The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Thoughts on the Oliver after 1 week living in it.

Well, it's been a week living in the Oliver every day.   Thought that was enough time to sum up some thoughts about what I like, what I dislike, and what I'd change if I could.

Here she is at my campsite in the wilds of Pennsylvania.  I must say, I have no complaints about towing her or parking in a tight spot.   I was able to get her parked, backing in, at night.  It was no sweat really, as the backup lights are intense, and you can turn on all the exterior flood and ground lights.

Also, leveling is made easy with the 3 point electric jack system.  It only takes a few minutes.  I use a level bubble inside setting on the counter to check for level.  The one on the tongue is a bit off considering it's location.  The issue in being perfectly level is not so much for the refrigerator, but for the grey and black tanks and their dumping.  If you are cocked too low, then you will not get as much storage in the grey tank and both are more slow to dump.  So get her level and you'll be good in that regard.

Cold weather performance has been excellent.  As you can see here, this is what a beautiful spring morning in PA looks like today:

Being the cheapskate that I am, I'd prefer not to gobble up my propane using the furnace if I can get away with it.  So I've been just running the overhead heat strip and my ceramic cube heater instead.   Luckily, I brought the cube heater to use in the space in between the hulls, as I thought that if I ran the overhead, that the floor would get cold.   Well, it didn't work out that way.  I just set the cube under the dinette and blow out down the hallway.

Here you see the temps I'm getting on electric alone:

Sensor 1 is the outside temp.  #2 is in the bathroom.  #3 is the space between the hulls and #4 is the cabin temperature there by the door where the display is mounted.  Quite comfortable and not so cold under the floor.   If I run the gas furnace, then the intra-hull temp is generally around 10 degrees less than the cabin.

So far, I've haven't noticed any sweating inside or condensation buildup in between the hulls.

Another thing that I've liked is the wet bathroom.   I find that it is extremely easy to keep clean - I essentially hose it down after each shower.  It seems to dry OK if I keep the door cracked open about an inch, or leave the roof ventilator open.   At 24" square or so, the actual space for showering seems OK as well.  I suppose if you were to hang out in the trailer for the day, you'd want to at least dry the floor or get some kind of dry-tek mat for the floor so you could use the toilet without getting your feet wet.

OK, now for the stuff I don't much care for, or would change.

Believe it or not, I left from home without checking the water heater.   I just assumed it worked because I flipped the switch and the light came on.  Big mistake.  First day I had no hot water.  A cold shower makes for a cranky boy, that is certain!  Turns out, with a quick call to the factory, that upon delivery, they leave the water heater in bypass mode.  The assumption is you are going to winterize, or want it winterized.  So I needed to turn the valve for the tank to fill.  There is a thermocouple on the water heater that turns it off if there is no water inside.  Good idea!

I was asked by a reader if the refrigerator sitting low (on the floor basically) was a problem. I say no.  It's a trade-off to get the microwave up high and the pantry cabinet up high, you have to have the fridge down low.   It's just the way the layout needs to be.  I find that is a good trade-off actually.  I'm in that pantry quite a bit, and it's very convenient to have that microwave at eye level.  So it's worth it in my view.  If you just had to have the refrigerator up high, I suppose you could change the microwave to a drawer type and put that on the bottom.  I've seen those starting to appear in B-vans lately, so I guess that is a possible alternative to request, should you be ordering a new trailer.

Outlets.  Oh how I wish that I had given more thought to outlets.  First let me show you the kitchen outlet in all it's splendor:

At first blush, you may think that location is terrific.  Well it's not.  It's a pain in the keester actually.  The cords hang down and rest against often hot surfaces.   On some items, like my coffee maker, the cord is barely long enough.    Also, there are only 3 other outlets in the rig - one is under the dinette, one is in the media cabinet and one is in the closet.  If I were to do it over again, I'd want the kitchen outlet in the wall, just above the back-splash.  It would need to be GFI of course, because this is a wet area (they may all be that already, but the reset is on the outlet in the closet).  The one in the dinette area I'd put between the table top and below the window.   I'd add an outlet in the area around the nightstand, as it would be nice to have a lamp there and plug in my laptop.   In all fairness to Oliver, I could have made these changes and added as many outlets as I'd like, but I didn't think about it, or request anything.  So this one is on me.  I suppose, down the road, I could take my trailer back to Hohenwald and have these changes made.  I might.

The 12v and USB ports locations are also not very well thought through (by me).  The one over the kitchen is simply useless in that location.  Being in the ceiling, it's much too high to use a standard charging cable.   I also would not want to set my phone by the stove for charging anyways. So this outlet would be better moved to the night stand area too.

The 12v and USB outlet under the dinette is fine where it is.  You can plug in your phone and set it on the table.  Having the 12v port by the floor is probably good, as this port is most likely used for a 12v refrigerator or freezer chest that you'd want on the floor anyways.

The circuit breaker panel is a bit of a disappointment.  The door opens the opposite way of what is should, so it blocks your view of the breakers (opens left, but should open right). None of the breakers are marked as to what they are for and there is nothing in the manual. I found this rather shocking (sorry for the pun) from a builder such as Oliver, considering I've bought trailers for less than $10 grand with labeled circuits.   Also, the 12v fuses are not marked  Editor's Note - I found the markings for the circuit breakers - they were on the backside of the access panel door - since it turns opposite, it's hidden from view unless you crawl under the table and look for it.   Thought they were missing since the front face of the panel was not marked., and do not have lights for the blown circuits.  One model up of this panel has the lighted fuse panel (that is, if a fuse is blown, a little LED light shines so you know which one to replace).  My work around for this is to buy replacement fuses with the led lights built into them.  I got a variety pack for $20 on Amazon.  So I will have to go through the process of marking what circuits do what and labeling all myself.

The idea of the tanks between the hulls is a great idea, but in practice it has some shortcomings.  To fit, the grey tank and the fresh tank are long and shallow.  The black tank is up front with a long pipe to the back of the trailer for draining. It also makes for some slow dumping times.    Additionally, it makes for the potential of debris being left in that drain pipe if you don't rinse pretty thoroughly - so it's smart to use that black flush port every time you dump.   Also with the grey tank, it tends to overfill and back up into the shower pan at 80% full on the gauge.  It probably has something to do with where the drain pipe from the bathroom enters the tank - does it enter on the top or the side?  My guess is the side, based on the backup at 80%.  It's a minor quibble in the grand scheme. You can prevent the backup by closing the backflow valve (located by the toilet), but then the bath sink and shower have no way to drain, other than in the shower pan.  I have not had any issues with the fresh tank.   It seems to fill to the top and drain properly. So far, I've had no leaks or drips of any kind.

Hooks and towel bars.   I should have gotten another hook.  There is no place to hang your towel while you are in the shower.  So there needs to be one outside the door on the curb side of the trailer so you can pop open the door and grab your towel.   There is a hook in the cabin already, but I hang a jacket on that.  With it's location on the street-side, it's not in a good place for a towel anyways.   Inside the bathroom, there is a hook and a towel bar. Both are OK to use to hang a wet towel, but I think the bar is too low (or my towel is too big) as I don't like hanging my towel near the toilet.   There is also no towel bar in the kitchen for a dish towel.  There is a nice space below the counter-top and above the drawers to place one.  What would be nice is a stainless grab-handle along the entire length of this surface.

So I have ordered a couple hooks and a towel bar for the kitchen that matches what came from Oliver.  I'm OK installing these myself.  But I must say, if I'd have given it proper thought, I could have had these things done by Oliver.  I just didn't think about hooks or bars.

The trash.  There is no good place for the trash or a trash can.  So far, I'm hanging a bag on the grab handle in the entrance way.  It makes me take out the trash every morning, as it's kinda in my way.  So maybe that is a good thing after all.

That's about it.  So far, so good with just a few minor quibbles.  About what I expected.

Convection Cookin' in the Oliver

One of the things that has been a happy surprise is how well the kitchen has worked out.

Having room to actually put a meal together inside is important.  I've been itching to also try out this convection oven I bought on Amazon.

I don't pretend this is cooking in any way.  It's more like mixing and heating!

But at least I had a comfortable place to put it all together:

What a great idea it is to put the cooktop and the sink towards the back of the counter and not the front like you see on some RV's.

This chicken and biscuits mix called for an 8" x 8" dish, so I wasn't sure it would fit in the oven.  But it fit perfectly:

400 degrees for 30 minutes and it was done.  Even though the heat strip, water heater and my ceramic heater were running, no circuit breaker trips. 

I think I'm gonna like this thing...

Video Review of the Oliver Legacy Elite II

Well, I finally was able to shoot a video review of my new Oliver.  It's very long, so you may want to skip to the parts of interest to you.

Please give it a thumbs up and leave a comment.

A few more items for the Oliver

Well, I got a few more items for the Oliver, and made a change to a previous mod.

First, I got this neat collapsible colander to replace a bulky mesh type I had taking up space. It fits perfectly in the sink.

And it fits perfectly in the drawer.

I also changed out the paper towel holder.  I was thinking the cantilevered type would probably end up falling down.  So I got this metal one that could stick up with alot of 3M tape.

Finally, I got this in-drawer type knife rack.  As you can see, it holds alot of knives and not let them flop around the drawer.   To the right you'll see these spice rack trays that I also bought.  They hold a standard sized spice jar.

That's the end of the new stuff.  Loaded up, we are ready to pull out tomorrow!

Some accessories for the Oliver

I spent my day today adding some items to the Oliver.  No RV comes completely outfitted, you you always get some things to make it more liveable.

I got this mini weather station on Amazon.  It has three remote sensors, plus the sensor in the main display.

I stuck it on the wall with velcro near the front door and below the lighting panel.  Sensor 1 is the outside temp, Sensor 2 is in the bathroom, Sensor 3 is between the hulls.  The bottom reading is the cabin temp.

There was a really good place to mount the outside sensor in propane locker right on the frame rail.

I found this Brita filtering pitcher on Amazon.  I've been looking for one that was slim enough to fit in the door.  They have an even smaller one, but this one will do - it's 6 cups.

I got this Induction Cooktop because some people I know were raving about it.  Time will tell if it was a good purchase.  Fairly compact as I can store it in a drawer.  Might be good to use outside.

I got this Blu-Ray player hooked up using an HDMI switch.  Now I can switch between the blu-ray, the furrion's DVD and the Dish receiver.   I like that the switch gets power off the HDMI plug and will autoswitch to whatever device is on.  The player will connect to internet via my mifi and will stream netflix, amazon prime and youtube.

I also got this temperature sensor kit for the refrigerator.  It has one for the refrigerator compartment, one for the freezer.  You can set alarms to go off if it gets too warm.

I also got this chrome paper towel holder.  I think it matches well enough.  Decided to stick on with 3M tape instead of screws.  We'll see if it stays stuck on.

I got a few other things too, something to put grocery bags in, and a neat knife holder to put in a drawer.

Quiet, or not?

With all the "noise" about loud furnaces, I thought I'd check on mine in the new Oliver.

First, a measure with nothing on.  Very quiet at 34 dB.

Next I measured with the gas furnace running and the electric heat-strip in the air conditioner blowing.  The blower overhead makes a fair bit of noise, but not horrible at 56.9 dB.

And finally, with just the gas furnace on.  A lot more reasonable 50.4 dB.

In my view, all these readings are acceptable and lower than typical in new RVs.   Certainly can live with these levels.  As a comparison, in my Travato, the ambient noise level was 50, the level with the generator running inside was over 60 inside and 79 outside.  It's furnace reads well over 60 too.