Jim and Chris Neuman

I put on one of their tall front storage boxes using their mounting plate. Very impressed with quality and design. Fast shipping fast, easy installation. Good folks to deal with!

Ran into problems with aluminum pop rivets often when I built and worked on boats. Aluminum rivets are very much subject to corrosion, particularly if used with a dissimilar metal (say stainless or bronze) or in the presence of moisture. Aluminum rivets are just plain weak, particularly around the heads. Stainless pop rivets are much stronger than aluminum and would be my choice, especially if unable to get any type of backer onto the rivet. Stainless 3/16" pop rivets do require some significant body strength to install unless you have a power rivet tool so invite your uncle Guido over for the install. If sticking with standard hollow rivets is your choice than adding quite a few more rivets around the perimeter will spread the load. If you can upgrade a smaller rivet to a larger one, say 5/32" to 3/16", this will give you a stronger fastener and help clean up any fractured glass/resin around the rivet hole as it will increase the surface area available to support the new fastener. I don't think the aluminum rivets would be cut or abraided at all by the glass in a layup ... particularly a chopper gun hull as used by Oliver as the percentage of glass to resin is very low and the glass strands are not oriented.

I went with the air bag / Bilstein 5100 combo and have been very happy with the outcome. The Air Lift bags I had installed can be pumped up to 100 PSI but I have found that 30# does the job real well without excessive rear end lift. I did use the Bilstein 5100 ride adjustable front shocks set at 1.75" in order to counteract the nose-down effect you get when pumping up the rear air bags. This combo gives a smooth, level ride and virtually eliminates the hobby horsing you get on uneven road surfaces such as northern frost heaves or slumping road surfaces. Far superior to the factory F150 shocks that came on my '21 crew cab.

The Upper Steens Mountain roads are inaccessable until the snows melt - usually mid June or later. Depends on the snowpack and weather. Still the area surrounding the Steens has a ton of stuff to do including amazing birding on the Malheur Refuge. Wild horses can be found surrounding the Steens and great fishing in season. Do keep in mind that ticks and mosquitos are the dominant lifeforms in spring/late summer and can be rough on dogs as well as people - come prepared.

Several of parks you mentioned, particularly Lassen and Crater Lake and the North Cascades can be difficult to get reservations at that time of year. This year in particular may be dicey due to probable park shutdowns. Forest Service and BLM may also be hit hard so keep an eye on it. The Redwoods don't have a ton of campsites available and they tend to be smaller, older campgrounds. Don't miss that park though as the hikes are otherworldly. Yosemite and the other West Slope parks are also pretty tough to access late summer. Don't miss the coast of Oregon - tons of campgrounds and truly spectacular country - ditto for the coast of Washington although it is thinner on camping opportunties. The volcanic high lakes country just South of Bend, OR is spectacular and tends to have available sites in the FS campgrounds or, failing that, boondocking areas. Fires, particularly on the East slope of the Cascades in OR and WA can be a challenge mid to late summer - very weather dependent. I have spent my whole life in the Northwest and travel it extensively every year. I do not hesitate to just wing it and that generally works out but be ready to deploy plans B, C & D. Make it a habit to try to get into your site early in the day or, better yet, reserve well in advance and you should be fine.

Thought I saw one near Sunriver, OR but it turned out to be just a shiny dumpster!

Boudicca908 Yes, Zapata Falls was the name of the campsite I mentioned above. Failed to mention the Zapata Falls hike adjacent to the campground - really nice!

You are correct, many of the sites in this older campground are for smaller rigs or tents, however, there are a few pull-thru sites available. We reserved one two winters back for a 5 day stay and it was beautiful, easily handling our LII and F150. Great Sand Dunes is a really fine NP and at the time we showed up there (late February) it was not at all crouded on trails although the campground was topped off. Do not recall the name of the campground but about 6 - 8 miles south of the southern entrance to the NP is road leading to, I believe, a BLM campground where we stayed the night before we were due to arrive at the NP campground. A serious climb above the valley bottem (maybe 1500 - 2000' feet above the main highway turnoff) but we were treated to one of the finest views we have ever had from a campsite. Road into campground was good but steep and presented no problem for our truck & trailer. We lucked into a site but a reservation would be useful here also as it was pretty full.

Looking for input on the Sea Biscuit Metal Designs front cargo box, specifically the smaller of the two sizes offered. Design looks clean and functional but would like input from folks who actually own one as they are pretty spendy and new enough not to have a lot of outside input that I can locate. Primary use will be chocks & messy stuff in general. Our Oliver is an LEII. Any experience out there? Appreciate any input. Jim

Can anyone tell here are the Bulldog shocks are made?

I may have missed it but do you have firm reservations for any of this voyage? If not, plan way ahead as many of the areas you are heading into will be inundated with other campers. Spring, heading into summer, can be a very tough time to find camp sites in popular areas. In broad terms your plan seems doable but again, plan way ahead and keep your options open. Winging it can become an exercise in frustration as tourist season descends. Fortunately, as you make you way West into areas with large blocks of public land, boondocking becomes a viable option and your Oliver is just the machine to help you make that happen.

Usually with a nearly full tank unless we are sure of good quality water at our destination. We live in NW Washington where the water quality is very good and do not hesitate to drink it right out of the tanks (which are regularly flushed with fresh when we return from a trip). We do carry a filter pitcher for those times where the water is hard or otherwise too iffy for drinking. Always filter when filling tanks when away from home.

Is your 2023 trailer still under warranty? If so, a call to Oliver would be an obvious first step.

We received the same notice for our hull 770. Checked the rating of the hitch as instructed in the notice - stamped 7000. We are good to go. I appreciate Oliver giving potentially affected folks a heads up.

Max is right about the vanity hatch. We put one in and discovered two things. 1) Trying to remember the name of the hatch manufacturer ... Sea Dog? Nicely built, solid and very easy to install wilh only minor modification of the cut out. 2) Like like in the area behind the rear drawers under the kithchen sink, the installation of couplings was sloppy with loose and leaking fittings The plumbing in our Oliver is the only area where I am really disappointed in the QC. I advise making access to every possible failure point and checking often.