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Hey @ripple963 I actually own an F350 Super Duty and I can drop the tail gate with plenty of clearance with no interference. I think you would be fine with clearance on an F150 too. You can call David & Kristine Hess at SeaBiscuit and verify for sure. We really like our SeaBiscuit front cargo box. Everything we need to set up camp is ready an immediately accessibility without having to drop our tailgate. It also saves valuable space in the bed of our truck for other camping gear. Just a note, we have never had any water intrusion in this box which is also a win. Everything we need and nothing we don’t.

With the front box installed on your trailer, does the box interfere with dropping the tailgate of your F150?

I went the same way you did. I put Andersen connectors under the reat bumper and under the front of the Oli. I use it when we travel day after day boondocking. If I stayed somewhere with power, or will be staying the next night with power I probably won't use it. We have a trip coming up to Yosemite, Arches, Dinosaur National Parks, and using harvest hosts whenever possible; We will depend on the DC-DC charger much more. Have an August trip, and it should be around 100 degrees everyday, We will be on shore power most of the time and will probably not use the DC-DC charger much if at all. Maybe when we go to Lithium we might use it more often. We are pretty conservative with power on the AGMs. If we boon dock for several days in one spot we use Generator at dinner time to top off the batteries. Except In Wisconsin State parks generators are not allowed so we supplement with the DC-DC charger and the Ford Diesel when staying multiple days. I am going to install an Andersen Cable on the front of the truck this spring. So I can attach from either end of the truck. I am planning on making a Jumper cable with an Andersen connector on one end. so I can jump start or get jump started from either end of the truck.

Hey John. Our DC to DC charging system is the detachable cable. There is a receptacle under the bumper at the back of the Pathfinder and there is a receptacle under the cargo box at the front of the trailer. We don’t leave that connected all the time so we made it detachable at both ends. Hope that makes sense.

@Olive2Roam Great post and photos! We are big fans of our friends David and Kristine Hess owners of Sea Biscuit. You won’t meet a finer couple who fully support the RV industry with their products. My wife and I have been to their factory where they craft their products. Our front cargo box is has been one of our top mods. We store our chocks, blocks, 30amp cord and all other “possibles” for a quick set up and take down of our campsite. I installed a sheet of XPEL PPF (paint protection film) to the front of the cargo box of XPLOR to keep it protected from the blast zone and road missiles when in tow behind our TV. Your LE1 looks amazing, congrats on your mods! Beauty and the Beast - camped inside Yellowstone NP 🇺🇸

My first thought is thanks for sharing! Even though we have ample carrying capacity, it's still of interest as what you have done here is truly excellent work! I've also heard very good reports re Sea Biscuit. Your white boxes, especially the rear box with the white railing surround, even white supports, look to be a perfect match like it was done at the factory, just gorgeous! 😂 18 months now? We remember meeting a friendly couple with a brand new E1 at the fall 2024 Texas Rally! Would that be you? Please, keep having fun in your cute little Oliver!

Barb and I have had our LE I for about 18 months now. We fancy ourselves minimalists, but truth be told, we viewed the LE I as a bit of an experiment knowing that it would be a challenge getting all of our gear in the trailer and the Pathfinder. What helps is that we are both perpetual organizers and efficiency nuts so we welcomed the challenge. The game changer for us has been connecting with the folks at Sea Biscuit. Knowing we needed a little more storage one of the first accessories we added was the rear basket from Sea Biscuit. We weren't quite sure what types of containers we could put in the basket, but we knew it gave us lots of options for adding storage. After looking at the myriad options of storage containers, boxes, etc. that could go in that rear basket, we settled on the rear storage box from Sea Biscuit. The locking rear box is home for our hookups, a large tool bag, our outdoor carpet for under the awning, and several other items that immediately come out when we land at a destination. Our sewer hose for draining the gray tank (we have a composting toilet, so no black tank hose) is still in the bumper and it is surprisingly easy to store and deploy when needed even with the box over top. The expanded storage we gained from the rear basket and box combo was our first game changing moment. It allowed us to move several items out of the Pathfinder permanently. Shortly thereafter we noticed the front box that many of the LE II owners had added. To our disappointment, the box was not compatible with the LE I, but we started a conversation with Dave and Kristine at Sea Biscuit about our options. Fast forward several more months and we are one of the first to acquire a front box unit designed specifically for the LE I. The front box is deeper than the rear box and fits neatly between the front jack post and the bull dog coupler. It sits on a steel platform making it super stable, and when opened leaves plenty of clearance for the jack post. The front box now holds our DC to DC charging cables, wheel chocks, and several other necessities that also formerly rode in the back of the Pathfinder. This was game changing moment number 2. One of the final accessories we added to compliment our storage accessories from Sea Biscuit was the rooftop basket from Rhino Rack. The rack holds our chairs and camp table that were also - yes, you guessed it - in the back of the Pathfinder. (Low and behold, I can now see out of the back window.) Barb and I are huge fans of the little Ollie having put over 15,000 miles on it, visiting 21 states in 2025. Our travel style is such that we rarely spend more than a couple of days in one spot so the flexibility of the smaller LE I, and smaller tow vehicle (17 mpg with the Pathfinder) is the perfect combination for us. For anyone who is considering an LE I, or who has an LE I and is looking for quality accessories to expand your storage, we cannot recommend the folks at Sea Biscuit highly enough. The products are top notch and the Hess's are awesome folks. See you on the road!

Over the years I have found that more amp/hrs would be of benefit. I initially felt that the 300 amp/hrs of the BB batteries were enough but with the compressor fridge on 24/7 during winter traveling and a few cloudy days here and there, my batteries would draw down to less than I am comfortable with. Anyway, two of the 300 amp/hr batteries seem to be the wave of the future. Having two still gives me the redundancy that I like. As built, Oliver used 4/0 welding cable for the main battery connections to the inverter. These are large enough for the 2,000 watt inverter and are protected by a 250 amp fuse. The wire used for all other dc circuits is #6 welding cable and is adequate for the existing dc circuits in the trailer. I did not install a larger Progressive Dynamics charger or a larger inverter so I didn’t feel it necessary to upsize any wiring. I do have the air conditioner wired so that I can run it through the inverter but it only draws about 90 dc amps. The microwave by comparison draws about 120-130 dc amps. Really the only thing I did when I initially installed the lithium batteries six years ago was to clean up some of the wiring by moving all of the #6 wiring out of the battery box and I added a circuit breaker. Not too involved.

Looks like I have been very lucky with this battery box support issue. One, I only have a single bolt with no nut in sight. No real evidence it ever hat a nut, but I'm sure it did. The bolt has been bottomed out on the hand-cut slock for what appears to be forever. From all appearance, from outside and in, the box is still fairly in the spot it was from day one. I see no signs of separation. That is likely due to the fact that the bolt bottomed out on the slot and really could not come out of the hole. I will put double nuts, with Loctite, on the support beam this weekend. If anyone sees any issues I do not, let me know. I downsized the pics, but should be large enough to zoom in as needed. Also, I'm not sure why my pics have been uploading with such crappy quality. It's not what they look like on my computer. Might try another program to edit. PS. Replacing all pictures. \

Well crud... and I got lucky. I just checked my camper for the battery box separation and support issue. The box seems fine, and the single bolt that I do see, upon a quick inspection at night, revealed there is no nut on the bolt. So I will do a detailed inspection in the daytime and find a nut for that bolt. Thanks for posting this information! Great job guys!!!

I know that the general subject of quality control has been on the minds of a number of members of the Forum - particularly recently concerning the issues with the battery box support post. I can tell everyone that Oliver does have a fairly extensive quality control system and procedures. Unfortunately, these systems and procedures simply didn't exist back in the day when 2015, 2016 and probably 2017 units came off the production line. However, it does exist now. In the Forum guidelines the Moderators have requested: "Some have asked why our forum is linked to the Oliver website. Valid question. Since the beginning of our forum in 2008, Oliver Travel Trailers (OTT) has paid for our Oliver “sandbox”, including our web space and an administrator who knows way more than we do about maintaining the software, for which we are very grateful. OTT DOES NOT CENSOR OR INTERFERE with the moderators’ management of the forum content. Moderators are not employees of OTT. We are Ollie owners, and receive no remuneration. OTT does have a employee designated to read the forum for the purpose of improving the “Ollie Experience” for all, but that’s a few minutes a day in a busy job description. If you should ever have an issue or a warranty claim, call tech support. Your post might not be seen on the forum by an Oliver employee. With that in mind, we moderators ask you to communicate directly with the company and afford them an opportunity to satisfy any serious needs before flaming OTT on the forum. We are not asking that anything to be swept under the rug. Just, please, let Oliver Travel Trailers have the first shot to meet and exceed your expectations." Specifically in answer to the question, "Are they reading?" the answer is more than likely - NO. Therefore, the only way that we (the owners of an Oliver trailer) have to inform Oliver of a quality control issue is to fill out a Service Ticket. Bill p.s. for those that have not recently viewed the full set of Forum Guidelines, they can be see HERE

David, excellent work and thank you for proving my hypothesis re the bottle jack and that some lift will be required to set the battery box straight. I’ll be working mine soon even though the battery door on ours has been straight for 10 years. I believe the angle re the two beams is due to the curve of the hull, all pics show the same. I’ll bet, you did not expect this on your brand new Oliver! Yours should still be under warranty for anything that may come up.

After seeing this thread I decided to check my battery support this morning. I really didn't expect to see any problem, but I received a surprise. My battery box support had two holes with no bolts. After some searching I found the bolt heads peeking out from around the wiring harness and after getting those I lifted the wiring harness and found the nuts. The idea of using a small bottle jack in this thread worked for me. I was able to place a 4 ton jack in there and raised the bracket until the holes were aligned enough to start the bolts, but I could not get them to go all the way. The angle of the bracket was off. I chose to use a small c-clamp on the bracket going from curb side to street side, that allowed the bolts to go through enough to get the nuts started. Finished it up with some blue Loctite on the threads. I have enclosed some photos of the repair. Finding this on my one year old Oliver was not expected. I would encourage everyone to check this support bracket on your Oliver to prevent future problems.

@Trailerjohngo Shoot me a private message and I will be more than happy to discuss with you details of my install via phone call or PM. As you will see from my first post, I opted to have a complete Victron system installed professionally by an excellent company in White House, Tenn. My main reasons for a professional install is all components and install are warrantied by the company doing the work as long as I own my Oliver. The warranty also conveys to the next owner should we ever sell. My system allows for the company to remote in should I have any issues as long as we have a WiFi signal. We have a SL mini so that’s not an concern. I am not nor claim to be a DYI guy when it comes to this level of electrical work. I also wanted to be able show that Victron system was installed by experts should we ever sell. I opted to have the Victron DC to DC charger installed as well which eliminates having to carry a generator. Shoot me a PM if you I can help with additional questions! And welcome to the fourm!!

If it was me, I'd look in the aftermarket! Took me a quick search to find this product. I assumed a 1" diameter but did not measure ours. This or something like it would likely work fine: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D3PKNY47/?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B0D3PKNY47&th=1 CAUTION: You should determine cause for your separation. Check your support beam below the box. View it from both sides, streetside bed (see my picture above) AND look from under the rear dinette seat. OTT forgot a weld on one of my jack brackets. They also forgot to finish this support beam install! Hard to believe, but true. I've compared ours with some of Oliver friends. The others have two bolts which is mandatory! I have to get in there again, drill and add a second bolt! With batteries out, most of the weight off the battery tray, from underneath see if there is movement of the support beam. I plan to remove my batteries AGAIN. Then get a bottle jack under there to see if the support can be raised just a little. The fact that this single bolt is at the bottom of the groove shows it's at the lowest setting. Likely the beam/tray should be raised some for proper support. Then I'll tighten the single bolt installed, drill a second hole through the top of the slot to add a 2nd bolt, then torque down both. Thank goodness we have no door separation, but those who have should investigate the support beams below. Some have reported missing nuts, or nuts falling off the bolts. (How does a Nylok nut fall off a bolt? It doesn't. It was likely laid there never threaded on. Go figure.)

I too had a battery box separation and repaired it 3 days ago. Unfortunately I badly damaged the door gasket. So far I haven’t been able to get a call back from anyone in Oliver parts. Does anyone have a source or make & model for the battery door gasket material?

@JDB_Traveler We had the Truma retro fit done a few years ago, and reeeeeally like it. We always use our remote to operate the AC and not the panel. Ours works fine. The optional Truma CP plus panel was a must have for us as a back up to the remote. If our remote should ever quit working we have the CP plus panel as a back up to dial in our Truma. If you only have the remote and it quits working your “flapping” aka - no way to operate our Truma. Pro tip/field experience -make sure that when the techs do the install that they take extra care to make sure there are no kinks in condensation lines that connect the Truma to the OEM drain lines. I made sure to gently remind the installers of this and have never had any issues with our lines not kinked or draining. There were a few earlier installs that had this issue and eventually had to be corrected so it’s worthy of mention. It’s nice to use the OEM factory drain lines to keep water from draining onto the roof. It just makes for a nice clean OEM install and keeps your roof condensation free and ceramic coating or wax job looking great. Also note, there are two condensation cups on each rear corner of the Truma. They are not very deep and do fill up with condensate as the unit operates. It’s important when you set up camp to have your Oliver dead level. When your Truma is running this will keep the cups from over flowing on to your roof and draining like they are suppose to. **We brought our old “Demonic Penguin” back home and sold it on FB market place it to a guy for $600 who installed it in his food truck. The techs at Oliver helped load the AC in the bed of my truck for transport. **Consider having the RV or Truma soft start installed IF Oliver still installs them. If you ever run a generator you will appreciate the soft start install. We could not be happier with our Truma Aventa and how quiet it is and how fast it cools and dehumidifies our Oliver.One of our top mods to date. Welcome to the forum and I hope this info helps you! All the best with your install!

Seems like you can already dry camp for over a week at a time without needing to recharge your batteries. Are your batteries limiting the duration of your adventures? We have the factory 630 AH package and it's proven to be more than enough. For us it's the holding tank capacity that limits us to 5 - 6 days off grid. We have taken advantage of the battery capacity for running the air conditioner overnight when camped without shore power, but we recharge with a generator during the day.

I’ve ordered my new Epoch 300aH batteries. When we, @mountainoliver and I, did my upgrade from AGM’s to the Battle Borns, we also recabled everything so that like John, I have one red cable and one black cable in the battery box. My Battle Borns are just over 5 years old. I’ll keep them for a while as this Dragon Fly crisis progresses. Mike

BB Owners: The above thread has some safety precatutions to think about taking if still using your BB's. They appear to be: Individually inspect and test your BB's as presented by Will P. Also inspect the BB terminals and ALL 4/0 cable lugs with an IR gun or IR camers to visually as suggested above. Only charge your BB's if you are present and can check in on them periodically. Don't use excessively high charge currents. My limit is 60 amps for three BB's. Install the temperature sensor that came with your 712 Smart. Place a rate of heat rise detector in your battery box. From AI: For an RV lithium battery storage box, a Rate-of-Rise (ROR) Heat Detector is generally recommended over a standard smoke detector. Because lithium battery failures often involve rapid overheating (thermal runaway) rather than immediate, thick smoke, ROR detectors provide faster, more reliable alerts by triggering when the temperature spikes quickly, minimizing nuisance alarms from dust or minor temperature fluctuations GJ

Stuck Somewhere: Above options give me a way around a failure. Shipping a way to get the replacement battery, and tools to do it in less than a day. Since my tour route can include Lost Wages, NV I could camp out at Dragon Fly... with an attitude, and Crazy Horse with his quiver of bad messages. 🙂 Fire Danger: Great comment. I will be hooking up the temp sensor, and thanks to your post, will put a fire detector in the battery box just for grins. Just need to figure out if a "Rate of Heat Rise" or a "Smoke Detector" would be best for that purpose. (GJ EDIT: See Below about such a Detector, also looked into the return idea.... the defective BB's have to arrive at Reno, not Lost Wages. That's a bunch of miles further than I would do.) GJ

@Geronimo John We also have used Andersen chocks and blocks for several years. They clean up easy, don’t get water logged and have really served us well. I carry these in our Sea Biscuit front storage box along with other immediate set up gear. I see they have gone up in price since we purchased our set. https://andersenhitches.com/product/trailer-jack-block-bag/?_gl=1*1mv85o9*_up*MQ..*_gs*MQ..&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnJHMBhDAARIsABr7b86djF75m0CCgyTk_YL8VGqDktpOQgowBOSYNVMPQhJDGteTk8b4o8AaAg9KEALw_wcB

So… first thanks to each of you that responded! The CO/LP detector fuse is easy to find and get to (under street side bed)… IF YOU KNOW WHERE TO LOOK! I put a tag on it similar to what Galway girl did (Good idea!) I added another 1 amp fuse to my box of emergency fuses and also realized I only had one 30 amp slow blow inline fuse (for the three electric jacks)…. So ordered some more. The new detector looks good and the fun thing is it adds to my collection of little lights that reflect all around inside the camper when I find myself wide awake in the middle of the night. I like to think of them as “stars”.

There was more going on center of town, but not anywhere to park the Oliver. If you stayed at an RV park and detached, you could spend more time. No big box stores! A Safeway SW of town on Hwy-92 and the closest Walmart is in Douglas.

Shame that the town isn't a bit more active. Just hate to see the big box stores that don't have the charm get ALL the business. Looks a bunch warmer there than the 18 degrees we have here at the moment. Bill