Ken_Judy

2009 Ford E350 Van with 5.4 gas V8. Towing high 11's to high 12's at 62mph. Solo 16 to 17mpg at 65 to 70mph.

Ok all you hot rodders, now you can have your cake and tow your Oliver too.

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..

After dumping the grey tank and hitting the road, the next time we stopped there was a strong odor in the camper. Normally there is not much of a rush of water wen draining the grey tank but under the right circumstances like fullness of the tank and tilt of the camper you can get a pretty good flow going. What I thought was the big flow might have caused the water in the pea trap in the shower floor drain to be sucked out allowing the odor to come up and into the camper. Another time my wife accidentalIy sucked the water out of the shower p-trap while vacuuming the floor. That could cause odors to infiltrate the cabin as well. I filled it with water and had no further issues.

I get between 9 and 15 days out of a 30# tank running the furnace at night with temps around 50.

It would be interesting to see how that regulation came about. Things like this usually don't just come about out of thin air. I like the cables. they hold up the whale tail on my Andersen. Do you think some chain manufacturer in Tennessee put a bug in some politicians ear?

I really like my Proven Industries Lock. Pricey yes, but so is the Oliver. There are interesting videos from Proven Industries showing just how easy it is to disable many other locks. If you are worried about someone swapping out the tongue you could always have the bolts tack welded. At some point if someone wants it bad enough they could always come by and winch it onto a flatbed.

I picked up a sharkbite and a 12" braded toilet line and it works for $12.00

I'm not a big fan of the plastic insert fittings in the Pex. This broke where it attached to the Truma water heater

Hi John. We sold our house, ordered an Ollie and have put over 30,000 miles on ours in 17 months. It is built like a tank and tows like a dream. It is perfect for full timing and seeing our beautiful country. Oliver’s don’t seem to be built to a price point which is rare now a days. In my opinion nothing on the market can touch it in quality not to mention the service you receive at any price. Try to make the Oliver rally in May. We did before ordering ours and it was so much fun and informative.

These seem to be compression fittings with a nylon type o ring and rubber o ring on the pex tube and then the white fitting gets screwed down for a water tight fit. They are all tight except one that continues to spin. I’m worried about that one

Just a heads up... after 30k miles bouncing down our beautiful roads, the big white connector knobs on the end of the pex lines needed to be tightened a bit.

Shortly after delivery of #381 it was discovered to have a defective window. Oliver service replaced it and removed and reinstalled all the other windows using butyl tape. Since they were seeing such good results with the butyl tape he also made sure that production removed the foam tape that came with the windows and installed butyl tape instead

Thanks for all the replies, I thought something this simple would be a walk in the park for a local trailer shop. Life is nothing but a learning experience and I certainly learned something.

Having received the Dexter recall I rushed out to buy my first ever torque wrench. I thought I got a pretty good deal for $15 from Harbor freight but then received a flyer that it was on sale for one day only for $10. After I sheared off a 3/8 drive extension I now have a new 1/2” universal joint and extension. After making sure everything was tight I decided I would still take it to Bubba's trailer repair and Jerky stand to get it checked out and have some official paperwork for the recall. They decided they wanted it in one of the repair bays so I unhooked and watched my baby hauled off by tractor and backed in missing the side of the concrete block wall by 4 inches. I decided to hang around for a look see. The first guy grabs his impact wrench and starts for the wheel. I pipe up saying that the job does not require taking off the wheels. A second guy shows up after having presumably read the recall instructions and says something in Spanish and there was no more impact wrench wielding. Now the search began for an extension. I offered one out of my tool box but at this point the service manager came over and told me they had a very nice waiting room. I observed from afar and they were done in 30 minutes. Now to drag it out of the bay and hook up. Well the trailer would not come off the ball of the tractor. This led to repeated slamming up and down on the jack. I couldn't believe it. The moral of the story...If you have a good shop for your Oliver, buy them lunch once in a while and leave a good Google review for the rest of us.

Check out Debbie Lafeiche at www.supersizelife.com . She is doing it in an Oliver.

Your Honda probably needs a neutral to ground bonding plug. Then the built in surge protector will let in the juice.

We had a campground neighbor pulling an Airstream 22 Sport with a Tesla model x. She said her range was cut in half when towing. Also, many campgrounds would not let her charge her Tesla off the 50amp campsite circuit. They said it would damage the electrical infrastructure. Since the Tesla was only one year old, she had just agreed to trade it in on a GMC 2500 Duramax and it was just about an even trade. She was very happy.

My Honda EU2200 never had trouble running the A/C but one day the A/C was cutting out and running strangely. While sitting at the dinette thing about what would cause such a thing, I noticed the refrigerator on Auto. Ah Ha that is the problem. The refrigerator was just drawing a bit too much amperage for the Honda to run the A/C as well. I turned the fridge to gas and had no further problems.

I paid $460 for my Thousand Trails membership and purchased four zone passes for $49 each because our trip was so extensive. We also added the Trails Collection for $199 which adds a bunch of RV resorts around the country. While during this 5 month trip we stayed 60 nights in the TT system, our previous trip out west and last winter in Florida we used TT another 57 nights. At this point we are at $7.30 average per night. There are other lifetime memberships beginning at $5000. The Harvest Host is now about $79 but I got in for $44 at the launch.

Hi Mike, I will be continuing my subscription. There are many interesting places to stop and even though Judy and I don't drink, many wineries and breweries offer other things to purchase. And some of the locations are fabulous. Supersize Life has a 15% discount coupon. They just added 600 golf courses for a premium as well.

Just a few numbers from our recent completed five month journey of Hull #381 around the country. Total Mileage 16,231 Gas expense $3720 Propane Expense $59.55 Laundry Expense $114.00 Total Nights 152 Campground Expense 54 paid nights $1252.77 Thousand Trails nights 60 Harvest Host nights 4 Boon dockers Welcome 1 Free nights 33 which include Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Mooch docking, BLM etc. The most expensive nights were 2@ $115.00 at the Liberty Harbor RV park which is a 5 minute subway ride from central Manhattan. There were a few nights at around $35 but everything else was less than $30 with many out west at $10 or less using Forest service campgrounds and the senior discount. If your trip is in an area where you can utilize a Thousand Trails membership it can really help keep your nightly cost down. Another interesting fact is that though this trip included the entire summer, I only used the generator to run the A/C one day. Selecting the street side awning was really worth it in keeping cool. Of course the solar package while a bit pricey at over 5k really makes boon docking a no brainer. Would it be nice to have a few more inches inside the trailer… yes but the outside size is really perfect for traveling and that’s what we bought it for. Finally, the Elite 2 tows like a dream behind my E350 Ford van with a 5.4L engine. My MPG was usually high 12’s. It was a great trip and the Oliver really made it nice.

Just a few numbers from our recent completed five month journey of Hull #381 around the country. Total Mileage 16,231 Gas expense $3720 Propane Expense $59.55 Laundry Expense $114.00 Total Nights 152 Campground Expense 54 paid nights $1252.77 Thousand Trails nights 60 Harvest Host nights 4 Boon dockers Welcome 1 Free nights 33 which include Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Mooch docking, BLM etc. The most expensive nights were 2@ $115.00 at the Liberty Harbor RV park which is a 5 minute subway ride from central Manhattan. There were a few nights at around $35 but everything else was less than $30 with many out west at $10 or less using Forest service campgrounds and the senior discount. If your trips path looks like it could benefit from a Thousand Trails membership it can really help keep your nightly cost down. Another interesting fact is that though this trip included the entire summer, I only used the generator to run the A/C one day. Selecting the street side awning was really worth it in keeping cool. Of course the solar package while a bit pricey at over 5k really makes boon docking a no brainer. Finally, the Elite 2 tows like a dream behind my E350 Ford van with a 5.4L engine. My MPG was usually high 12’s. It was a great trip and the Oliver really made it nice. [attachment file=IMG_3638.jpg]

I remember when the tour bus driver for the Dave Matthews Band used a remote black tank dump valve switch to dump on a grated bridge over the Chicago river. The unfortunate sightseeing boat cruising underneath caught it.

Airplane manufacturers do it all the time. They cut it, pull it apart and insert a plug in the middle. Voila, an extra 20 fare paying seats. Personally I could use an extra 3” on the length of the twin beds. And a propane fired oven would be nice. The width is perfect for towing. I really like the fact that the Ollie’s tires track in line with my vans tires and it is so easy to see past the trailer. I bought my Ollie for traveling. If I was just going to be stationary for months at a time, I probably would have looked for a fifth wheel.