SeaDawg

Steve's link looks like our Harbor Freight tow dolly. Should work to move it around the garage. Works ok on the level parts of our driveway. Our 17 won't fit thru our current garage door. New garage/new house was built with the trailer in mind, 10 ft door, so we can park the Ollie inside if necessary. Sherry

Merry Christmas, and a very Happy 2015 to all our Oliver friends.

We often dry camp there and enjoy the two day pass for the show. We'll see you there. Let us know if you're coming, and when. Sherry

Here are a few taken shortly after we had the panels installed: In this one, if you look closely, you'll see the awesome saddle bracket Oliver made to match the curve of the hull. We took all these at beautiful Lake Ouichita campground on our way to the River RV Rally. Sherry

Dave, while I look for photos of our installation, here's a link to a thread by Andrew, who did his own pv installation, based on our factory install. If you go down the thread, you'll find a link to a photo album of Andrew's install. It looks a lot like ours. He did a great job. Sherry

The ingenious crew at Oliver added solar to our trailer seven months after we bought it. That included running the heavy cable that your already have, which was no mean feat, and maybe not even possible now with the new insulation techniques. Glad you pre wired. The metal shop made custom saddle brackets for our two fixed panels, based on my husband's sidemount concept, and added them to the trailer. We've not had problems with anything they did, even though it was an addition, and not part of the original build. The thin film flexible adhesive panels take up a lot of rooftop "real estate" to create the same amount of power as our racked panels. That's one of the reasons we did not seriously consider flexible panels for our pv installation on our new home. They do, however, have that great advantage of "no drilling required" on the travel trailer rooftop. The flexible panels don't really add any "drag" to the roof top, either, and I've read of a number of very happy users on other forums. You might consider boondocking a few times without any panels, but with a good monitor installed, to see what your actual power requirements are. With all LED lights, and camping in Florida weather without heavy use of the furnace fan (our biggest power draw in the mountains, usually), you may find one 100 or 160 watt panel may just be enough. A lot depends on your consumption, camping style, and of course, battery storage. Tough decision to make. Sherry

Hardrock, Congrats on your retirement. Likely you'll feel the same way we do... wonder how we ever found time to work! We have used three methods for moving our Oliver without the trailer: 1. Least satisfactory: trailer dolly from harbor freight, and lots of manual effort. Actually, on a flat surface, the dolly isn't so bad for me and Paul, but on an incline, or over grass or turf block, it's either a bear, or impossible. Or, we had to recruit a couple neighbors, as well as me and Paul, to move the trailer 30 feet. 2. The EZ Tug... Great product. Don't know if they make an upgraded model, but the tire was really small, and tended to go flat on us. Paul hooked it up to our trailer battery, so we had plenty of "power", but going even slight inclines, on grass, usually required me pushing on the front of the trailer, while watching to avoid the tree on one side, shrubs and garage eaves on the other. It worked, way better than a tow dolly, but not ideal. It really helped if my very kind neighbor sat on the bed in the back to take some of the weight off the tongue while we maneuvered the trailer. Yes, she is a very, very good friend to do that for me. 3. The Parkit 360 is our newest addition. We bought a nice barely used large or xl unit. First attempt didn't go very well. Then, we read the directions online , and watched the youtube on how to use it... (I know, when all else fails, read the directions.) Seriously important if you use this, because it has two wheels, and if not attached properly, and seated properly, you feel like you could tip the trailer on a sharp turn. This works fairly well. More power than the EZ tug, but perhaps not as much "traction." Both times we've used it have been after heavy rains, and on slick ground, we lay out old plywood cutoffs to give a better footing on the grass. I'm looking forward to using it at our new house next year... concrete and turf block over shell, not grass, and not much of an incline. We did think about adding a front hitch to our Honda 4 wheeler, briefly, but rejected that. Firgured the weight of the tongue might lift the Honda off the ground... As good as Paul is at backing and maneuvering the truck (and I do believe he's really skilled at it), there is no way we'd get our trailer into its winter spot by our garage with a front mount on the Ram truck. Just way too tight, and we'd tear up the lawn for good measure. Personally, I'd probably try a really good trailer dolly first, if you could borrow one. Then look for the Parkit 360, unless Ez Tug has upgraded their tongue weight capability. For quick use, and you can swing it up and carry it around with your, the EZ Tug is tough to beat, just a little undersized for our trailer. It's a lot easier to set up and operate than the Parkit 360, one wheel, portable, and uses the trailer battery. The parkit 360 has its own battery, and is heavy, longer setup, and doesn't feel quite as intuitive.. Big pro for the Parkit 360: It moves the trailer pretty well. Sherry

Dave, you may just want to give the factory a call tomorrow. I'm sure they'll be helpful. Glad you love your new Oliver. We love our 17 a lot. Still looks pretty great after almost 7 years, and 60,000 plus miles. Sherry

And, many pages of reviews from a truck camper forum. A couple of the forum members ordered the less expensive Chinese made version. One wasn't very happy with the "clone.' Here you go, Larry. http://www.wanderthewest.com/forum/topic/4643-lagun-cockpit-table/page-5

Here are a few, Larry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GriVnVrjLYw Demo of two sizes of table Installation and review by a liveaboard sailor. Spoiler alert: very long! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndgkur197js https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOZsFMOU8Pg Used as a drop down table with a u shaped dinette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sa_vdIcl9t0 Sherry

Larry, we went to the boat show in St. Pete yesterday. While Paul was studying marine hardware in an adjacent booth, I spent some time in the SVHotwire booth. They market a Swedish made table for boats and RVs that is fascinating, and really well made. It's not quite like the one you posted, but it's quite a versatile little table bracket. It is, however, wall or bulkhead mounted, not floor mounted like ours. Sure would be nice to be able to lift up the small dinette table at a flip of a lever to make it more practical to use as a prep table in the kitchen. http://svhotwire.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=97&product_id=13 The people who market this product, among many others, are serious renewable energy innovators. They manufacture a wind generator, at a fairly reasonable price, for boats, rvs, homes. They lived on a boat powered by renewable energy for years, now live in a renewable energy powered home. They also sell pv panels and systems.Their shop is in Tarpon Springs, near the sponge docks. Sherry

Love the ocean colors... sea blue and grey graphics. Hope you have a safe and happy trip home. Let us know if you wander over our way to the Tampa Bay area in your travels. Sherry

Cool table. This poster says it's made inhouse at Leisure: http://www.thefitrv.com/rv-tips/in-depth-review-of-leisure-travel-vans-unity-24ib/ Scroll down to comment 1 on post 13. I see this coach starts around $140k. Wow. Nice, but, wow. Sherry

Great looking truck. I see you have the ground effects cover. That's supposed to reduce drag, as well. Don't you love the fog lamps? We love ours. Really helps with visibility. Was the bed cover on the truck on the lot, or did you add it? We love our UnderCover. Lockable (not that it's that secure...), keeps everything out of sight, and also helps with drag. Really light... the two of us can take it off the truck bed in a few minutes. Another one of those things that might even be faster to accomplish if Paul does it alone.... Sherry

Welcome to the Forum, Jeff!

Canadian government website link: A guide to transportation within US. Follow the links for New York, which is a typical gateway to Canada, and not firearm transportation friendly:

The awning, deployed or retracted does direct roof runoff away from the curbside window, and the door. We added the gutter to the curbside window just because we thought it would look better if all the windows had the same "trim." Our biggest problems with weepholes being overcome are often of our own making: 1. dirty weepholes 2. our sidemount solar panels, left adjusted at a certain angle, can send rainwater down in a sheet onto the port side windows. This we discovered, unfortunately, in the middle of a hard, cold rainstorm that swept through our side of the mountain on a cool summer night. Unable to adjust the panels in the rain, Paul jacked up the port side with the electric jack. Since then, if heavy rain is in the forecast, we try to remember to check the adjustment on the panels before we retire. Often, we do set up our trailer with the port side a little higher anyway. That's the head of the bed side for us, and if our site needs to be a smidge out of level, it's more comfortable sleeping that way. By the way CpaHarley2008, welcome to the forum. You've asked a lot of good questions on your first visit here, and offered some great comments and info as well. Sherry

CPAHarley2008, as to the length, besides the bumper and the tongue, I guess you also have to add in the depth of the propane cover. I'd ask Steve to get out his tape measure again, but I think he requested an even longer stinger than the usual extendable tongue. Our propane cover is well over a foot in depth. The new model cover looks larger to me. Sherry

cpaharley, Does your 2014 have the air suspension and tubular foot steps, as well? Glad they were able to improve the mileage so much with the shutters and other improvements. The Ram is a great truck. Sherry

Awesome. Thanks, Matt. I can now see what I'm typing.

Towing with the Ram 1500 5.7 hemi, mileage is definitely a function of speed. If we meander around the back roads, we lose little mileage. Not towing, we're around 15 to 16. Towing, we'll lose 10 to 25 per cent, depending on speed and terrain. Maybe a bit more, if we're in a hurry to get home. On the interstate, we go with the traffic. Point a to b, (like our frequent trips to North Carolina) we take the interstate. Exploring, we love the back roads. We're looking forward to the new smaller diesel pickups. They've been around in Europe, Australia... everywhere but North America. We loved the mileage we got with diesels when we rented in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Sherry

Stan, We'd love to see your photos! The easiest way to load photos here is to open a free account at photobucket, and use the img button above the posting block to load a link to phtobucket photos. I understand with our new software it's possible to directly load resized (smaller) photos, but I've never done it. If you have trouble, pm me, or mountainborn. Sherry

Larry, Paul and I have taken two Canadian tours in our Oliver. Our friend lois joined us, towing her Casita, on both trips. The first was primarily in Ontario, across the top of the Great Lakes, coming back into the US in Minnesota, entering Canada in New York above the Thousand Isles. That was about a month's trip, primarily camping in Provincial and National Parks. The second trip, we went into Canada again from New York, just south of Montreal, and visited Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, returning through the corner of New Brunswick/Maine, from Campobello into Lubec, Maine. That was another four or five week trip, at least the Canadaian part. And, we treasured every day. The second trip, we found fewer Provincial parks open, and camped primarily in private parks, which were all very nice. Both trips were beautiful (and chilly). We didn't even try to take handguns, shotguns or anything else into the country. The list at customs of forbidden items was lengthy...bear spray, pepper spray, brass knuckles, knives with blades over so many inches, etc., etc., etc.and more etc. My niece's husband has Canadian family, and does go up once a year or so on a hunting trip, but he has to take documentation of his hunting trip, and some other papers, to bring in his long guns. I can ask him if you plan to go hunting. We didn't even take our dog, though that is ok with proper papers. Cleaned out vegetables and meat, as well, from the refrigerator. The US side was stickier on produce than the Canadian, but it wasn't worth the hassle to bring anything either way, except the awesome Bay of Fundy scallops. I'll look up the current regulations, which change all the time. and see if I can send you a link. By the way, New York state is very sticky also on gun regs, no reciprocity with most other states, so leave any weapons with someone elsewhere if NY is your gateway. Passing through is ok, but not overnighting with a weapon permitted in another state. That said, camping in Canada is a beautiful experience. We were welcomed wherever we went, even in the rural, and very French speaking areas. Everybody worked to figure out the few language barriers we encountered (my one semester of high school French is very, very bad, and long forgotten.) We carried a small French / English dictionary, and we were fine. We had a wonderful time, both trips. Take extra clothes. Our first trip in July, we had to stop at a Walmart (yup, you'll find them there, too) for sweat pants and jackets. Though it was July, we were really cold at night. but it was one of those summers... Second trip was in the shoulder season (September), and many campgrounds were closed, or accepted cash only, as season was about over. The scenery was breathtaking on both trips, and the people we met were warm, friendly, and helpful==as fellow campers usually are. In Quebec, we watched late season whales sounding in the bay behind our campsite. in NB, we had the finest scallops of my life at a restaurant high above the Bay of Fundy. I bought some frozen to take home, and they made it through customs. We prepared them a few months later, and they brought tears to my eyes, remembering the great times and great people we met in Canada on that trip. We extended our Verizon voice coverage to include Canada for a few bucks a month. Data was another story,and an expensive one, those trips. We limited our data to campsites and cafes with wifi, primarily. Maybe better now. Last trip was four years ago. I checked recently,for a friend who traveled to Toronto and borrowed one of my phones, and data and texting were free on my tmobile phone, but I doubt tmobile has much coverage outside metro areas. Best to check with your cell provider, and data provider. Honestly, we were searched at every entry point, US and Canada, and it's not worth second guessing the regs. Besides that, when it comes to food and beverage, we believe in spending our money where we camp. The fish was awesome everywhere in Ontario, Quebec, and NB and NS. People were absolutely great. Quebec City is like a trip to Europe, without the airfare. Don't worry about the language barrier in rural Quebec. Somebody will find someone who can help, or you'll manage. Sherry

Hear, hear, Larry! Thanks to the IT dept., and many thanks to you for all your help. Sherry

Steve, that's a lot of research. Thanks for the detailed measurements and posts. Did you open up the access to the basement while running the cube heater? Just curious. When we're camped in temps falling to twenties or teens, I usually open a drawer or two to send some warm air into the spaces between the hulls, and prop the bathroom door open in our 17. (The older 17s don't have the basement furnace) I only do this in really cold weather, as the furnace runs more often, and the surface mounted furnace fan wakes me up when it kicks in. Since we don't usually camp with electricity, we've only used our cube heater a few times. I'm not sure we have it anymore. However, even the little wall mount furnace keeps the older 17s pretty cozy in weather in the twenties and teens, but we don't have the benefit of the heat in the "basement" area between the hulls. For those who boondock, it would be interesting to know how the furnace deals with heating the interstitial spaces in the new olivers. We don't have the luxury of cube heaters when we have no electricity. Stan, in the old days in Minnesota, all we did was blow out the water in the lines in my parents 70s class c, and the later travel trailer. We never used rv antifreeze, don't even know if it existed then. Probably did, but we had an air compressor, so that's what we did. Don't remember ever having a problem with frozen lines, etc., but maybe Dad just never mentioned it. Since i used the camper as much as anyone in the family, I think he probably would have mentioned it to me. What a lot of people did was add a half cup or so of mineral oil (very cheap, and no staining) to the toilet bowl to keep the seals lubricated. It doesn't spoil, and doesn't apparently freeze very easily. With the price of rv anitifreeze being so inexpensive, that's what we use now.We winterize our trailer if we're leaving it in Nc in the mountains in the late fall, just in case we don't get back before the first hard freeze. The rv "pink stuff" works great, Once we're home in Florida, it's not really necessary. Sherry