DCKiefer

I needed some kind of nightlight to turn on since I like it as dark as possible when sleeping. The little LED lights on the switch panel, warning devices and frig all produce a remarable amount of light once your eyes adjust. I have shielded the lights on the smoke and gas detectors. Found a single wire to remove on the panel near the door that disable the LEDS and am now trying to find something to dim the frig indicator lights without making them unreadable.

For not having many antenna mounting option on our trailer I think it is pretty good. I think the range is probably about 15 or 20 miles depending upon the terrain.

I found the dinette shelf to get in my way when sleeping. It seemed just a little two deep so I cut it down by about 30%. Just enough room to hold the remotes and a couple of odds and ends. The tricky part is that you will need to carefully back cut the rim of the shelf.

Are you tired of the dinette cushions falling on the floor during travel or have them slip out from under you. Here is a simply solution I have been testing. Simply add two strips of no skid to the top of the storage compartment covers. Our cushions have stayed in place, even down the roughest roads. Since the cushions are not sliding around this appears to have no adverse affect on the cushion material.

I needed to come up with a solution for getting out of bed in the middle of the night without turning on one of the under cabinet lights, thus bothering my wife or just being too bright. Solution was to put a switch next to the small shelf near the bed and to wire the switch to one of the floor lights. Gives enough light to see by, but not too much. The other two floor light still work off of the switch near the door. The switch is simply double stuck in position. I drilled a hole in the slot for the shelf just to the right of the switch. This allowed wires to be run into the lower compartment for accessing the light. I took power of of one of the empty 12 volt slot on the power panel. The only down side is this light is no longer on the main switch at the door.

One rule I have found to work with leaks is if I have spent the amount of time on one possible source to no positive conclusion, then that is not likely the source of the leak. It sounds like the vent has been studied to the limit that you may be able to eliminate it. If there are not cracks in the cover and the sealant has be reapplied and there are not obvious extra holes or cracks in the vent frame, then I would move onto something else. In the case of the Oliver the only other thing at that roof hieght is the A/C. I think your solar panel mounts are lower on the roof and since water can't travel against gravity very far they probably are not the problem. We did have trouble with leakage around the A/C. Water came through the interior A/C cover onto the bed, but maybe yours is running along the inside of the upper shell until it encounters the vent fan. If the RV dealer that is going to look at this suspects the A/C make sure they are in close contact with Oliver. You can't just crank down on the A/C more, it will require something to back up the inner and outer shells, other wise the fiberglass or at the least the Gelcoat will be damaged. I posted something on an A/C leak that gives more details. Good luck. Leaks are frustrating but at least the fiberglass make up of the Oliver gives you a chance to fix it without resulting in serious damage to the RV.

Two comments. I understand the spare tire is only intended for temporary use, it just seems strange to me to have two tires on the trailer not only of a different load rating, but of a different width on the trailer. I don't think it's a good idea since with my calculations the smaller spare would be nearly 250lbs over weight. I'm just not comfortable with the smaller spare and especially since the tire cover will except the larger tire with on slight modifications. The second thing, I took my load rated E's up to 80 psi as recommend by others. I had some concern that they migth be over inflated given the weight of the trailer. I check the foot print the tire made at 80 psi and it great. I think this might take care of the unusual wear I was seeing and others had described. My advice on this whole tire thing is don't mess around with them. Have the right tire all around, keep thme at the max psi and you will not get stuck.

About fishing a wire through the roof, there is a small space, but part of it may be blocked by wires running to the AC and roof vent fan. If you try it I would go forward the roof vent. You will need a wire fish or tape which you can get at a hardware store. About getting a wire from below to up top. The only location I found was as some one else stated on the street sid of the rear window. I have fished three wires through this location and the last was the most challenging so I think I have about filled the space. You will need to send the wire fish from the top, I tried the bottom up approach and never managed it.

I think you may be disappointed with the spare unless they have made some recent changes. Mine was a load range C and a 205. If yours is take a look at my post titled Full Size Spare. It requires a modification to the tire cover to get the cover mounted over the 225 size tire.

I second the motion that the tires should be inflated to at least 65 psi. I watch tires closely and after just a couple of trips noted the outer edges taking more wear.

I going to assume the holders are designed for the extreme temperatures. I know a number of people who have GPS units with similar holders and have not heard any complaints about any kind of short life span for these.

I have heard of throwing money at a problem to solve it, but I think this is the first time I have heard of money actually being the solution, other than Confederate money being used as wallpaper.

The spacer is a dense foam that I assume comes with the unit. I did not replace it, simply torqued down the unit to compress the spacer closer to the manufactures specs. The Duo Therm installation instructions say the spacer should be compressed to about a half inch thick. If you do this you must provide some firm material like plywood to fill the void between the inner and outer shell of the camper so you do not crack the fiberglass or gelcoat.

I found some old discussions about reversing the rear side windows to open from front to back, basically flipping them the other way. I believe at least one person has had this done by the factory. I am looking for any advise about whether or not this is a good idea. My concern is that by flipping the window, the center post gasket that the window slides across may not be able to keep out rain at highway speeds. I am sure the gasket where the window slides into the slot is a much better seal for handling water at 60 mph and may be the reason the window are mounted in the direction they are now. Any feedback would be appreciated if you have had this done. My reason for possible doing this is one mentioned before. On the curb side this would put the open window completly under the awning and if I decide to get the max air vends, this seems to be a better mounting direction.

Duo Therm.

Just wanted to mention this just in case anyone else has had this trouble. Last Saturday we drove through continous rain from NC to FL. During this drive I found water leaking in from the AC and it made a pretty big damp stop on the bed. The problem appears to have been that the AC unit was not snug enough against the roof. I pulled out the installation instructions on the AC and found the bolts that hold the unit to the roof where not torqued to specs. Now before anyone from the factory says anything I realized I could not torque the bolts to the specs since it appeara it would put a lot of pressue on the inner and out shells. This could possibly cause some damage since there isn't a frame around the opening through the roof. After seeing the problem and nowing I had to put more torque on the bolts inorder to compress the gasket between the AC unit and roof I did the following. I filled the gap between the inner and out shell to create and effective frame. I then torqued the bolts slowly until I was satisfied with the compression of the gasket. I still could not go to the manufactures specs, but I now believe I should have a water tight seal.

Good suggestion and I thought the same, but did not check. Will do the next the temps drop, but might be a while now. Either way I am happy with the solution since it protected the contents. In the past we had paper goods and clothing in the rear cabinet get significantly wet. The problem mostly arose on damp days where we had trouble getting the camper dried out during the day. Also, boiling eggs and pasta on such a day even with the vent and a window open makes controling moisture a challenge. I'll update the post over time as I see how well this works.

Even with the great insulation in our Oliver I have had a problem with condensation in some of the overhead cabinets. This has been a problem for clothes or paper items we store there. With the following solution I have greatly reduced the problem if not almost eliminated it. I bought a role of the silver bubble wrap insulation that you can find at Camping World or Lowes. The 24" role Lowes sells is perfect. I also purchased some foam strips from Lowes that are used for ceiling around home window air conditions. I installed the bubble wrap in the cabinets making sure it covered from the rubber shelf liner up to the ceiling of the cabinet. I then stuffed the foam into the gap in the upper part of the cabinet where the outer and inner shells of the camper meet. The foam is also used to hold the bubble wrap in place at the top. I had to get more creative in the rear cabinet, using some double stick tape to hold the bubble wrap in place. We spent some nights in the mid 30's and had no noticeable condensation in the cabinets.

One recommendation about these lights. They are nice and bright, but might be a little to bright for sudden illumination in the middle of the night before your eyes are ready. You might want to keep a couple of the halogens in place to allow your eyes to adjust from darkness to light before hitting the LED's.

I found away to stop the water hammer that sometimes occurs when drawing water from the storage tank. If you look at the instruction for winterizing the water system, the procedures will describe two valves that are used in this process. Once you are familar with these valves here is what you do. Access the water pump compartment, turn on the pump switch at the sink. Next turn the valve that is on the blue water line coming off if the water tank, this is not the one right next the pump with the white hose. When you turn this valve the pump will come on and you will here water circulating. The water is circulating back into the tank. What I belive this is doing is getting rid of air trapped in the pump or in the bypass line. After the pump has run for about a minute return the valve to the normal position. You should now have a smooth and quite water pump, if the water level in your tank is adequate.

Here is my follow-up on this product. Reception to the reciever was great, but this unit does seem to only be intned as a backup camera. After being left on for several hours condensation developed on the inside of the glass covering the camera. I dried the camer out with some improvement. I going to try and dry it out over a dehumidifer then really make sure it is sealed good. You get what you pay for and I have something that almost works. Not going to give up on it yet. Works great if I can get rid of the condensation.

The issue with the 225 is the extra width of the tire. The diameter is the same as the 205. The 225 will fit inside the cover, the problem is getting the cover on with the 225 mounted on the holder. This is where my modification comes in.

Herm, Let me correct my tire size. I have been looking at car tires too and got my numbers mixed up. I have 225's. You idea of deflating the 225 will work, but still a little tight. Before I modified the cover I tried a 225 deflated to 10 psi. I then opened the bumper and with a little bit of effort was able to ge the cover on. The problem I ran into was that the cover interferred with closing the bumper. I was able to get it closed, but decided it was something I would not be happy with on a regular basis. That lead me to the modification of the cover, which goes on easily, bumper open or closed and now the bumper is much easier to secure in the closed postion also.

Just wanted to keep this topic fresh. I will heading out next week for the Smokies. When I return I will give an update of how this reasonable camera system performed. Until then, if you come up behind an Oliver watch out it might be me and I'll hopefully have an eye on you.

I think they will just about last forever, at least in RV years. If after 20 years or so your Oliver does happen to look a little rough, I think you would be able to restore it much like an old car. I have seen Airstreams restored to where they strip everything out. As long as there is a good foundation repair and restoration will always be worth it. Oliver's fiberglass shell provides the solid foundation. Fiberglass is repairable and can be re-gel coated. Try doing a complete restore of toothpick and tinfoil model, I don't think it will happen, at least not very easily or reasonably. I also think the Oliver's design is one that is ageless. I think they will have the same appeal as they do today as they will when we are pulling them behind electric or hydrogen vehicles.