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There's a great spot right above Green River, Wyoming. You can search for Pilot Butte Wild Horse Scenic Loop for more info. Basically, find Wild Horse Canyon Road and take it north under I-80 and up a gravel road. It's a good incline for about three miles, 4x4 not required, and then it levels out onto a plateau. There are a number of pullouts where you can boondock. There are herds of wild horses that roam around. We were on the side of the gravel road and a few cars went past every now and then but it was no problem. Great views.

I realize I might be an odd duck, but I can't say enough about this national monument. It's strange but I love it. There are about 50 campsites, first come first serve. No reservations. I pulled in today at 11:30 and had my pick of almost any site. Some too small for the Ollie but most are plenty big. There are nice flush toilets nearby and water faucets spaced throughout. Most sites aren't too close together.

In case anyone is interested. This company came inadvertently recommended to by Jason over at Oliver. The detailer he recommended uses their products so this is why I say inadvertently. I spoke with Christian on the phone, who can be seen in this video using Glidecoat's cermaic coat on a 12 year old RV. He recommends the 30' DIY kit and says that it is pretty simple to use. I mentioned to him my hesitancy about doing this DIY and he assured me that it would not be too difficult + would not need to worry if I also used this buffer, as it wouldnt be powerful enough to damage the Oliver clear coat easily: https://www.autogeek.net/porter-cable-buffer-value-kit.htmls DIY Product link: https://www.glidecoat.com/product/rv-ceramic-top-coating-kit/ The total price to do this DIY would be around 700-800 dollars including the buffer. Then, every 2-3 years it would require me doing the re-coating which he told me should not be as labor as intensive after the first round.

If you have an iPhone, you could put an Airtag between the walls with a hidden fish line to recover it for battery replacement. If you have a composting toilet you could even put it in the black tank. Even if the thief had an iPhone and knew enough to know one was in the trailer, he’d be so frustrated trying to find it, he might dump the trailer.

Victron has begun touring much of the USA with a series of free classes, combining classroom and hands-on, for end users and pros. Looks like a great learning opportunity. https://www.victronenergy.com/blog/2021/07/13/victrons-massive-north-america-training-tour/ They also offer free online learning classes: https://www.victronenergy.com/information/training

Greetings, all y’all - We’re Mike and Christy from Oklahoma, retired and pretty good at it. We ordered our 2022 Elite II in February, Hull 970, and are in line for delivery the first week in December. Following the wisdom of the Forum, we now have a pretty good idea of what to expect as owners of a EII. We are updating from a 40 sq ft pop up camper to the new space - with amenities of an Ollie. Looking forward to seeing all y’all on the road! Mike

Our neigjbor paid an outrageous price for ceramic, on his 28 ft boat, on his lift. It didn't last two years in the Florida sun. He sold the boat. I'll stick with wax.

We had two AGM batteries in our Ollie and replaced both AGMs with one 100AH Battleborn lithium. Installing a lithium battery was a great decision for us. Our Ollie does not have factory solar package or inverter. We use a portable 100W solar panel, but decided not to take the solar panel on this mountain trip. Run a Honda Gen-Set about 60 minutes daily on this trip to heat water for showers and charge battery to 100%. Saving LP gas for refrigerator and cooktop use. Using one single lithium battery, it stays above 70% after 24 hours of use before recharging with Progressive lithium charger with gen-set. Really like how fast the lithium battery recharges, too! Saved weight using a lithium battery. Our LE2 ready to camp weight is under 5000 lbs, with other Ollie mods. Edited

John at what size shelter are you getting those quotes of $350 per month. Where I live there are enclosed 12x30 storage shelters for $185 per month. For the last 6 years I have rented an open but overhead covered shelter for just barely over $100 per month, but this past year the new owners have increased the prices twice for a total of a near 60% increase in one year. I told them to take a hike and left, but still looking for an appropriate place to store especially during the winter months. I don't have the option of building an onsite storage where we live in the downtown historical area.

I was on board until I got to this part. He is trying to rip you off. You can get an awful lot of regular exterior detail jobs for that money, a local shop charges about $250 for a small egg trailer (or similar boat). I would rather put that cash toward something tangible like 300 AH of lithium batteries….. The very best thing you can do to keep your Ollie looking great is to get it under cover, not a cloth one, to keep the sun, ozone, sap and critters off it. An extra $1200 annually might help pay for covered storage. How much does that cost where you live? Around here it is $350 per month, if you can even find a place, which is one (small) reason I had an RV Bay attached to our new home five years ago. It was a $30,000 option, but I got insulated and sheet rocked walls there and in the garage too. I have already saved over $20k compared to a rental, and that doesn’t include gas money and my wasted time driving back and forth to the storage lot. John Davies Spokane WA

We are at Sunset View Campground in Harrington, Maine. This is our last of 3 nights here. I would highly recommend this place. Clean, beautiful scenery on the water, terrific owner on site, friendly campers and quite. The pace of life up here is so much slower than along the coast from Bar Harbor south. We took a day trip up to Lubec. Just fabulous, I had been as far as Cutler before but never to the most eastern point in the USA, Lubec. As Mcb said the tides are dramatic. I would like to take that trip to Mannan sometime. The bridge to Campabello Island Canada is due to open on August 9. We talked to a reporter from the Bangor Fox station doing filming a report for the tv news. She was new to Maine from Los Angeles and was blown away by the beauty of the place. We head home in the morning. We saw another Ollie in Ellsworth on our way north. The Ollie was "Sailors Ashore". Kind of cool to see another Ollie in the wild. Safe and fun traveling to everyone!!

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/1059-gpscellular-based-tracking-device/ Search “GPS Tracker” and you will find some more threads. John Davies Spokane WA

I bought a decent quality torque wrench for checking the lug nuts as well as other important nuts and bolts. This let me verify that they're at the correct tightness but allowing me to not go over that. Which seems worth a little money though it also adds to payload weight. I've found with my new ish trailer and its aluminum rims that some of them have continued needing a little more tightening from time to time to be at the recommended torque. No way I'd have been able to judge that just by feel

OLIVER FORUM GUIDELINES Welcome to the Oliver Forum, a great place for Oliver Travel Trailer owners and future owners to interact, share knowledge, solve problems, and most importantly, to develop friendships. Respectful and considerate responses help build this community. You’ll find a wealth of experiences here, and many owners willing to share their experiences. Have fun, but please keep others’ viewpoints in mind. Respectfully state your point, share your information, or ask your question. Keep it casual and friendly. Reread your post before you hit submit. Is it helpful? Thoughtful? Please try to stay on the original topic of the thread. Confusing the issue may cause the member’s original question to go unanswered. Start a new topic if you have a new question. It’s important for all members to have the environment and opportunity to contribute in a considerate manner, and to learn. Inflammatory and trolling comments shall be removed by a volunteer moderator. We encourage members to use the “REPORT” function (bottom right corner of each post) to help us, as we’re not reading every post, 24/7. If your post is removed, you’ll receive a PM about it. If there is a continuing problem, further action may be taken, up to and including your removal from the forum. Some inflammatory topics to avoid include religion and politics. We’re all about camping, and Oliver campers. Over the years, we’ve seen a few simple topics turn into heated debates. It’s natural to want to jump in, but honestly, it’s often better to let it go, and hit the report button, instead. We moderators are avid campers. Even as we write this, we are all out camping, some with limited bandwidth. We respond as quickly as we can, and the sooner we know, the better. Some have asked why our forum is linked to the Oliver website. Valid question. Since the beginning of our forum in 2008, Oliver Travel Trailers (OTT) has paid for our Oliver “sandbox”, including our web space and an administrator who knows way more than we do about maintaining the software, for which we are very grateful. OTT DOES NOT CENSOR OR INTERFERE with the moderators’ management of the forum content. Moderators are not employees of OTT. We are Ollie owners, and receive no remuneration. OTT does have a employee designated to read the forum for the purpose of improving the “Ollie Experience” for all, but that’s a few minutes a day in a busy job description. If you should ever have an issue or a warranty claim, call tech support. Your post might not be seen on the forum by an Oliver employee. With that in mind, we moderators ask you to communicate directly with the company and afford them an opportunity to satisfy any serious needs before flaming OTT on the forum. We are not asking that anything to be swept under the rug. Just, please, let Oliver Travel Trailers have the first shot to meet and exceed your expectations. Sometimes, communications here may be misinterpreted, because the written word just doesn’t carry the visual clues of face to face conversations. Should you believe a post is a little ill-mannered, consider the poster might be trying to be helpful, but isn’t able to put his or her words together the way you might. Forums work best when our skin tends to be a bit on the thicker side. Remember as well, whatever you post will likely be permanent, and picked up by automated internet software programs. Though this is our forum, it’s still on the world wide web. Our words may very well outlive us. Please, be especially patient with newbies. Our search feature is still being tweaked, and they may not have found an answer by simply using “Search”. You may remember your own newbie questions . . . of many years ago. If you have already answered the same newbie question as many times as you care to, relax and allow someone else to step up and reply. Help foster a community of teachers. We recommend all phone numbers and email addresses be sent in private messages and NOT posted. If you must post personal data, we suggest you post in a manner so trolling automated internet programs will not grab your personal information and use it nefariously. For instance, a phone number might be “8ThreeZero, 5one5, 9 2 eight seven”, or for an email address, something like “Bill DOT Fisher at flyboy DOT com”. Please reread this, and help us continue to make our forum a great place for everyone. We hope you enjoy our forum. Thank you, bugeyedriver, SeaDawg, ScubaRx, Mike and Carol, topgun2 , Mossemi Oliver Owner Moderator Team

Unless demand drops, that wait time reflects their production throughput, which was recently increased. 5/week I believe I’d put the order in. Based on what we’ve seen opportunities arise to move up the list when other folks have to cancel, like I did when I found a 2020 resale available for this season.

We ordered ours in February of 2019 and took delivery in September 2019. We have never regretted our decision. We also benefitted from the forum and we were fortunate enough to attend the 2019 Oliver Rally at Lake Guntersville SP. We really enjoyed seeing the presentations and meeting many of the owners. We have been so pleased with our LEII and love to share with other people.

Everyone needs to evaluate their personal situation. Storage, camping, recharging options . And, cost and budget.

Geez, am I out of date and old fashion or what? Still have 4 wet cell 6 volt Trojan T-105's and solar with no complaints. Have never even come close to running out of electricity and only once or twice dipped into the mid 80's percentile of available current left. I don't even take them out of the Ollie for long winter storage here in Montana and they stay fully charged to 12.84 volts ± a fraction even after 5 or more months of storage. This most likely does not help the OP in his decision however.

Thanks John, it does not include electricity to the best of my knowledge and definitely not temp controlled. Normally I assume most storage sheds do not come with electricity. Agreed there would not be tons of extra room but just enough to store a few other items. Doors are 11 foot high so enough clearance for an Ollie.

Hello John, I recently had to commit to my own build sheet and, like you, I am unsure of how serious I will get about boondocking until I get out on the road and see where the wind blows me. I decided to go with the 6V AGM, 2000 Watt Inverter and the easy start AC but no solar for now. I also invested in a Honda 2200 with the LP conversion kit so that I have my own power solution while I learn what my long term needs will, or will not be, relative to Solar. Not trying to sway you in either direction this is just where I landed, my build sheet is set in stone, check written and I pick up my Ollie the end of Oct. Your question is AGM VS Lithium so I may not be of much help 😉 in my case it was more commit or not commit to solar right now.... and the batteries I chose were the result of that decision. I am used to 6V AGM from my past campers and never had any issues with them. Good Luck with your choice and Happy Trails. Dan

I got one of these when we first bought our truck. My sisters, mother & I were on a girls weekend. My mother could not step up into the truck. We even pushed her from her butt; no luck. I went to Target & got one of these. Now we use to reach DEF. :)))

I am going off searches from five years back, They ranged from $300 to $400, but I don’t things have improved here. If you could squeeze into a 10x25’ hole, you would not be looking at too bad a fee, about $200, but a 12x40+ is $$$. A couple of examples are attached, you have to go by the regular amount, not the “move in special”. There just are not any affordable big units around where I live. I think a 12x30 would be perfect for an Ollie, and at less than $200 you should go for it. If that is the long term rental fee. Does that include electricity? That size would give you some extra floor space for camping gear or other personal stuff. John Davies Spokane WA

We boondocked for 2 weeks in the Pike National Forest, Colorado at 10,000 ft this month with our 2019 Elite. We had no problems with the NorCold frig using propane.

We also live in Oregon, near enough to the coast that humidity is higher than the Valley and east of the Cascades. Moisture doesn't seem to be a problem when the trailer is parked at home. We leave it well ventilated and monitor humidity. We have a Damp-rid hanging dehumidifier in the closet that seems to be extracting a lot of moisture. Initially, I was concerned about excessive condensation, reading posts of various situations. When we traveled home from Tennessee to Oregon during sub-zero weather, we had little sign of moisture other than the usual morning condensation on the inside of the windows. We find that ventilation and air circulation to be the best deterrents. Know that moisture is more problematic when the trailer is occupied. The amount of time spent inside will increase humidity as does cooking and showering; definitely open windows and use the Maxxair fan on exhaust during these activities. also, leave a window cracked and the fan on low speed at night. We purchased an electric dehumidifier, but haven't found it necessary most of the time. We'll probably use it during colder weather, along with heat, when the trailer is unused. It could certainly be used while camping, but would be a bit of a bother. I wouldn't purchase one yet; wait and see how it goes. We have this one and it works very well. Super quiet in case you do find it necessary to run it at night, while sleeping.

I am a little surprised that wheel nuts need regular tightening, I haven’t found them to loosen at all, once they are checked once or twice after installing the wheels. They do however loosen noticeably if you paint (or install new) drums, the paint underneath the wheel hubs compresses and makes things looser. I am not trying to downplay the need to check them, but before every trip is not necessary if they have already “settled down”. OTH, checking too often never hurt anything, if it makes you feel better. And it might catch something weird before it gets dangerous. I do not carry a torque wrench on trips, even long ones. One thing I do is to raise the tires off the ground every two thousand miles or so, and check for any signs of loose or rough bearings. That, plus a TPMS, plus quality bearings and grease, should eliminate any chances of catastrophe. Tripmushrv, be sure to set the wrench back to the minimum value before storage, and be gentle with it, no drops to concrete please. It is a fairly delicate tool. And it should only be used for tightening, not for removing nuts. It can be used for other stuff too, like your suspension or coupler hardware.Even if you are not comfortable checking those, a kindly campground neighbor might be, if you have the tool and sockets to do the job. John Davies Spokane WA

Provided that my wife sees it the same way, we should be ordering our Oliver in the next six weeks as we will have an in-office meeting with our financial planner then. The planner has already given the green light. After we get it we should pick your brains about how to best use it here in the PNW (Oregon) as you have already dealt with the same issues in Washington.

Hi Mike/Carol It's Ron in Boston. Here are two nominations in NH. A. Pawtuckaway. This is geographically right between Manchester NH and Portsmouth, NH. 4.5 of 5 stars. Pawtuckaway State Park is a 5,000-acre preserve in New Hampshire, United States. It is one of the largest state parks in southeastern New Hampshire and is named for Pawtuckaway Lake and the Pawtuckaway Mountains. The park extends from the west shore of the lake to the west side of the mountains. 128 Mountain Rd, Nottingham, NH 03290. (603) 895-3031 B. Tamworth. This is 45 minutes north of Manchester, NH in the White Mtns. Also 4.5 of 5 stars. White Lake State Park is a 902.7-acre public recreation area in Tamworth, New Hampshire. The state park surrounds 125-acre White Lake, a typical glacial lake. 1632 White Mountain Hwy, Tamworth, NH 03886. (603) 323-7350. This park offers hiking, cycling, a lakeside beach. It is south of North Conway, which offers many scenic local venues such as Echo Lake State Park, Cathedral Ledge, Whitehorse Ledge, Diana's Bath which are worth a day trip. Suggest calling regarding availability for your particular dates.

You did all of this from that one small duct vent hole on the floor?!

I had a heck of a time getting my van's dometic fridge to ignite (manual piezo igniter on this one) at 10K ish at Bryce Canyon NP. Haven't had the NorCold up that high yet. I'm also curious whether you tried or just skipped it due to what you read in the manual?

I used a square dowel rod cut to size and used Gorilla construction glue to hold it to the door. After it dried I just used screws to affix the holder to the dowel. This is the link for the bag holder. There are many choices in design but this worked well for my needs. Here is the link for the rack. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00U86KJG6/ref=cm_sw_r_u_apap_KJZLBqNUa9LkA Happy modding!

I took some photos of our failure. This was the second occurrence. First failure pulled the strap from the screw connecting it to the aluminum base on the right side of the furnace facing the curb side. I just used another hole. I did have to bend the left side to ninety degrees to have enough strap to reconnect. This failure was after our trip last fall. This new failure probably occurred due to a very rough unpaved road, rutted, and with many potholes. We had our tire pressure at 70lbs this spring. We don’t have any strap on our Truma and it is solid. The furnace has a bit more give to it without the strap We are going to lower our tire pressure to 60lbs before our fall trip. I will go with a nylon strap secured with a aluminum u channel and two screws on each side The strap will a buckle on top. David

Yes. When I ordered the batteries from Battle Born they also sent the upgraded Progressive Dynamics charger that handles lithium and jumper cables. Mike

Another 6'5" checking in. Bed length in our twin model isn't a problem for me but I'm not a busy sleeper so your mileage may vary. I will probably look to add a filler to create a little extra legroom for longer trips. Foy makes a nice kit for that. Bathroom height isn't great but I'll just sit on the can while showering. Sometimes I just use the bathroom sink while standing outside the bathroom. Beats all the crouching. I've taken advantage of the front door skull cushion but I don't hit my head on the AC unit. Wait, am I shrinking???

Have to agree with Steve - I’m immensely impressed at the dexterity and patience involved there. Another route that people have used when making repairs in that space has been to cut access hatches in the bottom of the drawer cabinet. Oliver should really do that in construction anyway. It’s easy to do with a router, using the sides of the cabinets as your jig. They don’t lessen the cabinet’s structural integrity and will save you a bit of weight. Plus you save all that time of training the octopus. If you do that, though, just be sure to cut some ¼” plywood covers for the hatches since things in the drawers can bounce out and end up in that space, and you don’t want to have to search through the hull space for an adventurous fork.

Nice work, very impressive. If I'd have known you were about to tackle this difficult job, I would have loaned you my trained octopus. She can reach anywhere from several different directions at the same time.

This folding step

Btw, I wonder what the fabric content is in the current Oliver cushions. Anyone know? My cushions were custom, back in the day, and my fabric is a polyester blend (with I think nylon, definitely not cotton or rayon) Crypton commercial fabric that repels water and stains. I used a similar Crypton fabric and Ultraleather on the boat, last refit, with a breathable mesh bottom. I do think that helps, too. The Crypton stuff is antimicrobial, and anti mold, as well.

We don't have hypervent on the boat, or the trailer. We do either stack the cushions on end (short storage times, in season) or remove them, out of season. If I notice a clammy feeling or condensation, I prop the cushions up a bit during the day, so air can circulate. And, I don't cover the airflow space with bedding. I've become a convert to microfiber, or at least a thinner cotton poly mix for sheets. They don't seem to transmit the moisture to the cushions, and dry very quickly. Blankets are all synthetic. Waterproof but supposedly breathable mattress pad over cushions and topper. As Jim_Oker said, at least you can see the issue and address it in an Oliver. It is present in all trailers, just hides better in fabrics, carpet, and wood in some others. We've not had a lot of condensation issues, ever. But that really depends on where and how you camp, and weather, temperature and dew point.

Yeah, good tip. I decided to just pay for the convenience to reduce the number of things I would be doing myself to get the trailer tuned for our first camping outings. I also priced getting good quality custom fit latex mattresses from a reputable local mattress place and found that the Oliver option was actually way less $$ believe it or not.

Cool - thanks. The sensors I got are just dumb sensors that broadcast to a little LCD base station display unit and show current conditions plus 24 hour high/low levels. I will look at those to ponder whether I want to bother upping my game around sensors (i.e. would I view that as a "fun hobby" or more of "chore"?). BTW one more thought for this thread. The Oliver is more like a fiberglass boat than any other RV I've seen. I am pretty sure that boats have all the issues RVs have with moisture and then some. It's a tried and true design for such living/travel spaces.

This screwdriver. I think it's the perfect utility drawer screwdriver that will cover 90% of your needs - for when you don't want to go dig out the toolbox. Compact, but pops out to a usable length, and has a good selection of quality German bits, which lock in place so they don't fall out. I keep one in the trailer, one in the center console of the truck, and one in the junk drawer at the house.

You do realize that the title of your post has now embedded the song from The Little Mermaid in my brain... My latest handmade gizmo is a fabric holder for grocery bags/trash bags. The opening at the top is larger than the one at the bottom. It hangs from a command hook placed high up on the left wall of the main closet.

I’ve been pondering this question since it appeared. While not entirely clear on what qualifies as a gizmo, I’m pretty sure I’ve got a fair number of them. Still, it’s hard to pick a favorite.. But while replacing my very tired old Milwaukee Cordless wet/dry vac today I realized that this is my favorite gizmo.. for the truck, the camper, for dealing with disasters like the time I sort of flooded the Casita years ago…

My favorite gizmos, in no particular order. Rooftop solar, plus home made "portable solar", from cheap Coleman panels. My conical shape tea kettle, plus pourover coffee cone. At our camping property, the $100 ecotemp shower/water heater. Has worked for 13 seasons, with one small part replacement. This year's fave, as we are camping a lot on our property, this year, a redneck deck from reused dock boards, and pt stringers, in three sections. 8 x 12 in total. Keeps our feet dry in the rain. Will make a great tent platform someday . 5 gallon stackable water jugs, bought many years ago.

Hi all. Garageboy here from the North of Dallas. Looking to buy a previously loved Ollie II. Pretty hard to find. Just have to live vicariously thru forum owners. Nice to be here!

I know nothing about these gadgets (in case that isn’t obvious) but I’d like to find something good and hide it well in the Ollie. So IF a bad guy ever tries to make off with it I might at least be able to give the police something to start with. If that makes sense.

Mine is an inReach SE+ (no maps). I have so many other nav options I did not feel the need for them in this device. If I were a back country hiker I would have got the map version... https://www.outdoorgearlab.com/reviews/camping-and-hiking/personal-locator-beacon/garmin-inreach-explorer-plus John Davies Spokane WA

Yep - as far as I'm concerned Bruce and Cheryl get the credit for this one. I'm not sure just how they came upon these products from Duragloss other than the Duragloss Company is located in North Carolina. I'm also not sure how they came up with the detailer/liquid wax combination, but I do know that it really works on all surfaces (yes, that includes the mirrored surfaces) inside the Oliver. A light spray, wipe with a micro-fiber cloth, flip the cloth over and wipe again and you're done without streaks and/or haze- its so easy.

That certainly may be the case. The Nortons introduced me to Duragloss when I was picking up our trailer.

I think that the most recommended polish here is Duragloss, which I can personally attest to, but also many owners have had good success with other products like 3M marine wax, Maguires, etc. Some people really like Rejex, but I personally didn't care for it. Some searching will probably provide you with a handful of threads on the topic. Many of us use a mixture of 4 parts Duragloss 923 and 1 part Duragloss 952 in a spray bottle for cleaning the interior and as a touch up spray on the exterior, cleaning off bugs and such. I don't know who first came up with that mixture, but it really makes the interior shine. On the exterior, I think waxing twice a year is the typical recommendation, adjusting for use, climate and storage conditions. I don't know if I remember a discussion here on which type of pads to use.