topgun2

Rest stop North of Council Bluffs. Heavy t-storms early this morning but clearing now. Only Ollie I've seen so far today. Bill

Yesterday (June 28, 2025) I was heading West on Interstate 40 and saw a silver pickup with a silver topper towing an Elite II. They were headed East just East of exit 392. Hopefully they were not too delayed by the (ongoing) construction through the Gorge. Bill

Rob - If you look under the rear of that new truck, somewhere there will be a decal stating that you need a WD hitch if the hitch weight is 500 pounds or greater. ALL 1/2 ton trucks have something like this. If for no other reason - I could not afford the liability of not using the Andersen in the event of an accident. I happen to think that performance and safety are also improved in using it, but, those things are more of a personal choice. Bill

If you can't make it to Idaho and still want a mini-version of lava fields, you can always try Snow Canyon State Park. This park is located north of St. George, Utah with the lave field hike at GPS: 37.222005386630634, -113.64194019098785. There's also lava tubes and petrified sand dunes here. Bill

I hope so!😁

Rob - I'm on my third 3.5 Ecoboost f-150. I bought one the first year they were offered (2011) then a 2017 and now have a 2023. Never a single issue with any of the three. But, as you might imagine, I've not put more that 50,000 miles on the first two and now only have 12.600 on the 2023. Given you have a 2013 I'd guess that you know what a beast the engine is. Those twin turbos really make such a large vehicle fly! However, I assume you also know that there are reports of serious engine problems with those early models that have over 100,000 miles on them. The only other comment I have concerns the gas mileage - I had hoped for better MPG when towing (I get between 12 and 13 mpg on annual fishing trips from NC to the Rockies and back). Not towing I get 22 on the highway - 65 mph on rolling Interstates here in NC and more like 17 around town. Each of the three I've owned have had the 6.5 bed because I ordered mine each time. I did ask about why the 5.5 seemed to be popular and was told that the foot shorter bed provided for easier driving around town and was about all most people needed to haul mulch and kid toys. Bill

yes yes The 80% fresh water tank being full and no leak while the fresh water tank at 100% full has a leak indicates to me that your leak is probably happening at or near where the overflow tube is "attached" to the fresh water tank. Bill

Just got to love the labels on those springs!

Sorry about that - I missed the part about this being the rear camera. I too had an issue mounting the very small rear camera. I fashioned a piece of wood in a bit of an "L" shape. After spraying the wood flat black, I 3M'd the top of the wood to the metal frame around the window. Then I used the metal bracket included with the rear camera to attach it to the wood. Good luck! Bill p.s. the heat issue is another reason I used that heavy duty packing tape on the front camera just in case there would be an issue. But, as I mentioned, it has not moved even after being on the "hot side" of one of those heat reflectors used in the windshield to keep the sun off the dash while parked.

I took a small square of "clear" packing tape and placed it on the inside of the windshield. Then an appropriate size of double sided tape (3M) with one side of the tape applied to the camera and the other side to the tape. In case you're wondering what the packing tape is for - it is much easier to remove this packing tape than it is to remove the double sided 3M stuff. The camera has now been in the same place for two years without a hint of a problem. Bill p.s. from the "high" position on the windshield it was easy to route the hard wiring into the head liner, over to the "A" pillar and down to the interior fuse box. All that is visible is about 1 inch of the main power wire and about 1 inch of the wire back to the rear facing camera.

Yet another "update" Matt Duncan kindly went into his old office at Oliver today and took the photo (below) of all the remaining Oliver hull plaques that have never been claimed. If you own one of these Olivers, please contact me in order to organize a way to get your plaque to you. We are still investigating a way to get older hull number plaques via Oliver's normal ordering process (and other avenues), but, I believe that this will take some time (i.e. early Fall at the earliest). Bill

Hope you enjoy the "wall" right outside of Wall (SD). The views (particularly at dawn and dusk) are spectacular! Hopefully it is not too crowded there such that you don't get a spot right on the rim. Bill

OK - A VERY quick Google of stickers looks like it would cost about $0.90 to $1.00 each for an order of 100 stickers plus (of course) mailing fees for the USPS, and envelopes for mailing. So, all in you are talking about $2.00 for each sticker. Would 100 of us be willing to fork out a couple of bucks to show that we have spent 100 nights boondocking in our Ollie? Bill

I understand that the word "hookups" can have more than one meaning. 😵‍💫