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Greetings! I've been lurking on the forum for quite some time, and wanted to share a formal introduction now that we have officially joined the Oliver family! :). We picked up our Elite 1, Hull 967, on December 14, and finally made it home to Camas, WA (near Portland, OR) on 12/24. We love the trailer so far! Interesting tidbits: We first learned about Oliver while camping at Meriwether Lewis campground in Hohenwald. We saw an interesting trailer, and struck up a conversation with a new E2 owner, who pointed us to the factory. At Oliver, we appreciated the trailers, and also enjoyed the amount of attention Phil gave to our home built overland trailer. We bought this trailer to use primarily for overnight stays on Mt. Hood, where we try to ski as often as possible. We were torn, and still are, about E1 vs. E2. We ultimately chose the E1 due to mobility and parking convenience, and haven't regretted it, especially for simple towing with our 2018 Tundra. We do miss the bed setup and storage of the E2, however! We opted out of many of the adds-ons, preferring to do some of the modifications ourselves. I'm sure you will see additional posts to this regard in the near future. Cheers & Happy New Years! -Andy

Greetings fellow Oliver enthusiasts, haven’t ordered my Elite II yet but still in the planing stages. I have 4 years, 3 months, 8 days and 6 hours till I retire. LOL. (Not that I’m counting down or anything!) My last “RV” was a Cruising Power Catamaran that I explored up and down the east coast. Looking forward to traveling on land with the Admiral and seeing more of our beautiful country. We currently reside in Maryland on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Anyway, thanks for having me and I am looking forward to the next Journey. Cheers!

Many states are decriminalizing calcium. I'm worried it will be a gateway mineral and lead our camper to harder stuff. 😁

We too have had water system woes,,, 2019 E2, new to us summer of '21. We are the 3rd owners of a 3 yr old trailer and have so far had problems with low flow at each of the faucets and the toilet. The toilet was first and we found calcium deposits in the valve. Cleaned them out and finished the trip with good flow. Got home and flushed the fresh water tank with good water (not hard), cleaned the filter at the pump and found it not clogged but removed maybe 1/2 teaspoon of debris, both plastic and mineral. Removed the anode from the water heater and found it was totally consumed. Flushed the water heater and got LOTS of calcium deposits out. I believe this was the first time the anode had been removed. Also at this time I flushed the system with vinegar using the winterizing setup. Next we lost flow to the outside shower hot faucet. Contacted Oliver and asked for a replacement cartridge, they didn't have the part or know of how to find one, ended up buying a new complete outdoor shower assembly with the box, hose and shower head; about $75,,, used the faucet in our old box so if you need a box, I can help Next we lost flow to the kitchen faucet and was not in the mood for Oliver service so I went to Lowe's and got a Delta and replaced the original with one I could get parts for. Next we lost flow to the bathroom faucet hot and cold and finished the trip with the faucet head removed. We had good flow thru the faucet itself so we washed hands and showered with a good stream from the bare hose. It actually worked ok. In these forums I saw the faucet was made by Dura Faucets, contacted them and got a link to amazon, bought a replacement shower head for $12.03. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0090W2SOU?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2_dt_b_product_details So at this point we think we have this solved and I think at this time the reason for all this was that our trailer had been full of extremely hard water all it's life and had never been maintained. Here in the DFW area we have pretty good water in comparison but most places we travel to have hard or extremely hard water. So the takeaway is, while your faucets are working is to flush with good water when you can and decriminalize with vinegar regularly. Good luck, Ya'll, Dave

I’m glad they are doing more dealer option sales. More things to spend my referral credit on.

Just a reminder for those Southern Ollie owners and soon-to-be ones. There were a lot of RVs that suffered severe damage then through lack of awareness and bad preparations. One Ollie owner in Oklahoma had his trailer completely freeze up, he posted a frantic thread about it, but I never heard the results, if it destroyed his tanks or not. If somebody can post that link, I think it would be a good warning for the rest of us. Don’t let that be you…. Once the drains freeze, you can no longer empty pipes and tanks! This shows that event, not the current forecast! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_2021_North_American_cold_wave It is going to be below zero here tonight, but at least here in NE WA we expect that sort of chill. It’s 48 degrees in the RV bay. Stay warm. John Davies Spokane WA

Let the fun begin!

Gotta love autocorrect. It's made some of my posts pretty humorous, too.

We had similar issues with hard water deposits. We now travel with a water softener. I just changed out the anode in the hot water tank and it was completely consumed. It’s been about 2.5 years, should have done it a year earlier. The last time I changed it was after 18 months and there was still about 30% left. 18-24 months is probably about right. I also flushed quite a bit of junk out of the tank, but also had that when the anode still had life left. Mike

Woots! Exciting times for sure. Enjoy your new Ollie and we hope to meet you one day! We picked up ours in October - the only thing they didn't tell us at pick up was that they get dirty and they didn't tell us where to find the "clean and wax it" power switch/breaker!🤪

My son is a computer game programmer and they recently got into 3D printing. Here is what arrived for Christmas...... It was a total surprise. The $5 bill is for scale. The hull is exactly 6” long, the LE2 hull is 18’, so this makes the model 1:32 scale. There are lots of truck models in this size, my Land Cruiser 200 would be 5.9” long at this scale. ..... https://www.ebay.com/itm/Toyota-Land-Cruiser-4x4-1-32-Scale-200-VX-Wagon-SUV-Diecast-Model-Mini-4wd-Car-/362667098231 And this is what the model looked like before final trim “processing”, I have NO clue how that is done. They were not able to find an actual data file online, they did this completely from scratch using photos. They are willing to share the print file if somebody wants to try this at home. They are thinking about dividing the build into layers, so you could print the tires, frame and hull in different colors and then join them.... but it would not be too difficult to prime and paint the all white version. And no, they do not want to start mass producing these. That would be something for the much rumored, never seen Ollie Store in Hohenwald. Happy Holidays. John Davies Spokane WA EDIT: FILES AND BASIC 3D PRINT INSTRUCTIONS. NO GUARANTEES, THIS IS NOT PLUG AND PLAY EASY. If you cannot download these files directly from this thread, let me know and I will try another method. Thanks to my son Ian! oliver legacy elite 2 trailer davies.stl oliver legacy elite 2 trailer davies.3mf “Provided as is - this shouldn't be too hard of a print, but you'll probably want to have a basic handle on printing. The print specifics below are what I used to print it. They're not required, but might serve as a starting point. Print specifics: Printer: Original Prusa i3 MK3S, 0.4mm nozzle Slicer: PrusaSlicer 2.2 Filament: 1.75mm Prusament PLA (stock profile in PrusaSlicer) Perimeters: 3 Layer Height: 0.1mm Infill: Gyroid, 5% Supports: On Raft: 2 layers (not necessary, just makes it a bit easier to get the tires round) Model print scale: 850% (~200mm x 66mm x 82mm) Total filament (including supports): 143g/48m If you slice it yourself, you'll probably want to put support blockers in the wheel wells - cleaning supports out of there is a pain. This will require some postprocessing - mostly just removing supports from small gaps. If your printer isn't precise enough, or if you're printing with a larger layer height, you may want to do some sanding to get the curves more fluid.” I. D.

Went to our local dealership to take a look at the new Tundra yesterday. I am sorry to say that I was very disappointed. The first thing that jumped out at me was the massive grille. It looks even bigger in real life. The grill openings are so large that a small bird could pass through and slam right into your radiator. I can't recall ever hitting a bird, but I have picked up a few stone throws from semi trucks over the years. Not much protection there for anything smaller than a ping pong ball. Mayflies, cicadas, bees, beetles and bugs will likely plaster the cooling fins on the radiator (look at the front of your Ollie after a long summer trip). Just seems to me that styling beat out function and practicality there. I have never been a fan of that behavior in mechanical design. The battery is directly below Andre's hand on the curb side in the photo shown above. It is partially below the hood cowling and packed in there tight. I would not even attempt to change it myself for fear of smashing something adjacent to it during removal and reinstall. You can't pick it straight up because of the cowling and the hinged side of the hood. Awkward at best. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth for some. It just seems like they did not put much thought into the location. The wheel wells have rather flimsy (IMHO) plastic spray shields fore and aft of the tires. Other than that, the wheel wells are wide open and there is no option for a liner offered. If you drive it in muddy or snowy/slushy conditions you will not like it. By the way, the model that I looked at had mismatched fasteners on the spray shields. They were distributed randomly and some were black oxide and others were silver. When I peered into the rear street side wheel well my tour ended abruptly. Standing upright just as I would if I were walking by the truck in passing, I saw the silver canister of a catalytic converter that is in such plain sight it literally screams "steal me". It is so exposed that if you had a long blade on a sawzall you might be able to cut it off just by reaching into the wheel well. Then all you have to do is poke your head under the rear bumper and cut the hanger off the tail pipe. You would not even need to crawl under the truck. Even an unskilled thief could have that off and be down the road with it before you could even slip on your glasses (insert shotgun as applicable) and look out the window to see what the noise was. Those of you that have read my latest posts are aware of my sensitivity to catalytic converter theft. Even so, it is still a really vulnerable and really stupid place to put the converter. Unless they have been sleeping under a rock for the past few years, the engineers knew that when they released the new model. Funny that reviews from folks like TFL Truck (who I really like) don't mention these things. It is big. It's brawny. It's expensive. It's packed with the latest and greatest electronic gadgetry and a high tech drive train. That is what the american market is hungry for. Now they are truly in the ring with Detroit. Did they alienate the fanbase who depended on them to provide good dependable trucks with solid design and bulletproof engines, all at a reasonable price? Time will tell. For those of you who really like the new design, I say "good for you" and I sincerely hope that you are happy with your decision should you purchase one. For me, the redesign fell short. I am disappointed and sad. I was really looking forward to it. Cheers! I wish all of you the best for the coming year and beyond.

The guys at TFL ran the new Tundra up the Ike twice. Overall they rated the ride and cab noise as excellent and also has excellent MPG on the Ike run. I would add a very high probability of this truck also having the excellent Toyota reliability factor. My down sides are that the new Tundra appears to have much less leg room in the rear seats of the Crew Cab, a hump in the rear seat floor. A biggie for me is it does not have a transmission temp gauge. This first year's version has some weird programming (Such as tow haul and tow + modes that turn off every time you shut down the engine) that surely will be fixed in shot order. (NOTE: Just as Ford has with not turning on the transmission temp feature and killing the Auto Stop. Both of which can be easily fixed with a good scanner). IMHO, I think Toyota has significantly closed the technology gap on the Ford F-150 platform. Will be interesting to see the TFL head to head comparisons between the big three sometime in January 2022. And then down the road how TFL rates the reliability of this new model. Personally, I would wait a year for the glitches to be identified and fixed. At that point I would have a hard time choosing between the top three half tons!

The dealer moved our Tundra ETA from 1/3 to 1/10, will see! Here's the latest Tundra buyer's guide from TFL:

John, I guess I’m even more amazed that Mercedes would offer a vehicle that they claim will tow 7700 lbs, yet less than a 1000 lbs of cargo capacity. The salesman retired the day I took possession; however, I doubt he knew how low it was. For the immediate future, I will take short overnight trips and not put any cargo in the vehicle. Longer term, I will drag out my 2009 Dodge half-ton pick-up when I make week-long trips in the summer. Perhaps the Dodge is a better towing choice than the Mercedes, especially if the Mercedes broke down in some rural area where I couldn’t get it serviced or parts. It sure is fun to drive though.

Congratulations! Hope you enjoy many years of adventure in your new Oliver!

Yes - in many cases owners have installed both a cell booster and a WiFi booster. Apparently it is a good thing to keep these two devices separate and the factory usually mounted the WiFi in the front with the cell in the back for this reason. Bill

Glad you saw that Oliver, glad you toured the factory and glad you have not only joined the family but have also joined (officially) us here on the Forum. Welcome! Bill

I keep my Ollie about 3 hours away up in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Last time I left it, the fresh water tank was half full and the batteries were turned off. I'm planning to go up in another week or 10 days and hopefully everything is okay, with no frozen or burst pipes or lithium battery malfunctions. I would have loved to have been in it during the snow storm, warm and cozy.

I had mine shipped to Southern Oregon. Found the shipper through uShip. He was around $800 cheaper than painted cowboy.

I made all our own bedding. If you buy queen bedding, cut it in half, cut the curves, and then serge the edges it will work great.

Greetings from another Clark County Oliver owner! We picked up hull 836 in June 2021 and absolutely love our trailer. We are located in Hockinson. Pam

Andy, welcome to the group! I’m sure your modifications and experiences will benefit everyone here. Happy New Year! Mike

We were just at the sales and service office a month ago. They are definitely selling the additional items outlined here plus Webber grills and other assorted items that a new Oliver owner might want. In fact they were re arranging "the store" the day we picked up our Ollie from service. I am glad they're doing this. They have a quality brand. I have received several positive comments on our Ollie and interest in the brand. Most are very happy when I tell them about Oliver being a family business based in TN. Those who have done research all point to how well they are built and quality reputation. Many have never heard of Oliver but look at our trailer and are very impressed. The more the brand is in the market and desired the better for Oliver and Oliver owners. I would hate to see them sold at dealers like Airstream. I could understand a 2nd Oliver owned and operated Sales and Service center somewhere in the west.

I purchased "Cot" sized sheets (75" x 30"), 100% cotton from Amazon...great price. Fit perfectly.

I think your son was astute in recognizing what pleases you. I liked that you were humble in recognizing he now knows things you don't. Been there... 🙂 Charlie

I’ve had the same problem with mine but it seems related to the use of either vinegar for sanitizing or the winterizing solution. I think some of the rubber seals in the faucet head are affected/swell up from exposure to the chemicals, reducing the flow. I just replaced the sprayer head and problem solved. Cheap and easy fix. Dura Faucet RV Kitchen Faucet Designer Toggling Pull-Out Sprayer Replacement - for Dura Faucet Faucets Only (Brushed Satin Nickel) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B009Y06H3Q/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_5WEG1XNWRCRX50546YVP?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

We had the same issue a few years ago. Check for plastic bits or hard water debri in the faucet filter and in the line behind the toilet. Mike

Hey, that's what we named our Tundra and Oliver. Stan and Ollie got hitched in Hohenwald and crossed the Big Divide together to travel the wide open West.

Painted cowboy? Don't know if still the same, but here's a thread. Best to call your reo, obviously. Everything changes over time.

I thought so! My son and his wife are class of 2004. I’m 1976 (genuine old grad), just had our 45th reunion. Mike

We picked up Hull #776 in April. I purchased the mattress pads from ABLifestyles.net like many others. However, I wanted something more custom for the bedding. Also, I didn't really have a budget so I just picked what I liked. After a lot of searching, I found Tess Weber-Popejoy from BackroadsMama on Facebook and Etsy. Unfortunately, she is taking a break from sewing so I don't think she'd be able to take on another project. There are several other Etsy shops that can make custom RV bedding. I provided Tess with the measurements for the mattresses and had success after an initial adjustment for the depth (needs to be at least 8"). The top sheet is sewn into the bottom of the fitted sheet, which keeps everything tucked in during the night. Tess made additional pillow cases out of different fabric in the "campfire" fabric collection. She also made throw pillow covers and placemats. I even had her make fitted sheets for the dinette when it's folded down into a bed. Our dog sometimes uses this as a bed so we wanted two covers that would protect the cushion fabric. I've posted some photos below. My husband and I are going to make a YouTube video this weekend to walk through the interior of our trailer. There aren't too many videos for of the interior so we thought prospective buyers might appreciate it. Our channel is called Tenacious Traveler and we are really just experimenting so it's not too profession looking (yet). Best wishes as you begin your Oliver camping journey! Amanda Oliver Mattress Measurements.pdf

I found high-quality sheets and mattress pad on Amazon that are for designated as Cot mattresses size (30" x 75") same as Ollie "Twin" beds less the radius angles on the corners. We'll see how they work out. Much cheaper than custom Sheets and Mattress Pad. Mattress Pad $33 each: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00JK0YEDU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Sheets 600 Thread Count Egyptian Cotton $57 each: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B072L4N5Y7/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 We'll see how they work out. Nice little tip to look for Bedding for Cot Mattress dimensions and more accurate than RV Bunk bed dimensions (who knew)!!!

I'm curious what your cargo carrying capability is on your Mercedes ML450. I just bought an Elite II, had it delivered to Oregon, and plan to tow it with a 2021 Mercedes GLE AMG 63S. When I ordered the Mercedes, the maximum towing weight was listed as 7,000 lbs and maximum tongue weigh of 700 lbs. I never was able to find the maximum cargo carrying capability on any Mercedes documents. The dealer assured me it would work with trailer with a maximum weight of 6,000. When I picked up the vehicle (it took nine months), the actual maximum cargo carrying capability is 937 lbs. With the tongue plus hitch weight of 540 lbs, two adults, and two dogs, I will exceed the 937 lb limit without accounting for the increase in tongue weight due to loading the trailer, and I can't carry anything in the Mercedes.