Overland

Is there fake lava rock, or just different lava rocks? I guess some could be harder than others, different colors and whatnot. The lava fields at El Malpais are very much like the lightweight lava rock that came with my fire pit. Very fun and crunchy to walk on. Random trivia - there's a lava rock quarry west of Santa Fe, which is easy to spot on Google maps because it looks like a giant blood red stain. Even the road leading to it is blood red.

Has anyone replaced the standard lava rock that comes with these fire pits? The rock that ours came with creates a ton of dust due to being jostled around while traveling, and so the fire pit stays pretty dirty all the time. I've thought about getting some of the larger, rounded lava rock to see if that creates less dust, or perhaps even switching it out to fire glass, but I have no experience with that. Any ideas?

That’s what we originally had for our trailer before doing the Lagun. We had the standard fiberglass table to go on the mounts and it was a pita for us. But I’m familiar with the Frontrunner table and that might be a good solution since it stores away neatly. Still might be a pain to pull out and set up - imagining having to get it out on a cold rainy morning. But that might not be a big deal in practice. You’d have to check the mounting hardware for the posts to make sure that it won’t interfere with sliding the table back in its slots, and figure out how to attach them to the stainless.

Like Bill said, talk with Foy about making a larger tabletop for the Lagun. I’d highly recommend a foldable one so that it will be out of the way for sleeping. You could take down a larger, one piece table at night; but we tried that and it was a pain, plus finding a place to store it was impossible. I believe that Foy will also make the mount that I designed, so the only thing you’ll have to do is screw the mount to the side of the bed rail. In fact if you are just getting the bed rail on one side, you probably don’t need the mount at all, since you can attach the Lagun directly to the side wall of the sofa base. On the cushions/pillows, the standard 4” back pillows won’t be deep enough to work on the mattress side, since the mattress is wider than standard seat depth. You’ll need two layers of cushions, or 8” total, for them to be anything but decorative. What we had made was a slightly shorter, floating back pillow for each side, that we use as an extra layer. Essentially a throw pillow, but dense enough to provide back support for sitting upright. More of a problem for you will be the height difference between the sofa and mattress sides, and the fact that the mattresses will just feel a bit odd to sit on while eating. Plus just feeling like you’re sitting on your bed. Also the back pillows on top of the thicker mattress will be higher than the window sill, and I think you’ll find that the thick casing for the blinds will keep the pillows from sitting neatly against the wall. So I’d highly recommend thinking about cushions both sides, and either finding just the right compromise in foam density for both sitting and sleeping, or making them stiff enough for sitting and the getting a memory foam topper that you can roll out at bedtime.

Funny, I'd forgotten until rereading that topic above that I was at one point seriously considering deleting the AC all together on my trailer. And after four years, I kind of wonder why I didn't. It's been nice when we've used it, but we could have gotten by.

I've seen large overland vehicles that use residential mini-split AC units, and their owners do rave about the efficiency and quiet. This conversation reminded me of this thread, so I went back through and reformatted the old posts for the new forum -

You might give a thought to adding one of Victron's GX products to your system. Link that to your home WiFi, which I assume has strong enough signal to reach the trailer, then monitor the system through their phone app or Victron's VRM portal.

I suspect that this is more of an aesthetic than actual problem. (That, or Oliver is using longer hoses now that are forcing a tighter bend.) An s-curve isn't inherently prone to cracking in and of itself - it's the quality of the hose, the tightness of the radii, and flex from vibration that might lead to early failure. Arguably, a single curve will have a larger radius, but then the larger curve might in turn lead to more vibration flex. Which one leads to the shorter life? There's another solution to the s-curve, which is to use an 18" pigtail and turn the tanks 90° to face outward. You'll end up with a hose that comes straight off the regulator with a single 180° bend back to the tank. The pigtail can be held to the tank mid way with a small bungee to reduce vibration. From the photo in the original post, it does look like Oliver is using longer pigtails already, so the solution might be as simple as just turning your tanks sideways - at least the pigtail looks longer than mine, which like I said above might in fact be what's causing the sharp bend at the regulator. Similarly, you could use a long enough pigtail that you could loop it back on itself like a cloverleaf exit ramp. You could zip tie the hose as it crosses itself to add some stability. I'm also wondering if you could use PEX bend supports on the hose and if that would help keep the pigtails straight at the ends, where I assume most of the failures occur. So, possibly many ways to skin this cat.

Definitely get a firepit - these days it’s non-negotiable. Pro tip, if you pair the firepit with a good smoky mezcal, it’s mostly the same. 🍸Bueno.

I’d experiment and see how high you can turn up the firepit with the furnace going before it gets shut down. Or really live on the edge and see if you can shower before the furnace cycles on.

Oh, water heater, too - I just looked up the Truma and it can pull as much as 60k btu. No idea about the standard tank, though I assume it’s a good bit less.

Looks nice, and a little extra safety is never a bad thing. Not a huge deal, but something to keep in mind is that the 75k btu limit on the gas stop could be triggered if you’re using a portable firepit (60k btu) and the furnace (20k) at the same time. Also I’m not certain of a generator’s consumption, but a number of people have modified theirs for LP so they’d probably want to check just to make sure they won’t trigger the valve.

It’s interesting though because here we are discussing getting smaller AC units, while that Truma means Oliver is going back to a 13,500, or at least will offer the option. Truma won’t be offering a smaller rooftop AC in the US.

And the winner is…

The nameplate looks covered, on purpose?

I believe either Reflectix or something very similar. Mylar wrapped bubble wrap vs foil covered foam. Maybe someone with a recent model can verify.

Good topic - I’m interested in the results. Something to keep in mind, which I just mentioned in another thread, is that I believe that Oliver increased the insulation a few years go. I was thinking 2020, but it may have coincided with the switch to the smaller AC. Regardless: 2017, #256 Dometic 13.5 85 degrees full sun - cooled very well but cycled a bit more than I thought it would, maybe a 75% on / 25% off ratio. I too think mine is a bit oversized, and if/when I replace it with a quieter model, will likely size down a good bit, especially since we rarely use it at all and when we do it’s usually only on a warmish spring or fall night.

Something else I thought of - didn’t Oliver switch insulation type and thickness for the 2020 models?

Yep, the iPhone photo problem seems to be that there’s info in the photo that says which way is up, but the forum software apparently doesn’t check. If I remember right, the ‘trick’ is to use the edit function on the phone to rotate the photo 360 degrees and save it.

That article doesn’t list Ford models, but per the links below, if your truck has FordPass Connect (or Sync Connect), then it has a 4g modem and shouldn’t be affected. Looks like that’s 2017 and newer. For models as far back as 2010, Ford sells a module that will upgrade the truck to 4g (and also add a vehicle Wi-Fi hotspot). What is FordPass Connect How to tell if your Ford has Sync Connect Upgrade your Ford to 4g

They had a really good run in 2017 between hulls 255 and 257.

I know that by the time I picked up my trailer that they had jigs for making up wiring harnesses, but that was late 2017 so it could have been another change that they made during the year. I think late 16 and early 17 were big learning years for them as they added a second production line and worked on their efficiency due to a big jump in demand (hi, Buzzy!).

I’ve got the frosted uppers on mine, so I think both that and white were added for 2017. 256 also has the full size spare.

I think the Zamp charge controller started at the first of 2017, as well as the larger sink with sponge drawer. Mid year, they changed the blinds to white and fixed the fresh water pickup tube. The EZ flex suspension was an option that year. The AC will definitely be the larger one. Apart from what Bill mentioned: The cooktop will have a different grate and it’s orientation was an option. The bath sink may have the old style faucet with the trickle valve. The convection microwave came later, and it was as option to delete the microwave back then for an additional storage cabinet. Exterior propane connections were options. There were more and different choices for interior finishes and the upper cabinet door material. Also many more choices for graphics colors. The interior latches for the uppers were different (better). The drawers didn’t have the stay closed hardware. Early 2017’s will have Fiamma awnings and the later ones will have Carefree, both manual. There were two furnaces to chose from, Atwood and Suburban; and the Truma and composting toilet were new options. Pretty much all the electronics - antennas, cell booster, etc. - were options, and they’ll surely be older models than what you’d get today. The backup camera, reading lights, and EZ start for the AC were all options. Battery choices were wet cell and AGM only. I seem to remember an option for a black tank macerator back then, and also one for an induction cooktop, but I don’t recall anyone with either. The mattress choices would have been different. The optional bike rack at the time was the big square one. That was before they started standardizing things as well, so you might find some factory customizations, including deleted items.

There’s two ways of looking at it. Do you want a self sustaining setup? If so, then John is right, Oliver’s lithium system isn’t balanced - there’s not enough charge capacity in solar or vehicle charging to match the batteries. But if you just want extended time out in nowhere before heading back to recharge, then sure, buy as much battery capacity as you want and don’t worry about it. The real question, which few really ask or answer, is how much power do you need each day. I think most people would be surprised that Oliver’s standard AGM and solar will give them a balanced, sustainable system that gives them enough power per day.