WhatDa

Maybe never wasn't the right word, but I was told to stop at gap closure when I picked up at the factory. I am able to get whaletale and pin aligned fine with the four spins and stopping the jack as the gap closes.

I drew a nice dark line on the socket,just before unhitching, I loosen 4 turns (ie start with line facing me, loosen to see the line return to the same spot 4 times). After getting the ball back on and whale tale in place, I tighten to see the line return 4 times to the same spot. I can always verify with threadcount as well. The Jack should never be used to raise the tow vehicle, but it is fine to raise the trailer until just before the gap on top of the receiver disappears. That is when the most slack (ie 0 weight on ball) in the chains is.

We got a great offer on our Lincoln and just sold it -- and now need to get something else. I was planning on riding it out until the Cybertruck hit (I have two early reservations for the cybertruck, one for the 300+ and one for the 500+ mile versions). Most of the videos are taking into account much larger (aerodynamically) trailers than the Oliver. For our cross-country drive, we usually did 300-400 miles/day. So even if I got half of "500+" mile range, I'd be looking for a supercharger at the 200-225 mile range (leaving a little buffer). A stop at a supercharger for lunch and we're on our way. So long as the supercharger and our destination are spaced appropriately. But that assumes I have a "500+ mile" range at the given conditions. What none of the videos discussed is what happens in an electric car when things get cold. We crossed Wyoming in the teens, with snow on the interstate, with 40+ mph quartering headwinds. For the cybertruck this means battery needs heating, interior/windshield needs heating, snow tires with higher rolling resistance, the trailer is no longer in the aerodynamic shadow of the trailer, the air is more dense, etc... That the point where I don't know how the Tesla would have done -- probably added more stress to an already stressful situation. I am looking long and hard at a Ram 1500, with the ecodiesel and 33 gallon tank. 900-1000 mile range unladen, easily a full day pulling the Ollie. Going from that to a Cyber Truck might be hard, but I guess it depends on where fuel prices end up. Eventually full electrification is inevitable - but I think I might be giving up my 300+ range reservation if this truck works out and doesn't become an FCA lemon. With electrification being more inevitable, what changes do trailer manufacturers need to look at? I think the Oliver would be pretty close to ideal, maybe an underbody /wheelwell fairing to clean things up, and a cleaner roofline (time for a mini split). Lower rolling resistance tires? Part of the reason the Model X suffered more range loss than the Land Rover, is the Model X chases all these marginal gains while the Land Rover is almost stubbornly avoiding them - so the drag from the trailer is that much higher of a multiple.

The sealed body aspect of the Oliver and bathroom are important to note. Any of the fans will create positive or negative pressure. The path of least resistance with the composting toilet seems to be the vent for said toilet. Bathroom fan on and window closed (whoops) for a few hours seemed to pull the outside moist air in over our compost, making it wetter/smell a little. I don't think that little nature's head fan can keep up with either of the other two in a tug of (air) war.

We're in King County, WA - in I guess what you could call the epicenter of the outbreak in the US. The wife and I, based on the statistics*, would be fine if we caught it, but we are taking steps to ensure that if we did catch it, we would not spread it. Our biggest risk is probably getting mauled in a panic stampede. Even with the hysteria over the disease, we still get huge crowds clustering at the door (2' separation) at Costco to buy their year's supply of toilet paper. So rational behavior is out the window. Postponing to September means we have a chance of attending as we were busy in June -- but probably means putting snow tires on for the trip back home 🙂

For extra water, we carry 2x of these: https://gsioutdoors.com/20-l-water-cube.html I got them in the off season at Yellowstone for cheap. They fold flat and small -- so they stash under any of the seats in the trailer or car. We either use them with the spigot inside the trailer as extra water when dry camping, or using the boondocking port to load 10 gallons into the freshwater tank for showers. The best part is not having to move the trailer to refill water.

We went with the WiFi Ranger and cell booster. I think I turned the cell booster on once. We use the WiFi ranger with the LTE upgrade module installed. So basically we have a roof-mounted LTE hotspot. It's able to get signal when phone inside have limited or even no data. We run the Millenicom $70/mo plan and we stream all our TV shows over that or campground wifi -- usually the Millenicom plan is faster than campground WiFi. I also work from the road over the connection and it's pretty solid for that.

Check to make sure you don't violate the: Tow Rating TV Gross Vehicle Weight Rating TV Gross Rear Axle Weight Rating TV dead hitch rating Our Lincoln Navigator L (aka Expedition MAX) was OK on all 4 when I shifted weights around enough. It still felt MUCH better with the Anderson on and I didn't have to worry as much about how precisely I was at 10% on the tongue weight.

You could also look at a propane tank heater. They will take some of your electricity away (~150 watts) but your gas performance will be much better. If it's really cold, you might also look at insulating your propane lines.

With a 6'5" bed and decent real payload, the biggest thing holding the Tesla Truck from camper greatness is the C-pillar extending so far back. As a chassis, it'd make an interesting class b/c motorhome.

My needs would be different if we weren't still working. Our trips are usually less than 300 miles total range this year (ie quick weekend getaway), but we live 10 miles away from the start of an obscene amount of national forest service land in the Cascades. Each of the "gateways" that lead into the Cascades either already have a supercharger or will by next year. Our week-long off-grid trips are either covered or will be covered by superchargers by next year - for example: Glacier (Kalispell and Shelby), Teton/Yellowstone (Cody, West Yellowstone, Jackson), Yosemite (Groveland, Fish Camp, Mammoth Lakes), Arches/Moab (Moab has its own supercharger), etc... The nice thing about Tesla is it can figure out the supercharging stops for you, all you need to do is input where you want to go and navigation is handled for you. It will be interesting to see how they account for towing though. It even knows you are getting close to the charger, so it conditions the battery for optimal charging. If there isn't a supercharger close enough to meet our needs in and out, then we'll have to rough it and spend a night in a campground the first night of the trip. If that doesn't work we can evaluate going trailerless with the 500+ mile range and sleeping in the back (6'5" bed for the win), or just renting from Enterprise Trucks and rolling coal. Then to put it all in perspective: for us the week-long trips are about 4x a year, weekend trips 1-2x a month, but commuting is a ~200x a year thing now. So while I am definitely making some concessions vs my ecoboost setup or a Duramax, the net win for commuting pays off for me -- but probably doesn't for many. Finally, the driving experience of electrics: no shifting, nearly limitless engine braking, great low-speed torque/control, and despite all the doodads and geegaws described above, the overall package is LESS complex than a modern gas/diesel. Closing anecdote: The AGM upgrade for the Oliver costs $1200. The Tesla with approximately 200x the useable capacity costs $70,000. That's getting the batteries at 70% off with a free truck 🙂

Been "offline" as I started a new job. But I did pre-order the cyber truck. It's refundable so I can see how the details work out. 1) It's got a 6.5" bed with what looks to be an actual weather/dustproof design. 2) It's a hair shorter than an F150 with a 5.5" bed. 3) standard air suspension 4) Price parity with any of the big three trucks by the time you get them to adaptive cruise/blindspot/forward collision/ lane departure. Lariat is 65k, Laramie is 61k, LTZ is 62k. These will sell for less, but by the time you figure in the savings in fuel costs, they probably cost more than the 500 mile Tesla. 5) Convenience - it is a bit of a toss up, but if I have a 50A receptacle when I pull in for the night, that's 160 kWh that I could add overnight without having to make a fuel stop as either the first thing in the morning or last thing at night. However, it means my midday stop for most days will be confined to where a supercharger is, and lunch will be whatever is close by. It does mean for "travel" days we probably don't want to boondock as ending or starting the day on the supercharger isn't ideal. Where it wins is for my day to day life, it means never going to a gas station. 6) it says it's coming with a 240v receptacle and a 120v. If the amperage is higher on these (it sounds like it might be), then I just got a nice power bank for my trailer. Like enough to run the AC for a couple/few weeks. It will also have an option for its own solar that is capable of ~15 miles/day of charging 7) even if Rivian or Ford come out with an electric truck that matches this in every way, the Electrify America/non-tesla network of fast chargers just sucks right now. I'm hoping that this works well with towing with the existing supercharger network as well as the buildout tesla is doing for the tesla semi. 8 ) Tesla is the only manufacturer that has made their cars better over time. My FoMoCo product is pretty much the same as when it was released with only a few buggy updates. The maps refuse to update (which required going to a website, formatting a USB properly, copying files over, renaming a .tar.gz file to get it to copy, and then still failed). In the meantime, Tesla dropped dog mode (keeps doggo cool in the car while you go shopping), sentry mode (records action around the car using the 360 camera), dashcam mode (duplicates having a gopro front and rear (and then updated it to include sides too)), upgraded charging to 250kW, Navigate on Auto Pilot (car chooses proper lanes and handles interchanges), and a bunch of other features. Lincoln came out with the Nautilus that supports lane centering (enhanced lane keep assist), but not even the 2020 Navigator supports it. What remains to be seen is how well this is adapted to towing (anti-sway/reversing/does blind spot cover the trailer/etc..). How they expand/improve their superchargers for charging. The looks don't really strike my fancy, but the same goes for about all new trucks sold. At least this one doesn't come with watercolor paint that will die at the first blackberry bush/branch/fingernail it meets. In the end, if it doesn't work out -- I will get my $100 back.

I think the one for sale today doesn't differ much from the one sold when you bought. We need something to get some of the crevices/cushions in the oliver and clean out the tow vehicle. The corded ones just seemed like too much trouble to undo a cord, move it to do the TV, and wind the cord again for 5 minutes of vacuuming. I was picturing having to keep whatever we get in the basement, but forgot that we still have plenty of room in the closet shelves, which would make it more accessible.

An anecdote for us at least. We packed for ~6 month long trip and I had anticipated needing to overflow into the tow vehicle for extra room. We were very selective in what we took and in the end the Oliver LE2 had room for my stuff, wife's stuff, and dog's stuff and we still have extra basement and overhead room. If you are coming from a fifth wheel with slides, you may not feel the same - but for us it works out to more than we need.

I ordered the autoformer. About $300 and a bunch of bulk. It makes the site we are on usable, abut we are still limited to about 2000W of draw before we start dipping below 110V. The big change is we can actually use the microwave/convection oven now with out getting a low voltage cutoff. The switch between passthru and 10% boost is pretty quick. For a fixed site it works fairly well, but I'd like a more mobile/adaptable solution for the long term. In my research, I've seen a ton of underperforming campgrounds in the summer, so looking at something where I have the ability to use the AC to charger the batteries, with solar help, and use an inverter for clean and proper power to everything else might be the end solution, even if its less efficient than a straight passthrough.

Anyone use one of the portable wet-dry vacs like the DeWalt https://www.amazon.com/DEWALT-DCV581H-20-Volt-Cordless-Wet-Dry/dp/B00DD1UQ3Y/ or Milwaukee? https://www.amazon.com/Milwaukee-0880-20-18-Volt-Cordless-Vacuum/dp/B001AHMQ90/ Being able to share batteries with all the other tools is a plus, seems a little beefier than the smaller vacuums, with the addition of maybe also doing some light leaf blowing duties to clean the awnings?

below freezing is also very relative. The heater will keep most things warm, but the highest risk is the outside shower. Ours didn't freeze up, but there was definitely frozen water inside the door that I had dribbled before putting it away. At some point I will put an isolation valve/drain on those lines. This was at 20 degrees with probably 80-90mph wind chill while in motion (quartering headwind).

I have no inverter now as I planned on getting a multiplus anyways for my lithium battery upgrade. I skipped on the Xantrex as the pricing (from oliver) was about the same as the multiplus from another vendor. From what I see of the multiplus is I could set a current at which it kicks in the inverter to help, but it doesn't appear to do any voltage sensing to determine when to do this on its own? The way I see the cleanest power a phoenix charger to provide constant DC and a phoenix inverter to provide the clean AC to the chassis. This might just move the timing up a bit for Lithium and Victron electrics. I am going to take a power strip, some heaters, and a 30a adapter to test the more sites to see if any are better. The spot we are on is perfect from a privacy/view/location standpoint, but with power issues. The few I tested with the trailer either had the same, or maybe only slightly less worse issues (my guess is undersized cables but shorter runs on the "better" sites). The autoformer, from what I can tell, is a switch with either a direct line or 10% boost transformer. If power goes below 113V, it switches to the 10% boost (bringing Voltage up to 124v at 113, or at the 103 I see with a load back up to 113). This obviously means at least 10% more current. Seems like it'd do the trick, but with unknown efficiency I'm probably limited to ~25A before the breaker trips. I agree the power runs here are likely undersized, since we are starting at 120-124 and dropping from there, I am guessing it is the individual campsite runs that are undersized as all the other campers are already running their space heaters and if whatever main circuit were already sagged, it wouldn't have as much as an impact from a 1500W heater. None of the neighbors anything about low voltage. 50A sites are here, but very limited. There'd be some very hurt feelings when fifth wheel owners see a little Ollie on their site. Maybe if I do my 50A conversion they would feel less so?

Park outlets test at ~120V on the Fluke DMM, when I plug in the Progressive says 120V. But as I add loads voltage drops until the progressive cuts things off at 104V. Guy in the park says to get/use an autoformer. We do really like this park... Would any of the Victron goodies help as well? Thoughts on the autoformer? Go solar only?

Yes we really wanted a 3/4 ton, but the size is an issue due to spending lots of time in/around cities and ferry restrictions as well. The Navigator has been in every major city on the East Coast and Seattle as well.

So I have you to thank :)

How to weigh your truck and trailer at a CAT scale: CAT scales are at most rest stops frequented by truckers. They provide your steer axle (front wheels), drive axle (rear wheels), and trailer weight. This lets you know if you are in limits or not. 1) find a cat scale - they have big yellow signs that say CAT scale on them. https://catscale.com/cat-scale-locator/ can help 1a) Sign up for Weigh My Truck and download/setup the app if you want to use this service. It lets you get the weight and a PDF of your results without ever having to go into the store and interact with humans. https://weighmytruck.com/ "create driver account" - you'll need to add a payment method. Sign into the app on your phone afterwards and make sure it's working before you are sitting on the scale. 2) drive to the scale - I try to use them when there aren't a bunch of truckers queued for them. 3) drive onto the scale, you will see two yellow lines on them - put your front wheels just past the furthest line, and make sure the second line is between your trailer and rear wheels. 4) shift to neutral, use parking brake - this prevents weights being skewed by loads from brakes being applied. 5) either press the button the app (you are done) or press the button on the intercom (it'll probably be a little higher than you'd like unless you have an MDT). 6) get off the scale - get the receipt inside if you didn't use the app. If you want to get an idea of your tongue weight, disconnect in the parking area, and reweigh just the truck. I strongly advise against dropping your trailer on the scale.

I see it here and on FB, the question of whether a particular vehicle can tow the Oliver. In the end, it depends - a lot. As part of our little cross country run in the Oliver, I weighed it more than a few times as it was hitched to my Navigator. The specs that are on the doorjamb of my navigator are: Payload 1500lbs (ie factory computed actual curb weight subtracted from GVWR) Gross Vehicle Weight Rating (GVWR): 7800lbs (Total weight on my truck should not exceed this) Front Gross Axle Weight Rating (GAWR): 3625lbs (the weight on my front axles should not exceed this) Rear Gross Axle Weight Rating: 4380lbs (the rear limit) The problem is none of this shows up - besides the 6800lbs - in any material available before purchase. Even the axle weight ratings are pretty useless as I have no idea how much of my "5300lbs" of curb weight are on the rear axle to begin with. To really understand capabilities, I need to take this information with me to a scale to see. I haven't had a chance to weigh the empty/loaded truck by itself, so we'll go with the full up loaded truck+loaded trailer scenarios. First we weighed in with our base load including driver, co-pilot, and rest stop dictator (doggo) in the second row: Total weight in Tow Vehicle: 7420 - 380lbs below max gross - plenty to spare Rear axle weight: 4340 - only 40lbs under the limit - but legal So I removed a piece of luggage from the rear of the SUV and put it in the back of the Oliver - we also gained some other stuff before my next scale date: Even though we gained overall weight (40 lbs), the rear axle of the SUV lost weight -- due to the distribution of weight in the trailer. We still had well over 10% weight. But I needed to carry my all season tires+wheels in the trailer - so I adjusted the Andersen and did a re-weigh: Not only did this lower my rear (drive) axle weight by 80 lbs, but it pushed some of that weight not only to the trailer - but to my front tires so that I have a little more steering authority. So I added the all season tires (and now winter tires are on the SUV): Total weight: 7600lbs -- 200lbs under gross. Rear (drive) axle weight is now exceeded. I moved two of the tires to the trailer for the rest of the trip (it was fun moving them back and forth after every stop) and then adjusted the Andersen again - which brought us well within specs on the re-weigh (which I had to get manually printed so it's not included in this post. So what I learned: I'm probably not going to hit max vehicle gross weight before I hit my rear axle weight. Not without really using the Andersen at max potential to push more weight to the front or without carrying more of the load in the second row floor/where doggo is. Pilot/Co-Pilot are pretty light in our case. What this means for you: whether your vehicle can tow or not will depend on your vehicle, how it's specifically configured, your weight, your stuff's weight, and where you put your weight. The Navigator works brilliantly for us, as long as I don't have 340lbs of tires+wheels in it. It might not work for someone else who needs to carry more stuff in the truck. The same goes for someone in an F150, Tundra, etc... Some trucks just won't work - Honda Ridgelines need not apply. For those that want to know how to weigh in - that will be my first reply to this topic. Please include your results below.

With regard to the comfort plus - who got those installed? I wanted one badly, and was told no. Part of the "WD" edition Oliver would be a the comfort plus, with the cold and warm lines being wrapped in insulation so the warm recirculation would keep the cold from freezing. I believe that's what ARV does on their Sprinters. That, and saving the gray tank waiting for hot water.

Overland is right. If you had another heat source (like maybe the furnace) to keep everything else from freezing, you could use the truma insert to keep truma itself from freezing while on the go. Winterizing the Oliver is pretty painless - especially with the truma (just make sure it's cold and depressurized first), we did it several times on our cross country trip including a nice blizzard in SD.