ADKCamper

Galley drawers - we added a strap to retain our drawers... very similar to what JD describes. It works great. We also added a strap across the bathroom door; it would work its latch loose in transit and swing back and forth. We initially jammed a seat cushion between the refrigerator and the bathroom door when traveling, but the strap across the door about 1/2 way up (near the latch) does the trick.

Shades - we had some issues with the shades falling off when in-transit when we first picked up our Elite. Upon further examination, several of the windows had broken clips (only one side of the clip was there, the opposing side had broken off). We have been able to resolve this issue with a combination of actions: Replace all broken clips (Oliver sent us a handful of new clips) Be very careful how we press the shade frame into place, ensuring that both sides of all clips are aligned with the slot on the back of the shade frame Lower the tire pressure from the 80psi used at delivery More experience avoiding curbs and potholes😜 (still working on this one) Opening the shades while traveling, so that if one does pop off, the shade fabric is not damaged We have not had any shade pop-offs in quite a while now...

I've only been towing an Ollie for 5 years so more experienced owners may want to chime in, but in my opinion the answer seems to be "it depends". I'll explain... The Oliver is a smooth, nicely rounded trailer and is *generally* very well behaved on the highway... *assuming* a bunch of things like: properly sized & inflated tires, no excessive speeds, properly sized and equipped tow vehicle, load-leveling Anderson hitch (if indicated by your tow vehicle/trailer combination), neither trailer or tow vehicle are overloaded or excessively top-heavy, etc. That said, heavy traffic, bad weather, rough or slippery road conditions or cross-winds require more caution. Heavy cross-winds or extremely gusty winds can be dangerous on their own, and even more so if a large truck passing from either direction either adds to the "gust velocity" that the tow vehicle or trailer are exposed to, or temporarily shields you from the gusty winds and then you become rapidly "exposed" again after they pass. Slow down, stay focused on your surroundings and maintain a good grip on the wheel. If it gets too bad, find a safe spot to pull over until its safe to continue.

I have not messed with the door screws, but I have upon occasion replaced other screws with torx heads so they can be tightened without camming-out the phillips head. Two good sources for stainless sheet metal and machine screws/bolts in both inch and metric sizes are Bolt Depot ( https://www.boltdepot.com/ ) and Mcmaster-Carr ( https://www.mcmaster.com/ ). In some cases you can specify the quantity; in others you can only get the pre-packaged quantity. For small orders, shipping ends up costing more than the product 😞

I like the heated tank concept. I *assume* this is electric, but have the same questions as Rivernerd above. Interesting thought - for trailers with propane heat, I wonder if its possible to make double-hulled tanks, with the fluids in the inner tank, and the outer tank being essentially an air plenum that you run the hot air through on its way to the other end of the trailer. If the air around the (inner) tank is above freezing, the liquid in the tank will not freeze. If you didn't want to run the furnace output directly around the tanks, you could instead use a separate blower (either manually switched or on a thermostat) to cycle cabin air around the tanks and back into the cabin space again... assuming that the furnace would run as needed to maintain the desired cabin temperature. Very little additional electricity would be required (more 12v watts for slightly longer furnace blower run-times). This design would use slightly more propane to heat the trailer's interior to the same point, but you'd probably have warmer floors as a bonus 🙂

A couple of things we have discovered about first-come/first-serve BLM campgrounds... In some cases (we encountered this with some of the smaller sites along the Colorado River near Moab) you might want to pull over at the entrance first and walk the campground looking for open site(s) and sufficient space for a trailer turn-around before you drive in. This should not be a problem with larger / more open sites. For the BLM areas that charge a (usually small) fee and have identified sites - just because there is a "ticket stub" hanging on the site's post doesn't necessarily mean the site is currently occupied. Some campers will leave the site in the morning without taking down their stub from the clip on the post, even though that stub is now "expired". Check the actual dates written on the ticket stub.

15" Rims and Goodyear Endurance ST225/75R15 *seems* like a good match-up for the dual-axle LE2. I'm not so sure for the single axle LE... or maybe I just don't understand how this works. Starting with a 5,000 lb GVWR, ignoring the ~500 lb tongue weight carried by the tow vehicle and assuming all weight is evenly distributed, doesn't this mean that each tire needs to safely support 5,000/2 = 2500 lb? To do that with the 15" Endurance (load index 117) you would need to run slightly over 70 psi in that tire (70.6 psi by my math...). Kind of a rough ride on our rarely perfect roads and close to the tire's 80psi max. Also, some more conservative folks than I recommend a 20% safety margin, bumping up the 5,000 lb GVWR to 6,000 lb of support, requiring each tire to support up to 3,000 lb (which is above the 15" Endurance's max load). My 2018 LE has the now-obsolete 16" (Cooper Discoverer HT3) tires. Without doing an exhaustive search and/or verifying wheel well clearances, there are a number of ST (Endurance, Maxxis) and LT (BFG A/T KO2, Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac) tires in 16" LR-E1 sizes that will support a 2,500 lb load in the 60-65 psi range. The only issue is that the tire diameters run from 30.5" - 30.8"; bigger than the 2018 Cooper HT3 diameter of 28.03". Without measuring I'm not sure that any of the newer/currently available 16" tires will fit in the original spare tire cover on the rear bumper. I've only had that cover off once, and from memory the original Cooper HT3 was already a very snug fit. Hopefully I still have another season to figure out what I want to do for the next set of tires!

I finally was able to measure the size of the freezer compartment on our (absorption) Dometic RM2454: W=17",H=6",D=8" = 816 cubic inches = 13.4 liters. As mentioned Dometic is somewhat elusive with their specs, but they do claim the overall size is 4 cubic ft = approximately 113 liters. The Dometic and the 115 Elegance have *approximately* the same overall capacity, with a larger freezer in the 115 Elegance. The Nova Kool has a larger overall capacity, primarily by being somewhat deeper than the other 3, with a similar freezer size to the Dometic. To summarize a few of the recently mentioned options: Dometic RM2454: 4 cu ft/113 liters overall, 13.4 liter freezer, ~99.6 liter refrig (by extrapolation) Isotherm Cruise Elegance 130: 4.6 cu ft/130 liters overall, 6.0 liter freezer, ~124 liter refrig (by extrapolation) Isotherm Freeline 115 Elegance: 4.1 cu ft/115 liters overall, 32 liter freezer, ~83 liter refrig (by extrapolation) Nova Kool R5810: 5.8 cu ft/164 liters overall ,11.3 liter freezer, ~152.7 liter refrig (by extrapolation) As (almost) always, there are trade-offs to be considered 🙂

It wasn't us, but we were in Oregon with our LE back in late Sept / early Oct. We entered from southern Idaho, through Vale (OR) and then went up towards Mt Hood. From there we concentrated mostly on coastal lighthouses, following mostly US 101 along the coast roughly from Tillamook to the California border. We switched focus to the redwoods and sequoia of northern CA and wine country in and around the Napa Valley. Then we headed eastward to see lotsa different types of rocks through Yosemite, Zion, and Arches on our way home to upstate NY State. Its a beautiful area... lots to see. We'll be back again for more 🙂 We did not see any Ollies on the western portion of that trip, and only slightly less than a handful as we traversed the mid-west out and back again.

Ditto Rivernerd's comments! Might find myself in the same situation a few more mods down the road... John Davies - that poor fridge sure looks abused. Amazing there is no damage. Shippers and warehouse forklift drivers are not known for their gentleness and respect for our expensive toys 😞

I don't know about the newer LE's... but our late 2018 LE does not heat the lower mechanical areas as well as the LE II. The furnace has only 2 outlets; one directly through the forward bulkhead into the bathroom and the other on the aisle side of the forward dinette seat (right next to the bathroom door). There is no ducting under the floor or in the mechanical spaces to move heat into the rear under-floor spaces where the water pump, water heater and outside shower plumbing reside. On my list of things to do... is to create a couple of vents, one on each side of the aisle under the rear dinette, and mount a ~3" computer fan in each opening, pulling ( warmer air in the spring & fall / cooler air in the summer ) from the aisle and forcing it into those 2 rear mechanical spaces. There is precious little room under the floor in the LE to run additional flex ducting. IMHO the LE is more of a 3-season camper than a year-round camper, at least as regards the water system. With the water system winterized (and thus unusable) it should be possible to camp year-round. So far we have camped down to 19 degrees F (while winterized) a couple of times, and around 28-30 degrees F overnight (not winterized), warming to above freezing during the day, and both of those scenarios worked out fine.

We have had generally good luck towing our LE with a 2017 Silverado 1500 LT (5.3L V8 gasser, 355 HP, 383 lb-ft torque, 3.42 axle, 4x4 double cab/std bed, max payload 1850, max conventional tow 9200) without the WDH. No discernible sway issues and generally reasonable performance when climbing and descending in most locations (using lower transmission gears as needed up and down in steeper sections). I haven't been through a CAT scale yet, but I expect we are close to max payload as we have a fiberglass cap on the back and assorted camping gear in the bed (no cast iron, and generally no higher than the rails). Our LE tongue weight is about 460 lb loaded for camping, with 30 gal of water and empty black/grey tanks. Our LE sticker gross weight is 5,000 lb and I expect we are slightly under that, but we'll see what the CAT ultimately says. We did have some modest difficulty maintaining speed and running hot when climbing through the Medicine Bow National Forest in Wyoming, or the (in)famous "IKE" stretch of I-70 in Colorado, 7% grade eastbound from Dillon to the Eisenhower Tunnel at the Continental Divide, heading towards Denver. There's always trade-offs... the 1500 is my daily driver, and last year we were only camping for 53 nights. If we're going to continue traversing the Rockies, the next time the truck is replaced it just might be a 2500.

Lucas Red & Tacky is a good choice. I've been using the similar Mystik JT6 NGLI #2 Hi-Temp grease for trailer wheel bearings (Lithium Complex, non-Moly), spring shackles and tow vehicle lube points for quite some time now. Works well, is affordable and easy to find. I don't know if this is still the case, but at trailer pick-up (late 2018) I asked what wheel bearing grease they use, and this is what they told me was in our bearings... Boat trailer wheel bearings and gimbal bearings get Quicksilver High Performance Extreme Grease (NGLI #2, Calcium Sulfonate-based) because of its higher level of water resistance.

In addition to the NovaKool referenced above, Isotherm has a newer Elegance model with a larger freezer - the Freeline 115 Elegance (CR115EL). It appears to be 2 inches taller than the Cruise Elegance 130, with the same width/depth H:31.4" x W:20.7" x D19.5" +2" door depth proud of flush). Not sure if that fits in the available Oliver spaces or not... It *appears* to have the functionality of the Intelligent Temperature Control built-in with its "ECO" mode (267 W/24Hr vs 418 W/24Hr for the Elegance 130 without the ITC). Slightly less overall volume (4.1 cu ft vs 4.6 cu ft for the Elegance 130) but a much larger freezer compartment (32 liters vs 6 liters for the Elegance 130). Some places show it as 12vdc only, and others seem to have a 12vdc/120vac version. Its compressor is bottom-mounted but has the same Danfoss/SECOP components as the Cruise Elegance 130. https://www.westmarine.com/isotherm-cruise-115-freeline-stainless-steel-fridge-freezer-ac-dc-internal-mounting-system-3--side-flange-20597779.html?cm_mmc=PS-_-Google-_-DSA>Galley%20%26%20Outdoor-_-Null&creative=638403958720&device=c&matchtype=&network=g&utm_medium=cpc&utm_source=google&utm_campaign=OutdoorandMaintenance&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsIn0rtiQ_QIVCVVyCh3eMAqFEAMYASAAEgIt0_D_BwE https://www.indelwebastomarine.com/us/products/product/show/freeline-115-el/ https://defender.com/en_us/isotherm-cruise-freeline-115-elegance-refrigerator-freezer Could be worthy of investigation for those that want/need a larger freezer space.

Yes, for now the exhaust comes out below the drawer. We've been watching for signs of overheating, but its been fine so far. There is some air intake from the bottom rear of the cabinet, through a space designed to hold shoes. If necessary we can add more exhaust venting at the top rear or the end of the cabinet, which is exposed within the van's sliding door opening.

I don't have any recollection whether there was an actual plug on the AC cord or not... in our case both the AC and DC connections were "hard-wired"...

I helped install a similar if not identical model in our son's Sprinter van conversion. From memory, there was a cord with 3 pigtails on the end, 2 of them with push-on connectors as shown above. There was a designated grounding screw on the flat surface just below the SECOP unit (although tiny and not painted green...). See attached photos for how we secured the 12vdc and 120vac wiring...

Stranded - impressive (and creative) repair!

The LE only has 3 awning brackets. Using the front or middle bracket directly would cause interference between the existing panels and the new panel, so I used an offset from the middle bracket, plus the rear bracket. Awning off: Bracket alignment and attachment. Bottom 2 screws are flat-head so as not to interfere with awning attachment. Upper 2 hex head bolts are temporary until the awning is remounted through those holes. From memory, the awning brackets were something like 9 degrees from vertical, so the new solar brackets needed to be bent in order to be vertical where the solar panel attaches on the top. You can never have too many clamps and spacer blocks! Curbside brackets cut to proper height and mounted. Note the inboard aluminum strut channel is VHB taped to the roof... it had to be partially cut in 2 spots in order to be able to bend the flat, continuous base to follow the slight front-to-back curvature of the roof while still keeping the strut in one continuous piece (for maximum VHB tape contact area). Inboard brackets made from large aluminum angle, one rightside up and one upside down to follow the curve of the roof. Rear inboard angle bracket mounted "upside down" and at a slight angle to follow the roof curvature "Belt 'n suspenders" bracket at front of strut channel to help keep strut from lifting with wind load on the panel. Rear attachment to strut channel, with safety cable to help keep strut/panel from flying off the roof if VHB tape lets go. Top view of almost-completed installation Completed and in-service!

A couple of folks have posted threads detailing solar panel mounts utilizing awning brackets: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/3379-zamp-solar-panel-add-ons/ https://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/added-2-90-watt-panels-to-the-solar-array-for-520-watts-total/ We did something similar on our 2018 LE... adding an extra 90 watt panel parallel to the curb-side awning, attaching the "outboard" side of the new panel to the awning mounts and the "inboard" side to a long (approx 3ft) piece of aluminum strut channel that was VHB-taped to the roof. As a belt 'n suspenders safety feature, the front end of this strut channel was bolted to one of the existing solar panel brackets, and the rear end was stainless steel cabled around one of the air conditioner frame vents. Lots of custom angles and tapered spacers to match up with the roof contours, but it turned out quite solid. We get up there and check the attachments a couple of times each year just to be sure. Might be possible to make a cross-frame between both awnings to support solar panel(s). We only had the one awning however.

Our late 2018 LE came with LT rated tires - Cooper Discoverer HT3 235/65R16C M+S, Load Range E, max load single axle 3195 lb at 85psi, 28.03" diameter. When inflated at delivery to 70 psi, we had issues with window shades popping off their clips, cabinet drawers and the bathroom door flying open, and cushions and other loose gear migrating around during travel. We've settled on 60 psi (cold) for "smooth" travel, and 50-55 psi for slower speed rough terrain travel when needed. Sadly, even the interstates are not necessarily smooth in some locations any more, and upon occasion we've had to slow down below the speed limit to accommodate 😞 Not sure yet whether we'll replace with LT or ST tires when the time comes. We do have newer ST tires (2022 Goodyear Endurance) on our dual-axle boat trailer, which seem to be greatly improved over earlier ST offerings.

We come from a backpacking, canoe camping, car camping and pop-up trailer background, so our 18.5 ft LE feels like a palace 🙂 As others above have said, our intention is to be outdoors, experiencing the nature and scenery around us, so time inside the trailer is usually reserved for sleeping, inclement weather and some but not all of the cooking. The short LE fits well in most commercial campgrounds/state parks and almost all BLM/COE/USFS sites we have enjoyed. The older national park campgrounds can be a problem, as indicated above. This year we had a difficult site in Zion's older South Campground... the campground loop road was quite narrow so there was minimal tow vehicle maneuvering room. The pad for our site was perpendicular to the road, not angled to ease the backing-in process. As the final challenge, there was a tree on one corner of the site's entrance and a big rock on the other! Fortunately... the site directly opposite ours was empty both when we arrived and when we departed, so there was a place to maneuver the front of the truck partway through the alignment process. Our second night was in Zion's Watchman Campground (couldn't get 2 consecutive nights in the same site) which seems to be somewhat newer, and the loop road and sites were slightly wider and nicely angled. Someday maybe we'll have tow vehicles with all-wheel or joystick steering 🙂

Yikes! That would definitely ruin your day... I wonder if there's any way to analyze that action in a simulator, and/or practice how to correct for the effects of this scenario?

Thanks so much for the additional details... Nice retrofit, and well thought out!

Congrats! Looks like a nice job! We have a 2018 Elite and have been contemplating just such an upgrade for a while. I have successfully done this on a boat trailer in the past. One thing that I haven't been able to figure out... where did you put the electric-over-hydraulic controller? There's not very much room in or on an Elite for a unit of that size, that doesn't hang down too low, with routing opportunities for electrical cables and brake line... It looks like you have a different spindle than the more recent Elites, with a zerk fitting for greasing the bearings. Is that original?