Leaderboard

Chilling at Lottis Creek Campground in the Gunnison National Forest listed my canvas wall tent on the FB marketplace in Gunnison, Crested Butte and Buena Vista its my emotional support tent 😢

After 4 years towing our Elite II with a Tundra with 5.7L engine, which often made me nervous on freeways in traffic, we finally upgraded. We recently bought a Ford F350 with the 7.3L "Godzilla" gas engine with which to tow our Oliver. The 2019 Tundra has become my "river rig", which tows my raft trailer, often on bad roads. If our plans work out, "Godzilla" will haul Hull #1291 from Idaho to the East Coast and back this late summer/fall. Before then, I plan to try towing both with and without the Andersen weight distribution hitch (since I already own it), just to see if I can tell a difference. I will report how it goes!

Perhaps I am beating a dead horse on this subject and thread but wanted to add a few things that might be of interest to those with Lippert 8800 series of windows. This past week I ordered 3 sample packs from Steele Rubber in NC which includes many if not all of their rubber weather stripping and glass sliding seals they manufacture. They arrived today. The samples seem to be well made, albeit very expensive for what they are. On my unit the outer most rubber w/s does not nor has it ever touched the sliding glass window and in fact misses the glass by a full 1/8th of an inch. Needless to say our windows were more like a sieve than a sealed window. Weeps holes do little to nothing to mitigate the incoming water during heavy rains. For those of you who need to replace their exterior rubber w/s for what ever reason the part # I have ordered is 70-4500-257 and this sample does indeed provide a relatively tight seal against the sliding window. This part also has a tighter fit in the channel, a good thing. No doubt the wrong w/s was installed on our windows given its rather loose fitting in addition to it not being wide enough to seal against the sliding window. Effectively the original does nothing at all to seal water. Steele Rubber company has a huge amount and variety of gaskets and seals making it nearly impossible to determine the correct fit without the sample packs. They also produce a much different type of glider seal/track that appears to be better and less likely to allow further leakage into the window channels. The ones that came with these windows do nothing to prevent water from entering into the channels and dripping into the cabin. The part # for that item has conflicting information between the website and the sample pack ID's they sent. It is either 70-3577-58 or 70-3577-256 come in 8ft lengths and priced at nearly $49 for each length. The exterior w/s piece is sold by the foot at $7 per foot. In addition to the effort of sealing the windows I have also finally added gutters over the windows. I put this off for a long time mainly because I didn't have faith in these small channels being effective during a downpour. I also installed them a bit different than most by gently curving the ends diagonally away from the window. The sharp bend pointing toward the ground never made sense to me and also caulked above and under the J channel to provide a longer lasting seal, hopefully. Thanks, hope this helps some others

The Oliver factory sales is the best way to go. The factory is honest and very helpful, always a great experience. Nice people there.

Nice looking installation! The previous owner of our 2015 LE2 also installed gutters, they divert loads of water, too!

Or, three or four! I do know of a person (me) that was leaving VERY early one morning from a campsite in Yellowstone and just had this "funny" feeling that all was not right. I (oops - this person that I know) stopped at the camp entrance just to take a look around and saw that while the bulldog was clamped shut and locked, it was "resting" on the top of the ball - NOT down and clamped around the ball as it should have been. This person has never told me just how he got the bulldog closed and locked without being down on the ball. I've accused him of not being as careful as he should have been and he claims that in the early morning darkness plus being in a hurry may have had something to do with the issue.🥴 Bill

Thanks Steph & Dud B. JD - The owner of the storage location asked that I not store propane in the space. That's why they are out of the trailer. Best Tim

Have never heard of winter storage of LP tanks before. LP cannot freeze at any sub-zero temps, even if you're camping on the North Pole! Why not reinstall them both, secure them as designed, and keep them there always? It's OK if one is empty.

That is a mystery. I was so shaken that I started checking to see if the jack worked. I had to disconnect everything, which meant no flashers on the trailer and is flying by, that all I wanted to do is get hooked up and off the shoulder. So not sure whether this was my error or something that was the perfect storm. Bad bridge joint, new springs, something with the Bulldog. The Bulldog looked fine.

Was the clamp open when you looked at it immediately following the incident? Bill

John, I'm so glad that you're ok!! I'd be very interested in knowing what caused the Bulldog to release! That's pretty scary! It's good to know that the safety systems do in fact work! Time to relax under a tree with your favorite adult beverage!!

Wow, John! I can just picture how terrifying that must have been. It gives me goosebumps just thinking about it! I’m so glad you and everyone else are okay and came through unscathed.

From the new weekly update Jason said it kind of oddly - they've been selling from the factory for years and that's how I got it as as West Coast dealers are sparse - but I think he means they're no longer going to sell through dealers. My guess would be the cost of the trailers and customization. One of the 'closest' dealers to me is a couple day drive over to Utah. I talked to them, but of course they didn't stock what I wanted so it was a custom order with a big downpayment. And the sales guy wasn't super helpful, I wanted the big 640 Lithionics which he pushed back on. "Those are too expensive!" 😅 Odd thing to say, my finances are my business, and I'm glad I got them even with the EV. Anyhow got tired of trying to work with them and just went straight to the factory as there was really no advantage to the dealer.

It should work. I'd be concerned about the unused pigtail flopping around and damaging the rubber.

Next years rally is June 8th through June 13th, 2027 at Shore Hills Campground Boothbay, Maine Oliver Mini Rally 2026.mp4

These look pretty awesome, thanks for the tip! The '26's don't have touch lights, but plain jane bright white which cheesy little switches. Olivers have a huge amount of lighting for a small trailer but I use them all. Getting to choose your temp is amazing! How good is it, which one did you choose? Otherwise the remembering the state is a huge feature too. Choosing blue for a nightlight is absolutely brain dead though, it should have been deep dark red to preserve night vision and not wake you up. Blue is a morning light and is the clue to your brain that its time to wake up. Oh well ...

That was one of the easiest parts of the installation. 🙂

I just finished updating my blog pages to include some parts that have become hard to find for our older 2019 Elite II. I've been maintaining this guide for 3 years and many parts and equipment specific to Oliver EI and EII trailers are included. For example...the grommets for the stove that were used in many trailers from 2019-2024 or so.. I listed them in the Oliver Outfitters guide in both the "Oliver Outfitters" main page and in the Kitchen Gear sub category as shown below: Here's the link to the overall page: Oliver Outfitters Guide on Amazon Full Disclosure for Moderators and Viewers: I do make a small amount if people by off this page, it's averaged $3/month...so not big beans. Mostly I'm trying to chronicle parts, pieces, gear that is used or needed by many Oliver Owners. Craig

And I see my comment got you to update your profile page! CONGRATULATIONS to you on your new Oliver! 😂 Thank so much for the pictures and advise, much appreciated! Thank you @srthomsen and @FloraFauna too! All feedback is helpful. Steve, I also like seeing your installation pics. You installation looks very clean, would be even better with the wall mount which I'm leaning towards. The piping on mine would go vertically like in yours and then T at the top for the two rooms. I guess I better plan on that electrical shut-off box!

Cottonwood Lake USFS campground on Cottonwood Pass, near Buena Vista, Co 3.5 miles of miserable washboard dirt road , nice campground, no water available as the well has been broken over 5 years with no plan to repair 🤔 campground is all FCFS and fills up Friday mornings too much dust with folks driving 25 mph in a 5 mph campground One pic in Leadville, Co

Addressing brightness and color temperature: I've had issues with the original touch lights flickering and in one case completely failing so last week I replaced all of the touch lights with these, which a few people on this forum had recommended; (as always, thanks folks!). I haven't used them for very long so I can't speak to their longevity but so far I like them for the following reasons: You can select their color temperature when you purchase them They have a mechanical power switch They are dimmable via the switch They have a blue nightlight feature Most importantly: They remember their last mode / state / brightness selected even when the trailer master switch had been turned off for travel. The one feature of the original touch lights that I didn't like was that when I powered the trailer master switch on all the touch lights would come on and I'd have to turn them off individually as desired The hole pattern is close enough to the original lights to make installation easy. I did use screws rather than rivets though In terms of the build quality they leave a bit to be desired, they're similar to the originals although they have a plastic base, probably not so great in terms of heat dissipation so time will tell. I bought a 4-pack and a 2-pack so I have one spare.

Yesterday while traveling home from Northern Indiana on US 31, we hit a bridge joint. It was a big jolt followed by a load bang. Looking back the front of the trailer had dropped. We slowed and pulled off onto the shoulder. The crossed chains did their job, as did the brake cable. Got out and was pretty shaken so I didn't look closely at the hitch, and can't remember anything, other than the pin was in place. We just had Alcan 5-leaf springs installed and our travel home was completing the 500 miles before re-torque, which will be done tomorrow. The springs are still stiff and will be for awhile. Wonder if this could have contributed I found no damage to the Bulldog Hitch. We have the 2" ball and 2" Bulldog. Very scary. Only damage was the foot plated of the front jack. I will get that replaced.