Dave and Kimberly

Bill and Martha- the more I look at your sewer hose arrangement around the side-winder... the more I like it 🙂

As always... some great ideas from the group! When I see confirmation from so many others it is affirming what all of you have said. I will keep a section connected to the Oliver and capped on the other end to eliminate the reaching in under the bumper. It will be especially nice to have "fair warning" from any weight found in the sewer hose before I uncap it. Adding a check under the dinette seat to confirm the valve is seated all the way is a good idea too. In a pinch... and assuming there isn't people waiting, I'll try to put the front jack down enough to raise the trailer up a few inches. Not unhooking, but just taking the weight off the truck should be enough to get some extra fall from front to back. Thanks again! I hope this newbee question was helpful to some one else too!

Ok... after reading and agreeing with some concerns about the difficulty undoing the Black and Gray drain cap, I feel compelled to dump another question on the group about the "Dump process". Yes... I also think the placement of the cap is difficult and I feel like I have to get down on my knees... in an area I'd really rather NOT do that in. To further compound the frustration... three times I've discovered that the tube already had some liquid behind the cap (and yes it was, before you even ask). After each of these nasty episodes... I'm careful to check and make sure that the valves are completely closed after finishing at the dump station. To further test the valves' integrity for a tight seal, I've filled both the black and gray tanks with clean soapy water (now that we are home for while)... and leaving the cap off... I'm looking for any water draining despite the closed valves. Of course when it's clean water - nothing, not a drop is coming out! A further note... getting home after picking up our new Ollie on May 2, I've lowered the Andersen WDH Ball hitch one hole, which is 1 1/2". I did this in order to make the Ollie a bit more flat when towing. It's still 1 1/2" tongue high while towing. I say this because I'm wondering if I'm not getting a thorough drain down the length of the tube when at the dump station. And one more note while I'm "venting"... is that every dump station seems to have a different grade... which adds another complication to the whole stinking conundrum! Thanks to this forum... I think I can confidently fix just about everything imaginable on our Ollie... so I'm hoping for some group wisdom on this topic as well!

It is still the best government ever devised by men... now it's incumbent on each of us to keep it. Happy Fourth of July to everyone!

Nice!

We are going up there in September and October. What is the actual name of the campground that you stayed at? It looks nice enough to consider for a stopping point.

Congratulations on your new Ollie! We just picked ours up in May... so understand your excitement! Just a suggestion: go camping for a while to figure out how you use it... what style of camping works for you, etc.. I spent 10 months making lists of things I thought we would want to buy or modify when the time came. Fortunately we were able to travel for 3 or 4 weeks and now in real use...quickly we discovered some things we hadn't thought of as well as some things that fell off the list. This will help you prioritize projects based on time and money. The Oliver is so nice... nothing is "urgent".

It was very good to meet you as well Bill! I think you showed me around at least a hundred good ideas! I expect to be working on many of them very soon now that we are home! We even did a couple of nights off grid... and could not have been happier with how well the Ollie performs. It meets all of our expectations and even hopes!

Kimberly and I have had our inaugural road trip… and feeling pretty good about my understanding of the various systems of our new Oliver. A big thanks all in the forum! IMG_5046.MOV

GSDK9Dad... I hear you on some of those concerns. I was looking at many different models... in the campgrounds passed thru. I was always looking at the pros/cons of each model... even toy haulers. I KNEW we required a quality unit and I was looking at AS because they are built near my home and many of my friends spent their careers with them. The wet shower is a concern for me (I'm a shower taker). Many went into Olivers with at least some concern on shower size. Most have since decided it now is non-issue. We are travelers... not so much campers. We want mobile comfort but don't need a rolling house. One of the attractions (for me) of Oliver is it's reputation for towing. Virtually no one with experience will dispute that point. I had to reign myself in when looking at RV's. What did I really need to be comfortable in while traveling? There are bigger units... and personally I fell in love with some of the AS floor plans. The very first time I saw a trailer with two twin beds in it was a vintage AS... probably around 1955 model. I never forgot that. The LEII allows me to chill, read a book in bed... watch a bit of tv... go to bed, wake up and have a cup of coffee at at the table while my wife sleeps in later. I can go to bathroom, shower and step out to greet the world when I'm good and ready. It's enough. Cooking for most part is a combination of stove top, microwave and grill outside. I quote someone else that said "Ollie is everything I need and nothing more". Ultimately cost has to be calculated. What is a reasonable long term resale value?? Because $90K and fuel costs will buy a lot of hotel rooms! So then when we toured the factory at Hohenwald and decided to spend this kind of money... I had to give AS one more look while Oliver was fresh in my mind. I still liked the floor plan.... but the quality of an AS was beyond disappointing to me. On many levels... AND it was about $30k MORE... for roughly the same length and one foot wider. This may be a unique point in time... but the re-sale value of Olivers is pretty incredible. Ultimately... the cost of any unit is just the difference between purchase and resale... and whatever maintenance cost in between. That's what you paid to travel around. On after the sale service: I'm in Ohio... so Hohenwald isn't exactly close... but their service has proven to be stellar. I learned the hard way before that the "warrantee and service" that you might think is similar to owning a new Honda... it's NOT that way in the RV world in general. Not even close. I expect to educate myself enough to manage 90% of my own service and maintenance on the Oliver. When I can't... I'm confident the factory will be there for me. In two days we are leaving to pick up our new LEII... and we will be doing a shake down trip and then hanging out with others at the Rally. That was really nice of Oliver to schedule a get together just for us so we could meet everyone! 🙂

I wasn't sure myself and found an excellent article that pertains exactly to your question. The determining factor is whether you have an internal "bonded" neutral and ground... or not, which is called a "floating neutral". Check out this article and you might find it helpful. I did. An interesting thing is that two major inverter generator manufacturers (Honda and Yamaha) have floating neutral which means you need to put on an external bonded plug. Many of the others have internal grounding hard wired inside the generator. It would be worth your time to read the attached article. https://www.rvtravel.com/rv-electricity-generator-neutral-bonding-basics/

We could not be more excited to pick up our Oliver on May 2... hull number 1097. I wanted to say thanks to all of you Oliver Veterans that have helped me get educated on everything we will need to know to be "happy campers". This world is not like our regular house.... it's a rolling unit and we need to know how to maintain it, how to some times trouble shoot problems on the road and make repairs. Most of the time the real secret is just understanding how all the systems work... and I have endured the long wait (10 months) by listening to the advice of of those that take the time to share experiences. I have watched with interest as folks run into problems... and then I wait to see what the community thinks and it's always interesting to see how it was resolved. Thanks so much to all of you for helping me not only get educated... but to be assured that we spent our money wisely. Seldom have I felt so certain of a new purchase as this one! After our pickup, we will be moving around Tennessee and Alabama for a few weeks... just playing with our new Oliver. I feel like I know some of you... at least to a certain level... so we are looking forward to meeting you in person either at the upcoming Rally... or elsewhere on the road!

I'm happy to see that you are back on the road in an awesome LEII.

Nice job on the tutorial John! Makes me want to at the very least, pop the cap off and add just a bit more grease right away while it's still new. Hopefully avoid some of the metal specks before I eventually do clean it out and replace it with the better synthetic grease.

I'm interested in where this conversation, research and actual results pan out with these different coatings. We had our new Acura RDX sealed with a ceramic coating (guaranteed for 5 years)... and I've been pleased so far (9 months). I see there are some different recommendations based on some experience with one company... while others seem to like another company. I have been wondering if the same "ceramic" coating that is used for aluminum... Is it just as good on gelcoat? Waiting and watching to see and hopefully do the "touch and feel" at the rally. I really like to keep my rolling stock looking really nice but the truck already feels like waxing the side of a house... so imagine the Oliver must feel like waxing a barn! Another thing that I'd like to learn more about is the XPEL film. It seems to me that it would be ideal to protect the most vulnerable areas on the Ollie. I've watched a few videos... and I think that it's something I could do myself. Thinking about getting a small amount to try my hand at it on the truck. First attempt would be down low... just in case it turns out I was overly optimistic. I did follow the advice of many and get some mud flaps to reduce any potential damage. I would probably cry like a baby if I got a serious ding on our new Ollie.

First of all... so thankful that you are physically ok! Everything else pales in comparison. That said I have also wondered why states (Ohio included) have done away with the requirement for the front license plates? Good luck on your search for a quick replacement. They aren't easy to find... but I've a sneaking feeling that the same God that protected you in that crash... will bless you in your replacement search as well. You will probably find yourselves in a late model LEII all tricked out with the best mods, improvements and gizmos... all ready to hit the road again....but hardly used! 🙂

It concerns me... but I'm at least blessed enough financially to be able to afford to travel despite the increased fuel charges. So I'm just ball parking some numbers here, but if I get about 14MPG and use somewhere in the neighborhood of 165 gallons on that 2300 mile trip it means that it's going to cost me another $165 each way (round trip it's $330) MORE than fuel was just a year ago. The last time we traveled extensively it was spring of 2022... we were in a tear-drop camper and because of it... we tended to almost exclusively go to KOA's for the shower/bath house facilities... and pay anywhere from $45 ~70 per night depending on the locale. Why? We needed those nicer facilities because we didn't have them in our little tear-drop. Now when we get in our Ollie... we expect to be staying in state parks, Core of Engineers, maybe a even a few Harvest Hosts or even the occasional Cracker-docking (love that word!). We even expect to stay at least a few times on BLM. All told, even considering the higher cost of fuel (say $500 more).... we will easily save that now that we can choose places that I might not have wanted to stay in before. All that and we are going to be obscenely comfortable in our new Ollie! And let's not even talk about all the great campsites that will be opened up to us going forward. The other off-set is that our house is going to be virtually shut off while we are gone. Typically our travels have taken us out for 6 weeks or so at a time but when we leave this time... there is no telling when we are going to make it home again! 🙂 So we are going to enjoy life while we can and be grateful to God for every day we get! And no looking back! I'm also reminded of how fortunate we are in this country to only have to worry a bit about the current cost of fuel.

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/travel-trailers/videos/ This discusses the proper use of the stabilization jacks and is found in the Oliver university videos.... but at the 3:20 mark... they point out the jack-up points.

Ya HOOOOOO!! We aren't far behind you... and we are beside ourselves excited! Have FUN!!!

As I am understanding Olivers OEM Lithium battery arrangement... they will not charge from the 7 pin connector (from TV) while driving from place to place. So my assumption is that I will get some charging from solar panels (dependent on sunshine) and also whenever hooked up to shore power. Of course a third option would be a generator. From our past experience (with a previous travel trailer)... we are not so much campers as travelers. We move a lot. Another option would be to install the "dc to dc" system that I believe John E Davies documented... and is what I hope to ultimately do in order to utilize that otherwise untapped resource while moving from place to place. As is so often the case... only some real world experience with the Ollie and our style of camping/traveling. When it's hot... I can guarantee you I want electric hook-up for that A/C.... but for those other times... just how much can I count on the solar panels to keep up before we need to find shore power to charge up again. Expect wife to make her coffee every morning, run the microwave now and then briefly... and lights of course.

Congratulations on your new rolling home! It looks beautiful!

I listened with great interest to Tom Mortons video.... and I appreciated his logic and conclusions he arrived at. It was a tough pill for me to swallow to pay $4100 more for the 390 Amp hour Lithium package vs AGM's... but I'm comfortable with that decision. One thing that I'm not sure about is the brand of Lithium batteries that Oliver installs in the 2022 model. I notice that most of you who have over time migrated /upgraded to Lithium purchased Battle-Born. They do seem to be a benchmark in the industry. What brand of Lithium battery is "original equipment" in Oliver currently?

Bill... I have the Andersen levelers.... Did you need to "shorten" them at all... or did they fit right out of the box? We are leaving end of April to pick up our Ollie and I'm trying to be as ready as possible for a month of traveling immediately following that day 🙂

Yes siree bob a rooski! I got that that there BIG ole bulldog coupler. I expect to be attracting buckle bunnies and bulldog bunnies... and all sorts of others as we all stand around and admire that ginormous 2 5/16" monster coupler. I figure if everything else breaks off the back end... I'll still have my coupler and we can just replace the rest. I'll never forget the day I first saw a big honkin locomotive... it had a 2 5/16" coupler. I knew I had to have one too. I fully expect I'll need the wife to call ahead and warn the campgrounds that we are coming in with the big one! (I hope I don't end up regretting having fun with this post! Tell me I can delete in an emergency?)

The Bulldog coupler was available on the 2022 models as well. We decided to upgrade to it along with the Andersen WDH.