Steve Morris

I installed a Reese Towpower 81378 bumper hitch yesterday. It isn't the prettiest thing. But many reviews of this style receiver had reports of bad welds, with a couple of instances of complete failures while on the road. (Nothing left of a bike rack with bikes except the bolted down plate.) I chose this one because I don't trust welds on cheaply made products, and it was the only one that I could find that had the base plate wrap up around the receiver. So if the weld fails, there's still a ring of the bolted plate hanging on. Attached with 1/2" stainless fasteners designed for high pressure applications. *If* the local bike shop gets their act together and has our new e-bikes ready before Sunday, we will be testing this setup soon.

John, I know that you are not a Facebook fan, but there is a group specifically for Oliver Trailers for sale. I was on there last summer before we ordered our trailer, and there was a lot of activity from buyers and sellers. I don't know if that's still the case. https://www.facebook.com/groups/OliverforSale

Our Skottle came with a simple Coleman single burner stove and non-adjustable legs, and it was about $200 less than current cost. https://tembotusk.com/collections/cooking-and-accessories I replaced the Coleman with a Kovea Scout isobutane burner for a wider, more even center hot spot, and added an old diffuser plate between the burner and the pan. That’s really helped. With adaptors, I can use butane, isobutane, or propane. People make a wide assortment of meals on it, from grilling, steaming, baking, and more. I’ve both grilled and baked cinnamon rolls on it. I’ve seen steaks, popcorn, pizza, cookies, bread, stir fry, and more. It can definitely be a one pot dinner tool.

Yep, and I've read through that a couple of times. I'm not going the separate base route, just through the fiberglass. John doesn't say how long the screws were or how thick the material. Thanks, @KenB I have the hinged door off and left side panel out. I didn't have my light to see the speaker opening. Good, idea! I'll be adding a Blue Sea fuse panel, with the input coming from the current 12V socket, and outputs to: 2 Sirocco fans Alexa Echo Dot Apple TV (eventually, currently 120V) the 12V socket Pepwave cellular router

A quick question for anyone who has mounted something in this area. I'm about to mount my Sirocco fans, and gathering hardware. I need to get some #6 screws to mount the base to the fiberglass, and need to determine a length. How thick is the fiberglass in the area where @John E Davies mounted the fan? Thanks!

Oh, yea! I DO have a carbon steel cooking surface. I forgot about the Skottle we've been using for 6-7 years. It's a love hate relationship. It works great until something sticks, and then I end up scraping too much and lose the seasoning. As Art said, it doesn't season as well as cast iron, but easier to clean (unless you have one of those fancy cast iron skillets with a machined surface.) Overall, though, I'm a fan of the versatility. Mine has sockets for legs, but other brands are made for fire or gas. Without legs in my Snow Peak Iron Grill Table kitchen setup.

I have not, either. But it sure seems to be overtaking cast iron on overloading type YouTube channels. And my younger daughter has used an old one from her grandmother for several years and seems to like it. We just have an assortment of what we didn't use in the kitchen and deeply discounted pots and pans from Marshall's.

On our July 2017 cross-country trips to take our daughter to college in Seattle, we found the crash site, and then went to Clear Lake and into the Surf Ballroom. Of course we listened to:

I finally got around to trying this over the weekend. It wasn't particularly hot. Just typical midwest 75° with 80-plus percent humidity all weekend. Sunday eventing, we were in my brother's house for several hours, so I thought that would be a good time to test out "dehumidify" mode. It worked great, but the negative is that it ignores any temperature setting, apparently only trying to reach an arbitrary humidity level. We we went out to the trailer for the night, it was 61° in there! 🥶 Have those of you who have fiddled with the dehumidify more had similar experiences? Any method to set a minimum temperature? Thanks!

Deb and I were mooch-docking at my brother's rural home Friday through Monday. It was so quiet and pleasant compared to a busy campground! All we heard were birds, wind, and the sleep-inducing patter of rain. Yesterday, I was getting a head start on preparing to leave before the next rain rolled through. I hooked up the trailer to the Land Cruiser, raised the jacks, unplugged from the house, plugged in the 7-pin, etc. Meanwhile, Deb and my sister-in-law were sitting under the street-side awning enjoying a cool drink in the shade. I sent my brother around to the back of the trailer to check the lights, when a strange thing happened! I turned on the ignition of the Cruiser, and turned on the running lights. The lights all worked properly, but the oddity was that the awning started retracting!! I used the remote to stop it, turned off the ignition and lights, and then tried it again in case it was some weird fluke. Nope, lights came on and awning retracted. I've checked the Oliver manual and the Girard manual, and see nothing indicating this feature. Looking at the Girard installation instructions, I don't even see how this could be triggered. I can't imagine the turning on the lights creates some RF interference that causes the awning to think the remote button has been pushed, but I guess it is possible. I didn't think to try it with the curb side awning, but I definitely will the next time I hook up! Ours is a 2023 trailer with both awnings. Could someone with a similar setup give this a try to see if it is a "feature"? If this is intentional, it should minimize those stories of people pulling out of camp and forgetting to retract an awning!

As noted earlier, I had already set my inverter to 15A service. I did this in March, just after taking delivery, since I don’t have 30A at home. Today we tried running the Truma air conditioner on my brother’s outdoor 20A outlet. Surprisingly, it worked just fine! The ambient temperature was 75 degrees, and the thermostat was set at 66 degrees. The air conditioner was set on low mode. I didn’t try it on medium or high. Thanks for the input!

From the manual (and from memory, so I could be wrong), the difference between low an night is that at night the fan in the rooftop portion is also on low, making it quieter for those around you. Should use less of your battery, too. At the rally we had ours on night mode all day, and could barely hear it sitting outside.

Yes I have the Truma, and I haven’t checked starting amperage. I don’t intend to run it from his 20A outlet. I am going to simply unplug shore power when I want to cool down the trailer tonight. I sure wish I’d reprioritized mounting the 12V Sirocco fans, instead of working on the scooters and drawers in the Land Cruiser…

Sorry, incomplete information provided. Yes, I have the Xantrax inverter as installed in 2023 Olivers, and I have already set the input breaker to 15A. For clarity, I do not want to run the air conditioner on shore power. I'm just making sure that when I turn on the inverter to run the air conditioner on batteries, does the inverter know to automatically use the batteries and not try to use shore power? Or do I need to unplug the shore power to be sure I'm only using the batteries? Thanks for the input!

I will be mooch docking in my brother's driveway for the next few days. He does not have a 30A outlet, just a 20A standard outlet. I know that I can't use the air conditioner on 20A, but I will be plugged in to use his shore power to charge the battery, run the microwave, etc. IF I want to use the air conditioner for short periods, all I need to do is unplug the shore power so I don't pop his breaker, correct? Then I can run the air conditioner using the batteries and inverter. (This is where the Victron inverter would be perfect, as it splits the load across the shore power AND the batteries as necessary!) Thanks for any assurance I'm doing the right thing!

Huh! I apparently read the FAQs wrong AND misheard the video and the description at the rally. So, you cannot show your trailer to a prospective buyer and earn credit UNLESS it was arranged by Oliver OR that the prospect buys a trailer. That's not at all what I understood the program was going to entail. I thought sure I remembered Matt Duncan saying that now you can earn points just for showing a random inquiry, whether they buy or not. I guess I see no reason to go out of my way spending a bunch of time showing the trailer to curious people, getting their contact info, and then filling out the form just on the off chance that they actually purchase. 🤷‍♂️

Here in Northern Ohio it is quite smoky and there's a definite smell of something burning. Not a campfire smell, more sour. AQI was 291 yesterday morning. We're still camping. We'll be mooch docking at my brother's over the holiday.

https://olivertraveltrailers.com/my-account/ Then “Submit Rewards Activity “

No, it wasn't arranged by Oliver. And it doesn't need to be according to the form I filled out, the plan brochure,, and the video. You can submit showings at campgrounds, at home, or where anyone stops you. Now, I wouldn't do this for just anyone just passing by and curious. But this man came across the parking lot where we'd stopped for lunch, asked if it was an Oliver, and asked it if was okay if he got his wife and could they see it. They were back ten minutes later, and we spend 30-40 minutes with them. I got everything I needed, and filled out the form when we got home. I didn't know if anyone else had applied through the new portal, and had no expectation as to how long it takes. Or, it might have simply been rejected. If so, I'd rather know that (and why) instead of "not been loaded on your card yet or is not eligible." I know the program is new, and it will take a while to get the kinks out.

I submitted my first showing May 24th. Still nothing from it, the only detail showing is: "The Reward amount has not been loaded on your card yet or is not eligible."

I found a great use for the awning while at home! #scootermaintenance 😂

Congratulations! It'll all come easy after a few trips. That photo from the campground is beautiful! And probably the last time you'll have those overly bright exterior lights on. 😂

That's a great idea! And it will reflect with headlamps or flashlights to save shins in the night. I added reflective tape to a basket I had on the back of my Outback. Coincidentally, just yesterday I ran across the remainder of the roll of that tape. Now I know where to use it! And if there's enough, on the back bumper, too. Thanks!

There are a lot of Oliver owners on the Facebook group that are not on this forum. So I would guess that there are also prospective buyers there that don’t know about this forum. I do not do anything on Facebook except groups. My personal account is locked down with zero info, no friends requests, no location, etc. it’s just a means to use groups that I’m interested in learning about. Case in point: we ordered two Gazelle e-bikes. There’s next to zero forum activity anywhere , but an extremely active Facebook owner’s group. So that’s where I need to go if I want to learn more about our new bikes. Same with our Hiker trailer. The only online activity at all is a Facebook group.

Well, that's not going to work. Or at least be a reasonable option. I knew that the top corner of the Oliver aluminum receiver was rounded to accommodate the radius of the square U-bolt. But I didn't realize that there was a groove milled down both sides and across the top, too! So, the stock U-bolt won't fit over the adaptor sleeve I bought. And the next wide square U-bolt I can find is 3/4" wider than the sleeve. I could add 3/8" shims on both sides, but it is going to look bad. I looked at several of the bolt-on bumper hitch receiver like John Davies used. Most are Chinese, and several reviews showed failed welds. Nope! The Reese version at least has the base bent over the end of the square tube, so that might hold it if the weld failed. I might end up with that. I also considered simply putting the OEM U-bolts around the bike rack's 2" mount. I simulated it here with the mount I use for my Hiker trailer. Disadvantages to this would be that the 1UP Super Duty Double is 48 pounds, which would be a bear to hold while I'm trying to tighten the nuts. And, I'd need to add something to act as a stop in the event the U-bolt nuts loosened enough to allow the rack to slide backward. Yikes!! Here is the sleeve I ordered next to the Oliver receiver. I'm not questioning the experience of those of you who punched out the insert and use the OEM aluminum receiver. You've used them thousands of miles without problem, and that's great. But, when I saw how the aluminum receiver was milled to allow clearance for the U-bolt, I decided to take a couple of measurements. The inside of the steel 2" receiver is 2.045". I'm assuming that the OEM receiver with the insert knocked out is close to that, maybe even a little tighter. The dimension across the root of the milled slots is 2.140". 2.140-2.045= .095"/2= .0475" That's an awfully thin wall to rely on to hang 150 pounds from!! That's just over 1mm! Less that 1/16"! I'm sure the U-bolts will retain the rack if it were to fail, but please keep an eye on your mount to be sure fatigue doesn't separate the sections of the receiver.