Overland

Thanks, David. I used to have a similar extension called tractor, but it stopped working and I'd forgotten how useful it was. Camel Camel Camel looks like a much better version of that.

It's a neat little device, but I don't get the value of the light sensor if it also has a motion detector. I'd think that a single motion sensor in a room would take the place of two or three light sensors stuffed in various cabinets and drawers. We elected to go with a cellular router that we can then connect security and smart home devices to - much more versatile than a single device. I agree that you're more likely to have stuff stolen from your trailer and campsite than to have the trailer itself taken. If you are worried about the trailer, then a satellite based tracker like the Spot trace is better than anything that's tied to a cellular connection.

Works great in safari, both Mac and iPhone - thanks!

Sherry, I'm digging the flip up door. I want to see it in action! Is that a standard size door from Ikea? Looks like a perfect fit. The towel bar is an Ikea drawer/fridge pull. I got the idea from another owner at last year's rally. I had to remove the sink to have room to screw in the left side, but other than that it was a cinch. Randy, I was concerned about that, too - especially at first when we were having trouble with the ASU unit. But I ran it for a while with the vent covers removed, and even pulled the fridge out for a few days to see if it ran better, but no difference. It actually stays pretty cool back there - there's a ton of space behind the fridge, at least 10" or more I'd say, and the venting is diagonal across the back - bottom left to top right, so there's actually plenty of air. I can take the cover off by the sink and reach in to feel the coils and they're at most a little warm to the touch. And the air back there is no warmer than the cabin. It has a small coil pack with a fan that sits pretty much next to the upper vent, which probably helps as well. This summer I'll test it for a few days to see how it does in the heat, but we're more winter campers so I'm not too worried about it.

That's one comfy Dobie!

LOL, I guess we Oliver owners tend to think alike - count me as #3 who ended up with the same solution. I have the twin beds so I placed the clips under the lips of the beds. With the overhang and bedspread, you can't see them but they're easy to access and don't take up closet space. I glued down my PVC blocks with 3M 4200. I wish I'd taken the time to chamfer them like Steve did - nice job!

It was there for me yesterday, on Safari, but now it's gone. On a related note, the edit timeout is a bit strict. It would be nicer to have some more time to fix my typos, and it might be nice as well to have a short grace period where those things can be fixed without stamping an edit note on the post.

Thanks for the compliment. I do like how it looks but I’m always frustrated when looks get in the way of functionality. The vent is the one on the backsplash. There’s a matching one that you can’t see in the photo that’s opposite that one but close to the floor, next to the door as you come in. The fitting that you see to the right of the fridge is actually a recessed tie down from Sea Dog that is my solution for keeping the drawers shut while traveling. There’s one under each of the drawer sets and before we take off I just hook a short bungee from the towel rail to the tie down. Takes two seconds, does the job, and I think the tie downs themselves look good. I throw the bungees in the bottom drawer when I take them off.

Looks like she has very warm shoulders.

By the way, if you're looking for ice trays to fit, we found that three of these Oxo trays work well - https://www.amazon.com/OXO-Grips-No-Spill-Silicone-Bottles/dp/B06XRMBV15/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1518278124&sr=8-9&keywords=oxo+ice+tray

Looking good! I really like the drawer. Please keep us posted on its performance - I'm curious if it works any better/worse than the isotherm over time. Mine seems to draw about the same amps when on manual, as you'd expect. The door and mounting flange on yours is completely different than the isotherm. My door and frame are flush, and project maybe ¼" from the face of the cabinet. Because of that, I don't get a 180° door swing - my door opens I'd say about 120°. It hasn't been a problem, but I do wish it opened as much as yours. I wonder if the flange for the truck fridge would work with the isotherm and what that would look like. I also like that the frame on yours has some venting built in and I'm curious if it could be installed without any rear venting at all, though the venting that Oliver installed for mine is unobtrusive and nicely done. Here's a lousy picture of mine, but you can see the top vent by the sink and of course how the door sits in the frame. Looks like the latch and its location are different on the two units as well. Also looks like I need to straighten out that middle drawer.

I'm working on a pontoon attachment for the Ollie. Strap them on and mount an outboard to the bike rack. Why Oliver didn't make this thing sea worthy from the factory is beyond me. Not sure how they expect me to get to Tahiti as it is.

Looks good - can't wait to see it installed!

Lol, that photo has a similar story behind it. We made a last minute detour to see Canyon de Chelly and got directions from Siri. My wife had looked at the park's website and saw that they said to avoid coming in from the east, but she interpreted that as travelling east somehow and when she saw the map taking us around and going in from the east she said yep that's right. The directions said 'may include unpaved roads', but we've been to national monuments before that you could only access on gravel, so no big deal. So off we went, got to the gravel road, which was actually better maintained than the paved road that got us to that point, and headed down that for quite some time before Siri turned us off on a road that didn't feel right. While we debated continuing, the road become narrower and narrower until it clearly wasn't right. More of a hunting trail than a road. So I started looking for a spot to turn around while my wife tried to figure out the best route back. The photo was taken where we turned back. Always in those situations, you end up on roads that you'd never have turned onto from pavement. It's the slow narrowing that gets you. As it turned out, Siri didn't actually know where the entrance to the park was, and she'd laid out a route to get us to the center of the park, which if you've ever been there, you know that's not even allowed. In fact, if you stop your vehicle right at the entrance gate at Canyon de Chelly and ask Siri for directions, you'll get this - The route does avoid tolls, though, which is nice. We got ourselves into one other jam earlier in the trip where we didn't have enough room to turn around, but I was able to unhook, get around, and hook back up from the other side. In that case, it was a road that the forest service had blocked off from the road we were trying to get to, which wasn't even reflected on the current MVU map we got at the park office. By the way, if you want to punish your trailer, forget the gravel - just drive down a few Navaho roads. They have the same bumps and dips as any gravel road, but you get to hit them at 60mph.

Ray, we aren't up for organized trips, but if we're ever in the same neck of the woods we'd be happy to meet up. The only time we've stayed anywhere with hookups has been if that was our only choice. Sometimes when we did, we didn't even bother to hookup. We've only had about 35 or so nights in our trailer - about 6500 miles - so we're still taking it easy on her, but nothing keeping an Ollie from getting out in the rough...

Yeah, I need to do something with that spot. It's got a fairly obvious dimple from the mould in the middle of it if you look close. Oliver is doing the final polish on the trailer now - since I pried it away from them before they were finished - which is why there's no graphics on the trailer at all.

I'm pretty sure Oliver uses dry erase markers on the trailers during assembly. I've used a regular flair to temporarily mark spots for drilling and haven't had any trouble wiping that off. Just don't mix up your dry erase markers with your sharpies and I'd think you'd be O.K. Grease pencils work well on the fiberglass as well, but of course don't wipe off as easily. Or just take notes on your phones like we do.

It's this one on Amazon. It was just a bit cheaper than the Carefree version. It slides into the accessory slot along the front of the awning. Seems well made and was a cinch to attach with two people - one person feeding it into the slot and another pulling it through. I'm sure one person could attach without too much effort. My only complaint is that it seems a bit too dark, but of course that's subjective. But I do wish I could have found one in a light grey rather than black. But it does it's job and should help keep wind from getting under the awning as well.

I recently had to replace my Viair 450 compressor, which had fallen victim to a tragic driveway incident involving the new truck. I decided to experiment and replace it with a CO2 tank from Powertank. I am really enjoying the versatility, and I find myself using it much more than the compressor. And it's nicely built - really nice. But I'm not sure I could recommend it due to the price - you're overpaying really to get a top notch regulator and inflator gauge, which while nice to have are definitely a luxury at least for me. I think if I had to do it again, I'd go back to a compressor but take the time to mount it to the truck so it's handier to use than the portable version I had. Even the smallest portable compressor from Viair will give you 100psi, which is more than enough to inflate a tire or blow out the water lines.

Yep, that's one of the original prototype twin axles. The location of the furnace and the basement door at the rear give it away. It does have a speaker system, and I think this is the one that has the full cabinet built into the back where the egress window would go.

Yeah, the first thing I said to Ritchie when he was showing me how that clip worked was ,'That won't last.'. They'd be much more rugged and sturdy with a screw to lock them in place like Fiamma uses. But the flip lock is how they get the pole to recess into the front rail, since it's flush when closed. I have to imagine that there's a relatively simple hack to fix this if we put our minds to it. Interesting that Carefree doesn't warranty the one part that's obviously going to fail. So did Oliver replace the clip, or did they have to get you an entire leg assembly? I took a look at their parts list and didn't see that you could just get the clip. If you can, and it's easy to replace, then I might get a few clips to keep as spares. edit - I found the part, it's #R001657, available here. Looks like you need to carry a rivet gun to replace it. At Big Bend last month, I tried bypassing the legs with poles of my own. It's not too much trouble to set up that way, and far sturdier than using the Carefree legs. You just have to drill some holes into the bottom of the front rail to accept the poles...

We'll have to disagree on that. People have been setting their tires at the recommended pressures for forever and I've never heard of anyone saying that you need to add an extra safety margin, TPMS or not. I think what would be foolish would be to intentionally decrease the everyday traction of your tires in order to add a safety margin for rare punctures. Just check your tires regularly.

I'd guess I'd be careful comparing it to a car, not that it's not an interesting exercise or that there isn't anything to be learned there. But on my truck, for example, the two axle ratings combined are higher than the GVWR, and I imagine the tire pressures would be determined per axle. Plus car companies know that people tend to overload their vehicles - I know I've been guilty of that - where it's unlikely that anyone would get their Ollie over 7500 lbs. Though again, I saw one of the Original Elite II's in service this week and Jason said that it was over 10k!

We can all have opinions, but in the end Michelin's is the one that counts. They determine their recommended inflation pressures according to what pressures give the tire it's correct shape for a given load. If you're over inflating their tires by 15 - 25 psi, you're significantly reducing their contact patches and lowering their grip. And you're also making the ride significantly rougher for your trailer. You may think it rides fine, but then you aren't in there feeling the bumps. Try over inflating your truck tires by 15 psi and see how it feels and handles. Mine will hop and skip all over the place with just 10 psi over - I know because the dealer forgot to lower the pressures from their shipping specs when I picked it up. Anyway, point being that you guys wouldn't purposefully over inflate your vehicle's tires by 15+ psi, so why would you think it's O.K. to do it with your trailer's tires? As far as Oliver's recommendation goes (assuming their delivery pressure is their 'recommendation'), saying that the tire's maximum inflation pressure is it's recommended one is like Ford saying my truck's maximum speed is 117mph, therefore that's the speed I should always drive. For me, the debate is settled by Michelin's chart. Oliver's recommended pressures shouldn't be far off that, if any at all, since the suspension setup means the trailer's weight will always be equally distributed among all four tires. In fact, if their recommendation is any different whatsoever, I'd like to know why, since it's not like Oliver is out there track testing these things, measuring tire deformation, dynamic loading, temperature, wear, etc. They'd need to have a really good reason for exceeding the manufacturer's specs as much as they do.

They also told me 60, but I use a 60psi gauge and it was off the scale with the factory pressure, so I assume my tires were at least 70psi. It took quite a while to deflate them down to a normal pressure, so they could well have been inflated to 80.