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White or silver vinyl or contact paper on the backs is one thing we looked at doing. The Oliver I toured had all mirror finish, which I liked - but it wasn't available. We want to keep it bright but keep the cleaner aesthetic.

We are two + one 35-40lbs dog. There is plenty of room for the dog on the floor bed she has, either dinette cushion, we use a "full" size topper on the "king" bed, so plenty of room for her beside that too. No matter where we get her to stay as we sleep, we'll wake up with her in the middle of us. During the day, she collects all the pillows and sleeps on top of them. The only problem we've run into with two is the ruckus of playing, which is too much for the Oliver or a 2500 SqFt house if they don't get yard/outside time first. Two dogs is not double the mischief, it's mischief squared. That clean underside has a side benefit that has the wife an Oliver believer: no mice can get up in it.

I think the lender would let me pay it completely off early, but then the dealer loses out on their kickback, so thus the verbiage on the payoff. What seems to work is if I pay down 95% of the balance, and leave 5% financed (or maybe event a smaller amount), dealer still gets kickback and I pay hardly any interest. I'm not sure if they would come after me if they lose out on their kickback, but there is verbiage to suggest they could in the sales contract along with going to their preferred arbitrator. I'm sure I could find some additional loophole, but for the $60-100 of interest it will cost me this way, I'll play their game.

What I really want out of any of these huge displays on trucks with fancy camera packages is the ability to see the fancy camera stuff at the same time I see maps from my phone. As it stands I either need to put my phone up on a vent mount, or use the wireless camera from the Ollie. The final option is to use the GM factory Nav, which with the cloud based directions doesn't seem too terrible. RAM lets me see maps from my phone and maps from the car at the same time, but not maps from phone+camera. I'm also still not sure why the automakers bother with factory nav -- I'm sure some people care but just give up and give in to google+apple maps.

I looked at special ordering and was in that process before the shutdown. For the Rams it was about 15% off MSRP - but I think it was that+any extra rebates that come out between order and delivery. I emailed them and it was pretty easy. I didn't get any calls from salespeople. For my RAM build, I went on ramtrucks.com and built to my spec, saved the last page as a PDF and emailed it to them. The no fancy stereo thing is the hard part on RAM, as the 12" doesn't add any functionality and seems more buggy, but many of the ones on lots have them. Sunroof is the same (and I ended up with one on my Sierra unfortunately). The PW looks like fun, but for the real trails around here a 60" or even 50" SxS lthat fits between the trees and blackberry bushes much better than the shiny paint on a new truck. 10+" of travel, and a much tighter turning radius for the switchbacks on some logging roads. Now I have enough payload to carry one on the bed along with the Oliver on the bumper...

Hi John, The advertised price was what I paid, plus a very generous trade allowance. Dealers that were asking for $10k more on the truck were offering $3k less on the trade. They matched what someone local was going to pay, which saved me ~4k in WA taxes for the trade reduction. I filled out their form, my salesman (Cesar) was very responsive over the phone and got everything worked out for me. Since we live in East King County (high COVID prevelence) and I have vulnerable family members, I didn't want any contact so it would be safe to them and safe to me. I hit the road at first dawn, and drove out to Boise. They had all the paperwork ready and in the new truck, so I pulled up next to my new truck, put my keys to my trade on the dash board, and transferred my stuff. Paperwork was waiting for me in the new truck, I filled it out and they processed it. Zero contact. There was a bit of a wait but nothing unreasonable compared to elsewhere. I was home at dusk and just completed my break in miles as I crossed the Cascades. To get their advertised price, they do require you to take their financing and not pay it off for 6 months. I'll accrue about 600$ of interest in that time if I don't do any extra payments. The lender they paired me with allows early paydowns (not all of them do), so I can pay off 90%+ as soon as I get an account number and then I'll see hardly any interest accruals (like $70). Their rate is about 1% higher than my credit union is advertising - so even if you don't have the cash to pay down the 90%, it's still not a bad deal. The delta in price between them and Smith was ~$6k. $12k from the local dealer with old stock and not the options we want. Both local and Smith had similar MSRP. For Chevrolet, Peterson had the best price - close to DD - we like the multipro, fender lights, and interior color scheme better on the GMC so went with DD. So the interest I would accrue if I didn't pay down the loan, is still an order of magnitude less than the savings, which I think are still incumbent on their finance or GM's financing which could have been a worse deal. I could always refinance in 6 months as well. I'll probably pay down as I'm not expecting investments to turn amazing returns for a little bit. Would do business with them again for sure. It does seem that most the trucks they order come with the CARB emissions.

Continued from the for sale thread: As part the WA stay home, stay safe. Only service and parts were allowed to be open (and appointment only there, no waiting in lobby). The exception is sales could open for 1 customer at a time that fit specific gates, on an appointment only basis. So that brought sales to a near halt as a result, and made test drives near impossible. Some dealers aren't even doing the above deals and just laid everyone in Sales off, except for a few to keep customers warm for a post-covid reopening which is now just starting to happen. Some dealers that have stock refuse to discount, since we're almost at 2 months of factory shutdowns. I searched within 1000 miles, with a preference for 500 so I could do an out and back kind of day. Dealers that had good deals had dwindling stock, the ones that were still there had aftermarket lifts, or accessory wheels and stuff that drove up the price, or they were the commercial market stripped trucks. There are plenty of dealers that did have stock, but based on the VIN they were some of the first 2020 GM HDs made, and probably have sat on the lot forever. We ended up getting the last of the super-discounted GMC Sierra 2500HDs (we would have loved a 3500HD, but this was the better deal and still has enough payload for the Ollie+our stuff+SxS on the bed) from Dennis Dillon and got good money on our car for trade. Ours was made in March before the shutdown. There are limited GM HDs near us with VIN#s as high now, and certainly not many with the aggressive discounting we received. Given that GM's production is going to be slow to start (they need the parts chain moving too), we may see limited 2020 trucks built - probably enough to fill any sold orders - before they setup for 2021's trucks. We also looked at buying from further away, but WA is a CARB state and the GM trucks aren't 50 state, so we had to find one that had WA/CA emissions -- so this locked us out of some of the other volume dealers across the US.

Mine are the Rhinoflex for sure. The Rhino Extreme is the one with all the orange banding. http://www.camco.net/sewer-hoses The Revolution is what came with mine and it leaked from the start. I haven't tried the Dominator yet - but looked at those when I got the rhinoflex...

I'll second the RhinoFlex. I bought 2 of the 20' kits (so 4x 10' sections). I like them because they are more rigid and less likely to sag, but more importantly they compress into sections that fit neatly in the bumper. The neatness is the win in my book. I use the 20' Sidewinder to support it, but just delinked it in the middle so it also fits in the bumper storage area. We keep a 10' as the first section and that's enough for many places and visits to the dump station, but having the flexibility to position our trailer just about anywhere on a site has meant some spectacular views or added privacy - hence 40' total of hose onboard. Note that the rhinoflex 15' sections can't disconnect form the elbow - so I returned my order of those when I discovered that. Here's 20' of rhinoflex in the bumper: the other 20' are currently hooked up.

Forgot one other thing, if you are taking an extended trip and need an oil change, something breaks, winter tires need to be mounted and installed, etc.... you can stay in your trailer while that happens. Make sure you take a look at the underside of the trailer you look at and the weld quality on the frame. That's what sold me.

For us: (2019) TV+Stereo Remote 2x AA MaxAir Fan Remote 2x AAA Dometic power awning remote : CR2450 Dometic power awning wind sensor AA - recommend lithium Smoke Detector: 2x AA Our propane/co runs off the 12v system of the trailer

Hi Moots, I don't think you are really limited by who can service your Oliver so long as it isn't just some fly by night outfit- they are very flexible and were willing to have a mobile shop come out for some work on mine. The list is more of a "who has taken care of a customers well and we will recommend" list. I'd talk to your sales person to see who they have experience with in the area. When buying new, it's definitely worth camping in the area (they provided one free night at a local park, or you can camp in their lot). We paid for an extra night at the campground and would recommend the same. We did full hookups, played boondocking on Solar+Internal tank+pump/etc... to test everything before leaving. Didn't run into any issues, but the peace of mind was great.

Hi Moots, Welcome -- any relation to the bike manufacturer? I actually rented a sprinter RV (Revel) before getting the Oliver LE2. What I liked about the Revel: drive down the road, walk to the back and take a nap without ever going outside. propane-free design - only had to make sure I topped off on Diesel parking was a breeze - I could fit in one space at a store while on the road bed/garage design was very flexible and did provide What I didn't like about the Revel I was less likely to take it somewhere once all hooked up and settled Didn't have jacks so wasn't super stable inside, if someone has restless leg and you are trying to type on the computer you get seasick Cost: I could buy an oliver, an awesome tow vehicle, and another car for the price of the Revel Sprinter Maintenance/Reliability Space - Revel is the shorter sprinter so the closet is also the shower - I needed someplace good to hang clothes Why I eventually got the Oliver Price - with the Oliver I use the TV as our main car, so the cost of the revel is $100k more easily. I needed a hanging closet for dress shirts/etc... and shuffling those around in the Revel was a pain Parking the Oliver is very easy, I have ended up with some money "tent only" or "no one else can fit" spots that back up on lakes/rivers. #VanLife was stolen by people that eat avocado toast. It was the only TT that I didn't cringe when going to the underside of a used Northeast model. Beautiful welds and no rust on the Aluminum. VS other TT: If the roof somehow leaked on an Oliver all winter, you could pretty much fix the leak on the Oliver and have an awesome spring. For many other TT's your trailer is now a total loss. While the big foot is fiberglass on the outside, it's more traditional on the inside. Narrow - it tows easier than the 8' wide trailers and uses less gas I can use it in the snow - we live in the Cascade foothills, so we get snow and venture in the mountains often. It could be better insulated, but it's better than anything else I've seen.

I'm thinking if I can get something to mount to the top one or two holes it should work. Sent a mail to stone stomper and towtector to see what they come up with.

I don't get on the roof, I know some do. I used the ladder to clean behind the awnings and make sure the solar panels were clean. So something movable that I don't have to worry about tipping would be nice. For the heat pump, it'd be like a residential mini split. So there'd be an outside unit (I'd put it on the tongue) as far away from where we sleep as possible. Longitudinally mounted. Even the outside unit is vastly quieter than the "RV" air conditioners out there. Then there are a set of hoses that connect to the inside unit. There are wall mounts and floor mounts that could work in a few different places. They also have ducted models as well that could take the place of the existing furnace and would work through all the existing ducting. Heat pumps can work in both ways, transferring heat from outside to inside and inside to outside. Models now function down to -15F - which is pretty good. Efficiency does decrease when it is near the bottom of its operating range. Some of the more efficient ones have COPs of around 4-5. So compared to that 1200W space heater, it would use ~250W for the same heat. They're also roughly 3 times more efficient than the Dometic Penguins that inhabit some of our roofs. The ductless internal units are very quiet. Some of them can dehumidify and filter too -- which are two separate small appliances we carry with us. The mini-split in our house scans the rooms surface temperatures with an IR sensor and probably reads our minds too. We spend hardly anything to heat and it's always comfortable. I'd still want a diesel fired backup for when it gets cold, the sun isn't shining, and the panels get covered in snow/leaves/etc... I can't find Overland's thread where he did the AC runtime test, but imagine that with 3x the runtime or more --- as now you can have the whole roof for solar (and since then batteries have about twice or more the energy density). So using Zamp's new obsidian series panels, it'd be possible to fit 1800W of Solar power (stock is currently 340W) on the roof alone (the panels would be wider than the roof, but only stick out ~1 inch past the beltline of the trailer. The bonus would be that it should keep the rain off the fan covers and the muck out from behind the awnings. Downsides? there are no "RV" rated mini splits. But I don't think the reliability of any "RV" appliance is that great to begin with. Many of them run on 240V, which means two MultiPlus inverters to get the separate phases, and a separate charger so you can still plug into 30A connections and have electric heat/cooling. There are some 110v systems, but less variety there. Edit to add on the suspension: I'm just a little cautious to have my running gear be something I might have to wait to get parts from Australia.

I was looking at the stone stomper and it looks like they have some that mount to the upper holes in and adjustable rack. That or maybe getting a towtector rugged the same might be the ticket.

I have the full andersen setup already, and didn't really feel it was necessary when we were towing with the F-250, but the Andersen ball mount is $135 and maybe the extra sway control would be worth it? The B&W is $350, but like Underdug says I do have the ability to switch between 1 7/8, 2, and 2 5/16ths at will. The B&W looks refined, but the Andersen does look like it is reinforced a little more. I'll have to take a look at which might be able to fit a towtector too. https://www.bwtrailerhitches.com/product/multipro-tow-stow https://andersenhitches.com/Products/3399--wdez-hd-8-droprise-adjustable-rack--212-shank.aspx

Another thing that can throw off the monitor is residue inside the tanks. As for draining, even when parked, we generally like to be a degree or two towards street side and the aft as well. When perfectly level, we've been full at 100%, but then when I tilt the trailer a little it "burps", and takes a few showers more of gray water. The slight tilt promotes gray tank drain as well as the shower pan clearing of water to prevent excess humidity. Filling up the tanks and driving around can help clean and sanitize everything as well. I've heard of doing so with ice in the black will help -- not sure how to easily get ice into the gray tank though. It's also been mentioned here before but worth repeating, even on full hookups, the gray should be allowed to get fairly full before dumping, this prevents buildup of sediment in the tank as the whoosh of having a full tank and the siphoning action helps clear the tank.

With any luck we’ll be picking up a 2500 this weekend. Any thoughts on getting a new 2.5” ball mount for the Anderson vs maybe getting a dead weight hitch? B&w makes an adjustable one that will play nice with the Fancy tailgate when the ball is flipped Forward. I generally remove the ball mount once we drop the trailer.

Love bugs are something I do not miss. I had good luck with P21s wiper washer booster getting them off though - still use it in all my cars even though lovebugs aren't a problem where we are now. Otherwise, I was going to get tear-offs to keep them coming. Wonder what would protect the gelcoat well -- they turn acidic and actually etch paint if left on.

Anyone done the barker conversion? I have it wired up, pulled the cable actuator mechanism off, but need to remove the piece that converts from the valve actuation shaft to the cable. I haven't gotten it to budge and wondering if I just need to get a whole new valve. (Borrowed the picture and added the circle).

We have one of the battery operated ones. The nicest part is quiet. There's still a time and place for the Stihl, but being able to drop a tree without chainsaw noises has its benefits.

Some of these fall in line with some of my dreams. Maybe not quite as robust as the aussie suspension, but now with 5" of travel and great disc brakes (always worried about how much I should let the trailer vs truck brake in some of the bigger descents around here) and maybe a little wider US-penetration/parts/service availability would be the MorRyde IS system. https://www.morryde.com/uploads/downloads/1462812776-IS Booklet Updated.pdf Probably 'good enough' for most of my needs. At some point it's time to park the truck and trailer and take out the SxS. When I was looking at it for SOB it was $6k installed. The DRS from Dometic looks interesting - basically ram air scoop with a filter attached. So not sure how much positive pressure it would generate while at slow speeds/stop though, which is when the dust cloud is at its worst. I also wouldn't want to give up the roof real estate for this. Personally, I want the roof from belt line to belt line (ie solar is wide as the trailer's widest point) and front to back to be solar. TOne to give more power, and two to keep the water and snow mostly off the roof. Then maybe at the front, something similar to the DRS but with the addition of a DC blower to keep the positive pressure - maybe with some more crazy filtration options for the smoke/pollen seasons. I think another dust fix would be external shutters with gaskets for the exterior windows. That would fix most of the dust intrusion we have seen as our door does seal fairly well - bonus would be in winter the ability to insulate even better. For extra water, I'd probably look at just throwing an extra tank or blivet in the truck and just use the boondocking port or gravity feed into the fresh water tank. Then I can make water runs with the truck too. We've just used 2x 5 gallon jugs thus far for the purpose. I'd also look into a gray water "diversion" system with UV to work with a drip hose where legal/appropriate. These aren't full treatment systems, but generally "safe" the graywater for outside use/watering. For the roof, the best system I've seen is the Winebago Revel (sprinter 4x4). The ladder is removable, and can connect on the sides and rear by connecting to the top rack. This eliminates the biggest hazard with ladders - tipping. For heat, I do like the hydronic diesel heaters - one because then I could share fuel with the TV (maybe get a Diesel SxS too).... Can use the same loop to heat cabin, tanks, and water lines. So this would do something the australian campers can't -- live in sub-freezing temps. Interior stove would have to convert to induction and fridge to something more efficient on DC power. As I've said before in other threads, I'd also add a heat pump to get the AC off the roof and add the possibility of solar being enough for heat/cooling in the right conditions.

Odd, assuming you wintered it near home in MO, where it only dipped into the positive single digits a few times and most antifreeze is rated to -50F for bursting and some to -100F. If you still have the jug I'd give the manufacturer a ring too.

Did you pump RV antifreeze through both the fittings?