ScottyGS

Don, Thanks for the great pictures. This is exactly what I plan to do when I put the flying sea turtle up for storage in a couple of weeks. In response to Raspy, and others who may be wondering ....... Here is what I learned from a recent Conversation with Tommy Staggs. You want to put the stands underneath the sub frame which is made of steel. The sub frame is what the axles and the suspension system attach to. If you can't put the stands under the sub frame you should put them under the axles. You Do NOT want to put stands under the aluminum frame because aluminum is too soft to take the weight of the trailer concentrated in one spot. When I took a look under the trailer I saw that the suspension gets in the way of setting stands under the sub frame. So, imho..... four stands under the axles is the way to go. As I write this.... we are in the Flying Sea Turtle at Hilton Head Harbor RV park in South Carolina. It is early morning and we had a great nights sleep in comfy bunks. This will be the last trip for us and the FST for 2016. Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! Scotty

Or are we taking suggestions?

David & Susan, Congratulation on your new Ollie! Thanks for the pictures and write up. Wishing you both the best for your adventures. Maybe we will meet up at some Ollie rally in the future. Gregg & Donna Scott Flying Sea Turtle - Hull # 145

Noisy Hitch Problem - Issue Solved Just a quick up date for folks that have or will have this problem. Yes... it does sound like the spawn of the undead coming from the hitch area when you turn. I spoke to Jason at Anderson who sent out a new cone right away. Jason said that if you have the red material you might have this problem. I had the white cone and was told that they changed the mfg process to correct but some of the older white cones have that problem as well. Instruction pdf and video are available on the anderson web site and the change out is fairly straightforward. One tip... Don't even get the hammer out of the toolbox. Go for the sledge right off. replacing the cone and ball was pretty easy and seated fully without much effort. It was however about 45 degrees here when I did this. Lots of crud on the old cone and ball hitch taper. I cleaned them off well before re-seating. Pictures of what it looked like inside are attached for your amusement. Safe travels and good luck, Scotty

Don, I started a thread on this topic here. It's been a few days and no replies on that thread. http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/storage-protecting-tires/ I also put a link to a Camping world sale that you and others might be interested in. It's a BOGO on tire covers. I was going to use a tarp but got covers for both sides for under $20. It's a good deal, check it out. http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/elements-black-double-tire-cover-27-29-/84957 Any advice on this topic would be much appreciated. Thanks, Scotty

Hey again Everyone.... We are getting close to putting the Flying Sea Turtle up for winter storage and my plan is to: A.) Cover the tires to prevent sun damage B.) Get the trailer up on jacks to prevent flat spots on the tires I have A pretty much covered and wanted to let you all know that camping world has a Buy One Get One Free sale on for tire covers. Here is a link: http://www.campingworld.com/shopping/item/elements-black-double-tire-cover-27-29-/84957 As far as B is concerned... I figure to use the rear jacks to get the trailer off the ground and then use blocks or jack stands to keep it there. Ideally, Just getting the tires an inch off the ground should be good. What suggestions do you have as to where to put the jack stands.... OR.... are you using another method (cinder blocks / wood / etc) that is working for you. Thanks in advance for any tips and Travel Safe. Scotty

Buzzy, Couple of things.... You might want to re-think leaving the rear jacks down over the winter. I had the idea to raise the tires with them for winter storage and was advised by Oliver that they were not meant to be left down for long periods of time. How much pressure is too much? Your guess is as good as mine. My thoughts were to use the rear levelers to raise the tires off the ground and then put some jack stands underneath and lower the trailer onto them. Still need to research exactly where would be a safe point on the chassis to do that. Also, I realized yesterday that I forgot to put compressed air into the winterization inlet. The one that you draw water into from jerry cans. I put air into the fresh water tank fill and the city water connections and got the water out of both faucets. Blew it out pretty good. Also did the float bowl of the water pump like you said. My concern is that it is going down to 28 degrees (for many hours) on Wednesday where the trailer is stored. Do you think it will be all right? Its an hour drive to storage (one way) and I would hate to have to go back up there. I might call Tommy or Jason tomorrow to get their opinion. I can't imagine there would be any appreciable amount of water left in the system but you know how worry goes. Hope we get a chance to meet up with you one day. Would be nice to share a beer or two at the campfire. Scotty

Flying Sea Turtle Winterizing update Well ... first things first. I tease Buzzy every now and then about the amount of DETAIL he puts into everything. But I do have to say a very public and very heartfelt THANK YOU! Buzz Man, your winterizing procedure was on the money. And it helped me a lot. Thank you very much! Now for the update part. This week we will see temps drop below freezing to about 24 degrees that will last 4-6 hours overnight. That was a bit too much for me, so we pack up some stuff and drove a bit over an hour to where we have the FST stored. I won't call this a winterizing but a pre-winterizing. I used the compressed air method in the first part of Buzzy's checklist and then protected the P traps in both sinks and shower with RV Anti Freeze. I did not pump RV Antifreeze into the entire system because...... We are going on a trip down to South Carolina for a couple weeks around Thanksgiving. My original plan was to use only compressed air and a few cups of RV Antifreeze for the entire winter. I first learned about this method from the RV geeks youtube video. Google RV Geeks and Winterize and you will find it easy. After doing a bit more research I have decided to winterize with RV Antifreeze when we put the trailer up for final winter storage about the beginning of December. Here are my reasons for going the extra mile and using the Antifreeze: We will have to sanitize tanks anyway and that will pretty much completely get rid of the pink stuff I saw some other youtube videos that said compressed air might not be adequate for really cold climates My fear that somewhere there would be a little pocket of water that would cause trouble (Thanks again Buzz) Started thinking about any seals in the system. Seals are usually designed to stay wet. Not sure drying them out would be good. So when we return, I will have the storage place do the RV Antifreeze for me. They are the Pro's and the price was right. Will have them install the Dexter Easy Flex next summer as well. HEY... if it's worth doing... it's worth paying someone to do it RIGHT! :-) So to sum up. It was a COLD! WET! NASTY job (can you tell I like to bitch a bit?) but I followed Buzzys Instructions and got it done. After we settle the trailer in permanent for the winter, I plan to put her up on jacks and wrap the tires. Any advice on that would be much appreciated. Thanks for all the replies and shared knowledge and Best of Luck getting your Ollie's ready for Old Man Winter. Scotty FST Hull # 145

Hey Don.... Just wanted to let you know that you will have no problem towing the LE2 with your F150. I wondered if I would need the towing mirrors and found that visibility is pretty good with the standard mirrors. V6 ecoboost engine does a very nice job with the Ollie. Best of Luck Scotty Flying Sea Turtle Hull # 145

I kind of figured you might have this scoped out. The Buzz Man strikes again! Much Thanks Amigo. Scotty

Hey Gang! It's that time of year again. I plan to winterize with compressed air after our November trip south. I made this checklist up from several sources including the RV Geeks video on winterizing with the Viair compressor. It does need refining. I did not consult the manual as it is in the trailer in storage and a bit too far to drive. I was NOT able to find the Oliver Video. The link is broken. Does anyone know where it is? Comments, Advice, Suggestions, Winterizing Flame Wars.... all appreciated Travel Safe, Scotty Flying Sea Turtle - Hull # 145 Winterize-Oliver-LE2-with-AIR.docx

Hi Annie, I have the LE 2 and am new to towing a trailer. TV is a 2016 F-150 and it handles very well. I would advise you get the rear mounted camera option. It acts like a rear view mirror for traveling on the road and for backing in. I would imagine that the difference (from the T@B) would be in HEIGHT and WIDTH. The Elite looks a bit taller and wider than the T@B. Before picking up the Elite 2 I was concerned about the view in the standard side mirrors . The F-150 and the LE2 are the same width and the visibility in the side mirrors is good. I don't have the tow mirrors. Check your width on the MB 550 and if you are 6' 6" or wider, you should have good mirror vis. If you take things slow and steady you should be fine. This is more of a brains vs. brawn issue so the girls just might have the advantage here. :-) Best of Luck, Scotty

Hi Lauren, Thanks for letting me know. That sounds like the toilet vents into the black pipe in the closet, which I believe is also the vent for the black tank. Hope you order your OT soon and are as happy with it as we are. Scotty

Hi Elgie, The fan is wired to be always on. I am pretty sure that is a good thing. Never had a concern with power for the fan. It's such a small draw and the solar panels keep the batteries topped off when in storage etc. On the vent issue. I can only give you half an answer. The vent hose connects to the wall to the left of the sink. Where it goes from there I am not sure, but I would like to know as well. My guess would be either A.) to the black tank vent pipe which runs through the closet and up to the roof OR B.) down underneath the trailer to whatever opening they fabricated. If you ask Anita or Tommy... please let me (and the group) know what you find. Our set up is with a black tank installed but not used. This way if we (or a subsequent owner) decide to switch to a more conventional set up we can. I specified this when ordering our trailer. You might want to make sure that is the standard configuration OR explore other options with Oliver. Please let me know if i can answer any other questions but keep in mind we are still new to the CT and our experience is limited. So far.. so good though. Safe Travels, Scotty

Randy, Thanks for suggesting the BW tank to FW tank modification. I was glad to see a new thread start up on the Composting Toilet option so we could discuss the actual toilet and not lobby Oliver Trailers for a dual Fresh Water tank mod. I realize that some folks are interested in that but we already had one thread that was covering it pretty well. As for the Toilet Ladder...... Yes, that is definitely something to consider. It doesn't bother me too much and I have not heard a lot of complaints from the 5'4" better half. We had a nice visit to Cherry Hill state park in PA to see the meteor showers and I dumped some coffee grounds in the solids tank one morning. I read that this was a good idea to control odor somewhere on the net, and just put some in for the heck of it.... NOT because it was needed. For two people the liquids tank gets emptied every other day or so. Not an unpleasant task. I can't imagine having to deal with the busted Slinky scenario and quite frankly was not looking forward to having to deal with an un-busted one either. I am still new to the CT experience, but am happy to answer any questions I can.... and to resist the urge to make up silly answers for those I can't. Safe Travels, Scotty... and Donna.... and the Flying Sea Turtle... and the Blue Whale.

The Flying Sea Turtle ... Hull # 145 has a Natures Head composting toilet. There is a lot of information out there on composting toilets for RV's, so I won't go into a lot of detail about CT's in general. You might want to google "Gone with the Wynns" and "Composting Toilet" for videos that will provide a lot of good information. So let me give you my thoughts about the CT and the Oliver Trailer. In our case the LE2. Using - There is a bit of a learning curve in using a CT in the Ollie. The unit is a bit tall, so you have to be careful getting on and off in the small bathroom. The main thing you want to ensure is that you COMPLETELY SEPARATE solids and liquids. See the video and other sources for info on this. Loading & Dumping - IMHO... easier than dealing with a black tank dump on the road. For two people on trips less that a few weeks, you wont have to dump and re-charge the solids area. You can leave that till you get home and then LEAVE IT longer until the next trip. The longer it composts the less offensive the dumping job is. In any case, when changing out, I remove the top portion of the toilet and put it in a medium size (the white ones) garbage bag to take it out of the ollie. I do the same with the bottom portion but use a contractor bag for that. This prevents any mess inside the trailer. Then i turn the bottom portion over and dump the contents into the bag and give it a few whacks to dis jar any loose material. The liquids bucket is easy to dump and urine is sterile, so you can dump it just about anywhere. There is some smell when dumping but not when the unit is assembled. Re-charging - Very simple. Put another white garbage bag into a bucket and put the Sphagnum peat moss in and add water until it is the consistency of dirt. Not too moist or too dry. Then put it back in the base. Not a hard job and not offensive. Oliver Configuration - When we got this option we made sure that Oliver plumbed the black tank and everything else as if it were the standard RV toilet. That way if we or anyone else wanted to revert to a black tank set up, it is easy. Good for re-sale when the time comes. I have read in the other thread that Oliver refuses to not plumb a black tank in and the reason is that it would be near impossible to convert to a standard toilet if it were not there. I know many people have differing opinions, but for me this is my preference. As for water conservation.... I would imagine it would conserve more that a standard RV toilet. Probably more important to those spending a lot of time out west. Happy to answer any other questions, but please limit to the CT and the Oliver. Safe Travels, Scotty

John, Thanks for the information. I will keep in mind as I walk through the project. Finding a capable welder and then designing the frame to accept rack components will be a challenge but I really don't have a deadline, so no pressure. To be clear... My intentions are to buy the Yakima Holdup rack and use that on both the F-150 and the Ollie until / if / when I get motivated to build a custom frame. So, no issues on the F-150 carry. License Plate - I thought about re-locating the LP so it is visible when hauling bikes. Donna had a good suggestion. We might take a picture of the LP and then print a life size photo and laminate. We would place this in the rear window similar to where Oliver put the temporary registration when we bought the trailer. Might not be perfectly legal, but I don't think many cops would be too motivated to make an issue out of it, and might appreciate the forethought. Opinions on this are very welcome. Electric Bikes - I will do a post in General Discussion in the near future on our E bikes, including the search for a carrier that will work with the LE2. For now, we purchased the B&H easy motion for Donna and the A2B Alva plus for me. We are planning on giving the B&H to my son, Donna will take the A2b, and I am waiting for a Pedego Ridge Rider delivery. The A2B and Ridge Rider are great bikes and worth a serious look if you are interested. (rented the ridge rider for a few hours to test it) E bikes are very cool. They make riding a joy. Not effortless but they do make hills and headwinds easy to deal with. I would recommend that you look for a local E bike shop that will let you test ride, or better yet rent them for an hour or two. Thanks again and Safe Travels All! Scotty

Grayson, Very nice indeed. We have recently acquired two electric bikes and I am looking for a rack that will be used both on the Ollie and our F-150. I was looking at the Thule brand, but their hitch and locking mechanism requires that the hole be set back 1.5" in the receiver. I measured the Ollie rack and found it to be 1.25". A quarter of an inch does not sound like much but with the weight of the E bikes and rack.... I don't want to chance it. Plus the Thule has 1.25" tube with an adapter for the 2" receiver. Not my idea of a solid connection. We will probably purchase the Yakima Holdup for a 2" receiver. That rack looks like it will serve well on the truck or on the Ollie. It has an actual 2" square tube that will fit 2" receivers. All that being said... I like your mod very much and will most likely follow in your footsteps at some point. Do you have a drawing for welding up the Aluminum Tube that you would be willing to share? I have access to the raw materials at a good price but would need to have a local fab shop make up the frame. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks for sharing this awesome mod! Scotty

Hey Gang! I just completed two small... very small ... mods on the Flying Sea Turtle. I added a second Ruggid RV Rug to the steps and installed EZE Gutters. EZE Gutters - These have been very extensively posted about and Thanks to all who shared their wisdom. I can add that I chose to run the gutters all the way down the sides for each of the three big windows. I ordered two 10' pieces and cut the needed length from each to do the windows above the bunks with a single piece. For the window over the dinette, I used two pieces with a splice in the middle top of the window. Not enough left over to do the bathroom window and that was just fine for me... Bathroom gets wet anyway. Alcohol to clean before putting the gutters on, and now they are on tight! We all know what they look like so i wont post pics on this. Ruggids RV Step Rugs - We bought one of these on the road and liked it so much that I sent away to Camping World for another. They install easy with the provided LARGE Zip Ties. We all know how easy the steps on Ollie get dirty and how hard they are to clean. These look nice, help keep dirt in the trailer down and even reduce the noise of folding the steps a bit. Pictures attached. They are about $19 each from CW. Safe travels everyone! Scotty .... and Donna who is napping on the couch... and the FST... and the Blue Whale. Later!

Hey Gang! I just completed two small... very small ... mods on the Flying Sea Turtle. I added a second Ruggid RV Rug to the steps and installed EZE Gutters. EZE Gutters - These have been very extensively posted about and Thanks to all who shared their wisdom. I can add that I chose to run the gutters all the way down the sides for each of the three big windows. I ordered two 10' pieces and cut the needed length from each to do the windows above the bunks with a single piece. For the window over the dinette, I used two pieces with a splice in the middle top of the window. Not enough left over to do the bathroom window and that was just fine for me... Bathroom gets wet anyway. Alcohol to clean before putting the gutters on, and now they are on tight! We all know what they look like so i wont post pics on this. Ruggids RV Step Rugs - We bought one of these on the road and liked it so much that I sent away to Camping World for another. They install easy with the provided LARGE Zip Ties. We all know how easy the steps on Ollie get dirty and how hard they are to clean. These look nice, help keep dirt in the trailer down and even reduce the noise of folding the steps a bit. Pictures attached. They are about $19 each from CW. Safe travels everyone! Scotty .... and Donna who is napping on the couch... and the FST... and the Blue Whale. Later!

Hi Keith, If you are trying to match a color exactly.... I would recommend that you visit a local sign store that has an Oracal 651 color book. That's what i did to match the blue stripe to the flame blue of the F150. Monitors won't give you true colors. Depends on how exact you need to be. Scotty

Would some of our more SOLAR - ly advanced brethren provide a quick primer on managing power OFF the grid? I thought that the IPN ProRemote manual would give me some tips on that but I might be missing something. The back button on the remote switches between the "Battery Volt/Amp" screen and the "Remaining Battery Capacity Screen". Here are my questions about those screens. "Battery Volt/Amp" screen - What exactly does the voltage measure? I have the 4 AGM batteries, six volts each, but this screen maxes out at around 13.3 V - How do i use this figure to tell me the state of remaining power? "Remaining Battery Capacity Screen" - Should I interpret this screen like a gas gauge? Would 50% capacity indicate that all 4 AGM's are now at 50% and I should stop trying to get any additional power out of them. How do I know when I am critically low and should be shutting everything down to avoid damaging the batteries? And finally... What in my ignorance have I forgotten to ask about managing battery power? Thanks in advance for your help and just so you know... I did manage to set the monthly discharge rate after reading the IPN manual. He can be taught! Thanks, Scotty

Thanks!

Congrats on the New Truck Mike! "Won't fit in the garage... (yet)" HA! I know where you are coming from. Good Luck. When we got back from picking up the Flying Sea Turtle, i went to put the F150 in the garage and thought... might as well remove the hitch from the truck. Good thing I did. The truck will NOT fit with the hitch ball on it. Congrats again and safe towing. Scotty

Hey Everyone..... If you are looking for towel racks, hooks, bins, clips, paper towel holders, tissue box holders, shelves, soap holders, racks.... <stop for a breath>...that attach with suction cups that WILL NOT fall of the walls of your Oliver. Look no further! www.fecausa.com These things are pretty awesome. I am not connected with this company in any way except that Donna bought some hooks and a paper towel rack and they just WORK. It's like they had Oliver in mind when they came up with the idea. Hope you all find this useful. Scotty