BigTexas

OK, I'll confess. I've used the screw in plugs...but only because they are so easy to pack and very quick to use. To my surprise they seal pretty well but I consider them very temporary. Just something to get you off the side of the road. If I'm going to plug a tire, I also like the tried and true "string plugs" mentioned above. The concern I have with the screws, is since it's held in mechanically, the flexing of the tire may cause it to dislodge. Now, I've never had one come out so this is pure paranoia on my part. One consideration, is they are a good first attempt because you can back them out as easily as they go in. So if the screw plug doesn't work move on to the string plug or alternative method. I also have the mushroom plug kit. I've never been able to make them work but may be bad technique on my part.

My main concern regarding damaging the system would be if somehow the Ceilo inadvertently bypassed the compressor delay (not allowing high side pressures to normalize before restarting). But it's only providing commands via IR signals. It doesn't have the ability to cut power to the system like opening a circuit breaker and then turning it back on, which could defeat the compressor delay. I think an analogy may be similar to a computer. Power off the computer and it starts a shut down process protecting your data and the system. Pull the plug and you may loose everything. The Ceilo is just giving commands via IR to the motherboard. But the motherboard retains all the manufacturers protection protocols. But I'm no expert. I just watch a lot of YouTube air conditioning videos.

We loved our Casita but I could never go back to the rat fur on the walls. Looking at the layout of the Casita 24 made me wonder if I would trade the closet in the Oliver for the dry bath layout in the new Casita. For me it's an easy no. But I often hear the wet bath in the Oliver is a non starter for some folks.

Ok, this is brilliant. Don't know why I didn't think of this. I've already had to replace the sprayer head once due to freezing. (Where's the head slapping icon?)

As others have noted, these trailers do very well in cold weather. So I think you'll be fine as long as you have heat. We traveled to Moab for a January wedding. There were several days on the road where the temp never got above freezing and the trailer was covered in ice when we arrived at our overnight stop. We relied mainly on the internal water tank as the supply hose would freeze. One lesson we learned was to be gentle with the trailer when you arrive. Without heat, some of the plumbing may have frozen while traveling. Give it some time with the heat on to thaw out. I broke the toilet petal once by being impatient, not knowing the flush valve in the back had frozen. I carry extra flush valves but the pedal is not available as a separate replacement part. Not my finest hour.

I just got around to doing this mod. Super easy since Geoff did all the design work and sourced the components. Thanks! I previously had the Level Mate attached just inside the door to make turning it on easy when we arrived at the camp site. However I was unwilling to drill into the beautiful fiberglass finish for mounting so I used Command strips. Just me touching the Level Mate to turn the switch on was enough to throw it out of calibration so it became useless. I wired it up, mounted it in the same location mentioned above and hopefully will never have to touch it again. Now I too have 9 remaining converters. If anyone is considering doing this mod, drop me a line and I'll happily drop one into an envelope for you. Thanks again for posting this mod.

I'm also following this topic closely as I too am anxious to get away from the noise of my Dometic A/C. And thanks for being the sounding board for all the interest in the Ceilo Max. I get that Wi-Fi is needed for initial set up via the phone app. However in a camping spot, with no Wi-Fi, is Comfy mode still accessible? From reading the website it's only on the phone app and my concern is once Wi-Fi is lost so is Comfy mode.

Big Texas - We didn't give it much thought. We saw this printed on the collar of my daughter's corgi. Realized the dog and the trailer had the same shape. Then asked my daughter to design the logo. In conversation we just refer to it as "the Oliver".

Thanks for sharing your story. I think you are correct in that we think we're prepared but in reality, we're prepared for the most basic incident. I think a contributing factor was the Oliver tows so well, you were unaware of the disintegrating tire behind you. In the past, I've relied on the Oliver's jacks to raise the tire high enough for removal and replacement. My thought is to use the scissor jack, that came with the truck, as a back-up jack. I've never had much luck with Fix-a-flat. Instead I carry a tire plug kit and compressor (12v or 120v if you have an inverter). Tire plugs can be controversial. Some feel once you plug a tire, you should replace it as soon as possible. Most tire stores refuse to repair a previously plugged tire. Others plug a tire and just run it. The plug kit allows you to deal with as many flats as you have plugs until you get to a position where you can purchase a new quality tire. In addition to learning from your experience, I've made a note to bring along my impact driver. Thanks again for sharing.

I have a 2024 Ram 2500 that I'm still learning all the features that come with the infotainment system. My truck came with the 12" screen which at first seemed excessive but I've learned to split the screen into several functions (Map on top, radio and engine parameters on bottom) If that's not enough info for you, the map and additional vehicle information parameters can be also be displayed on the drivers dash screen. I love all the cameras, although this has become pretty standard these days but they greatly assist when parking. At first, I did not like the digital rear view mirror and turned it off because my old eyes didn't like the change in focal length. But it has not become my favorite feature. A rear view mirror is mostly useless when towing a trailer the size of an Oliver but the wide field of view lets you see down both sides of the trailer even before checking the side mirrors. I still use the wireless rear camera that came with our trailer. There is a convenient 12V plug up on the dash so no power wires dangling everywhere. The adaptive cruise control is handy in stop and go traffic (unless you come to a complete stop; then it kicks out) As mentioned Apple Car Play is wireless and works smoothly. Apps like IExit and MyRadar are very useful on the big screen. Things I don't like or I'm not sure of. The truck nav system is based on Tom Tom. It works well but is an interface I'm not used to. The jury is still out on the Trailer Steering option when backing up. Once it learns your trailer it's good at backing up straight but a slight turn of the knob will send your steering wheel spinning. Maybe I'm a DIY back up guy. Also, lots of reliance on voice actuation. The truck has it's VO system plus Siri is available. I don't know, I'm just not much for talking to my truck. All in all, I'm pleased with the systems. I came from a 2015 so a big jump in available technology. Finally, I'd say it strikes a good balance between being too intrusive and just letting you drive the vehicle. My wife has a new Lexus. It's always beeping at her and warning her of potential hazards. Some of it is just annoying.

We use quick connects. I also use a Y adaptor with individual gate valves at the park spigot to depressurize the line before disconnecting. Seems obvious but if you ever forget things get exciting quickly, especially if you use one of the expandable hoses. Also, the search function on this site sometimes is not very helpful. Others have posted a web format to use to make Google search the site more effectively.

As a former ad guy, I approve!! 👍

I purchased the same hitch when I switched to a 2500. In addition to looking good it also allows you to reverse the balls under the truck when not in use to save your shins.

Thanks for posting. It would have never occurred to me to check this. Looks like lock tight is in order.

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