BigTexas

Thanks for posting Mike. I'm a firm believer in having spare capacitors on hand as cheap insurance because you never know when they're going to stop working and their easy to switch out. I'm using your pictures to order the spares. I'm guessing the black capacitor is an added on hard start capacitor? Do you have the Oliver factory installed Micro-Air Easy Start option on your A/C unit? I know the Micro-Air unit also contains a capacitor but I've not taken the time to look it up. I'm thinking an A/C unit wouldn't have both a hard start cap and the Micro-Air. I need to do some preventive maintenance on mine. They're easy to forget about until they don't work.

The high viewership of the Escape video could be all the Escape owners clicking to see how bad it is (Oliver owners too). The bear delivered the best lines in the spot.

This also happened to me when I flushed the toilet not realizing the pipes were still frozen. Non replicable part. I first tried to glue it with a special "epoxy plastic glue". Worked for about three days. Did the same as others and ordered a new toilet, scavenged the useful parts I needed and discarded the rest of the toilet (what a waste for such a small part) After discussing the problem with a friend, he suggested searching the web for a 3D printing file of the part. He mentioned a lot of small parts like this get scanned and the files are posted to the web. Then one can have it printed locally (or he offered to do it for me) I know nothing of 3D printing how it works or what it takes to create a file for a small part but if someone had the knowledge and resources to create such a file, they would be making an immense contribution to mankind; or at least to those of us who had to learn the art of hand flushing the toilet.

+1 to Max Burner's description. Had the same problem. One day is fine the next day all the faucets and toilet have barely a trickle. Had to clean out all the screens. Found a white calcified substance in all of them. After that all was well. Note: there is often a screen located at the connection to the flexible hose that feeds the shower head and kitchen faucet head. I never found any in the actual valve assembly. I assumed all this calcification came from the water heater but the mystery to me was how it got into all the cold water lines.

Our Honda 2000i starts/runs the Dometic A/C with Micro Start installed. You need to make sure the fridge is on gas because the fridge will default to AC if it is set to Auto. The generator can't run both. I thought I had a bad genset until I figured this out.

KE5PRE - I'm not very active. Mostly I mount my rig on a motorcycle to support charity bicycle events around the state. The MS Society has an annual ride this weekend. I'm working the route going from to Austin to College Station with an overnight in LaGrange. The other routes are coming from the Houston area so we use a statewide linked net. I usually take an HT camping with us with some local repeaters stored when we hike. Just incase we have an emergency with no cell service.

Also, when you arrive at your campground, after traveling in very cold conditions, give the trailer time to thaw out before using any of the plumbing; especially the toilet. We were caught by a quick moving cold front which resulted in traveling in temps in the teens. When we arrived at camp, I made the mistake of using the toilet before the trailer had properly warmed up. The flush valve was frozen and the give point was the plastic pedal when I stepped on it to flush. By the way, Dometic does not sell the pedal as an individual part. Instead I had to purchase one of their cheaper all plastic models to cannibalize the foot pedal. An expensive lesson. "Run your furnace while traveling" - brilliant! Best piece of advice. I would have never thought of that. (insert sound of hand slapping forehead)

Like most things, I think the future light duty diesel trucks will be the result of marketing and if consumer demand continues. The average U.S. fleet turnover is 12 years with people holding onto pickups a bit longer. So, many light duty diesels sold today will still be on the road through 2035 and beyond. But from a marketing perspective, diesels have a reputation as being "dirty" and expensive. I found this website from MIT interesting and surprising (plus fun to play with). https://www.carboncounter.com/#!/explore?classFilter=Pickup Truck Filtered for just pickups, it shows the diesel versions (gray dots) emit fewer greehouse gases per mile than the gasoline powered versions (black dots). Hover over the dots to see where your vehicle stands. The real fun will be to watch the development of advanced fuels and battery technologies. That will probably determine the winner.

I had the same problem with poor flow. Additionally, I had a constant weeping of water from under the handle. I tried the process where you run vinegar through the lines and let it soak. No improvement. I purchased a new cartridge and attempted to change out the old one thinking a bit of debris was the problem. I couldn't find any instructions on the web of how to disassemple this type of faucet. For the life of me, I couldn't get the old cartridge out even with the correct faucet socket. (I think someone over tightened the cartridge retension ring in an attempt to stop the weeping) I eventually removed and replaced the entire faucet assemply which fixed both problems. Hopefully you're not faced with replacement. If you are, there are some things to note. The shower head hose which Oliver provides is clad in chromed metal and is much nicer. The replacement faucet, I ordered off the web, came with a vinyl hose. The Oliver hose is also shorter. This is presumably because there are two long bolts down in the cavity under the sink. A longer hose could easily get caught on these bolts and therefore not deploy long enough to be used as a shower. My (not so elegant) solution was to place zip ties across the end of the bolts to keep the hose from getting between the bolts. In hindsight, I should have contacted Oliver to see if I could order the faucet from them but I defaulted to Amazon and had the new faucet in two days. But, I now have a full flowing shower.

Like some of the others, I have a Bak Flip on my RAM truck. It has served me well. However, I've had to repair the back latch and discovered that a well placed tire iron could easily pry the rivets from the thin sheet metal if someone wanted into the bed of the truck while parked. Couple of other considerations. My Bak Flip requires you to close the tailgate first and the cover second which is counter intuitive (at least for every delivery person that has helped me load my truck) Also, because it flips up, it prevents the use of most ladder rack type systems (we'd like to carry a couple of kyaks over the bed and still have access). Finally when fully retracted, it blocks the rear window preventing me from seeing if the straps holding my motorcycle are still tight. My son-in- law has a Peragon cover on his Raptor. I'm aways jelous how easily it opens and closes.

I think Topgun2 is right, you can only answer this question for yourself. A close friend just purchased an Airsteam for this exact reason. He liked being surrounded by windows and I will admit, in the right campground, it's a plus. One consideration is to think about the type of camping you're likely to do. Boondocking and remote campsites will offer great views. However, these days I find for the most part, campgrounds are conjested with not much space between the sites. Add to that someone pulls in next to you with a slide and you're window to window. Times like these I'm happy for the Oliver's strategic placement of windows. Also, we spend most of our time outside the trailer when camping. Best of luck on your decision. John

+1 on the quality of Foy's work. Both items make the Oliver's interior look even richer. As a side note, my wife and I tend to shower before going to bed. We place the shower mat outside the shower and replace it when we're done. This prevents either of us risking wet feet when we get up during the night to use the bathroom.

Where the law allows, I usually set the cruise control at 75. Truck and trailer seem pretty happy at that speed. West of me the speed limit on I-10 is 80 but I usually stay at 75 as a max cruise speed. I'm always impressed how cool the tires and hubs stay even at those speeds on a hot day. Fuel mileage gets better at higher altitudes. I've noticed the same thing on my motorcycle trips. (someone smarter than me will need to explain why) When we brought the trailer home form Tenn. we averaged 16-ish which was all lower altitude drivng. We encountered a couple of 10 - 12% grades off the interstate. The truck will settle into about a 40 mph-ish climb with the engine below 3K rpm so it's pretty drama free. You're just not going very fast. I think my expereince with the ecodiesel could be applied to any of the small diesels available now in the half-ton group. The RAM was first in the class with a diesel so that's what I purchased. But there is always a trade off. Would a 3/4 ton as a TV be better? Absolutely. However, this truck is my everyday driver so I find it a good compromise.

I've been happy with the ecodiesel as a TV. It's very comfortable with the Oliver on the back. The truck actually rides a little better. Mileage wise, we averaged 17.6 mpg up and back on our Yellowstone trip, towing. Without the trailer it averages 27mpg combination city/highway. The greatest benefit to the mileage is the range. We can get over 400 miles on a tank with the trailer attached, which means we only need to fill-up once per day (usually at lunch for us); which far outlasts my bladder. It does great in the mountains. The turbo means you don't loose much power at altitude. Climbing over the passes in the Rockies, we could easily hold 50mph without too much down shifting. Coming down was easier. I usually selected 4th or 5th gear which holds the rig to 45 - 50 mph. Rarely had to touch the brakes. If I have a complaint, it is that it is quick but not fast. What I mean by that is, when passing another vehicle which is traveling fairly fast, it will jump into the passing lane with authority but as you get much over 85 there isn't much more speed availalbe and you can find yourself waiting for the trailer to clear the vehicle you're passing. I think the Hemi version of the truck doesn't have this issue. But I have found that if I need to go 90 to pass someone, do I really need to pass them?

We picked up Hull #306 April of last year. Since then we've put about 5K miles on the trailer, including a recent trip to Yellowstone and The Grand Tetons; and we absolutely love it. We previously had a Casita 17 Deluxe. The Oliver LEII is everything we wished for in the Casita and more. We've been part of the fiberglass community for some time and were accustomed to the curiosity people have for these trailers. However, we never get tired of the universal “wow” people express when they step inside an Oliver. I want to give a special shout out to “Jam49” who left a kind note on our windshield in Blanco, Tx. They spotted our trailer parked in the square. Made the block and left a note just to say hi to a follow “Oliverian”. And the woman with the pink Boler, who waved at us from the service road, somewhere in Colorado as we sped by. What can I say; fiberglass people share a kindred spirit. I don’t post much, but have benefited from this forum for the past year. Thank you to those who share their experiences here. Judy and I live in Fair Oaks Ranch, Tx (yes there are at least two Olivers here) which is just North of San Antonio. We’re looking forward to the miles ahead.