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Hi Everyone, we just bought hull #1147! We spent the past few weeks cleaning and performing some minor maintenance on this LE2. We just went on a weekend camping trip to Larabee park in Bellingham WA and it is such a nice little camper. Our kids have grown up and left home and this new to us camper is going to be our getaway plan for weekends and vacations! Anyhow we are looking forward to getting to know and learning from you all.

I'll post some photos tomorrow. Our Minnesota camping and sailing friends got a late start, so pot roast for Thanksgiving. Easier to hold, for late arrival. Trash can turkey tomorrow. Campfire is burning. It's a beautiful day here in wnc.

Happy Thanksgiving to ALL! Chris is making her usual magic in the kitchen today. We should get a fire going in the fireplace! Listening now to classical music. We're going to take some time this long weekend to plan some upcoming camping trips (for Dec, Feb and April). All I've been doing is working on our Oliver, and more so on the truck. We need to get out again! Mid December we will travel to some warmer parts of SW AZ. Starting with a few nights at Burro Creek Campground, we will swing through Quartzite for a night or two, on way to Yuma (I need to work in a dental visit in Los Algodones). You can dry-camp at the Quechan Casino (Indian Territory right there on the boarder). Interested in the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge, perhaps there is camping there, or other BLM boondocking between Yuma and Quartzite. Will hit Wickenburg on the way back, eat lunch at Cowboy Cookin' and boondock again at Vulture Mountain. Final stop at Lake Pleasant Regional Park, located in the NW Phoenix Valley. There is always day-of dry-camping available, empty your tanks and fill with decent fresh water. We've been to some of these spots, but never in an Oliver! Now that I wrote it, I believe we have most of our first plan done!

Thanks Everyone for the warm welcome! We are glad to be here. Although we are still figuring out how to use the tools to do proper replies on this forum. Lol.

Looks like your pooch in the back seat is smiling too!!!

Happy Thanksgiving. We will be Traeger hickory pellet smoking a 6# dry rubbed bacon wrapped turkey breast. https://www.traeger.com/recipes/herbed-smoke-roasted-turkey-breast In addition we will enjoy iron skillet bacon wrapped and garlic and rosemary seasoned deer tenderloin plated at 136d, (med rare). We’ll raise a toast to a very blessed and successful hunt this year. From Field to Table. 🦃🍁🍽🦌 Just off the smoker - let it rest 15 min and enjoy! (The skewers keep the breast upright while sitting on the grill)😊

The obvious most important warning is not to mix those chemicals in your living space. More than a few folks trying to unclog/clean a sink/toilet have done so to their peril. So good reminder. But for this discussion (Tank and Fresh Water Line Cleaning), the solution to your process is not to mix the Pine-Sol that you put into the black/gray tanks with the the Vinegar you put into the hot and cold water lines to sanitize. How? Raise your trailer tongue at a dump station or camp site where you have full hook-up and open the black and gray valves to drain them after your tank cleaning. Then flush the water lines first with a bunch of clean water to flow water through the water and they drain into the tanks to remove any Pine-Sol residue. Then introduce the bleach water into the hot and cold water lines and complete the sanitization process. Flush the tanks some more and close the valves. Always remember to bypass your hot water tank. You don't want bleach in it. GJ

Welcome to the Family! Let us know if there is anything we can do to make the trip even more enjoyable. Be sure to let the folks at the Mothership know that you are the new owners. They have the complete file on 1147 and can let you know what services have been performed by them during its life. Bill

If you like your job, it goes by far too quickly, if you don’t like your job… Here’s the secret to surviving it.

Curly headed fuzz ball. Love em.

You have our slightly younger sister (we're 1150). Enjoy!

Planning to soon descale the water lines with vinegar and after that is good and rinsed, I will sanitize the lines with a bleach solution - WARNING!!! Just realized you CANNOT have Pine-Sol in the black and gray tanks when working these procedures! Pine-Sol contains glycolic acid, when mixed with bleach will create chlorine gas, which is immediately lethal. Same reason we do not mix bleach and vinegar. Pine-Sol plus vinegar is not as bad, as they contain two similar acids. Pine-Sol company states specifically not to mix there cleaner with any others.

We will be staying home also. We have a 20 lbs bird. I will start at 1130PM Wednesday and doing a Citrus Smoked turkey. Happy Thanksgiving and May both your joy and stomach be full!

Greetings! I didn’t find any existing posts about this minor issue, so it’s probably worth mentioning how I addressed the rattle-fit (optional) rear bumper. This issue first became noticeable after mounting our Swagman bike rack to the bumper. With 2 bikes and the single 1-1/4” mounting point, there was a lot movement in the bike rack when going down the road. Most of this was attributable to flex in the 1-1/4” bike rack mounting tube which I addressed separately. However there was also appreciable play in the bumper mounting design because of Oliver’s quick release pin design. Those pins look cool and everything, but I don’t think I’ll be removing the bumper too often and removing 4 bolts is pretty quick too. I tried replacing the pins with pass through nuts and bolts, and I noticed others have done that too. But no amount of tightening stopped the square bumper tube from rattling inside of the square receiver tube. This was like a sloppy receiver hitch, and the solution is similar to those after market threaded hitch pins (a great modification BTW). I used short 3/8” SS bolts that don’t pass all the way through both tubes. Rather they go from one side of the outer tube and they thread into Spring-Nuts that are nested inside of the inner tube. This effectively pulls the tubes together on each side for a tight and movement free fit. I used lock washers to assure the bolts wouldn't loosen and come out, but proper torquing and a longer fully threaded pass though bolt drilled for a pin would work too. I got the 3/8’ Unistrute spring nuts from my local ACE’s electrical department. Just push them inside the bumper tube with a stick, and line up the holes. Although these replaced 1/2" pins, I'm not concerned about decreased size for this type of load. After-all, the entire trailer load depends on a single 5/8" hitch pin used in a similar load configuration. Cheers, Geoff and Tanya

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. If your grilling or cooking a turkey out in the wild, please share your Turkey Day Photos. Happy Camping and safe travels where ever you are. 🦃🦃

Here’s a nice video on the last 100 years of Texas State Parks. I’m sure most states have a similar history. We’ve stayed at state parks across the nation and appreciate what they provide. BTW, H-E-B is a Texas supermarket chain headquartered here in San Antonio. https://youtu.be/1rHgTkBGv_w?si=qCcsBz99Cxvy1hmU

Congrats from Hull #1045, Jolli Olli Happy Camping

Welcome Heather and Eric! What a great first post! Wishing you all the best adventures in your new to you OLEll. Patriot🇺🇸

I don’t think it’s in Oliver’s mindset to cut costs by using inferior components. These obviously didn’t work out. I think they should stay with the original lights, 8 years and ours have never failed. Mike

Hey Heather and Eric - congrats! Look forward to meeting you. See you out on the road somewhere! Mike

Hi Heather and Eric, Congratulations on your new to you Ollie, and welcome to our clan. Steve and Diana

Welcome

Congratulations and welcome. Look forward to adventuring with you.

@Ronbrink, good question, I don't know. I have not opened the Xantrex app at the time the Xantrex Inverter/Charger has been heard to come on. On Sunday, I put our trailer back into storage, probably until January, so I won't be able to check until our next trip. Although I have been told by both Oliver Service and Xantrex "not to worry", I am still curious as to the cause. Also, I have noticed the brief periods when the inverter/charger comes ON mostly during the night, when I am in bed. I have not, so far, been sufficiently motivated to rise and investigate these incidents. We are planning a January trip to the TX gulf coast in January to photograph migratory birds. I will try to remember to check the Xantrex app when I next notice the short interval of operation. Regards, Don

Congratulations, and welcome! Looking forward to posts and photos of your adventures!

Of course one must have the required tools to actually accomplish the level condition, but the Levelmate Pro tells you exactly what you need to achieve level. We shoot for at least marginally level sites to start with and use the leveling wedges to accomplish the job. Sitting in the cab and rolling into the wedge you know exactly when you are at level. Chock the wheels, unhitch and level the tongue the same way and done. Love it.

Happy Turkey Day "Week", Oliver owners! D and I will be staying home this year, too. We'll be deep frying a 12# free range Non-GMO bird on Thursday afternoon and smoking a heavily marinated 18# brisket in the BGE on Friday. Should have plenty of leftovers - so if y'all're in the AO; swing by! Gobble - gobble! HA!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!! We are staying home and eating Turkey this year, nothing special. Safe travels to those who are traveling this year.

Happy Thanksgiving fellow campers and travelers! We’re home this year (although we considered joining our son and family who are camping this week at Grand Canyon NP). I’ll be smoking two 12lb free range turkeys on the Primo ceramic this year. We’ve been doing two turkeys for quite a while, one inside in the oven and one outside on the smoker. The smoked turkey always wins the taste test, so we’ll just do both outside on the smoker this year! Mike

This month, I started into retirement year 17. One of my better decisions. Go for it!

Nan, I believe a single 12VDC AGM battery (or even 2 in parallel) will be your most cost effective solution.

My wife and I have recently acquired hull #266 and are happy to be one of the few west of the Cascades. We've been lucky enough to try several campers over the years ranging from an RPod, to a Bambi, then a Basecamp, and now the Oliver Elite II. Each worked for us at the time but we learned what worked and what didn't through each trip. This thing is going to be well traveled and well loved!