Overland

At $5/foot it would be a bit pricey but I’d love to swap out the white trim for black to make it easier to keep clean.

This is the second recent thread that we’ve had about the boondocking port not working well. Perhaps it’s a coincidence, but it’s worth questioning if Oliver has made any changes to the pump or plumbing.

Here’s a video that explains the process. Last winter I used this method and it was successful enough that I’ll continue to do so. You do have to be thorough as Bill said, and there’s definitely a greater risk of failure vs using anti freeze. The main difficulty being that even a small amount of water left in a line can collect in a low spot and form a plug. But it’s such a simpler method, and because it doesn’t have to be undone when it’s time to go camping again it works better for us with our camping habits and changing weather. If I lived in a colder climate, I might not be as willing to risk it. Regardless, it’s a good tool to have for when you’re traveling in the cold. https://youtu.be/fyjFAFFe7xs

Here's a thread I started earlier this year -

Change is always difficult, and I think that most people will probably have something about the old forum that they preferred. But as nice as the old forum looked, the fact is that it just didn't work well. So give this one some time to grow on you, and I'd also try playing around with some of the customization options. The activity feeds, in particular are a nice feature - for example, I have a custom one set up that works just like the old forum's 'recent' view, which I prefer. I also set my browser to display the forum with a slightly smaller font than the default, which makes it easier for me to read on a large monitor. And I'm sure that Jason will probably tweak a few things here and there as the forum matures, just to get it looking as nice as the older one.

Absolutely! Many prospective owners come and it's really the best way to get to see the trailers, not to mention seeing first hand the sense of community among Oliver owners.

The attachment limit was noted in testing but I think we weren’t sure at the time if the limit was part of the test software. It’s not something that the moderators can change so I’ll ask Jason if he can look into it. The issue with the links looks like it’s because there’s now a new level /forums/ in the addresses. I think that may be a remnant of having both forums going at once during testing, with the new one being in a different directory. I’ll ask about that as well.

Hi Lisa - Take a look at the document here labelled 'measurement index'. It should give you all the dimensions you need. The overhead compartments are curved in the back to match the outside of the hull, so in terms of volume, they're smaller than just LxWxH - maybe ⅔ or so of that volume.

You're not - but many people do it anyway.

Even with the heat on, the most vulnerable areas will still tend to frieze - particularly the hose inlets. The best thing to do for short stints in the cold is to carry a compressor or air tank and blow out the lines prior to travel. It doesn't take much time and gets you 90% winterized.

A Victron MultiPlus, or any other hybrid inverter/charger, would help. But that's a big expense and a lot of work to rewire if it's only a temporary situation. Do they have a 50 amp service? You could try that with an adapter.

Part of the proposal is also to set limits and blackout dates for senior pass holders. Personally, I find the NP campgrounds to be a bit too commercialized already, particularly those at the larger parks. I’ve always found the the park service run campgrounds to be clean, well maintained, and well run. In fact, I’d say that the only NP campground that we really didn’t like was one we stayed at in Yellowstone, which is leased to a private operator. One of our general rules with park amenities is that if Xantera or ARA is involved then we skip it, just because we know that no matter what it is - gift shop, hotel, restaurant, etc - we know it will be overpriced and poorly run. I don’t really have an opinion on food trucks, so long as it’s a few and not trucks lined up along every popular viewpoint in every park. Unfortunately, though, that would almost certainly be the case. And with food trucks comes trash and generator noise, etc. And the idea of adding ‘amenities’ like zip lines is to me the exact opposite of what these parks are about. It’s not the job of the NPS to entertain people. Their job is and should always be to preserve special places where people can go and find entertainment on their own. If you think that your trip to the Grand Canyon is somehow lessened without those things then I think you’ve missed the point of why you’re there. The proposal also would loosen regulations on outside tour operators, meaning more pink jeeps, more busses, aerial tours, etc. I guess it’s obvious that if I were in charge I’d do the exact opposite of this proposal. I’d limit the size and number of bus tours allowed in, place limits on RV length, add more primitive campsites, and just give the park service proper funding to maintain the parks and add more rangers.

Mine and I was told one other that came off the line alongside. It was an experiment to see how much trouble the extra plumbing would be.

I considered two different Australian campers before deciding on our Ollie. The first was a fold-out tent trailer, which seemed like a great design but their US distributer folded. The second was a Kimberley, which was more comparable to the Ollie. It had everything we wanted and I was really interested in it. But then a few people who had them here in the US and who had originally gushed over them, admitted that they were having problems with the trailers and problems getting them fixed. One guy had an issue that made his camper completely unusable and the only fix was to send it back to AUS and have it rebuilt. So I ended up with the Ollie and then a year later heard that Kimberley filed for bankruptcy. Point being, be careful and know that no matter how good the trailer/importer/manufacturer looks right now, they could fold up tomorrow and leave you on your own. The only Australian company that has succeeded long term in the US has been EarthCruiser and they did it by essentially moving their business over here. But if you accept that and are still willing to go for it, then absolutely do so. The other thing I would say is that the Ollie is a lot more rugged than it gets credit for. I've banged mine around a good bit and apart from an initial round of build issues, it's been a real trooper so far. I've personally come to believe that the big long travel suspensions on these "off road" trailers aren't really of any benefit, and what really counts when banging your trailer around off pavement is maneuverability, toughness, and build quality. And I think that the Ollie really excels in those areas, particularly the Elite I, since it's so small and light. I do like some of the features of the Aussie trailers, like the extra spares, galvanized frames, and outdoor kitchens. But some of the features I think are a drawback in the US, like the Webasto diesel fired everything.

Unfortunately, what you're suggesting won't work. The electric antifreeze kit is only designed to protect the unit itself from freezing. You use a separate mode to turn it on and it doesn't work in the other modes (comfort or eco). If you select either of those modes then the unit will try to fire up, and unless you have the propane on it will give you an error. And unless you have the comfort plus, the unit can only circulate water within itself, not the water lines. In fact, even if you did have the comfort plus (I think only two Elite IIs have it) then you'd still only be protecting the hot water lines and not the cold lines or the faucets.

From conversations I've had with Oliver, I think that they've always considered the 13.5 AC unit to be oversized, but they felt that they had to spec it for marketing reasons. If the smaller unit will use less power, and maybe even a bit quieter, then IMO I think you should consider it an upgrade. If you plan to camp in southern Arizona in July, of course, you might feel differently.

IMO, the smaller AC unit is an upgrade. It should be quieter and more efficient. I think it was purely a marketing decision to put the larger unit in the trailer to begin with.

They used to be, but now they aren't. I think the change was with the 2019 model year but I'm not certain about that.

At half the price, it would be interesting. The sliding kitchen is pretty innovative though. I’ve see a few other trailers try to do a single indoor/outdoor kitchen but this is the first one that seems to keep the kitchen at a usable height either way. I’ve seen their little pop up tent trailer in person and it’s pretty cool for a light-use trailer.

The grab bar looks broken and bent back to me. To me it looks like it went on its side and then hit something that crushed the top.

Looks like it fell on its side to me. I've been told of one Oliver that skid on a snowy road and flipped - possible that this is it. And I know of one Oliver that did back into something, but I've seen those photos and it wasn't this bad. You said current owner? Has it been repaired?

Snowball, because I wanted to buy a nicer tent, and things kinda got out of hand.

If you want the schematic, take a look at some of the older versions of the manual then. They have several schematics of different configurations for the trailer. I don't know why Oliver took them out of the current version.

Assuming that you didn't have an inverter before, then you need a separate transfer switch for the inverter. The new transfer switch will have inputs from the inverter and the outlet circuit from the power center. The output from the transfer switch will go to the outlets. The only input into the inverter should be 12 volt. One thing to watch out for, if your trailer didn't come from the factory with an inverter, is that the microwave is probably on a different circuit than the other outlets. If so, then when you wire it up like above, the microwave won't have power from the inverter. You'll need to move the microwave circuit from the power center and connect it to the outlet circuit with a junction box (after the transfer switch, of course). Oliver's schematic can be confusing (at least it was to me), since they have the inverter only powering the outlets and microwave, and not the fridge, water heater, or AC. My trailer's wiring is completely different from spec, since I have a 12v fridge, Truma water heater, and an inverter capable of powering the AC, so I had to scratch my head a bit (and rewrite this post, lol) before figuring out what Oliver was doing. On mine, the inverter output just goes to the power center and branches off from there, so it's much simpler. The inverter has a built in transfer switch, but if it didn't then the switch would go between the power center and the inverter/shore power. It's unlikely, but depending on which inverter you're trying to install, this may be how you'd want to wire it.

Great work on the vents. Looks like it came that way from the factory.