Leaderboard

We spent 4_days here. So so quiet amongst the trees and mountains. 1000 foot elevation and New England's largest lake. The moose and deer seemed friendly too. Even with the tall trees the solar charged everything before 9:30...

I installed an Access Door to the basement in my Ollie; it was not an option when we ordered it. I got the door from Jason at Oliver for $99.50 + tax. They charge $175 for one installed, on the build sheets. I covered the areas to be cut with blue tape, and measured carefully where I wanted to cut. I cut holes in the four corners with a hole saw, and then cut the straight areas with a jig saw with a fine metal cutting blade. This website helped. After cutting, installing the door was easy. We really like the door. The backend of the basement had rarely used items (i.e. extra hoses, 50A to 30A adaptors) that we now store in the tow vehicle. With the access door, we now store our extra shoes at the back of the basement. We are happy with it.

hobo - You might want to PM ScubaRx about this. I don't think that he did the exact thing you are talking about, but, he did install two very similar doors in the propane tank cover area. Bill

Well that is good news, especially this close to my bed time. I shall sleep easier tonight knowing the Golden Arches won’t be polluting the dark skies of the canyon. And after cutting the grass today in near 90° heat, I sure would've enjoyed one of Dave's chocolate Frostys. Mossey

What Mike said. And, thanks Mike, for composing exactly what I was thinking. The only caveat that I would add is: In creating ducted A/C system (as cool as it is [pun]) would be difficult, if not downright impossible, with the current upper body shell configuration. It would have to be completely redesigned to accommodate the ducting.

Well, gentle readers (with special attention to Mossey), I must confess that I erred in my previous statement. With a little more digging and some "gentle persuasion" from my good friend 'Hardrock', it has come to my attention that the Wendy's and McDonald's is not, in fact, located within the confines of the Grand Canyon -South Rim NP. Rather they are located at Tusayan, AZ, about two miles from the South Entrance. I hope we can all breathe a little easier with this knowledge. Sorry for the confusion. Seriously, I have contacted my representative in regards to this issue.

John Davies suggested that I should start a new thread about my Tuson TPMS installation and attach some pictures. The first picture shows the Blue Sea bus bar, 4 fused circuits, that I installed under the dinette seat adjacent to the pantry. This is where the ground bar is located and as far as my power cable from the repeater reached. The repeater is installed under the dinette seat adjacent to the bathroom. Tuson says they want the repeater as far forward as possible and facing a certain direction too. I snaked the cable in the basement under dinette and there is a picture that shows where I installed it. In this picture, you can see the power cable that I ran to the Blue Sea bus bar. It is fused too. The two spares are still attached via a tie wrap and can be see right behind the transfer switch cable. You can see the smaller red power cable connected to the first circuit on the bus bar. If you look closely, you will see that I added a 4 position ground bar which tees with the original ground bar. I removed the screw that Oliver installed to hold the ground bar and replaced with one long enough to account for the thickness of the 4 position ground bar. The next picture shows the Oliver main 12 volt bus bar. The orientation is messed up, but left is down and right is up. This bus bar is located just beyond the fused breaker under the street side bed adjacent to the pantry. The power cable that supplies the bus bar I installed is connected over the positive battery cable that is fed from the fused breaker just visible to the right, but displayed on the bottom of this picture. The third picture is an additional picture of the fused power cable that I installed. Finally, the fourth picture shows the TPMS repeater and I snapped the picture upside down. It is attached with the peel and stick rubber backing. The wire adjacent to it is power for the LED courtesy light on the dinette seat wall adjacent to the aisle. I am not sure how important it is or not, but one of purported benefits of installing the repeater using the battery power is to get readings from the RV batteries while you drive. I am not sure how important that really is, but Tuson really wants me to have the repeater installed due to the overall length of the trailer. The repeater could be installed on the outside because it is waterproof. It only activates, like the TPMS transmitters inside the tires, when the trailer moves, so they are all powered off when the RV is sitting still after a period of time. The LED display is pretty old school, but the functionality seems good. The display can rotate between the tire pressure, tire temperature and battery reading or the preferred screen can be selected. It alarms for low and high pressure and high temperature. Low tire pressure will activate the TPMS sender too without the RV moving which I will test at some point. David Caswell

Congratulations. I would take the extra time you have to build a few different plans. Flexibility is key. We went TN to NY to WA in late September to Early October. IT was hot enough that we used the AC in NY, and the weather was supposed to be good the entire route when we started. When we stopped in WI the forecast looked less good on 94 and for crossing the cascades, and potential dusting in Yellowstone so I had snow tires delivered to Rapid City and we opted to take 90. We camped in Mitchell, SD with what was now a chance of snow on our route between there and Rapid City, SD - it was supposed to be like 3 hours 45 minutes and a short day. We started out to a light rain, but still warmish weather, and suddenly blizzard conditions happened - snow and 40-50mph wind. We pulled off into a KOA and rested after passing a few sites like the one below - there were about a dozen overturned semis . So we changed our plans yet again, and it took us three days longer to get to Yellowstone. So I'd make a plan for each of the corridors -- 40 might be rough in the winter -- or it might be fine, or maybe 70/80 end up being fine. Make sure you know what is open on your route as many parks/sites will close for the season. If you do 10/20 - there are some nice sights to see, but it depends on what interests you, what is the COVID-19 situation, and how circuitous you are willing to be. For planning we used google "my maps" https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/ which let us plot everything that interested us, friends and family, etc... Based on that we had an idea of what we could see on a given route, and if enough stuff was clustered together it might be worth the detour.

Yes, this gives access to the part of the basement that is furthest from the basement door. The stuff I had stored there was in a milk crate, and it was so far back that I made a retrieval device - a hook on a long dowel rod.

Having traveled from Az to Tn for many years, in winter i10 can be a better route,I 40 is good, but may be worse weather wise, and at times, both are impassable in some areas I would guess I10/I20 would be your best bet, once you've gone far enough south. Good traveling and welcome to the club.

We have found there are really good phone apps for road conditions. See this earlier post.

Thanks. I do worry that if we both want to be using a table surface for something at the same time, one sitting area won’t be enough. Very good point about working on the road. I am hoping that I can eventually work remote, and I will need some dedicated table and sitting space for most or all of each work day. I may be over estimating our storage needs and underestimating the available storage in the Elite II. I have to keep in mind that we will also have room in our tow vehicle for storage. I like the option for the storage cabinet instead of the microwave, even though for our current life style we use our microwave all of the time.

We don’t have the Lagun table. It wasn’t available in 2015 and we’ve grown accustomed to our current set up. Since we have mattresses we don’t sit on the beds to eat or do computer work. Eating and computer work is done at the dinette, or more usually, outside. When we read we often use pillows on the bed to form rather comfortable “recliners”. I installed a Sirius/XM receiver that runs through our Furrion so we can get all of our news/weather/music through the speakers. We rarely turn on the TV except for an occasional DVD. I’ve thought about removing it all together. Mike

Holding out for an Apple DOS version

As the founding member of the National Organization to Summarily Wipe Out Oliver Swooshes Henceforth, I must say that swooshes are only meant for slab sided trailers and RVs that need camouflage to disguise the inherent blandness of both the vehicles and their owners. A simple stripe would do nicely, Oliver.

We have the twin bed and we use the side dinette a lot. The twin beds serve as “recliners”, especially for reading and on the rare occasion we watch TV.

IMHO the tv should ALWAYS be raised when not in use. Three reasons.... It blocks the view and daylight coming from the back glass. It is so very unattractive. But most critically, it blocks your only emergency route in case of fire or something nasty trying to get in the door. Have you ever practiced an emergency egress, especially if you have a rear rack? It is awkward even under very ideal conditions. I removed the fixed mount tv entirely the day “Mouse” got home. I haven’t missed it even once. I can watch downloaded stuff on an iPad with wireless headphones or cuddle up with my wife to watch. If you take it out you can put a fan back in the corner. I think the trailer looks much better without that huge appliance. John Davies Spokane WA

I wouldn't sacrifice the fold up storage for the additional screen size of a 32. It will probably ride okay in the down position but seems to me, with the additional width, it will always be in the way. The 28" Transit hangs over the sides of the nightstand about 2 inches which isn't such a big deal. Before committing, I'd check the dimensions of the 32 Jensen carefully with a cardboard template to see if you can live with the size. As far as the sound bar: I thought about maybe adding a small external one but we always run the TV sound through the DV3300 speakers using ARC mode, which is satisfactory for now. I did however replace the speakers with 6.5" Pioneers which are much cleaner than the 5" Jensens. The Transit operate like I expect a TV to operate. The Furrion was immediate frustration from the first time I powered it on. Slow remote command response and some inopportune screen menu timeouts were my main issues with it, aside from the postage stamp screen size. The Transit is a bit more expensive and you loose the second/redundant DVD player but I have no regrets.

Jason told me Oliver is not going to use the 2020 brand next year. He did not tell me what company they were going to use.

Man, I was tickled to death to replace Pine (web browser) with Netscape. It was right up there with going from Windows 2.xx to Windows 3.1.

Trojan T-105's are golf cart batteries, they are 6 volts with 225 AH. Four of them wired to give you 12 volts will equal 450 AH with 225 AH available for use and not go below 50% usage. They are the same size as the Trojan AGM's. They are also 6 volts with 200 AH. Four of them wired to give you 12 volts will equal 400 AH with 200 AH available for use and not go below 50% usage. I don't believe Oliver currently offering the T-105's as an option. The battery tray will handle either four of these batteries. There are LiFePo4 batteries that are the same dimensions but are rated at 100 AH each and will give you access to 90% of their 400 AH capacity, along with longer life and shorter charge times. They do cost a "little" more, however.

Really beautiful! Thanks for the photos! Sherry

Dometic sells a number of more innovative, more quiet products in markets outside North America. Their Freshlight ac has an integrated skylight, with shade, ac, and a heat pump. Not available here. Pricey in Europe. I can only hope the US will see some more innovative ac products in the near future. Most of what is available here is noisy and inefficient, imo. I'd love to see a danfoss/secop 12 volt unit, like some trucks have. Or even some of the more innovative, less power hungry units sold in Europe and Australia, like the Dometic Freshjet and Harrier. I wouldn't be surprised to see Oliver offer the Truma Combi someday, if enough people ask for it, since they've been installing the Truma water heater for years, as an option. From what I've read, it's a really nice system. You're the first person that I can recall, on this board, with experience with it. Unfortunately, Truma won't support warranty issues on a non-OEM install of a Combi. There are some units floating around through secondary sources (probably from the Hymer factory shutdown?), but you're on your own if you buy and install aftermarket. Truma also recently started selling a "quiet" more traditional furnace in the US, the Varioheat. I talked to our local Truma office on Lakeland about it last year. A nice feature is a very quiet sleep mode. Sherry

There are a number of threads on the forum that talk about desired modifications. Recently, there was one about designing a larger trailer, sort of an Elite III. But, since we’re talking about the current model here are my thoughts- 1. The current windows are fine. If available I would probably go with windows with awnings. 2. The A/C is something I would definitely change. The current Dometic is much too loud. We use it only as a last resort and then shut if off as soon as the outside temperature allows. A ducted system would probably result in quieter operation. If ducting could be routed in the middle of the ceiling then you wouldn’t have to sacrifice space in the side overhead storage. 3. Our fridge is fine. It is pretty efficient on propane. We never run it on 12V. 4. I don’t t think we’d use an oven. The trailer isn’t too big and it seems that it would heat up the interior quite a bit. We mostly grill outside and sometimes use the gas cooktop. 5. I have no Truma experience. The Truma Combi sounds nice. The current propane furnace works well. I wouldn’t say it is loud but it does wake me up sometimes when it cycles on. We only use it if we don’t have 30a, otherwise we just use a small Vornado heater that is very quiet. We have the standard hot water tank and it works well for us. Mike

Oh yea! We pick up hull # 626 (demo) available Sept 8 which has Lithium ion Batteries, 340 watt Solar package & 3000 watt inverter.

I just noticed the high PSI needed for the Oliver tires, my battery start'' combination air unit does not cut it. What are you guys operating with? thank Yukon.

Peter - I'll also add my welcome to you. Don't worry about lack of Forum use - you'll get better the more you interact here. The most important thing about picking up your Oliver is to enjoy yourself. All the other stuff can be learned - which is half the fun. Review as much as you can here on the Forum before you go and specifically take a look at the Oliver University for your model of Ollie - https://olivertraveltrailers.com/oliver-university/ AND, if you have not viewed it certainly take a look at the what to expect video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TES5Qhr7DQc Finally, let all of us know how it went for you and if there is anything we can do. Bill

The unit was at a Rally. According to Phil's video it has 2 (maybe 3?) group 24 batteries. Supposedly they will run an ac for up to 4 hours, run time. The batteries supposedly will charge from flat to full charge, in 4 hours. (Said will release in a couple of weeks, as they are "fine tuning" the specs?).

Agreed, no lithium logo per Oliver’s comment on the Oliver Owners FB page. I also saw a comment from Oliver saying lithium batteries will run the AC. Spoke with Anita this morning, she said details of this package would be released In the weeks to come. The Ollie is on its way to the Hiawassee Rally to show off the new lithium pro package.

I agree with John on these points. I have two #40 English Setters that are hunting dogs. I spend weekends all fall with the two dogs in the Oliver. Most of the time I’m solo and the dogs get the other bunk at night. When my wife is along (mostly in the summer) the camper can get tight with 2+2 in the camper. Once it starts raining the dogs get moved to their kennels in the back of the Land Cruiser. Two wet and muddy dogs get to be too much. Often at the start of the day when they are rested and wound up they are too much and I put them in their kennels just to get a break from their constant energy while I get ready for the day. They also get left in the kennel until I can go over them well for ticks. Even though I have a tick plan, on a good day they can each carry a few dozen ticks into the Oliver. Yuck! Have a plan B for kenneling the dogs if you decide to get an Oliver. In my situation its too small for two active dogs and two adults 100% of the time. HTH, Ken

How great to see Washington Ollies!!! We will be picking ours up in July! I hope those of us in the Pacific Northwest will create a rally so we can meet and learn from one another and share stories. Welcome to the group! Mirna & PK

Here's a word document template to build your own Oliver Supplies Checklist: Quick Supply List.docx

You never know abour February weather in Hohenwald. We picked ours up , about the same date, great weather. Though chilly, jacket or sweater weather . Definitely, keep an eye on weather.com. it can also be really crappy, same week. We wish you many miles of smiles, and fair weather for pickup. Love our little 2008 legacy I Sherry

This was shared with me today. Thought it made a decent post here...

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: it’s absolutely asinine that, as manufactured, you have to open the basement door to pull the dump valves and if it’s raining water runs off the roof onto the open basement door. I know you can add auto drain valves and do other mods to get around this but this design should never have made it into production. And yes, it’s raining right now and I’m having to dump my tanks. Edited to add: Even though this is bothersome, I still wouldn’t trade my Oliver for another RV 🙂

Lucky you, I am so jealous. That looks like a great campground. We are stuck in Florida on day 96 of my mother in-law's ALF lock down and Krunch is not budging. Mossey