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The shower hose I purchased was a stainless steel hose on Amazon: https://a.co/d/0dgsEMfQ   It was very straightforward..open the street side access hatch and a little teflon and you're golden! I have had it on there for five years and it fits just fine and hasn't bound up inside the compartment. Here are a couple shots of the suction mount. It's a ratchet style with two additional suction cups below it for some added strength.

I own a 2026 4-Runner, and I used to own an Elite 1. Even if the numbers indicate it’s possible, I wouldn’t recommend it.

Hi Oliver Family.. It’s been quite a while since I last posted around here, but I just finished a quick little mod for the exterior shower station on the ILOVHER. I do use and absolutely love my wet bath inside the trailer! But before the forum gray-water police sound the sirens: having managed a National Forest campground for five years, I promise I know the rules about gray water and where it belongs. I know there are plenty of places out West that actually permit surface gray-water disposal (and, funny enough, with the wildfire season we're having, the ground could probably use every stray drop). For this upcoming trip, I'll be boondocking in a private field for 12 days, and the owner doesn't mind me showering outside. I'll be using organic, biodegradable shampoo, and with no dump station for miles, keeping gray tank fill to an absolute minimum is the primary mission here. I considered one of the standard pop-up privacy tents, but having used a bicycle tent for camping, I could already envision the poles, stakes, folding/unfolding and general tent wrestling that would be involved. I was looking for something much simpler — something I could put up in a couple of minutes and take down just as quickly. I also wanted to avoid the usual problem of routing the shower hose into a privacy tent. You either have to run the wand through the main zipper opening, which can make the entrance/exit awkward, or start modifying the tent itself. Then I stumbled across these ratchet-style suction arms, and I immediately started thinking, "Oh, I can do something with these!" They reminded me of the SeaSucker-style mounting systems, and the Oliver's smooth, gelcoat fiberglass seemed like the perfect surface for them. I was so excited about the idea that I put the whole thing together and actually showered in my driveway last night just to test it out. 😂 And honestly, I think these are going to work perfectly! The Setup: Ratchet-style suction arms: I found these folding rack arms on Temu. Say what you will about ordering direct from China, but the mechanical ratchet suction on these things locks onto the fiberglass extremely well. They’re designed to hold weight and, so far, they’ve been remarkably solid. DM me if you want the link to the product. Curtains & rings: I used standard shower rings through the cutouts and repurposed heavy shower curtains I already had from a previous project and the bar that goes between the mounts is a simple tomato stake zip-tied tight to the ends. (I may reconfigure that at a later date with tool clips) No modifications to the Oliver: Nothing is drilled, screwed, glued or permanently attached to the trailer. The whole thing takes less than two minutes to set up, packs down flat, provides total privacy (other than wind, LOL) and gives me direct access to the Oliver’s outdoor shower faucets without having to wrestle with a tent or poles. I even have a suction mount for the shower wand. Please note that I have replaced the original ss shower hose with one that is 120" on my ILOVHER. Attached are the suction arms mounted to the Oliver and the full enclosure deployed. I’m pretty pleased with how simple this turned out!

Appreciate your feedback Chris. I recall reading that too, but several owners in your post report otherwise. Please explain. Apparently Oliver is satisfied with Dexter parts durability as that is what they are using on new Apex model. Perhaps you misunderstood my comments. I would never suggest re-using old and/or worn parts. @DanielBoondock has a 2026 model, and has said he lubricated his wet bolts. They should be inspected of course, but there should be essentially no wear on the bolts or shackles. If any wear, it will be the bronze bushings in the springs, which of course are being replaced. I’m not knocking Alcan, I am a customer, just haven't received my springs yet. I’m only summarizing what I’ve read. All of these reported shortcomings are not deal breakers, they are just not ”optimal”. Working together, we can do better, but it’s important to get the facts straight and pay attention to the details on our running gear. We are moving in the right direction, and have Oliver’s attention.

Yes, it’s built on the Tacoma chassis. It’s a light vehicle. The 2026 non-hybrid has a 2.4L turbocharged engine, which works just fine as my wife’s grocery getter.

Unless the new 4Ruuner has a *lot* more oomph than my2016 4.0 six cylinder, I’d say nope! You’ll be at or near cargo capacity with the back of the 4R empty. Mine was woefully underpowered with a 3000 pound trailer. I’m currently in a V8 200 series Land Cruiser, and “adequate” is generous with the EII trailer. I’d never go near the western mountains. Maybe switch up to a V8 Tundra or Sequoia? Friends tow their EI with the new Tundra with zero issues.

I was little off on my post last night. It was the length that I left a little extra meat. OK here are the dimensions of the shackles I built. 1/2 thick x 1-1/2 wide x 4-1/4 long. The distance of the centers of the holes is 2-5/8 which is 3/8" longer than origianal. As far as materials, I called Alcan and found out what they used, and then got the closest material from my son at the manufacturing place he works. It was a hot rolled steel is all that I remember. Here is my original post: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9996-made-in-usa-leaf-springs/page/23/?&_rid=4210#findComment-113853 My son is a welder for a company that makes the equipment for the wood mills that turn logs into wood products. He has been a great source of materials: hot rolled, cold rolled, Stainless Steel, and Aluminum, and UHMW. We try to find scrap materials first, if not we get new. We pay for the materials and they get bag of smoked Cheese twice a year for their troubles. Cost me about $100 a year in Cheese. Not a bad deal, no cutting charge, and the prices are at their cost.

I don't know what exact shackle Oliver is using with the Apex with the Alcan springs. What I do know is the reason to use the Alcan Shackles with the LEII with the 5 leaf springs. The only real thing that I know the Shackle difference is the Dexter are galvanized and the Alcan's are painted. As long as Alcan improved their punch quality they should be the same. Note most all of this is cover somewhere in the 38 pages here. As far as quality goes the both Alcan and Dexter shackles are very close to each other. The original Dexter Have 4 leafs and the 3rd leaf is around 4-5 inches away from the eyelet. With the Alcan 5 leaf the 4th leaf is an inch away from the eyelet. With the 4 leaf so close this is what gives the needed support for the 5 leaf so it will not bust. Here is the rub. The addition of that 5 leaf causes interference with the EZ-Flex and does not allow full movement because of the 4 leaf was interfering with the EZ-flex with Dexter Shackles. What Alcan did was lengthen the distance between holes on shackles to help with the clearances between the 4 leaf and the EZ-flex. (My opinion ON.) I still did not like the distance between the 4 leaf and the ez-flex was still not enough less than .060 in resting state. Due the Alcan punch manufacturing shackle problems at the time, I built my own shackles with an extra 1/2 distance and a slightly wider width on a mill. Opinion Off. As far as wet bolts. I tried the Alcan's wet bolt (they had splines at the time) and torqued to their specs. The shackles and hangers were so tight that no grease would go into the wet bolts. I had to loosen the wet bolt to get grease in. I also felt that the tightness of the Alcan wet bolts hindered free movement of the Ez-flex and leafs. I went back to the Dexter shoulder wet bolts and found that there was 0.010 inch clearance using the Dexter Shoulder bolts with Alcan leafs with the lighter torque. I have around 20K miles since installing the Alcan leafs in this fashion and Happy with the results. How I changed my leafs out. I lifted each side and supported with Jack stands. If I had to do it over again I would probably use Jack stand on all 4 corners. I did get 2 light scissor jacks to lift each axel. I could turn the scissor screws by hand to lift the axel just right to align the EZ-flex and the leafs and hangers. Cheers, Bob

We used to tow a 16’ Airstream Basecamp with a second gen 4wd crew cab Tacoma. We made several trips west to Moab and the mountains were a grunt. The truck was underpowered and I eventually had to add an axillary trans cooler to maintain acceptable trans temps going uphill. Just bc you can doesn’t mean it will be fun. All the above points are also correct, fuel range, braking downhill etc.

This is always a difficult question to answer as an "adequate" towing experience means different things to different people. Your 4Runner will be on the edge of safe towing in my opinion. You will be always having to worry about payload (895+ pounds?) Count on your tongue weight for a fully loaded Elite 1 being at least 400 lbs. Then add passenger weight, hitch weight, cargo weight, and any other add ons. Next, the 4Runner has a relatively short wheelbase which hinders stability, especially in wind. Braking on long mountainous descents will be harder and much scarier as the small displacement turbo gas engine in the 4Runner will not be able to deliver much vacuum braking (not like compression braking in a diesel) and you will be on your brakes a lot more. In fact, I've read turbo gas engines produce less vacuum braking than naturally aspirated gas engines due to their comparitively smaller displacement and lower compression ratios. The Oliver1 is a small trailer, but heavy for its size. You can try it and see how it goes, but every person I know who started out with a light TV eventually got at least a 1/2 ton truck/SUV or more. I tow my Elite 1 with a 3/4 ton truck and just love it. No drama, just a peaceful driving experience. You also need to consider how your TV would handle an emergency like a flat tire, or an animal running out in front of you, not to mention all the jack wagon drivers on the road these days. The Inter-Mountain West you describe as your target area is great country, but can be challenging for towing. One last item that comes to mind is that your range will be pretty limited with only a 19 gallon gas tank. Some things to ponder.... It's a great vehicle, but you'll be running it at its limit. My 2 cents! Good luck! Dave

In June we had our Dexter OEM axles upgraded to 5200's. Our replacement 2400 pound rated Dexters were retained. No reason to replace them after just a couple of seasons. What I did learn of interest follows: As of that time, Alcan has replace abut 300 sets of OEII springs at their shop. They have also sent to other Oliver owners about 450 sets of springs. Both 4 and 5 leaf. They have also sent a bunch of 5 leaf springs to Oliver for use in the new Heavy Duty suspension, and sent four leaf springs for the other 90% of their customers. I specifically discussed with Alcan the repair method for spun spline bolts. He stated that the Hex Head Washer approach IS the best solution. He also stated that the second best solution is to weld a spacer washer and try to create a new splins. I asked if it was his trailer which he wouldl do: He stated the Hex Head Washer approach if how he would do it. I asked what he thought about the Dexter 1750 rated springs: He stated they are too light for a 6K trailer full time loaded. I am glad to hear that OTT has gone with the suggestions made about 30 pages ago..... GJ

Thanks @Dennis and Melissa Had a ticket with Oliver and did a call with them. Oliver support did not have an answer. Now working on a ticket with Truma. I saw someone else post about this on Facebook as well. Will report back what we find out.

Nice shower! Being a man, and given our usual boondocking spots, I'm out there showering in underwear without a curtain. Chris showers inside but I'm outside whenever possible so I don't get the entire wet bath wet! When I do shower inside, I empty the room and then end up hosing the entire wet bath clean too! Most people do not realize dumping grey water is allowed in the National Forests wherever dispersed camping is allowed and when 200 ft from a water source (see USFS Dispersed Camping publication). I'm not certain, but I apply this rule to BLM lands as well. The high desert critters and bugs eat it up and by the next day you wouldn't even know it was there. Drain slowly so not to cause erosion, and an outdoor shower is a small amount of grey water let go slowly. 😎 USFS Dispersed Camping_stelprdb5196126.pdf

This is great. I remember you telling me about your shower hose modification, and would love to know more about that element as well. Does the longer hose fit well? What is it made of and how hard was it to change out? What does the suction cup mount for the hose end look like?

Well, I finished my other projects, semi-retired and I was able to get back to the Shackles on the Oliver. I emailed Alcan around December 16, 2024 and the special die set for punching the shackles without bending them was on still on backorder. So I canceled my order with them. Got some hot rolled low carbon steel, and purchased some Cobalt drills from drill bit warehouse. BTW, I have never used the cobalt drills before. Man are they nice. Cut that hot roll like butter. Never use them in a hand drill they can break easily. Only use something like a mill, Drill press, etc. I only had a .002" variance in Center line on the holes and they assembled easily. I made my Shackles 2-5/8" on centers. The original shackles were 2-1/4". When I was replacing the the leaf springs originally, I found rub marks on all EZ-Flex arms where the original Dexter leafs had rubbed against the arm. With the Original shackles and the new Alcan leafs I had .040 clearance between the 2nd leaf and the EZ-flex arm. The thickness of the individual leaf was about 3/8. So I added 3/8" to the Hole to hole distance making them 2-5/8. THis set the distance close to what the original distance was on the Dexters. This lowered the trailer back down by 3/16", The Alcans raised the height by 1/2" so a net gain of about 5/16" in height. I also went back to the original Dexter Wet bolts. The reason I did this I was having problems getting grease pumped through the bushings with the wet (grease-able) shackle bolts from Alcan when torqued down to 60 Ft/#. The Dexter bolts are shoulder bolts and the Alcan's are straight bolts. The shoulder/wet bolts measured about .010-.015 wider then the shackles/leafs or hangers/leafs. So that meant that Dexter designed that .010-.015 of side to side slop so that grease could moved to all surfaces and the EZ-FLEX could move freely. So I am using the Dexter Wet bolts. I finished all of this before the end of the year. I decided it was time to change all my coolant hoses on the truck before a cross country adventure, added larger heated mirrors with blinkers to the old F250 SD diesel, and did some other maintenance. So I just got the Oliver out on dry pavement (that does happen often in the Pacific NW). I took her on a 105 mile trip. 45 miles was small curvy roads and about 10 miles was rutted, sunken, patch road. The Oliver performed great. I could barely feel her / see her move, and she didn't rock around all over like before. I did my Torques at 9, 45,68,105 mile points. I will plan on torquing her again at 250, 500, 1000 mile marks. I may also do more torques if there is any movement at the 1000 mile point. I feel comfortable where I am at with the suspension. I may go back in a 2-3 years when it is time to re-grease the axle bearings. At that time I will check bushings, wet bolt wear with the leafs and ez-flex. The ex-flex bushings in the arms are not the thickest metal. and I will replace what is needed. When I put the new leafs on I replaced all of the axle bearing with Timken bearings. I also had small spots of rust al over the 3" axle tubes and leaf plates. So I sanded the tubes/plates and what I could of the Brake Backing plates, then coated with a Rust neutralized, primed and painted and coated with Cosmomline RP-342 after everything was reassembled. Hopefully this will stop/deter the rust. I was disappointed that the tubes had a small amount of rust on it when we got the Oli at 9 months old. We also frequent the Pacific NW beaches a lot so that did not help the rust increasing.