Leaderboard

Different vendors. The other one is Amazon Prime with free shipping. You can create a price watch here, and buy when the price gets in your comfort range, or just use Google to check Wally World, Home Depot and other big box stores. https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B06XGN8LXK I use that site all the time and it has saved me many hundreds of dollars. It has also caused me to buy stuff I definitely should not have bought, just because the price dropped..... buyer beware! 😀 John Davies Spokane WA

My water heater quit working on gas a couple of days after delivery. I did some basic troubleshooting and determined after ten minutes that the ignitor was not firing. The system would cycle on and off three times, then lock out with a solid red light. The overtemp switches were not tripped, and there was gas, which I proved by carefully sticking a long camp stove lighter in the burner hole. I clicked the lighter and the flame POPPED and whooshed out and burned all the hair off the back of my hand. Check, there is gas! Note to self: do not do this again... I called Jason at Oliver Service and asked if he could send me a replacement board so I could install it myself. He told me that they do not warranty the appliances and I would have to take it to an RV dealer for repair. Fine.... I found a new OEM module on Amazon for $79, and also a much better aftermarket one for about the same price, but it would require a new plastic cover. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B0002MG2IK/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=IY2Y0Y0X7RVZF&colid=1X5H11EH41351 https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B007HRVXY6/_encoding=UTF8?coliid=I3LZPCEN833TPC&colid=1X5H11EH41351 Since it was going to be a warranty repair, and I am a confirmed cheapskate, I scheduled an appointment at a local shop in Spokane. They told me it would be three weeks before they could see me, and that they stocked a lot of boards for the Suburban heaters, so most likely they could fix it while I waited. I told them that I would be surprised if the job took more than fifteen minutes, and access to it was great. Three weeks later I showed up, checked in, watched with concern as they took Mouse away, and then I waited. Half an hour later I was called into the office. "The board is bad." ME: "Right, I knew that and I told your tech." "In order to do this under warranty we have to order a replacement board from Suburban, and it will take two to six weeks to get here, do you need the water heater to work before then?" ME: silence, counting to ten very slowly. "Sir?" ME: "I do need it to work on propane. Is there an alternative?" "We can install an aftermarket Dinosaur Electronics board, it is a much better part and has a five year warranty, and we have plenty of those in stock since the Suburban boards fail so often." ME: Sinking heart. "How much would that cost?" "The board is $129 and the cover is $10, and it will be $279 total with labor." ME: "I wish this was mentioned when I talked three weeks ago. Just put it back together and I'll order the part from Amazon and fix the heater in two days." "OK, fine, that will be $50 plus tax for the diagnosis." As I left, the tech who did the work told me quietly, "I left your old board on the floor at the entry, and I also left a used one that was in our junk box. We strip stuff like that off old water heaters when we scrap them. It will probably work fine for years. They sure did build your trailer nice!" I was floored and relieved, and my faith in mankind got a very small boost. I thanked him and left with Mouse, feeling a lot better. I got home, plugged in the board and the heater fired right up. Woohoo! My old (brand new) board that failed (water pump is to the left): The underside, showing the bottom of the fried resistor. The white foam strip goes on the PC board and keeps it off the mounting surface (the water pump and manifold assembly plate). If I had the notion, I could have replaced that resistor for less than a buck.... I don't know how I should feel about the dealer, their parts prices are _over_ MSRP and they sure try to screw you, but then the tech went way out of his way to make things right. He could have got into trouble with his boss, too. Moral of story: unless it is an expensive repair or you can live without a part for a long time, just fix it yourself or have a buddy do it for you. I hope to never go back to a dealer, ever. There is no way I was going to leave Mouse there, and then have everybody start crawling around inside, looking. John Davies Spokane WA

As we get closer to finalizing our 2021 Oliver Elite II order, I am picking up bits and pieces of changes in features from the 2020 to the new model. While many are obviously stated on the Oliver site, some don't specify the make/model of equipment. In addition, some cosmetic changes are not specifically stated. My suggestion to Oliver would be to compile a list of these changes so those who have been shopping based on the 2020 model specs will know what to expect. I will share what I discover as I finalize our build, based on questions answered by our sales rep. Forum members, please share any new information you have. I hope this information will help those who are still shopping and provide assistance to those in the process of configuring their Oliver trailer. The Forum already has an open discussion regarding the new standard awning in this thread. I will share additional items discovered from conversations with our sales rep, editing this post as new information comes my way. Frosted or Black are still the upper cabinet door options. The change is that the rear attic and the bathroom cabinet doors no longer have mirrored doors; they will match your choice for the other cabinets.

We had hot water in approx 8-9 seconds at the kitchen sink on our last trip. No complaints here. 😊 We just turn the Truma off even though it sips LP. Agreed, in the end ya gotta go with what suits your camping style and needs. I do think the higher tech Truma system is an added value on eventual resale. And thinking forward, the truth is we all will sell at some point someday. Just another view point.

I vote for the Truma and I would not be surprised if it becomes a standard at some point with all new Oliver’s. (Out with the dated and in with new technology). So far we have not had any issues ours and we have a Truma tech close by our home in the event we do. Long hot showers are a wonderful thing! Just another point of view. 😊

I figured out what the optimum water temperature is (for us). I placed a temperature sensor from our suite under the insulation of the water heater tank. When we need hot water, I just watch the temp monitor until the water heater measures the correct temp and then we know it's ready to go. It takes a lot less time to heat up and doesn't use as much propane. Full disclosure: I got that idea from topgun2.

Our 2014 Sierra 1500 had it. I panicked on a trip when I glanced down at the Alternator gauge and saw it was not putting out anything. I stopped at a GMC dealer in some little town and was informed about what was going on. Turning on the lights or tow/haul mode will initiate it, but it is not instantaneous. It took about 10-15 minutes for the needle on the gauge to register an increased output. I suppose the Silverado 2500 has it also, but I've never noticed. I would be remiss to recommend not using your vehicle to add to your trailer battery charging and just relying on solar. Like Mike stated, the sun does not always shine and a few continuous dark, cloudy, rainy days will necessitate turning to other means of charging such as putting the generator out in the rain and getting it running or (horrors) driving somewhere you can pay for a hookup. Or, you could always just go home.

Shop around.

I agree about the Truma. We have one in our motorhome. While it works well, I have always worried, if it needed repair or replacement, Truma authorized service would be hard to find, at least on the West Coast. I will say, it is easier to drain than the Suburban. No tools needed. I am opting for the standard water heater for our Elite II. When we purchased our RV, we had no choice - it came only with the Truma Comfort Plus. We like it, but the Truma Oliver is installing is the Truma Comfort - but not the Plus model. The plus has a pump that recirculates the water in the faucet supply lines so you don't have to waste water waiting for the hot to get there. Not having this feature would negate some of the benefit of on demand hot water in respect to water usage and grey water storage. For this reason, and the lack of Truma service centers, the standard heater will do fine. We only turn it on our water heater when hot water is needed. We'll just have to remember to do that a bit sooner. I also like that we can use shore power to heat water where the Truma is only LP powered.

We have had driving days when there was not enough sun to charge our batteries. Last year while driving from Glacier to Bozeman we had heavy clouds and rain, it was dark. That same trip while camping at Grand Teton we had several similar days when our batteries were not charged late in the afternoon. Running the furnace at night took more from our batteries than the gray clouds and rain allowed back in. I had to pull out the generator for several hours. My trucks have been Rams and a Toyota and we’ve not had any issues charging while towing. Some days we were glad we did because the sun was nowhere to be found. Solar works great in the sun.

I know solar will top off any batteries (Lithium included) during a day trip. I'm hoping there isn't a problem with just a fan or a few small things running in the Ollie while towing at night without the hot lead from the TV. My understanding is that the configuration of the trailer harness lead does vary from vehicle to vehicle, so your mileage may vary with this answer. With my TV (older Silverado), I have a standard "always hot" lead on my trailer harness - nothing fancy - it's a 12v x 40amp circuit on my truck. I removed the 40 amp fuse to kill that power just about the day I brought the truck home 14 years ago to "not use" the lead. I didn't like the idea of having to worry about disconnecting the trailer every time I parked the truck to protect against phantom power draw or whatever else might lead to a dead battery - and at 40 amps it could happen very quickly if not careful. Some trucks are wired so that the lead is only hot when the ignition is on and many come with a dummy fuse in place of a real one so an owner can enable the lead only if needed. I'd prefer that but I've never bothered rewiring my truck. I am going to wait and see what other owners do here because of my inexperience with travel trailer batteries in general, but if I have to put my fuse back in to make that lead hot I'll look into a heavy duty alternator and rewire to have it only hot when the ignition is running. As it stands now, I'm running a small data center in my truck already so power is more limited there than it will be with the Ollie. When on a roadtrip, we typically have 2 iphones, an ipad mini, my truck performance monitor, my backup camera, our cellular hot-spot/wifi router, our cell phone signal booster, my wife's laptop for work and a 12v powered dometic cooler running and being powered simultaneously!

Why does the blue 7 cup cost more than the red 11 cup by 35%?