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Imagine this. You are traveling a back road, because interstates all look pretty much all alike. The afternoon is getting long and then you see it. An old stone building along the side of a lazy stream. There is a slow turning water wheel making an occasional squeaking and gurgling sound. The trees are just starting to turn to a beautiful range of shades from reds to yellows to oranges. There is a wide flat gravel drive and a grassy area, with picnic tables, next to the stream. Scenes like this, and many others, are available all over this country. The Oliver is built for you to get to enjoy these scenes in comfort. Without plugging in you can have lights, heat, water, a bed, food, and other creature comforts only a few feet behind you as you gaze about to see what this country has to offer. Enjoy...

Mike, as your Oliver is one of the early ones, it likely has two 3-way valves instead of the 4 on-off valves of later builds. The is the original (as delivered) valves in our Hull # 050. Maybe this will help trouble shoot your valve positions. This a photo of the later valve layout. They both do the same thing, but the factory altered their manufacturing plan. I removed my manual valves and replaced them with electric ones. Now a flip of a switch takes me from "Normal" to "Auxiliary".

Oh, I know a certain moderator who’s got you beat.

This is Canyon Point USFS Campground. It’s about 30 miles east of Payson, AZ. 7,700 feet, perfect weather in early August (low 50s at night, high 70s afternoon). There are two loops, some sites have 30a hookups, most do not. Highly recommended.

Here are some pics of an inexpensive Oliver Elite II, everything is standard, except for the bike hitch, confection oven, LP outside outlets, and power door key lock. That is the stock factory white interior, stand flooring, and seat covers. The dinning table is black grained and goes with this combination very well. Everyone who looks at it says it beautiful, that's even other Oliver owners. Just something for new prospective buyer to think about, of course you won't be keeping up with the Jones, we have to park our trailer somethings way at the back of the camping sites use to be able to camp there. If you camp with utilities and have an iPhone you really don't need to much other stuff, which we do. trainman

We used to buy bottled water but that is a pure disaster (pun intended) in terms of storage and disposal. This pitcher is available for $30 in many places like Home Depot, replacement filters are easy to find, are about $9 each, and are good for 30 gallons. PUR 7 Cup Pitcher at Amazon We use an apple juice bottle for a storage tank, it normally stays on the galley counter near the cooktop. We refill our personal water bottles from that and when it is empty, we refill the juice bottle with water from the pitcher, and then refill the pitcher from the galley faucet. Since we don’t use the bathroom sink at all, the pitcher goes on that counter top near the faucet - it takes about ten minutes to “strain” all the water by gravity into the lower compartment. It is out of the way there when not needed, except for showers. For towing, the EMPTY pitcher goes into the top front of the pantry, with a full juice bottle behind it, and with dry goods wedged in so it will not shift. The lid is not sealed and you can’t transport the pitcher with water in it! It fits amazingly well, as if it were designed for this space. The reason we use the apple juice bottle is that we will always have at least that much drinking water when we stop for lunch or for the evening, and we don’t need to get the PUR pitcher out and filled until it has a safe place to sit overnight. This has been working great for two seasons now and I highly recommend this method over bottled water or drinking straight out the faucet. If you have access to good water, you can just keep the pitcher stored away and refill the juice bottle as needed. EDIT: Changed capacity and Amazon link, sorry I made a mistake on the initial posting. EDIT: If your used but dried out filter won’t flow water, remove it and soak it in water for 15 minutes. This will rejuvenate it, and this is the method you use for a brand new replacement. If it still won’t flow, install a new one. John Davies Spokane WA

Thanks to @Overland for showing us how to make polls! We will see how this works, and how many responses! Also, Why did you decide to sleep in the specific orientation you use?

It depends on how much you want to spend, but if I were in your situation, I'd get the smaller Ollie and with the money saved, get a pop-up camper shell, probably a Four Wheel, and place it on a one ton truck so that you can tow the Ollie too. You then have the option of doing some more remote and a little more primitive camping with just your son along. He'd love it, and I bet you would, too. Like I was saying in another thread, think of the Ollie as your base camp / chuck wagon with its kitchen, bath and storage, and a few berths for guests. The more I think about the idea, the more I start to wish I'd thought of it before buying our E2.

Hello, I never owned an RV but I am excited about buying one in the next few years. My wife and I (both in mid 50's) dream about doing the big sky country tour and seeing more of this great nation. I have been obsessively researching RV's for several weeks and I came across these great trailers. Awesome that it is less than three hours drive to the factory! Looking forward to learning from the forum. Safe travels...

We just just spent a week at Bear Den CG just North of Spruce Pine, NC. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ with Hull# 634 which performed flawlessly. It was a well needed vacation post our blueberry harvest. We took time and spent a lot of time learning our Ollies systems- Love Love the Truma, long instant hot showers a win.I think it took like 6-8 seconds for us to have constant hot water at the kitchen sink and sink/shower. Microwave convection oven a must have for us. We were easily able to quickly cook/heat meals during a heavy storm one evening. Full hook ups allowed us to use our black and gray tanks seamlessly. The generator tray was extremely useful for a number of tasks. (We did not take our Honda generator this trip). Our AC kept us cool and cycled as it should. We did run the Dometic furnace on a cool 60 degree morning and it performed great. All in all a great safe week! A few photos....of our great State of North Carolina! 😊🇺🇸 Our Tundra CrewMax and it’s reliability delivered and performed outstanding. Check out Bear Den if your ever traveling the gorgeous elevations of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Happy Camping! Patriot

We've always just poured the bleach into the other end of an attached hose prior to attaching to the spigot. Turn on the water and it just washes right into the tank. For sanitizing, NOT drinking, we use 1/2 to 2/3 cup of bleach for the 30+ gallon fresh tank and all the associated pipes. Just run each faucet until you can smell the chlorine. We usually let it sit overnight and then drain and rinse. Don't forget the outside wash station.

Hello to all from Chapel Hill, North Carolina! My wife, Anita and I have just sent in our 2nd payment for an Elite II. If all goes well we will be making a trip to Hohenwald in mid-November to pick her up! We have camped off and on over the years, but always in a tent, so this is really going to be a huge step up for us. We've always had a plan to treat ourselves to a travel trailer one day and enjoy seeing North America from the ground up, so it has been a lot of fun preparing to realize this dream. I definitely owe everyone that participates in this forum a huge thanks for being so open, honest and helpful. This is without a doubt one of the most respectable forums I've ever come across - kudos to the moderators! I think I've read just about everything in this forum since "search" seems to find everything except what I'm actually looking for. 😉 We'll be pulling the Elite II with our trusty 2006 Silverado 2500HD Duramax Diesel, which is barely broken in at 225K miles! Hope to meet some other Oliver owners in person on the road someday soon! Best, John

Thanks for the memories, Overland. The original " can I tow with it thread" from 2008. Yes, we explored a wide variety of possible tow vehicles. And had a lot of laughs.

It's been discussed several times before, but to my knowledge, no one has followed through with anything. I removed my black tank and use the space for storage, if that counts. I'm certain that something is possible, but only with a lot of work and lowered expectations. And I think that combination, combined with plentiful, inexpensive, and much simpler solutions for storing extra water elsewhere, is why no one ever follows up. Specifically to what you're thinking - I certainly wouldn't want to use the black tank for both fresh and grey water - I don't think you can sanitize it nearly as thoroughly as you'd need. I do think that you could fairly simply transfer fresh water from the black tank to the fresh, but you'd have to remove the drain connection between the black and grey tanks to prevent contamination, and then remove the check valve on the cleanout port so that you could use to it both fill and empty the tank. Perhaps replace it with a manual valve. And you'd have to add an overflow of some sort. But if you did all that, then you could just simply run hose from there to the boondocking port and pump the water in. But, I think that's a lot of trouble when compared to a couple of $15 plastic jugs in the bed of your truck.

People do get set in their ways when they get that old. 👴🏻

Here’s the Ike Gauntlet run for the Defender. The main drawbacks seem to be the lack of a tow haul mode for the transmission and no factory brake controller. Pros are the handling, power, and self leveling suspension. All together they rate it highly. It looks like it would be a good fit for an Elite II.

Plenty of places that don't allow gray tank dumping to environment, so to get from gray tank drain to pickup bed bladder is a couple feet of lift. For those spots where I am dragging the oliver up a potholed road, that we want to stay at for maybe two weeks. My camping partner isn't much of a water miser.

Glad you've gotten squared away, it would take a very large gennie to run the A/C and the Water Heater. Ours is 3000 watts and it won't do it. I believe you will be fine now. Switch the water heater to propane and everything will be right with the world again.

Head to front, so we can look out the back window, especially in Picture Window Mode (red latches undone and entire frame held up by a rope). Who wants to look at the galley and pantry....? John Davies Spokane WA

Hi to all, We are happy to now be the owners of 2018 LE II Hull #324. We found and purchased her from SGR through the forum back in June. Thanks to SGR for your time and patience with our inspection and handover - our first trailer and it was a great transaction. “Rhonda” still appears to be in great shape and we look forward to our travels! Thanks also to all the regular forum posters, you’ve been invaluable sources of information, and a big help to us choosing an Oliver.

Hahaaaaa! I haven't seen that picture in a long time. The Bugeye is a towing BEAST . . . OK, maybe not, but it sure looks good with the Ollie behind it.

This color? I don’t know, looks pretty hot to me.

So today I called my Dad and asked his advice. (He refrained from telling me “told you so” about the Tacoma as when I purchased it he recommended the Nissan Titan.) He told me his 2013 Titan has a towing capacity of 9,400lbs and he would be willing to let me borrow it for any trips not on flat land where we would need more power. My only fee... cleaning the vehicle.

Wow. Now I know why it's been discussed but no one has tried anything like I was thinking. I don't think I'll be removing the tank either if I can't take it out whole and replace it if we ever decide to sell or switch toilets. I'll just rest easy for now knowing that I have a spare tank on board that won't need any special attention. Thanks Overland and SeaDawg for sharing your thoughts and experience. I'll just have to make do with various water storage containers to make it all work if/when we'll be camping dry for an extended period.

This must be a millennial thing. Us boomers just buy big trucks. 😎

Better buy two so you have a spare when the other is in the shop... 😉 I'll stick with my under powered and under featured Tundra, thanks.

Yes, for 2021. I will be talking with my sales rep today or tomorrow; I will get more details. Update: Both the powered standard awning and powered pro awning are made by Girard. The standard has vinyl fabric (grey), LED lights, manual override with crank and power switch inside the trailer. The the Pro upgrade is canvas fabric, has LED lights, manual override with crank wind sensor, and manual override with crank. I asked, since they are legless awnings, if there was a way to tilt them slightly so moisture can run off. No adjustment needed; they are designed to be installed slightly lower on one side so they naturally shed water, though not intended for heaving rain or snow. I also asked if either could be used entirely with manual crank. The answer was that the crank/manual operation is only for emergency use, when power is not available, or in the case of motor failure. I asked if the pro awning, with remote, could also be powered from a switch in the trailer (in the even the remote fails or gets lost). I did not get a for certain answer, but since we are opting for the standard non-remote awning, I didn't request that info. Forgot to ask the model numbers.

I purchased three of the Anderson Jack Blocks thinking the reduced time (jack travels much less), reduces stress on the jack ( not extended so far, better for resisting side loads) and clean off with a rinse when used on dirt. So they work as advertised but I have discovered a basic weakness of the product when used on anything other than concrete. See the pictures. When used as sold the bucket goes flange side/hollow side down. The issue is all the weight is on the flange portion that calculates roughly 28 square inches. So given say a say “650” lb tongue weight that equates to 23 PSI. The result is the flange settles into both dirt and asphalt. By comparison a 2x12 board cut square 11.25x11.25 is 127.6 square inches and 5.14 PSI with the same load. I may try them upside down but they will collect some rain water. Bottom line I need to put a flat surface of lumber or other plastic block to prevent the bucket from sinking in. At the last campsite we were at the settled in about 1/2 in per day. I store the Ollie at a new RV storage yard and the owner wasn’t too pleased with the rings I left in his asphalt.

Can you do it long distance? We could make an app.

The radar data delay from Noaa is about 7 minutes. Then your app has to take that data and fit it into their program for distribution. Still beter than asking your aunt if her rheumatism is flairing up..

From my experience - not much is legal in Cali anymore.

Out Hull # 050's 2013 era AGM's are still cooking along. When they go to battery heaven, I'll replace them with Lithium.

OK, that one is news to me, it is the first 50 state CARB legal oversized replacement gas tank I have heard of. I sure hope they will make them for more makes and models. This adds a great big star beside the F150 if you want extended range. Thanks for posting that link. Edit: they do show a big replacement tank for Tundras, but it is not California legal. https://www.transferflow.com/shop/product/0800114225 John Davies Spokane WA

All great picks. We did the Navigator L for a while and it did a great job - it is the fancy version of the Expedition Max . The L/MAX get a 28 gallon tank and the smaller versions get 23 gallons. The nice thing about an SUV, is your payload is all for payload. With a truck, you have to spend some payload on a cap/tonneau cover first. The only time it didn't feel good is with "M+S rated" all season in a blizzard with high wind. Once I had the actual Blizzak snow tires on, things felt way better. We now pull with a truck as someone _really_ wanted my Navigator. Life has changed for me and I no longer need to go to the airport as much, and then COVID happened so I don't go at all, so we went with a much bigger truck. Upsides for the truck for towing is you don't hear the hitch receiver clanking around, so it's quieter. Also, propane/gasoline runs are less sketchy with a truck bed. Also, while the Oliver is narrow enough that the Navigator mirrors could see past it, I do love the tow mirrors now. Ram's online guide will diverge from the sticker. I haven't towed with the Q7, but we had 2010 Touareg Diesel that turned some of the best towing mileage I have seen (22 mpg with an enclosed car hauler). I think we saw around $30k of warranty work as each computer box on it died over the course of a year - I suspect because the dealer killed the battery at one point and didn't jump it correctly. While on the road, there are a lot more GM/Ford/Chevy dealers than VW group. If it were me and I could wait, I'd look at what a 2021 F150 Ecoboost looks like in terms of payload and price once optioned out the way I want it. Maybe even take a look at the hybrid version. If Titan brings their 40/48 gallon tanks to the 2021, combined with the onboard generator, that'd be pretty appealing.

What we like about the metallic silver is that in the shade it’s a bit darker and sun light much lighter and brighter. The same as our Tundra...kinda cool FWIW. Silver is a timeless color. 👍🏻

We would like to do this too . . . . unfortunately, our RV carport isn't at the house, but "at the ranch" - 1/4 mile down a private road. Not sure if the electric set up there will support this. We might consider building a new RV carport at the house as we can always use the other for equipment storage. It's a bit large for the Oliver, since it was built for a 30'l x 13'h fifth wheel with room for a slide. We have timber, a sawmill (photo of sawmill shed attached) etc. My husband is always looking for things to build 😊

Susan, I'm a neat freak and very picky on how I do things. On our Casita I ordered many things in advance and all worked out pretty good, but on our Oliver I made list of things that I wanted to do and add to our trailer and my wife did the same with her interior list. When we got home with our Oliver I had already planed to spend two weeks on the trailer as far as upgrades, etc., so I did wait and placed some orders on Amazon, etc. Glad we waited, because after spending five nights camping on the way home we changed our ideas on something as we all do. trainman

Head always facing south.

This solution is not quite what you are asking for, but it is an idea that Foy_Mirna custom built for another owner. And I believe Mike and Carol built a version as well, but I can’t find it. Mossey

We spent time looking a various fiberglass trailers, and finally decided on an Oliver. We spent a long time deciding between the twin bed and the king bed configurations. Initially, we were planning on the king bed, primarily because the twin beds were only 30 inches wide, while a standard single bed is 39 inches wide. We later realized that a queen bed, which we sleep on at home, is 60 inches wide. Thus the 30 inch twin bed is exactly one half the width of the queen. So we ordered the twins, and we are very happy we did. We did get the mattress upgrades, and we both sleep better in Ollie than we do at home. We do sleep with our heads at the rear, and the curve of the trailer has not been a problem for either of us.

We went with the King layout, but only use a full 4" topper. We probably would be fine with a Queen, but the Full is all we need, easier to move, and fits into the truck bed if we need to sleep there. It lets us switch between day and night mode fairly easily, and the sheets are retained while folding (this photo was taken on laundry day). They also have the 6" version of the mattress, but we feel this is more than adequate on top of the cushions. We got the 6" version of the case to make stuffing it in there easier. This way we can put it in the truck bed, with sheets and even flat blanket if we have more than 4 people at the table. You will ll note I guttted the rear cushion section to make room for this. To sit at the head of the table, we use dinette cushions for the backrest. It also makes access to the basement from the top easier. If the table dropped like the Absolute Black trailer table, it'd be a 15 second conversion from day to night. We currently sleep E-W, but could probably make it work to sleep with our head to the back as well.

When we were ordering our Ollie in 2016, there was a blog post and a forum thread on macerators on the Oliver Forum. Then, lo and behold, while our trailer was being built, Oliver offered the Thetford Sani-Con as an option. I read more about macerators on the web, and people really liked them. We decided to include it on our Ollie order. I am really happy we got it! It works really well. No problems with getting the slope of the sewer hose just right, without any low spots. And, of course, it is a pump so it drains much more quickly than via gravity. I really like it. I don't know why Oliver doesn't offer it any longer as an option. It would be pretty easy to install DIY. They put the macerator in the rear bumper storage area. The hardest part about putting it in DIY would be connecting it to the 12 V power system.

Bleach (chlorine) is a long time standard for sanitizing RV tanks and plumbing. If you don't like the idea, and are OK with paying five times as much, then by all means use peroxide. Or water purification tablets, if you can figure out a simple way to get them into the tank. You could dissolve some in a bucket and use the winterization port, but that is awkward at best, and finding the right pills for treating 30 gallons is problematic. Most Aquatabs are intended for backpackers, for a very small volume of water. You can get tablets for 1000 gallon tanks but I personally haven't seen any that are near the right dosage for an Ollie. Have you? Bleach info: https://chlorine.americanchemistry.com/Chlorine/BleachFAQs/ I don't use the tee routinely, but if the water source is suspicious (like a non-residential well), and I have no alternative, then I use it. For city water it is not at all needed. But you DO need to shock your system, annually at least, with bleach, to make sure nothing nasty is growing in there..... and I don't drink anything straight out of the RV tank, it ALWAYS goes through a pitcher filter. I hope that helps. John Davies Spokane WA

so, yes, I found it! My Maverick badge. Just got off the phone with my cousin, who had a Gremlin. Oh, the memories. We both have special memories of the two cars, together. The badge was filed away in a box labeled, Sherry, 70s. Of course. Still looks pretty good, 50 years later. Mine was a 1970 plain Jane, $1999 list. Guessing one badge Ford won't revive is the Pinto? Right? Sherry

My 2020 Tundra did a very good job towing my Elite II last week. We did not have to traverse too many steep climbs but did have a few pulls in N Ga. back roads. I know the 2020 Tundra is obsolete in many ways but the engine was what I wanted. I have the same V8 in my 2011 Lexus 570 and it never misses a beat and just runs, runs, and runs. I am interested to see if Toyota catches up with the 2021 model Tundra. I have had a Jeep Rubicon that stayed in the shop (3 radiators and resurfaced heads from metallurgy issues with 111,000 miles in which Jeep gave me a 5 year unlimited mileage warranty) and a Ford 150 that was problematic have steered me to Toyota. If we could get Toyota to come out with a 2500 series I would be thrilled.

That is it! Without the nice wheels, hood scoops and black stripes....

We test drove, rented, and tried just about everything under the sun. A few observations: Outside newer rams where there is an actual difference in rear suspension (leaf vs coil) there is little difference between 3/4 and 1 ton offerings in ride. Payload with a diesel 3/4 ton (except new GM 2500s) really makes upgrading to 1 ton trucks worth it. Swapping shocks will make even your old F350 ride better than just about any new truck In a year or two Ford will have the 2021 F150 advances on the SD. With a capable vehicle I'd hold out for that before buying anything on the market. Or at least see what the 2021 F150 offers. If there were a heavy duty payload package F150 with all the safety features (and maybe adaptive cruise and lane centering) that'd be on my short list. Ecoboost and Diesels are less fatiguing than listening to a V8 drone going up a a pass, whether it's a 7.3L Godzilla or a 6.2/6.6L/5.0L. Having towed with a 18'5" SUV and a 20'10" HD Truck a few observations: Bigger fuel tank, and better mileage from the HD diesel makes long trips easier Parking into a tight spot is definitely harder as not only is the truck 2'5" longer, but it doesn't have the turning radius to maneuver the trailer as quickly. I would still have gone with an 8' bed if Washington State ferries didn't get silly when you break 22' - as such we went with the shorter 6'9" bed. When towing the Ollie it wouldn't make a difference as it's the 40-50' bucket then. Our height is more of a limit to non-ollie parking than our length when we head into the cities as some garages are just a little too short. Sea-Tac's airport parking at 7' is plenty for us though. There's no such thing as overkill.

Good advice . . . . . fuel economy is big so best to stay with the tried and true, for now. Yes, I'm sure a 3/4 ton would be more comfortable on long trips. Another consideration: our pickup is already broken in - ie: scratches, etc. It would be hard to take a new, shiny pickup some of the places we like to explore 😀

I’m happy with my tow vehicle what’s all the fuss about🤪

We were in the same boat as you last year. We started looking at RPOD's, then TAB's, and then as we learned more about quality started looking at the InTech SOL (Horizon). We purchased a Jeep Gladiator before buying the travel trailer, but assumed we were in the right ballpark as far as towing capabilities. My curse as my wife puts it is that I can't stop researching, and that led me eventually to Oliver due to quality. Knowing that a new Oliver (I or II) was more than we wanted to spend (and could wait forever for a used Oliver, especially an LEI), we settled in on an InTech Sol Horizon. But we ran across a used LEII and couldn't pass it up. Now we're "stuck" with a Gladiator pulling an LEII. Luckily since this was our 3rd (i.e. spare) vehicle to be used for camping, the occasional need for a pickup, and some very light off-roading (think just dirt roads), we leased. So there's an end to this, but it will be painful until then. Last week we traveled up the "rim" from Phoenix to the Forest Lakes area (elevation change from 1900' at my house to 7500'). Not the first time I've done it with this combo. It's doable, but painful. This was the 8% grade John described above. A brief period of driving 40-45. No overheating fortunately. I watched the gauges constantly and it was ~100 out. But not a fun experience. I love the Gladiator, and on flat terrain it really tows well. I have to catch myself as it's easy to get in the 70-80 mph range and not realize it. But an under-powered tow vehicle will make you dread and think about every trip. We're going to Davis Mountain State park next month and I've already used Google Earth to look for the trouble spots that have climbs. Darren