Overland

Congrats - it looks like yours, John D's, and ours are all starting within six weeks of each other. Please keep us posted along the way. How are you configuring yours? Are you making any modifications outside the norm?

Mostly cons, as it turns out. If you're a cooking nerd like me - i.e., your counter space is taken up with sous vide circulators, chamber vacuums, etc. and dinner is rarely cooked without a blow torch being involved - then you've probably lusted after an induction range, or already have one. So when you see that induction cooktops are the new thing for RVs and trailers, you probably, like me, are ready to hop on board. Our plan was/is? to eliminate the gas cooktop all together and just use a couple of portable induction units instead. So I've been doing my due diligence and I hate to say that I'm a bit disappointed in what I'm learning. It's not that induction itself doesn't work well, or work well for a trailer, but rather that the affordable options available all seem to be poorly made rebadged junk from the same few factories. The models that are offered are completely confusing, and the pricing is all over the place. Is a $100 Duxtop 9600 better than a $60 Duxtop 8100? Who knows? They look different, but the specs are identical. Why is a True cooktop worth three times a Max Burton? No one can say. The only thing that I can say for sure is that a $400 Vollrath is definitely an order of magnitude better than any of the the sub-$200 models, and is probably worth every penny - if you can afford it. And it's probably the only unit that actually works well. Well, I'm sure you could pay more. The biggest problem I see with the portable units is that all of them but the Vollrath have a lower limit of 500 watts or so. That means that they essentially can't produce a low heat, and instead turn on and off at different frequencies to achieve lower temperatures. This can be a real problem because if you look at some of the videos on youtube, what you're cooking will literally go from boiling to off every few seconds, which can surely burn or otherwise ruin what's in the pan. The other problem is that the portable units have relatively small induction coils, and can create some raging hot spots even in heavy pans like cast iron. There are some videos you can find where they try to fry an egg and the center gets completely cooked while the outside edges are still cold. Then there is the practical issue of current draw. Two induction cooktops at maximum is 3600 watts of power, which will outpace our inverter by a wide margin. The double burner units, like the True or Furrion, use a power balancing trick where they will only draw a maximum 1800 watts for the whole unit. The problem with that is that if you're cooking something on one burner, then start something on the other, it will automatically lower the heat on the first one. Then you raise that, and it lowers the heat on the second. So you play this little dance with the temperatures whenever you change the heat settings. Then there are issues with poor heat sinks and cheap fans that are noisy and often break after only a few uses. Poor temperature sensing. Whistling or screeching from the coils. Melting or unresponsive controls. Etc. It just seems like a minefield of hurt for a marginal gain. So...if you can't tell, we think we're going to pass for now and stick with Oliver's standard gas cooktop. I am asking them, however, to give us a couple of high amperage outlets, one inside and one out - just in case we want to add a portable induction in the future, or go crazy and buy the Vollrath. At least, that's my take on the situation so far. I think a few of you do have and use a portable induction unit in your trailer so I'm really interested to hear if I'm totally off the mark with my conclusions. I'd hoped to limit our dependency on LP, but in truth, cooking is a small portion of the total usage, compared to the furnace and water heater - and we'd have an outdoor grill regardless. The one use I can still really see a portable induction working well for is when cooking outside. Trying to maintain a low flame on a portable LP or butane cooktop when there's any breeze to speak of is pretty difficult, and an induction in that situation would be ideal. And there are things like bacon that I'd rather not cook inside, just to avoid the splatters and the lingering smells. Particularly when camping in bear country. That $400 would seem like a small price to have paid when we're woken in the middle of the night by a bacon-crazed bear scratching at the door.

I don't know you, so, yes.

I really appreciate the info, Buzzy. The privacy room for us would mainly be used as a wind break. I don't know why, but bad weather follows us like a lost puppy. Inevitably, when we camp, it will be 40° and rainy with a 30mph wind. In fact, the primary motivation for our Oliver is so I can eat my eggs in the morning without worrying about my fork freezing to the plate. Then again, maybe we should just avoid Big Bend in December. Cooking outdoors in the wind is no fun, and I plan to resist giving in to nature and hunkering down in the Ollie as much as I can. So, a wind break of some sort is imperative. And then there's the issue of protecting the awning itself and not wanting to reel it in every time the wind picks up - I think the privacy room would go far in that respect. When it comes to wind, I've learned my lesson the hard way - you can always spot my tent at a campground because it's the one that looks like it's been trapped in a spiderweb of tie downs. So at a minimum, we'll order at least one of the side panels and also get really good tie downs, if not from Fiamma then elsewhere. Of course, when a single gust of wind could lead to a multi-thousand dollar repair bill, we'll probably make more conservative decisions with the awning than we do with our current tent and canopy. I think this is probably our wish list - who knows if we'll end up with any of it: Privacy Room Light (400? I don't see that they have a 450 for the Light version) Tie Downs Rafter Pro - it looks like you can install multiple rafters if you want Magic! Poles - door pole, font and side magic poles Rain Caps MegaBag Repair Kit Also, the Blocker or Blocker Pro might be good options if you don't go with the full kit. They have some lighting options, but I don't know if those are necessary with the Ollie's outdoor lights, maybe supplemented with some string lights. Their Skirting Kit looks nice if you can make it work with the Ollie. I think it would be nice if Oliver could provide some snaps or something to attach a skirt, though perhaps that's easily added after the fact. The three issues with the privacy room are price, storage, and time to put up and take down. Hopefully, it packs up fairly compactly. The set up and take down time will probably limit its use for us to multi-day stays, probably three days would be the minimum cutoff for us.

I still don't see the reason why. If someone joins your Facebook group, then you can contact them. That was supposed to be the point of the group, and you don't need their name to do so. And if someone doesn't want to join the Facebook group, then your having their name and hull number doesn't do anything. You still can't contact them. That is, unless you later ask for their phone number, address, credit card, social security number and name of their first pet. The problem of having private info on Facebook is that (closed group) or not, people you don't know will have access to the info and can repost that info somewhere else or otherwise use it however they want. If someone wants to be mayor of Oliverville, then good for them - go off to Facebook and elect yourself mayor if that's what you need to do. On the other hand, and a bit more charitably, it seems that the people pushing the Facebook group are a few relatively new owners who joined the forum right when it was in the middle of a transition and so maybe got a bad first impression of the place. I'm not an owner yet myself, so count me as one of the scary guests with his (her?) 'complex hidden name'; but I've hung out of the forum for over a year now, and it seems like it does the job it needs to do. So my advice, for what it's worth, is to just chill a bit and if after a while you still feel the need to have your own space, then go for it. But frankly, the fact that you're having to do a little song and dance every few weeks to push for people to join tells me that the need really isn't there.

Pricey, but then everything trailer related seems to be. We're considering it. Buzzy, did you ask about the privacy room light and whether there's much of a price difference between the two? The 'magic' pieces are the horizontal aluminum support rods that clamp onto the awning poles, correct?

Ah, some light reading for tonight. Thanks!

Why?

I don't see a step stool in any of the photos, but it looks like you would need one to get the sides zipped all the way up, is that right?

I'll have to look into the Nova Kools. I'm curious how they get the extra volume relative to the others I'm looking at; i.e., I'd be concerned that they use less insulation. I see that they're roughly 2" taller, so that's a good deal of it. This description for the Nova Kool from Backwoods Solar intrigues me: Running power has been reduced with new dual voltage Danfoss compressors and a new refrigerant. Single door models consume about 35 watts when compressor is running: under 3 amps 12 volt, 1.5 on 24 volt. Running time varies with temperature, but is about 30% duty cycle on a 70 degree day. When buyer glues extra 2 inch foam insulation to the whole box it will cut per day run time and energy use in half. The new Danfoss BD35F compressor uses R134A (CF3-CH2F) gas for atmospheric protection. All the units above use the same compressor, so the amp discrepancy is curious. I'm assuming that they are reporting current draw at specific RPMs, so either they are being more or less conservative with their reporting, or with the max RPM at which they run.

We're looking at two different fridges - one is the Vitrifrigo C130. It's 4.7 c.f. and pulls 3.78 amps when running. So that's 90.72 amp hours if you leave the door open - half that or less in normal conditions, or so we're assuming. Another option we're considering is the Isotherm Cruise 130, which pulls 5 amps, though they claim 33.3 amp hours per day, due to thicker insulation and I believe variable compressor speeds. It's also frost free, which is nice. Both units use a holding plate, which essentially freezes a block of metal when you have surplus solar, which then keeps the compressor from running so much overnight.

That's a nice solution to the gear storage problem. We're still trying to figure out what we'll do in this regard - I guess it will all go in the truck until we figure out exactly what we need to carry and how much we can stuff into the Oliver. Do most people carry their outdoor gear in the tow vehicle, or toss it inside the trailer?

That's a great tip - I'll have to look into Blue Sky. Thanks!

It's very sad to hear that, Buzzy. I know how tough it is to lose a good friend. I'm sure that he cherished your friendship as much as you did his.

Some good points. If I were to use Sonos speakers, I have an unused AirPort here that I could put in the trailer to create a network for them. But the Sonos have to be plugged in and my wife and I both like the idea of just being able to grab the B&W T7 unit and go outside. The advantage of the Sonos speakers is that you can pair them for stereo or use them separately, one inside and one out. I do worry a bit about the single portable not being particularly immersive, but the T7 does get really good reviews. The Furrion unit that Oliver uses now is the 3200. You won't find that on their website, but I think it's essentially the 3100, except with an added HDMI port in the back. I noticed that Furrion made some changes to their lineup over the last few days, so the unit Oliver uses could change as a result. I'm jealous of your home setup. Tube amps are a bit too mellow for my taste, but the B&W speakers really appeal to me, especially their 800 lineup. One day. Right now, I've developed a fetish for 70's Pioneer silver components. I'm going quadraphonic, lol.

Depending on the timing of our delivery, we hope to do an end of May trip out to California to Redwoods and Sequoia. If the timing works, we might stop a few days at Overland Expo on the way. It's possible, too, that we could make the rally in May, but there'd have to be no construction delays for us to take delivery that weekend or before. Late August, I've reserved a spot at Land Between the Lakes for the eclipse. It was a bit too late to reserve anything directly on the path, so we'll make a day trip from LBL up to the Carbondale area, which should be ground zero. August in TN should make for a good test of our AC unit. December, we plan to use the Ollie for a ski trip to Utah - there's a nice campsite north of Park City that was recommended to us. That will be our winter weather test. It hit 0° on our trip this year. Other than that, who knows? We'll be eager to go out as much as possible, but we're limited to vacation time for the next 15-20 years unfortunately. We'll use those years to get the Ollie broken in before we really start using it.

Thanks. It sounds like I'm on the right path. If we ever decide to add a TV or something more elaborate, I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to do. Buzzy, those look like nice headphones. That's not a bad solution either.

We aren't doing a TV, and don't need a radio, DVD, or any of that, so as far as music goes we're really only interested in connecting an iPhone or iPad to the speakers, either through the standard unit or perhaps some other method. It seems a bit silly to have a full stereo if all we want is a speaker connection. One of the things that I'm considering is just eliminating the stereo and speakers entirely, and instead putting the money into a nice portable airplay compatible speaker like the B&W T7 or maybe a pair of the small Sonos speakers. That would allow us to have music outside if we wanted, and we could use it around the house as well I suppose. Another possibility is that I've got a nice Tivoli radio that I never use. It will work on a standard 12v 3amp plug, so I could just set it on the nightstand. It would look nice and I could ask Oliver to run the FM and a Sirius antenna for me. I'never been over the top on the sound quality but it does look great sitting on the desk. Curious what people's thoughts are on any of that. What is the consensus on the speakers that come with the Ollie? Has anyone tried the portable speakers or have an opinion on them? That seems like the most versatile option, imo. By the way, Jason said we might be able to do a wired set of exterior speakers, mounted under the awning, if we wanted. They've been thinking about it for a while but no one had asked until us. The problem with that is that I'd be scared that I'd forget about them and end up broadcasting my music to the entire campsite. Plus they'd look like two barnacles on the side of the trailer and if we didn't like the sound quality, we'd be stuck with them.

Buzzy, I'm definitely opting for the compression latches, so I'll send a pic the first time I see them installed. Our construction window starts the first week of Feb, though I doubt if those latches will be installed until the near end, probably end of April. And our build might get delayed with some of the customizations we're asking for. If you're inclined to experiment, you could take the latch off of your pantry and see if it fits the cabinets. I suspect it requires a larger hole though, and probably a bit different positioning, so it might be that you'd have to swap the doors. I'd think that a few quick swipes around the edges of the doors with some fine grit wet/dry sandpaper would quickly take care of the sharp edges. I'd venture to guess that's a step in the process which they may have forgotten on your unit.

The compression latches are exactly the same ones that are on the pantry and closet door. They just tighten up when you snap the pull ring back down, and are adjustable from behind for how tight they get. They'll definitely be tighter, but the drawback is that you'll have to lift and twist the latch to open the door instead of just lifting the latch. On the fingerprint issue, the frosted plexiglass will still show them, but I don't think nearly as much as the mirrored or gloss black finish. You'd probably get more of a dull grease smudge than an actual fingerprint - nothing that a quick wipe with some windex wouldn't fix. There's actually two good photos of them on the website now if you want to take a look.

Unfortunately, the blinds are the same. I asked about going with something darker, like a bronze or graphite color, but the off-white is all that's available from the manufacturer they use. I think everyone at Oliver agrees that the off white just looks like cigarette stained plastic. It's interesting because I have a photo of a very early trailer that has a light grey trim around the blinds, so at least at one point there was a better option. I also have a photo of a trailer that was apparently delivered without any window covering and it makes you realize how intrusive those big window boxes are on the interior space. I'm thinking about asking for aluminum blinds that extend 3" of so past the windows. Another idea would be to do what Airstream does on their big curved windows bays which is to put a pleated curtain that goes the full length around the whole end of the trailer.

Yes, if we went with the Victron one of the advantages is that the unit itself handles the charging, inverter, monitoring, etc. There are some extra bits you have to buy, like the monitor screen, and I think the MPPT controller, but it's all supposed to be plug and play, connects to your iPhone, etc. I asked about getting SunPower panels, which are the most efficient and reliable on the market right now; but if we can't get them, then the Zamp is fine. The problem with SunPower is that they only sell to installers and Oliver doesn't know if they'll qualify. The portable panels and exterior plugs would probably be Zamp since they have really good kit for that stuff. Didn't get a photo of the windows, but they're basically the same - still sliders. I just felt that they looked a bit sleeker, but I could be totally wrong. The main visual difference from the older ones is that there are no weeps at the top of the window, just the ones at the bottom. I guess that's the easiest way to know which ones you have. The compression latches are the same as what you have on the pantry door. They just lock a bit more securely, so Jason suggested we use those since we're going on rough roads. I was actually asking about latches for the drawers, but Jason suggested that we secure the uppers. I don't know if that's been an issue - at least I don't remember anyone complaining about it. The frosted door is now the standard, and both the mirror and black are upgrades. You can mix and match if you want - we're doing a mirrored door in the bath and the rest frosted.

The danfoss compressor type fridges are said to run better in hot weather, plus they require less venting and consume much less power relative to the 12V setting on the 3-ways - they only pull 3.75 amps when running. So roughly 45 amp hours per day assuming it runs half the time, 90 Ah if you leave the door open. They also aren't finicky about being level, can handle getting bumped around a lot, and they offer a bit more storage for the space they take up. Plus they're stainless and look cool, lol.

Oliver provides a ton of venting - both of the vents by the door are for the fridge. I'm sure that's a lot of why the absorption fridge works well in the Oliver. The fridge thing is funny to me - RV and travel trailer people always say they're fine, but if you ask anyone who's used a 12V compressor fridge, they'll tell you that you're nuts to stick with an absorption. We debated it, and decided to play it safe with the 12V. You get a bigger fridge if nothing else, but it will use about ¼ of your battery capacity per day while boondocking, so that's the obvious tradeoff.

Something to think about - we looked at where to put one of these while we were at Oliver yesterday, but my wife and I both decided that an extra towel bar would be a better option. We're having it installed on the left side of the bath under the mirror. We can always add the clothesline later if we want, but to us, it would have to be out in the main cabin to be a useful length.