IL_Travelers

Thanks, Galway Girl, for a most helpful attachment!

We are getting to this thread a little late; sorry! When we placed our order, I asked Anita if Service could install two grommets in the floor of the attic for our two CPAP hoses. My wife and I each have ResMed units. Anita said that had been done before. Long story short...it works perfectly. We simply unplug the television at bedtime and plug both CPAPs into that 110v outlet. That works on shore power or the inverter. The hoses fit right through the floor, and they are plenty long enough. I also use a short, "mini" bungee cord, which I wrap around the attic door latch and hook each end to the top of opening to keep the door somewhat ajar for ventilation. (I just don't like the door hanging down over my head.)

Jordan, I recently had R-Villa ceramic coated. The work was done locally by an auto detailer / son of a friend. He normally works only on cars and trucks, but did the Ollie as a favor to us. The ceramic finish cost $1,400. The cost to buff it first was $600. Total = $2,000. I must say, his work was spectacular. I thought the Oliver had a great finish right from the factory; it was amazing how much better it looked after this treatment! We just got back from a trip from Illinois to Hohenwald, Laura, Ms, and then back home to IL; the Ollie was really dirty from nearly constant rain. It was amazing how easy it was to wash and especially how the bugs did not stick to the front! Some may say that is a lot of $$$. To me it was well worth it. At age 70, I am not interested in climbing on the roof, making it MORE SLIPPERY, and then trying to get down without injury.

This is a very helpful thread. Last week we moved R-Villa to a brand-new indoor, private storage facility only 6 miles from our home. A 110v electrical outlet is included at no additional charge. I am eager to see if plugging in the shore power cord to the 110 via a dogbone adapter will charge our lithiums. As a side note, it is sure going to be great for indoor Oliver work during the Illinois winters!

Since my wife and I are just one year older than you, we certainly can relate to the importance of agreeing on large purchases at this time of our lives. We also had to check with our financial planner before spending $80K on our Ollie. We had the green light from him to buy an Airstream; however, I got cold feet worrying about hail storm damage in our home state of Illinois. That's when I found out about Oliver Travel Trailers. I started reading about them; then I found this forum. The wealth of information on the forum cannot be duplicated anywhere else. It is not surprising considering the number of professionals and I have to believe engineers who own Olivers. Just ask a question, and you will have an answer within no time. I'm talking hours if not minutes; it is nothing short of amazing. We picked up "R-Villa" on May 17. So far we have logged 3,500 miles. I have pulled trailers before, but never have I pulled one so smooth as an Oliver. The aerodynamics are great, and even in wind she is so very stable. In this world you usually get what you pay for. That is true of Oliver. Their service department is fabulous, too. I just returned from Hohenwald for some minor needed "fixes" that often come with a new trailer. They were all taken care of in short order. We were completely satisfied. I encourage you, like others, to take a factory tour.

It wasn't long after our delivery on May 17, 2021, that I determined our Zamp Solar controller had problems. Illinois to Tennessee is a nice drive, so after Jason answered my service request, we set an appointment and planned a trip to Hohenwald. Our digital TV antenna was not working, and there were a couple other minor issues to have remedied during the service call. We arrived at service before 8 a.m. on July 12; everything was fixed by noon! A new Zamp controller was installed, and the antenna was rewired. Now everything works fine. Kudos to Jason and his crew!

Nice looking rig! Welcome to the Oliver Family. You are going to love the trailer view camera; so glad that worked out for you.

UPDATE: We bailed out of the Waco, Texas Leather Show in favor of Door County, Wisconsin. I lucked out on a full hook-up campground there for 7 nights. We haven't been to Door Co. in years, the temps at night should be in the 60s, and Wisconsin will be a lot quieter than Texas in August under R-Villa's air conditioner!

Sorry I didn’t see this earlier. Glad you got in touch and I could answer your questions.

I just stumbled onto this post while searching for another topic. When we returned from our maiden voyage after delivery on May 17 in Hohenwald, we arrived at home at 1 a.m. To facilitate the unloading process, I decided to back R-Villa into our driveway. While maneuvering I needed to jackknife at a somewhat sharp angle, but I did not think to check. My wife said, "Did you hear that?" I hadn't heard anything; however, upon "de-trucking" I saw what I hadn't heard. The next day the body shop gave me the bad news--$600 to straighten and paint the rear bumper on our new truck. I have since removed the Oliver aluminum box and will probably sell it. The box was unscathed!

Howdy Mike & Sue, I was ready to pull the plug on one of those Airstream tin cans until I started considering the frequent Illinois hailstorms we encounter. I discovered what it cost to repair the dents in the aluminum; WOW! Then I learned of Oliver on an Airstream forum. We placed our order in September 2020 and picked up R-Villa, Hull #803 on May 17, and we are so happy that we made that decision! Welcome!

I really appreciate the two very fast replies to my submittal. We feel better knowing R-Villa's AC should keep us cool in the Texas heat. Now it is just making the final-final decision to go through with it! Thank you both so much!

The annual leathercraft shows I regularly attend in Sheridan, WY and Prescott, AZ have been canceled for the past 1½ years+ due to COVID-19. I have been longing to see all my friends from around the world who attend these events, and now the Premier "Heart of Texas Leather Show" is being held in Waco in August. Why am I mentioning this on the Oliver Forum you may ask? It is because I have never been to Texas in August, and I am scared to death of the heat! It would be great to attend the first-ever show in Waco, it is sponsored by the same outfit as the Sheridan and Prescott events, and therefore it will likely be a good one. Am I CRAZY to be considering camping in Texas in August? My wife would be going along; however, she does not attend the show events all week like I do. Therefore, she will be spending a great deal of time in R-Villa. We actually have already booked a very nice campground with full hookups only 12 miles from the convention center where there show will be held. We were pretty hung-ho to go until I looked at WeatherUnderground and saw that the average temps for August were 98 degrees everyday that week. Of course, it could be much hotter than 98! As newer campers, I am simply looking for input from any of you. Would my wife be OK in the Ollie for a week in that heat? Of course, we have iPhones to communicate, and I will not be gone all the time. It is decision time, and we are considering backing out. Thank you for any and all suggestions!

We have a Honda Eu 2200i, and I converted it myself to run on either gasoline or LP from our Ollie's on-board tanks. An excellent conversion kit was purchased from https://www.hutchmountain.com Hutch Mountain has wonderful YouTube, step-by-step videos explaining how to install the kit; easy-peasy! I also bought 2 iridium-tipped spark plugs, a fancy billet aluminum dipstick, and a neat aluminum screw-on device to aid in oil changes. I did call them to clarify an issue, and they were so very helpful over the phone. I recommend this company highly!

We're on our first post-delivery camping trip to northern Minnesota. The weather has been changing daily from high-80s to low 50s. It would be dandy, like Ralph said, to have the ability to adjust the thermo from bed!

There was no Bluetooth thermostat on our hull 803 either. Seems kind of a miss on an $80k trailer.

Thank you so much. Just what I needed to see!

Is the Truma air conditioning unit a viable swap to eliminate or greatly lessen cabin noise? Is the Atwood available? I will gladly pay “whatever” to have any quiet unit installed. Who could do this for us. We are in Illinois; however, have wheels, will travel! HELP! This is nuts. The noise is deafening!

We were busy today organizing the storage compartments. No time to mess with the solar issue other than to check it and note there are zero amps going from the solar panels to the batteries. The dead batteries from the day before were recharged overnight by shore power, however. Tomorrow I will check for loose connections and perhaps see about a breaker reset as did SNY SD UP. On June 6 we depart for Minnesota's North Shore for a week, then back home. If the solar problem hasn't resolved and the television antenna still isn't working, I may just head back to Hohenwald. Fixing stuff on a camper is a given, but not one that's a week old.

Thank you!

...That did not work either.

Good idea...

This is our red light. It was on each time I tried to sync channels.

I am getting nothing except a code "601." Turned red cutoff switch off and on. Looks to me like solar panels are not getting to the batteries. On top of all this, when I removed the LP tank cover (to sync the SmartSense sensors under the tanks with my iPhone; it was supposed to have been done during delivery), I found one of the corner aluminum support blocks had come unglued and fallen off. Could someone please tell me what kind of glue is best for reattachment?