Overland

That's quite a vehicle. We ran into a Unimog camper at Cades Cove in the Smokies last week - taking up every inch of his campsite and more. Those guys baffle me. They spend millions to outfit vehicles that are far too big, heavy, and thirsty to actually take to any of the places that they're supposedly outfitting them for. He drew a crowd, though, which I suspect is the goal. Speaking of Big Things, we were at Smokemont campground later in the week, and at about dinnertime, this 747 sized bus pulls up. They had to unhook their vehicle from the back to go scout out the campsite, both to see if they could drive through and if any sites were big enough for them. Of course, they left their bus idling while they did so. After a few trips through the campsite, they decided they'd found a spot, so they brought the bus in and spent about 30 minutes at one site trying to get it backed far enough in to clear the road. Finally they gave up, hooked up the car and left. 45 minutes later they were back again, and spent a good 30 more minutes trying to negotiate with someone to switch sites, lol. Bus idling the whole time again. All that with an empty KOA not a 5 minute drive away.

Jaque, I had Oliver do a wired camera for me from RVS. If they're still willing to do that, I'd highly recommend it as it has a really nice HD screen and is 100% reliable. It was a little bit of work on my part to run the cables in the truck, but worth it, imo.

We have two spots on our Ollie that are like that. One is on the roof and is about the size of my hand, and the other is on the turned-in area by the door. I asked Oliver to polish both spots when I was last there. They got most of the one by the door (not all) and didn't do the roof at all. It's hard to see either but they're obvious to the touch and much more difficult to keep clean. To my untrained eye, both spots look like they could be repaired areas that didn't get finished completely.

Looks great. You'll enjoy having the curtain there. Interesting idea with the machine screws. I'll have to give that a try next time.

They have a nice little RV park on the north end of town. Not sure how hard it is to get a spot during the season.

I think a lot of the negativity about eMTBs from the MTB community is just fear of the unknown. Everyone imagines hordes of new riders on the trails with no manners, terrorizing hikers, destroying the trails, and leaving a cloud of trash behind them. And they're scared that if it becomes a problem that trails will get closed to all bikes rather than just eMTBs. I'm sure that somewhere that will happen but I doubt it will be as widespread of a problem as people think. Having said that, most of what we see around here that we think is eMTB damage is in fact from those new riders who don't know when to stay off the trails. Or don't care - some people don't like a trail unless it's rutted and muddy. There's always a contingent of riders here who complain when a trail is repaired.

I'll be the contrarian and say I think you'll be perfectly fine. But I have to ask - how does an avid skier from Oregon not arrange delivery mid-december so that you can plan a weeklong layover in Park City? Both directions. :)

I assume if it's a designated bike trail that whomever maintains it will have considered the issue. Hiking trails I assume would be off limits to bikes - that's my experience. Our problem is mostly with multi-use trails. The soil conditions are a big factor. We have clay soil here that stays wet for long after a rain and is super susceptible to damage when wet. That's where 90% of the damage comes from. I've read studies that say trail damage from eMTBs isn't much worse, but my guess is that it's down to the type of soil. For our soil they're definitely worse, though nothing like what a horse can do of course.

Please keep your e-bikes on paved or gravel trails, regardless of what the law may say. Our local trails club spends a disproportionate amount of time already repairing trails from inconsiderate or uneducated bikers in general, and the damage caused by e-bikes is 20 times worse. The extra weight and torque of these bikes can destroy a trail in nothing flat.

We were going to do exactly that and then put the stickers on the trailer as a merit badge. But then we couldn't bring ourselves to cover the trailer with stickers so they're all in a box. Still collecting them though. We camped next to a sprinter earlier this year and I finally figured out what those slide outs were for - they put their stickers on the side walls of the slide out so that they were only visible when camped. Clever. You guys might also like the Ranger Doug stuff.

Plug converters: We've yet to run into a campsite that didn't have 30a service, though I guess there's one out there. External Surge Protection: If you have the built in then I wouldn't Wheel chock or “X” blocks: We tried the X-chocks and found them to be unreliable and a PITA to use. I prefer the cheapy hard rubber chocks, four of them. Extra 25′ potable water hose: Not necessary to spend extra on these, but they're nice. Jack stand blocks: I use the Camco legos. I should probably find something lighter and less bulky though. External water filters. We have this one but have yet to use it - I wouldn't call it essential, but their 'essential system' would be the one to get. Extra grey water discharge hose: We have a cheap 100' garden hose from Home Depot that I got because it was...grey. For composting toilet: We use regular TP - nothing you get will have time to degrade much all before you dump, so it's really just a question of bulk. We prefer peat over the coco, and just carry three or four gallon ziplocks of it in case we need to dump the toilet while travelling. Tool Kit: I think there are a few lists/threads on it if you search. I carry way too many, and then bring more just in case, so I'll limit my advice to just a decent screwdriver and wrench/socket sets, hex set, some vice grips/pliers, utility knife, etc. A rubber mallet is indispensable for knocking chocks out. A multimeter can be handy. Tire gauge. Gloves. A few repair items are good to have: gorilla tape, assorted zip ties, self fusing silicone tape, butyl tape, screen repair kit, fuses. Cookware: The Magma set is pricey but you won't regret it. Also, also, and also. Utensils: Most of the RV specific things we bought ended up getting quickly replaced by duplicates from our kitchen. For us, there's enough room in the drawers not to worry about space saving products. Here are a few things that we really do like though: tumble trivets, drying mat, wine crate, Dishware: We have these. Cute, but that's about all I can say for them. On my to do list is to find a way to safely carry real dishes. We also end up using paper plates more than we should. I spent a small fortune on Strahl glassware since I figured they're used in restaurants so they'd hold up, but after one trip they were cloudy and covered in scratches. You could probably run over them with a truck though and they'd survive. But we just bought a few of these to try and have high hopes. Utensil and plate organizers: These and these fit the drawers really well. Dish soap and hand soap: We just keep a small bottle of Dawn in the pantry. I'm used to one of these at home for hand soap, so I got one for the trailer. Paper towel dispenser: We love this one. Above the sink with screws and caulk. Inside entrance matt: This fits the space almost perfectly Ground matt at exterior entrance to trailer: This one does the job Extra matt for outside of bath area: Definitely needed - we have this one. Trash receptacle: We bought this but it's too big and we don't do a good job of separating the recyclables. But it does fit well under the dinette and travels well in the shower. We have a tiny little pedal bin from Ikea in the bath but they don't seem to make it anymore. Toiletry organization suggestions: We use these in the bath cabinet. Also these with the clear tops. Any kind of cabinet or closet organizers that are essential: We use these for clothes. If you can find the Rubbermaid bento boxes, the medium size works great in the upper cabinets. Unfortunately it doesn't look like they make them anymore. Toasters: The Breville Mini is one of the few (perhaps the only one?) that fits in the microwave cabinet Coffee maker: Join the dark side. I'm still shocked how good these are. It travels in the sink. Other stuff that we MUST HAVE at pickup??????? Patience.

Depends if your hangar has a 12' door, I'd imagine. Looking at this photo, his bike rack is attached to the Fuso rather than the Ollie, which is what you'd expect. Also, he's built a custom tire carrier to carry the larger spare. [attachment file=1*Eoj3RuQFRdSBxeuqvpNIGQ.jpeg] Interesting that you can see the Ollie bumper is still in place. My guess is that he just chopped off the tongue, removed the suspension subframe and attached the Ollie to the Fuso at the suspension mount points and somewhere up front.

I think it was John Davies who first posted this peculiarity... Cool. Also weird, but in a good way. I've always wondered what the deal was with this thing. Then this morning, in an unrelated forum search, this post from 2015 popped up... http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/i-have-a-dream/#post-12837 Whoa! Could this guy have realized his dream? The answer is yes. Yes he did... https://medium.com/overland-exploration Someone needs to get this guy back on the forum to explain himself. Come back @mjfreshyfresh - I want to know more!

I seriously doubt if most manufacturers bother with schematics. The appendices to the Oliver owners' manual is one of the gems of getting an Ollie, imo. Not perfect, but a fantastic resource nonetheless, especially if you're a tinkerer like me. And those who aren't will definitely appreciate having a set of schematics to give their repair shop if something ever goes wrong. Now, if every Ollie would come with a set of CAD drawings, then I could really get to work, lol.

Apparently some people can send them, since I have one, but I can't reply - when I click on it, I get a blank "my profile" page.

They include a zipper door in the quote.

Good info to know and glad there was no damage. BTW, I decided to order the Electric Antifreeze Kit for the Truma. Since we winter camp, it should be useful. I comes with a replacement filter element that contains a heater, and also a bung for the exhaust that prevents cold air from getting in. It's supposed to be used while traveling or overnight so you don't have to keep the gas on. Looks like a dead simple installation. I'll be interested to know how much power it pulls and if it's practical to use off batteries.

You are correct - unfortunately as a retrofit, it would be a very difficult purchase to justify, since most people opt for the factory inverter and have already invested in a generator and accessories. Doing it from scratch as we did, however, our system ended up, after the tax rebate, to be only ~$800 more than we would have otherwise spent. $2,200 more if I include the lithium batteries, which in the end are nice to have but I'm not entirely convinced were a necessary expense. Still worth it, imo, depending on one's priorities. Glad you got it figured out.

The new version looks to be the original one with bolted rather than welded connections. I'm assuming that they may have had a problem with cracking weld joints on the original, and version 2 was pretty bulky and heavy, though it has advantages of it's own. The newest one doesn't look like it will be any easier to install or remove and it does still block the spare tire. I've yet to use our V2 rack for bikes. On our last trip, I put a Rhino Rack tray on it for extra storage, but we didn't really use the extra stuff we brought, so I doubt we'll do that again.

We've ordered one. Originally we were going to find a place to store the trailer, but I've learned that I really like having the Ollie here at the house. Unfortunately our lot configuration and historical guidelines for the neighborhood don't give us much opportunity to build a structure for the Ollie. And we have tons of trees, which means lots of gunk and leaves and little access to solar anyway. I thought $720 for the cover was reasonable, considering the material and the fact that it's custom cut. I was assuming it would be over $1000, frankly - and not having to pay for storage means that over time we'll save far more than we spent on the cover. They said three weeks to delivery, which isn't bad at all. Very nice people to deal with so far.

Which is why Oliver should offer a modern electrical system like the Victron as an option - powerful yet dead simple to understand. Adding it was by far the coolest thing we did to our trailer.

I'm not familiar with the Zamp so I can't say if it shuts off entirely without solar power. But you should be able to check the battery voltage on the tank monitor if that's all you're looking to do.

Normally, you don't put antifreeze into a water heater because it will corrode the anode. But I don't think that the Truma has one - at least I don't see anything about it in the manual. But perhaps there's something else in there that would corrode - I guess the best route is to call Truma. But I'd also check the bypass valve. You said you forgot to close it, but normally it is closed, so maybe you forgot to open it? If so, then antifreeze couldn't have gotten into the hot water line and therefore none in the output of the Truma. I'm really surprised that there isn't a valve on the output. I'd verify if that's the case and if so call Oliver because it should be there.

Check to see if you have the bypass kit installed - look for a set of valves on the water lines going into the unit. (Mine does, but at the time, Oliver was experimenting, so I don’t know if other trailers have it - I assume they do.) If you do have the kit, follow the directions in the manual for the Comfort model with the bypass kit, which just involves turning three valves before winterizing. Basically, all you’re doing is shutting the valves to the water heater so that when you winterize the rest of the plumbing, you don’t get antifreeze into the Truma. Then drain the Truma like Oliver showed you.

I'm beginning to wonder if a spare water pump is worth carrying. The peace of mind might be worth $75.