Boilermaker Chemist

I second this suggestion. I installed the Truck System Technologies TST 507 TPMS on our Ollie and our previous TT. Wouldn’t consider towing a trailer without this important safety equipment. Now on clearance for $149 at TechnoRV!

I think you can probably eliminate the pedestal surge protector, you should already have a hard-wired EMS (Electrical Management System) in your Ollie. Since your TV is a half ton PU, my advice is to carefully consider what you plan to put in the bed because it’s pretty easy to exceed your max payload capacity. I feel your pain on that hitch lock!

If you haven’t already done so, I recommend downloading the FXC Xantrex Control app. It makes it much easier than using the remote display to check or change the settings.

@Ronbrink Very cool build! Thanks for the detailed description and photos. I was thinking of something similar but building your own portable power station is brilliant. I think I might have to copy that. Is that an Apache case you used to house the Li battery? Do you think the lack of airflow underneath the solar panels reduces their efficiency or causes excessive temperature at the ARE topper?

If you are looking for a simple way to keep your 7-pin plug out of the dirt, I found this Plug Keeper on the RVUpgradeStore.com for only $3.99. Since I have a particular aversion to drilling holes in our Oliver, I wanted to attach it to the trailer tongue with VHB tape. However, the back of the plug keeper is hollow. So I made a backing plate from a piece of 1/8” black acrylic sheet to increase the surface area for better adhesion. Two 3/16” aluminum trifold rivets worked well to attach the acrylic to the plug keeper.

@katanapilot Sorry, I do not, but below are the dimensions (I assume exterior) from Amazon's site. If this seems like it's in the ball park, let me know and I can get you more accurate dimensions from the interior.

After purchase of our OE II, I realized the first thing that I wanted to add was a cargo box for more external storage. Based on various posts in this forum, I decided to go with either the Arksen 29” Diamond plate (4.3 CF) or the Dee Zee DZ91717P (5.4 CF). While the Arksen has a look that more closely aligns with the Oliver, I chose the Dee Zee because of the larger capacity. As I will explain later, this turned out to be a problem. With regard to any modifications to our Oliver, my goals are to (1) minimize any drilled holes and (2) try to be consistent with Oliver installation techniques. With that in mind, I decided to use the same U-bolts that Oliver uses to attach their aluminum storage basket and purchased two of them from the factory (part #10839). This had an additional benefit since I only needed to drill two holes through the fiberglass (near the tongue jack) - the other U-bolt would be fastened at the tongue. Also, when it comes time to sell, it should be very easy to replace this box with Oliver’s basket should the new owner want to do so. Instead of buying the U-bolt plates from Oliver, I cut and drilled some old garage door hardware that I had laying around (apparently DW is right when she says I never throw anything away). To avoid the possibility of galvanic corrosion I placed pieces of vinyl siding between the steel plates and the aluminum tongue. Positioning and drilling the holes through the fiberglass was a little trickier than I had anticipated. They say measure twice, cut once. Not wanting to screw it up, I think I measured it six times. There isn’t enough space to get a drill directly underneath the fiberglass so I had to use a ¼” x 12” bit to drill the first hole, enlarging it to 3/8” from the top side. Once that hole was drilled, I used the U-bolt to determine the position for the second hole and drilled that from the top, first ¼”, then 3/8”. I then used my Dremel with a pointed abrasive cone to slightly taper the holes as others on this forum have advised to prevent cracking of the gel coat. Now comes the problem with the Dee Zee box. As you can see from the photo, there is an indentation in the rear of the box exactly where the rear U-bolt needs to be! (What did I say about measuring twice?) After considering other fastening strategies, most of which included drilling many more holes, I finally relented and decided to go with the Arksen instead. I trimmed a piece of interlocking foam utility mat (Designer’s Image 765-5058, 0.43” thickness) to use as a cushion between the box and the fiberglass. As luck would have it, I happened to have four 4” x 4” x 3/8” rubber vibration pads (UPE Group) laying around (did I mention that I never throw anything away?). After trimming to the width of the tongue with a razor blade knife I stacked the four pads and secured them to the tongue with 24” long cable ties. The ribs on the pads allowed them to interlock and stack nicely. And four of those pads adds just enough height to make the box level. To beef up the bottom of the cargo box, I added a piece of ½” plywood. To minimize moisture entry from the bottom, I used gasket cutters to make tight-fitting washers from 1/8” rubber packing sheet and placed them on the U-bolts between the plywood and the interior bottom of the box. The U-bolts were then fastened down with the steel plates using SS nylon-insert lock nuts. Permatex nickel anti-sieze was used on the threads to assist future removal, if needed. Overall, I am quite happy with this install. Special thanks to MAX Burner for giving us a tour of Casablanca at the rally in Alabama, including his own Arksen cargo box.

Just to emphasize that point, if you would be involved in an accident, you can be sure that the insurance companies will look into the details. If they find that you weren’t using a weight distribution hitch even though one was recommended, there’s a good chance they won’t cover the damages to your vehicles nor your liability for any damage or injury to other parties.

Several years ago on a trip through CO, we made an overnight stop at a campground near Gunnison. It was dark and since we were in a level site I didn’t unhitch. In the morning, I noticed that the trailer battery was dead. As I looked around I discovered the pin from the BAS had been pulled out. I must have snagged it while getting something out of the truck in the dark. No matter how I tried to reinsert the pin, it wouldn’t go in. Upon reading the installation instructions I found that if the pin is pulled out for an extended period the high current from the battery will weld the contacts together! Needless to say our departure that morning was delayed. So if you pull the pin to test your BAS, be sure you don’t get distracted and end up forgetting about it.

This is very interesting data. I made a similar comparison before and after I had the hitch put on at the factory and found a similar result. I am surprised at how little weight "re-distribution" this "WDH" provides. I don't have the data, but my guess is that a hitch using spring bars would do much more than that.

@Rivernerd I had a very similar experience. Just like you, legendary reliability was one of the main reasons that I bought the Toyota. Having already read comments on the Tundras.com forum, I was aware of this potential issue. So soon after I bought the new Tundra, I did some testing and confirmed elevated transmission temperatures while towing upgrade. I purchased a complete installation kit from GenuineCoolingSystems.com and had a local transmission shop install the auxiliary cooler. The true test came when we drove N on I-17 from Phoenix towards Flagstaff on a hot day in June. There is a steady and steep (4-5%) grade for about 7 miles starting near Black Canyon City, exit 244. A sign along the way states “AVOID OVERHEATING TURN OFF AIR CONDITIONER NEXT 5 MILES”. With the ambient temperature at 100 degrees, we passed several overheated trucks and cars while towing our fully loaded trailer at 55 mph with the AC ON. The transmission temperature never exceeded 206. So I am obviously very pleased with that modification to my truck.

I might have to report you, calling my Toyota Tundra a Nissan is offensive! 🤪

Now I have truck envy 🤪

@roguebooks You might find this article has some good ideas for you: https://www.rvtravel.com/wheretosellrv-2475/? I find that the RVTravel newsletter has a lot of excellent information and I have learned a great deal from it.

@Rivernerd BTW have you ever checked your transmission temperature when you are towing? For some reason Toyota eliminated their cooler from the 2019-2021 models.

I ordered my Tundra from the factory as 2WD to max out the payload (1540 before ARE cap addition). On our last last trip out I was only 20 lbs under GVWR. I gotta believe that a 3/4 ton truck would have a much higher payload. At the risk of hijacking my own post, any 250/2500 owners out there want to chime in? 😀

I would love to have a 3/4 ton truck and be done with the hitch but our garage is under the house and there isn't enough headroom. In fact, the Tundra was the only half ton with tow package that wasn't too tall to fit.

Thanks again for the suggestion, ordered the Curt 45804 version from HomeDepot with free shipping. Hopefully one less annoyance with the Anderson hitch.

Thanks, I will definitely pick one of those up. But I will go with the Curt version from TSC, I tend to avoid HF stuff for anything safety-related.

I tried the jacking up the rear end of the truck approach since that's the way it worked for my Reese WDH on our Micro Minnie. But for some reason, could never get enough slack that way. Thanks for sharing this other approach. I will definitely give it a try.

Our new-to-us OE2 came without the Anderson hitch so I had one installed at the factory. First let me say that I was very impressed with their excellent service. And the free, on-site campground was a very convenient plus. After hitch installation, Jason told me that on my Tundra the chain bolts would likely need to be loosened every time that I unhitched to provide enough slack to remove the sway control plate. This is a bit of a PIA and is just one of the many reasons why I dislike this hitch (I feel another post forthcoming). Anyway, he said to just count the number of threads on the bolts to get back to the same tension on the chain. I found that counting the threads was just another little annoyance and decided to make a thickness gage instead. After measuring the length of the exposed chain bolt, I cut a piece of ¾” Schedule 40 PVC pipe to the exact same length. The ID of this pipe just fits over the bolt and I can easily feel with my finger when the edge of the pipe is even with the bolt. I believe that this is easier and likely more accurate than counting threads. I hope this simple tip this will help others with the same issue. Now if anyone has found a way to attach a WDH with sway bars to their Ollie I would love to hear about it!

This won't be helpful for anyone with an OE I but on used pricing for the OE II, here is a plot of asking prices since early 2023, mostly from RV Trader. I stopped updating this about 2 months ago after we bought ours. FWIW.

I happened to find our Ollie on CraigsList but saw several good leads on RVTrader. I had alerts set up on both sites for several months so I had a good idea of what the typical asking prices were, how quickly they sold and could also see when the prices were reduced. We sold our Minnie Winnie through RVTrader in just 2 weeks, but it's a little pricey, CraigsList is free. There are a lot of on-line scammers out there, just be careful to only deal with someone that you can actually meet in person. Good luck!

How is access to the sewer hose termination fitting? Looks like it might be rather difficult.

I just installed a LevelMate Pro myself, pretty handy.