Patriot

I have done a fair amount of research prior to pursuing this mod/application with a local aluminum engineer, aluminum tech and actually spoke at length with Oliver Service and 1Up USA. I have also communicated recently with another OLEll owner who has several thousand miles on this same identical mod and bike rack with zero structural integrity issues with the rack or receiver. Based on these conversations I am not concerned about the structural safety of this mod. My 1Up USA Super Duty bike rack (engineered for a TT) just shipped from the factory. I look forward to the install sometime next week. *My understanding is one of the big reasons Oliver inserted the 1.25” reducer is owners were overloading the aluminum receiver and exceeding the engineered rack weight limit which will naturally could result in a catastrophic failure. Cheers!

Here is the 150# load rating sticker for our 2020 OLEll. I had the 1.25” core removed by a local machine shop for $30. Our bikes and the 1 Up Super Duty rack won’t come close to the load rating.

I will wait and see how this completely new Tundra platform performs in its first year before commenting on performance, handling, mpgs, towing. Having owned 3 previous Tundras I will say the reliability of all three trucks I owned was excellent and second to none. Toyota is out front in terms of reliability and dependability at least in my owner experience. Toyota also provided excellent service when any of my previous Tundras needed it. If I were to ever consider another half ton truck, the Tundra would absolutely be given a first look. I have to have reliability, my Tundras have always been very dependable and very reliable for the long haul. Cheers!

Well here it is. It will be interesting to see how the the new Tundra refresh fairs through its first year.

Great observation! There are times when I grill a bit more in advance of rainy weather. So I prepare a little extra so that we can reheat in our micro/convection oven the following day(s). No love for grilling in the rain.

We had a 14 Tundra Platinum and sold it and purchased an F250 CC 6.7 liter diesel with high capacity tow package, camper pkg and a bunch of other options. Our Tundra was “capable” of towing our Ollie, but the RPMs shot up on mountain passes for sure. We felt it was a bit under powered, needed a refresh due to out dated tech, lacked cargo room, and the mpg’s were not great. Reliability I will say was excellent. We absolutely wanted more cargo room, more comfort on long trips, much higher cab, much better fuel mileage, larger fuel tank, and the diesel brake or engine brake which has worked excellent towing the Ollie. On long mountain grades the auto engine brake is a TV and Trailer brake saver in my experience. Any diesel will cost you more in maintenance. On our last trip of 3500 miles up through the great north woods of NY, Mass, Conn, NH, VT, and MA, we throughly enjoyed the comfort, power and high cab touring view during the trip. The odo now registers 15,000 miles and we are really pleased with everything about it. It’s a large truck and we primarily use it for a TV. As previously mentioned it’s not a daily driver or commuter, we purchased knowing this. It sure is nice on long trips for all the reasons mentioned. Trucks are very scarce as a few have mentioned. There is a 3-4 month wait on Super Duty Fords according to dealers in our area. We even got a call from our salesman wanting to buy our truck back for more than we paid for it. I had no interest in this offer. Think about how you will use your new or used truck and buy what meets your needs and naturally your budget over the long haul. Many vehicles will tow an Ollie, but stopping is a very thing to consider. You don’t want the tail wagging the dog.

Hey Bill, Thank you and I appreciate it! The shake down last week went great, no issues and a clean Ollie when we got home. David note- Not recommended if your TV is an SUV. 😉😂

Update on my rock stoppers. I had livelymachine send a set of SS plates and SS mounting hardware to preclude any upsailing from the flaps at highway speed. Very pleased with how clean the front of our Ollie looked after our trip. These are providing the protection I had hoped for.

Beautiful craftsmanship Foy!

Everyone’s camping style is different. Glad your happy with time and $$$ spent, stay cool in Georgia! 😉

We have the 11000 BTU Dometic Penguin in our 2020 Ollie. We sleep extremely well and cool with it on low auto. We rarely have used AC lately since we camp in higher elevations. We never used our AC on our recent trip to Upstate NY, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. But these work great when we decide on silence and are much cheaper than a new AC. 😎

Another great week camping at Mountain River Family CG. We really enjoy this CG for the great location and the TLC the owners provide. They are campers and know what campers enjoy. It’s very clean, neat and just well run. The CG is bordered by the North Toe River which usually has plenty of trout fishing and tubing. The sites are a really a decent size and you don’t feel cramped. We booked again for next year and really are looking forward to our stay. A little venison sausage! From woods to table! A little quiet time fishing in the North Toe River..

Congrats on delivery of your new Ollie! Wishing you miles of camping smiles!

Same here. I turn the LP tank on slowly allowing LP to fill the lines and have not experienced any issues with LP not lighting.

Thanks Bill, appreciate it. Along with the XPEL 10 mil paint protection on the front of our Oliver, I have done all I can at this point to protect it. Onward!

In an effort to reduce any nicks or dings to the front of our Ollie we had 10 mil XPEL paint protection installed on the front corners, dog house etc. I also recently custom ordered a set of these “rock flaps” for our F250 Tremor TV from a fabrication shop called livelymachine.com. I just was not overly impressed by the other brand of rock tamers or rock stoppers that mount to the hitch for a number of reasons. These rock flaps mount up underneath the bumper directly into the receiver left and right side square openings on our F250 Tremor. A really nice fit and finish and very well made with aluminum powder coated tubing and all stainless hardware. Once mounted they are not going anywhere. If you are interested in pricing and shipping costs or have technical questions about rock stoppers please contact livelymachine.com. Cheers and Happy Towing!

Bill, Thank you,, and hopefully a good full nights rest! 👍🏻😴😊

Thank you Seadawg! Like everyone we like a great nights rest! 😴

Thank you. The memory foam is actually a little lighter than the Southern Mattress, but not my much. I have yet to move a mattress that did not fight back a little in weight or size. All in all very happy with the end result.

Thanks Overland. My goal was to take my time and complete the task very carefully cutting only the foam and I managed to do so. Now you have us thinking about buying the pillows! 👍🏻😊

Hi Bill, I already cut the corner aka radius, it was easy with the electric knife. The mattress is 10” thick and the blue cooling foam is on the top side of the mattress that you lay on. It took about 2 hrs to complete the cutting. We already installed the new memory foam mattresses in the Ollie, it’s like sleeping on a cloud ☁️. Very pleased with the outcome. (Note the Southern Mattresses were 8.5” in thickness.) -David

After sleeping on our twin Southern Mattresses in our Ollie, my wife and I both decided that the comfort level was not what we hoped for. We were experiencing pressure point pain in our shoulders and hip joints. We don’t experience this pain on our memory foam mattress at home. After some research, we decided to purchase the Casper “Element” memory foam mattress in a standard Queen size. We learned that Target is a retailer for the Element. We called our local Target store and found one in stock, asked them to hold it and we bought it. The element has many strong 5⭐️ reviews so we thought we would give it a try. After the purchase we brought it home and actually slept on it for a few hours on the floor of our home and are very happy with the comfort level, especially no pressure point shoulder and hip pain. Truly a night and day difference in comfort level from the Southern Mattress which uses coil springs. Naturally we wanted to be sure that this mattress was going to meet our comfort level before the cutting began. (Casper has a return policy if you don’t like the memory foam you can return it). After we were satisfied with the comfort level of the Element the surgery plan began. We used our Southern Mattress twin as a template for the radius and marked the foam. Then used an electric meat carving knife to carefully cut the 10” foam in to two halves for what Oliver calls a twin sized mattress. Essentially we made two 30” X 75” mattresses naturally with the radius to fit our Ollie. Choosing the 10” thick Casper Element allowed us to use our existing AB lifestyle fitted water proof mattress cover and fitted sheet and blankets. (We sold both the Southern Mattresses to a nice couple from Georgia who are taking delivery of their OLEll in Dec). Happy Camping! A few pics - note- Naturally mattress comfort is very subjective. So what feels comfortable to some may not be to others. 10” thick Memory foam with mattress cover after radius cut- Memory foam before cutting the radius-

Just saw this news. Colonial Pipeline is shutting down the pipeline. Just thought I would post up since this pipeline supplies about 75% of North Carolina’s fuel. Hopefully there won’t be a run on the pumps, this is wishful thinking.. Not a lot of info in this article, but be aware. https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/local/colonial-pipeline-hurricane-ida-shutdown/275-3f202108-3427-449d-bafc-2ae9575dd778

KOA’s are a last resort for an overnight stay for us when traveling. The sites are very close crowded and cramped in our experience. There are two in the Asheville NC area which we drove through just to look at a few years ago. East Asheville KOA is very tight and one can easily hear the interstate. The West Asheville KOA is not any better. The KOA in Boone NC is ok, but still close and cramped. The KOA in Fancy Gap, Va is ok for an overnight stay as well as the one in Travelers Rest, SC however both are pretty cramped or tightly packed. The KOA in the Cherokee territory in Western NC is another very crowded CG. That said, they still manage to book sites and pack lots of “campers” in. KOA’s are not what we consider a great camping experience due to the high density of cramped campers. We always jokingly ask ourselves when we see super cramped CG’s. Could they squeeze at least one or two more campsites in between the existing sites? 🙄😂

We have this dehumidifier and it works excellent. (We store our Ollie at home with a 30 amp power source.) It has auto shut off when full and we empty it about every 5 days. It travels with us on our trips. Zero issues with mold or mildew and stores easily in our closet.