DavidS

I have the Voyager backup camera system that Oliver installed. While I use the backup camera when when reversing into a campsite or my storage facility, I rely more on my mirrors and my wife who acts as a spotter. I really like the backup camera when driving on the highway. I gives me a better picture of what is behind me than the side mirrors. When passing another vehicle and deciding when it is safe to change lanes, the backup camera really shines. It is so much better than the side mirrors for this. Your Ford setup with the backup camera only visible when in reverse would not work for me.

The mounts might be the same. There is a single post held by two large screws.

Since I was planning to go to Hohenwald for some repair work, I asked for the cost to relocate the television. Oliver quoted me a price of $850 + Tax. That seemed like a lot of money, so I did it myself, using Mike's excellent directions. I bought some slightly different parts for the job that what Mike described, and the total cost was under $60. Since I was still going to Hohenwald, I asked them how much to repair the two fiberglass holes. They quoted around $300. I decided to live with the holes, and to cover them with pictures. Here is what the two holes look like: Here is what it looks like with pictures mounted on the walls. Sorry, I have not answered your question about what it looks like after fiberglass repair by the Oliver service people.

I bought the Boondocking in Southern Utah guide from Frugal-RV-Travel. I had read excellent reviews about the book, and I have to agree that the book is excellent. They list a bunch of boondocking sites, with directions and GPS coordinates. The cost was $17. They produce six different boondocking guides, on New Mexico, Southern Utah, Southern Texas, Arizona, California Sierras and Coast, and California Desert and Eastern Sierra. The guide comes as a pdf file. I loaded it onto my computer, iPad and iPhone. I put it in the Kindle app on the iPhone and iPad, but the iBook app works also. If I am driving, my wife will be the researcher / navigator, and she likes paper, so I printed out a double-sided copy and put in a report binder. The first version of the book I got in 2017 was the 2013 edition, and it was 140 pages long. They revised the book in 2018, and they send me a copy of the new edition. It is amazing that they sent me the updated edition for free! The new version is 166 pages. The GPS coordinates are hot linked. If you click on the GPS coordinates it opens up in Google Maps, either on the computer or on the phone. Very cool! I highly recommend these guides. Using the Boondocking in Southern Utah guide, I found the best campsite I have ever had, in Valley of the Gods in Southern Utah. The campsite on BLM land was free, so I definitely consider the $17 for purchasing the book money well spent.

With two of us the black tank usually lasts four to five days. And that is with both of us getting up several times each night to use the toilet. One of the unfortunate pleasures of getting older... The people who have the composting toilet seem to really like them. If you use the search function on the forum, you will find a lot of threads. When I explained how they worked, my wife was definitely not interested in a composting toilet. When either of us sit down to poop, our bodies naturally want to pee at the same time, and you have to segregate those two bodily functions with a composting toilet.

One of the concerns is the amount of time it takes to charge an electric vehicle, compounded if a trailer is in tow. I saw this in a recent issue of the journal Nature: A lithium car battery can power a 320-kilometre drive after just 10 minutes of charging - as long as its temperature is hiked up to 60°C while it is being replenished. Lithium batteries, which are commonly used in hybrid and electric vehicles, rely on lithium ions to create a current. Charging at room temperature can take two to three hours, meaning that the need to recharge on a long-distance drive can make for a trip that lasts much too long. To solve that problem, Chao-Yang Wang and his colleagues at Pennsylvania State University in University Park heated a lithium battery to 60 °C, which allowed the researchers to charge the battery at a high rate in just 10 minutes. They had this link to the original paper in the journal Joule. BTW, 320 km is 199 miles, and 60°C is 140°F. Technology always moves forward....

We tow with an Audi Q7, which can pull 7700 lbs. It has been a great tow vehicle, with plenty of power. The owners manual for the Audi has a strict prohibition against a weight distribution hitch, and I think the same applies to most similar German cars. I did a bunch of research on the WDH topic, and one can weld a brace underneath the chassis that permits WDH use. This method was pioneered by the CanAm Airstream dealer in Ontario. I have a neighbor who pulls a 23 foot Airstream with an Audi Q7, and he had his Q7 modified by CanAm. I did not like the look of it, as it significantly decreases the ground clearance. My neighbor suggested that with pictures (which I have), any competent welder could install such a brace. My Q7 tows beautifully, with no sway despite not using a weight distribution hitch. Send me a private message if you want more info, including a bunch of relevant threads from the AirForum.

Jason and Sonja, Congrats on ordering an Oliver. You will not be disappointed! David

In terms of my Oliver, my favorite smartphone app is Dometic’s Thermostat Control. This app requires replacing the thermostat with a Bluetooth compatible version. My wife gets up early in the morning to turn on the heat, and then goes back to bed. I figured that the with the Bluetooth thermostat she could control the thermostat from the comfort of her warm bed using the app on her iPhone. Here is a video overview of the thermostat. I contacted Dometic customer service (customersupportcenter@dometic.com) to ask which model to get. I told them that I had a Dometic Thermostat model 3313194, and they asked for the brand and model of the AC unit. I told them a Dometic Penguin, model number 936000724. They replied that I had model number 641935C751C0 (I think this is the capacitor part number), and thus the part for a Bluetooth CT thermostat replacement is 3316255.000 for white and 3316255.011 for black. Based on their response, it sounds like there are a number of models. Email correspondence below. Dometic emails.pdf I purchased my Bluetooth thermostat from Panther RV for $77 with tax and shipping. It was easy enough to swap out the thermostat, with only three colored wires. One piece of advice: Remove the fuse before starting the project. Don’t ask me how I know this. The iPhone app works great. Actually, it is easier to use than the wall mounted controls. If your travel partner is the one who gets out of bed to adjust the thermostat, buying and installing this would be a thoughtful Christmas gift. Prospective owners might want to see if Oliver could install a Bluetooth thermostat during your build.

Hi Garry and Kristi, I don’t know much about USB transmission speeds. I assumed that a higher number means faster, and Wikipedia agrees with that. I used a 10 foot cable for my connection, and you may have purchased a 10 foot lightning to USB cable. When I searched for such cables on line, most did not list whether they met USB 2.0 specs. I am pretty sure that the 3 foot cable that came with your iPhone 8 would be a 2.0 cable, and you could compare the speeds of different cables. My way to quantitatively test speeds is to use https://www.speedtest.net. They also have an iPhone app. I suggest you do 3-4 speed tests with a cable and then using the wireless connection, and let us know what you find. The speed tests give you download and upload speeds, and for most people the download speed is the most important. Be sure to use the same server for each speed test. Finally, it is possible that the USB port on the WiFi Ranger does not support USB 2.0. I have had great support from WiFi Ranger, so you could ask them. Edit: The WiFi Ranger web site says that the SkyPro model has a USB 2.0 port.

Video recording of the orientation is a great idea. Anita in the sales office suggested it to us, and our video recordings helped us on one occasion. One suggestion, though. Instead of one long video of the entire orientation, periodically stop the recording, and then restart when they are introducing a new system. Then take the video files and rename things like MaxxAir.mp4, SolarControlPanel.mp4, and Thermostat.mp4. Then put them somewhere where you can find them, in my case on my Dropbox. On our first trip, we could not get the thermostat to start the furnace, and the owners manual did not help. But the Thermostat.mp4 video explained how to use it, and we did not have to go thru a three hour video recording.

There is a good discussion of fuses in this thread. I had a plumbing line break on a trip, and I posted recommended parts and tools that I wish I had purchased in advance in this thread.

Yes, it regularly gets down to freezing and below. Rarely 15-20°F. No electricity in the unit.

I have the 4 6v AGM batteries, with solar on the roof. I store it in a storage unit, so the solar panels do not work. The temperature in the storage unit would be slightly higher than outdoors. In season, from spring to fall, probably 3-6 weeks between trips. I put the trailer to bed a month ago, and we probably will not get it out again until March or April. I do not take it out to hook up to shore power during that time. The batteries did just fine the past three winters. Disconnecting the batteries eliminates the parasitic draw.

Chuck, There is another option, rather than attaching a charger. I disconnect my batteries whenever I put my Ollie into storage. At first I used a wrench, but then I put on a simple battery disconnect switch. I visit Ollie periodically when it is in storage to deal with things, and I use the lights and maybe the radio. That does not seem to be too much of a power draw to affect the batteries significantly. This method has worked fine for me for three winters. John is probably correct that the power draw from the furnace might be too much for my method.

The Dexter instructions say to grease the zerks every 3000 miles.

The search tools are soooo much better! I just posted in another thread about greasing zerks, and using the search tools I quickly found the earlier thread where the Lock N Lube fitting had been recommended. This would not have been easy on the old forum! The format is different, but I am getting used to it.

In an earlier thread, Raspy suggested the Lock N Lube fitting. I bought one for $30 from Amazon, and it has made the job easier.

Each forum member needs to do this themselves. From your picture on the upper right of the page, click to see the drop-down menu and select Account Settings. On the left side select Signature. Edit your signature and then click Save.

Thank you Jason for the new Forum! Pages load much faster! I am very happy with the new search tools! They work so much better! At first I was unhappy about the loss of the Recent Topics link, but the All Activity link seems to serve a similar purpose. I have replaced my old http://olivertraveltrailers.com/recent-topics/ bookmark with https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/discover/. The new search tools work really well. On a desktop browser, entering a search term and hitting enter retrieves your search results. Now if one clicks on the More Search Options button you get to an Advanced Search page. Would it be possible to have a link to the Advanced Search page on the main forum page for desktop browsers? On iOS devices simply selecting the search icon opens up the Advanced Search page. Minor things. The signature lines under posts appear to be triple spaced. Could the go back to single spaced? I agree with ScubaRx about the center justification on an iPhone, which is disconcerting. It is fine (left justified) on an iPad. There is a “This stream auto-updates” on a desktop browser and on the iPad. This is very cool! That text does not appear on an iPhone. Can that functionality be added to the iPhone? Edit. This does work on the iPhone. Another Edit. I had a bell icon Notification about a Private Message. However, in the past I got an email about a PM. Is that feature no longer working? One very cool new feature: We can now send documents to another forum member via the PM system!

After using the Dyson hand dryers in public restrooms, I have been very impressed with their engineering! I considered a Dyson vacuum when looking for a vacuum cleaner for Ollie. I looked at reviews here and here, and then read reviews on Amazon. We ended up getting the Black and Decker BDH2000PL cordless handheld vacuum. Great reviews, and less than half the cost of Dyson. We really liked the fact that the nozzle pivots, allowing it to fold up into a small unit for storage that sits on the shelf in the closet. Charging does require either shore power or battery and inverter. We have found that a single charge lasts through a two-week trip, but we may use it less than others as we do not need to clean up dog hair. My wife has been VERY happy with this vacuum, so much so that the vacuum lives at home between trailer trips.

David, I think the Oliver winterizing instructions are for the standard water heater. Thre is a bypass valve in the back on the Truma, and I suspect that this needs to be closed for you to be successful in pumping antifreeze in the system. I use an air compressor to blow air out of the system and only use antifreeze to pour into the P traps. One time when winterizing, the air compressor was largely ineffective in expelling water from the lines, but then I realized I had forgotten to close the Truma bypass valve. I closed the valve and it then worked very well. Here is a picture that I took of the valve and included in my winterizing checklist. BTW, Oliver put a circular access panel between the heating duct and the air return below the curbside bed, so that you could reach through to get to this valve. I found this quite difficult, and I get to the bypass valve via the rectangular rear curbside access panel under the bed. This is the one screwed down with a notice saying something like "no user-serviceable components in this compartment."

There was a post from the Barnhardt family last spring, who camp in their Oliver (and a tent) with three kids. They may not read the forum often, and you might send them a private message.

Good pictures!! I love the spider!

I tow with an Audi Q7, which is built on the same chassis as the Toureg. In the Q7 Owner's Manual, it says “Never install a “weight distributing” or “load equalizing” trailer hitch on your vehicle. The vehicle was not designed for these kinds of trailer hitches. The hitch attachment can fail, causing the trailer to tear loose from the vehicle.” Based on discussions on other forums, I think the same prohibition applies to the Toureg. My experience is that the Q7 tows the Elite II beautifully without a WDH hitch, and I think that has also been Don's experience with his Toureg.