Mike and Carol

On our way to the rally. Spending a few days here at Daingerfield State Park near Texarkana, TX. [attachment file=0276C1B6-9B51-4D48-A6AB-2559A90A13BB.jpeg]

Not in favor of slide outs, especially in a fiberglass trailer. Airstream tried slide outs for a few years and quit due to reliability and repair issues. An 8’ wide and longer Oliver would be plenty big enough for a family. Look at the 25’ Bigfoot. Mike

A western rally in the spring would be difficult for Oliver to support since the main rally is in May. A fall rally (sep/oct) in the Southwest (NM, AZ, southern CA) would be a better option. Mike

Bob and Cheryl (and Argus the WD), welcome! We can definitely get our Oliver in some places other campers couldn’t even attempt. Good luck on the tow vehicle search, you can get lots of opinions here! Mike

We’re halfway between east and west and would probably attend both. Mike

Try raising the front of your trailer. The fresh and gray tanks are very flat. Hope this helps. Mike

Hi Marie, welcome. If you have questions about Olivers or fiberglass trailers this is a good place to be. Mike

Little Timmy is a great name! You will have many memories made in that trailer. We like camping in California, just returned from a month there! Mike

Mike, no I don’t turn it off when refueling. I read everything I could find about traveling with propane on and the majority opinion was that it was ok. I do stay aware of any strange situations or fuel spills. Mike

It looks great. Looking forward to seeing you out on the road! Mike

I use a grease gun I got on Amazon, nothing fancy or expensive but it did come with a flexible hose. A couple of the fittings are a little tricky to reach and it is a bit of a mess! Mike

I’ll be interested to see what everyone does. We turned on our refrigerator 3 years ago when we picked up our Oliver and haven’t turned it off since. It’s on 110v in storage and when we have hookups and on propane when boondocking and traveling. We’ve had it on 12v a couple of times when going through tunnels where we had to turn propane off. Mike

I bet there will be spots left. Call after your surgery (hope it goes well) - it would be good to meet you! Mike

The bathroom switch should turn on the pump independent of the main switch. Something isn’t wired correctly. Mike

Glad to hear you are off on the right foot! See you at the rally.... Mike

There is a thread titled “tv relocation” that discusses relocating the TV from the corner to the middle. I took some good advice and moved my TV. I documented it with some pictures and narrative. It’s on page two of the thread below: http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/tv-relocation/ Mike

We got the antenna and the cell booster. We don’t watch TV much, but have used the antenna occasionally for local news/weather. The cell booster has come in handy when we’re “out there” somewhere with a weak signal. You have to be close to the inside antenna for the full effect. If there is really something we want to watch on TV (usually sports) and have LTE we stream from an iPhone. I also installed a Sirius/XM receiver that is tied into our Furrion so we get all our news, sports and music channels audio wherever we are. Mike

Hey Randy, welcome to the group. I would echo some of the advice given. Do you know what kind of camping you will be doing? If you’re big dry campers then solar, batteries, inverter and composting toilet are important. If you are a traveler and will have hookups, then the regular toilet is okay and you may not need solar and the extra battery capacity. It depends on what you see as what you will be doing. If you have general questions on options, ask away! There are some very knowledgeable and experienced owners here that can give thoughts and opinions on almost anything. Mike

We pay around $70. It will be a little more this year because I got a “Texas State Parks” license plate and there is a fee for that, most of which goes to the Parks system which we use a lot. Mike

I used most all of a bottle of Rejex a couple of years ago. I found it hard to apply and even harder to wipe off. The protection seemed okay and I was getting beading after washing or rain. When it came time to wax again I went with Maguires Boat and RV wax. Easy on/off. So far I can’t tell much difference in protection. For ease of application I’m going to stay with the Maguires. Mike

We’ve got the Dometic and it also has a drain in the same place by the door. It has what looks like a plug, but has 4 small holes in it so water can drain but, I assume, bugs can’t enter. Mike

At some point they change awning vendors and quit using the Fiama awnings and went to another brand. Maybe the brackets changed then. I pulled my seal off after a couple of years, it was starting to crack in a few places, didn’t look good and was a big collector of pine needles, leaves, dirt and other gunk. I guess it’s a personal preference thing. Mike

Some of the questions about this system are valid. I agree that a bigger array of panels would do the same job as a smart, GPS tracking smaller set of panels. My thought is that I don’t have the real estate on top for much more solar capability. I’m also not interested in carrying and deploying portable panels that have to be watched or secured. I wouldn’t want to have to put away a portable array each time I go hiking or decide to take a nap. The ability to sense movement and then track a moving trailer is also a benefit. So, it will be interesting to see and hear the details about this at the rally. Mike

Connecting a cable to the connector at the back of the trailer works fine. I don’t know about an external antenna. Mike

This is something that might be worth discussing (not to hijack the thread too much). We do like to make campground reservations, sometimes well in advance or sometimes the day before or the day of. We rarely stay at commercial campgrounds with high rates. Mostly NP, COE, BLM, state parks, etc. Our geezer pass (we got ours at $10 before the increase) has paid for itself many times over. Many of those sites don’t take reservations, so we show up a little early to ensure we get a site. While we didn’t decide to RV to save money (the cost of the trailer, storage, gear, maintenance is substantial) we do save a lot on the actual travel. A car and a motel are expensive, you have to add in meals, and limit where you can go. Our trailer allows us to travel to places where motels don’t exist. We were at Pinnacles National Park in February and it is literally in the middle of nowhere, not a motel within an hour or two. Plus, we have our own bed, bath, kitchen, etc. Hotels/motels have no appeal these days! Expensive camping results from commercial campgrounds and lots restaurant eating, which a lot of folks do and enjoy. Camping for free or $10 somewhere remote with a steak on the grill is where we’re at. Mike