Steph and Dud B

Well, can't say I'm super impressed with our Diamondback truck cover. The first downpour we had I looked in my truck bed and saw two very fast drips coming in. Later I took a hose to the cover and found that water leaked in at all four corners where the two lids attach to the center panel. With flooding water from the hose they weren't drips, they were streams. Online searching told me this wasn't an isolated problem, either. In the end, it comes down to poor engineering and sloppy manufacturing. The design relies on various pieces of weatherstripping coming together at an angle when the lids are closed. On ours, the weatherstripping was cut too short at the factory. The water coming off the cover would sit on top of the truck bed rails and drain in through the gaps. 😤 From what I read online, replacing the weatherstripping - and attaching it at the exact right points - is a bear of a project. After a few days of messing around with some extra bits of weatherstripping I've got it down to only a drip under flooding water from the hose now. I think that's the best I'll ever get. Pretty disappointing for such an expensive piece of gear. On the positive side, the cover meets its other tasks well: locked security for the bed and cargo carrying capacity on top, so I guess it's OK. Diamondback SE score: Water resistance: 7 Security: 9 Cargo carrying: 10

The lack of a 2" receiver adequate for one of the RV-rated bike racks irritates me as well. (There are no RV-rated 1¹/⁴" racks.) Our Ollie receiver is therefore relegated to a small cargo carrier and our bikes are going on top of the truck.

Congratulations!

I did something similar for dump days. 45-gallon Sterilite totes from Walmart fit perfectly inside. These totes have wheels on one end and I use my collapsible awning hook to pull them to the tailgate for unloading the trash at the transfer station.

What's the wheelbase on the Gladiator? Shorter wheelbases are less stable tow vehicles, regardless of the tow rating.

Last I heard Oliver was installing Cooper Light Truck tires. Perfectly fine tires. Most other trailers come with ST (Special Trailer) tires, often of dubious quality. Google "RV China Bombs" and you'll see lots of horror stories. With our 3 previous rigs, the first thing I did was put quality tires on them. I won't be changing out the Oliver's Coopers.

Most theoretical values hit a wall in real-world applications because they rarely get installed optimally. Even so, R16 does seem a bit far-fetched. The real question: is the Oliver insulation any better than a standard RV with aluminum studs and fiberglass/styrofoam/luan sandwich walls and roof? I'll know pretty soon. Had a few of those "stickie" trailers. This summer will be an Ollie. I know that our last fifth wheel radiated a lot of heat through the slideout walls, which I think were thinner than the "main" walls, and the cabinets/compartments in those slides were always cooler or hotter than the cabin interior. Comparisons with the Ollie will be interesting.

Yes, we have a 2000W Honda that we'll probably carry to supplement the solar. I like the idea of portable solar panels, but we already own the Honda.

So, very rough estimate, the AC used approx. 10% SOC per hour and your solar replaced that 10% the next day. In theory then, someone in similar weather could probably run the AC for 1/2 hour each night to cool the cabin off before bed and recoup that power (and some other power used) the next day. Looking forward to trying this when we get our Ollie!

Diamondback installed, with the Front Runner racks and Yakima bike racks. Just about ready for our delivery date now.

I don't see an issue with piggybacking a surge suppressor - not a second EMS - inline. The external unit simply passes normal power and would absorb the first hit of a surge, potentially saving the onboard EMS surge protector circuitry. How could it cause an issue?

Hi, if you picked up a '21 or '22 model, how many sections of 10' sewer hose did Oliver give you at delivery?

Yeah, we discussed it a bit. Steph did want the convection initially, since there's no oven. However, we almost never used the ovens in our previous trailers. The loss of a couple inches of precious counter space and the price tag finally pushed us away from the convection.

Yes, we did. After much discussion.

Note that it does take up a bit more counter space than the microwave. That was a factor in our decision.

Considering Rock Tamers ourselves, but I've read reviews that say they don't work on an aluminum hitch drawbar because the mounting bolts just dig into the aluminum. Any experiences with that?

400 watts AC is only 3.3 amps so you'd have to make sure the trailer's not drawing more than that - either through the trailer's converter or by whatever AC->DC rig you cobble up to go into the solar port (truck outputting 120v AC, trailer accepting only DC volts). I think the lowest bulk charge setting on the Xantrex is 5 amps. That would blow the circuit breaker in the truck.

That seems very unlikely. The entire interior is molded fiberglass, and the mold can't be changed. I don't see any way a wheelchair could maneuver inside. For instance, the aisle between the twin beds is only 18", there is a large sill under the bathroom door, and the entrance door is probably too narrow, as well. None of those things can be changed. I do know that other RV manufacturers like Forest River have modified some of their RVs to be wheelchair accessible. You might want to look into those.

Interesting question. Our trailer will also have lithium and solar. Between trips this summer I was planning to set the thermostat on the MaxxAir fan to about 75-80, figure out how to let airflow in without water leakage (going to try making one of those plexiglass window vents someone else invented), and let the solar and batteries do their thing. I wouldn't leave the A/C on.

Interesting! Is that the formula to calculate the diameter of any tire?

Odd question, but... Can anybody tell me the outside diameter of the 225/75R16 tires on the LE2? Trying to determine if our existing tire covers currently on our fifth wheel will fit the new Ollie.

Our ambulances have a little digital meter that shows +/- amps. Let's us easily see if we charging or discharging and by how much. I think others have installed something similar in their Ollies. Hopefully, one of them will pipe in with the details.

@Kelly please post photos of your trip to Fish Creek if you can. Looks like a great place. We enjoy NY state parks, too!

Really interested to discover how we make out up here in CT. One of our favorite dry-camping spots is full-sun, basically a field near the ocean, so we're hoping we do well with solar there. Other sites are often partial- or full-shade but we're hoping we can manage mid-week stays if we start with the 630aH Platinum bank fully charged. We also have a fall weekend in mid-state NY with full-sun. For now we're going to bring our little Honda genny with us all the time, at least until we get a feel for the solar performance under these conditions. In a couple of years we'll finally be able to go back to "sunny day, no cloud coverage at high noon in the south." 🤠

Wish we could be there, too!