Trainman

We we got our new Elite II last year the cables were to first thing to go. It's not that they don't work, but the hassle of dealing with them was like trying to handle an Anaconda snake, if you know what I mean. trainman

We stabilize our trailer with the factory jacks that come with the trailer and we don't run them down too tight to put stress on the trailer when it is not needed, thus at our age a little Rock and Roll is still a good thing. trainman

Ran into a fellow Oliver owner at the Casita Rally in Grapeland, Texas last year and he had the same problem, turned out to be the seal around the A/C unit. He said, the seal was installed improperly, required removing the A/C unit and reinstall with a new seal. Hope this isn't your problem, but there are very few things that can leak on the roof of the Oliver. trainman

I do like the gutter molding you installed, so far the rain has not bothered use with our awning strip removed. For those who would like to purchase something that takes off advises, marker slot marks, and a host of just about everything, I purchase a grease and wax remover sold from auto body paint supply stores. This is an industrial product sold to clean grease and any thing that could get on new areas to be painted, painters wipe it on and come behind it with a dry rag and and air hose, this somewhat etches to surface to be painted. It can be powerful stuff and can even etch into the paint if the paint is not factory original. It's about 100 times stronger then GooGone and when using you should test first to see if it will etch the plastic. It will not affect fiberglass and I do use it on my model train models as a cleaner before I paint my models. Yes, it will take off those felt tips pen marks, but since fiberglass is pours it will take some rubbing. I use this product a lot around the house, but I use it sparingly as its $25.00 gal. This is probably more then most what to know, but there are products out there that can do jobs that most everything sold will not, you just have to know where to look. trainman

Will carry ours in the pickup bed, but may in the future carry ours on a rack that fits into the rear Oliver's rear bumper bicycle rack. Northern Tool has an aluminum rack for $100, it does go on sale at times. As I said above we went with the Camco 21 gal. unit, I tried to pick one that would pull behind the truck to the dump station that looked the strongest and made and larger wheels. Note here that one person in the reviews had a wheel come off, the snap on cap on the axle came off and then the wheel. Camco did replace his tote and on his new one he drilled a hole in the axle and put carter pins with washes to prevent this from happing again. I will do mine before our first trip with it just to be safe. It seems like everything I buy I have to modify it to make it better them the factory did, they all cut corners to save money. trainman

We have it in our Ram, but not in the trailer, now you give me something else to think about, thanks, trainman

I've had a few problems with the components (accessories) with my Oliver trailer, I will say here that Oliver said I could take it to a local RV dealer that was on there approved list. I personally don't care for RV dealers in general and I talked with Oliver service and told then about the problems and told them if they would send me the replacement parts I could replace them, I feel qualified to do this. Regardless of how well they build their trailers accessories can always go bad regardless of the quality of the item installed. It's just the RV industry accessory manufactures in general, they are not Honda, Toyota, Lexus, etc., and there quality no where comes close to them. My neighbor has his $350,000 diesel pusher in service all the time, he just thinks its normal for an RV. trainman

Reception is probably the biggest reason we did not order any of the electronics in our new 2019 Elite II. As I have read on this forum all electronics are hit and miss and from what I read here most are miss. I won't get into all the upgrades that campers do to try to resolve this problem, but for our style of camping it's just not a big thing for us to have a these options. Sometimes it's just nice to get away from all the electronics that we become a custom to, plus if needed we can always drive to a location that has WiFi and just use our laptop, etc. there. Since we do not Boondock we just don't find not having these features available to us a problem. trainman

We just used the stick on hooks and a Walmart inexpensive shower curtain, works great and we do not leave it up when not in use. We have found that taking showers in the campground facilities is much easier and I can stay in there for a long time, plus have more room to move around. I have found that using RV cramped showers are just too small to feel like I got clean and drying the shower was just work I didn't want to do. I believe in the KISS system. trainman

Yes, Oliver sent me a complete new MaxxFan Kit, installed it and all works as it should, this was after two board replacement that did not fix the problem. The problem was not in the fans PC board, but somewhere in the motor, etc., or some other electronic device in the fan. I sent back the old unit and hope Jason can let me know what they find what was the problem, would be interesting to know. trainman

I would say here that I would not let any RV service department work on my Oliver other them Oliver. We did have a small wiring problem and we took our trailer back to Oliver to have the problem corrected, I only wanted the manufacture that built the trailer (Oliver) to work on my trailer. Oliver knows their trailers inside and out and most RV repair shops have never seen an Oliver, they don't know the trailer. Oliver was 700 miles from Ft. Worth, Texas where we live, but we just included them in a travel plan and it was only some 100 miles out of the way, or so. One thing that works for many is to visit Oliver service when going to the Oliver Rally in Lake Guntersville each year, that should put you close to Oliver and make service easy for you, just set a repair date with Oliver. trainman

We passed on the Truma water heater, not for the reasons that you don't get all the hot water on demand, but because of our gray tank storage and more water into the tank just requires more dumping of the gray tank. Now true dumping the tank is rather easily done as long as you are at a camping ground that has sewerage access in your site. As we have found that we are now taking most of our showers at the camping ground facilities rather then using the shower in the trailer just because of the gray tank filling too quickly and I like long showers. I will say here that we have the Rinnia Tankless Water Heater in our home and it's wonderful, but for trailer use I just can't see the additional cost and not much return on your money spent. trainman

We have pretty much the base model Elite II, our options are the Confection Microwave, Bicycle Rear Rack, LP Quick Disconnects. We went with the standard white counter tops and black dinette table top, all colors picked from the standard interiors colors offered at no addition cost. Our colors were all in the gray/black colors and the white counter tops are so good looking in the trailer they should have charged $1800 extra for them. I purchased the Anderson WDH online for $479.00 including shipping and I installed it myself at the camping ground in 30 mins., I also brought with me the extra lengths and the chain quick lengths needed to add the extra chain. We added no other electronics that were offered as I felt for our type of camping they were not needed and in most cases are iffy if they work in camping conditions, we also did not op for the solar stuff, if we need extra power I would go the Honda Generation route, but no electricity available we probably won't be camping there. We also purchased a 3" memory foam queen size mattress $130 from Walmart, cut if down the middle and it sleep wonderful. Now sounds like I'm really cheap, not really, if spending another $10,000 on the Oliver was what we wanted we would have added other options without any second thoughts. PS, we don't Boondock, we believe in keeping the local economy going. trainman

I have not seen an Oliver awning that didn't slope some, at least on the newer ones that don't have the support poles. I purchase the Green Elephant Tent Poles form Amazon for $49.00. They do telescope way down and come with a bag for storage, plus two different top post for different uses. I did drill a small hole in each end of the awing and put in a rubber grommet with a 1/4" hole in the center, just the correct size for the GE Poles to fit into. These poles allow you the level your awing and also help stabilize your awning in the wind, they can also be staked if needed. I'm totally happy with the results and have showed this mode to other Oliver owners at rallies and camp grounds. https://www.amazon.com/s?k=green+elephant+telescoping+tarp+poles+set+of+2&ref=nb_sb_noss trainman

Our 2019 came with the Progressive surge protector, you can turn it on and off, or Bypass mode located on the LED panel in the rear overhead. trainman

I don't know if trying to cut cost was the determining factor in the new 2020 trailers, as the base price went up around $2000. Seeing the trailer in person I do like the new wheels. trainman

If you are switching back and forth between electricity and gas you should go with one or the other, Not sure if I can explain it correctly, but I was on electricity and tried to switch to gas and wondered why the gas heater would not fire up, reason was the water in the water heater was too hot and the thermostat would bock this from happening. The gas should fire up as soon as the water heater temperature goes down either by using the hot water, or the temperature drops and lets the gas heater fire up. Not sure if this is your problem, hope it helps. trainman

I'm buying gasoline today at $2.02 per gallon at Walmart, now I know why I don't own a diesel anymore. trainman

Those are some pretty nicely thought out systems and a first class job was done building and installing them. For ourselves we don't plan to travel any back roads (gravel or rocks) and boondocking is not to our liking, I see no need for me to invest in a system like that, but I will say here it looks like great protection for those who wish to camp that way. As you can see we probably won't be going to Alaska with our trailer, or camping beyond the paved roads. trainman

We just purchased one, as they say if you miss it twice then purchase what you need, we went three times and that's one to many for me. I was thinking of our Oliver bicycle rack hitch on the back of the trailer and a cargo rack in place of the bicycle rack would be a good place to carry it. I don't really want to carry it in the bed of the pickup, but back there sounds like a good idea, where do you carry yours and I don't intend to carry it full if you know what I mean, so weight would be very light. trainman

As of today I have not tried to remove the center piece of the Oliver hitch, this is mainly because we are not using the hitch and transporting our new ebikes in the bed of the pickup, a much more secure place for them to be carried. I have thought of purchasing a cargo rack to use in place of the bicycle rack, they to would require a 2.0" receiver for most of the ones that I have looked at. But now once again I really have no need for that rack, so now I sometime wonder why I purchased the Oliver bicycle in the first place. I may just take it off the trailer and store it in the shop and if some day a use comes up for it I can put it back on the trailer. I would like to know it anyone does take the insert out how you did it, looks like it needs to be pressed out to me. My wife suggested I make a clothes rack to fit the 1 1/4" receiver to dry items when camping, now I will have a $800 invested in a clothes rack, makes sense to me. I do know that with that rack off it's much easier to get the sewer hose and other items out of there storage area. trainman

That's the first thing I did when I got our new trailer home, the pine needles had all ready started to stain the fiberglass and I have to compound the stains off from the needles. When pulling off the weatherstrip you could get some separation from the weatherstrip and the double sticky tape that holds it on, you may need a solvent that releases the double sticky tape glue. Due note here that the warmer it is outside the easier the weatherstrip will come off. I personally have had no problems with the rain, so I don't intend to add another type of weatherstrip at this time. trainman

I opted not to get the eTorque engine, I personally felt that the extra money spent will not bring the return dollars at the time of trade-in value, maybe even less over the standard Hemi engine. trainman

I just put Command Hooks in a U pattern around the door, toilet, and lavatory. We just hang the curtain up when we use it and take it down when finished, personally my wife likes to dry it outside and put it up. We have found that showering in the camp restrooms is much easier to do then mess with the shower curtain. trainman

I grade my 2019 Ram 1500 4X4 excellent for towing my Oliver Elite II, description of vehicle below. I will say here I'm pretty much an upgrade buyer, that is I wouldn't let money make my decision for me and if I though I needed the 2500 for this setup, that's what I would have gotten. I personally think many guys purchase their tow vehicle just because the bigger vehicle gives them bragging rites in the camping grounds and they like being seem that way. I'm not going to say here that I haven't done the same thing at other times in my life, so I know where some of you are coming from. Our main decision was the better ride with the 1500 over the 2500 and so far it was the better choice for us. Yes, we use the Anderson and personally I didn't really notice much difference with or without it, but it was required to meet the vehicle towing ratings per Ram. trainman