Bill and Nancy

This may be a stupid question but I was wondering what most people do in between trips when the Ollie is sitting idle for a few weeks at a time. Should I fill my fresh water tank, empty it or don’t worry about it until it’s time to winterize? Bill

I was thinking the same thing but I have not had any funny feelings towing it all seems pretty stable to me. With that said I’ve only towed about 1,500 miles to date. I also have two full 30 gallon propane tanks so that adds weight up front. like I said I’m going to fill my fresh water tank and re weigh it, maybe it will put weight up front. I also usually have two bicycles on the back which will move weight back. With in a week or so I will weigh it again with bikes, water and make sure my propane is topped off and see how much things change. Bill

I decided to weigh my trailer because there is a lot of discussion. I have a set of scales I use to do weight and Ballance on Aircraft and they are very accurate. I did a quick and dirty weight but will re do it on the hanger floor in another week fully loaded. The trailer is a 2022 LEII with solar, lithium a convection microwave and two full 30 Gallon propane tanks. At the moment it is still winterized so it has no water. We have a Lavio toilet so there is no black tank water. It is loaded and ready to go with everything we travel with less the 240pounds of fresh water. The trailer weighs in at 5,220 pound add the fresh water and we are at 5,460 pounds. The weight on the tongue is 509 lbs. I plan to re weigh it with the fresh water full to see if it changes the tongue weight. So that’s it in a nut shell. Before someone comments I put the trailer back down level on the tires and moved the load cell under the trailer ball to get the tongue weight, I did not take a picture of it. Bill

I almost took mine to Cannon mountain skiing last week end but I decided for the two nights it wasn’t worth getting salt all over it. But it’s coming out for April, it’s the first time I will have another few days to go someplace. Bill

We have a pet starling his name is Ditto He loves to eat crickets and stink bugs. He lives in our store and when the stink bugs come in in the fall they don’t have a chance. The interesting thing is that when he catches one he rubs it all over his feathers before he eats it. It’s smell must do something maybe like insect repellent for mites. Maybe you need to get a pet starling. IMG_0186.MOV

I think will continue to use the one I wired in it’s been working perfectly plus you can see the temperature without turning the heat off. I never used my AC to date so the new Dometic will have to run the AC. It’s possible that the old one that was screwing up the heat would also screw up the AC. They sent me a new one and it only took me about 5 minutes to swap it out. I have to send the old one back for credit.

I finally got the new thermostat from Oliver about a week ago and today was my first chance to switch it out. To my surprise it has seemed to fix the problem. Its 35 degrees outside and I cranked the heat up to 62 degrees and it started and shut off without all the crazy clicking sound coming from the AC unit and stayed off for almost 15 minutes before coming back on. No more cycling off and on. Ran for about 10 minutes and shut off when the temperature was reached. It seems to be working like it should. Apparently it must have been defective from the beginning.👍

I guess we will have to have this conversation a year from now because so far its towed the trailer without any problem. I may change my mind 2 years from now but its been perfect so far.

I agree bigger is better but if we went bigger we out priced our selves on the truck. We used every penny we had to buy what we did and almost backed out of everything truck and trailer. But we only live once so we are giving it a try. So far so good and we dont travel any distance other than picking up the trailer in TN. As soon as the snow stops I plan to go to the local cat scales and see where we are at. The truck has a rated tow capacity of 7,700 pounds Oliver told us its pretty hard to get the trailer over 5,800 pounds and we dont have any black water or generator so that helps. That leaves us 2,200 pounds to put in the truck. Take off 580 pounds for the tong weight and 330 pounds for me and Nancy that leaves us 1,200 lbs of useful load, unless Im figuring something wrong. We travel light so that helps and we always drain our gray water so that takes off another 240 pounds. You're talking to two people who up until now traveled the country on motorcycles so we travel light. So Ill keep you up to date on what we weight on the cat scales to see how close we are to the real numbers. We also have an Anderson hitch which I think is a must. Thanks for the insight Bill

So after reading other peoples post I decided to see if I was accurate on what I had said. My wife accuses me of being a fisherman and exaggerating so I pulled my travel logs out and she was right once again. But I wasn't that far off. On the way down it was all flat highway driving straight through from MA to TN non stop. Stopping only to stretch legs use the bathrooms and get Fuel. We stopped 2 times for fuel and averaged 28.2 gallons on the way down. On the way back with the trailer we stopped for Fuel 6 times and averaged 18.86 MPG but it was also a lot of twisty mountain roads and a lot of stop and go traffic through NY city. So all and all the mileage was pretty good. Bill

We tow with a 2022 GMC Diesel canyon and so far we haven’t had any issues. We love our truck it has a tow capacity of 7,700 lbs and we have the tow package. We picked up our trailer this fall and averaged 28 mpg on the way down and 22 on the way home pulling the trailer. I almost ran a red light on the way home and with my wife yelling I got on the brakes and we stopped very quickly and under control. They stopped building the diesels in 2022 but you might find one used. We maintained 60mph over the smokies without any problems and navigated a bunch of twisties and the Diesel brakes worked as advertised.

that’s to close for comfort, good thing you spent the money on the car port🙀

That sound very plausible. my original thought was that the temperate was being taken from the control unit within the ac on the ceiling. But after thinking about it I tested it by putting a blow drier directed at the thermostat and it shut the heat off proving my original assumption wrong. I think you may be on to something with a draft through the wall. But so far my solution is working perfectly so unless something changes I will leave it the way it is. I actually like it better because the thermostat that I installed shows the inside temp and the heat setting simultaneously unlike the Dometic thermostat. The remote unit you installed sounds like a good idea, I may switch to that at a later date. If I get to use my trailer like I hope and money allows I most likely will change out the AC at some point for a quieter one. Bill

No I’ve been playing email tag with Oliver for months. They said that they got approval from Dometic to send me a new thermostat but is back ordered. I haven’t gotten an update in weeks. No I never got a schematic either but there are two wires that come out of the furnace and they are labeled thermostat. It was pretty straight forward. In my drawing what I labeled thermostat is the new thermostat I mounted on the wall. It was -13 degrees this past weekend and the way I have it wired works perfectly no cycling on and off. My wife spent a better part of today in the trailer and she said the heat worked perfectly. Feel free to email me if you have any questions bill

It would seem to me if the battery is capable of being charged 100% by solar which I believe they are then they should eligible for the tax credit. If I boon dock for a year and never connect to shore power seems to me Im running 100% on solar. Just because you can charge them by plugging them in doesn't mean I ever will. What if I plug them into an external solar array it seems to be a gray area

Thanks for the information

I totally agree if we were out months at a time the cost would probably be a deal breaker, but for us it is the perfect solution. I figured it works well for us maybe others would like it also. Bill

When we Bought our trailer if I’m not mistaken the composting toilet was over $1,300.00 the laveo is $845.00 and they are having a sale for $745.00 free freight if you buy it while they are at the RV show. I Just bought one for a friend today Bill

So this is what happened to us. When we were in the Oliver camp ground I put on the tire sensors. We took the trailer for a short test ride of a few miles and came back to the camp ground. I figured out that I had put the wrong sensors on two of the tires so when we got back I took one sensor off and it was fine. Took the other one off and it was leaking so I quickly screwed it back on and I figured I would deal with it when we got home. That afternoon I stopped by an auto part store and pick up some new stem cores. That night I decided to change the valve stem and I couldn’t get the stem out it was stuck and in the process I lost all the air. So I got out my handy dandy air compressor and to my surprise It had the wrong connection for the 12volt and I couldn’t plug it in. So I put the spare tire on and drove 10 days no problem until we got home. I then took the tire to a garage and said I’ve never had a valve stem get stuck, first words out of his mouth do you have balancing beads. He then explained what I told you and he said it is a common problem.I called Oliver and mike said that they used to put balancing beads in the tires but they no longer do it. Guess what we had beads in our tires. So with some struggling we got the core out and replaced it with a new one and all is good for now. But when I get some free time I think I will either take the beads out and balance it with weights or pay the money for internal sensors . I think I will just balance them with weights and move on. hope this helps Bill

It cost us about $1.50 a flush so $3.00 a day. It’s kind of a moot point seeing how I’m pulling a $80,000 trailer with a $60,000 truck. Also like I mentioned earlier we usually only get out about a week at a time with day trips in between it works perfect for us. The other thing is we almost never go to a camp ground so black water is a big issue. Its not for everyone but for us it’s perfect. Bill

No because when you screw tire sensor onto the valve stem it opens the valve core and it remains open. Then the balancing beads get stuck and jamb it open. Things will be fine until you remove the sensor to add air and it starts to leak and you can't stop it. If you move the trailer so that the stem is at the top of the tire and then add air it will usually blow the beads out and it will stop leaking. The only way I know to resolve this is to either remove the beads or buy internal tire pressure sensors and have them installed by a tire garage. I had exactly the same problem Bill

I just wanted to mention that we have a Laveo dry flush toilet and we love it. I haven't seen anyone mention it on the forum before so I thought I would mention it. It may not be for everyone but if you dont want to deal with black water or the pee bottle of a composting toilet this may be your ticket. If you Boon dock as we do it makes life so much easier. Work prevents us from traveling a whole lot and we can only get out for 1 or 2 weeks at a time and then back to work so its a perfect solution for us. We often only get out for a day or 2 at a time so the convenience of this toilet makes shot trips so much easier. If you use it for a few days then park the trailer you dont have to do anything, just walk away. Its odor less and takes about 2 minutes to change a cartridge. You can get about 14 flushes out of a cartridge so we usually flush it 2 times a day and we go a whole week, we have gone 10 days but that was pushing it. Another interesting feature is you can remove the whole thing with one wing nut and bring it in. So if you need a portable toilet for some crazy reason and your not using your trailer just pop it out and take it with you and its 1/2 the price of a Natures head. Its not for everyone but it is perfect for us, we think its the Cats Meow! Check out the link and watch the video its interesting to watch. And its made right here in the USA Check it out Bill https://dry-flush.com/

Yup we had the same problem it is caused by the balancing beads in the tires. The tire minder causes the valve stem to remain open and the balancing beads get stuck and jams open the stem. If you have a good compressor move the trailer so the valve stem is on the top and put some air in the tire this should clear the stem of beads. we had the same problem and had to change a tire on the way home from picking the trailer up from Oliver. Once home I brought the tire to a tire shop and the guy knew right away what to do and fixed it. We will probably remove the beads and balance the tires the traditional way. Bill

I plan to do something like you suggest I was just trying it out to see what effect it would have before I got carried away. If and when I change out the duct I may also put the splitter in the line feeding the two vents under the bed rather than the duct that feeds the bathroom. Providing a straight shot to the bathroom, I think that will also improve the overall air flow. I’m also thinking of putting a butterfly vent in the upper left corner of the bathroom door like mainiac did not so much for heating but to improve ventilation when using the shower, I like his idea. We tend to camp in colder weather and opening the window when using the shower tends to get rather chilly when it’s below freezing out side. Bill