technomadia
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Posts posted by technomadia
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Yes, Oliver will give you a 30 day temp tag to get you home. But you will need to register yourself with your home state and pay any appropriate sales tax.
Chris and I are full-time RVers and are domiciled in South Dakota. One reason we picked SD is because they charge only a 3% excise tax on new vehicle registrations, which saved us a ton'o'cash on registration.
- Cherie
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We're staying with friends in Lebanon, Oregon right now.. and they have some 7 week old kittens. Both Chris and I have left our hearts open to a trailer kitty, and figured we'd find the right one out on the road.
Well, Kiki seems to have found us, and we're currently auditioning her as our potential trailer kitty. We'll be taking her on a 1 week road trip up to Seattle with us. If it doesn't work out, we'll return her on our way back south. But if things continue to go well.. we'll be setting Kiki up with her own Blog and Twitter account soon.
Anyone else traveling with cats or kittens in their Oliver? Any helpful hints?
- Cherie
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I was unfortunately unable to view the link because it require subscribing to the site first.. so I wasn't able to see exactly what the set up is.
However, we have been having a mobile wifi hot spot since we set out almost a year and a half ago.
We use an Express Merlin EX720 card from Sprint, which gets 3G and are now dirt cheap to buy.. just your monthly contract fee.
And then for making it into a wifi hotspot, we have a CradlePoint CTR-350 that acts as a router too - which sell now for just $100. We just also installed a MacMini as a media server to play movies & music via (we didn't get the default entertainment system with our Oliver) and as a wifi back-up server for our laptops. Both of our laptops are MacBook Pros, which can also rebroadcast from the EX720 card to make the laptop a wifi hotspot.
The biggest problem is all of the data caps that these so called 'unlimited data' plans have started implementing. 5GB / mo is really not all that much.
- Cherie
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What about using a Google Document (spreadsheet, doc or form) that we can all add our names to?
Or a separate forum and/or sticky topic here?
- Cherie
(Who's been using 'Serial Number' all along
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I don't recall where I got the big hooks.. I've been picking up a variety of suction cup hooks to just have on hand. I think may have gotten one at Camping World, and another at a local RV shop in a town we were passing through.
- Cherie
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After living full time in our Oliver for a few months now, I've come up with solutions to some of our everyday practical problems. This evening, I completed the last one - finding a suction cup paper towel holder!
Suction cup Paper Towel Holder
So.. I'll start there. It's by Chefmate, and can be found at Target for just $9.99. It has a suction cup grip base, that is ordinarily meant for securing to countertops. However, with the fiberglass interior, it sticks just about anywhere! You just twist the top to engage the suction cup, and untwist to disengage to move it around. There's even a magnetic paddle that keeps the papertowels under control, so this allows you to mount the towels even upside down! It fits in a variety of places in the Oliver:
Of course, if you have the default entertainment system, some of these positions won't be available for you.. but you get the idea!
Suction Cup Area Divider
There are often nights that Chris stays up later than I do, and I'm a bit light sensitive when I'm trying to sleep. So, one restless evening I had a thought - I had left over fabric from our cushion's being made, and I had just bought some small suction cups for hanging exterior Christmas lights with AND I had a box full of binder clips left over from running an Obama Campaign Office just a couple weeks ago out of the trailer ... and voila.. I had an instant curtain to help block the light and give us a bit of room separation - and no permanent installation on the trailer:
Now that I know it works, in time I'll probably add rivets to the fabric and have it finished off. But for now, it's a very workable solution.
Suction Cup Coat Hangers
Now that colder weather is here, we were getting a cluttered feeling having our jackets out all of the time, usually tossed on the seats or bed (our closet is pretty full with clothing, so it's not an ideal storage spot for us). So, I got some extra large suction cup hooks out - and instant coat & hat hangers:
One goes over the closet door, so obviously the coat has to be moved when getting clothing out. But so far, it's working great - keeping our coats out of the way but easily accessible as we leave. The jumbo suction cups seems to strong enough to handle our coats.
Velcro Door Curtain
Since it's in the picture above, I thought I'd use this opportunity to introduce my solution to the door window not having privacy. This was probably one of the most glaring oversights on the trailer, in my opinion. All of the other windows are so awesome at privacy - but the one that is *right* in front of the bathroom and closet door doesn't have a privacy option?!?
So this was actually one of my very first modifications - I took extra fabric from our cushions (getting extra fabric if you do custom cushions turns out to be a very smart idea - I also made seat covers out of extra fabric for when we're in dirty environments, such as the dusty desert.) and some double stick velcro to create a quick curtain:
The double sided sticky actually didn't stick for many nights to our fabric, so I have since sewn that in. When the curtain is not in use, it velcros right up in the corner, nice and out of the way. And of course, this solution could also be done with ... you guessed it.. Suction Cups!
Much suction cup happiness here!
What other uses for suction cups have you encountered?
- Cherie
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The Classic, as it's currently configured, has *lots* of thrills (called 'options').. such as the entertainment center, convection oven microwave, double pane windows, bathroom bar/hook, retractable cord, additional 12v battery, etc.
For a complete listing of the current features of the Classic - http://olivertraveltrailers.com/legacy_ ... tures.html
I would imagine that the Sport being considered would not include these sorts of things.
- Cherie
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Yes yes! Kudos on the new colors - looks awesome! Much more inviting and friendly too.
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The Sport, to the best of my understanding, will be a fairly basic stripped down model - leaving off a lot of the options. Same structures - just less of the whizbang features.
- Cherie
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I am fairly certain that the Sport model will be a 17'. It wouldn't surprise me if they have a similar configuration in the 21' model as well, but that would be complete speculation on my part. I'm anxious to see what comes of the larger model in general - first one should be off the line by the end of the year.
- Cherie
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We heard the same information the other day about configuration of a 'Sport' model in progress. It would be awesome to have a model priced in the low 20s again. I think this would be an excellent move on Oliver's part.
- Cherie
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We keep everything in place when in travel. Remember, we travel full time and live in our Oliver - there is not 'destination' for us. Our setup is designed to have no setup or unsetup involved.
In the drawer above the furnace.. seemed like an obvious place for us.
We keep a small trash can under the small dinnette (since you went with the twin beds, that would be difference for you). We keep spare trash bags (aka 'shopping bags') under the seat across from the furnace. Our dirty laundry bag resides in the bathroom, and is taken out when we shower.
In the bathroom, on the floor behind the toliet - with our cleaners and other such stuff.
We keep our towels in the bathroom on the rod. We bought smaller microfiber quick drying towels from REI for both space efficiency and keeping things dry.
As far as storage space.. we actually have more room than we know what to do with and have a good bit of open space left. Chris has most of the closet for his hanging shirts. I have a plastic drawer under the full bed for my shirts/pants/skirts. We each have an upper bin over the bed for socks/undies. We keep the back bin full of our electronics, media, games and books. And the two forward overhead cabinets have office supplies and some useful tools. We have open space in most of our cabinets. Then again, we 'upgraded' from a Tab that was much smaller - so we were already well accustomed to only living with what we really need, and have both massively purged our lives of 'stuff'.
- Cherie
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I concur on the success of the suction cups for organizing our kitchen, bath and corner entry 'junk' drawer. The holders from target that Seadawg also uses have worked wonderfully for us.
Some of the hooks we use to hang mugs, flashlights, sweaters, hats, etc. have more of a tendency to fall -- especially when we are switching between elevations and humidity levels. Such as, I notice more of a failure rate when we enter the high desert.
So far, no damage or marks from any of our holders.
Here's our kitchen arrangement:
It's worked well for us, and I haven't rearranged it since we originally set it up.
- Cherie
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Just an FYI to add to this discussion - we stopped at a Blue Rhino to do an exchange, and their signs say that for 'better safety' they're starting to use a proprietary valve/connector. Which means - once you exchange, you can no longer refill on your own. So, we'll probably not be following that route whenever possible.
- Cherie
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For the AC Noise (especially turning on/off), we typically leave the fan on all of the time as to reduce the noise difference between off and on. It helps a bunch for us.
We had our first snow storm last night in Fernley, NV and got to put the heater to good use. Using the bathroom in the morning (which stayed pretty cold with the door shut all night) was a real wake up .
As to earlier questions, we too had several things that needed to be fixed at the factory - so Oliver does have some QA issues for delivery. I chalk it up to still getting their consistency up. But, they did handle them quite cheerfully. Unfortunately, we discovered that we have some leaks in the back still last week. We've been very busy since then to deal with keeping on top of getting a solution tho.
Our cell phone amplifier - we've had mixed results with it and the various antennas that folks at Powerful Signal gave us when we visited them in Zion National Park (Utah) back in August. When we were in Tahoe National Forest a few weeks ago, it beautifully kept us online and connected when we had otherwise weak signal. But we were caught between two towers the other week in the hills above the San Francisco Bay Area that we kept getting bounced between, and the amplifier wasn't enough to stabilize things. We hope to have the opportunity to test it out further now that we're serving as a mobile staging office for the Obama Campaign in rural Nevada through election day.
All our best..
- Cherie (and Chris)
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Welcome to Twitter, mountianborn.
Twitter is sort of 'blogging 140 characters at a time', and was marketed a the mobile SMS crowd to keep in touch with lots of people with single text message. A lot of folks use it to mark the mundane things that happen during the day.
A lot of the intentional usage of Twitter doesn't appeal much to me, and how we've integrated it into our website is using one of their 'badges' via a HTML link - isn't very typical of most Twitter users. I kinda took existing (free) tools and adapted them for my use.
It allows us to post dynamic content to the website with our current travel status from a variety of things - our iPhones, computer, IM, etc. I usually only post relevant travel updates to reassure our parents. It's pretty cool - and keep them from calling to check in all the time when they haven't heard from us in a day or two (although, sometimes they call to get more details of what we've posted.)
We actually have both sets of parents tracking our twitter feed via their default iGoogle homepage. It's been fun bringing them kicking and screaming into the 21st century. - Cherie
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We went with a 20lb and a 30lb setup for the reason of retaining an easy swap out option while giving us extra capacity - as in our travels we have experienced a very wide variety of accessibility to propane. It would be awesome if they come out with a 30lb kevlar tank, than we could continue to keep our 20lb exchange option and get some of the benefits with our more 'permanent' larger capacity tank.
So far, we've been very happy with our setup. Although, whenever possible we seek out places that do meter fills (which we've found several), as opposed to charging for a full tank.
- Cherie
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There isn't an anti-sway option for the Oliver, like there is for the Casita. You don't need one with their very stable shocks (4 of them) and springs either.
- Cherie
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As much as we'd like to help set the record... I think we'll be west coasters for a bit more. After a hectic cross country journey, we're enjoying a much more relaxed pace and looking forward to reconnecting with our Bay Area community and actually organizing Orion. I'm also looking forward to nestling in a redwood forest soon.
We're currently boondocked in the Tahoe National Forest - listening to smooth jazz, watching a woodpecker and soaking up amplified cell signal. The view is stunning, and Chris did a lovely (albeit scary at times) job of backing us up a rocky, uphill dirt road to find the one square inch of level space in an ole miners wagon trail. Gotta love the 4" lift on the Oliver and 4x4 drive
We'll toast a glass of wine in your honor
- Cherie
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Actually, we need to get 5 Olivers in one place to break the record. Apparently, there were 4 Olivers at the Coos Bay, Oregon rally back in July that the Oliver Road Crew went to.
I suspect it will happen soon, as more and more of these hit the road
Have fun guys.. wish we were there!
- Cherie
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The time it will take to do the install will depend upon how tow ready your vehicle is. For instance, our Jeep Liberty had some of the wiring already done, so it was a quicker install (only about an hour). But if wires need to be run, it could be longer.
Any mechanic should be able to do it - however those specializing in towing (such as RV shops) will be better targeted with doing it.
As a side note, we also opted to install ours so that the passenger could easily reach as well in case of emergency. After having been through a spin out with our Tab on the interstate (a 360+ at 65 mph.. wheee!), we realized how important this could be if the driver is otherwise incapacitated or distracted.
Best wishes!
- Cherie
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Yup, you saw 3 Olivers
Chris and I spent the past few days joining up with the Oliver Road Crew (Pam & Dave and Evon). We didn't go to Hot August Nights however, we were at Burning Man then. But we did join them at the Camel Races.
Wish we could be there to join up with all the other Olivers at RVerII!! That would be so awesome! Have a great time!
- Cherie
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While here at the Camel Races in Virginia City with Evon, Pam and Dave - we came across the Phone Car (an art car brought out for Burning Man). Chris and I befriended the driver - and this morning, we 'hitched' up the phone to tow Pam & Dave's Oliver.
Ok, we're having entirely too much fun out here.
- Cherie
Cell Phone Amplifier
in Mechanical & Technical Tips
Posted
A few questions for clarification on your setup...
1) Are you using the Powerful Signal cell phone amplifier system installed by Oliver?
a) If so, then you shouldn't need to plug anything into anything. You should have a repeater installed that re-transmits the signal, and all your cellular devices should auto pick them up and have their signal boosted. If you're not, and you're trying to direct plug in an antennae type device, only some cell phones/air cards have an external port for that.
b) If you have a medium to strong signal already, the amplifier system will likely go into oscillation (lights red, instead of green on the 'heat sink thingie') and basically turn off , so it makes no sense to use the amplifier system except when you have a marginal signal.
c) If you're having any problems at all with the system, call the folks at Powerful Signal.. they are simply *awesome* at tech support.
2) Does your Dell have a built in cellular data card? If not, I'm confused as to what you're expecting to work on it in regards to the cell phone amplifier system. If so, then see above advice
- Cherie