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There are times that I feel exactly the same way with regards to being out in the world! Bill

At one point, we were traveling with 2 cats, male and female siblings. One day the screen door got left unlatched and Callie (the brave one) wandered out, followed by Max (the big coward). Steph saw them and walked toward the trailer. Callie jumped back inside but Max panicked and dove under the fifth wheel. Eventually, by securing Callie inside and leaving the door open, Max made a mad dash back into the camper and hid under the covers. The outside world looked pretty good. Until they were in it. 🙂

Yes, you are correct. Oliver has had to source another coupler supplier. Bulldog is supposedly in bankruptcy proceedings as of Oct of 2025. Hopefully they will restructure. Pic of new coupler -

Tractor Supply sells a 2” ball 7,000lb capacity coupler that looks like the hitch on the X23. https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/tractor-supply-traveller-straight-coupler-2-in-ball-7000-lb-capacity-2526179

Sometimes Mother Nature has a very kind way of saying "Good morning".

Performance update => I was able to run the Chill Cube 24x7, thermostat set at 74F, for 4 days producing this data. Data was recorded each day later afternoon 5PM +/-. The Chill cube did not quite produce the set temp in the heat of the day but did so the rest of the day. The high of 76F was still quite comfortable in the cabin. Off course our Oliver was unplugged, but in addition to battery power, our 320W rooftop solar was adding power consumed by the A/C. The table shows Ah used daily. Keep in mind this is with the A/C running 24x7 which is rarely our use case! Having 900 Ah it appears I can count on running the A/C 24x7 for 3 days, 4-5 days if it’s off during portions of the days. With 600 Ah you could truly count on two full 24 hour days. The picture below shows cabin and outdoor temps one afternoon during the test at 4:30 PM. The cabin temp is read by a Ruuvi sensor mounted above the kitchen sink. The sensor titled Oliver Trunk is positioned in the rear basement, near the incoming water lines down by the 4" drain plumbing. For "Oliver Roof" I placed a sensor rooftop under the solar panels so that it is in the shade. If I took this picture 1-2 hours earlier in the day the roof temp would certainly be above 110F! I had no idea these results would be so positive and being the avid boondocker, it's great to know we can now count on A/C cooling anytime/anywhere! When you have the old-school A/C, with the basic single-speed ON/OFF compressor (Dometic, Truma, Tosot, Houghton, etc.), you will use approx. 100 Ah per hour in the heat of the day (assuming 1400W while the compressor is ON). The inverter or variable-speed A/C will consume in 24 hours what the standard A/C will consume in just 2 hours, OMG! (BTW, the Dometic P2 will produce worse results since it uses 1800W when ON, or 150 Ah/hour). The technology capability today is amazing. Time to stop waiting on the next great product. We’re not getting any younger! 😎

Thank you Got it filled in now.

There are several posts discussing how the signature works... try this one: You could also search for something like "signature" in the search field in the banner at the top of a forum page.

There is some info here:

Anybody notice that they appear to be using a different coupler on the new Apex X23?

That is correct. However, solar is more efficient at elevation and we had full mid-summer sun every day of the test. I'd like to measure the amount of Ah produced by solar over a 24-hour period. I believe the IPN Remote on our old Blue Sky SC has a display variable for that can be reset to zero. But without an app interface it's truly painful to kneel down there and go through the menus!

They're all about the same. Plumbing connections should be the same. Make sure you set pressure on your new accumulator based on its instructions related to the pressure spec of your water pump. There is a Shrader valve on the accumulator where you can check pressure or connected a pump or compressed air.

Two of my least favorite things about the Oliver are the awning that can’t be used in the rain and the floppy/noisy bathroom door. I’ve long wanted to replace the door with a wooden one, but being a custom furniture maker, wifey has forbidden it because that's what I always do. No more wood! She just wants to keep with the shiny modern look for a change. So, when I told her about Oliver’s new fiberglass bathroom door, she loved the idea and surprisingly suggested that I make one just like it. Oh no! This could be problematic. I have no idea how the new door was designed, except that it appears to be made of fiberglass. Since I won’t likely see one in person anytime soon, I’d be grateful if anyone could share details or close-up pictures of the door. I’m curious about the jam, hinges, hasp, and finishes on both the inside and outside. I’m also wondering how the mirror is attached, if it has a bezel or frame, and if the door is two-layered or similar to the closet door with the gelcoat on the inside. If it seems doable without major wall or door jam modifications, I might build a reusable mold and try giving it a go. Any insights or opinions on this are welcomed. Cheers! Geoff

Say they're about equal, your wattage being a little higher to handle the humidity of Florida.

Very similar to the numbers I see from my Turbro, though I will see low 900's watt range when first starting up and interior temps are 90+ degrees. Once close to setpoint it's in the 500's during a hot sunny day and around 200 watts at night to maintain temps.

Yes, mods and upgrades are a personal choice. We chose to have every possible convenience. We can disconnect, but we wouldn't travel without the capability to connect anytime/anywhere! 😎 A reading of -60A on the Victron Connect App is the highest number I've ever observed set in Turbo mode. That's only 786W figuring 13.1V. Med-High setting will draw 48A (576W), low 14A (168W) and when ambient temps drop at night, the fan runs extra slow using as low as -2A. It's CRAZY. If these numbers are close enough, we can say the Chill Cube uses half the power of the Houghton 48v at high settings and even better when the cooling need is low. Keep in mind we are at 5440 FT elevation with RH = 20% so my numbers are likely better than when at sea level with humidity. And where the Houghton and every other single-speed compressor A/C will cycle full power more often.

Here are the specs for the Houghton 48v unit that's in the Apex. It runs only as low as 660 watts (which matches the 666 watts in the Oliver video) which is higher than either the Turbro I have or the Chill Cube you have seen in real world testing. It also draws up to 1700 watts at full power which is something I don't think either of ours ever get near. Obviously have the loss in the inverter conversion but there's loss in the 48v cabling too... Would still like to see real world data from the 48v Houghton, though...

Hey, our's was not brand new and it was still really special 😉 Welcome to the clan!

Thank you very much, Martin & Linda! New Oliver and new Forum Members for a month now - Congratulations! 😂 A lot like us 3 years ago. Our 2016 was 7 years old at the time as your 2019 is today. Keep working your required maintenance, fix or mod your top-of-list items and very soon enjoy some travel and good camping! 😎 We keep improving our Oliver way-of-life with several major modifications and all the many little things, while getting away 180 overnights so far! This cosmetic restoration and our new Chill Cube A/C were our last big projects. Please add a simple forum signature when you get a chance. Search here and ask questions re your "heater" (furnace or HWH?). You may be on the right track thinking "sail switch" but of course first make sure you're getting LP and 12VDC. Welcome, thanks again and best wishes, JD

Our original manual black tank dump valve was angled outward as noted above. Seems like the others who reworked their cables got some improvement, but still not optimal. Probably why OTT service said the “fix” was going electric. We’re about 6 weeks short of wrapping up our 2026 camping season (from January to beginning of August) - so that’s 2 seasons of using the electric valve. Has been performing without a hitch being operated every 3 to 7 days. So I’m quite happy with the upgrade. Just to clarify - out issue with the original 12 foot cable with two 90 degree bends was that the force required to open the valve was high and getting worse with every use. The force to close the valve was always very low. So simple “binding” or lack of lubrication was never the likely cause. I’m still convinced that wear of the steel core against the plastic sheath at the inner radius of one or both 90 degree bends was the culprit. Having had to replace throttle and transmission shift cables on a ‘92 Catalina 30 yacht with a similar L-O-N-G cable run with tight bends convinced me of this kind of wear and the resulting forces required.

@MAX Burner has a Husky that has figured out how to unlock and open the door from the inside. They are afraid to leave their vehicle keys unattended for fear of him leaving in the truck.

A magnetic catch is indeed useful. However if your trailer is level (particularly side to side) the door will stay in any position you leave it. In fact, I use the bathroom door as an indicator of how level the trailer is.

We added the magnetic door catch years ago, simple but most used mod we’ve made! Mike

I’ve got a few nits to pick about the LEII - but not sure either of these would make my top ten list. The only thing we thought the bathroom door needed was something to hold the door in the open position. For this, we added a simple magnetic cabinet door catch. Come to think of it, I think we only wanted to keep it open was because depending upon how level the trailer is, it tends to close even if you want it to stay open. (Probably because we didn’t want a cat trapped in there.)

I installed the friction hinges a couple of years ago. Liked the operation but uninstalled after watching the door flex more than I was comfortable with.

One of our cats - “Mascot” didn’t appreciate being left inside while my wife and I cooked and sat by the campfire outside. He launched himself at the screen door and managed to unlatch it. His momentum carried him out onto the ground. He looked around, freaked, and then took off into the woods. Lake Vermilion Underground SP - Northers Minnesota. After two hours of me crashing through the underbrush - being able to SEE him but not get a hand on him, we had to face the fact that we weren’t getting him back - and had to leave in the morning to leave the state. Just on a whim, I left the tailgate open on the truck. I didn’t really think that he’d go in there. Luckily, at some point he calmed down and realized he was in the great outdoors without his food bowl. Early the next morning I checked the back of the truck and sure enough, he was tucked w-a-y up at the front of the truck bed. I closed the tailgate on him and fished him out 20 minutes later. He’s escaped at least two more times - but opted to hide under the truck and climb up onto the exhaust system. Luckily, he hasn’t fried himself yet. We’re trying to get him acclimated to a harness, but as most any cat owner can tell you, they turn into meatloafs and refuse to move when you harness them. I guess they get used to it eventually.