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Wrapping up a week in Grand Tetons. Gros Venture is the campground and the fall colors, even though we were a little late, delivered! Also, thought I would post some solar number as some of these days it was really pulling in some good numbers hitting almost 350w out of a 400w panels one day. Another 6 days discounted, running invert most the day with Starlink and laptop and even some small microwave use. Batteries are sitting at 70% still.

I just upgraded from a 2" Bulldog hitch to a 2‑5/16" hitch. Thanks, Patriot, for the information and the link to the Collar Trailer Hitch Lock for Bulldog‑style Couplers. I just placed my order, and it will definitely help with security while towing, since the wire that holds the collar offers virtually no real protection. I’ll be using a Proven lock on that collar so it matches all my other Proven lock keys.

Alex & Kelly, Looks like a great launch into the next chapter of your lives. The Odyssey will take you to many wondrous places throughout this land and your experiences will enrich your lives and souls. Welcome to the Ollie family. I look forward to meeting you at the rally in a few weeks. Pete / site B49

Bandit’s Roost COE Wilkesboro NC, we like the lake and mountain drives, too.

We are Alex and Kelly, the new owners (as of June '26) of Hull 1458, or as we have name it, "The Odyssey." We've been looking at Olivers for a number of years and just couldn't settle, I suspect even frustrating Jason somewhere along the line as he patiently tried to help us make up our minds a couple times. As providence would have it, Hull 1458 (which happens to be a special number for us) popped up for sale early in 2026, and we were able to work out a deal with the former owners (Art and Jill), who graciously waited for Kelly to finish teaching in May this year so we could drive cross country from Florida to Oregon, then take about three months traveling back home and taking in some amazing sites in this beautiful Country we call home (video highlights attached)... We're looking forward to the Rally at Lake Guntersville (THANKS Adam!) later this month... See you all there!! Cannon Beach, Oregon 9F255D47-6E77-4EBD-BC48-D587624552CB.mp4

When we are driving it just sits on the dash. When at camp we just put it wherever we can get a decent sky view. Plugs into our Elite on the outside and with the long power cord it’s easy to work with. It’s a great thing to have for so many reasons

The long wait is finally over!!! 2Dreamin has a new beginning, those planned and those that are unexpected on the road or off the road we are Apex ready. Come along with us on our journey to see what is just around the corner. Click on the link, subscribe and ring the bell to get notifications when a new video or short is uploaded to our YouTube channel. Hull #1738 https://youtube.com/shorts/gxLY7IRslJo?si=UfrcGxzsi_Mkrd0V

Wow, that's the way to start out with your new Oliver! 🤠

Welcome to the family! Remember to bring a camera and a notebook to the Rally. Hopefully we will get a chance to exchange a few words there. Bill

Letchworth Valley Campground, NY

We live in the mountains about an hour from Denver off Highway 285. We hope to attend a big rally someday if one is held close to Colorado, and a smaller regional rally would definitely interest us as well. Thanks for checking out our signature line about the equipment upgrade. I’m still working on it and hope to have everything wrapped up soon. Once it’s finished, I’ll put together a full write‑up and share the process. And yes—I agree that an Oliver‑offered Victron upgrade would definitely appeal to buyers. Dean

Pending your ceramic coating 🙂....a great / inexpensive option is Turtle Wax 50595 Power Foam Bug & Tar Remover. Interesting video here from Dallas Paint Correction. I am sure there are better products, but maybe not for the price and the foaming dwell time. As mentioned in the video, good for bugs horrible for tar. Citrol also works but is a harsh chemical. Just a thought!

Congrats and wishing you all the very best on your adventures. Don’t forget to chock the front of those trailer tires! 😊 Welcome to the Oliver family! Patriot 🇺🇸

As a first step, i wash off with alot of sudsy soap water and sponge bath, letting it soak the bugs, then go bug and tar remover for the relatively few that persist.

What a beautiful start and the perfect name — Odyssey. Welcome to the Oliver family — see you at the Rally!

Thank you topgun2 for getting me in the right string. I think I’m starting to understand how the strings work. We are camping now in Nova Scotia, but when I get the covers off, I’ll take a picture. I think I understand that Baker ships the jacks with vertical steel plates welded to the tubes and Oliver has changed to a single piece steel angle iron, which looks a lot stronger than the older ones. Not sure about the square holes in the steel and iron? if I were making it, I would drill round holes and use regular Bolts and washers instead of carriage bolts.

I haven’t posted for some time but felt I should share a couple of things I’ve done since my last post. I’ve shared that I’m a caregiver, but now full time, for my wife who’s now in late stage Alzheimer’s. Our 2022 Elite I makes it possible for travel still, otherwise it would just be impossible. Since she can’t help in anyway getting prepared and on trips, I’m always looking for ways to make it easier on us. Her mobility has also worsened and though having our toilet with us is a must, it has proved more difficult for her with this loss of mobility. I installed handles and new raised seats on our home toilets at the recommendation of an occupational therapist. Today I installed LianJindun Toilet Safety Rails around the Ollie Toilet. I had us do a test sit down and I could not believe how much easier it was for her and me too. Never thought I could be so excited about toilet rails, but with this disease, you learn to appreciate those little victories. After seeing more notes on the Forum about Lagun table use, I installed one so that she can remain in bed each morning and have her breakfast as mornings are generally difficult. It also provides great counter and prep space and we can both use it. I had new mattresses made last fall by Southern Mattress Co in Rocky Mount NC and they are just like the ones on our beds at home. They split them so I can use them as a full bed or as we do now a single across the back for her an one on the side for me. The Lagun allows us to just leave them in place an use as couches. In the photos, it shows it used with the full bed and the single bed across the back while by girl has her breakfast. Again, the mattresses are from this Forum. I also built from scrap lumber a prototype “loading and storage cart”. Almost all gear I carry on trips that I load into my Subaru Ascent fits on the cart. I wheel it out to load and when back home unload and push it back in. I also purchased a great dolly/cart from DOD that I use for anything else, protecting the old back. This sure has speeded up loading and unloading and made it so much easier. Sadly, I had to cancel our Rally reservations a few months ago as it has just become increasingly difficult for us to take part in the activities. I will miss it. I hope everyone there has a great time. Regards, Ron

That is great advice which I really appreciate. I was able to get the valve partway closed and I put the anode back in. I was able to get pink antifreeze to come out of all faucets hot and cold and outside shower. So all good for now. Next spring I will drill and cut a new access hole thankyou for the help

Ron, Like your modifications and improvements making it possible for you and Phyllis to continue to travel and camp. We also found our Ollie to make it easier for us to travel and camp when dealing with medical issues. Debbie and I will keep you and Phyllis in our Prayers. God Bless, Bill and Debbie

Nice color!

Nice place! Bill

Be careful out there on the way back to the "Mothership". See you soon. Bill

This morning I hit the road east-bound... it's a sad day as I turn around after many weeks of joy in my Oliver. I'm looking forward to seeing many fellow Oliver owners in Alabama. Bon voyage to all who are Rally-bound! as seen on my way to dinner with family last night in Colorado....

Getting closer to the rally. Lake Manawa SP in Council Bluffs Iowa. Clear view across lake to the Mutual of Omaha building.

Daisy Barn campground just outside of Niagara Falls

Is the hot water also blocked at the bathroom sink? (They are separate lines.) If cold only, there is one line that feeds the bathroom (see plumbing schematic). What I would do first is blow air through all of your lines. Bypass your hot water heater first. I do this to winterize. Air will empty the lines and perhaps could move an obstruction. I made this tool to connect to the City Water inlet. You'll need a decent air compressor with good air volume. Set compressor pressure to 50 PSI which is your water pump pressure. Given it's both the toilet and bathroom faucet, it cannot be the toilet filter or the faucet restrictor. If air does not help, you could try it in the reverse direction. Take off the faucet head and with another attachment blow air from the bathroom faucet back. Hope this helps! Best wishes, JD

I've used the Mini (with the built-in router, not an extra router) for 2 years and I've never had issues with connections or slow service for internet, though sometimes phone calls drop (but only a handful of locations over more than 12 months of use). I use the cord-out-the-window and satellite on the ground method. My plug won't fit into the Oliver outdoor waterproof plug; it's too bulky to get into the recess.

It’s the Starlink router, RJ45. The dish came with a pretty long power cable and we got a similar length cable for the router. We ran the cable from the dish back to the trailer, through the dinette window (screen slightly open) to the router that we set on the dinette table. Beside the tonneau cover and tongue box we’ve used the picnic table to set the dish on, and we’ve also just set it on the ground. Just wherever has the best shot to a clear sky in the right direction. If we’re gone for the day I just bring it inside until we get back.

Everybody note... The new Oliver ApeX-23 is designed and advertised to be an off-GRID trailer NOT an off-ROAD trailer.

With all of this good info @jd1923 and the other thread on greasing the head, I decided since the Oli is down for 3 months before we take her back out, I would Pull the jack apart and grease everything in the head, tubes and drive screw. A few thing I learned/did. 1. The helical drive gear on the Curb side motor had a small amount of wear, the other two were not visible. I think that I hit the top more often since it is hard to see across the trailer specially with the mud flaps added. 2. The 3 set screws holding the head to the shaft had red thread lock. Used a heat gun to help loosened them. 3. The 2 carriage bolts holding the Rear jacks to the bracket where Stainless steel with a two way lock nut (two dimples on nut). They used so much force to putting on the nut on that it gulled the thread inside. It took 80-100 ft/pounds to get the nuts completely off and was a rear bear. I got one off by my self, but it was tough holding the carriage hold in while trying to remove the nut. I ended up getting help with the others from my son. The last nut was so hard just to hold it in, when we got the nut far enough off we used a 1/2 open end wrench on the square of the carriage head. 4. The chalk on the outside of the trailer adhered to the jack , but not the trailer. when the carriage bolts were remove, the jacks just dropped down down about 1/4" and then I just lifted it back up through the whole. I luckily didn't find any signs of water inside the trailer. 5. The three 1/4" Socket head cap screws holding the outside tube to inner assembly had Gray thread lock, they were tight to remove but doable without heat. 6. The drive screws came out easily with two 1/2" dowels. 7. The grease between the tubes was clean on the top, and dirty on bottom. All of the grease was getting hard. 8. All of the drive screws had some grease on them, two had bare minimum, and one had slightly more. The front jack had a little more grease than the rears. 9 The rear jacks I remove the motor and left it in the trailer. So I could clean and partially grease the assembly on the work bench. then finished greasing during assembly in the trailer with redline CV2 . 10. I remove the whole front (tongue) jack as a unit and did the cleaning a greasing on the work bench. The front jack was little more time consuming to clean since the power wire run up into the bottom of the case and then wires run up through the top of the case. I removed the switches and light from the plastic case top and got it out of the way so I had more room to clean and grease the case halves. 11. I did re-grease in between the tubes, just because they did at the factory. I know it may make more work for me latter. 12. I really liked butyl tape idea for sealing the tube back in the trailer . I put a little more on the tube than @jd1923 and formed a slope on the bottom side. When the tube was inserted the butyl went all the way through the hole in the trailer. I work the butyl from the top making sure it was pressed tightly to the and in the hole. I did not caulk the bottom, I used butyl added a little more to the bottom to completely seal the bottom with 3/8 per side. I am not sure how well the butyl will continue to seal on the outside, but it couldn't be any worse than the caulking job that was done at the factory. 13. I did replace the original Carriage bolts with steel, Nylock lock nut, and lock washer. 14. I used an enamel pen marker making a mark 1-1/2" from the bottom of the inside tubes for a stopping point. Instead of allowing the foot to come too far up. I started with the Rear curb side jack (12hours), then the Front jack (7hours), lastly the Rear street side jack (5 hours). I also called Baker and receive 3 gaskets for free. before starting the project. I need one for the front. the other came off easily. I also use liberal amounts of redline CV2 grease on everything. Thanks for listening