Ollie-Haus

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!

Like most of us we’ve experienced the type that seem to go out of their way to disrupt the peace and quiet without remorse. I like to wait till others around us are packing up to quickly blow off the awning and then put it away. 👍

I bought a battery powered blower. Seems to work pretty good. Need a step stool to do a good job. Also don't like the noise so I choose my time to clean the awning when it will bother neighbors the least.

Wow love this! We've already noticed fine scratches on our counter tops so this is an upgrade I'd love to pursue sooner than later. Could you please share your source? Thanks for sharing.

So far I've made it my practice to test the plug prior to connecting the camper and rely on the onboard progressive unit to do it's job. I can see the interest some have in protecting the hard wired device, and have purchased a portable device but just haven't put it to use. I purchased a Progressive Industries circuit tester before getting the Oliver. I leave it in the same tote that I store the shore power cord in. Step one - Test the power supply. Step two - If good, drag out the cord and connect. Circuit Tester

Will be heading to the mother on Feb 5th for warranty service. I will definitely be enquiring as to the retro fit possibilities.

When I saw the title, I was expecting a different subject matter, that of upgraded 115v receptacles with smart features. I'm not sure what smart features would be useful on our Olivers, but I have considered changing out a few of the 115v receptacles for the type that have the built in USB receptacles. To me this would be well worth the upcharge from the factory. Regarding the actual topic of the thread, I knew of these from our boating days and hadn't even considered it then, let alone now with the Oliver.

Looks like another upgrade/preventive project for next spring for Ollie-Haus. Thanks for sharing. 👍

Correct. I knew I could see the aggregate charge from both solar sources on the Victron display, just didn’t know how to explain it so simply as you did. I like that because the Zamp control on the portable panel shows it’s output and the Victron shows the total going to the batteries.

John, without digging into the schematics, my understanding is that the auxiliary solar port Oliver installs on our campers is directly wired to the batteries. This is the reason a separate charge controller is required on the portable panel. At this level it's not a highly technical process. The charge controller on the panel reads the battery SOC and controls the output to the batteries based on that reading. Adding an aux solar port to a camper that didn't already have one is pretty straight forward based on Oliver's method. The portable panel you buy must have its own charge controller. Now if I'm at a SOC of say 50%, I haven't spent much time yet analyzing the output level of the portable panel to the output of the onboard 400w panel on the camper. And of course another variable to observe would be the effect of plugging in the shore power and how that effects the output of the two solar power sources. Again an experiment yet to play with next summer for me.

I felt like I was adrift in the pacific several entries back. 😵 I'm going to wait and see and then scratch my head and go "oh, I didn't expect that"! 🤔 Or just maybe I'll be saying, "wow that's exactly what I hoped it would do". 😍

@Cindy TownsendThis is most likely your solution. I've made this system change back and forth a few times. With the Xantrex app on your phone it only takes a few seconds. You have to be in the camper and connected via bluetooth. The change is made in the settings menu. You can change that setting pretty low as you are only float charging the batteries all winter. Sometimes a shore power GFI doesn't like what it sees when plugged into an Oliver charging system. I've not experienced this personally though.

Love it! Thanks for sharing.👍