Overland

You're staying in campgrounds where they have guilded golf carts? La dee dah.

Yikes, that's quite a story. I once found a missing lug nut on my truck after getting the tires rotated, so I always check the torques now whenever I've had a wheel removed. An owner lost a trailer wheel a few years ago the same way. Scary. Another Discount Tire story - they gave me a free tire just last year. I'd gotten new ones, and had asked them to place one of the old tires in the bed of the truck to use as a second spare. But the guy in the shop accidentally grabbed a tire that had been taken off a truck in the next bay and none of us realized it until I came back two days later to have the tire mounted on a new rim and it wouldn't fit. So with no hesitation, they ordered a brand new $300 tire for me.

It's been a much debated subject over the years. Originally, Oliver called them jacks and they were fine with owners lifting the tires off the ground if needed. (I've done that many times.). But there was a bit of a design issue with the earlier trailers in that the bracket to carry the jack was made of welded aluminum plates. A few brackets failed at the welds, which is obviously potentially pretty dangerous. They changed the bracket design to a steel angle, but also changed their tune on using the jacks as jacks. They became stabilizers and the tires stay on the ground. Except for a dwindling number of us rebels who throw caution to the wind. For me, I'm good with one set of tires off the ground, provided the slope of the site isn't crazy. But never both sets, since the jacks aren't really designed for lateral loads.

Here's a pretty easy project for owners of the Nature's Head toilet - a step to make the seat a more reasonable height. It's a slightly modified version of this new step from Squatty Potty. Since it's wood, it looks a lot better than the original plastic one, and also makes it pretty easy to modify. I wanted something that wouldn't take up most of the floor, so that we could leave it out and not have to worry about where to store it, so I scribed and cut notches on the legs to match the floor offset. That way it sits flush against the toilet and leaves plenty of room. As a bonus, the factory cutout matches the front of the Nature's Head pretty well without any modification. The legs do fold, so you could use it right out of the box if you wanted, and would be relatively easy to store - or just tip it up against the toilet. But making the notches and resealing it was a simple task and I kind of like that it looks a bit custom. It's polyurethaned and the hardware is chromed, so I suppose you could leave it out when showering, but it's easy enough to just prop it up behind the shower curtain so I'm sure that's what we'll do. I wish it were stained a bit darker to match the shower mat, but I wasn't concerned enough about it to bother with the sanding and staining. For a quick, two hour project, I think it turned out pretty well, and ended up just about the perfect height.

That, or a simple circulation line for the hot water. I think for industrious current owners, one would be fairly easy to retrofit. One trick I know a few owners use is to keep a small Jerry can or other container in the bath and run the water into it while waiting for it to heat up. Then they use the water for cooking or pump it back into the fresh tank.

From what I’ve read, OSHA considers it a nuisance dust, not a cancer causing or otherwise toxic substance. Apparently our bodies do a good job of dealing with it, and the fibers don’t get trapped in the lungs like asbestos. Of course, that doesn’t mean that it won’t exacerbate allergies or cause other issues, but it shouldn’t kill you.

I only know of one Ollie that’s definitely out of service - don’t know the number, but I’ve seen photos of it after being wrecked. It apparently flipped, the sides were scuffed badly and I think two corners had holes. I think the story was that it slid in the snow and hit a barrier. Honestly, to me it actually looked repairable though I’m no fiberglass expert. Or novice. I did make my own cast once after breaking my wrist though. 👨🏻‍⚕️ 😂 But I bet that Ollie is out there still, just waiting for someone to revive it. I think Oliver owns a handful of trailers that might be considered out of service. I heard that they were restoring the original one to go on display. Another Ollie has been converted to go on a flatbed truck, but I think that still counts as an active Ollie. Unless we lose ours down the side of a mountain or something, I plan on it lasting at least as long as I do.

Hmm. I hope not with those wonky stars. I'd never heard of that program before, but apparently it's been around since 2013. But really, let's get it right.

Dan, Oliver did a special install for us back when they did that stuff - 640 watts of solar total - you can see the configuration here. At the factory though, they got their wires crossed and installed the standard array first, then had to redo it in service (twice, actually, since they didn’t install them like we had agreed). Anyway, all that to say that Oliver repaired the holes from the original install and I honestly couldn’t find those spots if I tried. And we haven’t had any problems with wind, with essentially an aircraft carrier deck on the roof. Also, at least one owner has installed additional panels similar to mine, simply using VHB tape to secure the mounts to the roof.

We had Velcro added to the backs of all our cushions when we had them made. It works very well but I’d love to have them redone with a bit more thought put into it. The problem we’ve run into is that the glue on the velcro that the upholsterer used will melt in the high temps that the trailer sees when in storage, and that’s caused the Velcro to come loose and not want to stick as well to the fiberglass. The bigger problem with that though is that since the upholsterer bought sticky Velcro, both sides have glue. He sewed the Velcro to the cushions but there’s glue underneath and guess what? In the heat the glue melts, seeps out around the Velcro, and makes a sticky mess. I think the only solution is to remove the Velcro, clean off all the residue, and redo it. Or live with it. Moral of the story: make sure if you use sticky Velcro that the glue will stand up to high temps. That, or store your trailer where it’s cool.

If you have him do something for you, then by all means please post photos. I'd love to see a truly professional install like that in an Ollie (though some owners lately have really raised the game). I've heard that someone had AM Solar do an install, but nothing more than rumor and definitely no photos. I'm sure we'd all learn a lot.

Pretty darned neat.

Here’s a link to the less lux option, in case you want the less lux option.

Thanks, Dan, it looks like they carry good products and have done some really interesting installs - especially the ones using the Tesla battery packs. btw, here’s a clickable link to their site - www.boondoctor.com

Here's the lux stainless option, in case you want the lux stainless option.

Speaking of that, I just learned this week about this company - Aqara - who make HomeKit hubs and accessories that aren't only relatively cheap, but are also getting good reviews on the Mac forums. They have sensors for temp, moisture, vibration, etc.; as well as cameras, door and window sensors, etc. All their stuff either uses coin batteries or are USB rechargeable, so they'd all work well in a 12v environment. Add in an old iPad as a HomeKit hub and a wireless hotspot, and you could monitor most everything remotely, without breaking the bank (too badly).

Possible that they did a mid-year price increase.

Base price on my 2017 E2 was 49,900.00. But at that time, you could very easily get your trailer into the $60k range with options. I believe that 2018 was the first substantial jump in base price, which reflected an equally substantial increase in demand the previous year (though there also seems to be a big jump between Steve's 38k in '14 and TopGun's 48.5k in '16). But like Mike said above, they also began to offer a good many options as standard that year, and they've increased the number of standard items most every year since. So for the E2 it looks like we just need 2015's price to own the whole set... 2014 - 38.0 2015 - ? 2016 - 48.5 2017 - 49.9 2018 - 53.9 2019 - 53.9 2020 - 55.9 2021 - 57.5 2022 - 62.5 (65.0?)

I have a compressor fridge prefer it, but I wouldn't say that it's a 'must have'. From what I've read here and elsewhere, it does cool faster, and more reliably in hot weather, but the downside of greater power consumption means that it isn't a universal better option for everyone. It's also a little tricky to retrofit, though by no means impossible. My advice would be to keep the existing three way and add a compressor fridge in your tow vehicle. That way, you've got additional storage, a backup fridge, and the best of both worlds in terms of having one that's cheap to operate and another that's super reliable in hot weather. Plus it's fantastic for grocery runs. I can turn my fridge on before heading into Costco and it will be cold by the time I come out with the groceries, and then I can run other errands without worrying about about it.

Thanks Ken. I appreciate the correction.

You bet. I've got my finger on Amazon's buy now button just in case anyone wants to take up the challenge. I won't be more than three feet from a screwdriver at any moment.

I thought that Camp Chef had some low pressure stoves but their product line is so confusing now that I don’t know for sure. I had the same problem when we got our trailer and just ended up with a Partner Steel stove and added a tee off of one of the propane tanks to use it. But that was kind of cumbersome so I started just using the green cylinders with it. In fact, I soon realized that the cylinders were easier than running hoses so I started using them with our grill, too, and the only thing that we use the quick connects for these days is our fire pit.

Oliver is using Lifeline batteries now? Nice - those are top notch. If you have two 220 amp hour 6 volt batteries, then that’s the same as you have in total storage since the two are combined to make 12 volts. You can use roughly half of that if you want to keep them healthy, maybe a bit more, so around 110+ usable amp hours.

My bath window is operable - is that something that changed?

The trim on that window does look different than mine. It looks like a fixed window - is it?