jd1923

Yes, you can Scotty and thank you! The grey trim matches the striping on the hull AND the lower body paint on my truck! 😎 I renewed all the outlet boxes with grey ones, even a new matching license plate light in grey! If only Lippert made a grey powder coated door lock! That would be a nice addition! And when I replace the door security glass with a grey-smoked glass maybe I should paint the frame in the same grey color as the fridge vents and other painted parts. The entrance door has 3 hinges. You leave them as-is and insert 2 friction hinges in-between the 3 OEM hinges. The screen door gets in the way while working, but you can wiggle the friction hinges into place. I just centered them by eyeball, drilled the first hole and mounted the screw to hold the hinge in place. Then 12 screws per hinge! The kit comes with self-tapping screws, but I prefer to drill pilot holes one size smaller. In the picture, the hinges that are riveted are the OEM hinges and where you see the square-drive screws is the friction hinge. A careful installation should only take a half hour. The door hook has no value when you are opening or closing the door in windy conditions. Often you have to fight, holding the door, while trying to get it hooked. With these hinges installed the door can be at any angle and I promise a 40 MPH wind will not budge it. 😎 Never again hear that BANG! And btw it is the bang on that rubber stopper that cracks the interior sheeting of the door panel. If you look closely at the picture, looking through the screen, you can see the cracking of the interior sheeting. If friction hinges were installed OEM, I'm certain they wouldn't be there. As soon as I had heard of these hinges on our Forum, 2 1/2 years ago, I installed them. Why aren't Lippert Friction Hinges installed OEM by OTT? Instead of the bumper and hook, they should be.

I'm with Patriot on this one. I wouldn't ever apply a suction cup to the fiberglass. I hang my bath towel over the truck tailgate for an hour, then fold it up and put away. If it's a late-night shower in the wet bath, the screen door handlebar is perfect to hang a bath towel. Chris hangs hers in the bathroom. The cheap black rubber on those suction cups is the issue. If you must use a suction cup on the hull, use the clear plastic suction cups, not black rubber. I use one of these for our outdoor shower, but I only stick it to the window glass. https://www.amazon.com/Adjustable-Bathroom-Handheld-Mounting-Polished/dp/B07ZXB9FXQ/ And the thought of Vaseline or olive oil is really gross. These products will collect dirt when camping or towing and to remove them the residue, you will also remove the ceramic coating (or wax) in that area!

That is amazing! Yours is just above the belly bar and ours just below. When you lift the curbside a few inches for leveling it puts the door handle rather high! And yes, if you installed the keyless lock, it would be right up on the window frame. The chrome on your lock looks great. Ours had wear scratches from key use and a little bang in the latch from a prior owner.

It is larger, that round section with all those numbered keys, plastic parts. Reminds me of the keyless entry system I had on an 80s T-bird. It was cool 40 years ago but they stopped putting them on cars long ago. I should remember to remove the "two emblems" before I renew our ceramic coating next time. I've removed every other label OTT plastered inside and out (about 20 of them)! In a post 3 years ago John E Davies wanted me to add warning labels to the rear emergency exit (just after I had removed them)! 🤣 I don't worry about code and insurance and all that rot. I need to remove the "black door bumper." I removed the door hook from the fiberglass last year (drilled out 4 rivets and filled holes). Just add Lippert friction hinges and you don't need any of that stuff. Best simple mod ever! Lippert Friction Hinge Kit for RV Entry Doors - White Over 90% of the feedback I've received on our grey trim has been positive! I'll mark you down with one other longtime Oliver owner as not liking them. It is my appearance mod theme! We love it over having 10 shades of white all over the body (see pic). Setting the bar awfully low! 🤣 I just replaced ours before it failed after 10 years of reliable service!

Don't think we'll ever get OTT off that great lake in northern Alabama, but your point is well taken! And btw, a fiberglass rally is not an Oliver Rally. This we've learned from Quartzsite, 100 Casitas and just a couple Olivers. I've been thinking about attending the Oliver Rally this year since this is the first time I'm off work and late October in Alabama should be better than RAIN in the springtime! Not sure why I'm thinking about it. Love to meet more Oliver owners (but I couldn't attend all those company and vendor presentations)! I generated this map. For us it would be 1700 miles one-way mostly on I-40! We don't like interstates. I'd have to tow there in 4 long days and we'd only have another two weeks to return home, a little more slowly. At least the price of diesel is coming back down! 😎 And especially for you @taylor.coyote, your road to the meet would be 1,000 miles longer than ours, OMG! We attended the first Oliver Texas Rally October 2024. We used to live in Georgetown TX and I know many great AZ to TX routes that do not include interstate travel! It was a great time at Inks Lake with about 45 Olivers attending. Donna skipped 2026 because out of the blue OTT switch the 2026 National Rally from April to October. The 3rd Texas Rally will be next spring at Lake Livingston SP north of Houston.

Years ago, OTT installed the Marshall Excelsior MEGR-253 regulator which was highly reliable. Later they went with a Fairview product which is not as good. I had installed a Fairview to replace our MEGR-253 by suggestion on another post here. The new Fairview regulator failed immediately. Then I installed a new MEGR-253H (high capacity) which has worked flawlessly (the MEGR-253 is good too). If you have a Fairview regulator, replace it with one of these: MEGR-253 Series I enjoy having apps to level our trailer, to read Ah consumption, Ruuvi sensors for temps and humidity, and about everything else. We use Mopeka to read tank level. I purchased this kit a couple years ago. We always know when a tank is near empty. https://www.amazon.com/Mopeka-Pro-Check-Universal-Bundle/dp/B0CNKX9DRC/

Doesn't it look better too? Love the new white one installed! Sorry, but the keyless RV Lock isn't pretty nor reliable. Classic look for a classic TT! (Too bad they don't make a gray one.) These are powder-coated steel, solid as a rock. I bought this a year ago and decided it was time to install it. The original chrome model lasted 10+ years, no failures, but the key cylinders were getting loose where you had to jiggle the key some to start it turning. Not anymore. Everything's tight, good for another 10 years!

I'm adding a simple toggle switch to the Maxxfan so that the fan can be stopped leaving the vent door open. Often Chris likes the fan on, exhausting softly at 30%, as she falls asleep. Later, I want it OFF but would like the vent door to remain OPEN. The mechanism is so NOISY, and you must do it twice, close then open. I place a pillow over it to deaden the sound! More on my upgrade later, as I will start a mod thread on this. I started getting into the fan and next thing I have the entire fan in pieces, removed the upper section above the roof too, and have cleaned everything. It's looking great! (pictures later) I noticed I have a small broken part (on left in the picture). It's the swivel piece that holds the screen in place. Not sure why my iPhone camera made these blue, since they are of course white. Anybody have an extra one of these? I'm thinking maybe when replacing some assembly, somebody here could have extras. They're $8.49 each but add shipping and one comes to $23! The screen has been holding with 3 of 4 working, but sooner or later I should get one or two. https://www.rvupgradestore.com/Maxxair-Round-Screen-Frame-Knob-p/05-21233.htm?CartID=1

The OP changed his mind on this criterion. Scotty can chime in again, but I believe it's because the benefits of less noise and greater Ah efficiency of the Chill Cube over the Dometic FreshJet. For me, I would not buy a Dometic RV A/C product again on principal, so I didn't! 😎 We have no plans for summer travel to the Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Valley or anywhere else hot & humid anytime soon. However, we can assume when the cooling demands are high and high humidity is present, the Chill Cube like any A/C will produce an abundance of condensate. Yes, there is no drain for it, so if enough is produced to overfill the condensate wheel reservoir it should overflow. If there was a drain, or if one was added you would lose the efficiency in wetting/cooling the condenser by the water wheel. Why couldn't the condensate reservoir be tapped, condensate plumbed away? No condensate drip may be worth losing some efficiency, but many Forum members have expressed their unwillingness to modify new equipment. Comments like this were added to GJ’s Houghton mod posts, "I shouldn't have to!" or “I can't for warranty reasons.” @Geronimo John this would NOT be you, as you have modified your Houghton A/C years ago in ways that were not easy to design nor execute! Condensate drain plumbing in the Oliver was designed to mate with the Dometic P2 and we've heard but not confirmed the FreshJet drain would mate as well. The picture shows the A/C opening of our Oliver. We could assume all OTT Dometic P2 installations to be similar. On the far right we see the 12 AWG yellow Romex to power the A/C. The other wiring with red butt connectors is the low voltage thermostat wiring and right in the middle is the condensate plumbing. There was also tubing connected there running from the rear of the p2 to this elbow fitting. If we had a condensate drip issue, I would pull the Chill Cube off the roof, drill and screw a tap somewhere in the condensate trough and run a flexible water line to the front left corner attached to this drain. In my thinking when something is needed, it's not can I do this, but how will I get it done! 😎 It shouldn't be too difficult and running the Chill Cube vs. a FreshJet would certainly be worth the effort. Why can't condensate plumbing be added to the Atmos/Tosot that several here have installed, or the Turbro/Pioneer inverter A/C, or the Houghton? https://www.amazon.com/Joyway-Brass-Fitting-Degree-Elbow/dp/B07CMRYL16/ Yeah, that's the way of our world. Last November, I worked a full exterior cosmetic restoration of our 10-year-old hull ending with ceramic coating. We don't travel near as much as Galileo, but since then we've gone on 10 short trips, 54 overnights (43 boondocking on dirt). See picture where the pavement ends and then another 24 miles to our campsite at Walnut Creek. I pressure-wash when we return from trips like this but don't ever truly wash her. I'm not using products or buffing wheels, not me. I do use a leaf-blower after pressure-washing! 🤣 We're just going to get her dirty and bring 'er back for detailing every year or so. This reference makes sense to me, what's a little condensate drip for campers like us?

Yeah, thanks for the reminder. Or the condensate being blown through the condenser could help keep it clean. There are always two sides of an argument! 🤣 I stopped worrying about that when we left the East. I remember coming out of the shower during summer months in IL, VA and/or FL. I would towel-off, a never-ending process with water being replaced with sweat. Here I barely towel-off, start getting dressed and by the time you're done dressing you're dry! 😎 I put tools, or scrub brushes or anything away wet. We don't worry about coasters under drinks on wood tables. Moisture vanishes and not much grows out here. On this point, when making choices for mods to our Olivers, personal camping style and climate where we camp truly matters. What works for one might not work as well for another.

I believe there are 4 clips holding each blind. Bend them very slightly to tighten the hold on the shade! 😎

Yep, louder than the 2nd Gen Cummins on my Ram! 🤣 So thankful it's gone! Chill Cube now has a heat pump version. One Forum member has showed it installed. Heat strips are like lead acid batteries; no manufacturer uses them anymore. That's everybody's first thought! I love a sleek 2-door hardtop sportscar, low profile like my '92 SC400! Low profile ON the roof means the air handler is protruding a few inches below the ceiling. Low profile means lower efficiency and more noise inside.

Why does this come up as an issue? Was something mentioned in the Morton's YouTube? @Geronimo John made a comment about this 6 months ago. I've had 5 different RV A/C models. To clean the condenser coils you always remove the cover and hose it clean. This one should be the same or easier because it's taller.

Taylor, I just measured it to answer your question. At the closest point, bottom of the L-bracket, the clearance measures 1 1/2". When you see 3-4" of caked mud, how much is actually above the tread? Most of it is in the treads and caked around the side. I've had my truck wheels caked up but not so much on the trailer. This doesn't worry me. And below the rubber/plastic flap material bends outwards while towing and no big deal if it got damaged. It's so easy and cheap to replace if need be. John E. Davies did an amazing amount of work to his "Mouse!" I studied most of his work 3 years ago when I first joined The Forum! In the case of mud flaps, I believe my design is superior for a couple reasons. The mud flap in his design is a full 6" further back. The 6" of open fiberglass will be hit extra hard since dirt and stones will hit the mud flap and bounce upwards due to the rotation of the tire. The open area will get chipped and be doubly hard to clean. And next mud episode; do you want your stabilizer jacks packed with mud or protected behind the mud flaps? We've had 49 overnights since this upgrade, on a bunch of short trips this year. They still look like new. I wouldn't change anything. Anybody who wants to copy my installation, send me a PM with your mailing address and I'll mail you a paper template to make cutting the mud flap material easy. Everything else you need is explained above in this thread!

This is an excellent idea! If the truck has both 4-pin and 7-blade connections, as shown in your picture, all you need is a 30 ft 4-wire harness, male plug on one end, female on the other, zip-tie it under along the length of the trailer. The only downside is having to connect one more thing each time you hitch the trailer but a much easier installation vs connecting to the Oliver wiring as I had previously suggested. But another plus is your wiring can be deleted easily, if in the future you stop using a bike rack.

I listed my take of Pros & Cons on page 1 of the link I posted above. Most of it came from Tom Morton's YouTube review of the Chill Cube: Testing the Furrion Chill Cube 18k Variable-Speed AC: The Future of RV Air Conditioning?

Yeah, and then you have altitude. Our trip was mainly in June, not July-August! I expected heat in Kansas or Iowa but was not expecting it in the Dakotas and Wyoming. Finally, Colorado camping at 9K ft was cool! 😎 Drove down to Phoenix on Thursday to pick up Chris from Sky Harbor Airport. High temp on the truck trip computer was 112F on Phoenix highways. The high in Prescott was 85F (low 58F). Our home is at 5400 FT. That's a 27-degree difference with 4300 ft change in elevation. In Arizona you can drive a couple hours and change your weather which doesn't work in the Midwest!

Did you do this trip yet? Any feedback on the Chill Cube in hot humid weather? Does it keep up with the heat. Is power consumption doable on your batteries? 😎 If your trip is still on the horizon, let us know afterwards. Thanks!

That's what I thought. Living in Arizona we do not travel in the summer months. Then a couple experiences changed my thinking! Over two years ago we did a SW Utah trip, from Apr 21 to May 7, 2024. You wouldn't think it would get hot, springtime at high elevation, and most of the trip was fine. The day we left, we dropped down about 3K ft to US-93 and we boondocked in Wikieup, AZ. It was 93F when we got there and fortunately by 9PM it was cool enough to be in the cabin again. Back then we still had lead acid and the Dometic P2 so all we had tp remove cabin heat was the Maxxfan. Our next stop was to be Valley of Fire SP, NV where we had booked a dry camping spot. Quite a fitting name, given the forecast showed 99F highs for the next 2 days of our reservation. We wasted that money, instead having to book an electric site at the north end of Lake Meade. Plugged in to run the G-awful Dometic A/C. I had to wear noise-cancelling headphones to watch TV and to fall asleep! Thank goodness it was only 2 of 16 nights on that trip. Last year we did a 5-week trip to Minnesota, from May 29 to July 4th. We headed out east and swung north and took a northern route back. I believe it was 12 of 36 nights where we needed A/C. I had thought being so far north we wouldn't need A/C, bad assumption. We even had to book campsites in SD and WY where we would have much preferred to boondock in the woods but were forced into a campsite to plug in. After that trip, I vowed never to hear that awful Dometic P2 again! And also, my goal was to gear up in Inverter and Ahs and replace the A/C with a unit that would sip vs. gulp Ahs. For you, the freight-train NOISE of the P2 should be enough of a driver. You plug in so yeah power consumption does not matter (though we run ours for lunch breaks on the road too). Easiest DIY out there given size and weight. The only A/C model I've heard of that needs a custom platform was the Truma. The Chill Cube has a 29x29" footprint, making it a full foot shorter to the rear. It's also the lightest unit out there. Here is my DIY thread. This link will take you down page 2 to where my installation starts. I have installed 3 RV A/C models in the last 6 years, and this one by far was the easiest. You will need to add a furnace thermostat control which I also show here:

It would help if you showed a picture of the "flat plug" on your new bike rack. Without seeing that, I might guess it could be the 4-pin trailer connection (for small trailers without brakes). Here is an example: Curt Vehicle Wiring Harness with 5-Pole Flat Trailer Connector - 60" Wire Lead CURT Custom Fit Vehicle Wiring C58531 What you're attempting is not an easy job! Most trucks that have the 7-blade connector also have a 4-pin connection zip-tied somewhere above the bumper. But the Oliver doesn't have one! 🤣 You can pick connections for brake lights, turn signals, reverse and running lights in one of two locations. 1) tap into the lights at the rear of the Oliver, or 2) at the junction box where OTT splices the 7-blade harness into the Oliver trailer wiring. I believe this junction box in newer Olivers is inside the bathroom vanity, but who knows on a 2026. In our hull it's easily accessed under the front dinette seat (see picture). If I was doing this for our hull, I would pick option #2 since you can see these wires are easily accessible (likely not so in your Oliver). The link I supplied shows a 60" wire which is fine for rear wiring. If you are going up to the front harness, you want something like this that has longer wires. It's actually rather easy to run wiring from the rear, along the streetside basement, all the way up to front junction box. 35 Ft 4-Way Trailer Wiring Harness - Wishbone Style - 42" Ground Optronics Trailer Wiring A35W42B The hard part front or rear is to tap into the existing wiring. I rarely recommend using 3M Scotchlok™ connectors, but I would in this case since secondary rear wiring on a bike rack is not exactly "mission critical." Hope this helps! 😎

Yeah, at a minimum you gotta remove the basket to spray Vortex. As you can see in my picture, it gets rather dirty under there! I removed all this just for ceramic coating, to do the job right. Removed the doghouse handles and latches, the outlet plates, anything screwed down or riveted. Whatever doesn't come off has to be masked for Vortex application. Can't stand warning labels either! You can see where a couple were removed and the one showing was removed next. With the basket off, it can be cleaned thoroughly with a degreaser that you wouldn't want to use if the basket was still above fiberglass. I'm not interested in PPF or Vortex. Now that we have a good ceramic coating shine we prefer to enjoy the clean look. Don't forget mud flaps, regardless of other protection, and not just on the TV. I found the dirtiest part of the Oliver was always the fiberglass underneath behind the Oliver wheels all the way to the rear bumper, grease, road tar, etc. It was bad, but not anymore! Either way, the result is in the prep work! 😎

Yep, me too on slippers. So much dirt, we know why! His bed is at the end of the aisle! Picture of Charley when we first got our Oliver, first cleaning too. Now with some age and TALL mattresses, he can't get up on the beds anymore! I hadn't noticed the edges being bad, but I guess the older floors were different. We use carpet runners which collect most of the dust. Chris uses our Dewalt vacuum around the edges and under the dinette, takes her 2-3 minutes. I remove the short runner at the entrance every 2-3 days and give it a whip on both ends which removes most of the dirt. Roll up the long one between trips to wash. We put them in the washing machine at home which has worked well. Recently one edge started fraying on the long one and Chris hemmed that edge. We have 151 overnights on these runners according to my Oliver Travels spreadsheet. Not bad. They're 26" wide which is a perfect fit, and you can order by the foot in length. One 10' and 4' fills everything perfectly except under the dinette. He has learned to sleep on his mat by the nightstand. 😎 Amazon.com: ORFA HOME Custom Size Hallway Runner Rug, Slip/Skid Resistant, 26 Inch Wide X Your Choice of Lenght, Solid Blue, 26 Inch Width X 10 Feet Length, Sold and Priced Per Foot : Home & Kitchen

You're welcome! And you will not be sorry. If you're waiting to later in the year, we won't get real feedback from you until the following summer. Looking forward to seeing results from somebody who lives east where humidity is certainly a climate factor in A/C performance, I've tried running a couple studies and each time I failed to capture full data every 24 hours, but I have some preliminary findings. With highs in the low 90s for a full week, lows high 60s, I set temp on the Chill Cube at 80F (cabin temp on Ruuvi showed 79F consistently) which is a good set temp for parking the Oliver outdoors in the summer. I got good data for three 24-hr periods which averaged at 108 Ah used per 24 hours, A/C running 24x7. I know I I took snapshots every day for a week but don't get me started on iCloud because sometimes pics just disappear off my phone! Beyond the 3 days of verified data, I know for a fact that I ran the Chill Cube for ONE (1) FULL WEEK on our 900 Ahs! After a week SOC was down to a low 18%. This translates to 105 Ah per day. Keep in mind, when low 90s outside, and if there was no A/C running, the Oliver Cabin would get up to 99F min or low 100s! Then I tried another test, A/C set temp at 74F which is a comfortable temp for camping. I was able to run our A/C for four (4) full days, 4x 24x7, again highs low 90s. Daily Ah used was 135, 209, 270, 136. I have no idea why yhe numbers varied in this way as the weather was rather consistent. Average over 4 days is 188 Ah per day. I cannot believe how efficient this runs. One additional factor: these numbers are net of the fact we have 320W rooftop solar which produces 10-20A per hour half the day. Next test I should account for this or just turn off the SC so everything is pulling from the 900 Ah Epoch batteries. Did you know the Dometic P2 once it gets past the Soft Start procedures draws 150A or higher? In this short test, the Furrion Chill Cube on average took as much power cooling for 24 hours as the Dometic P2 would use in one hour and fifteen minutes. Scotty, I'm seeing much better savings than "about half the power!" But camping in hot humid times in the east, you should half the power, or perhaps 40%. Can't wait to see! I'll run a better test in a few weeks when we get daily highs in the high 90s. It just cooled off here and thankfully for the next week or two we're back to spring-like temps in the low 80s. 😎

Lamar, keep fighting the good fight! Certainly, Bill has good advice in contacting OTT management directly. You're not asking for too much, so I hope you stick to your position. OTT can reuse the 2KW inverter in another installation. Wholesale costs between a 2KW vs. 3KW Xantrex is likely about +$200 or not much more. Labor to replace the inverter and rewire all 120VAC circuits through the new 3KW inverter should be 2 shop hours. I know I could do this work in one afternoon and I'm older/slower than the younger contract electrician billing flat-rate shop hours! 😎

We're in agreement on this one! Ours might have been a Wi-Fi Ranger. I do remember testing it and it actually made the signal weaker! We went with a Pepwave router to stream on cell and a Starlink Mini for when there is no cell coverage. I removed the Wi-Fi antenna, both cameras, gave away the (yes clunky) screen and the Sat Dish from our roof and patched all the fiberglass. We have the manual door lock, now for 10+ years. After reading that the rubber contact pads were fading on these auto-locks, most of you with this feature were carrying keys just in case, and the deadbolt issue as Tom fully explained above, like @routlaw noted, I/we decided to pass on this upgrade. Good Customer Service is great, but if the product continues to fail it becomes nuisance, or worse if you truly get locked out! I purchased a backup manual lock to have on the road if needed. I found a cool white powder coat model on sale vs. the original chrome latch. If you get tired of dealing with your auto-latch, you could go manual: Amazon.com: Lippert Global Entry Door Latch Kit with Deadbolt, Keyed Lock, Two FIC Keys, Edge Cover Plate, Strike Plate, Mounting Screws for Travel Trailers - 239632, White : Automotive Honestly, this clean white door latch looks better too! The only thing that has failed on our entrance door is the screen door latch, so I replaced it with one of these: Amazon.com: WanDwel Aluminum RV Screen Door Latch Handle Replacement Kit (Right Hand) Metal Camper Travel Trailer Motorhome Entry Parts for Passenger Side : Automotive