Zodd

Yes. This creates some pros and cons for the dish. It is small and compact and very easy to deploy. However, the further away you have to deploy it, the weaker your single and, in turn, your speed gest. So far, I have not found this to be a problem. The power cord is only so long and it can only get so far away. We just got back from our fall trip and had to put the SL mini as far away as we could to try and clear obstructions. Speed was still fine ( >80 mbps). The issue was still obstructions. As you can see we were pretty clear but had one section on the horizon that caused us to go between 97% ping success to 87%. At 87% zoom conference calls become an issue. Because of this I don't plan on mounting the mini to anything permanent on the TV or Ollie. I am looking for a stand to get it up higher but also mobile. This gives me the most flexibility to avoid obstructions. Also in case anyone is wondering. Here is what the power draw jump looks like when the mini needs to kick on its heater.

Welcome. I hope you have enjoyed the first season of camping with it as much as we enjoyed ours!

That is true. During one of the calls I was presenting and it worked great. Again it all depends on the speeds you happen to be getting. But then again I have the same issue at home sometimes. This morning working from the camp spot speeds are good. Upload is for sure slower but 15 Mbps up with 22ms latency will work. On my plan Starlink can throttle me though so your mileage may vary.

Just for reference. I have used the mini for many Zoom meetings, including 2 simultaneously, worked great with no issues.

You are correct.

One more update on this front. We got out on another trip for a week and needed Starlink for the internet for work and other things. We were camping in a state park with many trees so I had to make my way 10 mins out to a trail head parking lot with more sky. I had to run Starlink and my laptop off my Bluetti AC200 and it worked great. I had about 15 hours of run time over 4 days I needed to power Starlink and recharge/power my laptop. At the end of the week, my Bluetti had about 13% charge left. Overall, I am very happy. I ran it from two locations (a parking lot at the trailhead and a side spur, sorry forgot to grab a picture of these. But both were good skies but by no means a fully clear sky with no obstructions. A few pine trees in front are less than 10 yards away and pine trees block the horizon). Both had a pretty open sky straight up but still had pine trees blocking areas, but I still get speeds over 100 Mbps. Here are my stays. 99% connection uptime and pretty consistent < 30W draw from the mini. At one point we had two video calls going at the same time with no issue.

Interesting. I had not thought of Con-tact paper. For sure seems easier. Ours does have something similar under the cushions but it is a harder plastic and does not help at all. Thanks for chiming in @jd1923

Nice! I have noticed that the leather seats (maybe cloth has the same issues) slide off the fiberglass rather easily. Have you seen the same or come up with a solution? One solution I am looking into is magnets mounted inside the corners of the seats and then on the edge of the fiberglass another magnet or small metal strip for them to "attach" to.

I have been on this forum for many years as my wife and I researched, learned, and awaited when it made sense for us to join the clan of Oliver ownership. First, I want to thank this group for all you have shared and knowledge over the years. My wife and I were introduced to Oliver a few years back. Like many of you once we saw the quality, community, and how Oliver conducts themselves we had a hardtime accepting anything we saw in other places. We have camped with our kids as they grew up and camped in many different ways including car camping, tent camping, yurt camping, popup camping, teardrop, and renting a few different types of TT. We thought it would be a few more years before we jump into Oliver ownership since we still have one at home for 2 more years. But all the stars aligned this summer and we decided to pull the trigger. We are now the owners of hull #1305 after working with @Snake River Idaho who were great to work with and had a wonderful trailer they had decided to part ways with (such great people to work with and a great reflection on the Oliver community). We just got home from a one-week trip to bring her back home. There is certainly a lot that goes into anyone making this decision. For us, we had heard stories on this forum about health issues making it hard or impossible to do things like this. We have also been personally close to a number of these stories with quite a few of them happening recently. So since we found ourselves in a place financially to do it we decided we were not going to wait any longer even though we have to account for a 3rd sleeper for 2 more years (which on the week trip home she did wonderfully on via the dinette setup each night). The trip home was wonderful. Despite spending a few years learning and researching, doing it for real still had me learning and trying to figure things out. We did have a few minor events on the trip home we had to figure out like the overly sensitive LP/CO2 sensor that woke us up in the middle of the night the first two nights. Or that leather cushions on fiberglass don't stay in place and slide right off (does anyone have a remedy for this?). But we got to experience things on the trip home we have always wanted to but never had before like Bannack State Park Ghost Town one of the most well-preserved ghost towns in Montana and a beautiful sunset in the middle of nowhere outside Dillion MT. Or the Atomic Museum (way cooler and more educational than my wife, I, or our girls expected) outside Arco Idaho along with Craters of the Moon (meeting up with some friends who just happened to be passing through). Not to mention and most importantly having some dedicated time with our youngest laughing, talking and playing games (she is in the final two years of High School and missing her older sisters so getting her away from all the teenage struggles and into a quiet place allowing her to connect with mom and dad and nature and history was wonderful!). We did the showering in the Oliver and I have to say it was easier than I thought. I am 6 foot 1 and while tight it worked great. We had a couple of nights when all our girls were able to come meet up with us and we spent those nights in the Ollie playing games, and eating dinner while watching the Olympics. I have to give a shout-out to @Foy_Mirna for his lagoon table as it was a major win for those nights being able to get all 5 of us around the table again (I expected it to feel more cramped with 5 in the trailer but it did not)! Towing the trailer was also a great experience. I am glad because my wife towed pretty much the entire trip given I was on a business trip the day before pick up and lost my wallet so no driver's license for me. We live in North Idaho so going up and down mountains will be a thing for us no matter what direction we head. It and the truck did great up and down passes, construction zones, and passing semi-trucks. We even had a day driving where we saw 20 MPH wind gusts and my wife did not even realize how windy it was until I told her. My wife did great (she even backed us into a camp spot on the last night and did great!). We head out on the next trip in a week and are very excited! Thanks for letting me learn and take part in this community over the last few years. We hope to see some of you on the road in the coming years.

This is really what drove me to have double protection. Plus a way of verifying the post before plugging in (I did not think of just going the tester route).

It would be easier to not what to stream if we could just cast or view downloaded content via HDMI connection but that is another thread. It is nice how small it is. Packs up easily. I may need to invest in your packing solution. Right now I just put it back in the box it came in.

Also, we are currently on the 50 GB plan. We watched an Olympic Volleyball match (so about 2 hours) and went through 8GB of data. So not ideal for a lot of streaming as people have mentioned. However, you can buy more data (not cost-effective) or use the standard data unlimited plan ($150 a month) with the mini.

The first use of the mini out in the wild. I was surprised it worked pretty well given the tree cover we had. The setup is super easy and does not seem to care much about how it is pointed. Pull it out, plug it in, open the app, and follow the instructions. The app does all the work to align and celebrate based on where it is pointed. You can see in the images below how it was set up and how many trees we had creating obstruction. The screenshot shows based on that setup how it performed over 60 mins. 2 mins of no single and 7 mins of obstructions. For streaming and video calls not great but for web surfing and some slack messaging it worked great!

Ouch. I went with the mini a few weeks back. Oh well, the smaller size is nice.

Crokinole is such an enjoyable game that's easy to learn and quickly provides fun!

Love this! This is the state my wife and I are hoping to get to (traveling to camp and playing some pickleball). We just got back from Mt. Vernon doing the Tulip Tussel. Doing Airbnb for now until we get our Oliver someday we hope. Warming up at tournament play is always a bit tricky. We had the same issue plus it was 50 degrees. The concept of combining travel with stops for pickleball tournaments or open play across the country is quite appealing. Especially, if we can do some PPA tournaments and combine amateur play with watching the real pros like Jack Sock! Should you find yourself in the Coeur d'Alene, ID region and are looking for a pickleball match, feel free to reach out.

On this note. I think Jason did a good job on the summary. However, I do find that this is the first somewhat "bad news" item I have ever seen written about Oliver if that provides any context around how this has been bumpy. I agree with Jason that it is not necessarily a bad thing, as he does call out how picky they are trying to be in dealer selection and the challenge of growing without this. It does show how poorly people view dealers and dealer service though. I wanted to post here so Oliver could respond to RVMiles if they so choose (I have not even joined the Oliver family yet but find myself rooting for them to get through this growth challenge. 🙂 ) .

As someone who has been active on this forum for years and has been aspiring to own an Oliver, it's disheartening to hear the recent news. This forum has been a source of great learning, and through it, I feel connected to the Oliver community and the company itself. We've been looking forward to joining the ranks of owners. Yet, with the ongoing changes and the rising prices of new models, I'm hesitant to invest in a new Oliver, and these changes don't make it any easier to leave the sidelines. The general consensus is that the dealer sales and service experience is subpar for most. While some dealers manage to do it right, it's worrisome that Oliver is considering outsourcing a significant part of their identity and culture. I hope they can engage with dealers that can do it right. I remain hopeful but cautious about their success. Being far from Hohenwald, the prospect of a local sales/service center infused with Oliver's culture is appealing. However, for the time being, we plan to observe from the sidelines and see whether Oliver succumbs to the typical sales and service model. We're rooting for a positive outcome that will compel us to join the community. Until then, we'll keep watching, hoping, and supporting from afar. At the Oliver price point, we're not sure we want to be the guinea pig for such a fundamental shift. May we be proven wrong and be compelled to switch to a wonderful TT like this.

Agree @SomeDaySoon I agree with most of what has been said. It is my experience that most people causing, or running the risk of causing, are people that just don’t care even though they know the risk (know but just don’t care or appreciate the risk). They fall more into the camp of “it will not happen to me” or the risk is over stated, or “it is just too much work for me tonight” or “I don’t have the extra water to put it out” (because it does take a lot of water. This is why I like propane fires as they go out quickly and don’t demand the water usage to put out.). I just don’t think these permit/educational videos move the needle with those folks. I have been to a few camping sites where they make water and water buckets easily accessible to the campers to help make sure fires get put out. I think initiatives like these help invoke action from people that actually help. I just don’t think lack of education is the main reason people don’t do it. Humans are more complex then that.

I have friends displaced by the paradise fire so please don’t dismiss the question by just calling ignorance. I am not questioning the need for fire safety, but rather how requiring people to fill out a form addresses it.

I am not trying to be annoying here but how does this help? I just don’t see how making everyone fill out a form helps stop/slow down wildfires. Maybe an awareness campaign feels like it may help but seems more like a money grab via fines. How many people (in state and especially out of state) know you need a permit to have an outdoor flame? if you start a wildfire they will try and hold you accountable rather you have a free permit or not.

Nothing like people that go camping and bring the city with them.

They had a nice little launch video. Interesting concept and loaded with a huge battery. Not sure how needing a level 3 charger to charge that huge battery will pan out. Hopefully the 1 kw rooftop keeps it pretty topped of as no way do I want to pull that into and try and charge at a level 3 power station while on the road. Good luck finding a way to get that into a spot. Also since it has its own electric motor. how much of that solar power you gain while underway is just eaten up by the trailers electric motor? They are still pretty sparse on details. The idea of using privacy glass to help increase the feeling of space is interesting but feels more gimmicky then anything (although I do think privacy glass is really cool).

That is a great trailer! It is very high on my list. However, the price point puts it too high on the list 😉. Great news about treatment!

This is cool. However, I wish they would do this outside a login so you take any VIN (like when shopping for a truck) and easily get the real numbers. Ram has this and it is really nice (even if they do seem to have a bug in it right now)