option. Some issues I see is the ability to access some areas: under the sink, solar/battery hardware. Awaken RV says they will be releasing a smaller model (17 footer) and larger model (29 footer). Again, competition is good. Hopefully this causes the competitors to up their game.

Can I ask those of you that have done this — how did you access and tie the new cord to the spring inside the channel? Seems very difficult to thread the cord and tie a good knot when it’s tucked in there and under tension from both sides via separate cords. Am I missing something? Just trying to plan before I have it apart in 9 pieces. Thanks!

Hi, all. We have the 640Ah Lithionics lithium package and we rarely use even a quarter of that capacity. Winterizing is per the Lithionics manual: kept plugged in with their internal heaters doing their thing. I've noticed a bit of SOC drift, so I decided to do a SOC recalibration by taking the batteries down to low voltage cutoff and recharging per the Lithionics procedure. Learned some stuff. I disconnected shore power and let the batteries slowly discharge until they were reading 51 and 61 percent state of charge respectively (there's that drift). Then I turned the inverter on and connected a small 780W space heater to finish the discharge. BUT... The Xantrex inverter cut off with a low battery error when the SOC dropped to only 40 and 50 percent. The Xantrex low battery cutoff was set to 12.1v per Oliver specs and the Xantrex panel reported 12.0V when the inverter cutoff occurred. HOWEVER, the Lithionics BMS were both reporting approx. 12.6v, well above the cutoff point. All battery connections felt tight and cool to the touch. After breaking out the voltmeter and talking with Xantrex this is what I learned: 1. It is normal to lose some voltage between the batteries and the inverter under load. Just a fraction of a volt, but that matters here. Retesting with a voltmeter showed a drop between .4 and .6 volts under that 780W load. Xantrex support said I could safely change the Xantrex low battery cutoff (LBCO) to 11.5v. That should allow me to draw the batteries down much farther. 2. Lithionics has a firmware update (v9.0.04) that improves SOC calibration by automatically rough calibrating at certain setpoints during discharge: https://lithionics.freshdesk.com/support/solutions/articles/154000127575-what-is-soc-drift-and-how-to-avoid-it- We've got a bitter cold spell coming, so I'm going to stop playing for now. Recharging the batteries to full today before it gets real cold. I'll install the battery firmware update later and change the Xantrex LBCO setting before I try again. Always a learning curve...

Welcome - Sure is "interesting" fishing for trout while knowing that there is a bigger predator out there possibly looking for you (Griz?). Once you get that solar and battery upgrade done - you will be well on your way to getting to some really neat boondocking spots. Please let us know if you have questions about the "new" Ollie of yours. Bill

Actually - I believe that those were the words used by ScubaRx.🫣 Bill

Welcome and glad to have you on board! Safe travels!

Sharp stick in the eye to repair a blind? Would this be a pun intended Bill? 😂

We have wood workers, mechanics, electricians, IT folks. What we need is a person to make nice shades for less money, that looks nice, and easy to maintain, and replace when the time comes.

Welcome Jeff and Linda! You live in a good spot for going to the annual Oliver rally! Look forward to hearing about your upgrades and hope to see you out on the road. Mike

Welcome to the group.

Out here A/C coils fill only with red-oxide Arizona dirt. We lived a few years in South Fla where A/C coils amass all kinds of gunk!

I paid about $400 for the dinette window frame and shade last year. John

I agree. Though it's not on our trailer, we have the Chill Cube installed on our Pleasure-Way Excel, a 20' class B which has interior volume similar to our LE2. A small amount of condensate does run off the back of the van, but not nearly as much as it did with the 13.5k BTU Coleman Mach that it replaced. The PW van isn't as well insulated as an LE2, and it probably has a lot more heat gain than an Oliver due to the windshield. In the Texas summer heat, it has maintained cool and comfortable temperatures in our van far better than the Coleman, and it's much quieter. I think Furrion markets the Chill Cube as 18K because it works better than some other brands that have higher labeled BTU ratings. If they marketed it as a 9k BTU unit, then it would likely be overlooked by many, considering it as being too small. Knowing what we do now, if this AC had been available two years ago then it would have been a no brainer alternative to the expensive Truma upgrade.

Good questions. We have the Lithium Pro package installed by Oliver in 2022. It includes three 130Ah Lithionics batteries. This 390 Ah battery bank is protected from freezing by an external, switched, battery warming mat, installed by Oliver as part of the package. When storing our Hull #1291 during the cold Idaho mountain winters, I follow Lithionics Storage Procedure Rev. 7.1, a copy of which is attached. As I read it, that procedure recommends: (1) leaving shore power connected, with the warmer switch on, to keep the battery warmer operating, but (2) doing a drawdown/recharge cycle every 6 months when in storage. I am now in the middle of the fourth winter following this protocol. If I didn't have shore power in the detached garage where I store our Elite II, I would remove the batteries in the fall, reduce State of Charge (SOC) to 50% and store them in my temperature-controlled attached garage, per the attached protocol. Leaving the trailer connected to shore power, but with periodic discharge/recharge, is easier, so that is what I do. As Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries usually have at least a 10-year life when properly used and maintained, I may not know how effective my winter storage battery practices have been for another 6 years. But, so far, so good. As a footnote, if we had chosen AGM batteries when ordering our Elite II, now is when those lead acid-based AGMs could be nearing the end of their useful life. Years of working with Sealed Lead Acid (SLA) AGM batteries to power my CPAP machine on wilderness river trips persuaded me to pay the substantial premium for the Lithionics LiFPo4 battery package. No regrets. Lithionics Storage Procedure Rev.7-1.pdf

It is not difficult. Go slow, be methodical and you’ll do fine.

I'd be willing to bet that once you hear the price you WILL have all the motivation that you need. As (I believe) Mike said - this is really not a hard project. But, it is a bit tedious and requires that you really pay attention to what you are doing. Bill

Although there are varied recommendations among LFP makers, in general it is not good to maintain 100% SOC for extended periods of time in storage; extended meaning three months + with no demand. In this instance, isolating the batteries and storing at 50% SOC seems an acceptable practice. Personally, I continually maintain 100% SOC year-round given the fact that I routinely go to the Cow Barn to check on things and make it a practice to exercise the LFPs. During summer visits the air conditioner is ran off the batteries and likewise that unit’s heat pump during cooler weather; cycling the battery bank in this manner is good ‘care and feeding’! I’m fortunate to have enclosed storage with electricity, which is adventitious in this battery management scheme. That said, my COW is turned out often and thus, rarely sees ‘extended’ periods of nonuse; always ready to search greener pastures!

I only have 1 day before I depart for the Eggs & S'Mores rally in FL. No time to install springs with the need to work today. oh well. The UPS guy, who was quite large, carried both 50 lb boxes of Alcan springs in a bear-hug style. I was impressed. I'm ready with some awesome new tools.

I'd bet that the string broke because there is simply no "extra" string in the "loop" until you get to the very middle of the top and bottom of the frame. And, even then this "extra" string is tied off. I'm afraid that you are going to have to rethread the whole thing. Bill

Gotta love ya, my friend GJ! Next time you're on the mainland, please come to Prescott and together we'll get ol' hull #342 in better shape! 🤣 OK, so as you would, one point at a time... Actually, keep this one your wish list, as the wired thermostat interface is ONLY available on the ducted version which is not optional for our Olivers. My hypothesis: Out here in the SW there would little to NO condensate drip, but some in humid climates. Agreed, but... Looking at the specs I see a 3.25" difference (14.5" - 11.25"). It would be 5" to your low-profile Houghton. I promised @Tideline77 measurements which I took yesterday. My son Adam climbed up the scaffolding and place an 8' 1x3" on top of the A/C unit hanging off to the curbside. I measured the height and did not believe the number, so I measured it in the same way off the streetside, same number! I measured exactly 9' 8.5" on BOTH sides! Let's call it 9' 9" to top of the Chill Cube A/C on hull #113. OTT advertises the Oliver to be 9' 8" top of A/C! How is that? I put an A/C at least 3" taller than OEM! Crazy if this could fit in a garage with a 10 ft door. Chris said, "Who cares how tall it is? It's quiet! 😂 I would think you could simply hose from the rear. The dirt/gunk would fall out into the condensate trough and you would have to remove the cover and hose out the condensate path completely. Two-level scaffolding helps! 😎 All RV A/c manufacturers over-state specs. The Oliver is such a small, well insulated space with an inner hull that does not easily absorb heat. We'll be fine! 😎 I'll measure and provide real numbers this summer! But any Inverter or variable speed system will take near half the power consumption of standard compressor systems, no need for any kind of Soft-Start device. Yes, we like to camp in this range! The Chill Cube also has a Gear feature to gear power down to 75% or 50%! If your worried about high BTU fast cooling OK, but being able to run A/C conservatively, on inverted battery power, for a good amount of time is more our plan. We now have 900 Ah, and with summer temps I'd like to know how much cooling we get per Ah. Would 180 Ah (20% SOC) be enough to keep the Oliver Cabin comfortable all afternoon? If so, we could do that for 3 days knowing on day 4 we'd tow to DC-DC charge or stay a night at a campground and charge back up to 900 Ah! 😎

I thought that if you kept the batteries SOC at 100% over long periods even in warmer weather that it shortens its life of the batteries. I don't own Lithium's yet, but there will be a time to Upgrade from AGMs. Just wanting to understand all of the perimeters for the care and feeding. Thanks for your input.

It’s always great to see another fiberglass towable. It will be interesting to see the final offerings of this camper. Wondering if it will have solar? Thanks for posting. Back to camping in the Great North Woods! The fall colors are beginning to really pop!! 🏕️😊

Heck! I had mine apart on the workshop floor for a few months!🤨

Totally on point @GeoffChapman. 👍🏻

When using compressed air, and have done that many times on other campers/trailers, I always worried about water left in the pump. With the Oliver, it’s just so easy to use the pink stuff.

Really imitated the Airstream 23' rear bath front twin unit. I noticed the roughness of the cabinet cutouts while they were showing off the storage......and how thin the facia panel is...this could be an issue for owners. Given they said this is a "production model" I'll bet they will need to put some type of corner moulding around the openings (to keep cuts off of hands) or some other way to reinforce the narrow remaining pillars. Once one of those cracks there will be no easy fix.