dougi

Cherrie, when I posted that comment I was thinking of our single bed layout, forgetting that you had the double bed layout. If the vent fan is dripping on the forward edge of your bed area, the retaining lip on the bed could cause the water to run under your cushions. If the water is coming from the rear street side window it could run down the wall under the cushions on your bed. The water would almost have to be coming from one of these two sources. Small amounts of water running slowly down the interior street side wall under your window would be more difficult to notice than a drip from the ceiling. Tape a thin rolled up cloth under the entire width of the rear street side window when it rains and see if it gets wet somewhere along it's length. If it does, you have found the source of your leak.

Cherrie, I don't think it would be condensation, since that surface is not exposed to ambient air. We certainly haven't had anything like that happen to us during a rainy day in our Oliver. I can't think of any reason that condensation would be limited to just the area under the street side of your cushions and not the rest of the area under the cushions. I think you probably have a leak of some kind. I don't understand how this area could get wet without you noticing a leak somewhere. Water would have to run down the wall from somewhere above. I would think the vent fan is located too far forward to cause water to collect in that area of your trailer. The area around the air conditioner would be more suspect, it seems to me. Good luck.

Got a photo from Robert of the new frame for the Oliver 17 Sport model: He's out of town this weekend for family Christmas, so I'll have more details later when he's back in the office. There's a lot of activity at the factory, working on both the Sport and the 22. Sherry I can see they are keeping costs down by making the frame out of steel rather than aluminum. Probably a good move on their part. Doug

DougI, any chance that you guys may be going to the April Jug Fishing Gathering at Lake Greeson ? I sure would like to look over one of them quadratracs ! I have often thought they would be a good TV. Larry, Geneva and I went to Houston today and picked up the Quadrasteer truck. I drove it back home. No problems. I drove slow just to see how much MPG I could squeeze out of the truck on the highway...19MPG! That's driving at between 50 and 60 MPH, using the cruise control most of the time. It included two stops, one in Brenham and one in Giddings. I was pleased because the truck is rated at 17MPG on the highway. YES, we hope to make it to Lake Greeson in April. Looking forward to it. Doug

Sherry, that's a very nice picture. I can see why it was selected to adorn the FGRV web site. Doug

I just found a new tow vehicle for our Oliver. I will be selling our 2002 Silverado Crew Cab Big Dually with the diesel engine (Duramax), fully tricked out for towing a good sized 5th wheel. If anyone knows someone who is interested in it, just let me know. I have just purchased, but not yet picked up, a 2003 Silverado, LT, 4X4, 5.3 L V8, Quadrasteer, extended cab pickup with full towing package. I have been wanting one ever since they came out but they are rare and hard to find. They stopped making them in 2004 (I think). I found it on E-bay, in Houston. This should be a great tow vehicle for us. I expect to keep this truck for the rest of our RVing life.

DougI It appears that only my schedule is fixed. As I stated in the original post, I'm off April 09 thru April 15. I would not be able to attend at any other time. These dates were chosen because Larry had suggested to me that since everyone else's time is flexable that I pick the dates. Obviously, if this is not suitable with everyone else then it should suit the majority. However, Larry further says that the date has to be after the full moon due to the spawn of the bait fish that need to be caught. The moon is full April 09, so it could not be scheduled any earlier. Geneva and I would like to make this outing and April 9 thru April 15th is fine with us at this time. We will try to keep that week open so we can make it up. We love that area and will set our sights on being there, and hope everything works out. This will give us and Pete plenty of time to make it to the Bluebonnet Rally in Bandera, TX on April 22nd-26th.

Sounds like a gatherin' of the most relaxing kind . . . fishin', nappin', walkin', dominoin', lotsa gooood eatin', story swappin', & such great company to be amongst too!! Count Oscar & I in! Sombody's gotta enjoy life . . . might as well be US! Pete, don't forget the Bluebonnet Rally, Wednesday April 22 through Sunday April 26 in Bandera. Maybe this get together can be scheduled a week earlier so you could make both?

Sherry, here is an option that looks good to me: http://www.800toolbox.com/roller_coaster/roller_coaster It costs $1,199.95, and when combined with this option: http://www.800toolbox.com/pickup-pac/pickup-pac.htm which costs $4,199.95, would provide an excellent cargo storage solution. Now, If I only had a spare $5,400 sitting around somewhere I'd be set to go. With the current price of our mutual funds, selling more at this time to raise the necessary funds would be ill advised. BTW, Alaska is calling us but I don't know if our wallets will provide. With the current price of fuel, the time to go may never be better.

Now that we no longer camp in our 29 foot Arctic Fox 5th wheel, we rely almost exclusively on our tow vehicle for our outside storage needs. We have a full size (8 foot) pickup bed with two lockable aluminum storage boxes, one just behind the cab and one in the rear. The box just behind the cab is inconvenient to access, but it is the largest of the two boxes. The best solution to our outside storage problems would be to remove the factory truck bed and have a custom storage system built on our truck, much like the flat-bed commercial trucks you see with the convenient side access to the tool/storage boxes on the side of the trucks. That would be a very expensive solution, and I don't know where I could get that done in our neck of the woods (Central Texas). Aluminum (lighter and doesn't rust) would be the preferable material for our cargo management solutions. If any of you know of or run across any good lighted, lockable storage solutions that would give us convenient access to our stuff (anything from extra clothing items, including extra footwear, to tools, to extra supplies of food and personal items, to two fold up bicycles) I'd appreciate it if you would let us know. We don't want to have to climb in and out of the bed of the pickup in order to store and retrieve our stuff (our pickup bed is high because we have a one-ton dually). We do not want to have to lift it any higher than we have to, preferable no more than about five and a half feet (my line of sight). I have found companies on the west coast that do this kind of work (Highway Tool Boxes is one example), but I bet there are places nearer to where we live. Thanks!

Pete, it's a pleasure to assist nice people like yourself! DougI

We registered our trailer after returning home. We waited more than a month and had to pay a fine of over $100, plus the sales tax, plus the registration, $2,402.02 total (6.25% state sales tax). We live in Texas. It hurt, BAD! Still recovering, and we won't be back on our feet for months. We are retired and live on a small monthly fixed income. No way to legally avoid this expense that I know of.

Sherry, this product looks like it holds much promise, especially as a bed that someone might choose to have installed in their trailer from the git go. I would think the innerspring mattress might be too heavy but the foam mattress would be light enough for the Oliver owner. We have the twin bed option in the rear with the standard configuration on the street side, across from the kitchen area. Geneva sleeps in the rear and I sleep on the street side. I got Geneva a 3 inch memory foam pad for her bed and I sleep directly on the Oliver cushions, which I find to be a bit too firm for comfort. My bed is only 24 inches wide and an inch or two shy of my six foot length. We use Travasaks for our bedding, which are too hot in the summer but okay in the winter, but they take up a lot of room when rolled up. A good night's sleep often escapes us when we are camping, so we are still looking for something that will give me more width to sleep and both of us more comfort. I may look into one of these foam mattresses with an eye to widening my bed by at least a couple of inches, and get a fold right in the middle of the mattress. We would have to take the mattress in and out of the trailer every morning and evening, storing it in the truck during the day. Do you recall any pricing for these mattresses? Thanks for the link.

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 I think that's what the Oliver Legacy Classic is. It has no frills whatsoever that I can think of, unless you add on some options.

What would be the difference between an Oliver Sport model and the Oliver Legacy Classic?

Have any of you used the heating element in your Coleman Polar Cub? We tried it on a very cool morning near Hohenwald it and it quickly stopped working. Oliver put a new heating element in our AC and the same thing happened. They called Coleman and were told that the heating element would get too hot and automatically trip the safety switch so as not to catch on fire. They said the unit would not push enough air volume across the hot coils to keep them from overheating, and that nothing could be done to stop this. The Oliver technician and I concluded that if the heating elements were not functional in the Polar Cub, they should not be put in them to begin with. I don't know if Oliver is starting to leave them out now or not. If they get too hot and trip the safety switch, I think they should. Mine is now setting in my AC with a tripped switch. Winter is coming. Maybe when the outside air is a lot colder, this won't happen.

Our Coleman Polar Cub has only 2 speeds. If there is a lot of noise going on outside, the Coleman and the trailer walls will drown it out with no problem. Explosions may be another matter. The ac bothers my wife more than me and she wears two hearing aids when she's not trying to sleep. A couple of Tylenol PM's right before bed helps some. However, we do like our Oliver none the less.

Hello to All, Doug - you and Geneva are just up the road. How bout if I borrow yalls for a while? Just kidding! In all seriousness, thanks again for all the discussion. Jam49 Let us know if we can be of any assistance. Come see ours if that would help you in any way. We'd be pleased to meet you and yours. We're retired and home a lot. Doug

Flashlight recommendation: I have a small Streamlight (brand) headlight that I wear on my head or carry in my hand, whichever is more convenient. It has three light levels and a flash option. It runs off three size AAA batteries. It is waterproof. I hang it from a suction cup by one of the two straps for your head, one of which goes around your head and the other goes over your head. The straps are totally adjustable and stay put well. It probably weighs no more than 8 ounces, with batteries. It puts out a lot of light with an LED bulb. I normally run it on the lowest of the three settings. I've used it now for about four years. It's not cheap, but I think it's well worth the $50 bucks or so. I just Googled and found a source at a good price: http://www.streamlight-flashlights.com/61070.html

I've been trying to find a paper towel holder that could be attached with suction cups above the sink between the two overhead LED lights. No luck. So, I'm going to make my own, using at least four large suction cups, two at each end. If necessary, I will put two more suction cups in the middle of the base. I think plexiglas or 3/8 or 1/2 inch thick hardwood would work fine for the base and frame, with a matching dowel rod to hold the towels. You can buy suction cups that receive screws to attach them to the base of the rack. I just emailed Adams Manufacturing asking them where I can buy smaller quantities of their large suction cup with 3/32 top pilot hole, item #6001.00. With this cup, I'm quite confident four cups would secure the towel holder to the ceiling. If it doesn't, I'll use six cups. I will design the base of the holder wider at the ends and in the middle so that the cups will be spaced as far apart as possible (outboard of a full paper towel roll), to increase holding power.

Oliver is now tethering these pins to the bumper with nice little chains. Works for me.

Cherie, do you keep all these things where they are in this picture when you are towing or do you put them somewhere else and take them out when you reach your destination? That layout looks neat and convenient. Where do you keep your large kitchen spoons, knives, tongs, spatula, whisk, and the like? Where to put the trash bag/can? Where to put dirty clothes? Where to put sewer treatments, be they powders or liquids? Where to keep the second damp shower towel? We keep lots of stuff in the big truck, but for many things that's not very convenient. I'm sure we will figure these things out, but you really have to keep stuff to a minimum in these trailers, which is no surprise to me, but it has been for Geneva. When we got to Hohenwald and she put her clothes and shoes in the trailer, almost every overhead space was stuffed with her clothes, and the closet was overflowing. She gave me one shelf in the closet for all my clothes, shoes, and toiletries, but I had to share that shelf with some of her stuff.

I hope not to have to drill any holes in my Oliver, by using alternative methods of hanging that will not penetrate the shell or leave any visible signs, once they are gone. IMO, to do otherwise will needlessly reduce the market value of your trailer. So far I've not hung anything that can't be well secured with a suction cup, double sided tape, or hook and loop fasteners. I can't envision needing to drill any holes in the shell in order to hang stuff. However, there is no reason you can't do it if you have a good sharp bit and know how to use it properly. I have no experience at drilling through fiberglass, but I bet a step drill would work nicely. You can buy drill bits for wood that leave no tares on the outside edge of the hole, but they are not cheap and are rarely available at places like Home Depot or Lowe's. I bet they too would make a clean, smooth hole through the fiberglass. I would check with Oliver technicians to see what kind of drill bits they use.

A good suggestion Herm. i'll sure try it because it will be easy and inexpensive to do. I can do that without any help and it should work well.

The sat radio has a headphones jack. I've thought about just getting a set of head phones and using them to listen to the radio and just forgetting about the Jensen radio and the four nice speakers, one in each corner of the trailer. I suppose that's an option. I also want to use the sat radio in other locations, like outdoors, but I haven't looked into that option. I have to pay for it 24/7 so I need to get more usage from it than just in the Oliver. I would also like to use it in the Silverado while towing. It a convenient way to get the news without having to set up a satellite dish for the tv. AM/FM is a big waste of resources as far as the news goes. I rarely find anything worth listening to on AM/FM, unless I can tune in to a good NPR news program.