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On communication issues my experience buying a new trailer was similar. Our bank operates differently from what they're used to, they wanted to talk directly with Oliver and get some information. I had communicated that many times months previously but it just didn't register. I forwarded emails from the bank requesting information, three different people saw this email but same problem. I discovered all this when I arrived, it was pretty frustrating. I'll say the Oliver people I worked with were all great, we got it sorted out, but in the end we had to do all the work with the bank that should have done earlier. We spent three nights at the Oliver campground doing this, but no worries, we needed the time anyhow and I had built in a buffer to our trip so no problems. Later at home I found a second issue going over the paperwork with the charges, service had charged for work that was already paid for on the main invoice, almost $1k worth. I caught it, when I alerted them they were great at getting it corrected. But yes, advice is absolutely triple check everything. The people are great, super nice, do top notch work, but communication is an area that can be improved.

"Free" does not account for your investment in solar hardware, and the opportunity cost of those dollars. When we priced solar installation on our home in central Idaho in 2016, it did not "pencil out" vs. the cost of buying grid power. When the need to replace even LiFePO4 batteries at least every 10 years, solar panels every 20 years and the loss of investment earnings on the $50K plus cost of the system were added up, that investment made no sense for us, even with federal tax credits at the time.

They will make them any thickness or firmness level you choose. We opted for 9.5” which is the standard thickness for this model of mattress. We liked the feel of the mattress in the showroom, so we opted not to change it. These are very firm. We have one of their all natural latex mattresses in the house that is 12” thick with a pillow top. It is as plush as can be. Latex is extremely heavy and floppy, so I don’t think it would be a good choice for the trailer. Im really not sure how or if they ship out of state, but check out their website and shoot them an email. I could drop off my original cushions @ the showroom as a template if someone decides to order a set.

Greetings to you all! We are the happy new owners of Hull #1665, an Oliver Elite II. We picked up our new camper at the dealer in Colorado a few weeks ago. Our first night in the camper was at a Cracker Barrel on the drive home to New Mexico. Last weekend we had our first official 3 day -2 night camping trip and had a wonderful time. Our previous camper was a nuCamp Tab 400. We really loved that camper and it will be missed, but we both realized it was time to get a camper with more head room on the bed! (Especially Mary who always slept scrunched against the wall with two pups at her feet. :0) ) We live in Albuquerque and have been long time hikers, climbers, skiers, campers, hunters and general outdoor enthusiasts. Having a larger camper definitely makes traveling so much more comfortable. There is much about the camper that we love. We like the fact that the Ollie has a great suspension that will allow us to go on two track roads. The battery capacity and solar means that we can be off grid in NM for quite some time. After our first trip, we both realized just how comfortable and usable this camper really is. This summer we are planning a long trip back east for an archery competition and will be making a stop in Hohlenwald for some minor issues with the camper. We also are planning a long trip to Portland this fall to visit a new baby granddaughter. We look forward to meeting other Ollie owners on the road as we travel and at future Ollie rallies! Zane and Mary Rakes '26 Oliver Elite II One man, one woman, two small dogs and a sense of humor. 😊

HERE is a new video from Oliver featuring Aaron Wolters. Bill

In one of the factory tour videos on YT from years ago I caught that the tour guide recommended using Duragloss products for fiberglass care. Specifically 501 exterior wax (unless you SiO2 coat obviously), and 923 and 952 interior. When I was at the factory I noticed that in service they were selling the 923 wipe down, and they also had the Duragloss black streak remover, which I picked up. My review ... Duragloss FC (Fast Clean & Shine) Quick detailer. Seems fine, I recommend gloves. Leaves a scent which dissipates. Mild spray soap - or water, would probably clean as well but I suppose this is doing some kind of surface care. Marine & RV Black Streak Eliminator 581 I had noticed from videos that people will get marks on the fiberglass from stainless items rattling around. I'm a little fussy about this trailer and didn't want that, but on our inagural trip it wasn't set up fully so I got a few, so I tried this. It actually works! Spray on (careful of runs), let sit 15 seconds, than wipe off, and wipe with straight water. Repeat, and it does remove light marks. Deeper scratches (I have a few) are harder, but keep at it. Question Anybody tried Aquawax (951) on the interior?

I bought a gallon when Bill suggested it last time, June 2024. Amazon says unavailable today. We keep a small spray bottle with other cleaners in a tub behind the toilet. If y’all were nearby, I’d fill a bottle for you. We’ve only used less a pint so far! https://a.co/d/0gKeh4Do Also per Bill’s suggestion, got some 303 protectant. Use it more on our trucks than the Oliver and it does the job! https://a.co/d/0hAiMh3M

There are numerous videos on YouTube showing how to setup the Andersen Weight Distribution hitch - like THIS ONE FROM ANDERSEN. Bill

Eleven years ago while at my first Oliver Owner's Rally a former owner showed me a mixture of Duragloss products that has kept the interior of my looking like it just came off the showroom floor. I believe that Duragloss may have changed the numbers of their products - but - here is the receipe that has worked all these years: In a small spray bottle (I got mine at the Dollar Store) mix four parts Duragloss interior detailer (923) with one part Duragloss Aquawax (952). While I do not use it on the floor due to not wanting the floor to be slippery, I do use this spray on everything else - counters, stove, microwave, stainless steel, all fiberglass (walls, ceiling, bathroom), the mirrored cabinet doors, the mirrored bathroom door, everything. Take a microfiber cloth and fold it, wipe the spray with one side, turn the cloth over and wipe again with the other side and I'm done. The interior detailer cleans and the small amount of wax contained in the Aquawax leaves just enough was on the surface to help dirt to not stick to the surface. Bill p.s. Duragloss can be contacted at: www.duragloss.com

Chains have to be tensioned to distribute weight, and I don't think you'll have any sway control either without the tension.

Davis Lake was a great stop on our journey from Nashville to Natchez on the Trace.

When I read that, I immediately had the visual image of the bad guy of "The Fifth Element" movie stomping down his space ship stairs muttering: "I you want something..." Gary Oldman was perfect for that role.

No actually it's the opposite. I just came up the Eastern Sierra, 5k ft to 8.2k, dropped 10% on the battery and gained back 8% on the other side. Regeneration which ICE vehicles don't enjoy. It's even greater with a trailer since you reduce the gain down, I put it at 0.5, so the brakes get used very little (just feathering to smooth out stops). I'll admit even I was a little surprised, I wasn't expecting it but these EV's love that kind of backcountry road travel. On the freeway they suck energy just like ICE, especially when driving into the wind. Well I'll tell you anyhow 😅That exact same scenario with an (Silverado or Sierra) EV adds 25 minutes. But in compensation, at home you never have to drive to the gas station and fill up since you charge off the house. Free in my case since I have solar. Over the course of the year I think it comes out ahead, time wise. When traveling I'm happy to get a longer break personally, but to each his own. Things have changed quickly, as they do with technology. My truck has 500 mile range not towing freeway driving, 375 miles freeway towing, depending on conditions of course. If you like off grid camping, with an EV you get essentially unlimited silent power. I charged up the house batteries off the truck while everybody else ran noisy generators. As for charging being undependable and scarce, that's no longer an issue. Last and this year especially the networks have been throwing it in at a ferocious pace. We just drove 6k miles to pick up the trailer without a single charging issue, or a single problem finding it. Even in the deep south, hey even little Hohenwald has fast chargers! But public fast charger infrastructure is in the knee of the 'S curve' of technology adoption. Just as happened with gas stations in the early 20th century. Anyhow on the Pebble OP, IMO it's solving a problem that has already been solved. On another forum a member bought one, they're getting 1.7 mi/kWh with the Pebble. But I get 1.3 mi/kWh with the Oliver - so it's a lot of expense, complication for little benefit. Oliver isn't kidding when they say it's an aerodynamic trailer, in ideal conditions it's a 35% loss which compares favorably with the usual 50% loss you'll see with other trailers.

Hey @shhQuiet just wanted to let you know your videos were a major source of inspiration in my purchase over the last couple years. I'm nearing retirement, but as seems to happen things have been getting more intense at work (micromanaging), and lets just say I was having a pretty hard time of it leading into everything coming together and picking up my trailer at the factory last month. Your camping style is similar to mine and the low key non scripted videos of you just doing your thing was a mental salve. Not only that, since we're in California with no dealers we needed to make a 6k+ trip out to Tennessee and camp back, which was a bit of a big deal since we hadn't done this type of camping before (I used to backcountry hike and car camp on fishing trips with my dad). I used your videos to help the initial planning, we stayed at Meriweather, then went on to Davis Lake near Tupolo. My wife was pretty skeptical, shall we say, of this whole adventure. I showed her your videos of these campgrounds to smooth over the concerns. Anyhow looking forward to continuing to follow along, thanks for sharing.

This valve has been standard equipment since 2008.

Custom Comfort Mattress info can be found HERE Bill

Just ordered mine at O'Reilly's. Supposed to be in next week. June 1st for spring and shock replacement

Congratulations and welcome.

Welcome to the Club from Hull # 050.

Zane and Mary, welcome and congratulations on you new Oliver! Looking forward to meeting you. Mike

Zane & Mary ( and pups), Welcome to the Family! There is sooooo much here for you to read. If you have not been there, I'd suggest starting at the Oliver University (left click on "Home" in the blue line near the top of this page, then left click on "Resources" , and then look for "Oliver University" on the left side of the screen). Past that, there are "Mods" galore and towing tips and Towing Tips and ...... Don't be afraid to ask questions - we are here to help! Bill

Dan: Recognize that the vast majority of us on this forum are Retired Ole Farts. We certainly made our share of mistakes and learned from them. I used to call my Grandfather a "Ole School" guy. Over time I came to realize that he was actually a lot smarter than I gave credit for. But he had the gift of letting me make my own mistakes, so that I could learn from them. As a leader in the EV Team and a member of our forum, I thank you for your thoughts and reality checks presented. Granted I doubt that many of the current OTT owners will follow your foot EV foot steps. For now.... But I would guarantee that in the not too distant future, the technology will be at the point of people wondering why we were ICEing it for so long. Your advantage is you have the technical and experience to be out in the lead in this area. Good for you. And good luck as those ROF's tend to be right..... all the way up to the moment that reality strikes. Sort of like there is no such thing as global warming. No offence to the MAGA members of the group! Really! Seriously! Geronimo John

Yikes! They just quoted me a thousand dollars ODT for that same mattress. ( For one.) The Queen size Brooklyn Bedding mattress in my house cost under $1,300...

Custom Automatic Leveling for the Oliver's Barker Jacks — Part 2 Here is some more detail of the automatic leveling project as it transitioned from an idea to a working prototype. The project evolved from concept with safety and trailer protection as core design priorities. Limitations were built into the software including current-based motor cutoffs and maximum leveling offsets to prevent over-stressing jack capacity and minimized frame stress. On the mechanical side, the design incorporates fail-safe circuits, redundant shutdown methods, and four levels of overcurrent protection. A side benefit is the electronic monitoring of jack condition where abnormal current can reveal lubrication issues, mechanical wear, or circuit degradation before they become catastrophic failures. First step was writing a program script with open source Arduino software, and then uploading it to an ESP-32 microprocessor. The ESP-32 is basically a $10 miniature computer with programmable memory and integrated WiFi module (I might develop a Leveling App later). It receives inputs from a Inclinometer and two 50 amp current sensors, and it sends outputs to a status LED, a piezo buzzer for audible tones, and a 8 channel Darlington driver that converts digital inputs to 12 volts for relay coils. Six 30/40 amp Bosch style automotive relays are wired in an H-Bridge configuration to run the jack motors in forward and reverse. With a basic design plan and software, a test board was needed for proof of concept before anything could be installed in the trailer. The test board included potentiometers to simulate jack current, and LEDs to indicate the jack's up and down movement. It had a status LED, an isolation relay LED, a piezo electric buzzer, and a circuit board mounted with the microprocessor, inclinometer, drivers, and power supply. These standalone plug-in modules are wired together with soldered jumpers on a generic printed circuit board. Testing resulted in many design and software changes as the bugs were worked out. During this time it became evident that the tongue only needed the inclinometer for leveling, no current sensor required. I also realized that the jacks should be run in decreasing intervals with a limited number of leveling attempts before timing out. Another improvement was to run the jacks uninterrupted in free air until they were firmly seated on the ground for stabilization — before starting incremental leveling movements as needed. Current values are easily adjusted if more or less stabilizing pressure is desired. Testing found a flaw with the inclinometer. Thankfully they came in three-packs and I replaced them because they wouldn’t stay calibrated. The inclinometers have accelerometer and gyroscope functions, and it turned out that the accelerometer has known drifting issues. After turning off the accelerometer in the software, it worked great! In the end, the Arduino script grew to over 1,000 lines of code. With a lot of trial and error, a sequence of operation was developed: When the Level button is pressed, the rear jacks lower without interruption until they are seated on the ground in a firmly stabilized position (phase 1). If the trailer is level at this point, then there is no further action and an audible “happy tune” indicates successful level was achieved. If the trailer is not level after phase 1, then the left or right jack is cycled in intervals starting at 1.5 seconds (~1/2” travel) depending on how close to level it is. As the trailer gets closer to level, the interval shortens to account for coasting and fine adjustment to within 0.2 degrees of level. During the roll leveling sequence, a pitch limit of 5 degrees prevents the rear jacks from inducing too much pitch. It's a safeguard that temporarily interrupts roll leveling while it moves the tongue jack to bring pitch back within limits. Phase 2 pitch leveling begins, if needed, after roll level is achieved. When roll and pitch are level, the “happy tune” is played. The system allows up to 20 level correction attempts per axis before declaring unsuccessful leveling with a “sad tune.” The operator can stop the leveling at anytime with the On/Off switch or by re-pressing either momentary button. The “Retract” function proved difficult to program because of the mechanical clutch. Originally it was programed to shut off when the mechanical clutch actuated in the parked position, which is 13 amps. This didn’t work because the jacks had a current spike when coming off load, and there were oscillating current spikes during the clack-clack of the clutch that caused shutdown before before a clack was heard. These spikes hadn’t shown up in the time compressed current chart, but they were picked up by the current sensors. This was resolved in the software with a current delay when coming off load, and a longer delay when the clutch actuated so a few reassuring clack-clacks could be heard for audible confirmation that the jacks were fully parked. The leveling system was designed so that the jacks manual switches could remain fully functional. However, the H-Bridge relay configuration reverses the motor polarity for the up or down direction, and that could cause a direct path to ground when using the manual switches. To prevent this, I used a normally open relay to isolate the ground when the leveling system is not being used. I used a single 250 amp generic lawnmower starter relay on a common ground bus for all 3 jacks. It seemed reasonable. .. what could possibly go wrong? Hope this is still interesting…Cheers! Geoff Please excuse poor photos, I just didn't take very many!