GAP

Someone posted a mod sometime in the past where they remounted the temp sensor on an insulated riser to address that issue. Our '21 E2 would freeze up lines to bathroom by the mid teens. Have changed since but we noticed that water lines ran right along the reflectix on the hull, under the galley. That insulation does a poor job with conductive heat loss. We had planned on sliding on some pipe insulation to isolate the pex from the reflectix. Would have been easy enough. Different location but may be a similar situation. On the outdoor shower, we screwed off the shower head, pulled the unit into the hull and re-installed the head. Removed the temperature knobs and filled the open space behind the little door with open cell foam. Worked great.

Kirk, yes, all the storage areas are heated. Water control compartment, exterior shower, battery locker, big gear garage, etc.. We put up a clothes rack and dry our kayak and ski clothing in there. As to heating efficiency, we bought VanMade inserts for those big windows in the Transit. There is also an included insulated curtain that snaps in to block off the entire cockpit which we use overnight when temps are below 10 degrees. Apples to orange but, in single digit temps, when boondocking with water system on, we go through a 20lb tank of propane every 3 + days. In our Oliver E2, winterized (= no water in system) , boondocking, we went through a 30lb tank every 2 days. The Oliver used propane for the fridge and had no water to heat while the Ekko has a 12v fridge, heats all exterior compartments and water heater. On another note, I think crafty Oliver owners have been great about improving cold weather capacity and the manufacturer themself has started adapting some of these mods but, in my experience, Oliver is now about the best reasonably priced trailer out there for cool weather use. Without the price shooting way up, it's the best trailer available.

Good question. For those not up on this unit, the Sprekko is on a Sprinter platform, 2-3' longer and $20k more. I got the Trekko which is on a Transit platform. Prefer that for ease of finding qualified repair places and smaller footprint. Rich.dev, you may have stepped into a real pile of trouble if you had picked up one of the early models. They were filthy with recalls and poorly installed systems. Later models have been much better about minimizing the kinks.

We ended up going with a Winnabego Ekko. Couldn't be more of a different animal. Similarities in length, width, fiberglass exterior and it has wheels. That's about it. Gets the same MPG as my 2022 F150 did while towing. Absolutely not the same build quality or sense of interior open space as the Olivers. Also not molded fiberglass so will need to keep an eye on seams. On the flip side: Better driving on snow (AWD) as opposed to towing and have heard folks claim comfortably at -40. More storage for toys - I think comparable to Oliver and full sized truck bed with cap filled to the hilt. Cassette toilet as opposed to our composter which is different but working out fine. 50 gallon fresh tank, innovative convertible bathroom design, 640ah of lithium, ducted AC and a dedicated alternator for charging batteries at 160a while driving. Replaced my truck with a Honda Fit (the sensible guy's mid-life crises sports car) which we could and sometimes will flat tow behind the rig. We found a unit with 3k miles on it and it ended up costing twice what we paid for our E2 in '21. Hmmmm. Would be a questionable purchase were it not for the better fit with our camping style. Long trips but short stays at any one place. Oliver was certainly a more luxurious and open space with Ekko being more of an "adventure" platform. Every time we turn the key we are focused on some combination of skiing, kayaking, mountain biking, snowshoeing, etc... We mourn the passing along of our Oliver and feel it felt more like a home away from home. It's very likely that once we get over our outside toy addiction, we'll may circle back around. Wish we could have kept both. Thanks very much to you all. We are deeply appreciative that you would welcome a couple of Benedict Arnolds to stay in the group. We follow quite a few such forums and feel this is the best informed and supportive of all. Hope to see you all out there.

Very kind of you all. I feel attached to this community so would be appreciate of lurking around the edges.

Cheers back at you. Hope to see you out there. Thanks for kind words.

Hey All, We recently sold our 2021 E2. Sad to let it go as we really loved it and had done months of comfy camping in it. The reason we decided to go another way was strictly due to what, in our experience, was a lack of capacity, when not winterized, in winter conditions. We do the majority of our camping in those conditions and after extensive modifications and testing, we were unable to keep all pex lines from freezing. We just returned from a 10 day trip with our new rig where temps were consistently in single digits with lots of wind. Warm showers and no problems. Not the same finishing build quality but the drivability and functionality in cold is top of list for us. Very different animal with it's own pros and cons. The reason Im writing today is to make sure it is OK for me to keep active in the forum. I've been super impressed with the depth of knowledge and kind communications and can find no better resource for working through complex issues. I'd be appreciative if I could continue to monitor and occasionally interact. I've tried to update our status/profile but have not yet been able to do so. Any suggestions would be welcome. All the best to you all. Gerry

That theory on the venturi effect sounds spot on. On the flip side, my $.02 worth is that cold (below freezing) winter air is very dry. The heater and how water heaters should not add any moisture to air. While we never experimented with it, pluging most of the week holes and cracking the vent with Maxair on low when cooking, may have similar results. We always took Reflectix inserts out of windows and cracked fan for a drying session every day or so. The venturi may only work when in motion. After all, in winter, most of the moisture in the rig is from breath and cooking.

You may be right. i never actually blocked the skuppers. My thought is that as long as there is moisture in the trailer and temperature differential on between air surfaces, condensation will happen. I was planning on blocking the holes just for the winter in an effort to minimize all that cold air intrusion. Guessed that warm, moist air would rise (like in the atmosphere) and that I could vent through Maxair Fan. Even mid winter, we would crack the fan cover, not turning on the fan itself unless cooking and it did wonders to cut back on condensation. Pretty much limited to windows over beds where we were breathing. We had reflectix inserts in all windows so would open up the ones by beds every couple of days to find a modest amount of frozen condensate. Took no time to dry out. I ultimately gave up on the plan as my experience with digital thermometers in vulnerable spots, proved to me that my un-winterized Oliver, even after mods, had limited cold weather use. Some have had success down to zero with their trailers. I accept their account but could not reproduce the experience myself even after literally month's of winter camping and careful testing. I always found multiple spots in the hull, that had water lines run through them, that would drop to below freezing given consistent exterior temperatures in low teens or lower. Covering some of the skuppers during the dry winter time may have really helped improve performance.

I would guess that the flow through closet would not effect the flow through the hull unless, like in my case, you vent through the vanity as well. With the mod I did to our closet and venting through to the vanity in the bathroom, the heater running seemed to draw some air from main cabin, into closet, through to the vanity and back into the hull. My assumption is this effect and the circulation in the bathroom would be increased by blocking the scupper holes. That would also have the added benefit of minimizing the cold air drawn in through those holes. The pump running when water isn't would act as a warning that there is a leak somewhere but otherwise no obvious reason to have all those open scuppers. An argument could be made that they offer a source of fresh air but there seems to be more than necessary.

I cut a 4" vent from the back of the closet into the vanity in the bathroom. In my case, also added a 4" adjustsble vent in the door which is pretty much the equivalent as the vents now added standard by Oliver. After this mod, when the heater kicked on, I noticed that warm air from the cabin would get drawn through the closet. No more frost and condensation on the rear wall and clothes dried much better. Still would prop the door open if I had to dry things quickly.

Lucky you Jason. I keep having to run water through the faucets to purge air, throwing a W27 code (air in lines) till I go through a gallon or two. I catch that water in containers and put it to use so not a waste.

We were having to drain the Truma on our rig when on the road cause of the Anti Freeze issue. Was a bit of a wrestle to work the air out of the system when adding water after getting off the road. This last time had me having to re-initialize (reset) the Truma yet another time to reintroduce the board to the water heater. Who knows why but this time the display panel recognized not just the water heater but, magically, the Anti Freeze unit as well. Won't be testing to see if it works till we leave this ski resort but fingers crossed. ^ times' the charm.

To clarify, there were a ton of benefits to that set of mods. Very worthwhile effort. It allowed me to camp in temps that were 15 degrees lower than the de-winterized trailer did when stock. Problem is, here in New England, the forecast can be for a low of 15 which may just as likely be actual temps of 25 as 5. Running the heat under the batteries was a huge gain. They were noticeably more efficient ( longer lasting) post mod. Before, we had a frustrating condensation problem on the curbside bed wall and window both of which was much less of an issue after. Last but not least, we had our dog's bed on the floor between our beds up against the nightstand. Long dog so long bed so the original heat vent would cook his little head. Wet dog smell does not need to be exposed to any unnecessary cooking.