topgun2

J & E - Picked it up yet? Except for the rain, the weather is not too bad. Pictures? Bill

John - Really? There is nothing to assemble on a Clam unless one would want to call hammering stakes into the ground as assembly. I wonder where that "assembly charge" came from? Bill

On the back street side of an Elite II you should find a short length of hose protruding from the bottom of the camper. This is the exterior drain hose for the air conditioner. This hose goes from the air conditioner to that point by being routed between the inner and outer shells of the Oliver. Bill

John - Sorry for waiting so long to get back to your questions but I had imagined that some of our true gearheads would have jumped on these questions by now. Having had some wheel bearing problems in the past, I'm a bit on the conservative side with regards to the care of these puppies. My answers to your questions: A. No B. At 8,000 miles, plus some time sitting plus probably near a year since the bearing were serviced you should get your bearings serviced. C. No inspection ports. D. Yes - pull the drum. No unless there is evidence that the rear seal is suspect (i.e. grease on the wrong side of the seal or obvious other problems). E. I have had no failures on my Oliver but have had failures with previous trailers. The failures were due to bad bearings and not due to regular service. F. No. G. Mine are wearing evenly and still have more than half life left after three years of towing and over 30,000 miles. There are all kinds of reasons as to why your bearings just might still be in very good shape (no load during storage, dry enclosed storage facility, even with 8,000 miles if they were "easy" miles with little water/rain or dusty roads, etc.). My last service two months ago showed that even at 10,000 miles my seals and grease still looked very good even though I did a bunch of Interstate miles with temps in the 90's and also did a bunch of driving down very dusty dirt roads. However, the question I always ask myself - is the saving of those service dollars worth the risk? Bill

I specifically chose the 20 lb (standard) tanks for three reasons: 1. I do not do very much cold weather camping. However, during the summer I am camping at altitude and do use the propane for "some" heat. Over the past three years this has never been a problem. In fact, I've been surprised at how little propane I actually use given that the fridge is almost always using it. I've done a 7 week trip on less than one tank. 2. These tanks are easier to handle (versus the 30 lb ones). 3. The most important reason (for me) - flexibility. As ScubaRx mentions, I can always have these refilled as long as there is a place available to get this done. If there isn't a place and I really need the propane I can always "swap them out" at gas stations, grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. Obviously, refilling is the better option for many reasons, but, I like having the option of swapping and with the other tanks this is simply not available to you. Certainly I like(d) the idea of the Viking ones but felt that the cost really didn't justify the lighter weight and restriction of not being able to swap them. Bill

Bill - "bugeyedriver" on this Forum has many miles of direct experience with both a Tacoma and a Ford F-150. You might send him a private message asking him for his real world experience. I used to tow with a Tacoma and it is still my favorite truck for all things except for towing. One year while headed west across Kansas I had a 40 mph headwind. My Tacoma was towing a stick built camper that weighted right at 3,500 lbs. My MPG was 4 - yes, that is not a typo - 4mpg. This meant that I had to stop for gas every 120 miles or so. A big royal pain! My current truck (a 2017 F-150) has the larger gas tank and even with a strong headwind and towing the larger Elite two at just over 6,000 lbs I still get north of 10 mpg. A more comfortable ride too. My only complaint is that these trucks are big. But, I'd rather deal with that problem and have a wider safety margin. Good luck on both the choice of TV and on getting your own Oliver (soon I hope). Bill

Jaque - I hated the part of ordering that you are going through now. So many choices and trying to think of all the possibilities versus the monies being spent. I went with the standard toilet. I too travel much of the time solo. When not boondocking there are virtually always toilets nearby for poo. When boondocking I have a shower tent and a collapsible toilet that uses those bags Heather mentioned. That system works great, uses no "on-board" water and is easily disposed of. On long trips, I do carry a small "blue" portable tank in the event I need to make more room in the black tank - just be careful to not put too much "stuff" in the portable tank so that I can lift it to a regular toilet for emptying if necessary. While intriguing, I found the composting toilet to be expensive and uncomfortable versus the benefits. I didn't go with the factory camera system for two reasons. First, I thought that it was a bit expensive. Second, I simply didn't want another screen in the cockpit of my truck. At delivery I added a small camera located in the upper half of the spare tire cover that transmits signal via WiFi to my tablet or phone. It works great except for when it rains - the camera picks up too much road spray to see tailgaters. The water heater is another one of those return for the money things. Basically $1,000 for instant gratification? Like KountryKamper, I too believe that the winterization is no big deal and servicing while on the road is easier. For small things like dishes, I simply heat water in a pot on the stove. For showers I almost always use a solar shower and the shower tent I mentioned above. This is a great way to save water, room in your grey tank and propane that would have been used to heat the water. When I really do need to use the shower in the camper I do not allow the water heater to heat the water to its maximum. I posted a thread some time ago on my system of using a meat thermometer with remote readout to monitor the water heater temperature and turn off the heater when it hits about 106 degrees. Then when taking a shower I do not need to mix cold water with the hot to get the correct temp and I can take a shower easily before the water starts getting too cold. I will edit this post if I can find a link to that thread. Finally, I'm no help to you regarding the generator. Almost always when I have needed air conditioning I have been able to use a campground that had electric hookup. Even camping this summer out West when daytime temperatures hit highs of 108 degrees, the lack of humidity plus the decline in temps overnight provided easy sleeping. Other than that the solar panels kept my batteries fully charged each day. Good luck on these "final" decisions of yours. Either way you decide on virtually any of the options, I'm sure that you will be happy with your Oliver. These campers are just so easy to travel with. Bill

Dave & George - As I see it, the "problem" with the marker lights is that they are placed on a curved surface while not being curved themselves. This tends to cause one side of the light to "lift" from the surface thus resulting in the caulk to either crack or totally separate from either the light or the trailer. I've not removed any of mine from the camper but have simply cleaned the area (usually with mineral spirits and/or alcohol), removed any loose caulk and re-caulked. Hope this helps. Bill

George - while you're looking around, don't forget to take a close look at your "marker" lights on both the top and bottom of the hull. Like Steve, I've never had to do much on the roof, but, several of those lights on mine have needed a bit of re-sealing. Bill

Yukon - Glad it is working for you. Both Buzzy and I started out with florescent orange but found that any of these "florescent" colors tended to fad fairly rapidly. I have finally settled on a simple silver - the contrast to the black and light color of the silver gives the visibility that I need plus it dries really fast when applied, does not build up to thick layers as fast as most other paints and while easy to be seen it doesn't scream at me or detract from the other nearby components (i.e. Andersen whale tail and chains). During my storage preparation process I sand the area where that slip collar slides back and forth and give it a shot of new paint for the winter. Come Spring everything is ready to go except for a shot of silicone on both the collar and the area of the bulldog that slides under the collar. Bill

While I've not had any electrical issues with Twist I do know that they can be very frustrating. I assume that you have had a discussion with Richie and Jason regarding these issues. Bill

Sorry for the issues that you are having (had), but while there have been occasions the repairs, mods, service have taken longer than originally planned, virtually all of my service appointments have been without issue. In fact, during several appointments the guys have actually performed more things than what I asked for simply because either they were needed, were just a part of what should have been done or they were "upgrades" now standard on current models. Bill

I can't specifically talk about the Audi since I have never owned one, but, with every brake controller I've ever used there has been a manual control. Bill

OOPS! Sorry about that "handle" - I thought of that as I was typing the reply but just figured they were still included at delivery. I'll get you a picture tomorrow but you can use anything that fits nicely into the 5/8 inch hole at the bottom of the hitch ball. Yes, it is easier to do that than it is to remove the whale tail from the chains. Bill edit : decided to go ahead and get that pic right away just so I would not forget to do it tomorrow. Note that the handle is approximately 21 inchs long as pictured.

Bobfirst - Basically you have got it. However, when we talked above of being able to move the whale tail, that is only possible when the Oliver is NOT attached to the tow vehicle. If you jack up the Ollie to induce slack in the chains but still have the Oliver connected at the ball of the hitch, there is upward pressure on the ball and, therefore, on the part of the ball to which the whale tail is connected. In this situation it is more than likely that you will not be able to move the whale tail due to that upward pressure. Likewise, when the Ollie is connected to the tow vehicle in a "normal" position then there is downward pressure on the ball and/or the chains are too tight to move the whale tail. Therefore, the only time that the whale tail can be moved is when the Ollie is not connected or there is no pressure on the ball. Having said all this, your second sentence confuses me a bit. I trust that you remove the Andersen whale tail prior to detaching your Oliver from the tow vehicle's hitch ball. The only time that one really needs to move the whale tail is when you can't re-hitch in the same (or nearly the same) alignment of the tow vehicle and Oliver as it was when you un-hitched the two. Usually these situations are caused by someone being parked such that a fairly severe angle is needed in order to get backed up to your Ollie. With the old Andersen it was very difficult to move that ball/whale tail (note that the whale tail was sometimes used by taking it off the chains or detaching the chains from the Oliver in order to get some leverage to help with moving the ball into the best position). With the new Andersen sometimes the ball can be moved with just the hitch pin. If that doesn't work then one can use the handle of the socket that Oliver gave you that was to be used for tightening your lug nuts on the Ollie. If that doesn't work then you will need to resort to the old fashion method of detaching the chain that is too tight (and thus preventing you from being able to attach the whale tail), attach the whale tail with that slack chain attached, drive so that the slack chain tightens and then re-attach the missing chain. With this method all you have done is use the weight of the camper to pull the hitch ball assembly back into a "neutral" position. Hope all this does not confuse you further! Bill

Now that's what I call an intro! Welcome - less than a month to go. Perhaps driving 10 hours a day is a bit too much - particularly on the way back with your brand new Ollie. I once thought that driving across the Midwest was boring. But, there are just so many things to see and places to visit and history to investigate that now there is simply not enough time to get to it all. The weather is still not too bad in the second half of November. I'd recommend that you slow down a little bit (particularly since it is your first time). Pick a few places along your route that you've read about or have always wondered about and take a visit. Each and every town along your route was founded for a reason - stop and find out what that reason was/is. The wheat, corn and sun flower fields that go on for as far as one can see make for stunning pictures/cards. What an adventure - enjoy every minute of it. Bill

When I visited the Andersen factory in Idaho Falls this summer the Sales Manager told me that, indeed, on the "new" model the triangle (whale tail) could be moved by hand when there wasn't any weight on it. This was not the case with the old model. Being able to do this allows you to realign the whale tail with the tow vehicle without releasing one (or both) of the chains when it is difficult to get the tow vehicle and trailer aligned as they were before you separated them. Like Maverick, my "new" design hasn't made any noise in over 10,000 miles of towing. I'm not sure if my "water diverter" had any effect on this, but, it makes me feel as if I'm doing something to keep moisture and dirt from getting between the housing and the sleeve (see picture below). I simply cut this to fit out of an old lawn mower inner tube that I got free from a local tire shop. Bill [attachment file=P1020095.JPG] I cut the inner tube with a diameter of 6 1/2 inches and then cut a 1 inch diameter hole in the center. The center hole has to be stretched over the ball in order to get it on.

J & E - The park where the annual Owner's Rally is held is quite large. It is highly unlikely that it will be filled. Certainly come join us - it would be a great place for you to learn even more about you new Ollie and get ideas on many other ways to spend even more of your money. Bill

Well over a year ago just as soon as Andersen did the re-design. I don't believe that you can even get the old design anymore. Bill

I agree with John. I've used links of this type in several applications over the years and have never had one come apart all by itself. Yes, I've had several loosen but they never came apart. However, I do snug mine up with a wrench. Indeed, just one more thing on the check list. Once installed and properly adjusted, these links will probably last the "life" of the system. Perhaps a bit of "blue lock tight" just might be in order for those threads. Glad that nothing was really damaged (other than the link itself). Bill

Darryl & Kim - PM sent back to you. Given that I was last at the factory back at the end of August, there is little chance that any of my photos are of a unit that has not already been delivered. However, I do have a bunch of shots of Olivers at various stages of production. Therefore if anyone is looking for a picture of the "guts" in order to figure out how things work or the position of wires or pipes or ??? then just send me a PM and I will (hopefully) get you a picture of the area in question. Bill

Hobo - I thought of just posting a picture of the "parts bin" but decided that would be cruel for someone awaiting the birth of their Ollie. Sorry, but of the pictures I have there just isn't one with either a November date or your name on it. Bill

Tom, Good idea and nice job on the size and style but good luck on that tailgating issue. When I ordered Twist I asked Anita to not have any of the graphics on the sides or front. In a quizzical tone she said was I sure. So, I asked her why she thought I should have them. She replied that by keeping the Oliver, Legacy Elite II on the sides it would save me a bunch of time both on the road and in campgrounds by not having to constantly answer peoples questions as to what he camper was. Just another reason why I like her. On at least one early trailer there was a 1-800 contact number for Oliver on the spare tire cover. I'm not sure if that was a customer's or a factory demo model. Bill

With deep sorrow, yesterday I put my Oliver to bed for the winter. In doing so I did the usual inside and outside cleaning, water system winterizing and overall systems check. One of the last steps I do is to crumple and wad up several sheets of regular newspaper and place them in the fridge and freezer. I also prop open the fridge and freezer doors to allow a bit of air circulation. The newspaper helps keep that dreaded fridge odor away and the fridge is ready to go in the Spring. Bill

Dave - Welcome and welcome - the first to the Forum and the second to the family of Oliver owners. Obviously, most of us here certainly believe that you made the right choice. Give Anita and the gang a big hello from me on what is sure to be a very exciting day for you. Pictures are always welcome! Bill