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We do not bring but a few clothes that need to hang. We felt like we were losing so much storage area. I built shelves to fill the lower area of the closet. That curve is a bugger to work with. Shelves have a 4" lip in the front to help hold the gear. They are not perfect but work well.

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You'll find ScubaRX's disk brake project down on page 2 of this thread, with a April 18, 2017 entry date. Good Luck!

Your closet upgrade is fantastic! I'm thinking it's begging for a nice secure wine rack! Ha! Heck -- a few bungie cords over the top of the bottles... Might work?

Agreed, I wasn't concerned about the value of my Oliver but rather how this translates into people camping over the next few years as Mountainman implied. My wife and I just returned from a week trip to SW Utah. We noticed one very popular campground that had a few openings still at sunset even with no RSVP tags on the post. Perusing the BLM dispersed areas also return the same results. Now it is important to note the weather down there has been off the charts wet and unseasonably cold. We were bundled up for ever hike we did, 6 years ago same time give or take a week it was all t-shirts and shorts. Cutting to the chase in other forum threads my prediction was many of the people who bought into this during the pandemic will not stick with it. It wouldn't surprise to see a glut on the market wit used RV's for sale soon.

No issues the first 2K miles on Hull #1291. But, bearing issues usually do not appear for at least 10-12K miles. That said, I ordered a Nev-R-Lube bearing cartridge to have on hand as a backup, just in case. In the event of failure, it will save at least a week of down time waiting for shipment of the replacement cartridge.

Original thermostat works fine, though it flashes E5 which is an open circuit code because there is no more AC unity to connect to. Just toggle to thermostat to heat when you turn it on and the heater works as normal. 6 month now using the Houghton and we love it! Its quiet, the Heat pump works great, as long as outside temps are above 40" F. Runs 5-6 hrs so far on the lithium 640 amp Hr batterys. Hull 1144 LEll, FORD F150 2014

We have a Solostove Bonfire and love it. We have had it for years and use it at home as well as when we travel. The wood burns efficiently and once it gets going, the smoke goes straight up. I love camp fires but hate the smoke in my face!

Have you talked to Oliver Service?

Thanks John! They don't offer an inline valve, but I'm sure I can cobble something together. I don't want to end up spending as much as simply replacing my Big Red Campfire, though. I appreciate the input! https://torjik.com For real fires, we use the Pop-Up Firepit. It burns super clean, with very little ash due to great air flow. Plus, you can set it up where *you* want, instead of where the campground wants it. It Folds up into a roll about 4" diameter and 20ish" ling. https://firesideoutdoor.com/?_atid=fxO62CmNHSBrD5RpwMpejcX2IckA0C

We have recently stayed at 3 different places that would not allow any wood fires or charcoal fires. They did allow propane firepits and we were able to enjoy sitting outside in the chilly weather around our Outland portable fire pit. Other benefits are ease of use, quick setup and fast heat source, not hauling wood, and going to bed without smelling like a campfire. The disadvantages are cost of propane, lack of wood fire sound and smell, and burning pattern and complexity of a wood fire. Still, we won't go camping without taking our propane firepit along with us. Kirk

We picked up the tabletop SoloStove Mesa, it'll burn pellets as well as wood. The pellets are pretty easy to bring along. mesa

Just checked and the Outland firebowl on Amazon is back on discount again. Not as cheap as last time but still very much discounted. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KY4S388/ref=ox_sc_act_title_3?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&psc=1

Very nice Job. It’s a tough space to organize for sure. We tend to carry different items with the season’s. We will get it figured out one day.

Based on my observations from 2.5 months of travel this Winter across NM, AZ and CA, this is already happening. Greater vacancies in campgrounds, BLM land and fewer rigs on the road than the two prior Seasons. It will be interesting to hear the experiences from those who camp and travel during the Summer months and in other States as to whether this trend is greater than just NM, AZ and CA over this past Winter.

That is primarily an illustration of why a Jeep owner “airs down” when going onto loose terrain. Wider footprint, more grip, less spinning and trail damage, at the expense of slightly lower ground clearance... It also shows why the tires’ rolling resistance goes up when you deflate your Ollie from 80 to 40 psi. It’s interesting to see that the footprint doubles in area between 40 and 15, but the change is a whole lot less dramatic above 40 psi.,. My sweet spot is 42, because I do minimal Interstate cruising, but lots of back highways and less that ideal road surfaces, AKA POTHOLES. Hit a 3 or 4 inch deep pothole at 50 mph with rock hard tires and you will think your trailer exploded. This shows a main arterial route here in Spokane, where we get lots of freeze thaw cycles. It also shows why the center stripe paint gets worn off so fast, all those studded tires on cars avoiding the holes BTW one of the local weather reporters calls the arteries “artillery” routes. It’s a hoot. John Davies Spokane WA

I recently had my original gas regulator die on Hull 505. I wasn't paying close attention when I ordered the replacement and ended up ordering one with a lower BTU Rating. The original Hull 505 part - GR-9984XF with 345,000 BTU from the Main Service Cylinder is what I should have ordered. The replacement part - GR-9994XF has 262,500 BTU from the Main Service Cylinder is what I have now sitting in a box. Since I learned of my error, I've ordered the original part and left the other new in the original box. I can't return it as the time's expired for exchange. Net Result: I have a NEW in Box GR-9994XF sitting in my garage. I'm wondering if the GR-9994XF would work as a spare for those of you with newer trailers that no longer have the Gas Fridge? If you're interested in the unit...send me a private message and we can work out details. Craig Short

Thank you Jeff for opening the door on this aspect of our "Clean Energy" asperations. The above comments are interesting and informative. I feel certain that the market will dictate where the Gas/Diesel fuel topic goes. I am more worried about the higher level aspect of where will all our energy to travel comes from. The below are my personal feelings and concerns with our energy infrastructure. Your hope is a good one, and I share it. But sadly I don't think there is any chance of that for many more years. As a country, and a world, we pretty much missed that boat 20 years ago. Why? Coal Power Plants: The EPA emission requirements for coal fired power plants have resulted in significant reduction of these "Cheap" to fuel environmentally dirty power plants. Down the road, it is not likely that they can or will be replaced as the older coal power plants are decommissioned due to age and high cost to meet Clean Air Act requirements. Significant coal investment on a national level died years ago. Nuclear: This for now, and likely 20 or more years, is the only power source that could meet the needs of the zooming EV and other needs. But they take way too long to build, and in some states it will ever happen. Hydro Power Plants: How many new lakes suitable for hydro power production have been built in the last 30 years? Basically none. How has hydro electrical production faired as a result of global weather change? Well down. With the EPA required environmental assessments becoming next to impossible to get approved, I don't anticipate this type of power production to be one to hang our hats on either. Wind/Solar: Yes, we are making huge investments in these technologies. Sadly the vast majority of this equipment is imported. Regardless, for sure in some locations, they will shoulder most of the DAY TIME power needed for the millions of EV's coming towards the market. But Wind/Solar can not be relied upon every day and night without major power storage. To date we just don't have the infrastructure or a technology to do so at a grid level. So back to burning more natural gas to charge all those EV's at night. So basically for the foreseeable future, I believe that Natural Gas will be used to fuel the vast majority of the power for the planned millions of EV's. But again our society has pretty much killed off the initiatives for the energy industry to build the pipelines necessary meet the pending demands of the EV. Worse, the energy industry as a whole does not trust that such billion dollar investments to be profitable to their share holders. Same problem with funding new refineries, pipelines, and drilling new fields as most of our existing fields are beyond their prime. The result is that there is a finite amount of natural gas that can be delivered and used for power production. Existing limitations will cause shortages and you can expect that the cost of power will rise significantly as time passes. Also that weather related problems will result in punishing costs to be incurred as we have not embraced buried utilities as many countries have. I can only hope that reliable battery technologies come on line, and we in the USA get our heads around the need for a comprehensive energy policy that addresses bridge technologies to get us through the next 20 years as we embrace the EV wave heading our direction. In the mean time: The utility companies are closely watching the Hawaii situation where our home and commercial use of solar panels have drastically changed the grid peak times for power production. Peak power production on Oahu used to be afternoons, and is now during late afternoon and evenings after sunset. Now they are moving us to time of NIGHT high power pricing. So if you are needing to replace appliances, recommend you consider ones that you can select when you want it to run. Investigate home solar panels, solar hot water generation, and solar produced power storage investments while there are federal, state and local incentives to do so. Have enough power storage so that you can use your investment when the grids are "temporarily" down. I think that the good news is that the Oil/Gas industry is not going away in our collective life spans. As such, our gas/diesel burning "old school" TV and Ollie will likely love the deserted roads at night when the solar powered EV power stations sit idle with thousands of EV's waiting their turn at the few grid powered Charging Stations. We'll beep beep our horn as they wait for sunup to get some juice into their batteries once again. I keep wondering why we rarely hear anything about addressing the capital costs for the needed electrical production, high voltage power lines and substations needed to feed the 50,000 power stations being built today. GJ

Still working on it, 15 seasons in... Every trip is different. We make it work.

They sure have gone up since 2019 when we purchased ours wowzer! 😕

JD: Great graphic. I intuitively knew what was happening with air pressure and tire contact/drag forces, but had not seen it visually. thanks for sharing. It also makes a great justification for not going over 50 PSI on our OE2's unless it is way loaded. For us in the 6,000 pound group, doing so would appear to be little drag reduction with increased down sides as discussed above. Would be totally cool if OTT could run the OE2 over a glass plate at these pressures to see how close it mimics the Jeep visual. My gut says it would be really close. GJ

Nice use of space while retaining some hanging space.

I don’t remember what size the mounting holes were, but I used some small round pads that I found at my local Ace Hardware store. They aren’t plugs, more like the pads you find on the feet of a table top radio or a clock. They aren’t rubber, maybe some space age material with a glue backing, but they are pretty thin and have stayed up almost 4 years. Amazon has a large selection of plastic or nylon hole plugs if you can find the right size. Mossey

Interesting forecast…….however I’m not certain how accurate that may be. There is a large demand for the diesel truck, not only by RV owners, but mostly construction, agriculture, and general use. The diesel develops much more torque at lower RPM’s than a gas engine and that gives it an advantage over a gas engine. The lower RPM also gives longer life to the engine, just on reduced wear. Auto manufacturers will do almost anything to squeeze more profit from the product, and yes the diesel is more costly to manufacture. I would not be surprised at all if you see the V8 engine (gas or diesel) eventually go away. That will be a sad day for many. I have owned several diesels in the pick-up truck offerings and have been very pleased with them. The current truck is a Ford F-250 with a 6.7 diesel and I have been very pleased and impressed with that truck. Before that I had a 2001 Dodge with a Cummins diesel and a manual 6 speed transmission, possibly the best and most trouble free vehicle I have ever owned. I am 73 and have had many vehicles over my driving history. The Dodge (pre catalytic emissions) was almost bullet proof. In the 15 years I owned it, the only problem was the A/C compressor and a water pump; both around the 150,000 mile mark. I have no doubt that truck will drive on for many more years and miles. If your needs are to only run down to the Home Depot on the weekend to pick up a few gallons of paint, or a sheet of plywood, then the electric truck may work for you. However if you are planning to pull 6,000 pounds or more cross country, and up and down steep inclines, then the electric truck will not do. The auto manufacturers love to push the electric vehicle concept, mostly because there is more profit and less production cost involved. I will never own one, and hope that my latest diesel truck will be my last, as I intend to drive it many, many years (or at least as long as I possibly can). Think about the major differences between electric and diesel powered vehicles and you can quickly see where the production and manufacturing cost advantages are. For an electric vehicle, you eliminate the cost and expense of an internal combustion engine, a complex transmission, as well as the final drive. All profit areas for the auto manufacturer to take advantage of. They are already adding a premium cost of about $10,000 to add the diesel package to a truck, and that is a huge profit margin for them as it is. Just imagine the profit advantages if they can design and manufacture just the battery pack and a couple of electric motors for the drive; and still sell the vehicle for the same, or possibly more, as a standard pick up being offered today. Electric trucks will have no place in the heavy duty truck market, nor in the over the road type of market. The endurance, and pulling limitations just to not work. My personal suggestion would be to find a new 3/4 ton, diesel powered, truck and plan on keeping it as long as you can. Having a good preventive maintenance schedule for it will insure you will drive it for many, many miles. Not all will agree with my perspective, and these are simply my personal feelings. Steve R.

I found accessing the fresh tank drain valve in our Elite I quite cumbersome since we leave the bed set up 100% of the time. We have the optional latex mattress which is heavy and awkward to move. So, I copied what others have done and installed an electric valve operated by a toggle switch. Works beautifully! BTW, when I removed the manual valve and inspected it, I saw a large piece of plastic debris wedged inside. Probably explains why it took so long for my tank to drain. Used the US Solid 3 wire electric valve and SPDT on/on toggle switch with flip cover to prevent accident activation of valve. All parts purchased through Amazon.

John, thanks for the heads up. Just started investigating the switch over to lithium a week or so an ago. I checked out Battle Born last week. I’am minimum of a 17 months out, but I put myself on the mailing list. again thanks

Craig: Don't know which furnace and stove you have, but if you check their BTU input ratings you could find the answer. If the actual required loads are less than the rated load, you're golden. Here is all the Suburban models that are in my 2018 hull 342 furnace O&M manual: I suspect as you are way under the rated load, you will be fine. But do add up all your gas usages (BBQ, Stove, etc.) just to be sure. JPRussell

I just returned from another trip camping in temps below freezing. In the last two seasons, I've now done more then two month's of camping with temps staying below freezing even during the days. Have done the mods to assure that all areas of the basement stays above 50 degrees even when outside temperatures have dropped below zero. Tested with registered digital thermometers. I've now had multiple frozen lines under those conditions. I'm confident the culprit is the insulation (or lack thereof) and especially the type of insulations used - reflectix. This type of insulation does OK with radiational heat loss but not good at all with conductive heat loss. Translation is the pex lines freeze at points where they actually sit directly against the reflectix allowing the cold from outside to transfer through to the lines. The lines froze after a couple of days where temps were consistently in the low teens. My take is that these trailers without extensive mods are not safe to use the water system when outside temps sit in the low 20s for more than a day or so. By allowing air to flow through the basement, this threshold drops another 10 degrees. Without running heat tape along pretty much all pex lines and tank adding warming pads, an Oliver cannot operate with water below that. Our experience may not line up with others. Have asked before and do so here again for anyone who has used their trailer free of mods and used their water in ambient temps below the mid teens to share the particulars of their story. I'd love to be proven wrong on this but feel that, as sold, Olivers are not built for the type winter conditions found where snow is a common place thing.

Are they free standing other that the screws into the floor? You might consider adding a bead of adhesive along each of the curves to give it more strength, Please post some pics of the shelves with stuff on them. If you added stretchy cargo netting, you could fill them up and not risk having stuff tumble out, for example paper towels or boots. Thanks for posting. John Davies Spokane WA

Why would you get anything less than the maximum available battery power...? You can never have too much power but you can definitely have too little...? In the scope of the whole project...get the best!

Way too many products dependent on oil production for that to ever happen .. What will be interesting is what will become of the gasoline produced by the distillation process once the majority of gas vehicles are no longer on the road.. Wouldn't bet against it being used as fuel in power plants to generate electricity for our electric cars.. 😄

Concur 100% - these are the only "Snap Caps" I'm familiar with. Got 'em all the popular sizes - very handy for keeping those perishable skills honed, ha!

That’s fantastic!

Looks really good…and effective use of space.

They don't kill rattlesnakes in Arizona! Charlie

I wonder when that will translate into fewer RVs on the road/in campsites?

I prefer this brand of snap cap. John Davies Spokane WA

In part the article stated: According to the RV Industry Association, total RV shipments for January fell nearly 62% from a year earlier, marking a reversal for the industry, which saw demand rise during the pandemic. One of the reasons cited for falling demand are rising interest rates for larger loans like those used to purchase RV's. ad

We had originally ordered the smaller Lithium package. They called us during construction and told us that package was unavailable then. Would we mind if they "bumped us up" to the larger package for an extra 1,000.00 ? Duh...no brainer ! It's a lot of power, but you can never have too much ! We feel more confident the farther we get from the "insanity"...

@GAP thread here

There is supposed to be a tag on the rear of the axle with the model number on it. If your tag is missing, as mine was, look at the flange where the brake assembly mounts to the axle. If you have 4 bolts in a square pattern they're 3500# axles, and if you have 5 bolts in a in a circular pattern they're 5200# axles.

Yes. EDIT: I need to add some context to my quick, one word answer this morning. I don’t want to give the impression that I have a cavalier attitude toward my safety and the safety of those around me. I do pull into fuel stations with my fridge on propane. Normally, my trailer is not next to a pump, it is behind the truck which is next to the pump. We travel a lot in the west where it is usually windy. On those occasions where the station is very busy and I need to use a forward interior pump I will turn off my propane. I always check inside the trailer when stopped, so when I turn off the propane I will go inside and turn off the fridge while I’m checking so that the fridge is not on batteries. As far as the furnace goes, over the last 7 years I’ve only traveled with it on a few times so I don’t remember fueling with it on. The same situational awareness would have applied.

Last winter I put a 4" vent through from the base of the toilet to the area under the dinette. It's an eyebrow style vent so shower water can't splash into the belly. I also removed the exterior shower head, brought that hose inside and re-attached the head. Also removed the hot and cold water knobs. Used closed cell foam to insulate the space behind the tiny door and two layers of reflectix to insulate the outer door. All super easy and very productive. Those belly areas were measurably warmer as was the temp in the bathroom as air now flowed through there where it had been a dead end.

Our original thought for the vent, was the bathroom exhaust fan. If you go into the bathroom, turn on the exhaust, and then close the door you can hear the fan struggle hard to work. Open the door and you can literally hear the fan relax. If this is the case there must be a negative pressure (vacuum) situation going on. So, thinking the inverse might also be true, came the idea for the vent. Thinking that with the door closed, like when using the bathroom, there would be a positive pressure when the heater fan was blowing. So the vent would allow the heat duct to "relax" and allow the air to get out and to the return air vent, hence increasing the heat flow to the bathroom. As you can see by the candle flame movement there certainly is air flow. We did restrict the air flow to the duct opening under the bed so that that air did not go out and immediately go into the return. We think the bathroom is a lot warmer in cool weather. We could have done the same thing by leaving the bathroom door open, as some do, but find that inconvenient while using the dinette.

I just purchased a 2021 Ford F150 Powerboost. Uses the Ecoboost twin turbo V6 Hybrid with 430 hp, 570 ft/lbs of torque. 0 to 60 in 5.3 seconds and has a built in 7200 watt generator driven by engine with a 240v, 30 amp outlet and three 120v, 20 amp duplex outlets. Gets around 24 miles per gallon without trailer. Range of 700 miles. I do thing hybrid and EVs are the future.

And then there is the Electric Airstream to go with your electric truck... https://robbreport.com/motors/aviation/airstream-new-electric-trailer-estream-1234659272/ Still, 300 mile range for the Ford truck and the trailer isn't enough.

Reminds me of beta vs vhs. And the winner is.....? We'll continue to see advancements in battery tech. I'm sure of that. I'm not a huge fan of traditional hybrids, because of the necessity to maintain two systems. But, they've definitely made headway, and reduced emissions. We're still in baby step stages, imo. Even with major advances in the last decade. Our kids and grandkids will see a very different way of powering vehicles. My money is on electric.

I sure like the Cummins diesel in my Ram 2500. Makes towing so much easier than with my previous gas V8’s. I also get better gas mileage, both towing and not towing. Mike

Forgot this, your BVM-712 will show charging amps from the portable panel, as long as the wires are connected to the positive and negative buses, not right to the batteries, but you won’t be able to see actual details, just for that device, except by looking at the Zamp control display. You COULD easily replace the Zamp control with a Victron MPPT one, as CnC suggests above, and that way it will network with your monitor, so you can use the Victron Connect app to see all those cool functions of your portable panel, just like the ones on the roof. This one is in my WishList, I just haven’t got to that project yet😬 Victron Energy SmartSolar MPPT 100V 20 amp 12/24/48-Volt Solar Charge Controller (Bluetooth) FYI, https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/5329-how-to-victron-mppt-solar-charge-controller-underneath-the-street-side-bed/ If you decide to buy the Victron unit, then order a solar panel without the onboard unit, that will save some money right there. BUT you won’t be able to use the panel as a stand-alone charger, for example, to charge the battery in your truck when you are away from the Ollie. That is why I modified my Zamp with Anderson connectors, so I could use it both ways. John Davies Spokane WA

It sounds like you want to go first class on your upgrades. Before settling on your current intentions, you might explore the expanded benefits of a Victron solar controller and a Victron Multiplus 2k inverter/charger. After having upgrading to these items in an Airstream, I find I miss their capabilities in our Ollie. I know that I'll be changing our 2020 Ollie setup in the near future. I hate to spoil your plans, but I'd hate it more if I didn't point you toward the alternate options that I'll be making (again.) BTW, I think the Ollie is Sooo much better than comparable Airstreams!