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I love that this is always a popular topic of conversation. No squeamishness among Ollie owners! I picked up our trailer in late July this year and the two of us used the composting toilet every day for about 20 days. We were in western states in very hot temps. The pee bottle smelled sometimes when full but not the toilet. We then parked the trailer where we're storing it at a friend's property in northern California. Also a hot dry area. During storage we turn off the lithium batteries, so, no vent fan for the toilet. I've been to the trailer five times since then for 1-3 days each time, using the toilet. I'm no where near having to replace the medium. It's not stinky. It's not full. There's a big pine tree nearby which gets the contents of my pee bottle as needed. In the past when I rented SOB trailers, one of the chronic irritants was where to dump the black tank. Once, the campground dump station was closed for repairs. Once, we went to an RV park but had to wait for Joe to get back from errands with the key to unlock the dump station (and we had to give him $10). Often, the internet said some truck stop or gas station had a dump station, but they didn't. So, for me, it was a cost/benefit decision. I like to boondock or go to primitive camp sites without hookups. For me, the benefits of the composting toilet outweigh the negative aspects discussed above.

Hi John, Seems like this original post went off in a fun direction but I wanted to throw my two cents in regarding the original question, and I'm looking at it from a different direction. The Oliver LEII is expensive, no question about it. It took me three years of delay before I finally laid down the money. The delay was to get confident that it was worth the money. I told myself that I could very easily get a Jayco for half the cost and be done with the whole matter. But, I was working hard at my job, saving my money, and continuing to look at other companies. When the time came to order, I went with the options I wanted (including the Lithium Pro) and tried to ignore the price. The way I figured it, I'd already decided to get one of the most expensive trailers on the market and didn't want to have any regrets down the road. So, if you want the Lithium Pro, go for it. I love my setup and it's worked very well.

Ask Monica?

Mark and I were thrilled to finally welcome 953 into the family. We spent 2 great days in Hohenwald getting to know Ollie. Super experience at the factory - only very minor issues that were fixed immediately on-site. What a great company!

Great overnight at David Crockett. Love our new “ get away “ ! will have lots of questions I am sure so thank you in advance !

….in the meantime we’ll be watching for a Kimberley out on the road!

And we were looking forward to seeing you again as well as your new trailer. Have a good time at Expo West and maybe 2023 will be the year you get back to Guntersville State Park. Mossey

😥

Don't forget to add antifreeze to the sinks and shower drains. Hard to blow them out. We do the blow out first, twice. Then we use the antifreeze. When taking off in the real cold weather, we do not de-winterize until south of the Mason Dixon line. We carry a case of water in the tow vehicle, and transfer it to the Oliver when the furnace is turned on. We use RV antifreeze to flush with. We usually have 3 extra gallons in the closet as it seems harder to find once out of Maine...

So, are you ordering real leather cushions? At home, where humidity is controlled, we have leather sofas. On the boat, ultraleather in the main salon, crypton commercial fabric in the bunks, like the trailer. In the trailer, synthetic, tightly woven commercial fabric with crypton coating (anti-mildew, water/stain resistant) 14 years, and looking great. I may have to repair a few stitches, and one ykk zipper, this year I wouldn't do leather, or any natural fabric, in a trailer or boat, personally. @ScubaRx, I think, has real leather in the small dinette, and dogs. Maybe he'll chime in.

This is how I did it. Cheap faucet line from Ace and the cut-off bottom from a antifreeze jug. No squirt, splash or mess to clean up.

Thank for all the greetings! Mike, we have definitely enjoyed our HQ. However, overall we were not that impressed with off-road capabilities with it. We have our RAM outfitted as an overland vehicle (wiht the help of Nuthouse Industries in Ohio). So, if we head deep into the wilderness, we leave our trailer at home and just go in the truck. Rivernerd, nice to already see another Idahoan!

Invert a paper cup or bowl over the top of the 1/4” ball valve outboard from the Natures Head toilet. Otherwise you will poke yer eye out! Seriously, it comes out with a lot of force and will end up in your face. Don’t think “Hmmm, no worries, I will just crack it open a little” - that makes it WAY worse. Go ahead, ask me how I know😳 John Davies Spokane WA

You aren't THAT "Bill," are you????!!!! 🤣

Sure I tried it - but - I never inhaled! 😁 Bill

If those things coat the walls and other surfaces I wonder what it does to the human lung….

Glad you got you "odor" situation under control You do know that dawg claws and leather are not a good combination? Bill

Foy shipped them to Oliver and Oliver installed them during delivery. We kept the Oliver units….you just never know!

Being a retired engineer that worked at public wastewater treatment facilities, I would not dump either coconut cor or the peat moss from the Nature's Head Toilet into your home toilet. If you have a compost pile at home, after the Nature's Head compost has had its time to compost, add it to that pile. The pee bottle can be emptied into the home toilet with no problem. I would suggest you go to the Oliver University forum and read the Nature's Head Compost Toilet Manual. Some of the answers to your questions can be found there.

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...

The 6.6 Duramax is the easy button. No numbers to crunch or compromise needed until you more than double the weight of an elite II. I drive a ‘21 duramax and a older 6L gas with the same trailers down the same roads. I have to rail on the gas engine while the diesel doesn’t even move above 2k rpm. If I drop the hammer with a 10k lb trailer I need to make sure the load is VERY secure.

Fwiw, I still love my 2005 Silverado stepside. One of my favorite vehicles of all time. I wish it had more modern features, but, it still runs great, and I like it's smaller size compared to today's half tons. Even when I get a new vehicle, we'll probably keep it.

I’ve never owned a Chevy truck… I don’t think you can go wrong with any of the truck manufacturers. I’ve owned Toyotas (2), Fords (3), Rams (3) and International Harvester (‘71 - a classic). All were good, I’m sure a Chevrolet or GMC would be good as well. In the current market you may not have a lot of choice, if it has the features and comfort you’re looking for it will be fine. Mike

Picked up hull 927, Lucy, on Tuesday 10/26/21. Hanna, Ryan, Crystal, Meghan were a great delivery team. They were patient and answered all out questions including the ones we didn't asked but needed to know the answer. It was an absolute pleasure and flawless delivery. We spent the first night Oliver's new site which was very convenient as we could walk 100 feet to ask more questions. We left Wednesday to David Crockett State Park - absolutely beautiful. And of course, the one thing I was not support to forget to do before we left the Oliver site, was to ensure the valve to prevent grey water from sloshing into the shower pan was closed. I forgot LOL. Fortunately, our grey tank was not full and our shower pan was dry. Then, we forgot to open it on Thursday and our shower had a bit of trouble draining. We will learn. Thanks to all the owners in this forum that helped us prepare for this new adventure.

We have spent the last two nights in our trailer and it has been very enjoyable. Picked up #905 on the 29th and stayed in the lot for a night and the second night out at the Merriwether Lewis State park to test out no hookups. Good results so far. Jason Lindsey has really helped us out. We have been in contact trying to make the big step since early 2019. We also had a great gal giving us the orientation on the trailer. Hannah was knowledgeable, very thorough,and just a real nice person to talk with. We really enjoyed the walk through with her. Thank you Oliver !!! It feel like just what I thought. A quality product easy to start our adventures in. All the Forum folks contributing info I truly thank you and will use you in the future. Sincerely. Tina and Mike Locker. Dream Girl is what I call our trailer and my Wife Tina !!!!!

This is a great spot on Energy Lake. It is a spot we stopped at on our way from Tennessee to Wisconsin. It was in The Land Between the Lakes and was really fun. A great spot was The Homeplace 1850 Interperative Center. Pioneer log buildings and everything that an old farm would have. Tina and I loved this spot. Volunteers doing things that would be done in those times. It was memorable. Tina and Mike

It's hard to believe that I'm finally sitting in my own Oliver as I write this. Picked up yesterday with a fantastic walkthrough with Hanna. I had a long checklist of things to go over and questions to ask. Hanna anticipated everything and really impressed me with her knowledge and attention to detail. I told myself that I wasn't going to be one of those people who has to run over to Tractor Supply to get the right hitch, but I was! LOL. After about 300 miles on highways, winding country lanes, rainstorms and potholes, I can say that everything is great. No problems. What can I say? Great company. Great product. In coming days I'll add some posts on some specific components and Hanna's answers to some of my questions that you'll all find interesting.

We've owned Toyotas over the years and loved every one. We ran them into the ground--logging well over 100K miles--and they just keep on going. Not too fancy but we like that bullet proof reliability. If we get this Tundra then it will stay in the family. My son is ready to take it when we're done with it.

I tow with a 2020 Tundra and love it. Mine is the Crewmax 4/4. I agree the gas mileage is less than the other trucks mentioned but the reliability I will take all day long over Dodge, Ford and Chevy. I wish the payload was a little higher but we don't carry the kitchen sink with us. My buddy has the Ford Eco Boost and when he pulls his 28' RV his mileage is less than mine. I have a Lexus 570 that has basically the same V8 as the Tundra. Lexus 570 has around 228K miles and the engine just runs runs, and runs. I guess that is why I bought the Tundra with the V8. It ain't fancy with bells and whistles, but it is dependable all day every day.

We picked our Ollie up last Thursday 8/5/21. After an excellent walkthrough by Hannah we got u/w for Davey Crockett site 67 where we spent 5 nights. Based on others forum posts i figured to test everything and if a problem arose i would be close to the factory. Well, no problems 861 was in excellent shape, as i expected😊. I have been reading these forms constantly since i first started thinking about buying one. They have been invaluable to me. Too many to name individually, especially for fear I would forget someone, but lots of great advise and suggestion are available for anyone willing to read. Thanks alot to all you who contribute. On our way home in Florida, but looks like TS Fred will change our schedule😂. For info the pickup is a Ram 2500 with the 6.4 Hemi. I started to get the Cummings but after realizing the cargo was equal to a half ton around 1500 lbs where as this one was 3002 lbs. To me that was a game changer as i don’t expect to live long enough to wear out a diesel. Dewey

So, here's an update. Tried the furnace today and realized no air coming from the vent below the sink. A quick investigation found that the duct was not connected to the furnace. The knock-out hole on the rear side of the furnace was knocked out, and that's where the hot air was coming out. No one in the factory connected it. Since I picked it up in mid-July, here are the other problems I've had. No caulking around kitchen sink, allowing water to seep underneath and drip to drawers below. Put duct tape around sink for quick fix. Need to put silicone around it. Screen door misaligned, with big gaps allowing bugs to get in. Jason suggested tweaking it to try to close the gaps. Haven't tried yet. Lettering on light switch panel rubbed off. Mike sent out new panel. Lettering on Dometic stove knobs rubbing off. Waiting for new knobs. Xantrex inverter shutting off and not rebooting due to improper programming from the factory. This resulted in a new Technical Service Bulletin (Aug. 3), and after Jason helped me change the settings, the problem hasn't returned. In another post I shared an article about the horrible (really horrible) quality of SOB RVs and the nightmares those owners are having. In that post I promised not to complain about anything related to my Oliver, and I'm trying. I guess my point here is to remind new buyers to do a super thorough check of the trailer before leaving OTT. I spent two and a half hours at OTT before leaving and thought I did a thorough check but I missed some things. For example I turned on the AC because I wanted to make sure it really could run off the lithium system, but I didn't turn on the furnace. I will say that I'm very happy with the trailer and all the components. The composting toilet is easy peasy. The lithium pro package works great. The Norcold fridge is big and cold. The suspension takes rough roads like a champ. The KTT bed is super comfy. The windows seal tight. Yesterday and today I gave it it's first wash and wax, by hand. What a job. My arms are sore! But, with a little elbow grease I got all the bugs off and with the marine wax got the hull shining.

Melanie and I made it back to Vancouver WA in one piece. Ran into a error code which turned out to be a poorly wire pedestal that my surge protector didn't pick up on. Then we set off the fire alarm. Finally, the propane worked, then didn't work for some reason. I suspect there was some air in the line. The technology is the trailer was a little intimidating as I was afraid I would break and/or ruin sometime like a pump or solar system. The manuals were really helpful. We had some trouble with the Anderson Hitch as the initial install was not done correctly. We still haven't learned how to disconnect the Anderson hitch without loosing it underneath the rig which is a hassle. It was a long trip from Tennessee back home, but I am happy to say we were able to back into every campsite with out much trouble. We are really happy with "Joni" and miss not being on the go. Retirement is just around the corner, so we are looking forward more happy travels. Melanie and Kathie

All: well I got it! So much to do today - LEARN. Newbie, 2000%. Hellva time backing in and park empty but a couple finally came along and he helped me back in. HE said it was not the easiest place to back in. I need to learn everything. Only hooked to elec so far. But restroom right across from me with SHOWER, which is now the most beautiful word in the English language, in my book. I am so glad I booked a week here to figure basic things out! Here is the Ollie (it’s 6:30 AM CST).

Haven't had time to take many vanity shots of Pearl; 11 days on the road, preparing meals in hotel rooms, and transferring our gear from the back of the pickup to the trailer have been exhausting. Here is one quick shot at our campsite in David Crockett SP. I know, not too exciting. The park is wonderful and we found Tennessee to be beautiful, despite the trees all being bare. Trip report: I was apprehensive, driving cross country this time of year, but we've certainly been fortunate. The journey from Oregon to Tennessee was amazing. There was barely any traffic on I-80 and, although it was cold and we experienced a few snow flurries in Missouri and some wind coming through Wyoming, the weather has been great. We are now headed west, taking the I-40 route to Nevada then north to Oregon via Hwy 365 and I-5. Current weather forecasts don't predict any snow; perhaps a shower around Susanville, CA. Looks like clear sailing! We will get some practice dealing with cold temperatures, but I believe we can manage without completely winterizing, just draining the hot water tank during travel time from Flagstaff through the Sierras. While camped at David Crockett SP, nighttime temps were in the mid 20's, but were able to maintain 40 deg temps in the utility area with the furnace or an electric space heater. Our plan is to pass through from Albuquerque to Kingman and not overnight in northern AZ where temps will drop to the teens at night. Daytime temperatures are expected to be mid 30's to upper 40's. The only other questionable area will be crossing the Sierras around Susanville. Will be watching the weather forecasts daily.

Little late showing but time flies when your having fun. Spent 4 nights at David Crockett State Park and then 2 nights at Cloudland Canyon State Park in North Ga and the Ollie was great. 2020 Tundra really did a great job towing. Nice having the V8 on a few hills and didn't feel stressed at all. Only hiccup we had was leaving Davey Crockett the street side awning would not close completely. Came to about 1 inch on the front end from totally closing. We called Jason and dropped by service to check out the problem. Seems 2 acorns had fallen in the front track and was preventing it from closing completely. So I chalked up some experience and we were on our way. I guess this would make a case for carrying a ladder. These pics are from 10 days later staying at Juliette State Park in GA and Hamburg State Park in Ga. Really love the camper and really surprised with the amount of storage. Yes, the air conditioner is loud but 93 degree days were handled with no issues. Spending 20+ years in a power plant loud noise is something I am a little familiar with. After a couple of nights it was no problem even though we are looking forward to fall camping. Erv & Sherry

A while back, we settled on this set up for our water purification. It has worked well for us many years now. It's quick, easy to set up and make friends with all the surrounding campers.

You can't make this up. The sales guy at the dealer had emailed me the sticker on a 2021 Tundra: about $49K which included the dealer prep BS fees. I figured that if I had to pay sticker price then I would bite the bullet and buy the thing. Anyway, I get to the dealership this morning. The sales guy pulls out his paperwork. They had added a $5,000 "Dealer Markup" as a nice little line item. I reminded him what he said about "coming off of the sticker price a bit" to have it sold before arrival. He offered to throw in floor mats. I walked out. I've bought from Marietta Toyota before. They will never get my business again.