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I have a tough decision on this beautiful blue sky day in Hawaii: Go paraglidng or go surf kayaking..... Another tough day for a RoF (Retired Ole Fart)! I’ll not encourage even more flaming arrows by posting a typical blue skies and bikinis picture, but will share my favorite Hawaii weather forecast. Here is Trumpet the Weather Dog talking about our weather in Hawaii: GJ

At 10:00 am Saturday morning we have about 4.5 inches of snow. Temps are falling - 27 degrees at 7:00am and 24 degrees at 10:00 am. Before you start to laugh - please remember that this is the "sunny" South, home of "Rebels" and Moonshine.😃 Bill

After seeing this, me too! Why are the leads bolted together? Why were they all loose? Can’t tell unless you invalidate warranty by sawing the case open!

You couldn't pay me enough to ever put these in my Ollie.

I remember when we lived in Hawaii the weather report was normally short and boringly the same. The exception was when Hurricane Iwa hit on Thanksgiving weekend in 1982. Power went out for 3 days. Carol had cooked our turkey the day before so we had neighbors over on Thanksgiving day to share our turkey. Mike

I used a battery powered blower to clear the rear deck off so I could get to the bird feeders. Then, I cranked up the 50 year old snow blower to do the driveway. Not exactly using an old jet engine but it sure beats shoveling. Our temp is now down to 18degrees! Bill p.s. Patriot used a battery powered blower to clear the snow off one of his vehicles too.

Not easy pulling the Oliver through Bisbee AZ! Drove up to Mimosa Market, which had great reviews, on the north end of town, only to find it’s only open 4 half days a week. It seems Bisbee has more closed real estate than open stores. As we drove up, I realized there was no turn-around, had to back up a side street to get back. Crazy narrow roads! We ate lunch at Bisbee Breakfast club, the only open business in the vintage Lowell area. Cool old storefronts and classic cars everywhere!

We have 4 1/2" so far, 11:30AM, just north of Charlotte NC! Photo taken at 11:30AM.

Putting plastic between the conductors does it for me. That's not a safety feature, it's a bad design.

These southern storms are not good. At least the snow in the south melts fast (hopefully). The northeaster of this past Monday dumped 14" to 20" of snow depending of where you were in Maine, on top of an existing 6". The weater since then has been below zero at night and if we are lucky will get up to 20 degrees in the day. This morning it was - 3 degrees. Looks like this snow will be on the ground until spring time. In Maine we will miss the present northeaster hitting the southern states at this time. Hopefully Punxsutawney Phil tells us it will be an early spring.

Not to change the subject line but: - 3 degrees this morning in southern Maine at 6:00 a.m.. Heat wave at 4:42 p.m. today at 21 degrees.

Shame that the town isn't a bit more active. Just hate to see the big box stores that don't have the charm get ALL the business. Looks a bunch warmer there than the 18 degrees we have here at the moment. Bill

I may do a bathroom hatch some day but for expediency, I experimented with a quick and simple (and reversible) hack designed to achieve greater heating of the area under the sink while also adding a return vent from the bathroom into the basement to improve heating in the bathroom (My 2020 didn't have a return vent in the bathroom like the newer models). I had also concluded, as have most, that the heat supply vent under the TP was essentially useless because of the long flex-duct run to the bathroom. It never did supply much heat. What I did was temporarily removed the towel bar rack, disconnected the flex duct from the heat vent under the TP holder, dropped the flex duct to the floor (where it heats the area under the sink) and replaced the towel bar rack. That gave me a return vent in the bathroom (without cutting a new hole) that pulls heated air from the cabin into the bathroom and then into the space under the sink, while the loose flex duct also supplies additional heat to the area under the sink. You can tell it is pulling a measurable amount of air through the bathroom into the sink cavity by looking at the dangling TP moving when the furnace is running. I now have two cold weather seasons of experience with this setup and I will never go back. As long as I keep the bathroom door slightly open against the closed twist lock, the bathroom stays warmer than it ever did with the flex duct attached to the vent under the TP. Also, I have noticed that the bathroom feels a little bit warmer when a late night visit to the bathroom is called for, likely due to less radiant heat loss from my (un-shirted) body, due to the warmer surface of the fiberglass surrounding the sink cavity. The additional heat under the sink cavity also improves the heating under the kitchen sink area as the heat from the sink cavity circulates rearward to be recirculated through the furnace.

When we lived in Ohio, we used to use jet snow blowers on the railroad equipped with old military jet engines to clear switches. We have 6 1/2" so far, 25F, getting windy, too. It's a dry fluffy snow.

Beat me to it. Unbeliveable

And we thought a couple cloudy days, high of 50F at altitude in the Huachuca Mountains was not good Arizona camping! Was a sunny 65F today, lunchtime in Tombstone! Camping two nights at Hofmann Vineyards in McNeal AZ. Heading back to The Valley tomorrow, where highs will be in the low 80s! 😎 IMG_7362.mov

We enjoyed visiting Bisbee when we lived in nearby Sierra Vista. Tombstone, too. Those were good days. Mike

There was more going on center of town, but not anywhere to park the Oliver. If you stayed at an RV park and detached, you could spend more time. No big box stores! A Safeway SW of town on Hwy-92 and the closest Walmart is in Douglas.

I don't care! Cold is cold and at 22 degrees being outside in the snow is no fun. On the other hand - a couple of runs down the hill will get the heart pumping. Grab a board and hit the waves for me - please. Bill

RVK - What year is your Ollie? In the "older" models the water inlets are on the streetside away from the furnace and are, therefore, subject to freezing. Unfortunately, if this happens then it is very possible that the check valves might be damaged. Bill

I'm not a golfer - but - isn't it time to go over to the course and hit a few balls? I just got in from using the snow blower on the driveway. Its just about stopped snowing with about 5 - 6 inches on the ground. Current temp is down to 22 degrees. Note that the "normal" high for this date is 54. Time to get out the saucer and take a couple of runs down the hill!🥶 Bill

I asked since this has happened to those running space heaters, but first I've heard of the water inlets freezing when furnace is being used as the sole heat source. The water inlets plumbing is very close to the furnace along the rear wall of the Oliver. When the Oliver interior is kept above 60F, the furnace should be running long and hard enough to keep the rear basement and water inlets well above freezing! Given "the fresh and city water inlets were frozen" they must have water in them and they shouldn't up to the backflow preventers. Good practice is to allow those ends to drain prior to capping them off. They can also fill when check-valves leak. And yes, when plumbing has frozen when full of water the PEX could burst. You will not know until it is thawed, filled again with water and brought up to pressure to test for leaks.

I just started snowing in Augusta, GA now. I would think we will not get much. Hopefully to stick to hide all the filth.

I'm in your court on this one for sure. Yes it was a less than optimal design. Ultimately everything fails if the use is pushed beyond the design limits. I think this is the case for this young couple. The fact that THEY INSEALLED the system from Alcan concerns me. If so, was Alcan advised of the end weight of their vehicle during the purchase or was it a "Send me XXX" and I'll install it transaction. More "Paul Harvey Questins"..... Crazy Horse has warned me about flaming arrows at times seeking me out.... but I can assure you that I don't intentionally try to be such a target. Here is my response to the couple left on their comments section of Youtube. GJ

For those camping in chilly conditions, here’s what we did to avoid bumping a bare leg, butt, or shoulder against the trailer wall. I got a 30”x84” yoga mat, cut it in half lengthways, and tuck it between the mattress and wall. This is more comfortable, and has the added benefit of allowing any moisture from condensation on the window to run between the wall and the mat, and then under the Hypervent, keeping the mattress dry. The 84” length doesn’t quite cover the entire side and end of the wall, coming up short by about a foot. We have that gap next to the nightstand. https://a.co/d/eJCYCXD

Nice, well done. I like your solution much better than ours. We used up a left over roll of thin aluminum sandwich foam insolation purchased for cold weather window inserts.

Will Prowse update.

In light of the wintery weather all over the south, this is a great idea! I've always just tucked a folded blanket against the hull, but this is thinner, and probably just as effective.

Looks like this second storm will mostly miss us here in CT. Good luck to those still in the path.

I also store my Oliver remotely outdoors through the winter but do not winterize. All above advice is solid. I use remote temperature sensors and have found that the coldest spot in the basement is in the lower rear of the trailer (storage area) where the water lines run. If that location stays above freezing, I am confident that nothing will freeze. The one additional thing I did was change out my thermostat to one with remote monitoring and control. I chose a Micro-air Easy Touch RV thermostat. It has both remote wifi monitoring and blutooth. https://www.micro-air.com/products_easytouch_rv_thermostat_touchscreen.cfm When temperatures are forecast to stay well above freezing, I can either turn the furnace off (remotely) or set it low (42-45 degrees). When the forecast is for below freezing temps, I turn it up to around 50. My remote sensor will send an alert to my phone if the rear basement approaches freezing temps and I can then turn the thermostat up even more from home. When daytime temps rise above freezing again, I turn the thermostat down to save propane.

Here in the subtropics, even the Alligators think it's cold... a juvenile out of the water, sunning.

The hatch that is mentioned to open is located at the rear of the trailer (if you have one- (it was a option)) that goes into the cellar (basement) storage area. The water feed piping from the campground water connection runs in this cellar (basement) storage area. The towel bar rack is in the bathroom. There are 4 screws (covered by the white plast covers). Take out the screws and remove the bar rack. The bar rack is likely held in place by some caulking.

My 3 Battle Born batteries were installed in December 2020. No issues after lots of use. I’m sticking with them while keeping an eye on any heat or discoloration issues. Mike

We have one BB 100AH 5 years old and two BB 100AH less than 1 year old, We have not experienced any issues with BB batteries so far. We recently installed two Epoch 105AH Smart batteries in Ollie and moved two newer BB batteries to a stationary non RV application.

I am going to go against the grain of this topic and ask 'who on this forum has experienced any problem with the Battle Born batteries'? The only BB failure that I am aware of on this forum was 1 of 4 BB's Overland installed is his LE2. I purchased 3 BB batteries in 2021, in part because of Will Prowse's review's and I have not experienced any problems as of today. I did have a conversation with the BB company representatives at the 2026 RV Super Show in Tampa this month and my takeaways from that conversation were: 1- the so called defect is a designed failure point. 2- is Will Prowse a Electrical Engineer? 3- how many batteries has Will Prowse designed, built and manufactured? 4- this all came about after Will Prowse's monetary involvement with Battle Born ceased. 5- I think Will Prowse's job title is ‘influencer' and his influence was a major contributor to my decision to purchase and install 3 Battle Born batteries in our Oliver Travel Trailer. Mossey

A beautiful Quartzite sunrise with 6 Oliver LEIIs….

It was a great week at the Q. Thought I'd share some pictures! 😂 First couple of nights everyone was over by that odd looking trailer with all the lights (actually VERY comfortable inside), where Art @MAX Burner generally has his famous Blackstone cooking away! Wednesday night was dinner at our camp where Chris cooked an Italian feast. Pasta and meat sauce, salad and cheesy garlic bread were a big hit! 😎 In attendance were Steve & Tali, Art, Lance and Gary, Rhonda and Ruth (towing some nice older hulls). Don't forget the pups; Rocky, Oscar, Hessie and our Charley. We all made new friends when just a few hours prior Steve & Nancy arrived from northern Indiana towing Hull # 166! Barely a mention of their furnace not working and @ScubaRx was off to their rescue, removing the sail switch on their Atwood furnace which needed cleaning and alignment, soon it fired right up! Later their younger dog Buddy made a stir with the old dogs! And we kept some up past their bedtimes! 🤣

John, I think there’s a little more to it than that. I’m happy with my truck and car but I enjoy reading about other brands and recent changes and innovations. Same with my tech (phone, tablet, watch, ring), happy with all but interested in trends. I like my banjos and guitars but read and watch reviews on other manufacturers and luthiers. Etc., Etc. So, I’m interested in the RV industry because I like to keep up on recent innovations, new technology, etc. No reflection on Oliver one way or the other. Just curiosity! Mike