JWalmsley

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Propane is a very important part of our Winter camping experience, so we make sure that we are carrying enough along with us for the trips' duration. Now, you might say, “just how do you measure that?” Actually, it isn’t all that complicated. It is all about weight and being able to quickly and easily measure it. If you fly commercially and weigh your luggage, you may already have everything that you need to measure your propane. A cool thing is that each propane tank has the empty and the full weight permanently stamped on it. Here is a look. The number on the left is the full weight and the number on the right is the empty weight. By law, the tank can only be filled to 80% of its volume for safety. Here is how you put that luggage scale, that you use when you fly, to use. Just hook under the handle and lift. Enter the empty weight using the tare button and you have the actual weight of the propane that is in the tank. Here is a look at a popular luggage scale on eBay, listing for around $15. Your second question might well be, “why go winter camping in the cold weather?”. Betty and I would answer to you, “because it is so spectacular!” The primitive campgrounds that we like are normally empty except for us and it is quiet. The lake is ours! We have it all to ourselves except for a few diehard fishermen and birdwatchers. Even lying in bed at night can be an exhilarating experience because we don’t run our furnace. Instead, we use our Olympian wave 3 catalytic heater that is totally quiet and have a couple of windows open just a bit, and the roof vent cracked a little for safety and can hear everything quite well. Here is a look at the heater. It can be pretty cool to watch a family of raccoon’s searching the campsite for something that one of the grandkids may have dropped. Or to be startled awake by a pack of juvenile coyote’s unsuccessfully trying to catch a rabbit that got into a hollow tree. Then there are those great “sleeping” sounds, such as the night breeze sighing as it passes through the bare tree limbs, the sound of the lake lapping gently upon the shore or the beautiful call of Loon lilting across the water. Some of our favorite daytime things to do are cruise slowly in the boat watching wildlife feeding or visit resident Eagle nests. It is ever so nice to have the boat tied up right at our doorstep. We always check the forecast and adjust our activities for our comfort. Yes! Winter camping in a travel trailer can be great! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Winter Camping appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 You have been camped for a week in your travel trailer up near the Continental Divide National Scenic hiking trail and it has been great. Taking early morning hikes, getting back into camp just before the late afternoon Monsoon rain, a quick shower, a nap and fantastic campfire camaraderie in the evenings. Only one thing could make it any better. Another week of the same! However there is a little catch, those soothing and relaxing showers have cut deeply into your water supply and you are very close to out. You have saved black water space with day time trips as needed to the vault toilet, so you are ok for another week in that area. A quick check with the campground host couple, revealed that the local ranger district was not adverse to judicious grey water release and they suggested a needy place for that right by your campsite. The campground has a tested and approved water system and there is a single water faucet on each loop near the vault toilet, 65 yards away. But here is what the faucet looks like: Uh-Oh, no way to hook up a water hose to that! Oh, wait a minute! It has been rattling around in your gear box for many miles and when you go look for it, there it is! The water Bandit. Here is a look: This version is sold by Camco and is available at most RV supply locations (Camco 22484 Water Bandit) Currently selling on Amazon for $4, one might add it to an existing order and not even have to pay a shipping charge! We have used ours for long enough that it doesn’t grip the faucet as well as it used to and it leaks a bit, so we will be adding one to our next order. Yep, we travel with a Bandit all of the time! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Water Adapter Bandit appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Awning out and anchored down, screen room kit attached with a tarp and rug on the ground. We were at the sugar beet harvest in this photo. In this configuration our screen room was more of a “mud room”! When we came back from a 12 hour shift on the beet pile in any kind of falling precipitation, we would be layered up as follows. High tech fiber under clothes with an additional layer or two on top of that, covered by a bright yellow two piece rain suit and topped off with a reflective safety vest and hard hat with polar fleece liner. Sometimes there would be a polar fleece face mask under the safety glasses. The weather meant there would be stuck beet trucks everywhere and every few steps you would have to stop to knock the mud from your boots to make walking easier. So, you actually had one more layer that you were wearing when you got home at the end of a shift or weather shut down. A pristine layer of mud splatter all over that yellow rain suit! Our Jeep seats had heavy plastic trash bags pulled over them to protect the cover fabric from the mud. In the floor board of the Jeep was deep side rubber floor mats that could be quickly dumped out and hosed off. A freeze proof hose at the picnic table with a broom and boot brush let us rinse ourselves down to keep the mud out of our Oliver trailer. As we entered the screen room we shed our rain suits, hanging them to dry and putting our boots on boot dryers on a table. Those boot dryers had had our fleece lined house shoes on them and they really felt good before stepping inside the trailer. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Mudroom appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Oftentimes a campsite can be subject to high or gusting winds making the whole camping thing less fun. Now, Mother Nature always seems to rule, but, moderating that wind a little can make the difference between holing up inside the trailer or sitting around the campfire enjoying the outdoors. Having trees around the campsite can provide some protection from the wind but a strategic placement of a tarp windbreak can make all the difference in the world when it comes to comfort around the campfire. Here is how we have tackled this before. Using two ratchet straps, place one about head high between two trees and the other down around ankle high on the same trees. Putting the tarp across both straps and holding it in place with bungee cords gives us a solid windbreak that will not damage the trees. One side benefit from this setup is that the light eddying smoke from the campfire helps to create a “mosquito free zone”. Come to think of it that may be reason enough in it’s self ! A mosquito free zone sounds pretty nice when picking a guitar and have no hands free to slap mosquito’s with. Afternoon sunshine can at times make a picnic table less comfortable for a card game and cool drinks but hasty tarp shade can come to the rescue. Ever wondered why insects were buzzing around your ankles when you have citronella candles placed around your lawn chairs? Even a gentle breeze can carry your citronella flavored protection away. A quick tarp windbreak can cause that gentle repellent to linger and do it is job of making those evening visits pleasant when no campfire is possible. Yes it’s quite true, tarps can really improve the quality of our out of door’s experience ! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Got Tarps - Part 3 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Putting a tarp on the ground under your travel trailer’s awning is a whole lot like adding a floor to a spare room. And if you add a screen room kit to the awning for walls you do indeed have a spare room. Talk about a great thing to have on an extended Trout fishing trip ! What a great place to keep all of those waders, creels, fly rod’s and stuff handy, yet sheltered. Screen room kits are readily available item from such online sources as eBay, etc. It makes for a somewhat insect free area as well as a place to grill during a rain shower. A sudden rain shower doesn’t have to ruin your time at the lake if you have a good sized tarp and some poly rope in your basement. Here is a look at one such rainy day set up. A rope supported rainfly can even shelter a fair sized campfire to keep all comfortable. A gusting wind that is causing your rainfly to flap excessively may be tamed by using a windbreak tarp. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Got Tarps - Part 2 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 TAR-PAU-LINS, TARPAULINS, TARPS Material, such as waterproofed canvas. Used to cover and protect things from moisture. Thanks, Wikipedia, For your definition ! RV’ers usually simply call them a tarp and that covers a really wide spectrum of materials. Over the years we have used tarps for many things and some of them are a bit unusual ! This two pack of 5x7 poly tarps is only $2 on line at Northern Tool. Our most commonly used tarp is a poly tarp from a discount retailer because it is inexpensive and pretty much disposable. They are tightly packaged and take up little space, while weighing nearly nothing. When you add to them things that are normally found around the campsite such as tent pegs, bungie cords ( tarp straps ), or nylon ratchet straps and poly rope, you can quickly assemble some of the handiest campsite stuff imaginable ! Our common tactic to keep stuff from being tracked into our camper is to spread out a 10x12 foot tarp, sometimes larger, in front of the doorway, holding it down with simple nail type tent pegs. Placed on top of the tarp is a conventional woven mat that is so popular with RV’ers. This means that the tarp acts as a vapor barrier to keep dust from turning into mud and clogging the fabric of the woven mat. That way, all the dirt, sand, grass, stickers and so forth, have a chance to come off of shoes well before getting to our traditional welcome mat where folks tend to wipe their feet, giving that mat a better chance to keep it from tracking inside. An occasional sweep or flipping up of one edge of the tarp puts that small debris back out in mother nature’s domain instead of inside the camper. When breaking camp, the ground tarp is the last thing to come up. We toss the tarp over the picnic table for a few minutes and it is dry and ready to fold, put in a plastic trash bag in the basement. When coming back from a hike, it is pretty nice to know that under the travel trailer awning and on the tarp is a boot dryer for my hiking boots and a pair of warm dry house shoes before going inside the trailer. This setup works just like a mud room at home where rain coats, boots, hiking sticks and so on can be at the ready for the next adventure. Tarps, there pretty handy alright ! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Got Tarps - Part 1 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 This photo was taken just as the sun was beginning to rise upon Engineer Pass. We had set up our Oliver travel trailer, at an old ghost town above Silverton Colorado. Leaving our base camp OLLIE at 0430 hours in the dark we started our climb up through the next ghost town and continued upward towards the summit to view that very special sunrise at elevation. As evidenced by the photo, we are well above the timber line, the alpine tundra zone and are well up into the fractured rock zone. The climb up the old bulldozer blade width track across the face of the mountain zig-zagged back and forth in it’s very steep ascent. In this particular Jeep, a four door one with a longer wheel base, some of the turns were a bit more demanding, a three point turn became a four point turn and so on. Why go to all of that trouble? Because getting to the places in the world that are just naturally good for the soul, can’t be bought. It has been our experience that you have to give something of yourself to get there and enjoy the rewards of the effort. A wonderful elevation camping experience doesn’t have to be as far up there as Engineer pass. One of our favorite’s is in Chama New Mexico’s small park beside the ancient steam railroad yard with a cup of coffee and a pastry from the nearby café, listening as the steam engines are fired up. The firing of the trains boilers for the days excursions along with the crew’s routine pre trip inspections as the engines cinders drift upon the air currents are a pretty exotic and enjoyable experience at 7800 feet of elevation. Using our Oliver as a forward operating base, usually in a nearby boondocking campsite has given us many opportunities for new and wonderful adventures, but, those at elevation just seem to us, to be some to the best! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Elevation Camping - Part 5 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Most of the built up campgrounds in the Rocky Mountains are along the water courses, as are the roads. Making access to them as the snow melts off better and better as the season progresses. Normally, elevation is the controlling factor for how late in the year the snow will melt off enough to let us get our travel trailers into campsites. Most years, by the time we were able to get into a campground to get it ready to open up for the public, Mother Elk with their babies were passing through traveling up higher. Photo by Oscar's Daddy, the Bug eye Driver, Pete marks, as he and I were hiking along the Continental Divide Hiking Trail at just below 11 thousand feet high. So, let's talk about sharing the campground with it's resident critters and some that are just passing through. This is a good time to remember that humans are merely short term visitors to the campground and we need to adjust accordingly. Soon after getting the campground open for campers, the Bears come out from a long Winter's hibernation and sightings are on a more regular basis. That is when camper care while handling food stuff is critical to how long a Bear will linger in the area. Tidy campers that leave nothing for them will cause them to move on lower down in elevation, in anticipation of when the choke cherries are available. Careless handling by campers of their food stuff will cause Bears to linger in the area becoming a nuisance and possibly even a danger. Keeping a close eye on pets at this time is critical to their survival. Though bears are a threat to pets, their threat level is not as high as that of Coyotes. There has hardly been a campground over the years, that we did not find a serious Coyote presence, and that threat was not limited to night time. In this video, it first appears that a red fox is simply sunning himself on a large warm rock. But, closer inspection shows that he keeps glancing at his mate who is guarding a small fir tree that they have a pine squirrel treed in. Here is the video: Some of natures best views are right in your campsite when small critters visit. We always enjoy visits from the wildlife around the campfire such as, pine Squirrel's, Chipmunk's, golden ground Squirrel's and just on and on. It is such a great temptation to feed the wildlife, but, that may not be in the best interest of the critters or even you as a temporary visitor. Even something seemingly as harmless as a hummingbird feeder will attract bears that will destroy the feeder and make a mess around camp while foraging about for a meal. Much USFS and BLM land has grazing rights leased to stockmen, both cattle and sheep. Because of that, some campgrounds up at elevation will have cattle guards and drift fences around them, but it is a good idea to keep an eye out for them when coming and going after dark. One of our near miss encounters when returning after dark from a grocery run into town was with an Moose ambling serenely across the road chewing its cud contentedly after coming out of a bog. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Elevation Camping - Part 4 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Camping off the grid is a very satisfying thing for Betty and I. It fits into our out of doors campsite style quite well. Camping off the grid with total comfort does need a bit of thought though, especially when it is at high elevation. Both early and late in the camping season up high, the temperatures will drop below freezing at night for brief periods of time. And yet, just before sunrise each day, the temperature starts climbing to comfortable levels quickly. Even though we are camping at elevation, we turn off everything in the Ollie and crack a couple of windows open for the night. This lets us hear the wonderful night sounds and gives the dogs opportunity to alert us to any critter prowlers. First thing in the morning, after quickly flushing and brushing, I go outside with the dogs because we are visitors in the wild kingdom and pets are usually viewed as a threat or a meal, by the full time resident critters. Remember, that leash keeps them safe. Generator box mounted on the Oliver's tongue. One of the first chores of the day is to start the generator, to top off the battery's and give Betty full use of appliances such the microwave, etc. Older generators sometimes require a little more choke to start and run at elevation, but the newer ones seem to handle it better. If the solar panels have overnight snow on them, it is brushed off to give the first rays of sunlight ready access to the photo cells. In this particular campsite the king dome couldn't see to the Southern Horizon ( we used a tripod dish ) and the solar panels were shaded at mid day by the giant old growth fir trees, so we got a head start on battery topping off when ever we could. Kicking up the campfire is among the earliest of chores, not only for heat but for the gentle smoke it provides. That smoke will displace the mosquitos that will be out as soon as it warms up a bit. Those dadgum' skeeters are one reason that the nearby lake is full of trout so we don't let them fret us too badly, just kind of use the smoke to displace them a bit. At elevation the skeeters are not out after dark like they are at lower elevations, but instead are out during the day when it is warm enough for them to fly. The Ollie's great screens keep the mosquitos out but as we go in and out a few will find their way in. That is when we use the ceiling fan on exhaust mode to trap them until they expire. Though we are in a remote area we find that our satellite receiver lets us get the news and weather to plan the day's activity's. For example an approaching weather front may cause us to do laundry and get grocery's today because the highway passes could be closed when that weather system arrives tomorrow. Our entertainment system will let us search for local news stations that will advise of vehicle accidents, man hunts and so on and so forth. Do we spend a lot of time with communications, no, but we do check for updates during a second cup of coffee at mid morning. Cutting firewood to a large extent will depend upon the local USFS or BLM regulations. However, at this time there is so much dangerous fuel overburden on the forest floor, because of the Emerald ash borer killing off so much forest, that it is often times permissible. Our favorite wood to harvest for camp wood is the red fir tree. It cuts easy, splits well, is light weight to handle and it's aromatic smoke is a pleasant thing around camp. When sawing the red fir, cut immediately above or below a ring of limbs to make it easier to split. We always save a large base cut for a chopping block. Turning a bolt of firewood on it's side and cutting with the grain will result in piles of thin shavings to start a fire with. Here is a look at some of those large light weight firewood bolts around the campfire waiting to be split. Notice the folded tarp in the background, it is there to cause the prevailing breeze to gently eddy the light smoke about camp to chase away mosquitoes. That tarp is held in place with tarp straps that do not damage the trees. We don't use nails and remove them whenever we come across them. Sometimes during monsoon season you will be up inside of the clouds during a storm. Now, that thunder can be both pretty cool and scary at the same time because the moisture in the air lets the sound travel much faster, your ears can't tell how far away or what direction it came from ! I guess that the bottom line for us is that we recognize these elevation differences, marvel over their uniqueness and make small adjustments for them as we enjoy all that nature has to offer. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Elevation Camping - Part 3 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 You've just arrived at your campground in your camping trailer at the Rocky Mountains and as you drove the last few twisty road miles, you thought, "now this isn't so bad ! What's up with all of this talk about altitude sickness and vertigo?" Then, as you got out of your tow vehicle to look your campsite over, and, about half way to the picnic table, you realized that you were huffing for air and needed to sit down as soon as you got to the table. In less than a minute as you checked out your campsite from the table, that shortness of breath eased up. Soon, you quickly stand up and stride off to look at something else, and, yup, you know it, light headed again! Classic symptoms of coming from lower elevation to much higher elevation. Now, when we're younger, some folks show little or no signs of shortness of breath. However as we age and our arteries become less elastic, the shortness of breath becomes more pronounced. It is all about how much oxygen your lungs can store up in your blood stream and how quickly your activity depletes it. When we first retired and spent that Summer camping off of the grid above ten thousand feet, simple adjustments were all that we needed. For example, we didn't bound right up out of a lawn chair by the campfire and walk briskly to the Ollie. Instead we slowly stood up, waited there for a brief few seconds and then sauntered off towards the trailer. Simple adjustments in how we did things was sufficient to eliminate vertigo and after a few days it was back to normal and business as usual. In our case, we were coming from well below one thousand feet high to well above ten thousand feet and some adjusting was in order. That adjusting became more important each year as we hosted the campground up high in the Rocky's. After a few years I learned about a pill that high altitude search and rescue teams sometimes take. Acetazolamide or Diamox, the generic name, expands the blood vessels in the extremities and allows the blood stream to hold more oxygen. That meant that when first arriving up high, your blood's oxygen content didn't deplete as rapidly, when standing up quickly out of habit. A thirty day prescription lasted us for several years, increasing our comfort level while acclimatizing to altitude. So just how much thinner is the air up that high ? Here is a simple thing that we noted around the campfire. Below a thousand feet where we spent much of the year, we could heap firewood on the campfire until it was really blazing. But at ten thousand plus, we could actually put enough wood on the fire until it started going out. The oxygen couldn't get to the fuel readily and the volume of wood actually started reducing the size of the fire ! Now, the campfire solution is easy enough, just loosely stack smaller wood on the fire so air can readily get to the flames. In the case of humans, if one can't adjust readily, just go back down in elevation. Our acclimatization process was as follows: Stage at 6500 feet high while driveway surfing and visiting with kinfolks for a few days, then, move up to a favorite campground at 8500 feet while we started taking Diamox in preparation for the last move into our Summer campsite above ten thousand feet. Now you have to realize, that this was the homespun technique of a Arkansas mountain boy and not a precise Doctor recommended regimen. It worked for us for many years. Who knows ? It might be a easy solution for someone else. Forcing one's self to stay up high and adjust to the elevation is not safe. If struggling for air, the only solution is to go back down lower where you are not struggling. By taking our time to get to our target elevation and staging at progressively higher altitudes and the Diamox for a few days before and for the first week at elevation, we made the start of a Summer off of the grid, above ten thousand feet, a relaxed and enjoyable preamble to a great camp hosting experience. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Elevation Camping - Part 2 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The higher we go up into the Rocky Mountains the thinner the air gets. So, just why would anyone want to camp above ten thousand feet for extended periods of time, especially when you will be off of the grid camping for over 110 consecutive days. We can sum it all up in one simple phrase. "Because the rewards are ever so many". Absolutely, let's talk about getting our camping trailers up there for a bit. We'll get around to thin air and elevation later in this series. Many years ago in S/E Asia, it was hot and humid with all of the insects one might imagine, so it probably doesn't surprise anyone that when I had a chance to daydream a little, it was about a cool, lush, high mountain meadow, with Elk bugling. Our first work camping assignment was in one such high mountain meadow. Here is a list of some of those rewards. It is mild in the daytime. During a hot, humid, deep South summer, where the heat index is well up into the triple digits, at elevation we experienced daytime highs up in the mid to high 70's with an occasional low 80's day. In the early mornings we might wear a windbreaker while kicking up the campfire, but it nearly always came off by sun up. Low humidity. There were no sweat soaked tee shirts and the laundry would dry nearly as fast as it was hung out on the line. Our bedding always smelled evergreen fresh from being aired out in the old growth Engelman fir tree environment. Up high in the Fir trees there was always plenty of high quality, seasoned firewood that burned clean and colorfully and the larger pieces split readily. There is just something about the sound of a fir wood campfire gently crackling with it's aromatic essence wafting on the breeze. Below we are at 8500 feet elevation. The temperature drops quickly enough at sundown that the windbreaker may be in order but the mosquito's are not out. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Elevation Camping - Part 1 appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 RVer's are spare part carrying kind of folks, whether it's a spare tire, fan belt, spark plug or other repair part, we usually got em'. We had arrived in the front range of the Rocky Mountains a few weeks early, intending to stage at about 8500 feet of elevation before moving up to our Summer campground management assignment above ten thousand feet. As we backed into our campsite we were greeted by one of our regular Summer tenants that had the same idea about staging and fishing the Conejos river. We had camped together and shared a campfire many times. After catching up on all that had happened since last year, our friend said, " I've got trouble in my basement". Last years camp out had seen him resolve a mouse problem, or so he thought. Every time he turned his water pump on he could hear water spraying in his fifth wheel's basement. Shortly before we arrived, he had removed a panel in the plumbing bay and found the problem. A mouse had taken a fancy to a cold water PEX line and chewed a tiny hole that would spray up onto his trailer floor. His concern was that he knew that he could cut the bad place out of the PEX but didn't have a PEX compression tool to make the repair with. That's when the light bulb lit up for me. A friend had told me about a thing called a "SHARKBITE" coupling. When he had told me about it, I had put one in the shopping cart and promptly forgotten about it, until the bulb lit up. I told him about it, but couldn't find the fitting. Betty to the rescue ! When we had returned to the trailer after going to town, months ago, she had put it away "in a good place, where I would be sure to find it", yep, I couldn't. Neither one of us had ever used a sharkbite coupling before, and, it was a bit strange looking, so, we read the instructions on the package. Truthfully the instructions were so straightforward and simple we were not sure that they would work! Here are the photos that we took of his repair as we went along. In this photo you can see the hot and cold water pipes that have a conventional PEX coupling with the compression rings on each side. In this photo the brass colored SHARKBITE connector is already in place. The hardest part was getting a square cut on each side and carefully removing all burrs left by the hacksaw with a pocket knife. After that it was simple to firmly push both ends into the connector. Betty discovered that I had bought two different sizes, I had forgotten that also. In the photo above is the longer one and the short one was used for the repair. Click on the photos for a larger view. By the time we finished up the project it was getting near dark and too late to go to town so we retired to the campfire for more catching up on the latest stuff we had been up to. The cool part is that a hacksaw, a pocketknife, a simple spare part and our neighbor friends were back to flushing and brushing again. A SHARKBITE connector, could it be something you may want in your spare parts? Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Shark Bite Connector appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 We have noted that some campers do not want to cook inside their Oliver, and, some do not want to cook outside. We do both. Our Southern mountain culture, kind of dictates how we set up our cook shack, when it is warmer weather. During hot or dry periods we will set Betty's kitchen up on a picnic table to keep the inside of the Oliver cooler. During occasional rain showers we will set up a canopy, and during monsoon season we will put a large tarp over the canopy. Mosquitoes can prompt us to put up a screen house over the picnic table, and windy conditions can see us folding a tarp several times to make a low wind break. Here is a look at Betty's basic kitchen set up. With four cooktop propane burners, a oven and propane light, all fed from a propane distribution tree, it all breaks down and sets up readily. Here is a look at one cook shack set up during a mosquito hatch at monsoon season. The nearby campfire kept a light smoke eddying about to help with repelling them pesky skeeter's. Early in the morning I would kick up the campfire, generally it burned all day, and do a few chores around camp before Betty called that it was breakfast time. Plenty of fire wood, campfire, rainfly, a good supply of lawn chairs and mosquito abatement as well as the smell of cooking is a surefire way to have lots of visitors. And, visitors around a campfire in the evening is a good thing ! At this campsite we enjoyed some fine Native American flute as well as guitar strumming with a heavy dose of camping tales ! The cook shack much as the Kitchen back home is a wonderful gathering place. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Cookshack Configuration appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 It is that special time of day on most camping trips, not long after happy hour, when the evening breeze carries the magical aroma of campfire smoke. That time of the day when folks gather with their lawn chairs to review the days fun and plan the adventures of the coming day. I am convinced that there are no average or generic campfires, and, that many of the worlds ailments can be clearly defined and resolved while looking across the campfire through a light blue haze of smoke. Yet, some campfires will stick in our minds more readily than others. Today I was pleasantly reminded of one such campfire. Jugfest 2009 was in full swing and a whole gaggle of molded fiberglass travel trailer Nomads were camped out on Lake Greeson in South West Arkansas. I had just retired from many years of public service, though Betty was still on the job at that time. Here is the video that I found while looking for something else. It caught me by surprise and brought a broad smile to my face ! This, for Betty and I, was one of those memorable campfires. Sorry about the poor quality of the video but the audio was the main thing, for after all, we were sitting around a campfire. Turn your volume up and imagine the expressions on our faces as we heard it for the first time. Our clever entertainer friend even worked the name of our boat,"Harm's Weigh", into the verses ! I wish that I had caught the jaw drop expression on Betty's face when the author/singer referred to how she got her nick name, "butcherknife". Should you or a family member be allergic to the smoke of a campfire then consider a propane campfire to set the stage for a good night's rest while camping. Either way, here's hoping we see you around the campfire where problems are solved and memories are made ! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Campfires appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Everyone is raving about those beautiful fish fillets that you are turning out while camped out on the lake. Your special spices in the cornmeal, just really gets everyone's attention. However, your cooking oil really shows it too. When you first started dropping fillets in the cooking oil it was so clear and pretty. Now however, it is dark and a bit dingy looking, with lots of particle's, both suspended in the oil and laying on the bottom. Your first thought might be, "I'll just have to throw this away!" But, wait! There is more cooking on the lake to do. And that oil is a bit expensive. Here is something that one might try, it seems to work well in our camp and it may well fit in to the way you do things in yours. We save our French fries and Onions for this situation. Deep frying them clears the oil back up by absorbing spices and settling particles. At this point we let the oil cool down a bit before pouring it through a jelly filter to remove the heavier particle's that had settled to the bottom . In this brief video you can likely tell that we prefer home fries (with the skin on) and Vidalia onions. Depending on our next frying chore we may add a little fresh oil to give us the volume that we will need. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Cooking Oil Cleanup appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Our campground assignment for the summer was up high, at 10800 ft, and we were arriving early, so the likelihood of the road being still blocked by snow drifts was high. Because we would be passing near by, to get to our staging area, we thought that we would swing by and take a look anyhow. Here is what we found. Local fishermen hoping to be the first to fish the lake were stuck in a drift that blocked the road. Though we were hooked to our Oliver trailer, we were still able to pull them straight back then turn around to get out. Yep, welcome to the front range of the Rocky Mountains, we were just a bit early ! Two weeks and another snow storm later we were able to get into the campground. The post in the foreground is our water hookup and the picnic table top is just barely showing above the snow bank in the background. Later in the week, Betty digs around the picnic table, looking for the fire ring. It was a couple of days later that she found it on the other side of the table. Before we were able to get our Oliver into the campground, we got in with the Jeep to check things out. Our four season travel trailer with a couple of solar panels and an extra propane tank kept us comfortable even with on going, early season snow storms, during the days that we worked to get the campground ready for opening day. In this photo the solar panels are covered with snow from a overnight storm. The sun came out and by mid morning our battery's were topped off again. It was pretty nice to be able to catch the news and weather thanks to the King Dome satellite TV. Between snow showers we put our screen room on the awning and set up Betty's cook shack. Cooking cornbread and biscuits above ten thousand feet is quite a trick but Betty has got it all going on ! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Snow Camping appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 When we retired from the work a day world we already knew where we wanted to work camp, as a way to offset expenses and camping fees, while we traveled. A land management company out of Utah was the contractor for Trujillo Meadows campground, located North of Chama New Mexico, just barely over in Colorado. We were familiar with the campground and knew that it would be a good match for us, and it was only twenty miles from town for quick access to laundry and groceries. However, it was well above ten thousand feet of elevation and we would be off of the grid for over one hundred and ten days. We picked up our first solar panels and a spare propane tank. Now, many RVer's have a spare propane tank because they are multi purpose and convenient. But this was our first experience with carrying one for so many miles. It wasn't long before we were tired of that ever so handy tank, tipping over and rolling around, while going down the highway. Other's had found the "tippy tank" solution well before we even knew that it existed, and it was pretty simple. The plentiful milk crate just fit the tank like it was made for it! We had found our quick and simple fix ! As our three tanks rotated into and out of the crate and was set down with it's considerable weight we found that there was another issue. The weight coupled with the shape of the bottom of the tank, soon cut a circle out of the crate and our quick fix wasn't any more ! Milk crates are pretty easy to come by, so we replaced a couple of them before we found a tank boot that would resolve the circle cutting issue. Here is a look. The tank boot itself doesn't cut out because of the way it is flanged at the base of the propane tank. A simple inexpensive solution with no more tank rolling around in the back of the vehicle. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Booted and Crated appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 As the prospective owner is pondering the various add on's and wondering just how they might look after being installed, it doesn't take long for them to figure out, exterior roof views are scarce. So, if you are wondering just what the roof of an Elite II would look like with solar panels installed, or maybe how the satellite dome looks in relation to the other stuff up there on the roof, maybe this video can help. This High Definition video was shot by RC Heilo Pilot Bill Harmon while we were showing the Oliver travel trailers out in Quartzsite Arizona at the Gem and Mineral show. Shown from a roof top perspective are two Elite II's, a twin bed and a King bed as well as a 2008 Elite. That 18.5 foot Elite belonged to a Oliver Family member and had over 160,000 miles on it when they lost track of it's actual mileage. Interestingly it had spent most of it's life in the harsh sunshine of the Dessert South West, so when you are looking down on those roofs it is a good chance to see just how the Oliver's finish holds up under years of weather. This video was produced and edited by Bill Harmon. Please excuse my jaw dropped, "in awe" expression, it was my first look up close at the speed and accuracy of the heilo. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Aerial View of the Oliver's Roof appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Need help getting your sound from your TV through your stereo speakers? What the video below for help. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post How to Get Sound From TV through Stereo appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 We want to thank everyone for their patience while we migrated our Forums to olivertraveltrailers.com. The new Forum is now live. If you previously used oliverforums.com or want to register as a new user, please see the thread here : Forums If you previously used OliverForums.com, you will need to reset your password. If you no longer have access to the email address on your account or have issues resetting your password, contact us and we will help get it resolved. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post New Forum is Live! appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 When storing our Oliver's for the Winter months, one concern is for the well being of our tires. You may have noticed that after sitting for an extended time that your trailer's tires "bump" when you first start moving. That bump seems to fade away as the tires warm up, yet we seem to think that may not be good for the tires. Some owners use their electric jacks to elevate the tires up off of the ground for routine maintenance but are reluctant to have the jacks support the entire weight of the trailer for the duration of Winter storage. Their thinking is that it might be good for the tires, but, not so good for the trailer's electric jacks. And, here is what some are doing to keep the tires off of the ground and also take the entire trailer's weight off of the electric jacks. Jack stands similar to those above are available at many locations and fill the bill for our use quite well. Just use your Oliver's electric jacks to raise the tires up off of the ground, then slide a jack stand under the axle to keep the tire up off of the ground. Some owners like the idea of putting a slight amount of down pressure on their electric jacks to stabilize the trailer as they are in and out checking on things during the course of the Winter storage. I am told that the axle manufacturer advises that the jack stand is not put directly under the axle tube, but instead placed under the flat part of the spring. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Tire Flat Spots appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Normally they are out of sight and out of mind. That is, until you need to know their level status and push a button on the tank monitor panel. The three tanks, fresh water, grey water and black water are all located in the Oliver’s floor out of sight. This location is one of the reasons that the Oliver handles so well. Those liquids weigh roughly eight pounds per gallon and getting them down between the frame rails, or as close as possible, keeps the center of gravity low and really improves handling. The black water tank is the smallest of the three and it is located under the bathroom floor, but immediately above the frame. The fresh water and the grey water are much larger and are nestled down in between the frame rails. As RV’ers, we tend to want our tanks as full or as empty as is possible, depending on if we are out on the road or in storage at home. One little trick to get that done is to raise or lower the tongue of the trailer with the electric jack to expedite the emptying or filling of the tanks. When filling fresh water, ensure that the trailer tongue is level or maybe slightly lower by using the electric tongue jack for a complete fill. For a more complete emptying of the fresh water or the grey water tanks, raising the tongue with the electric jack does the trick. The black water tank is nearly square and slightly higher than the fresh and grey water tanks, and the tongue jack has less effect on it. The fresh water and the grey water tanks are longer and flatter, and the tongue jack can readily effect the filling and emptying efficiency of them. Here is a look at an Elite II frame so you can get an idea of where those tanks are located and their long flat configuration. In this photo the frame is upside down while the axles are being attached. None the less one can readily see where the tanks will be located when turned back over, making the center of gravity very low for better handling. Here is a short video of the frame when it is sitting on it's wheels. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Tanks, Out of Sight Out of Mind appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 I remember it just like it was yesterday, Betty and I got back home with our new Oliver, hull #3, it was cold weather and we were still in the work a day world so we needed to drain the fresh water tank. Though we had received a good explanation of the various systems, when we looked under the curb side cushion, it was like, "holey cow, how will we ever find that valve in all of that hardware!" Russ and Janie McKnight must have had a similar experience when they called my cell phone one weekend. Here is a narrative by Russ with photos by Janie. Having never owned an RV or travel trailer before, we’ve been on a steep learning curve with figuring out the fundamentals, much less the bells and whistles. We picked up our Ollie on March 2nd, and were dismayed to see snow in the forecast when we got back home to PA three weeks later. We knew we needed to drain the tanks, but couldn’t get the fresh water tank below 31%. Having no idea where the fresh water drain valve was, we called Larry “MountainBorn” Harmon, who talked us through it. We found the release valve located underneath the curbside seat nearest the kitchen counter, switched it to the open position, and cranked up the front of the trailer. Success! Russ & Janie's new Elite II has even more high tech equipment yet in their unit, so the drain valve was really out of sight ! Thanks to our friends the McKnights for this timely article! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post A Draining Experience appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 Oliver looking good on the cover of the current Trailer Life Magazine! Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Oliver Legacy Elite Travel Trailer Makes Cover of Trailer Life Magazine appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article

Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The first time that we considered a macerator, our Oliver had sat in the RV port with the holding tanks about half full. We had stayed at the lake until late in the day and just didn’t have time to dump the tanks because we had to be at work the next day. Well, naturally, one thing led to another, and the following weekend we had out of state visitors. Yep, you know it, they also wanted to stay in the Oliver during their visit, to check it out. Not being tank volume conscious boondockers, out visitors waved their way down the driveway with us looking at approximately a forty mile round trip to dump those full tanks. You know that is when I thought how easy it would be to run a water hose over to the sewer line clean out cap and pump the tanks out with a macerator pump. That way we wouldn’t even have to hitch up to the Oliver ! Later, I bought a macerator pump and a couple of hoses that would readily stow in the back bumper storage. The hoses were 5/8 of a inch for maximum flow and stored in their own roll up case. Here is a look at a different one that we have now, but, it is the same portable style that will stow easily. Just pop the cap off and twist this where the regular hose goes. The macerator pump comes in 12 volt and household electricity versions. We chose the 12 volt one. This unit also comes in a fitted hard plastic case complete with spare "O" ring. Here is a look at the water hose. There is a hose hookup and shut off valve for tank manifold wash down, that comes in handy after the dump. Most RV stores keep these items in stock and Ebay is where we bought ours. One great feature of the macerator was that I could pump up hill as high as ten feet if needed. This set up gave us years of good service, weighed little, took very little space to store and it was simple to clean and sanitize. As we traveled dumping was usually done with the regular stinky slinky hose, but when the occasion demanded we had the macerator and we did use it quite often even out on the road. Our overall macerator experience was so positive that we have had one with us ever since as we travel about America. Share and Enjoy !0Shares0 0 The post Could a Macerator be in Your Future? appeared first on Oliver Travel Trailers. Read the Full Article