bugeyedriver

Merry Christmas to our Oliver family from Pete & Oscar . . . May you all have safe travels in the new year! We'll be seeing some of you on the beach soon . . . WooooHoooooo!

I spoke with Vince Oliver just last month. He said they are still intending to open the production line in January. I asked if they were only going to be doing occasional "batches" and he said that they were planning on keeping the line open full time. It is my understanding that they were waiting for some of their non-trailer production lines to become fully staffed prior to reopening the Oliver Travel Trailer operation. It will be nice to see them up and running again . . .

What a great idea! I took a look at the specs for the small unit and it has enough energy to warm 180 cubic feet of space. Energy use is variable, dependent on the compartment's temp and overall, it merely sips at the power source . . . very nice, indeed. Amazon.com is putting one in a stocking for the Wonder Egg. (I hope they don't accidentally drop in one of Meanderthal's "testing videos" from the amazon.com thread . . . that could be scary)

Tom, Just be glad you're not getting your silk, hot pink camo boxers with at tag that says "TESTED by Mountainborn" complete with a middle of the night pole video to prove it. HO! HO! HO!

Rocinante, welcome to the Oliver forums. I hope this will "bee" a happy place for you to hang out!

Well spoken, rings true, we all entrusted our dreams to Robert and his dedication to service for the Oliver customer. Goodbye our dear friend . . .

Hi there txbob! Welcome to the Oliver Forum

Chris, Sounds like you're having fun . . . NOT! Two thoughts: 1 - If you traded in your previous vehicle at the dealer that sold you the Tundra, is it still somewhere on the used sales lot? Could you hook up your Ollie to its "old friend" and see if it all works? If it does, the problem is in the Tundra. 2 - When I had my axle R & R'd, I hooked the Wonder Egg up to the Tacoma and had no connection / no brakes. The problem was with the grounding pin on my Tacoma. Evidently I was getting my ground through the Truck frame - to the hitch - to the trailer. After rotating the hitch 180 degrees to raise the ball, the fresh paint on the hitch precluded the ground from being achieved. The RV Tech simply made a new ground for my truck's connector and all was well. The loose wire under the seats mentioned by OB1 could also be the problem. The factory knows of a potential glitch in the grounding for the trailer connection and pointed my RV tech to somewhere under the seats. Mine happened to be OK - then the tech found the problem w/ my truck. Good luck, amigo.

Roughly, how many hookups has it been since you verified your lights and their functions?

Welcome to the Oliver forums, lasvegas! ENJOY!!!!!!

Wow! You guys must have some lead boots in the closet or something The Wonder Egg has a 340 lb tongue weight as measured at a Casita rally by someone with a good set of scales. How'd that happen? But it makes sense with what's going on with your TV if the hitch is limited to 500#. I'm just curious as to where the added weight is coming from!? Has your sweet little kitten turned into a mountain lion?

Why do we love getting outdoors in our campers? Lots of different reasons . . . here are some great thoughts on why one person in the "little trailer world" finds deep pleasure in using her small travel trailer. I received a great article in the mail from my sister in Virginia. It's a wonderful read, which gets to the essence of why we all love our diminutive trailers where we can enjoy a minimalist lifestyle while LIVING LARGE in the beauty of the great outdoors. It was written by a Casita Owner, Carol Venolia, who writes the Design For Life column for Natural Home magazine. Well done Carol!! http://www.naturalhomemagazine.com/People-and-Places/60-Square-Feet-of-Wisdom.aspx

Hi Catlady! Welcome to the Oliver Forums . . . have fun

Hey LARRY! Oscar the non-barking Smiley Dog, said he'd even practice barking to add a bit of noise to the "surprise" event

Kit, welcome to the Oliver Forums ! ! ! ENJOY

When I told Oscar that Dillon & Poco were gonna fish for cats he said he'd love to help 'em whoop up on some of them whiskered critters. Count us in too for as long as possible!

Tom, AKA Meanderthal, is considering adding a macerator to his Ollie. I thought I'd post my thoughts for him on the forum for all to see in case they are also thinking of the modification. I am well satisfied with they way my setup works for my needs. It fixes the one unpleasant thing about RVing for me. Charlie is correct, however, in that the vertical drop from the outlet to the pump is less than optimum and it does "suck air" towards the end of a dump. Fortunately, at home if I use the system I am pumping slightly downhill over a distance of 100 feet or so and there is no problem. At camps, I love the 21 foot stretch on the hose. Makes getting to the septic a breeze. I raise up my rear jacks and extend the front jack to get a very positive rearward tilt of the trailer. This helps with the evacuation of the fluids, etc in a more positive manner, minimizing any "leftovers" in the tank. I follow the black gravity flow with a good hose flush in the black tank using one of those four holed clean-out extensions hooked to a regular hose. (I don't have that cool factory installed black tank clean out device yet) This helps with the clean out of the long black line running from the black tank to the outlet. This is then followed with copious amounts of gray water. Charlie, did you swap over to the "Tank Buddy System?" I wonder if you could attach this permanently - keeping it all tucked in the bumper space and simply swing it out and down for service? This might be the best set up of all. Tom, if you go that way, let us all know how it works . . .

khergert, welcome to the Oliver Forum. ENJOY!

Good idea to keep your circadian rhythms stabilized even during the down times. Perhaps you can get some night vision goggles and do some midnight geocaching. Makes it a bit more sporty he, he, he. Be sure to let all us southerners know how the Ollie does during a prolonged frigid camp setting. (better you than me, buddy )

Oscar & I look forward to another Hillapalooza in the Texas Hill Country. Perhaps we can get some more Ollies to join for some great fun.

Sherry, you're absolutely RIGHT! RV antifreeze must be used. Thanks for the clarification. I've never used it before. Do you know if it is concentrated and must be diluted, or does it always come in ready to pour containers?

RKSIMP . . . welcome to the Oliver forums!

Reply from Oscar the Smiley Dog to Dillon the retired drug dog: Golly gee willakers, Dillon, that's a whole bunch of tires on those funny tractor things! I can see your dilemma. I spoke to Pete about it and he said it'd be fun, but he has reservations to go fishing for some flies. I said "Why Pete? There's not enough meat on a fly to make a meal from." He gave me a goofy look and said that I also would be having time with Bob & Bonnie (fulltimers in a sun-blocker, real nice people ) to do some serious lap sitting which is my favorite thing in the world. and that we had family coming in to see the grandbabies . . . and he's gonna smoke a turkey. (I gotta get a picture of THAT ) Anyway, you get the idea . . . looks like we can't make it. I got an idea though. Why don't you have Larry keep your water bowl full and document the size and number of tires you can mark in a day, then go for an entry in the Guinness World Records! That''d be cool and I'd be able to tell everyone know Dillon, the famous marker dog! As for that pesky cat . . . ask Larry to bring home one of those big sugar beets that fell of the truck and have Poco play dead out in the grass. When the cat comes by to sniff at Poco, you tip toe up behind the cat and whack it over the head with the big old sugar beet. That'll teach that cat to mess with you guys.

Main! No wonder you're thinking about sub freezing temps. I find there is nothing to freeze in the hose and only a little over an inch of liquid at the pump entrance. To preclude an energy drain while boondocking from a light bulb or warm air source, how about simply diluting some antifreeze in a gallon of water and sending it down the toilet drain to mingle with the water staged at the pump? As a last resort, for cold weather ops, perhaps we could unscrew the pump from its mounting and swing it over the end of the bumper during operation, letting it hang down just a bit to provide greater vertical drop for the water. This should allow the pump to totally empty.

Aubrey, Living so far south, I hadn't given that much thought . . . hmmmmmmm . . . what would you think of a light bulb wired into the area to provide a small amount of heat?