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Overland

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Everything posted by Overland

  1. My neighborhood was platted in the 1800’s and is as tight as can be. Most streets are effectively single lane due to street parking. All the street corners are radiused 2’ at best and often there’s a telephone pole placed 6” off the curb right at the corner, so no curb hopping. Driveways are narrow and people park right up to the edge. But you adjust. Driving a truck through here definitely requires more thought and care but it ceased being a pain after a few weeks of getting used to it.
  2. They do grow on you. My experience was the same and even my wife wants one of her own now.
  3. Well I know from experience that mine will go off if I’m grilling under the awning and leave a window open.
  4. Another new fire extinguisher option is fire sticks - www.elementfire.com. They’ve just become available in the US in the last year or so. Expensive, but they’ll put out any fire, not damage wiring or anything, don’t have to be maintained, are super small, and last longer than other extinguishers. I bought two and keep one in the truck and another in the trailer.
  5. That’s pretty cool, but I’d be a bit worried about it going off accidentally. I’ve probably told this story, but I did in fact buy those little Atom smoke detectors above and I put a few between the hulls. Well, you guys know I like bumpy gravel roads and it turns out that the press-fit mounts for those alarms aren’t as tight as they seem. So after one long gravel road, we pulled into a campsite at around 10pm, got out, and heard one of the alarms going off. Both had been jiggled loose, but somehow one of them got bumped in a way that set it off. You can imagine me at 10pm with my head in the hatches frantically trying to find, and then retrieve that little bugger. Don’t be fooled by their size, they’re LOUD. And then after finding it, I couldn’t get it to shut off, and ended up having to bash it with a rock (very satisfying). The other little time bomb I didn’t find until half a year later, buried inside a nest of wires under the charger. So, they’re great, but glue those suckers in tight.
  6. I looked at this when contemplating our own trailer. To me, it made a lot of sense as a vent for the cooktop, a pass through, and as just extra light. I'm sure that Oliver just said no, but I never pushed it because I couldn't figure out what to do with the inside. That is, you'd want the same window treatment as the rest of the trailer, and those things are thick enough to really encroach on the counter space and especially the cooktop. As a retrofit, I think it would be possible but obviously difficult, especially since you'd have to work around the existing counter. I think it would have been a waste anyway, since it wouldn't have worked for the pass through or vent like I was thinking. Since I grill under the awning, we learned pretty quickly that all the windows on that side need to stay closed while cooking dinner. That, or disable the smoke detector ;) .
  7. At least on the F150, the FX4 shocks are stiffer than stock. They don't swap the springs, which is what affects towing.
  8. What I meant was that thieves love to steal guns. Advertising that there might be one in your trailer is a big invitation.
  9. I've heard nothing but great things about Jeannine's rallies, from both Oliver and Casita owners. They're supposed to be a ton of fun and I'm sure some of the regulars here can post about their experiences. I doubt I'll ever go to this particular one, because August, but Green Eggs and Ham and Outer banks are definitely on my someday list.
  10. I mostly agree, though they've definitely improved the past few. The one thing that gets me is that they don't physically separate their fiberglass production, cutting, and assembly areas. There's dust everywhere and you can even see in the video where the guy has to stop and pick out dust when spraying the gelcoat. It's all over the parts shelves and the floors and follows the trailers through delivery. And there's no way it's healthy for the workers.
  11. "I have valuable things inside, including a nice gun." ;)
  12. Those spaces aren't for locking things up securely. They're more for just keeping things out of sight in case someone does come in or peeks in the window. Campground theft is about opportunity. It's unlikely anyone is going to bother prying open your door unless they know for sure that there's something in there worth getting. But if a bad guy sees you head to the bathroom with a magazine and a roll of toilet paper, or he sees you and your spouse socializing with someone three spots down, then he might pop by your trailer and check the door. In just a few seconds he can scan the place for a camera or iPad, he might check the closet and take that nice Patagonia jacket, maybe grab the spare set of keys you left on the table, or he might just grab a beer from the fridge.
  13. At least once when in a campsite, someone stopped by our trailer in the evening and told us that after they saw our trailer they went on youtube and looked up videos about it. I'm used to telling people about the trailer, not having them tell me about mine, so that was a little weird. The problem with those compartments is that if someone knows about them, then they also know that's where the valuables are to be found. Then all it takes is waiting for you to take a walk around the campsite without locking up, or maybe hanging out by the campfire distracted - 15 seconds later and they're in and out with whatever they find.
  14. I wonder if something like that, longer and cut on a slight angle, might work as a combination rear wheel chock and jack pad?
  15. And of course check that your grey tank isn't full. ;)
  16. Search for Oracal 651 vinyl on Amazon. It’s utility grade vinyl used by sign shops, often as a mask for sandblasting. It’s thicker and much more protective than the stuff they use for actual vinyl graphics. Very similar to contact paper but it has a stronger adhesive.
  17. Thought I'd try taking another photo to see if it would show the matte black better - this is just generic black spray paint applied to the back of the frosted door. I still get some light around the edges at night, but it's much better than before. I have some additional equipment in there with LEDs that make it a bit brighter than stock. I could probably experiment with some weatherstripping to see if I can get it all blocked. I think you could use any color, so long as you covered it with vinyl to make sure no light gets through. I told my wife that I might paint each door a different color and she threatened to hide the keys.
  18. I just use a paper towel and quick reflexes. We haven't had too much issue with bugs of any sort so far. I did quickly learn that the porch lights are bug magnets, and if you come and go with them on you'll have a trailer full of little flying things in no time. I found that an LED strip mounted along the edge of the awning will attract them away from the door and with that we get very few bugs inside, if any. I have a Lumenoodle but there are plenty of options and I think the awning companies all sell light kits as well. You can also put the noodle in psychedelic mode and it will repel other campers as well. It also helps that we're fall/winter/spring campers and prefer deserts and mountains to the woods. Last year I sprayed between the hulls and along the edge of the floor before summer storage to keep ants, spiders and such from taking up residence. I'll probably make that a yearly thing.
  19. I just watched the factory tour video and have to say that's the best tour video I've seen by a long shot. Tons of good info for prospective buyers and current owners alike. I had to laugh at the Casita guy who doesn't like the Oliver because it's not modifiable. That poor man has a serious lack of imagination!
  20. Just ordered mine - it took about a year for the problem to manifest itself. By the way, Ewa is now at extension 0021 - the person at 0022 won't know what you're talking about if you call.
  21. Nice video, though I agree with the above. I realize that it's part of the sales pitch but Oliver staff should definitely ask people to not video those compartments. Perhaps also, Oliver could ask Dori & Mena to edit those bits out (are they forum members?). I'm curious about the new drawer clasp - would like to see it in person and see if it can be retrofitted. New fridge is nice. Just go ahead and store whatever in these compartments labeled "Warning: Not Storage". (I do, lol.) I'm not a fan of the shower curtain track - the stainless rods are just a far superior solution. And why Oliver doesn't put a mirrored cabinet door in the bath as standard is beyond me. Generally, it's always interesting how many of the features they tout were pioneered by owners.
  22. Had the same thing happen to us last spring during a three week trip. Got back to the trailer after a little rain and realized the fan wouldn’t turn off. We just let it run until we got home. Fortunately for us the remote (which we had left at home) still worked. I asked Jason to send me a replacement board and it was a cinch to replace.
  23. I painted the back of ours, then covered that with some black vinyl to protect the paint. Looks like a chalkboard because of the matte finish of the plexi. I’d post a pic but it doesn’t really come through in a photo. At first I thought it looked out of place with all the gloss finishes in the trailer, but I decided to live with it for a while to see if it will grow on me. I’d prefer to put a mirrored door there but my wife objects. If I don’t like the look after a while, then I'll ask Oliver if I can get one of their black doors. By the way, if you spray paint it and don’t like it, you can take the paint off with acetone and it won’t hurt the plastic, so it’s reversible with a little effort and time. I’ve considered repainting mine with silver paint to see what that looks like. Also, for those of you who have mirrored doors, the vinyl trick works well on those to protect the mirror finish.
  24. Those crates fit pretty much perfectly in the basement. I use three plus some smaller containers from amazon to fill the space behind them (four milk crates wont fit). Those small ones I access from inside, while the milk crates are easily retrieved from the outside hatch. Electrical in one, hoses in the second and larger spare parts in the third. The small containers are for electrical bits, plumbing, nuts and bolts, and misc. repair parts. So generally I only get into the two milk crates that sit by the outside hatch. If I have to get to any of the others, something has gone wrong. Camping gear, first aid, tools and recovery gear go in the truck, since we might need that stuff when away from the trailer. Like Maniac said, a couple small crates in the back of the truck work great for storing chocks and stuff like that. The ones on amazon aren’t as well made as what we used to procure from behind the grocery when in college. I’ve broken two of the handles on mine already. I wish I could find some of the old wire ones.
  25. So I took a look at the specs and the obvious issue is that the oven is 18.5" deep, which means it would stick a few inches either into the cabin or outside the trailer, your choice. Looking at Oliver's photo, either the frame is designed to accommodate the extra depth, or they've added some sort of spacer between the frame and shell. Most likely a spacer, but something weird is going on with the angle of the frame vs the oven... Apart from that, I can't see a problem retrofitting it. It would be about a half inch larger in both directions than my existing cabinet, so that would have to be taken out and then you'd have to rig up a new base for the oven to sit on. A big job, but in all likelihood doable.
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