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As our business continues to flourish we strive to grow our staffing so we can continue to meet your needs. At this time we would like to welcome and introduce Jason Balentine, our new Service Manager. Jason will be running the daily operations of the in-house service department. Mike Sharpe will continue in his role as our head technical support supervisor. We have separated our phone system out where you can select Technical Support or Service & Parts. Technical Support is for external support, general questions or help locating a service center or dealer near you. Service & Parts will be directed to Jason in Service and he will assist with scheduling appointments for our in-house service department and help with parts requests. And to answer everyone's question, Yes, evidently your name has to be Jason to work here.

Looking forward to testing the Mini during the next camping trip, this is the main reason we purchased it. It's simple to set up, use, and transport. Started service @ $50 per month for 50 GB of "Roam" service that can be paused whenever not in use. Used ideas from the following video David posted earlier to be able to use the Mini with an Anker power bank for emergency use during a power outage (we have poor cell internet service at home unless used with home WiFi) or if we have a vehicle breakdown in the boonies when without cell service. Had an old Pelican case we used to transport a laptop with. The Starlink Mini, power cable, Mini power convertor, Anker 200W power Bank, 6' power cable for the Mini, and Anker 100W charger all fit easily in the Pelican case.

After our SL mini shake down trip out west I have decided to purchase a cord reel for the mini to keep the cord neatly buttoned up during travel. As well as a little quicker to deploy and roll up. I also decided to scoop up an extra SL power cord as well. If by some unlikely chance the cord gets cut by a grazing Bison well…you sorta flapping without a spare. This big guy was grazing on the nice green patch of grass next to XPLOR and he actually tugged on our SL cable and fortunately did not chew through it. Smart Bison! I will post up on how the cord reel works out. I highly recommend a back up spare power cord. As we all know things happen. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07WYCR42L?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_0 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DB21PPSC?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

It should, best mixed 50/50 with water; vinegar and hydrogen peroxide can be used, as well in like manner. Don’t spray directly onto the mattress, rather lightly blot the mattress surface and allow to throughly dry. I would remove the mattress from the trailer for treatment, especially if there is high humidity inside or outside.

I switched from a 22" Blackstone to a Carolina Cooker griddle. Smaller footprint, easier to pack, and has a true cast iron griddle top with built in drip tray. Downside is that it doesn't have a cover so I'll have to come up with something for that. You buy the griddle and burners separate. So far, I've been really happy with it but there are a few mods I'll probably consider such as a wind screen around the base and maybe drilling a hole in the drip tray.

Nice kit Bill! You’re going to love the ease and portability of set up of the mini. We cannot imagine not having SL after our last 48 day trip out west. 💯 full on game changer. It will be interesting to learn how long you can power the mini off the Anker power bank. 👍🏻

Tracing leaks is a real challenge. Up in the attic, behind the side panels, there is a lot of wiring (the dreaded Oliver sign and the marker lights to name two). On my trailer, no drip loops were employed on these wires. So when my rear Oliver sign started to leak, as well as my streetside marker light, the water did not go straight down but traveled along the wires horizontally to a low spot where they dripped. In my case, this was out the rear streetside ceiling speaker, which is right over my head when I'm sleeping! This is all just to say that, water can travel a long ways before it finally comes to light. I would tape the Oliver sign and the marker light as one other test. As Steph and Dud B mentioned, water is still getting in from somewhere, even though you sealed the interior of your window, which you shouldn't need to do. Regarding the window weepholes, This was discussed a while back. They are not so effective draining water due to capillary attraction between the narrow slots and the water. What I ended up doing to solve this was to cut some short pieces of paracord and stuff one end into the slot. It acts like a wick and you'd be surprised how much water they will suck out of the track in a heavy rain, and they do it quickly. I know about heavy rain here in the PNW (well, it used to rain here....)! So, you may also want to try this hack to stop the leak. Good luck, Dave

One other thought. Is it cold out? I've had condensation form on the interior aluminum window frames on cold humid nights when I was running the heater then drip down the wall. A surprising amount of water, actually. If this happened while you were sleeping below that window it could be condensation from your breath. Opening the roof vent a bit might help.

So, the leak stopped when you sealed the interior perimeter of the window frame? I'm guessing you didn't stop the leak, but you have redirected it elsewhere. It's probably running down between the hulls and exiting via a scupper drain now. Which is fine and solves your immediate problem. When you get home maybe you could try carefully directing water at various suspect areas while someone monitors the scupper drains to see if there's still an external link. At least you have a dry bed now.

Search on this on Amazon. They sell 25' lengths. I put the trim lok site link in my reply because it was the company site. If memory serves you can do one LE2 with a 25' length, but you have to be careful. Scotty Trim-Lok Drip Rail, White – 1/2” Height, 25’ Length – PVC Plastic Rain Gutter for Cars, Vans, and RVs, Easy to Install Flexible Drip Rail Molding to Control Water Runoff, Durable 3M Tape Included

The referenced site indicates purchases of 250 feet. How to Order a Drip Rail from Trim-Lok Trim-Lok’s Drip Rails are easy to order. Go to our drip rail product page, choose your color, and choose your quantity of 250-foot boxes of the plastic drip rail. GJ

More great news…loving our Starlink Mini!

Sorry to hear about the water problems, sometimes very difficult to locate the source. We had water dripping out of of three windows on three occasions so far, but the windows were not the problem in each case for us. We keep the window weep holes clear. One time the porch light over the window was allowing water in above the window allowing water between the hulls resulting in water dripping out of the window, fix was to remove the light and reseal (old style light). One time the Oliver sign on the rear of Ollie (many here had this problem) allowing water in between the hulls dripping out of the window, removed the sign and resealed to fix. One time during the winter when running electric heater for a few days in Ollie without using dehumidifier water dripped out of the curbside window, found heavy condensation collecting between the hulls in the rear of Ollie to be the issue, using two small dehumidifiers cured the problem for us. Checked where we had access between the hulls at other locations and found very little condensation between the hulls except for the rear of Ollie. Just wanted to share some of our experiences.

That brass fitting is the vacuum breaker valve from your black tank flush. One pipe comes in from the black flush hose bib inlet on the street side of the trailer. The other side runs back to the flush head on the black tank. It’s auto draining so the black tank flush line won’t freeze. The part is in a kit as the Swan San-T-Flush SFS150. In the diagram from Oliver it’s the red square on the left. I also remember having a smell once because we hadn’t used the shower and the grey tank odor came up the dry p-trap for the shower pan. We put a couple cups of water in and no more smell.

I'm aware of the posts and did in fact do my install on a hot day with tape. It sat for three days in warm weather... My Casita had drip rail as well so it's not my first attempt...Just wanted to help new owners be aware of the bad product.

As you can see, this is an old case, but very rugged. Also use Pelican cases on motorcycles, broke a latch on one a few years ago, called Pelican, all they wanted was the name & address to ship a new latch to, no other info needed. When I purchased the Pelican case, it came with egg-crate foam in the lid and two sheets of foam in the bottom of the case. Now I only have one sheet of foam in the bottom of the case since my laptop was too thick for two sheets and I used the second foam sheet for another use. Use two soft foam blocks to secure the Mini in the case. Additional foam blocks should not be needed if the case still comes with two foam sheets in the bottom of the case in addition to the egg-crate foam in the lid.

@Blain Welcome to the Forum and welcome to being a Oliver owner. Since both of the responses above do not have the Truma AC unit, I would suggest you call the Oliver company, identify what hull number you have and what do they recommend for a generator size. The minimium size of generator will depend on if you have the Micro-Air EasyStart option connected to your A/C unit. This EasyStart allows a smaller generator to start the AC compressor, since it will allow less amperage to start the generator compressor.

@Blain, I purchased a Champion 2500 Watt Dual Fuel Generator in late 2021, prior to our delivery of our LEII, Hull 990 in February, 2022. See: https://www.amazon.com/Champion-Power-Equipment-2500-Watt-Technology/dp/B0CRLWJSSX/ref=dp_fod_sccl_1/134-9963084-0325038?pd_rd_w=Z6nsM&content-id=amzn1.sym.783fbbc9-65f4-4105-bb20-37dc32815d16&pf_rd_p=783fbbc9-65f4-4105-bb20-37dc32815d16&pf_rd_r=C3KWVM2SBJ484K0Q57BW&pd_rd_wg=GJSmQ&pd_rd_r=3b8f7d10-4b53-41bc-b17e-e7792cfe7baa&pd_rd_i=B0CRLWJSSX&th=1 I have been very pleased with the operation of this generator, which I have operated only on propane. We carry it in a rear mounted cargo carrier on the LEII. I have actually used the generator more often at our residence in Dallas, TX when we have experienced extended power outages. It easily powers a large chest freezer and a 20+ cubic foot refrigerator/freezer. This generator will run 12-14 hours on one 20 pound tank of propane when supporting these appliances. On gasoline, this generator will operate for about 6 hours, depending upon load. This generator can also be paired with another similar Champion generator OR a larger model for additional capacity. I have no found the need purchase a second generator. Not having to haul gasoline onboard is a major advantage. I adapted the fuel hose on the Champion generator to connect to the low pressure connections on our LEII. The Champion 2500 Watt Dual Fuel Generator powers our Dometic Penguin air conditioner on the LEII. We purchased a Micro-Air EasyStart for the A/C unit as an option on our LEII. The generator will NOT power the Dometic Penguin A/C unit without the Micro-Air EasyStart. I did quite a bit of research prior to purchasing this generator. It costs approximately that of a gas only Honda generator and has produces about the same level of noise as the Honda. I also looked at propane conversions kits for the Honda generators and found these were an additional $250 to $300, AND installing them voided the Honda warranty. I would not hesitate to make the same purchase again, if needed. I see no downside to purchasing from Champion. Regards, Don

You want the Trim Lok Drip Rail with the 3M backing tape. https://www.trimlok.com/plastic-extrusion/drip-rail The 3M adhesive is awesome. Put it on #145 in 2016 and still doing the job. I would actually be afraid to take it off now for any reason. It's part of the trailer. Good Luck Scotty

I spent some time under the sink trying to locate any loose fittings and found nothing. I did find out that the black tank from under the dinette seat was a contiguous open area (which I simply did not know) so any smell I had under the dinette was in the sink area too except not as pronounced. I decided to just leave well enough alone and spray OdorBan everywhere as per Ronbrinks suggestion in my original post, including the valves. I put some https://bit.ly/3BLgPdG in there and haven't had smell since. Not sure if warm weather will reactivate it next year but I'm really glad I opened the area up! I may want to change out my faucet someday, check p-traps etc.. and it was pretty simple to do. Thank you for the gasket material you gave me at the rally, however, I didn't end up using it as I thought it might be too hard to place around the perimeter of the cubby. I used this instead: https://bit.ly/3A0quwj It's channel shaped and easy to route. Everything went well. I used the original screws and snap caps even though I had bigger ideas in the beginning. For the number of times I'll actually go in there, it wasn't necessary to use plus nuts and get all crazy. So far no leaks and it looks stock. Good Luck Steve! Let me know if you find anything more. Regards, Claudia

Good idea on the cord reel, looking forward to hearing how the cord reel works out!

Thanks @DavePhelps for the response. I was a Canadian dollar store the other day and saw a pack of pipe cleaner things in the craft section and thought, hey, I'll get some and try them. I put them in last night during a heavy rain and did notice the wicking action. Yes, they really work and I'll be using them in the future during rain. Regarding the point of intrusion, it's hard to believe that water entering from the rear Oliver light or marker light could travel forward all the way to the window, but hey, I'll tape them off and try anything.

I finally got around to giving this mod a try today. I took care to cut and shape the foam to smooth out the airflow as much as possible. I found that the foam cut very well with a tabletop bandsaw, and was shaped into rounded corners easily with a wood rasp. I applied a generous covering of silver metallic tape to hold it all in place. Unfortunately, I didn't get the reduction in noise. 74dB on low and 84dB on cool after the mod, same as before, using my iPhone. I think it did eliminate a little bit of crackling that was caused by the flex duct vibrating. Maybe it had to do with the thickness of the foam, where mine was generally thinner that what is shown in this post. I took advantage of the opportunity to seal up the edges of the return airway as much as possible since it was fully exposed to the rough cut through the hull, and all the dust that comes with that. Overall it was a good experience and I don't regret the time spent, even though I didn't get the hoped-for noise reduction. It was worthwhile to clean up the return air path.

Update.... I put a bead of silicone caulk in a place I'm not sure how to describe. It's where the aluminum window frame screws up against the interior hull window opening. I covered the horizontal gap, the vertical gap under the window center post, and even wiped some caulk around some of the screws/bolts that hold the frame in place. I had some rain last night, and I'm in the middle of an electrical storm at the Bay of Fundy right now, and no water is coming in. I'm happy, the problem seems to be fixed, but I don't understand it. The other windows don't leak. What happened to this one window that caused the problem. It's a mystery. But a dry mystery! Lol.

Your northern location tells me all I need to know. I would really think about winterizing based on where you live. A few minutes of effort can forgo hours of locating and repairing a leak. Our Truma makes winterizing super easy.

Let’s meet there next spring!

Five miles east. Every FS campsite or dispersed camping from Payson to Show Low is abundant and beautiful!

There are the White Mountains of New Hampshire! Know them well! I’ve skied Cannon Mountain, Canmore Mtn in North Conway and the top of the White Mountains is Mount Washington, the highest peak in NE. And then there are the Green Mountains of Vermont, smaller yet absolutely gorgeous this time of year, on my favorite State Hwy 9 heading west! The White Mountains of Arizona include all the high county in east central Arizona. Payson AZ is the western point at the edge of the Mogollon Rim. The NE point would be at Springerille AZ, with Show Low AZ in between. Then all the way to the NM state line, and south to the mountains north of Safford AZ. 🤣 Everywhere it’s high elevation, grasslands at 9000+ FT and peaks at 10-12K FT. Those who know, of the several million Phoenix Valley residents, drive up on summer weekends to climb, up, up, up, and in doing so, the temps drop 30F! The AZ White Mountains are the SW corner of the Colorado Plateau, it’s God’s Country. Camp almost anywhere you want between FS and BLM lands. My thinking is it extends into New Mexico though the range may have a different name east of the state line. @MAX Burner would be the expert on the NM side. Thank for asking, posts in Ruidoso NM coming soon. Loving our trip after working 5 months on this old hull (she is doing well, all systems working to near perfection)…

@FloraFauna I strongly agree with the above comments. I live in Maine and we have some cold snaps in the witner, like you. With the tanks empty, the worry is really freezing of the water lines, particularily the plastic fittings and backflow preventors. That type of damage is a real pain to fix. The backflow preventors and some of the water lines are difficult to access. Play it safe and winterize. You do not have to have water in the lines to camp in the winter; just bring bottle water to drink. If going south, then dewinterize when you get below the freezing zone.

Having any water in the trailer lines with a hard freeze can cause extensive damage. Strongly suggest the above sage recommendation....it's just not worth the risk. Using the trailer dry can easily be done. For the toilet use one of those bags in the toilet or "go" elsewhere. GJ

This is so true. The linemen crews, and debris removal crews, are true heroes! Everything looks better with full lights. And, certainly safer.

Winterize. It's not that hard to dewinterize when you get south. We had a freak winter storm in late October in nc. I hadn't winterized. We lost the outdoor shower. Even if you just drain and blow out the plumbing, you're better than nothing. I buy rv antifreeze as soon as it's on rhe shelf, and keep a few gallons extra through summer. If nothing else, makes a great door stop. Where you live (and I grew up near there), I'd winterize after last fall trip. That's what we did in "tropical" southern Minnesota. (You know, the pineapple belt....:) You don't have to "de-winter" to do a weekend trip. Just carry water in jugs, and a portapotty, or use a wag bag in the toilet, if you don't want to de-winter.

Went into Greer yesterday. Reason we chose this campsite is it’s on the same road only 3 miles to this small town, pop 52! Had a beer and wurst at the Edelweiss Resort for lunch. Was thinking to have dinner at the locally famous Molly Butler lodge but as we walked in to check it out we overheard the hostess say they only had reservations available after 8PM. Decided on steaks at the campsite with Cobbler for desert, nice! We’ll be back again, since this slice of heaven is only 4 hours from home. Need to checkout Hannigan Meadows that @MAX Burner has mentioned, also the next time! After lunch I took a hike along a cattle path down Benny creek, up the dam and to the lake and back. Leaving the White Mountains today, and on to central New Mexico.

@Boudicca908, i am grateful to see your report. And very happy for you. We have no power from the grid. No connection to see battery backup, from solar, so winging it, just working from experience. This has happened so darn often, we call it "camping in the house." Just grateful to have a house to camp in. Our county was pretty much half without grid power. battery backup for now, genset as necessary. I heard today from Ollie owners in Bradenton. All good. Trees down. The linemen are working really, really hard. As are the waste removal crews. All hands on deck, as neighbors and friends help each other.

We got a small DASH rice cooker on Amazon. It works well and doesn’t take up much room. It is also easy to clean.

The Aurora Borealis made an appearance in coastal South Carolina last night…you can see my Elite II in the foreground reflecting the Aurora.

We are looking for recommendations on a small size electric rice cooker and also would like any recommendations on camp cooking using a flat bottom wok. cooking over gas or induction. Just trying to get a plan organized The rice cookers I see on the web are mostly big countertop sizes and we had hoped to find a smaller size to save space and not haul around a full size appliance as we are outfitting our new to us Oliver hull 1218 my wife is Chinese and about 75% of our meals are cooked in a wok ! We use a flat bottom caphalon non stick at home and it cleans up with just rinsing and wiping it out I don’t think induction and caphalon will work 🤔 together

Got a chance to lube the Oliver today. Using the Dewalt power grease gun and the LockNLube with 90-degree adapter, took me 40 minutes total. Had one stuck Zerk that a flat punch freed up quickly. One Zerk at the top of the EZ-Flex is hard to get to, but it just made it. The power tool and 90-fitting made the job so much easier (after 40+ years doing it the old way)!

I'm not sure what anyone can do to prevent a storm surge of 10 to 15 feet. I pray that all those (especially you and the family and the Mossemi family) in the area of the storm remain safe. Certainly Milton is one powerful storm!😟 Bill

Sherry, which part of Florida do you live? Prayers to your family and ALL who have suffered Helene. Hope Milton is not as devastating!

For those who want to come to the area to see the fall foliage, you might consider the Robbinsville / Topton area. We have reservations at Hidden Waters Campground later in October. It actually looks like we might be making this trip. Here is an update from The Campground that you might find useful. This was sent on 10/3/24 Scotty ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We wanted to take a minute and thank everyone that has reached out to us about how we fared through Hurricane Helene. Our community was so very fortunate and did not endure the flooding, power outages and road closures that our neighbors to the East did. We had no damage in the campground and are running normal operations. Some of you may not know this, but we are almost as close to Metro Atlanta as we are to Asheville. We are well outside of the impacted disaster zone. Below are a few notes if you have an upcoming stay with us. Transportation All major thoroughfares leading to us are now open with the exception of I-40 on the North Carolina - Tennessee border between Waynesville, NC and Knoxville, TN. We personally keep a physical Rand McNally Motor Carriers spiral bound road atlas in our vehicle in case we ever have to detour in an area with limited GPS. We would also encourage you to check your individual route from your hometown. You will all be so glad to know that some of your favorite rides are open: The Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, Wayah Road and Moonshiner 28. Unfortunately, the Blue Ridge Parkway between Cherokee and Asheville is still closed. Fuel The majority of the fuel in our community comes from Chattanooga. We have plenty of gas to get you here and back. If you are coming in the next week, we would encourage you to keep your tank half full if riding the roads as some of the more outlying areas are still cash only. Food Our Ingles grocery store is open, but their operations have been impaired by the flooding of their corporate headquarters and Asheville distribution center. Deliveries are slow and they are currently cash only as of yesterday evening. If you are coming in the next two weeks, the best bet may be just to stop at the nearest Walmart from your direction of travel. We go to the one in Murphy. Our restaurants are open for business! It has been a bit of a ghost town here lately and the local restaurants have been hurt. They have had to cut staff and hours. We would encourage you to eat at least one meal at a local restaurant while in the area if possible. You will be welcome with open arms! Cell Phone Coverage We have three bars with most carriers in our campground. If you are out in the mountains, the coverage can be spotty, but that can be true on even the best days up here. Thank you for booking a stay with us. We look forward to hosting you. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have additional questions. -- Hidden Waters RV Park & Campground 4509 Tallulah Road Robbinsville, NC 28771

We had reservations for the last week of October for East Tennessee, near Johnson City. Of course those are now canceled. Our prayers go out to everyone affected.

Bill, I believe you will be pleased with everything about the “mini”. We also ordered the 12v adapter cable to allow us to run the mini from our TV. Just a thought. https://www.strikerfab.com/products/dc-power-adapter-for-starlink-mini

HF transceiver is SGC-2000. I employed the SGC-200 antenna turner in the Ham Shack and functioned well into the back stay on the boat. I also have the ICOM IC-2730A Dual Band VHF/UHF 50W in the F-150. I have had my Ham ticket since 1957. I still fire up the Heath Kit SB-301 and SB-401 from time to time . I built the two in the mid 60's. They were considered the poor mans Collins Rig. 73 de W8CB

That is true. During one of the calls I was presenting and it worked great. Again it all depends on the speeds you happen to be getting. But then again I have the same issue at home sometimes. This morning working from the camp spot speeds are good. Upload is for sure slower but 15 Mbps up with 22ms latency will work. On my plan Starlink can throttle me though so your mileage may vary.

Cool, thank you! Btw, if you are a Zoom presenter, which is the vehicle of my parttime semi-retirement job, you are pushing more data up vs. down, and upload latency is an issue in all Sat connections. On all technology platforms, download speeds are 5-10x upload speeds, np for streaming movies, or if you must the Presidential Debate (oh 'twas so painful). 🤣 One part of me wants to be able to do my work on the road, so to travel more often. The other side says screw that and it's a GREAT day boondocking when in a deep canyon we're not connected!

Just for reference. I have used the mini for many Zoom meetings, including 2 simultaneously, worked great with no issues.

Based on how light and compact the Mini is, I wont be considering a permanent mount. The main reason is if I am parked where there are any obstructions I will have to move the mini to a northern unobstructed view for a solid satellite connection. Now this is just based on our experience so far on this trip. The SL mini has a reported latency of 23 milliseconds according to SpaceX. We have not used it for any zoom meetings, but we did stream the entire Presidential debate last night without any interruption issues. I am going to keep it simple and deploy it from its carrying case. So far we are very pleased with the mini and it is serving our needs perfectly. One thing we have both noticed and really like is that it connects instantly to our (4) devices after plugging in the dish. Perfect! Onward!

As promised here is a quick update on our SL mini field use. It’s a game changer for us. No more local WiFi or cell hot spot to think about. We are presently in Colorado Springs and the mini took about 8 min to deploy and we were up and running. Certainly the wide open Colorado skies allowed for quick recognition of the satellites. I do think the mini will serve us well. It’s a cinch to pack up and stow. Onward to South Fork and then beautiful Wolf Creek Pass, then make our way to Durango, Ouray, Montrose and then Grand Junction. Cheers all! We are happy to be traveling!