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Life has a way of getting in the way of working on your projects but I'm getting closer to the finish.

A big thanks for Foy & Mirna Sperring for hosting the rally in Jacksonville. I've posted some pics for your viewing pleasure. We've ordered our LE-2 with an expected delivery date of next April. Jill and I appreciate all of you folks who showed us your Ollies and gave us advice. We have much to learn. . .

Ordered our Elite 2 twin. Looking at a late July delivery. Gonna be a looong wait. Thanks for all the help making the decision!! Very excited. 😁 Dudley

How about another pic?

I spoke to the good folks at Anderson yesterday after submitting my posting here. They shared that for late model trucks (2016 or newer) they no longer suggest to disengage the Ford Anti Sway feature. Turns out that they had her incidentally and through the experience of a couple of employees with older trucks that the Anti Sway and Anderson ended up working against each other. Described the problem as jerky sway and attributed it to the two features being out of sink in their approach to preventing sway. They have not heard of this problem happening on newer trucks with anti sway. My personal experience lines up with what others have said. Till my new 150 arrives, I am still towing with a Chevy Colorado. No sway issues at all - a tiny bit of porpoising when running over big highway cracks. We've driven about 7500 miles with the Colorado which tows the weight well but can feel a little overwhelmed. It's in no hurry to get up to speed and, on very long hills in very hot weather, can run up against the comfy range for transmission temps. Otherwise, has been pretty solid. Has done fine on our east coast mountains, including the Whites in New Hampshire but we have eyes on trips in the Rockys so have ordered up. I don't believe bigger is always better but am looking forward to having a bit more safety margin in towing (11,500 lb vs 7,000lb) and a lot more payload capacity. Gerry

Here's a possible result of early camper storage: Cabin Fever https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cabin fever We winterized Ollie early, because we're between tow vehicles. Waiting to see the new 2022 Tundra and looking at 2022 F-150s, too. We caught up on appointments over the last two months. Enjoy winter camping, so will see how the TV search goes. Took this shot while camping at Hungry Mother SP VA a couple years ago on the Virginia Creeper during a Fiberglass Rally. Camping in the Fall can be beautiful:

Not one single thing to complain about, Thus far its everything I expected and more. Tows like a dream behind the One-Ton (no anderson hitch just a 2-5/16 Ball.) My tongue weight is 610 Lbs. Fresh Water Tank is Full rest empty. My Hitch provides the actual weight on the spot. I can imagine others have a much higher tongue weight as I am single and pack very light in comparison to most. I do have two 15 gallon water jugs in the front box that I bought filled and strapped there to increase the tongue weight because at 490 Lbs. (This was the exact weight when I pulled it out of the factory and for the first 500 miles before I put any of my stuff inside of it) I was feeling a bit more feedback from the trailer than I appreciate and I figured the additional weight would change its attitude. It did and having the extra water along is a plus until I hit cold country next week then I may change them out for a couple sand bags. Before JD tells me the front box is only rated for 150 Lbs... I know... Its fine and I will beef it up before my next trip. I will post a couple pics when I get better service or home I think this Weigh Safe hitch may be something others find helpful especially if your in a situation where tongue weight is critical due to your tow vehicle. A quick google of "weighsafehitch" and you will be looking at it. I can attest to the fact that it works well and is much faster then finding and weighing on a CAT scale at a truck stop especially if your experimenting with different weights to find your comfort zone. At any rate Props to Oliver for building a quality product in a time when that is not so common anymore and I was very impressed with their staff and how I was treated by them on my pick up day. They are all working hard to push these units out the door but they are doing it with Grace and I appreciate that a lot and they deserve the credit for it. I have attended three Nascar races in a row now (I did not have the Oliver yet for the first two) and will be dry camping in the infield of Kansas City Speedway this weekend, this will be my first time dry camping and I am sure I will exceed the tanks capacity but they do have service running there to pump and fill so I am REALLY not dry camping but I will give it a go and see how long I can get by.... Trouble is that insta hot water heater works very well and it only takes a handful of showers to top off the grey when the water does not get cold. Oh, and the towel hooks somebody was hating on in their blog? they work perfectly, my towels have not fallen off in over a thousand miles and I doubt they ever will but you DO have to know how to hang the towel properly on this style hook..... thanks Grandma for that lesson years ago! Happy Trails Everyone, From Guthrie Oklahoma... For Now...

Dan, Congratulations! We had the same experience, Oliver is building a great product. Happy Trails from Hull# 901 in MD.

FINALLY! - a place to land that helicopter. Looks good too. Bill

If you had this happen, I’d be sure a file a support ticket, just to give the guys some data points on when this occurred.

You know, it actually was because the weather allowed me to leave all windows open every night for 14 nights and now that I have everything closed to keep out the cold I do not smell that "new smell fiberglass oder" that it had when I picked it up. So it was a good time to take it out for the first time. Thanks Again Dan

I did, and I hope you all enjoyed Branson. You were correct I had no trouble making the Fresh Water, Grey and Black last for the 4 nights I was dry camped and could have doubled that at the rate I was going. Thanks again Dan

Just to put some closure on this. Service and I agreed that it was likely an installation failure. It looks like someone put down the two bolts in a crevice near the support beam and didn't return to finish the job. I never found nuts and washers and the bolts were unlikely to fall, together, into the space I found them in. Still worth checking yours, but I would not expect this to be a common issue, though it has occurred else-when, as noted above.

Note that the 90 degree hoses are also 10% off when using the Flash10 promo code.

I am not seeing it, the price is $79.99, the same as Amazon Prime, but they want $4.36 shipping. What was the price you saw? Thanks. https://www.technorv.com/gasstop-propane-shut-off-acme-style-gsusa2/ They have a neat 90 degree hose if you want improved angles, to remove stress on the connections. Two of them would bring this mod up to about $200…. John Davies Spokane WA

I think it's called depression Oliveris Storagis. I suffered from a bit yesterday, when we talked about winterizing. We're still planning to camp another week or three. Today was flat beautiful here in WNC, which makes it even harder to put the camper up for winter..

A few years ago, I conducted a similar experiment (and posted it on the forum), comparing black and gray water tank treatments using dog poop. In that experiment, TankTechsRx came out the winner over the other product (I’m sorry, I no longer remember that other product’s name), as it did a much better job of reducing the odor. I recently encountered another treatment with very good reviews, so I bought a bottle of it—Unique RV Digest-It—to compare with my TankTechsRx. The experiment was this: I mixed a capful of each product with water to nearly fill a small glass, and then I placed five pieces of small dog food kibble in each glass and let them sit. The photo showing the glass with the brown colored liquid is the one with TankTechsRx product, which is naturally brown. Result: Within 12 hours or so, the Unique RV Digest-It had reduced the kibble to a sludge at the bottom of the glass, whereas the glass with the TankTechsRx still held solid chunks of kibble. The odor was also different, with the TankTechsRx glass smelling a bit funky, while the Unique RV Digest-It glass had a faint, but rather pleasant, almost floral, smell to it. I will be using Unique RV Digest-It from now on in my gray water tank. We have a composting toilet, so we don’t use a black water tank. However, we have been spraying a mixture of water and TankTechsRx in our composting toilet, which has seemed to help with the composting process and odor control. I will now be trying the Unique RV Digest-It in the same way, expecting good results. I would surmise from my experiment that Unique RV Digest-It would work well in a black water tank and accomplishing what it advertises: 1. BREAKS DOWN SOLID WASTE INSIDE TANKS. Liquifies human waste and all brands of toilet paper. Digests residual sludge from years of build-up. Works in black and gray tanks. 2. ELIMINATES TOILET & TANK ODORS without masking. Extra strength activated cleaners eliminate odors at their source without covering them with overpowering perfumes. 3. HELPS PREVENT SENSOR MALFUNCTION. Cleans and removes solid waste and paper before it can cling to sensor probes, preventing misreads. No, I have no association with either company. Yes, I suggest others give Digest-It a try.

After I turned in my service ticket on 797, Jason got back to me with a next day response, referred it to Engineering. They attributed the problem to an installation error. He said he had been checking other trailers in for service, had not found any loose. The only other similar problem he knew about was from Ralph, Hull 625. Just a reminder I also had 2 loose doghouse bolts, details in a previous post.

If you have had more than one Ollie, please include the mileage of all of them, combined as one figure. I think it will be eye opening to see how many owners “rack up those miles”. Thanks. John Davies Spokane WA

I’ve never disabled the anti-sway on any of my trucks, even when towing with the Andersen. The Oliver is not a trailer prone to sway, I’ve never experienced any sway in all types of towing conditions. When I used the Andersen it was for weight distribution. Mike

Welcome to the group. I agree with JD, your truck sounds like you would constantly be at its capability limits. You might get by on level terrain but hills or mountains would probably prove too much. As someone who upgraded from a Tacoma to a 1500 to a 2500 over the last 6 years there is no comparison. I would recommend a bit more truck, there are lots of Ollie II owners pulling with the 3.5 version of the F150 with increased weight capacities. Mike

Welcome to the forums, there are a bunch of folks pulling with the 3.5 EB, not so many with the smaller boosted engine. Which trailer are you considering? That setup would be dandy for the LE1 but you will quickly run into payload limitations with the larger trailer. Typical tongue weight for that is about 650 pounds plus or minus 100, depending on how heavily you load the tongue and / or the rear….. Mine is unusually low at 480. These LE2s can safely handle reduced tongue weights, though some traditionalists will argue the point.. Add another 50 pounds for an Andersen hitch, the only one that will work. (It is not needed with a Hd truck.) For a forever setup pulling an LE2, I think you would probably be lots better off trading up to a Super Duty to get way more payload, if you don’t want a diesel, the 7.3 gas pushrod motor would be wonderfully torquey and very low maintenance. With a HD truck you won’t need to buy the Andersen, nor constantly fuss with it. At times it can be a big pain in the posterior, it is definitely not “go at the drop of a hat” simple…. I am not a Ford guy, I am just repeating stuff, but you definitely need more payload in the truck if you are going to be full timing with two people and all their “stuff”. Of all the LE2 owners who switched from a light to heavy duty truck, I cannot recall a single one that regretted the decision. John Davies Spokane WA

If you have a single awning: Tilt the solar array up, with the low side away from the streetside awning, the snow won’t stay up there, it will end up in a heap on the ground… If you have two awnings, it won’t work well, though you might be able to achieve a few degrees of tilt. If you can orient the trailer so the panel is facing to the south or west, that is even better, the sun will melt any ice easier and it will charge like crazy. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2791-how-to-solar-panel-extension-arms/ Being able to tilt the panel very high makes working up top orders of magnitude easier - a good reason to not buy that second awning….. John Davies Spokane WA

The nuts from my battery support post bolts were also off -- I found them down below....

Thank You for the well wishes, I did get some photos up. Today I pulled 540 miles in some respectable sidewinds that had the semis doing 65 on parts of HWY 90 and I am happy to report this thing sticks behind my truck like a 10 year old well trained hunting dog. I am very impressed (again no Anderson Hitch or any other sway control just whats shown above in the pic. Temps are lower here 40's and the heater is more than sufficient as well, One of the benifits of this smaller space is its quick to heat up and it stays that way easily, I am cheating with a three setting "vornado" brand Electric Heater that I saw someone else mention in a post and bought while I was in Kansas City at Target, it works well in here I have it set on low so the Oliver heater functions as well to keep the basement warm too.

I have a 2018 F150 with the LE2 and Andersen. I don't disable the F150 anti-sway. I used to engage the transmission tow mode. I don't even do this anymore. Most of the time it is so smooth I have to remind myself the Ollie is still back there. The only issue I have is front end porpoise on an interstate highway with rough expansion joints. I've cranked down the Andersen chains with some positive results. (I believe the Ford requirement is more WD than sway control. There should be a label on the underside of your F150 hitch)

We have had about a 1/2" of ice and 18 to 24" of snow on top of that here in Maine. The solar was STILL charging. We have waded down through waist high snow, on occasion, to clean it off. We use a foam "roof rake" type device and it works quite well. We find it all slides off easily, except maybe in around the ac. Maybe my imagination but it seems the dark solar panels melt anything on them and of course the wind up there scours anything else...

We waited and waited. That was five years ago. Time flies! Spend the time looking where you might want to go. Go to each state and look for their camper guide and order one. The maps are great and the pictures will show you the prettiest spots and pictures are probably miles from the Interstate. After all, the reason you ordered an Oliver was to get off the Interstate?

I have used both Happy Camper and RV-Digest It in the powder form for about 5 years. I like both but think the RV-Digest it is a tad better. I pretty much would buy them based on the percentage off on the coupons they send me!

Mine is a 2017 F-150. Answers to your questions - 1: no 2: no I've never had a hint of sway with my Elite II regardless of Andersen, no Andersen, Ford's anti-sway or no Ford anti-sway or any combination of these. Bill

If anyone is interested in the "GasStop" product - automatically shuts off propane in the event of a large amount escaping, TechnoRV has a sale on them until the end of October. Bill

Sorry to hear about you all putting your Ollies away for the winter… we are on the opposite trajectory, getting gear together and checking systems in preparation of hitting the road in about a month….. It’s been a long summer living vicariously through the adventures of other folks….. time to get back out there!🙂

I found the following discussion that seems almost the same situation that you describe. The RV owner contacted Progressive Industries and troubleshooted it over the phone...they sent him a replacement control board. https://www.loveyourrv.com/update-to-progressive-industries-ems-hw30c-surge-protector-review/ Update to Progressive Industries EMS-HW30C RV Surge Protector Review 1) I was able to break it! I was messing around with one of my Champion 2000 watt generators during a recent boondocking adventure and decided to try and see if I could fire up the 13,500 BTU Air Conditioning unit. This is most definitely at the extreme max of the generators performance specs and was very unlikely to work. But that didn’t stop Captain Curious. So I fired up the generator, went inside and turned on the AC’s fan, so far so good. Now time to hit compressor on button. A big groan could be heard from the AC unit then a loud Click! Click! Click! from the location of the surge protector. EMS-HW30C Surge Protector Installed in my trailer My wife Anne looks at me and asks, “What was that”!? Oh I just overloaded the circuit and blew the surge protectors breaker. No biggie. Then Anne gave me the look. Guys who do a lot of fixing and tinkering will know it well. Actually it was a biggie because my little experiment rendered our brand new Progressive Industries EMS-HW30C RV surge protector stone dead. I could not even see the error light lit up on the control board inside the unit. I had heard that Progressive Industries had great warranty service. I figured this would put it to the test. I emailed the tech support detailing what had happened, that I had no power, no display and even the error led wasn’t lit up. They replied the same day saying the control board was at fault and they would send out a new one free of charge. Then I had to send back the dud within 30 days. But we were boondocking and far from home? No problem, they just shipped it to the nearest postal outlet. I was relieved that I would have my surge protector back functional again soon. The board swap was very simple, just unscrew the top, unplug the the board connectors and then one screw that holds it in place. EMS-HW30C Surge Protector

I carry 30 feet total (3 ten foot sections) and so far that’s always been enough.

Ollieboba you should be ok with both carriers. For some reason at&t works best in the east, south east states and Verizon works best in the western states. There are many remote areas were nothing works. That’s why a good ole atlas map comes in handy when there is no cell service to help find your way. At least you’ll find a small town. And hopefully cell service will return.

It's a good strategy, and you wouldn't have to remove the awning. Just add your support to the bracket like Oliver did with my rear ones. I'd originally asked them to do all the panels in a single raft like above, but Oliver was concerned about the height and how to attach the rear. I think they were limited in thinking that they had to start at the usual height. If they'd done them all off the awning mounts, but an inch and a half higher than they made the rear ones, then everything could have floated just a hair above the roof and would have looked pretty slick imo. Of course you'd want to hinge everything, for maintenance alone if not for solar gain. I can clean under the rear panels, but it's a pain. You'd want to hinge it in two or three sections though to make it manageable. I'd love to see someone do an install of just the narrow panels, like this - three per side -

Hi John D. We picked up our trailer last month and when we travelled back from Tennessee to Washington State, we had the fridge on 12 volts all the time. (we have the lithium pro option- 390ah) . The batteries at the end of the travel days were always just under 90% according to the Lithionics Battery app. We are new, but we love our Oliver!

We have 57,800 miles on our 2016 (hull 137.)

If we changed this poll from "miles" to "smiles" - I bet that we'd be in the millions!

According to my mileage/maintenance log we have 39,050 miles on hull 208 (2017). Getting ready to add about 7,000 miles this winter.

21,560 Miles during four summers. I keep a log, but my F-150 does a much better job of keeping track of my Oliver miles.

We have around 10,000 and we picked up 837 at the end of June this year.

We’ve enjoyed every minute! We picked up in the spring of 2016 so we’re at about 5.5 years. Still getting comments at various locations and still being stopped at gas stations and supermarkets by curious folks. Mike

@Mike and Carol, that's another thing most Oliver owners are good at. Maintaining records, as well as their trailers. and, traveling. You've done a done a lot of traveling in 4 or 5 years.

We're well over 150K. You're gonna need a bigger poll...!

We’re at about 65,000. After this trip we’ll be close to 70,000. Yes, I do keep a spreadsheet. 🤓 Mike

Just for grins, you might want to add 150,000 to 200,000 as a category. Some of us early adopters have traveled a lot of miles. I can think of at least two who would probably fit that bill. We're not quite at the 150k mark yet, as the last two Covid years we only went to our camping property in NC and back. Many years, 12 to 14,000 miles of memories, and beautiful campsites.

Mine is just under 7,000, but then I haven't had it a year yet.

I should probably clarify that I wouldn’t recommend towing your Ollie at 90 mph. But I did look down once while not paying attention and saw that number - and then slowed down. My experience though is that the trailer tows very well at any legal speed limit.

I’ve heard that the Elite II tows well at 90 without an Anderson and with a truck that people say was not meant for towing. Don’t remember where from - possibly the passenger seat from someone reminding me that we were towing.