Ollie-Haus

Hey Mike and welcome to the forum. I have to say that you are making the right choice for extensive exploration, as the Oliver will open doors that most other campers will not. The size and overall design are most conducive to state and national parks that often have size limits. Coming from a boating background you will very much appreciate the design of the Oliver as it lends itself more to a fiberglass boat design than a traditional stick built camper. Once you own an Oliver the rest just never measure up in quality and construction. There's a lot of discussion about tow vehicles, and for many reasons. I personally come from a background of towing larger trailers, horses and other livestock and equipment haulers, so I'm in the camp of get as much truck as you can afford. Lighter trucks that are properly equipped can be satisfactory, but come with the need to be more precise in loading and also limitations due to weight distribution needs, etc. With a heavy duty truck the Oliver is just something you hook up and tow with little complexity. Even adding extra gear in the truck has little effect and no cause for worry. As far as mentoring, I recommend your choice of YouTube camping channels. One that I highly recommend is one of the longest running camping channels on YouTube, Sean and Kristy's channel, https://www.youtube.com/@LongLongHoneymoon . They have covered everything imaginable from getting started, avoiding common problems, planning trips to understanding the dynamic of living in close quarters for extended trips. They even have great playlists that help you learn about specific topics over several videos. I hope you do make the leap to Oliver traveling, we love ours and can't wait for our next voyage. There is a Facebook page just for Olivers for sale that is a good place to find a used one if that interests you. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OliverforSale . Otherwise I highly recommend going to the factory if that's possible for you and taking the tour. It will lock you in on the quality and value of the Oliver campers and you will meet some of the best people in the RV manufacturing industry. Good luck with your journey and please participate on the forum to seek out answers to your questions.

Glad to know you and Deb were able to adapt quickly to the situation and maintain some “normalcy”. Thanks for sharing your experience. This type situation is actually a real part of our decision to buy the Legacy Elite 2 with platinum lithium package. And it’s why I like to “driveway camp” regularly. During disaster events I want it to be second nature to use the Oliver to provide basic comfort and shelter while public systems are down. Having the tools/connections to use the Oliver to support other necessities at your home is difficult to throw together in the middle of a crisis. Setting up redundancy is very helpful.

Thanks for sharing all this great information John. We truly do have some very nice and enjoyable state parks and reservoirs. I'd like to add a suggestion for those that may have relatives or friends in the region. Many of Indiana's state parks also have inns with restaurants and also cabins. These are great parks for a stop over combined with a meet up with loved ones and they can stay comfortably at an inn or cabin to enjoy the outdoor experience together during the visit. Here's a couple links for all the information you may need to plan a rendezvous visit. BTW the new inn at Potato Creek State Park, which is under construction, will be a state of the art facility that anyone would enjoy, and it's being built directly adjacent to the campground. https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/inns/home/ https://www.in.gov/dnr/state-parks/rates-and-fees/family-cabins-fees-and-reservations/

If you like to dry camp and boondock, I highly recommend the larger lithium package if you can find one with that option. Many have chosen to upgrade to lithium after the purchase and it's much more functional and seamless to get one with that system already installed from the factory. Not having one isn't a deal breaker, but it will save you a lot of work adding lithium later. Good luck. Do check the Facebook Group "Oliver Travel Trailer for sale". There are some good listings there. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OliverforSale

A Forstner bit is a very clean way to cut holes in fiberglass. Make a very small pilot hole, 1/8", and then use the size you want the hole to be. Light pressure and run the drill at a medium speed. Forstner Bit Set

It was an exceptional rally, many hours renewing acquaintances and making many new friends with so much in common. It's really hard to grasp how you can have so much in common with so many people from every part of the country. It's a special community indeed. Site G34 is already reserved for another great rally next year! BTW I only got a couple phone pictures, geeze what a slacker! I will do better from now on.

Starting at $300 Gs!!! 😵 I'm thinking my Ollie is just fine.

Ours were missing as well. Just replaced with some of these (link) Silicone bumpers from Amazon. They work perfect and the extras are in the spare parts kit in the trailer.

Leave it to a mom to get your attention with properly timed "colorful" language! 🤣

Love it @ScubaRx. When it comes to fabrication, there's always a solution.

Thanks @rich.dev for the attached links. As was mentioned above, I also would advise against mounting a tray or box by the 1.25" receiver. There's a lot of dynamic load with an extended cargo tray, or bike rack for that matter. The single point Oliver hitch allows a lot of movement side to side and up and down. The two point mount used by those of us that installed boxes or trays inherently provides a high level of stability as well as a direct mount to the trailer main frame rails. Also the 2" sockets at those locations allow you to use a heavy wall 2" square tube which substantially increases the strength of those connections. Even mounted by the 2" tubes, you still use the hitch pins Oliver used to secure the bike rack mounting frame. This still allows the tray or box to be quickly removed for installing a bike rack or service needs. All this having been said, I still believe you should limit the total weight mounted to the back to the maximum that Oliver recommends. The tray or box mounted doesn't extend much farther from the bumper than a double bike rack would, so the loads should be somewhat similar to those exerted by two bikes mounted on the Oliver mount. But again the cargo box is mounted directly with two points that are extremely stable and secure. Just my thoughts. Edit: Additional thoughts. Regardless of your method of mounting a cargo box, clearance for the lid to open without hitting the spare tire cover must be considered. Also if you make the mounting tubes extend far enough into the frame sockets, you will be able to slide the box back far enough to remove the spare tire without completely removing the box from the trailer. This was very important to me because complete removal requires two people and sliding it back enough for tire access can be done by one person.

Hi Joe, At this time the best approach is to contact Oliver customer service and they will direct you the best route forward. For a dealer list, go to the Oliver home page, click on the shopping tools tab at the top of the page, then click on the gold "Find a Dealer Nearby" button on the upper left of the page.

Never had any doubts, but thanks for the update and reassurance!

Get over yourself "engineer". Your condescending intros always prefacing with your "credentials" that make you smarter than the rest are overbearing. I'm no engineer and this is all very elementary to me. And I think the large majority are taking it all in stride. There's probably well over a thousand who have not chimed in on the topic because they are level headed folks that are just rolling with the process, or just don't care. The sky's not falling and the Oliver managers are still running the company with the same integrity they always have. What's up in the air right now is the character and integrity of a few people that are throwing a hissy fit cause they aren't getting their way. Oliver management could choose to fold the company and cash it all in, and they would still be within their rights to do so. Either way I would still shake their hands and thank them for making me one of the best campers ever built.

............ and all of that was stated in Jason's message to the owners. I must be missing something. "Our customer support team will still be available to assist with any questions and work with you and our dealer partners to get any services you need resolved." "However, we will continue doing major repairs, including fiberglass and aluminum, at our Plant Facility." "If you have any questions or require further information regarding this update, please do not hesitate to contact us or call us at 1-888-526-3978. We are always here to assist you."

The day after we accepted an offer on our house a couple years ago, the neighbor was sitting in his car on his phone when he arrived home about 2 am. A car pulled into our driveway that was parallel to theirs about 20 feet away with a hedge in between. He could hear a couple arguing in our driveway about moving into the house since it was empty. We wouldn't be closing for two weeks and were still moving items out when this happened. I suspect the perps were able to tell the status of the house via Zillo information on line. The people in the driveway that night had foreign accents. Between the neighbors and myself we had to maintain a vigil and I slept in the house until the buyers could take possession at closing. This has been very much on the rise in the Indianapolis area.

The supply line is fitted with a "T" fitting and feeds each accumulator equally. The discharge from each accumulator connects to the system with the same "T" configuration. Thus each accumulator is supplying equal amount of pressurized water. You now have twice as much water available under pressure from the two accumulators operating equally at the same rate. This of course is limited to the total flow capacity of the water lines supplying and receiving, and both accumulators must be operating equally. With two accumulators connected in series, the one closest to the demand starts depleting and the second one is only trying to recharge the first one rather than supplying additional water flow to the open tap. It's kind of like several people standing next to each other and trying to pass objects to each other in a chain and filling a box with widgets. If the four people would just individually transfer the items they could from the one container to the other, the rate of transfer would be much faster than if each person has to handle every item being transferred. Edit: One other thing is the space is very limited so configuring the parallel connection would be the biggest challenge. On the other hand, what's wrong with the pump coming on when the faucet is opened? What's the difference between 5 seconds till pump kicks on compared to 10 seconds? You have used no extra water in the process and the electrical usage is negligible. Complicating a system for nearly zero gain is kind of pointless.

You have them connected in series. They will actually "fight" each other in this configuration and this would actually reduce the effectiveness of the system. They would have to be connected parallel to have a beneficial effect.

Jason, I’ve attached a video only for audio purposes, it was recorded in pitch darkness near the lake at the rally last year. You’ll need to crank up the volume. Early morning and late evening walks in the park are very pleasant. Hope you can make it to the rally. IMG_5665.mov

Just sent off an email to Alcan Spring for information for a set of 4 springs for our LE2. I would like to be proactive in replacing the springs in my driveway rather than on the side of the highway. Plus I am a real big fan of supporting American manufacturing companies.

Keep in mind that four wheel alignment becomes a periodic maintenance requirement with independent suspension. There's always trade offs so depending on your style of camping. Also there are a lot of other possible fail points with that system. It's a very complex system. I wander what the cost of a conversion would be? Edit: PS - The beauty of the current suspension is you can pick up replacement parts rather cheap, albeit not lifetime quality, at any local farm store and be back on the road in hours. The high end suspension would likely require sourcing parts long distance that would have at least a few days lead time. I think I would be hard pressed to consider this type of upgrade.

Willie is a beauty and also a lucky kitty. Thanks for posting and also, Welcome to the forum! 👍

I just ordered a set of these a couple days ago for Ollie-Haus. Our hinges are the new style of course so install should be quick and painless. We've experienced the wind catching the door and quickly realized we needed the extra level of "assist" for protecting the door assembly.

There’s quite a few being loaded out for dealers each week. I read somewhere, maybe Facebook, that the first LE2 arrived at the new dealership in Petersburg Indiana the other day and was sold in 24 hours!🤩

Regarding the wet bath/dry bath perspective, we quickly came to the same conclusion as others have. And It's the first thing I bring up when someone says, "I won't have a wet bath". I point out that I don't camp out in the bath, or use it for a library. Ninety-nine percent of our day is spent someplace other than the bathroom. The fact that it's called a wet bath really doesn't change much about the way I use it compared to a similar dry bath. For us it was a non-conversation, just something to be aware of. On the note of how much RV real estate is valued at, I think Oliver knocked it out of the park with how efficiently they met all the needs in such a compact camper. Like someone pointed out, everything has trade-offs, and I think the design of the Oliver campers makes the most gain possible for the trade-offs they chose to work with.