All Activity

I guess I’ll have to look into the lower-profile/heat pump variants that have been mentioned. We’re still suffering with the original Dometic P2 jet engine sitting on the roof - which means we either endure noise or heat/humidity. A version with heat pump would be nice - but I’d opt for the heat strips if that were the only option. Id prefer low-profile - but I don’t know if 3” higher is gonna affect mileage that much - and pretty sure our storage unit has 12 or 14 foot high roll-up, so likely not a factor. Thanks for all the data and tips @jd1923 and others! I have a few months to sift through the data. I watched the (whole) video - so just what’s changed since then is the big question. And yes - it seems that waiting a bit opens up more and better options!

That’s a pretty compelling video and testing. and…. You can get it through Walmart?! I think the concerns about the condenser coils collecting dirt are a bit of a concern. Otherwise - it sounds great.

A lot of truth..

JD, thank you for the thoughtful reply. I do like your design. In 7 years of owning our trailer getting caught in the out-back Owyhee country in far south eastern Oregon has been a one-time event. In fact the mud/clay wrapped the tires and the truck tires were standing on an inch or two of mud/clay above the tred. The truck hardly would respond to turning the front wheel and would genneraly plow straight forward, eventually moving the direct they were turned. Fortunately we were traveling on a slight down slope most of the way to gravel topped roads. Even in 4 wheel drive, I don't think we would have enough traction to climb more than a modest grade. All this said, I think I will likely forward with your design because the we avoid this kind these type of roads if rain is in the forecast. Regardless of the rig you are driving, these roads become virtually impassable when saturated. Side slopes are the killer.

I would personally stay away from the pipe cleaners. My main worry is the wire core might rust and streak your trailer. Paracord for the win! Its kernmantle construction wicks water very well. Google it! It also has tons of uses around camp. I think most every hardware store carries some form of it. Get the 1/8" version. Paracord Planet is a good online resource, I think they have an Amazon store.... Dave

Taylor, I just measured it to answer your question. At the closest point, bottom of the L-bracket, the clearance measures 1 1/2". When you see 3-4" of caked mud, how much is actually above the tread? Most of it is in the treads and caked around the side. I've had my truck wheels caked up but not so much on the trailer. This doesn't worry me. And below the rubber/plastic flap material bends outwards while towing and no big deal if it got damaged. It's so easy and cheap to replace if need be. John E. Davies did an amazing amount of work to his "Mouse!" I studied most of his work 3 years ago when I first joined The Forum! In the case of mud flaps, I believe my design is superior for a couple reasons. The mud flap in his design is a full 6" further back. The 6" of open fiberglass will be hit extra hard since dirt and stones will hit the mud flap and bounce upwards due to the rotation of the tire. The open area will get chipped and be doubly hard to clean. And next mud episode; do you want your stabilizer jacks packed with mud or protected behind the mud flaps? We've had 49 overnights since this upgrade, on a bunch of short trips this year. They still look like new. I wouldn't change anything. Anybody who wants to copy my installation, send me a PM with your mailing address and I'll mail you a paper template to make cutting the mud flap material easy. Everything else you need is explained above in this thread!

One of my trucks has the double door 4 and 7 pin receptacles shown in the pic. When using the 7 pin, the door blocks the 4 pin access. A solution is to add another flat 4 pin connector behind the 7 pin (plug and play and doesnt affect existing 4 or 7 pin connector use). I have used one of these before and they are a 5 minute install

??????

This is an excellent idea! If the truck has both 4-pin and 7-blade connections, as shown in your picture, all you need is a 30 ft 4-wire harness, male plug on one end, female on the other, zip-tie it under along the length of the trailer. The only downside is having to connect one more thing each time you hitch the trailer but a much easier installation vs connecting to the Oliver wiring as I had previously suggested. But another plus is your wiring can be deleted easily, if in the future you stop using a bike rack.

@Katy McAnarney welcome to the dysfunctional Oliver window club but sorry you are having this issue like so many of us. This is how I have re-installed the sliding window with either new or cleaned and refurbished gutter track. First put the siding window into its channel without the rubber track. Coat the rubber track with silicone and wipe off excess. Position the sliding window approximately half open/closed and gently start feeding the rubber track into the bottom of the channel and below the sliding window first. You will only get so far, then start to close the window part way, hold the rubber track against the sliding window then start to push open again as far as it will go. Repeat this back and forth process for a few efforts until the rubber track appears on the far side of the sliding window at which point you should be able to grab the rubber track and pull the it through as far as it needs to go. Open the window all the way and feed the rubber track into the remaining channel along the bottom then up the vertical side and into the top leaving several inches of dangling rubber track. At this point you will need to slide the window forward into a partially closed portion so that you can repeat what was done on the bottom channel. This will also take a few passes to complete. It will be virtually impossible to do this without the use of silicone. The rubber alone just has too much friction. Once you get the hang of it the process will go much easier in the future. I don't think it is possible to do this with the rubber track already installed. The silicone allows for very easy back and forth maneuvering of the rubber track and window. It's far easier to start on the bottom rail first before the top. Hope this helps

I listed my take of Pros & Cons on page 1 of the link I posted above. Most of it came from Tom Morton's YouTube review of the Chill Cube: Testing the Furrion Chill Cube 18k Variable-Speed AC: The Future of RV Air Conditioning?

I have actually done that when I had to deal with the railroad retirement board. My elected reps took very little time in contacting the 'board' and my problem was solved quite quickly thereafter. However, I must say, that the RRB is a bit more on top of things and the board certainly doesn't deal with many millions of retirees

Thanks for the info @jd1923! Our trip so far this year (Jan-June) has been pretty schizophrenic weather-wise. From NOLA to Reno we’ve had surprisingly cool weather - toying with needing tire chains, and once having to depart a camp site early to avoid having to get stranded by a major storm. I think we’ve run the A/C only 4 times - and just long enough to bring the temp down from high 80’s to mid 70’s. We’ve yet to make that “seeking 70’s” circle tour of the US work for us. Last year in Florida - we were freezing our butts off or running from mosquitoes. I guess I’ll look into this “Chill Cube”….

Pretty similar deal. The company doesn’t administer the pension program. So we’d be in an endless finger-pointing debate between the workplace and the pension administrator.

The “local office” (40 miles away) isn’t even available to make appointments at any longer. Our signing up was a breeze - all online before the big reduction in force. No issues there at all. Things you can do online are also quite simple. What we’re asking further is also really quite simple - it SHOULD be something you can do online. When Deb called to inquire 120+ days later about her form - the person at the other end of the line said: “we have a huge mailroom…” We’re probably gonna have to go through our Congressman’s office. Supposedly they can make SSA do its job. Biggest issue is that 2 years of retroactive pension payments are likely gone forever. Though, you can be sure that once we establish that she did indeed work there (at this Fortune 509 company) that they were negligent losing her records and owe us 2 years of pension payments.

We had a torrential downpour last weekend and had the rear emergency window leak terribly. Both beds wet a good deal. We ended our trip early and came home. I did not use pipe cleaners in the weep holes. I will do so now. I've cleaned and replaced the original molding on the outside about 1.5 years ago. Upon inspection of the gutter and molding on the emergency exit window, the gutter the window slides on was brittle and about rotten. I opened a ticket with Oliver and I received a response with step by step instructions on how to replace the gutter after cleaning the trays. This included removing the window pane. So we did that. Cleaned everything up, replaced the gutter and replaced it with a product from the company Oliver suggested, steelerubber.com. The gutter is one, continuous running piece, that starts at the street side bottom and runs to curb side, up and then over the top of the window and terminates at the top street side. Everything has been done and the new track gutter fits perfectly. But, now we cannot get the window back on track. I've tried just about everything. I've even swung the window outwards hoping to be able to clearance over the shade track to re-seat the window panes on the track. Didn't work. I've tried putting the gutter around the window first and then popping the window back in. Again, couldn't get the window pane over the last steel rim to seat it into the track. The idea being putting in the top part of the pane first, and the pushing it up and seating the bottom. I cannot get clearance over the trim of the window frame. It lacks probably 1/8 of an inch. I even attempted to put the old gutters back in, thinking the new gutters were too thick. I compared the two pieces side by side and they are exactly the same thickness, but that didn't work either. I'm so frustrated. Any suggestions would be appreciated. 2021 LE II, twin bed set up, Hull #920, La Dame Blanche

I feel your pain! We headed down a dirt road to visit Toadstool Geological Park NE a day after a rain ( without the trailer luckily ). The mud was sticky and slick all at the same time, completely filled the wheel wells and turned the tires into slicks. We paddled in 4WD for miles. Later the slurry dried nearly to concrete consistency! Weeks later I was still washing bits and pieces of the stuff out from under the truck!

JD, Mud flaps have been on my to do list for along time. I was planning to install John Davies design but your idea looks to be a bit less effort for instalation and appears to provide protection up into the wheel well. The clearance between the flap and the tire appears to have a small clearance. My concern: I have been caught by a storm on dirt / clay roads with not rock top dressing. The road surface stick / wraps a couple of inches of clay around all the tires. Does your design have enough clearance to accommodate this extreme situation? Hopefully, I will not be caught by these road condtions in the future but want a design for all conditions.

Wow! And I thought being self employed had its issues. Can't imagine how you would deal with that scenario.

I have "flat plug" four pin connections on my Oliver bike rack. I ran a connection wire under the Oliver to my F-150 and plug it directly into the truck. To accomadate both the trailer electrical cord and the bike rack cord I remove the truck outlet cover and replace when not towing. To remove and replace the outlet cover I replaced the plug hing with a pin that can be pulled and replaced. (If you are interested I can post photos tomorrow. This system has work flawlessly for two years

Yeah, and then you have altitude. Our trip was mainly in June, not July-August! I expected heat in Kansas or Iowa but was not expecting it in the Dakotas and Wyoming. Finally, Colorado camping at 9K ft was cool! 😎 Drove down to Phoenix on Thursday to pick up Chris from Sky Harbor Airport. High temp on the truck trip computer was 112F on Phoenix highways. The high in Prescott was 85F (low 58F). Our home is at 5400 FT. That's a 27-degree difference with 4300 ft change in elevation. In Arizona you can drive a couple hours and change your weather which doesn't work in the Midwest!

In our case my wife's first employer no longer exists so that made things a bit more difficult.

We pretty much dont travel in July unless we get an unusual cool stretch and can mobilize quickly. We have the quieter Truma ac but still the point is to be outside. If the heat doesnt get you up here in northland the humidity and mosquitoes will. I have researched how far north i need to go to get substantial temperatures drops (vs south central wisconsin) and the outcome was not encouraging. By heading to far northern wisconsin or the southern portions of the UP, we might see about a 5 degree temp drop. If we get up to the northern side of lake superior or the Apostle Islands that might improve to a 7 to 10 degree drop depending on positioning of the jet stream. Anything more probably requires the Canadian rockies!

I agree working with the local office has been far better for us dealing with my wife's alzheimer's sister. It was very easy to get a call through, leave a message and they return the call. Apparently, or at least in this neck of the woods SSA office no longer takes in person visits any longer and haven't for quite a few years. It's also true their workforce has been substantially reduced. I would also recommend going back to the source of your wife's work place which is where this problems originates not the SSA per se. It's ludicrous they do not have a record of her working there for 20 years. Get a lawyer then I'll bet they will come up with her work records in short order. Sorry you're having to go through this, what PITA.