VBistro

Agree on the Garmin InReach. We have two in case one of us is off on an adventure from camp without the other. I like that we can get a month-to-month subscription. If we know it will be a few months until our next adventure, we simply suspend the subscription. mb

I agree with the numbers you are seeing here. We dry camped for 10 days this past June with a NH toilet on board. Grey: about 80% full at the end - we did dishes once per day and reserved that water to put out the nightly campfire. We each showered every 3 days or so. Fresh: We started with a full fresh tank, refilled with about 15 gallons through the boondocking port (we have a filtering jerrycan that worked extraordinarily well to fill from a creek), and had separate drinking water of about 15 gallons. Ended the trip with about 6 gallons in the fresh tank. Composting toilet: we emptied the pee bucket about every other day. We drink a lot, and pee a lot. The solids required no maintenance other than stirring. We put all TP in a separate lined waste basket. mb

Count us in, too! (And hopefully your patent attorney advised you that if there is, indeed, something patentable to your design, you have only one year from its first public use/disclosure/sale to get a patent on file for coverage in the US.) mb

I hadn't thought about using the black tank for fresh water, but I *did* procure everything I need to use the black tank as extra gray storage. Most places we boondock have water nearby that we can filter with a filtering jerrycan and pump into the fresh tank in boondock mode, but I often find ourselves butting up against gray tank limits. If you haven't see this yet, it's clever!

That's a very cool TV! And you even manage to secure your bikes onboard. Love it!

We went with strip lighting in both the pantry and the lower part of the closet. They work great! https://a.co/bG98dxe

I wanted to put dimmers on the interior lights, but heard back from Oliver that they are not dimmable. Bummer. Let me know what you learn about the outdoor bulbs!

Congratulations on your new Oliver! Welcome!

Thermacells are the best! And the newer ones are rechargeable and use a cartridge rather than a pad. Very simple to use. We keep two in the camper and another 4 at home for patio use!

We have taken them on 3 trips so far, including one with about 10 miles of forest service road. Lids didn't pop off, containers stayed put, and I haven't noticed any drips. The only issue we do have is that my soap of choice (castille) can get a little cloggy if it sits for a while. You just scrape off the "scab" and make sure to "cup" the outlet in case any remaining crust causes the soap to spurt out to the side. Worth the convenience factor in my book. https://a.co/7DbYhtl mb

I find these strangely satisfying. They work great on flies and mosquitos, but maybe not gnats. https://a.co/9jomJiJ

We don’t use that space at all for storage - things pop out the minute you hit the road. Here’s our solution. Shampoo/soap, conditioner, lotion and sunscreen. All at the ready

Hi there. I'm interested in replacing some or all of our interior LEDs with warmer lights. I don't know what the factory installed lights are, but would prefer something in the 3000K range. The bright light is great, but there are a lot of bulbs, and my eyes (and brain) need a break. I have a note out to support at Oliver, and they are checking with manufacturing for part numbers, but I'm curious if anyone here has replaced their bulbs. mb

We also keep a fridge fan going at all times. It keeps the air circulating, and helps prevent the ice buid-up on the fins that John mentioned. https://smile.amazon.com/dp/B09GCH9ZZZ?psc=1&ref_=cm_sw_r_cp_ud_dp_NMXVJ1GY0BWWK66MGVEW

I did notice on our last trip (boondocked...propane only) that I needed to adjust the temperature setting throughout the day, depending on ambient temp. I have a SensorPush as well, so I could tell whether I needed to make it colder or warmer. It was annoying, but I never had to push it above setting 6, except when my husband put a bottle of white wine in to "chill". SMH. Temps were in the high 80s or low 90s for a few days, and the camper was in direct sun. I would call Oliver and see what they have to say.

What a great write-up! Thanks for sharing this - we've been contemplating a rear carrier since we picked up Hull 953 and I sure do like how robust this is. mb

This was the first time we used it...and we haven't gotten around to cleaning it. But the process looks quite straightforward. Sicking my better half on it today! 😉 https://iconlifesaver.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/LifeSaver-Jerrycan-Instruction-Manual-2-2.pdf?v=7516fd43adaa This really did allow us to boondock for longer than we would have without it. While we only purified 6-8 gallons, we could have easily done more if friends hadn't re-supplied us with potable water when they arrived at camp.

Friends are visiting YP right now. They say they are stuck in Gardiner until who-knows-when!

Interesting...I did notice some black "junk" on the base in the water heater compartment. I'll go blow all around the compartment later today. Just stick it in the exhaust pipe, or is there a particular spot/method?

Excellent point about the port itself, John. We hadn't considered that. Ours is a zamp port, and I just chatted with Zamp customer service. The port is rated to 345W, or approximately 20-25 Amps. We're good on that front, and given that all of the other wiring is 10 guage, we should be fine. I'll still put in a call to Oliver. Thanks! And I'll take a close look at your info on the water heater. It works just fine at home (5400 feet), so it likely is just a simple jet issue and not a supply issue.

LOL. We're always happy to make new ones!

Oh! And in case you were wondering, we didn't drink all that wine by ourselves. We like to share with our friends! 🙂

@MarkV and I just returned home from one of our first trips in Olivia (hull #953), this one 10 nights of boondocking/dry camping in the Pike National Forest at around 7500 feet. TLDR: we had an absolutely spectacular time camping and mountain biking with a pile of our friends. Olivia's systems performed nearly flawlessly, and we could have stayed off-grid for at least 10 more days. Some notables from this trip: 1. SOLAR/BATTERY: We have the platinum package - 630 Ah lithionics, 340 W solar, 3000W inverter- coupled with an external 200W Renogy Solar Suitcase. This system performed flawlessly, although we did have an issue with the portable suitcase -- its output is 20A, but the inline fuse at the Ollie's solar port is 10A. Based on the wire guage sizes along the entire portable system (10) we made the decision that a 20A fuse would be just fine, since the wires are rated up to 30A and the total input into the batteries would never exceed the maximum recommended by Lithionics. Even in the brightest direct sun, the Renogy never put out more than 17-18A. Success, but I do intend to call Oliver and discuss with service. We did not skimp on our electrical useage -- baked cookies and a couple of meals in the convection microwave, toast in the toaster every morning, made at least 3 meals in the InstantPot, frothed hot milk every morning, held 2 "boondock refill sessions" where we ran the water pump for what seemed like forever, 24/7 fan use, and kept the fridge on DC during travel. We even ran the air conditioner for 2-3 hours on 3 of the the hottest days. Even though our first few days were partly-to-mostly cloudy and our camping spot didn't get direct sun until noon, our batteries never dropped below 75%, and the solar managed to bring them back to 100% FULL twice on sunny days. Based on this first data point, I'd estimate that we could camp indefinitely with occasional full-sun days, and at least two weeks in cloudy conditions. 2. WATER: We are very water-wise while camping, but 10 days is a long time. We started with 30 gallons of fresh (forgot to turn the HW bypass before we left, so didn't have that extra 5) and 15 gallons of drinking water in jerry cans. Our son and friend brought us 10 gallons of fresh mid-trip. We also used our Lifesaver Pressurized Jerrycan to purify another 5-8 gallons of creek water and used 6 gallons of creek water to do 2 loads of laundry in our Scrubba bag. Our miserly ways included doing dishes just once a day at night in a basin in the kitchen sink, then using that water to put out our campfire rather than putting it in the gray tank; showering just twice during the week, and sponge bathing the other days. While we did have to use the boondock port twice to add about 15-20 gallons of water, we ended the trip with around 4-5 gallons in the fresh tank and the grey tank at about 60% full. We could have gone another 5-7 days easily, but we might have run out of food first! 🙂 The only thing I want to change for our next big boondock trip is the addition of a "touch" faucet at the kitchen sink. The stock faucet is nice, but very tricky to get the very low flow I prefer for rinsing dishes. The touch would allow you to set the flow once and forget it. We love the one we have at home, and my BIL is visiting for a month and loves projects, so.... If anyone has attempted a touch faucet in their Oliver and has advice/warnings, we'd love to hear them! 3. ALTITUDE: While we expected to have issues with our refrigerator on propane at 7500 feet (it's "rated" to 4500, with a recommendation to run on DC above that altitude), the fridge performed remarkably well on 100% propane. It did seem to need a bit of babying with regards to temp setting, though, having to turn it down at night and up during the heat of the day. (Anyone know why Norcold doesn't just install a thermostat instead of a 1-9 setting? Hate that "feature"!) While we might have been able to get away with running on DC full time if the sun was full every day, 10 days is probably just a bit too long to run it 24/7. Where we DID have issues with altitude was with the Suburban water heater. Apparently, this must be "derated" 4% for every 1000 feet above 4500. We'll be taking advantage of Google and Oliver this week to figure out what needs to be done, but the water heater was not happy at 7500 feet. It would sputter, stop, sputter, run, sputter, stop, run. And eventually we would get hot water. Clearly, we need to figure this out since 99% of our camping is above 4500 feet. 4. ENVIRONMENT: I remember long ago, before ordering an Oliver, that someone on the forums pointed out that the Oliver is very well-insulated and it likely wouldn't be necessary to run the A/C while we left the dogs inside to go riding. It's true! When we left for our rides in the morning, temps in the Oliver were around 65 degrees. We closed all windows tight, and when we returned 2-3 hours later, inside temps were at most 73 even when the outside temp was in the 80s. It helped that we parked in a spot where Olivia didn't get sun until around noon. Given how well the battery/solar package worked for us, if we're camped in a sunnier spot, I won't hesitate to close everything up and set the A/C to come on at 75 degrees, just in case. 5. COMPOSTING TOILET: In short, love it. We wouldn't have been able to dry camp 10 days with a conventional toilet. Given the altitude we were camping at, as well as the level of activity (2-4 hours of mountain biking every day), we consumed a LOT of water so we, well Mark, emptied the pee bucket every day and a half, but the solids container still has plenty of room. Solids did get a bit cloggy, probably due to too much moisture (I over-did it) and too much TP. Next time, I'll adjust the coir/water ratio and we'll put ALL TP into a waste bin. 6. CONNECTIVITY: I am pleased to report that our CradlePoint system with both AT&T and Verizon sim cards failed to produce any signal at all at our campsite. 🙂 Seriously. That made me very happy. Had we known that Starlink was going to go mobile this summer, we might have gone that route instead of CradlePoint, but....then we would have had internet in a place that we have always said is better enjoyed "unplugged". 7. FOOD: We don't believe in "roughing it" when we camp, and why should you when you own an Oliver? We ate like kings while out for 10 days. Our setup includes the InstantPot as well as a two-burner camp chef stove with the optional griddle and grill. While we did run out of fresh veggies after 7 days, we still did all right. A sampling of our favorites: Organic Chicken Flautas (Costco) with avocado and poached eggs (made in the microwave) Garlic Parmesan White Beans (themediterraneandish.com) Steak and Grain Bowl - NY strip, pearled barley, grilled onions and mushrooms, roasted brocolli, avocado InstantPot Oatmeal - steel cut oats, dried apples, mashed bananan, spices, maple syrup, toasted nuts InstantPot Honey Chipotle Tacos (cooking.NYTimes.com) Turkey melts: flour tortillas, cheddar cheese, apple, bacon, greens Seared Salmon with brown rice and sauteed spinach Beef Short Ribs with wine and tomatoes (pre-made at home, leftovers frozen for camping) And wine....plenty of wine. IMG_2135.MOV

Had Starlink for RVs been available when we finalized our build, I would have skipped the Cradlepoint. But I had good experience with CP in another rig, so opted for it in our Oliver. That said, if you opt for CP, don’t bother with the service bundled by Oliver - Mobility Help Desk. You’ll get MUCH better rates if you simply purchase a SIM and plan directly from the carrier. Mobility Help Desk plans are ridiculously expensive, and the “help desk” doesn’t offer much help in setup and/or configuring the system to your needs

If you spring for Foy’s replacement top above the fridge, you’ll regain that space easily. as far as the convection feature, I’ll report back next week after we spend 10 days boondocking. I have packed frozen cookie dough balls…