KarenLukens

Happy New Year :) Sunrise New Year's Eve :)

Still trying an hour later, maybe 10 posts per page would be easier... 5 bars 4g but next to impossible to load...

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Bumping to a new page... Been trying for a week to post but the Az 4g here is maybe 20k, so I'm starting the next page early... Hopefully :)

We're a couple hours East just outside of Congress, Az if it's on your way :)

Now we just need the 28' Oliver Toy Hauler to be born :)

We moved on down to Congress, AZ and the weather has been 68° to 70° during the day and then drops into the high 50°s at night. So we had Christmas with the saguaro cactus's for the first time. Finally it's warm enough to fix the leaks in our outside lights and I will make a video on that when I start on it next week. Karen decorated the tree's around us and life is good :) Reed

I ended up taking the inside antenna off of the wall and using the Velcro to mount it directly to my tablet. The cord reaches all the way back to the bed and it does work great :) Reed

It wouldn't be a fair trade, but... :) We are outside of Wickenburg, Az. and heading down towards Tucson, Az later this week sometime. I'm using the 100watt Renogy Solar Suitcase to give me enough Solar to keep me running. If you do go to Blue Sky, then you should ask them about adding another 160watt panel on the roof if you feel that you need more up in Oregon this time of year. We will be at Quartzite also with many friends and as always, the more the Merry Christmas :) Reed

We used to roll up the cover in the Casita but we prefer the full-time bed. We do bring in chairs for cards and guests.

Merry Christmas :) From

Honestly, because Oliver's cabinet maker didn't install the hold down bar behind the drawers correctly, all of the 2017 models need to be checked. They put a #8 screw through the 1/8" piece of fiberboard with nothing else to back it up, leaving the 1x2 loose on the bottom and its 1-1/2" air gap from the base was simply put, poor workmanship, so the screw pulled itself out way back when the drawers all fell out because that little screw in the low density fiberboard had no chance of ever holding even empty drawers closed with nothing to hold on too... Then being coupled with the small magnets being misaligned and not ever matched up to hit the strike plates, they were a complete failure from the day they were built. With the magnet bar now locked in place, coupled with the right magnets, the drawers once again work as originally designed. They are self closing and they lock in place without the need for the straps. Plus, the strength can be easily adjusted for each drawer by simply moving the magnets either up or down or in and out a touch with the screw for fine tuning. This is the right fix, simple, easy and out of sight. It works perfectly. Reed

You can do a simple search for John's thread, it doesn't need to be reposted here....

Did they get you fixed up and on the road?

Today, we used the new 45 gallon bladder tank to fill the trailers for the first time. I took the boxes in my truck and made a little storage area to hold it in place, then went down to the water company and filled it up with nice, clean, great tasting water. It drove just fine and with all of the containers and the bladder full we were hauling 80 gallons. It's designed to be used over the cab for the best pressure for gravity feeding but we re-filled the canisters from the back of the truck to top off Marks Bigfoot also. It was a simple hook up, prime, change the valves, turn on the pump and then watch the SeeLevel go up from 6% to 100%. All in all it took around 25 minutes to fill up Goldilocks. I just used my 25' Valtera hose with a "Y" on it. Hooked it all up, bled out the air in the line with the "Y" and then made sure everything was open and went inside. Then I changed the valves, turned on the pump and just waited... It worked great :) Reed The tank was still around 2/3rds full in the picture and with the built in baffles, it didn't move at all.

We have no problems with the Fiamma being out and tied down in 25mph winds, but I do different sets for wind and rain, use awning Deflapper, tie downs, etc... Reed

You said that you wanted to save money, so for an Elite, I would skip the Solar personally being that it's only 200watts. The best part about the growing pains they are having is that they keep making the right changes. The water tank is fixed, the sewer storage is fixed, etc... along with that the bathroom has 2 mirrors now, they added the extra storage behind the propane tanks, etc... The rest is up to you and if you have the ability to put options in yourself, then go for it. I would have them run the wires for the solar between the hulls for you and then put in your own system as you can afford it, or go with the Renogy Solar Suitcase that will save you a couple thousand. We got most of the options for resale value ourselves and were not aware of most of the issues even after monitoring the forum for a year before. What happened is Oliver ramped up production this year and made some serious changes, and in my opinion have been paying for it ever since with all of the customers having to return for the water tank fix, broken drawers, etc... :) We looked for a long time for a used one but couldn't find anything close to the options that we wanted, so we ended up buying new. Since then, many have come up for sale that we would have jumped on since we bought ours but over all if I could have found as used one with the Blue Sky System, I would have bought used myself because we didn't know that they were changing solar system companies on us until the day that we picked our trailer up... Reed

The water lines are a feeble excuse, they are close enough, both easy to get to...

The Truma is a simple water tube boiler, there's not much that can go wrong with it. It has a few temperature sensors and a control board. Pretty basic design. Flip the outside switch into the opposite position if you haven't already tried it. You can temporarily bypass the high temp cut off, if that's the problem.

They can pull the whole unit and replace it with a new one in less than 2 hours, I would insist! Have them throw in a Suburban temporarily.

Yup, but I would have done things a bit different. Overall you just can't beat the quality of the shell. Because it wasn't finished and because Jason had been shoved into the Service Managers position the week before, we all did our best to get things moving. I've had lot's of trailers but this was my first new purchase. You always hear that there's a lot of problems with all brands of new trailers and though I have had my share in the 2017 Oliver, I had no leaks on pick up, I had hot water even though with no controls working inside, and I had heat, so the basics were all there. They changed a lot of things this year and that has created more problems for them then usual, so the growing pains are there. But the quality of the shell itself is what sells it. You can buy cheaper trailers but... Reed

Same here in the Chevy, the tow haul mode is for 10K+ trailers and really adds nothing to the control of the Oliver. I do like the Chevy's on the column shift and it's easy to just drop it into manual and drop gears when going down steep inclines. I didn't like the shift on the dash that I saw... and the Jeep Grand Wagoneer's shifter looked like an accident waiting to happen. The Land Rover just didn't.... You know... The trailer back up system just made me laugh because Dad started me out driving the horse trailer when I could reach the pedals... and the Oliver with the back up camera is a dream come true as is :) Trying to back it up with an old 62 International these days isn't in my best interest but driving it as a child added a lot of muscle because it took everything I had just to get it around the corner... Lol. Not moving meant the steering wheel would not budge for any normal man... lol :) I love the squared wheel wells and the overall look of my Chevy, that's why I waited and bought this year's as it has the right looks for me. I still have my old 78 Step Side and it's a beast lifted with lockers, but these days a little more tame is easier on the back.... Then... we're in Arizona for the winter again and all of the pains that come around with the damp air up north are once again gone! I keep thinking that I'm going to hurt, but instead that smile comes in just like the sunrise :) Reed PS I was behind another Ford Taurus yesterday with the left brake light burned out... What is it about those Ford's with no brake lights??? Lol.

The stock Zamp controller is only 500watts anyway, so they were probably lost being that you had more pannels then the Zamp has ports... So... they wired the 3 together, and then put a second control box up there for the two 80's? Or did they put in a different box?

What didn't they do to get your solar working before delivery? Did you get your new Victron controller installed later or did they do it at the factory? Show us some pics of your new controller, shunt, etc and expand on the install, pleeease :) Reed

So the Ford is designed for first time drivers :) Nice! Then when they grow up they go buy Chevys :) Hehe.