J-Rhett

I'm in the process of taking mine off now. It has deteriorated badly and I've pulled off about 10" from the rear and there is glue still on the trailer. Looks like I'm going to have a time of it. I will also take off the awning completely as a little wind came up in TN and broke my mid-support plastic on the end of it and bent the opening cover of the awning. Maybe I can fix it with a rubber hammer as it's not too bad, maybe now. Hope I can just by the parts I need. I've spent too much money on other things as of late.

Late 2017 model Elite II #186 Sept. through Dec. build. Thanks Maniac! I took the attic cover off the street side and looked for the coax cable and found it going to the television side across the attic under the floor, then foolishly saw it was mounted on the other side with a regular coax plug. Anyway thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

We have a 2017 Ollie and having the same and more trouble with the Furion. I've never been able to run the sound through the speakers. Almost got the time set on the Furion Receiver once. Furion seems a poor selection I believe for a great trailer. The small "toy" remote doesn't work well at all. I'm not a happy camper with this setup, but we can seldom use the radio receiver anyway as usually cannot receive any stations. Maybe a portable outside whip antenna would help. No, the youtube video for running the tv through the speakers doesn't help at all on the 2017 Ollie. We need a "Rally Class" on this system or these components need to be replaced by users I suppose.

Don, Another good reason for using an electric heater/heaters is some campgrounds furnish the electric but I don't think ever furnish propane. So, your heat is free if you are using their electricity. In fact, I'm going to a Texas campground in November and their electric comes with the monthly rent. We will just stay a month and then back home and to the Philippines in Jan. BTW, very nice meeting you in Fall Hollow Campground! Thanks for coming over to chat. The next morning I had to go back and get something else done to my Ollie. So sorry to have missed your great coffee!

Dear Donk, I think you'll be ok if you want to go slowly at first. My old 1995 F-250 has 210 HP, but does have over 400 ft. pounds of torque. It shifts down ever so often in the molehill mountains of TN and KY, but really does the job fine. As you can see my truck is 22 years old and needs updating badly but I'm waiting to find a "Good" buy. Thinking of a Ford F-150 3.5 Ecoboost or I might go for the F-150 diesel coming out in the Spring of 2018. I have found a nice truck I like in a town not far away but the $63,000 price for this F-250 diesel with SuperCab, LongBed and 4X4 and Lariat upgrade is a lot of mou-la. But it also has 440HP and 925 ft.lbs of torque. My truck now has just 54K miles on it and no rust, but some parts had to be rebuilt as Ford doesn't make them anymore. I have heard good things about the Chevy Duramax if you would be interested in a diesel. I also heard that some diesels now have too much EPA crap on them and don't run well because of that. I'm thinking of just spending the money and going for what I really want. My wife wants the upgrade to leather and so on. Life is short and living in our truck for hours on end will be much nicer with more room and higher quality interior than just an old work truck. I remember the story of my friend's wife when they first got their heavy 16' camper. They were going up quite a mountain in one of the southern states and it was a winding, narrow highway with no passing zones most of the way. Their old pickup would barely pull their heavy trailer and it was slow going. She was kind of reluctant to look back and see what was behind them, but when she did, she was aghast at the long line of vehicles in line that they were holding up. She said it looked like there were five miles of cars behind them! Quite a funny story, unless that vehicle in front is YOU! LOL

yeah, I was just down there and left Irog! I'm so lonely I could cry. Latest high price for a sale was $75,873.00 with an Ollie all decked out with everything. At least two of those in line are Demos. I know #181 is there made before mine. #265 is there too and I think it's a demo. They are making different front bins now. Should cost less for them too. There is a large one made from sheet aluminum and a smaller one too. They are running five weeks behind on maintenance jobs now. I'm not sure that's a good sign, but I imagine many people want their own mods and many others are having the water modification done now. The sales are skyrocketing upward. Plans are being made for something longer too, I suspect. I think it would be a good idea if Oliver would train some folks for East Coast and West Coast maintenance so Ollies wouldn't have to be pulled 3000 miles just for maintenance. I suppose any good RV trailer person could pull maintenance on an Ollie too though. But going to the factory and seeing how they are made would help any maintenance person.

Someone on "Oliver Trailer Owners"-Facebook suggested to blow out the lines with air compressor first and then just pour a small amount of RV anti-freeze into the sink drain, toilet, bath sink and so on. Make sure to drain the hot water heater. Go to the maintenance site and read it please or the manual. Do this please: Go to "Trailers" on the Main Menu-click it> then go to the bottom of the list-"Oliver University" then click on YOUR trailer 18-5 or 23-6 and Volia (there is) all the info you could ever want. Well, maybe not, but just call your sales person or Jason or the factory and they will be very pleased to hear from you... I'm not an expert on this yet myself. Also, need to worry about the places where you hook on the water hoses as those places have valves to keep the water from running back out. Maybe the air adapter will work there. I have an adapter but have not tried it yet. There are several different ones and here is the one I bought:RV Water Line Adapter

Loved your true story! That's the best kind of story! How awesome you thought to take along 15 gals of extra gas. I know you felt exhausted as I've made some long drives myself and after 16 hours of driving it's hard on the buns and everything else! Glad you made it safe and your home was ok. Rhett and Dory

Actually, I've thought about this for a long time. I'm talking about a real leather recliner, well 2 of them side by side. My brother's large trailer has them and can't think of a better way to relax. Can the Ollie be custom built low enough where the twin beds are now to install two nice recliners or maybe one recliner and one bed? Many of my older friends sleep in recliners anyway. I spend a lot of time in mine with a laptop on my lap and when the tv was going I had it blaring in the background, no more though as I rid my self of satellite TV recently. Just wondering! [attachment file=REVREC-59aafb8b-e81f-4042-80c9-f957eff4720d.jpeg]

It would be nice to know what your tow vehicle is Carol. I have an old Ford F-250 diesel and I have pulled the Ollie at least 75 mph for short distances and I've had no trouble at all; and I don't use the Anderson hitch. The Ollies are perfectly lined up and really don't need a sway hitch?, I don't think. Do you have the Legacy Elite or the Legacy Elite II? The real reason for hitches of this type is to transfer weight from the tongue (rear of your vehicle) to put weight evenly on all four wheels or your tow vehicle. You can do this by using airbags that keep your tow vehicle level when you put the extra 340# for the Elite and 460# of tongue weight and there are other methods too so you might want to visit an auto/truck springs and suspension shop. If you don't really need the Anderson No Sway Hitch it will cause you more problems than if you didn't use it at all. An experienced Ollie person who knows a lot about traveling with an Ollie is Lee Slusher on Oliver Trailer Owners site. He and his buddy traveled 46,000 miles with their Ollies last year. I don't think he uses the Anderson hitch though. I think it's causing you more trouble than it's worth. Sell it! OK, give me 2¢! Actually, I thought it was junk when I first saw it. My brother's sway hitch on a 7500# trailer is solid steel bars and is much stronger and more secure if you end up really needing an equalizer hitch. Curt Equalizer Hitch Just my humble opinion worth 2.5¢. Here is how the hitch is supposed to work. Please scroll down and read this article. https://www.equalizerhitch.com/how-equalizer-works

Thanks for writing a very interesting story! Enjoyed it much. We, like you didn't take long to make up our minds once we saw an Oliver. Hope to see you at the 2018 Oliver Rally. Don't forget to grease Roamy's undercarriage about every 3000 miles and check his batteries once a month. Our Irog (Sweetheart) took almost a gallon of distilled water on the first fill-up. Rhett & Dory Decatur, IL #186

Thanks GrayGhost! I bought this Black & Decker on your recommendation alone and I'm not sorry. This little booger will suck a golfball through a garden hose. I spilled salt in my trailer not realizing what was in a jar. It will easily suck up grains of salt and anything else. It's easy to clean the B&D too. It does occasionally take filters though. I can still get down on my knees and do the floors if need be but if you are too old and decrepit you might want a vacuum with a long handle. This one folds up very small too. To me it's an all around great vacuum for our Ollie. Thanks again for letting us know GrayGhost!

I think it's much easier to find a slot without full hook-up. Remember your Ollie is made to boondock, dry camp, wild camp. Are you going to stay two weeks somewhere? Two months? You are young never mind about hooking up and dumping once every 10 days. I'm twenty years older than you and I don't mind it. Use the shower room and toilet at the campsite and you can go for weeks without dumping. You will have thousands of more places to camp if you can do this! Otherwise, you need 30' camper like my brother and stay six months. You might have to plan a year ahead to get a nice place in Texas to stay for six months and usually the fee is quite a bit cheaper. Just my opinion, not to upset or belittle anyone. I had to come to terms with this as everyone who chooses an Ollie does. The first thing I learned is there are more campers all the time and a limited number of spaces. Go figure!

My standard works great.

What? I am still buying things! I bought a triple Stanley tool box set today. Where is the list of 200 things? I have 500 tools I imagine. I'm feeling very down and it's all because of SeaDawg! lol

Everyone is different and packs differently and different things. If you don't have something, someone in the trailer park may loan it to you or sell it, or give it to you. Best way to find out what you need is find a pard or relative who camps right now and question them and go out and camp with them. And as you have more experiences you will know what you need to carry and where. So many questions and so little time. Go camp 25 miles from home and see what you're missing!! Some people may never take water cans or propane tanks as the trailer has these! Depends on many things such as where you are going and how long you will stay and what you plan on doing when you get there. You are too nervous u075908@yahoo.com. Just use some common sense and enjoy. You won't be in a life and death situation unless you put yourself there. Make sure you take plenty of ammo and 3-4 cases of beer. Those are the important things! LOL

Yep, taxes, title, and registration in Illinois cost over $3600.00. One of the poorest states in the US. And insurance for one year was $445.00 I can really appreciate you folks who are using your trailers a lot of the time. I'm not getting my money's worth right now. Wife still working, but the time is coming when I hope to be on the road much more. BTW it's a good idea to tell your insurance company you are getting a new travel trailer before you go to pick it up or even get the title info from Oliver and have your trailer insured BEFORE you pick it up as it's a Tennessee state law that you cannot leave the company lot without your trailer being insured. Remember, you can put your trailer or extra cars in storage if you will not be using them for 30 consecutive days. I have two cars in storage now, meaning I'm not paying insurance on them except comprehensive. Collision, hospitalization and liability insurance are not being charged and they are the expensive ones.

Travel Trailer-TT is for traveling. My brother has a 30' Cougar and after living in it six months in Texas every year he's glad to get out of it. It's his second home. My ideology is completely different as buying and using a travel trailer should be. I can pull into a station and fill up easily with my Ollie. I can pull into a Mcdonalds, most of them and park on the backside with ease. I can hook up and be on my way in a few minutes. My brother can do none of the above. And my trailer will last for years, hopefully. I can also live out in the boonies for some time and so can my brother, but it's much easier for me. So, one must make the choice on what you want to do and how to do it. My brother was upset that I was buying a smaller trailer, so I had to explain that my ideology was different than his. I'm happy I chose the Oliver.

Dory, the Filipino woman and I had a great time too. Even though the first few days were rainy and we drove most of our 400 miles in the rain with water over the roads in many places we had a great time because of the friendliness of the Oliver owners and all the good food Oliver provided and the local Tenessee crooner. We met many interesting people of which the least were not Don Bell and friend with their macerating toilet. (Very cool toilet.) We also met Zeke and Diane from our home town and had wondered who owned the other Ollie in our town. Yes, I learned much about my Ollie, of which I've forgotten most already. Are the videos already posted somewhere? We too, thank all of the Oliver company people (Thanks, Matt!) and John and Scott Oliver and Coy for their hard work and dedication to the Rally. And thanks to the campground people and Chamber of Commerce too.

Hi Muppy, my buddy Larry drives for Classic Transport. His company transports out of northern Indiana and lower Michigan I think. You can contact his company and see if they will transport from Hohenwald, TN to your destination. If you want to contact my friend privately then please PM me. I talked to him today and he was pulling from Elkhart to somewhere in Idaho. A little Ollie would be no problem for this company as they have to pull the huge trailers too. My buddy has an old Dodge with a Cummins diesel and makes about one trip a week now. He hauls to the west coast I know. If you call or contact Classic Transport (https://www.classictransport.com/) let them know how light and easy to pull our Ollies really are. As you probably already know they are 23'-6" and 4600#. I would volunteer my services, but I don't have the right kind of insurance. BTW your Ollie has to be insured before Oliver will let it leave the Oliver plant as this is Tennesee law, just for your info.

We have a two burner propane stove which is light and folds up very nice and the optional bag to carry it in. Also we have the propane campfire similar to Lukens but we ordered from Amazon. Sorry, we haven't used them yet as wife still works full time and then some. The two burner cooking stove can be used with small canister type propane or with the adapter hose a 20# propane tank or from the trailer hook up. We pretty much follow the Lukens equipment as we appreciate their camping knowledge and experience. But many others have been helpful to us too. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004S3HDBO/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007V4SJSS/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008JORKP2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

She's a beauty. Yep, the Oliver Team seems to get'er done. Wishing you the best in your travels with your new Oliver. Don't get too close to the cliff sides as one Ollie went over a few years ago. We are Dory and Rhett from Illinois and we happen to be #186. Good luck and God Bless.

That is a great feeling! I remember that same feeling back in 2003. Glad you two made in back to California without any trouble. I'm brand new at this Travel Trailer camping so I've gotten many ideas from you. Dory and I hope to meet you out on the trail sometime.

WE have the King or Standard version of Ollie and we sleep with feet facing right side of trailer, feet under TV and no problem what-so-ever. Location of TV is fine. I love my Ollie!

Yep, I did the same thing. I think that is the way to go.