Ollie-Haus

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.

I just ran across and decided to follow a web site that's been ongoing for 23 years according to the introduction. It has a wealth of information about everything RV. Numerous articles are posted each week by actual RVers about every topic that's relevant. My reason for posting this here is because the first search I did was simply for "Oliver" and found that four articles they've posted over the past few years popped up. Thought it was worth sharing. https://www.rvtravel.com/?s=Oliver

Additional Info for Hull 1373: Ford CC King Ranch F350 2021 4WD Gas 7.3 4.30 Tremor Fiberglass shell LEII 1373

The Natures head sits right on the black tank so the mod should be pretty straight forward. I could see making this change down the road. At the same time, emptying the urine jug in the local toilet is about as easy as it gets. I have considered getting a second jug and cap for those occasions where emptying isn't immediately possible.

This can also be the case with the Lithionics battery Bluetooth connection and their app. There's suppose to be a safety built into the batteries that once they have been connected to a phone via the app, they cannot be connected to another phone without deleting. I don't know if the batteries are even visible to another phone once they are connected to yours, but regardless setting your own password for that Bluetooth connection would be a wise step to take. Now that I think of it, I may do some experimenting to see if a different phone will indicate the presents of the Lithionics batteries when I pull up the app. Even though the batteries may not be able to be connected to the phone, it would be an easy way for a thief to target a camper for stealing the batteries if they are able to use the app to pinpoint campers that have these batteries. Geesh this all makes my head heart. 🙄

I think your plan is very sound. On the other hand I tried a similar metal box from some other product and it was only marginally effective. If you got right up against the door handle the touch door locks would still unlock. Also even though the fob was in the box, with the box sitting on the console arm rest the truck still started. On the other hand the pouches I got from Amazon are nearly a year old and the truck still will not respond in any way with the fob in the closed pouch regardless of where you put the pouch in the truck, including placing the pouch with the fob right in the tray of the console near the receiver. The fob rolled up in a few layers of aluminum foil is just as effective. I think every item on Amazon has at least a small percentage of negative reviews, no matter how good the product is. As long as an item rates 4 stars or better I pretty much disregard the negative reviews as spurious, or even the competition planting the negative reviews in hopes of bolstering their competing products. Whichever method works to your satisfaction, I think it's well worth the trouble for the added security and peace of mind considering the cost of vehicles and even the difficulty of replacing one these days. I just edited my previous post and added the Amazon link to the pouches I bought. I'm pleased with the overall performance of this pouch to date.

This video was also part of my research that convinced be to also use faraday pouches for our key fobs. Interestingly, rolling a fob up in a piece of aluminum foil is very effective as well in a pinch. Our spare fobs are stored in a metal safe that is very effective in that application. Until I discovered this topic, I had no idea a person with a scanner could walk past you in a parking lot, steal your fob's radio codes and than drive off with your vehicle as soon as you are out of sight. Amazing! Edit - The pouches I bought: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071KVWTYZ/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1

One other item that's easy to implement. Have a local engraver make a VIN plate from stainless or brass with your trailer VIN engraved on it. Install it with a couple pop rivets on the inside of the frame rail under the trailer right below where the VIN sticker is applied by the factory. If a thief peals the VIN sticker off, you still have solid identification you can us on a police report. This was recommended to me when I had my camper inspected by Indiana State Police for title transfer purposes when we brought it home. If you have a set of number stamps, you could stamp the number into the frame in that location yourself. Very inconspicuous to say the least.

We are actually very much cat lovers as well, we just haven't had cats since moving from the farm 19 years ago. Cats are welcome if you have them. 🙄🤣

I listen to Joey and Rory often. Joey was from southern Indiana. Funny you mention this song as I created a Pandora channel after this track just a couple days ago. Their story and the amazing fulfillment of some of their songs can give you chills. BTW, as you probably know by now, the song that plays after the video you attached came true a little over a year after she and Rory produced the video. They had no idea what the song portended for them. The best always leave us early. 😔

You guys are true hard core adventurers, very much like the Vikings of old. I've enjoyed reading your posts and following. 🍻

Just arrived at the Mother. Tow vehicle below. 😊

I personally like the simplicity of the single battery option. The odds of a single battery failure in a multiple lithium system seems unlikely. If you do something wrong that will destroy a battery, both will be effected the same. Besides as you said, the generator is a satisfactory backup. I like simple when it's possible.

It is a pretty simple modification to add a DC/DC charger to a lithium battery setup, and it can be done any time in the future when it's convenient to do a one day project. It wires directly between the tow vehicle battery and the Lithium battery on the camper via relatively heavy wiring depending on your current settings on the charger. It does add an additional tether connection at the back of the TV from the camper. Many have added this and it provides safe and fast charging of the lithium batteries while driving.

Love this. Growing pains are just that, but I know the folks that run Oliver will not change. Like you point out, they are actually responding to our demands in most of this. And they are doing what it takes to add strength and longevity to the company and brand. Down the road we'll have conversations around the camp fire about the old way and newer owners will tell about their experience. And life will go on.

...... which is exactly what I said in the following sentence. : "Cost is important to us, but value of product and quality of customer experience is more important to us." It's all well and good to like haggling, but most of us chose the Oliver route knowing we would get our money's worth without the haggle, and we're glad for that, as indicated in the previous comment by @Rivernerd. I too am very glad I didn't have to go in to a dealership and haggle for a fair price and hope I was going to get treated in a respectable way. My only hope it that in the process of developing their dealerships, Oliver management puts a heavy emphasis on maintaining that level of honesty and respect for the customer. Honestly I have faith that's been the plan from the beginning. I'm sure customer surveys will follow the purchase process after the dealer experience to help maintain that reputation.

There is another side to this. Part of the dealer pricing game is driven by the customer desire to "work out a bargain deal". This is only a percentage of buyers, but we all know folks that like to brag about the deal they worked on XYZ. Dealers love this mentality also as they love to play the money game to make a buyer feel like they pulled one over on the dealer, and reeling them into to purchase. It's not all just about pulling the wool over on the customer, but also making them feel they are getting a bargain at that moment and locking in the sale. What I'm saying is there's a percentage of folks that prefer the haggle and wheel and deal process over the fixed price, no haggle method. And dealerships are just used to working this way. I think an interesting characteristic about this topic is that before the dealer option, Oliver sales attracted a certain kind of customer base that made us very relatable. We liked the direct factory purchase arrangement, and for many that was a driving force in our attraction to Oliver. We are the kind of folks that have no interest in the haggle game. We are straight shooters and we perceive Oliver as being very honest, straight shooters as well. Cost is important to us, but value of product and quality of customer experience is more important to us. Buyers that prefer the dealer purchase process and working their deal will choose that route for their own reasons. In many ways it is customer driven.

Hey David, I checked out your web journal and it's amazing. Stunning photos and great reviews. This is an awesome tool for folks like us that are really just getting started. Thanks for sharing your great experiences! Hopefully you guys will be back in the fold soon with another Oliver.

Funny you mention getting used to a small bed. We sleep in a king size at home and share it with two dogs 😏. I've been practicing for the Oliver for several years as my portion of the bed is about 1/4th. I'm pretty good with it because I have no problem sharing my compact twin in the Ollie with the same two dogs. 😍

We did it the other way around. Had a 34' standard travel trailer with a single large slide from 1996 to 2002. Sold and went without due to other family priorities until we decided to jump back in late 20-teens. We knew we didn't want anything large this time around having experienced all the headaches of the large stick and staple camper. Settled on the LE2 and ordered just over a year ago. Fortunately we learned many lessons the first time around and couldn't be happier with the LE2. Plenty of used ones hitting the market lately so you should have no trouble picking one up. Good luck!