BlueHighways

Mike - pm sent.

For those with the 12 volt Isotherm refrigerator - What are you doing when you want to store the Oliver during non-use times? The main issue as I see it is keeping the refrigerator door open for air circulation. But, then the light is on all the time. I pulled the refrigerator fuse but, now there's an LED on where the fuse was removed. For now, we store ours outside but we will be moving it inside in the spring. We have the 390 AH Lithionics with solar so I suppose this is a moot point as long as the panels are on? I also realize that being a child of the 60s/70s, it's just not in my nature to leave a light on! We really love hull #1550 and the upgrades from our original 686 (including the fridge)!

Did I say ordered? I did! That is incorrect. We put down money on one of the showroom demos. We are/will be owners of #1550. And going back to lessons learned: We were insured with Safeco for replacement cost. But, we only get the replacement cost IF we purchase a NEW "similar" unit. And that money goes straight to the dealer. If we never buy, we only get the valuation. That's why the valuation was so important. I believe another consideration for everyone is that with ~ 2000 units out there and with more on the market, a good first cut valuation is much easier for the insurance companies. Finally - on the long 6 hour drive home after the accident, the traumatic events settled on us and became real. We had lost a central part of our retirement plan in just a few seconds! The "what next?" question finally came up. I won't lie - we talked about the options of more room or a fridge that you can access without sitting on the floor. We quickly came to our senses and realized that if we were ever in a similar situation again - we wanted to be in an Oliver. By the time we got half way home we were dreaming of the quiet Truma A/C!

Yes - avoided a head on.

Yes - in tact it was. The stairs were broken off but, they took the brunt impact. This pic shows the impact point. The right-front axle was sheared off the frame from the impact and the right-front rim bent. Major structural damage? All 4 pieces of the hull where damaged somewhat so I would say damage was more extensive rather than severe except at the impact point. The interior dividing walls were toast (bathroom and closet). I went around the mid-joint of the exterior hull and found 1 small place where they looked separated. To the naked eye, I could not see any issue to the frame even at the point of impact. But, based on other clues, it wouldn't surprise me. But, everything shifted - the second pic is a fork wedged under the pantry. It was in the top drawer on the other side of the trailer. In one amusing exchange, the sheriff radioed his dispatch for a rollback to haul the Oliver. Dispatch called back saying the towing company was bringing a dump truck and looking for someone with a skid steer. When they finally arrived the tow company apologized for the delay - in their experience, an RV rollover ALWAYS required a skid steer and a dump truck!

Our beloved 686, one of the last 2020's and one of the first with solar+lithium, was involved in an accident 3 weeks ago. It was deemed a total loss. First, we are very thankful that no one was injured. Second, I'm posting this to as a reminder to review your current insurance position! And, so others can learn from our experiences. The needed facts: our Oliver was struck on the curb side then rolled to the street side. The TV was a F250 and suffered a bruised hitch and a hole in the tailgate. Things we learned: Be acutely aware that your lives can change in a matter of seconds. Keep digital copies of insurance info in your phone wallet or shared drive. Go download their app now and make sure you can login! Even at the accident scene, we were naive enough to think "we will just step inside and get it from the cabinet". That's just not going to happen in a roll over. Know and understand your coverage. Go way beyond the declarations and read the policy. We had "Replacement cost" but there were caveats and rules that we did not know! Know if you can use a repair facility of your choice. If you can, are there penalties for going over on parts or labor? Our accident occurred 6 hours from our home. After grabbing a few things, we drove straight home. Then 4 days later, accepting the reality that it might be totaled, we drove the 12 hour round trip to gather and salvage anything we could. None of that trip was covered on our insurance! I had always assumed the things inside were covered; on our policy they were not! Get a dashcam! Understand and know that in today's insurance world, no one is coming to appraise, touch, or review your damage. You are going to use an app and take 9 pictures (one being the odometer. Yep, they will want you to photo your odometer on your trailer). You will probably not have an advocate. We purchased our insurance through Roamly (listed as our agent). They had a message that said "call your insurance company, not us". That being said, OTT was our ONLY advocate. On our return trip to the impoundment lot, we took over 170 detailed, labeled and scaled pictures and shared those with Mike in service. In less than 2 hours we had an estimate of the damage from him ($77,000). Oddly enough, after about 6 days, we got a repair estimate (from the 9 pictures) from the insurance company that was $1000 more. Keep a record of every penny you spend on the Oliver from the original bill of sale down to the rug in front of the door and the command hooks on the wall. With the help of Oliver and our own record keeping, we raised our valuation by $10,000 from the original insurance valuation. Take lots of pictures. First at the accident scene and then of the damage. Get every angle and multiple zoom levels. Again, please set aside some time and review your insurance! Over all, our story ends well - we have ordered a new Oliver!

Please explain. I get the cold water. But don’t understand the egg.

Thanks to all. You’ve given me reason to at least try to fix it. The cover on this has not been right since it was new so I’ll start there.

One of my under cabinet touch led lights comes on but is dim. Anyone else had this experience? All the other lights (touch or switch) work properly. Thanks! Headed to Florida for a few weeks and found this while packing. It’s certainly not going to keep us from finding warmer weather! Dave

Good point about editing P28 to match your generator. With the same generator and lithium setup we only ran the generator once in 10 days on our last trip. Rather than editing that variable, I made sure nothing was running and was able to charge from 55% to 95% in about 95 minutes of run time.

I recently dove into this thinking I had a problem with the wiring to the camera. To find the junction you are looking for, I had to remove the hard divider by unscrewing the 2 lag screws. My insulation pulled down easy and went back in place just as easy. As it turned out for me, my antenna had fallen off and I had no real problem. But, the dogwood beside my parking space did! It’s much stubbier now.

On the qualitative scale, our 3000 is “noticeable” but I don’t think about it until it shuts off.

I just called a random gas station in Guntersville. They said “We still have 93 but will be out soon”. Based on that, we are not going to make the trip.

How do we know it’s raining? We just call the dog in and see if he’s wet.

“girls on film”.