Overland

GCVR on the sprinters is 13,550 so no problem there. I think the biggest problem towing with a Sprinter would have to be the engine specs.

I think @Cobra1169 was towing with a Sprinter. He recently sold his Ollie but you might send him a PM in case he's still keeping up with the forum.

They put in the same size port that they use everywhere else inside. 6" maybe? You're limited by the depth of the vanity but without checking I'd say you could probably go a few inches larger without problem. They put mine in after construction when I took it in for service so it can definitely be installed later. No wiring, but the plumbing will be just a few inches away. You might ask Jason if they if they drilled the hole with the faucet in place or if they removed it.

I had Oliver install an access port in the closet that opens to the plumbing right under the faucet. It's small, and you'd need to perfect a few yoga positions to work in there, but the connections are right at the opening so I think I could make a repair if needed.

I think you’ll be fine with 200, but of course it depends on how much you consume otherwise. I mentioned above that we added a National Luna 60 liter fridge freezer to the truck for extra storage. It uses the same danfoss compressor and I run it off a single lifeline battery and a 200 watt portable panel. Over our three week trip I never saw the battery dip below 80% but we were lucky and saw very few cloudy days. I have the option to charge the battery via the alternator but I disconnected that after a few days since the panels worked so well. Speaking of heat and fridge ventilation, I just went and checked the fridge in the truck. It’s 97 here and the truck has been parked in the sun all day so it’s baking in there. The fridge is indeed struggling a bit but still reads 43 degrees. The freezer is at 8. Not surprising since it’s probably 120 inside the truck.

They’re beautiful for sure - man I’d hate every scratch I got on it. I’ve always been intrigued by the front door floor plan also.

I understand the concern and even had in mind that we might have Oliver add the top vent back if needed. I’m sure that, depending on the relative temps inside and out, there would be an efficiency gain at times with an open vent to the outside. In practice however, we’ve had no issues with the fridge keeping cool. I even kept the fridge running for a week here at the house with the temp topping 95 degrees inside the trailer and the fridge never struggled. In fact, before I added in the interior fridge fan, our main trouble was keeping things from freezing inside the fridge. Maybe if I could find a vent that could be manually opened and closed, then I might be tempted to give it a shot, but at the moment it works so well that there’s no real motivation to make any change.

That's how it worked with my hitch, though Oliver ended up keeping the hitch when I took it for a test fitting and then had it ready for me at delivery. Since my hitch won't work with a standard receiver, I just leave my receiver with them whenever I take it in for service so that they can move the trailer around.

That’s the second redesign - I’m curious if there have been issues with it.

Definitely get the Oliver rack - it's really solid. You might ask them about just getting the base and then adding your own rack to it, which is what we did, though the rack they supply is good quality.

If we're in or headed to an area with active wildfires, we use the GeoMAC website for monitoring conditions - it's really useful. Use the main map to locate individual fires, then use the drop down menus on the upper right to zoom in. You can then use the data layer menu on the left to display all sorts of info. In particular, if you compare the fire boundary with the satellite detection layer, you can get a good idea of which way the fire is headed. For example, the 416 fire looks like it started along hwy 550 and is headed west and south. [attachment file=Screen Shot 2018-06-13 at 9.17.12 AM.png]

Normal, probably; but acceptable? These bits of plastic can lodge anywhere in your plumbing lines, and in places that can be cleared only with great difficulty. I suspect that this is why some people complain about slow fresh tank drains. Mine just dribbles. It wouldn't take much for Oliver to add a step in production to vacuum out the tanks.

Yellowstone can be tough even in the off season from what I’ve been told, so it was the only place we had reservations ahead of time this trip. In hindsight I wish we’d only made reservations for one night and then moved to a less developed campground, but that wisdom comes with experience I guess. It’s amazing what a few weeks can make in Yellowstone. Mid May we only found crowds at the major stopping points and very little traffic but when we went back through on our way to Teton two weeks later it was bumper to bumper all the way around. Not planning everything ahead gives you flexibility to adjust your trip as needed. We’d originally plannned to spend at least a week in the Dakotas this trip but the early hot weather meant 90 degree days there so we went north to Canada instead and enjoyed low 70’s and no crowds from Banff up to Jasper.

My wife and I are sort of the opposite of Mike and Carrol I guess. It's very rare that we start the day knowing where we're going to stay that night. If we want to stay someplace crowded, like a National Park campsite, often we'll plan to camp outside the park the night before and then drive in first thing to get a spot. Our first choice is BLM or National Forrest land just outside the parks though. This past trip was unusual in that we stayed in organized campsites pretty much every night, but we had no trouble finding first come, first served camping at all the parks. Our advantage in that respect is that we always travel in the off season.

On the way back from the factory a few months ago, I had a truck pull up next to me and start honking his horn. I looked over and the passenger had his head out the window yelling 'what kind of trailer is that?'. Really? You want to have this conversation at 70mph? To make it worse, I was on the phone with a client at the time trying to get some work done while I was driving.

I've had good luck by raising it back up and placing blocks under the flipped axle then lowering it back down.

Their independent suspension solution is well regarded from what I’ve read. I just can’t get past depending on those rubber straps - I have an old Soloflex machine and I know from experience that when their rubber straps break it isn’t a gradual thing but immediate and visually there’s no warning. Of course, the rubber compound could be different and reliable but I just think I’d be constantly nervous about it. With air bags I can envision carrying a spare but I don’t know if spares of those rubber blocks are reasonable to carry. Maybe if I could see one in person I’d be more comfortable with it.

Interesting but I’m more interested in the Lippert centerpoint suspension. You get the same lift plus a better ride on gravel. It’s on my list for some day. Though the price in the Correct Track is certainly more palatable.

I like the anchor idea. I’ll have to put that on the to do list before our next trip.

Yep

I’m convinced the higher pressures caused all the problems we experienced on our first trip. We had all the usual issues that people complain about - cabinet doors falling open, blinds falling off the walls, etc. - plus we had some wiring come loose, a plumbing line break, the water heater bust, cracked fiberglass, and other stuff. No issues at all once I dropped the pressures down to something reasonable. 50 was fine but the trailer felt much better this last trip, though I can’t say if the lower tire pressure was the reason. More likely that it was due to carrying a bit more weight in the truck and also raising its rear tire pressure 5 psi from what I had been running. There were times this trip that I forgot I was towing. Super stable without even any of that push and pull you feel when you pass a truck. We had wind advisories of 30mph gusts across Wyoming and Kansas, which we felt of course, but never unstable feeling and I was perfectly confident towing at 75 which I’ve never felt at ease doing before.

Check Steve’s (scubarx) post one page back - he has everything listed in a pdf.

Why Dexter? The Kodiak brakes are better and will work with your axles. Oliver gave me 5k axles so that they could use the Dexter brakes but imo it’s unnecessary unsprung weight and wish I had the lighter ones.

I've done some tight maneuvering, but I wouldn't expect enough to do that amount of damage - but this is our first trailer so what do I know. Yes, those are the factory Michelins. They came from Oliver with their standard pressure of WayTooMuch psi. Over 70, lol. Our first trip we did with that, then I lowered it down to 50 just to save the trailer from being rattled apart. This last trip was at 45 per Michelin's recommendations and the tires looked good and stayed cool. With the damage limited to the center treads I was thinking maybe the damage might have started with them being over inflated that first trip. More likely though it has to do with those smaller blocks being more flexible and susceptible to damage.

John, here's my advice - As far as brand goes, the two I found to be most recommended were NovaKool and Isotherm. I went with the Isotherm because I liked the stainless door. In hindsight, the stainless is a pain to keep clean in the trailer, so I think I'd still have gone with Isotherm but they have a new model out now with what is supposed to be fingerprint free stainless. Mainly, I think just getting the Danfoss compressor is the key, regardless who makes the box. I think the Isotherm has a wider cutout but like the NovaKool is shorter so you'll have to figure out what to do underneath. I found that adding a fan inside the fridge really transformed it. Our first trip out, the temps were up and down and we were always fussing with the temp control and worrying about it, some things freezing and others too warm. But with the fan the fridge has become something we just don't think about. See my Snowball thread for the brand and install. The Isotherm only cools via the freezer coils which is why it was so uneven before I added the fan. Perhaps the NovaKool has a better design in that respect? I got the ASU unit for the Isotherm but never use it. I should give it a shot again with the internal fan to see if it makes a difference, but the internal temps were too variable using it on our first trip. I added extra insulation just because. I don't really know if it's made any difference. Couldn't have hurt. Real life power usage is minimal. It will pull 3.5 amps when starting and then settle down to around 2.5 amps. Probably has a run time around 50%, but that's highly dependent on the inside temp. Noise is noticeable at times, but never intrusive. I can't hear the internal fan I added at all unless the door is open. The freezer on the Isotherm is too small for anything but a few ice trays. The Isotherm comes in both 12/120 and 12 volt only models. I couldn't see the point in the 120 and still don't. If I remember right, the NovaKool had the compressor located on the bottom, so the internal arrangement was different. And maybe they have a model with an external compressor? That might be a good choice since you have the extra space. Semi-related - I installed a National Luna in the back of the truck before this last trip and wow, that really changed the way we camp. Three weeks worth of food, no trips to the store, no ice sloshing around in the cooler - heaven.