DavidS

John, your engineering on this is amazing! It would be much easier to install during the initial build. I would not be surprised if Oliver offers this as an option.

Spike, a well designed experiment! Thanks,

Some comments about the WeBoost cellular booster and the WiFi Ranger. We are camped at Paradise campground (NFS) on the McKenzie River in the Oregon Cascades. Our Verizon phones have zero to one bar, and my Jetpack has zero to one bar. With the cellular booster they have three bars. My WiFi Ranger is connected to the Jetpack. I can now sit by the river and get, quite honestly, mediocre connectivity. Without the WiFi Ranger I would have mediocre connectivity, but only at the dinette. I like the combined power of the WeBoost cellular booster and the WiFi Ranger. We do not choose our campsites based on cell signals. This area is gorgeous. We had a great hike this morning and saw a bunch of waterfalls.

I got the Accurite wireless thermometer and humidity sensor. I put the remote unit on a metal cross bar under the propane cover. I used exterior double stick tape to attach the remote unit to the metal bar. I was unnecessarily worried that the double stick tape would not hold, so I used cable ties to attach it to the vertical threaded post that hold the propane regulator. Belt and suspenders, I guess. Foy started this thread talking about how hot and humid it is in Florida. We are on the Oregon coast, camping at a great park, Jesse Honeyman State Park near Florence OR. While it is humid here, it is certainly not hot. Very nice.

The cell phone booster will work with all cell phone providers. No programming needed for the booster. Sherry (SeaDawg) has commented that there is an advantage to having phones with different providers. In some locations only one provider will have a good signal, and thus you still have connectivity.

I think that 18 inch comment is hyperbole, based on frustration about the booster signal not extending to the back of the trailer. WeBoost, manufacturer of the cell phone booster, says it has a range of 30 feet, with disclaimers about obstacles limiting signal range. My experience is that the booster works well when seated at the dinette, and that appears to be the experience of most posters, like John's comment above. Will it work outside? I don't know. An experiment can be done: Set a phone up in Field Test mode (link in Sherry's post) and test the signal at various distances from the dinette, including outside the trailer. Unfortunately Field Test mode no longer works on my current iPhone, so I cannot do this test. One suggestion for people with the WiFi Booster. Set your phone to use calling over WiFi. I think most phones and providers can do this. I do this at work where the cell signal is very bad, but the WiFi is dynamite. The WiFi Booster has a range of 1000 feet (with disclaimers about obstacles), so you can be a distance away from the trailer and still get a WiFi signal and hence calling over WiFi.

We are on the Oregon coast right now. On Monday we had a Mini-Oliver rally at a gas station in Boardman, OR, when we spied another Oliver. This is a 2014 Oliver that belongs to Mary and David from Walla Walla, WA. Mary and David were on their way to the Willamette Valley for some kayaking. David and Susan

KWRJRPE, First, welcome to the Forum, and to the Oliver community. This forum is one of the best parts of owning an Oliver, as the people are happy to share their expertise. Like you, the Oliver is our first and hopefully last RV, and I was woefully ignorant at the start. Better today in some areas, but in other areas my knowledge is still completely lacking. One suggestion. Rather than posting a question about Anderson levelers in this thread, put your question either into a new thread or into an existing thread. There is a search box at the top of the main forum page, and you can search there. I did such a search and came up with this thread. I knew there was another longer thread on this topic. Unfortunately the search tools on this forums are quite inadequate, so I did a google search for "site:olivertraveltrailers.com anderson leveler" and came up with a second thread, here. (I complain about the forum search tools, but the trailer is awesome.) You should also check out the Fiberglass RV forum. They had a recent discussion about leveling here.

The WeBoost cell booster will definitely improve the performance of the jetpack as a hotspot. The cell booster will mean faster speeds, and at locations with poor cell tower connectivity, the cell booster can mean the difference between a connection and no connection. The cell booster will also improve your the signal on your phones. The antenna for the booster is usually placed above the dinette table, so that is where you want to use your cell phones or place your jetpack. Reed and Karen reported problems at the back of the trailer getting signals from the cell booster. Having a JetPack should help that, with an advertised range of about 30 feet; note that obstacles, such as trailer walls, will diminish that range. In terms of which Jetpack to get from Verizon, I would recommend the 7730L, which gets the best reviews for speed. The AC791L model has longer battery life, which is important if you are keeping the hotspot in a daypack as you go about your day, but that is not an advantage if your use is in an Ollie where you can easily keep it charged. Some advice on properly using the cellular booster. After you turn on the WeBoost you should briefly put the phone in airplane mode, and then turn off airplane mode. This forces the phone to let go of the distant cell tower with the weak signal, and to now look for the closest “cell tower,” which is the WeBoost. Similarly, if you were using the JetPack in the tow vehicle, you should power it off and then back on after starting the WeBoost. If you have been out hiking all day, your phone will remain connected to the distant cell tower, and you can get it to connect to the WeBoost by cycling into and out of airplane mode. If all of your internet connections will be via cellular signal and the jetpack, then you have no need for the WiFi Ranger. If, however, you will sometimes be using WiFi (like when the crappy campground WiFi is faster than the weak cellular signal), then the WiFi Ranger has some real advantages. First, the WiFi Ranger has an antenna on the roof and connects to a WiFi source (i.e. campground or Starbucks) much better than your device, such as a phone or a laptop, could on its own. You get a stronger signal and faster speeds. There are several other advantages to the WiFi Ranger. First, it makes connecting much easier if you have multiple devices. (We travel with two iPhones, two iPads, and a laptop.) With one of your devices you connect to the WiFi Ranger, tell it to connect to Campground X WiFi, and give it the password. You do not need to put the Campground X password into the other devices, because they already know the WiFi Ranger password and immediately connect to the WiFi Ranger. Second, the WiFi Ranger generates a stronger signal than a MiFi device. This means it can transmit its signal a longer distance through obstacles like fiberglass walls than does a Jetpack. This means I can get a strong signal using my laptop at the picnic table outside of the trailer. This is true even if I am am using the Jetpack for internet, with the WiFi Ranger connected to the JetPack, since my laptop is communicating directly with the stronger WiFi Ranger. I have a Verizon Jetpack, which I keep on the dinette table near the WeBoost inside antenna. Here is part of my Campsite Arrival Checklist: • Turn on Cell Amplifier. Cycle phones into Airplane mode and back again to regular. • Turn on Verizon Jetpack. • Turn on WiFi Ranger. Connect WiFi Ranger to either Jetpack or local Wifi. Connecting to the WiFi Ranger Control Panel through a web browser is fairly easy. I have done it on each of my devices, and then bookmarked it so I can get back easily. While on a camping trip one of my browser tabs remains connected to the WiFi Ranger Control Panel. The Control Panel shows the speed of each of the possible connections, say, JetPack vs campground WiFi. If the weather is interfering with cellular signals the crappy campground WiFi may be better. Later in the evening, I can check the Control Panel again, and if the JetPack now has the better signal, I can connect the WiFi Ranger to it. Since all of my devices are connected via the WiFi Ranger, all of them have switched from campground WiFi to JetPack. Hope this helps.

Jeff, Be aware that power output from a generator drops when you are using propane instead of gasoline. There is a very good thread on the Easy Start here. You said that you may want to use the AC at higher elevation, and you should be aware that there is a further drop in generator efficiency as the elevation increases. You should especially read the comments by Matteo Giovanetti, the engineer for the Easy Start company, here, where he discusses both elevation and propane. He said that their experience was that Honda EU2000i on propane, not the slightly more powerful 2200 that you refer to, was able to both start and run A/C units with EasyStart only up to about 3000 foot elevation. I communicated with Matteo another data point, that using a Honda EU2000i generator fitted with a GenConnex propane conversion kit, I was able to both start and run the 13.5k BTU Dometic Penguin II AC here in Salt Lake City at 4250 ft elevation. But be aware of the elevation issue, especially on propane. I think it would be pretty easy for a local RV shop to install a propane quick connect.

I don't unhitch when parked in front of my house. I pull the trailer on the boards, and leave the car hitched. I agree, a full tank is important when boondocking!

On the Olivers the SeeLevel monitor is not hooked up to the LPG tank, so your monitor is working correctly. The SeeLevel, as manufactured, has the capability to be hooked up to an LPG tank. However, my guess is that this may only work with the type of LPG tanks installed in Class A motorhomes, not the type that we have.

I have the exact same problem Rumline describes. I get the trailer out of storage, park it in front of our house, and fill the tank. Our street has a very steep slope to the curb. When we get to our destination and level the trailer we have 60-65% full tank. My solution is based on a post I saw several years ago (See Tip number 4), of using boards for leveling. I cut angles on 2 x 8 boards and put drive the trailer up on them. The only photo I have is of two boards under the curbside wheels. Two boards was not enough, so I tried three boards, and I am now using four boards which seems to level the trailer. That should be about six inches. Like I said, my street has a steep slope. I used long wood screws to attach the boards together. Although the original post suggested carrying these boards for leveling at campsites, I do not. The boards stay at home.

At the Oliver Rally I spoke with one of the Oliver staff (Scott Oliver, maybe?) and he mentioned the upcoming Trailer Life article. I said "I hope they don't show [something] in this new article, like they did in the previous one." I was told that part of the arrangement with Trailer Life is that Trailer Life has complete editorial control over what goes into the article.

I agree with John that the search function on this forum is inadequate. I have complained about it several times before. In an earlier post, Jason said that the searches are ajax based and searches are performed in real time. I am not a programmer, but I have worked with IT specialists in developing my department’s web site, and my understanding of ajax searches is that the search results are shown as you type, and the search results narrow as you continue typing. This type of auto-complete, based upon text strings within the website, is enormously powerful. You see this auto-compete in a Google search. Clearly the Oliver Forum search engine does not do this. I do want to provide a short tutorial on Google searches. Really good information HERE, and maybe too much information HERE. John provides a good suggestion But there is a better way. If you put “site:” before olivertraveltrailers.com, as in “site:olivertraveltrailers.com” you limit the search to that one domain. You can exclude hits with specific words. Suppose you search for “propane tank” but you get a lot of hits about barbeques, then you can exclude barbecues with a minus sign before the offending word. The search would be “propane tank -barbeque”or even “propane tank -barbeque -bbq”. You can use quotation marks to demand an exact match. Suppose you search for quick connect in the search “site:olivertraveltrailers.com quick connect” and you find pages with both words (or only one of the words) anywhere on the page. A search for “site:olivertraveltrailers.com “quick connect”” demands the consecutive words, in a phrase. (I hope you are not confused by the nested quotation marks; the outermost marks delimit what is going into the search field.) You can also use the Boolean Operators AND and OR in your searches. Examples: “”quick connect” AND water” “”quick connect” AND propane OR LP” You can also use asterisks as wild cards in your searches. If you go to FiberglassRV Forum, you can search the entire post, or search only the title. Searching the title can be an excellent strategy. We cannot do that with the Oliver Forum search tools, but there is a work around with the terms intitle: and allintitle: For example, “site:olivertraveltrailers.com/ lubrication intitle:jacks” finds pages with the word "lubrication" and with the word "jacks" in the title. Note that the singular jack did not work, because the title had jacks. Hope this helps.

I found one more picture from the rally that I really like! Great memories of the rally!

Mike and Carol's placement of the handle near the latch means that it takes less force to close the door. My placement of the handle near the hinge means that I don't have to lean out very far to grab the handle.

At the Oliver Rally several people commented on my low tech solution to the door handle problem. The handle was $2.50 at Ace Hardware, and I used two sheet metal screws. I decided on this solution after reading Topgun2's post about the screen door handle, and that the bar did not have the strength to support someone when getting in or out of the camper.

John, I sent you a PM.

I had the same problem. I called the factory and they said to use epoxy to glue it back on.

I got the Voyager backup camera system when I purchased my Ollie. I like it a lot, but my only complaint is that the monitor is so large. At the Oliver Rally I noticed that their demo trailer had a smaller Voyager backup monitor in the unit. I went to the web site, and found that the new monitor is a 5.6 inch model, as opposed to the 7 inch model I currently have. The 5.6 inch model is available from eTrailer for $286, which seems a bit steep to save some windshield real estate. The 5.6 inch model appears to have a much better cable arrangement than the larger one. My main reason for posting here is that ASA Electronics has a Replacement Rearview Mirror Monitor, that shows your Voyager backup camera image in the rearview mirror. Seems pretty slick. The web site says The Voyager mirror monitor works with all Voyager cameras and is a perfect replacement option for rearview mirrors on Ford, GM, Dodge and Sprinter Chassis. While it would not work with John Davies Toyota, it might be useful for others. I searched on Amazon with "Replacement Rearview Mirror Monitor" and found a variety of manufacturers.

Thanks to Coy and Foy and Matt and Scott for making this a very successful event! It was amazing to see experienced owners sharing their considerable expertise, and especially seeing the new owners excitedly taking it all in. I enjoyed talking will all of the Oliver staff, and it was clear that they were listening to our comments, complaints, and suggestions. These are smart business people, and I expect they will listen to our ideas. The sessions they had were great, but I am posting here to give a suggestion for topics at future rallies. The April Oliver Newsletter had a great article by Jason Essary on Oliver Maintenance. It appeared to me that most of the rally attendees are new owners, and they, like me, may lack the technical expertise needed for all of these maintenance issues. I suggest a how-to session from the Oliver Service staff on some of these maintenance questions.

More rally pictures! [attachment file=Lodge Panorama.jpg]

I don't think there is a single source, but here are some: http://www.thegoodluckduck.com/p/boondocking-resources.html http://www.boondockingguide.com https://www.campendium.com/free-camping Ultimate Campgrounds has a phone app. Technomadia has a nifty GPS-based Phone app that solves this problem.

While I have not been to the Dakotas, my notes include this forum thread: http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/camping-in-august-and-september-in-dakotas-and-minnesota/#post-63427, and this one about Glacier: http://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/a-big-boondocking-opps/ Also an Airforum thread: http://www.airforums.com/forums/f42/glacier-national-park-177358.html A colleague at work recommended Hegben Lake, near West Yellowstone.