2008RN

We bought our Oli and truck on the same day 2years ago yesterday. Note not from the same person. It has been a great 2 years of camping both boondocking and with utilities. I have learned so much. Trying to find the campground I made a wrong turn and had to back out, then I found the park office to ask directions to the campground and then had to back around to get back out. Then finally back into the space. Each time backing up without a problem. 2years ago it took about a half a dozen shots to make it into a camp space. Also a reason to celebrate this will be the first weekend without rain. Going hiking today to see some of the waterfalls at Silver falls Oregon. Sorry if the picture is upside down. I can’t seem to get it correct.

I bought Abus products that are all hardened. I have bought half a dozen of their locks which I have all keyed the same. Very nice having one key for all of my locks. The lock are difficult to pick also, not your standard type of key. https://www.taylorsecurity.com/abus-37-series-granit-padlock-37/55-37hb/55-37/60-37hb/60-37/70-37/80-abus-padlocks/0021163/ https://www.taylorsecurity.com/abus-maximum-security-chain-and-sleeve/0021353/ I use the same lock and chain between wheels on one side of the trailer when parked. Also same keyed lock for storage unit on the back of Oli, on the Bikes on the front of the truck and on the bulldog coupler. I did have to enlarge the hole in the collar for the bulldog to 7/16, a little less than 1/16 for the lock to fit nicely. https://www.amazon.com/Collar-Trailer-Bulldog-style-Couplers-Including/dp/B00HL2NM0K/ref=sr_1_5?hvadid=268000891150&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9033018&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=10740392163685381895&hvtargid=kwd-309364386875&hydadcr=7062_9585710&keywords=bulldog+trailer+coupler+lock&qid=1682608079&sr=8-5

F250 diesel. Have a longbed with a 50gallon auxiliary tank. Tows great up and down hills. I can be picky when and where I fill up With an 1100 mile range.

I'm sort of a newbie in the Oliver World compared to a lot of other folks on the Forum here. I have a 2020 that I purchased 10 months old. So I have no warranty what so ever. I have called and ask questions of Oliver and they are more than willing answer questions. I only have 7,500 miles on her. I have done some upgrades, and regular maintenance ie: repack bearing, winterize/de-winterize, checking thing, etc... The only problem I have found is that I have had re-tighten the cabinet doors, once after I picked it up, and earlier this month. We boon-dock about 1/2 the time, and have been a few washboard roads. So I think we haven't done to bad. I could not ask for a better trailer. I refused to buy a stick built, and was investigating Airstreams. After seeing al sorts of problems on the Airstream, plus the price we were almost ready to say RVs/TTs where not in our future, that is when we heard of Oliver. We have been so blessed with our Oli and do not regret the investment. I am sure you will get many of testimonies about the Oliver's quality, workmanship, service.

John, thanks for the heads up. Just started investigating the switch over to lithium a week or so an ago. I checked out Battle Born last week. I’am minimum of a 17 months out, but I put myself on the mailing list. again thanks

We took possession of our used Oli almost 2 years ago. We like the original decals that the previous owners put on, although we would like to put a decal on that would be our own. My wife saw a cougar on the back of stick built trailer, she liked it, but it is not original nor is it “us”. Me, well I like the Fighting Oregon ducks. This is neither original, nor is it “us”. Thanks for starting this thread is giving me some ideas.

I'm with you guys. An inconsiderate fee; 3 times the normal fee for each night stay.

I have been making reservations for Oregon state camp grounds and National camp grounds in Oregon for the year, and within the first 8 hours of the dates being available 25% of the spots are taken. I learned from last year when 5 months ahead of time I only found 1 spot available along the whole Oregon coast line. Fortunately the federal parks in the cascades don't fill up as quickly, since you are basically boon-docking.

John ,et. al. I bought two of the suggest elbows and they are little bit of a tight fit getting by the water line once past the line everything slid in easily. The only problems I had was the vent tube from the defuser under the bed was a couple of inches short to make it to the rear outfit with the elbows on. I have to get a replace the tube and make it about 4-6 inches long. I hooked everything up above the access panels and then just slid them in place. This is a picture before I slid it in.

We love to Storm watch off the Oregon coast. No Leaks so far. I just hate walking in 1-2" of water standing around the curb side of the trailer, then end up dragging wet muddy junk in the camper. Moisture inside is also an issue. Between days of 100% rain, and wet clothes and shoes, It takes constant work to keep condensation off the walls. The wind storms will still buffet the trailer, but nothing that moved the trailer. I worry more about limbs falling on the Oli and crushing the Oli and us.

I went with a 12ft high x 14ft wide and it is 30 ft long. I really like the 14 ft wide, for being able to work on the Oli and it gives me extra width for getting backed into place (still working on the backing skills). The extra height is also nice to get up on top. I had enough room I could have gone 36ft long, and I wish I had. When I was going over things with the contractor he told me that for resale I should do a 14ft high opening, and max the length out. We had set a financial limit on what we could spend on Oli, truck, RV port/garage, and accessories to get going. When it comes down to it, we hope this house will be our last, and we will never go with bigger RV/Trailer. I had a GMC greyhound bus conversion many years ago which was fun, and it had lots of room and storage. Although it was to big to get in placing that I can get the Oli into. We really like the Oli trailer setup better, and I no longer have to take care of a towed vehicle. So my decision for the RV garage was right for me. My Children will have to worry about resale in the future, I hope to be to darn old to worry about it. What I do regret is that 10 years ago I built a 10ft high x 24ft wide x 36ft deep garage with 2 stalls . I wish I would have be more forward thinking and built a 40ft wide x 36ft deep with 12-14ft height with 3 stalls. I would have saved 1/2 of the cost of the RV garage doing it all at once, and had more room. Good luck with your decisions.

Happy Thanksgiving, Enjoy the Turkey day. May your travels be safe, and your time with family memorable. For those that do have to work on this day - Thank you for your sacrifices.

Here in the Left Coast we are down to 4.19 Gas, 4.98 Diesel.

North America! I need a bigger bucket for a complete list. I guess we will keep trying to see something new until I am to old. So many places, not enough years left. See what we can get done over the next 20 years, God willing. 2 more years until retirement, then the adventures start. Until then the Pacific North West is my playground.

I did not see an open slot on my Oli for another fuse. I used fish tape and went from the kitchen seat, and routed towards the center of the Oli. Plenty of space. I just had to reach down through the cabinet to pull the fish tape up.

John , I appreciate your feedback, 1. I did not like my kludge to the trapped air problem. Sorry I do not have your common sense. I have NO experience at cutting and adding a vent port to tank like this. I do not know where to begin. Maybe you have resource information on how to do this. 2. The awning fuse slot was the ONLY fuse slot not being used on my 2020 Oliver. I replaced the fuse with a 3 Amp when I set it up, but thanks for mentioning it so someone would just assume you could use the higher amp fuse. Natures head states to use between 2-5amps. 3. We like to get out and camp about once every 2 months, with our schedule it hard to go out more than that, so what we normally do is let the fan run for about 2 weeks after camping during that 2 week period we are in/out the camper doing things so we turn the agitator when we are out there, then the fan is shut it off until we start getting ready for the next adventure. We clean it out once a year at winterizing time. In a years time, we probably have around 5 BM's in the head. So far it has not got gross inside. I always worry about having a connection failure from plugging and unplugging things all the time. I know this violates the KISS principle, but I have seen to many connector failures in the my past, and for me the redundant pump switch was not needed.

I ran a wire from the fuse box , I think I used the fuse labeled Streetside awning under the floor into the area below the bathroom sink. We do not use the Pump switch in the bathroom, so I use that switch to turn the Natures head fan off on and off. I purchase an extra flange and 2 of the rubber boots for the tubing to run the compost vent into the trailer vent. I ended up cutting out about 6" of the vent pipe from the Black tank., and you can see where I used a rubber cap to seal it. I also drill a small hole through the flags to fish eh wire through. On a side note, after I had finished the Nature Head Install I then decided I wanted to use the Black tank for extra gray water storage when we are boon docking. Oops, the cap I put on the pipe from the black tank did not allow air out of the tank. So I had to open the cabinet back up, I cheated and drilled a .125 hole in the top of the rubber cap, so the black tank would vent. I set a timer when ever I am pumping from the gray to the black tank, and only fill to 80% capacity. I know it is venting into a open cavity. I haven't any bad smell yet. I clean the black tank out good after use. This is the upper portion of the tubing that goes into the camper vent system. I used a rubber reducer to go from the camper vent size down to the Compost vent size, and then used a piece of white PVC pipe to connect the two.

Everything went pretty well, thankfully all of the different things people have written online has helped. The Dexter China made bearing are still looking good at 7K miles. So I repacked the old bearings, in 2 years I will replaced the bearings with Timken. I have always packed my bearings by hand, after doing one side of the trailer by hand, I decided to pick up a bearing packer. I purchased a Lisle from a local auto parts store. The packer did a good job, although it was very hard to push done. I had to put the packer on the floor and push down with all of my upper body. THis saved me a lot of time vs doing it by hand. I saw a Gearwrench packer online, but no one had one locally. The Gearwrench had a smaller diameter than the Lisle. It was still big enough for the Oliver bearing. The smaller diameter should have made it somewhat easier to press down. I have read that someone used their foot to press down on the Lisle unit, and it worked without breaking it. I really like the clip to hold the axle nut in place. I thought it was pretty cool over using a cotter pin. The Dexter dust caps are ill fitting at best. To of them almost I had purchased Balkamp Dust caps from NAPA as suggested in the forum. I tried putting my first dust cap on with a Dust Cap application tool. I had to pound like H_ll to get it on, Like an idiot I just kept pounding. It’s on now, It is going to be really darn hard to get that off in 2 years. The caps are suppose to be 1.986” OD, Balkamp measured out @ 1.998” OD at the outside edge and 1.987-1.990 next to the flange. The ID of the hub is around 1.975. That is 0.025 of interference. I went to NAPA and measure all the caps that they have in stock. They all measured the same. I decided to use the bench grinder and grind down the OD at a taper. I took a couple of taps to get it started, and 3 good wacks to set it in place. I had one lug nut that was mangled fro the factory. I had to pound a deep well socket on the lug nut. Once the lug nut was off, I had use a drift punch to get the lug nut off. The outside of the lugs nuts are a thin sheet metal. I went to a local tire shop and bought enough solid metal chrome lugnuts to replace all cheap lugnuts. They match perfectly with the old lug nuts. I also bought 2 spares just in case. I was suprised that the tires where not balances. I got all of the tires balanced. hopefully the trailer will ride smoother. I decided to lube the suspension since very thing is easy to get to. All of the zerks took grease with the chassis jacked up and wheels of except the 3 zerks around the rear tire and the street side. I tried jacking up the axel and this didn’t help. I was resined to pulling apart the rear suspension, but then I thought I lubed everything last year with all tires on the ground. I put the wheels on, lowered the Oli back down and I was able to get grease on those 3 bolts. Not sure why? It is lubed for now. The things I forgot: To chalk the emblems on the inside of the chrome dust cap wheel covers. I think it was John Davis who suggested this. Although 2 of the emblems already have a small area where the thick rubber coating is delaminating. They are good for now, but I may need to try to find some nice looking dust cap wheel covers to replace the originals. I completey forgot to get the spare balanced. Sorry for the long winded right up.

At age ten that would be a blast. I didn't have the opportunity to drive a tractor until I was in my 20s. Had the chance to cut and rake a field so it could be baled. Spent a whole day doing it. I Loved it.

My grandfather was an Oliver dealer back in the 40s and 50s. I feel a connection to the name Oliver

We use the same setup , the Camco jack stands, and X-Chocks. The Camco jack stands really firms up the trailer. You barely even notice any movement with someone coming in the trailer. If I am only staying 1night I don't worry about the jacks Any longer stay I put them up. I really don't like to be woke up at night when my wife has to use the Lou as the trailer rocks slightly walking back and forth from the front. I am a light sleeper. As far as the X-chocks, If I am unhooking the the trailer for more than 1/2 hour, The X-chocks get put in place. I have never really go without them. For me they are extra protection for having the trailer roll ( I still use regular chock blocks), and I figure it is one more thing a thief will have to deal with when attempting to steal the trailer (along with several other locks...)

I don't have Lithium Batteries, but I agree with some of the other postings that it would take a lot of batteries to run the AC for any length of time. I had bus conversion with 640AH of batteries, and I could not run the AC for any long length of time without a generator. The other side of the equation, is to getting those batteries charged up after being drained down with the solar. It is just not enough power. I ended up buying the Honda EU2200i generators to run the AC while boon docking. We only need it a couple of times a year, but we boondocks 3 weeks ago for 5 days and it was between 95-100 degrees. We hiked all day long and had a great time, but it was nice to be able to cool down the trailer in the evening so we could sleep. The AC had to run for 3 plus hours to get the temps down inside. It was also nice to be able to cook dinner inside the trailer in some comfort when it was really hot outside, without heating the inside of the trailer more from cooking. I love it that I can enjoy being out in nature, and still live in some luxury, No more backpacking and sleeping on the ground for me. Sometimes we will use the Microwave on the batteries/inverter to heat up water for our night time teas. The batteries can do this just fine, but you are only taxing the system for a few minutes.

My klos travel guitar, although we have been thinking about a screen room.

I bought ours during covad. It took 2 months to get tagged. At the time the state realized the difficulties in getting into the DMV

We keep our Oli EII @ 55psi also. For a couple reasons. 1. I have calculated the weight for the Oliver while towing, the tongue weight, and the weight on both my front and rear axles of the truck with everything fully loaded for towing. 2. The truck uses the same psi and all I have to remember is 55 psi for all the tires. 3. I figure that at 55 psi it’s a little high for the Oliver but it allows that if one tire goes bad the other three tires still have enough strength to carry the load. If I remember correctly I did the calculations for 6500 trailer weight. Not that I am planning on driving on three tires on the Ollie I just wanted that extra safety factor so by the time I found out that a tired gone bad I’d still have time to get it parked over on the side of the road and maybe limp it to someplace where I could change it without getting someone hurt