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Next was to create a roofline drip rail to eliminate the streaking down the rear. This time I took pictures of my early steps. First thing to assure the drip rail will be straight and parallel to the hull is to measure heights. I use the hull seam, the belly bar or hull waistband so to speak. It protrudes quite a bit and holds the tape measure nicely. I used 39" on the side rail (bending it around the top curve) and 33" for the rear. I cut a bunch of 1" pieces of blue tape and stuck them to the scaffolding to have ready. On the side rail, I placed them about every 16" and about every 10" on the rear. You place these at the height you want the drip rail. Then you place one STRAIGHT long length of masking tape which becomes the lower edge of the rail. Then measure 7/8" spacing to place a second line of tape. I marked the center using the Oliver sign and the 3 little marker lights and taped the end points 28" each way, 56" of drip rail for the rear. I made both drip rails 1/4" lower on the ends. Then sand the gap smooth, use acetone to remove the ceramic residue. Then remove the top line of tape and use rubbing alcohol to clean the area. Now it's time to place the Trim-Lok drip rail. After Bill's mention above, I read some of the "Window Gutter" threads. There was talk about a hot day and heat gun but none of that is necessary with the Trim-Lok product today. This product is great. It was 76F when I finished yesterday and the product is very flexible, keeping the straight line is the deal. If you're ever to follow an Oliver that has a rear drip rail and a matching rear porch light, that would be us in Hull #113! I like how the two drip rails come together in both rear corners. The back corner surfaces will get dirtier but an easy area to clean. And the old girl still looks nice and shiny now 10 months after ceramic coating! 😎

I always dread a dump station that aims my rig nose down.

In prior conversation a few years ago with Jason Essary at Oliver Service, I learned that Oliver Service would have to physically see your Oliver to match your paint and gelcoat in order to properly match/repair chips. Oliver no longer maintains any history paint colors. I think @taylor.coyote has offered the best remedy. I would also suggest calling a local fiberglass boat/yacht club as they can be a great resource for mobile fiberglass touch ups if you want it done professionally. DYI touch ups more often than not end up looking like DYI touch ups 😕 and will highlight your chip repairs vs make them disappear. I had 8 mil XPEL PPF (paint protection film) installed on the front blast zones of our 2020 Oliver LE2 and am glad I did. It really has helped preserve the gelcoat especially on the front corners, dog house aka propane tank storage. I also had it installed under the quarter panels front to back.

good point: I should have been more specific that the touch up area on my trailer is the fender/wheel covers and not the gelcoat sides of the trailer. I discovered when sanding the fender area where some chips were that it's not gelcoated. I think it's a fiberglass part or perhaps plastic. Anyway, light sanding of the chip area showed thin outer paint. I've now primed and sanded that area (it's rather small part of the fender) and just need to repaint the section.

I put trim lok over the lighted Oliver sign. Thought it would be good insurance against leaks from the seals aging on the sign. Many folks have had that problem. Scotty

What JD said. I'll have to try lifting the curbside of the trailer next dump. But I will say that because of all the afore mentioned design characteristics of the Gray tank, it is very slow to drain! Aren't the gray tanks also "L" shaped?? Which is why a curbside lift is a great idea to help things along. One thing I do is to open the back flow valve in the bathroom to help let more air in the tank when draining, I don't think there is a trap on that drain, seems to help. Dave

Craig, I would caution you about using paint to touch up your Oliver. Paint and Gelcoat are two entirely different coatings. I would suggest a quick google search or a visit to some boating forums to learn about the process of repairing damaged gelcoat. You didn't specify your issues, but if they are rock dings and such, I would not paint them. Paint will not age well, doesn't have the build of gelcoat, and cannot be polished with the rest of the trailer when that time comes (and it will). You will need to apply your 2 part gelcoat (it can be tinted and is a catalyzed product) to a properly prepared surface. Overfill slightly, wet sand flush, then polish out. Yes, it's a lot more labor than spraying on a coat of paint, but will give you far superior and much longer lasting results. My 2 cents. Dave

Thanks for the idea; hadn't thought to take the LP tank cover into a paint shop. Sounds like a good idea. Cheers, Craig

I asked the factory about my paint / gel coat color 6 months ago. They did not have the information for my trailer (hull # 124). I solved the problem by taking the trailer's propane cover to a good automotive paint store. they had tools to shoot images of the gel coat and were able to match the color precisely. they can give you a code to mix the color needed.

Craig - Your best bet is to call or email Oliver Service. Let them know what your hull number is and they can tell you which Gel Coat color was used on it. Note that over the years there have been different colors of white used. Bill

Yep - Twist was treated to the window gutters a number of years ago. There are numerous threads here on the Forum concerning these window gutters - from installation to length of gutter for each window. Bill

You're welcome, Tony and thank you! 😂 Yes, anything to be VHB taped must be done before ceramic coating or go through the steps I've listed above. Anything new to be screwed mounted, do afterwards. I removed a lot of exterior trim to get an overall better ceramic coating job. As-is you may still need a light scuffing of the gelcoat, acetone to remove residue and rubbing alcohol to clean prior to taping. If in the future any portion of the drip rail comes lose the whole job would need to be reworked! Don't want to do all this work? Ask your detailer if they would install the roofline drip rail when you get your ceramic coating work done. Covering the individual windows is a much easier job, no scaffolding required. The roofline drip edge should eliminate streaking if you have what I have. This could be regional or climate dependent. A lot of rain in your travel climates, perhaps covering the separate windows makes more sense. It's a choice. If I remember a picture of Bill's "Twist" correctly, it has drip rails over the windows. @topgun2? The 25 ft roll I received was 2" short. My roofline installation is 15 1/2 ft long and I have 112" leftover. The main windows are 4 ft. At most you would need 52" for each window. One roll will cover all windows or do one roofline drip rail and cover 2 windows. Two rolls will cover both rooflines and all windows. I'm going to use some of what's left over to create a roofline drip rail under the OLIVER taillight in the rear. You can see all the streaking we have there in the picture below. I'll show this installation soon.

Hello Wondering if someone could please help me to identify the right color match name or code for the white that Oliver EII has on the exterior? I have a 2020 EII Hull 612 and would like to do a bit of touch up to a few small areas on the outside with a spray gun. I'm hoping there might be a specific type of white that's used perhaps using a color chart number that I could take to a paint store and have a quart mixed up for my touch-up spray gun. Thanks Craig

Lifting the front jack is a MUST at least 2-3" high. We read the LevelMatePRO app to know. If there are two ways you can pull into a dump station, enter to be driving uphill whenever possible. This should get the black tank 98% empty. The black tank is a taller tank and if nose up it should empty fully. The grey tank is another story. Besides nose up the grey will only fully empty when the curbside is also up 1-2". This is because the 4" waste line exiting the grey tank heads out from the rear of the tank towards the streetside (pic1). If the curbside is very low, the grey tank could be half full and not able to empty. Every time we dump, I'm taking our two 8" Andersen Blocks out of the truck bed, one under the front jack and one under the curbside jack, often lifting the curbside wheels up in the air. I lift the front up first and then pull the black valve, then I raise the curbside and pull the grey valve in this same order every time! Lift before you open the valves so that the waste water runs out most quickly. We had an extreme situation at the Sunoco in Cedar City UT. You had to back into the dump station which was uphill. It took all this lifting to dump effectively! 😎 (pic2)

I had to tread carefully on this one 😅 It was all fine probably because I didn’t replace the axels and kept it all aligned. It’s just unexpectedly 1.5 of the outer side U-bolts, with the bit oval hole on the tie plate, that are troublemakers. I’ve got enough to cut the high spots on a few others, but these need another 1/16 taken out or something. Anyhow with all that torque the underside bolt straightened out, this steel stretches, so it just adapted to the environment and certainly the slightly canted U portion won’t move. Anyhow I’m beat! I got an Oliver because I didn’t want to DIY, boy was I wrong 😅 Someone here warned me about that … anyhow we’re going to get a big El Nino this winter and will be traveling a lot right after so I’m in a race to pull it all together, but am at the end of my rope. I practically kissed the phone when he said “Yeah it’s fine …” 😅 I’ve got a couple minor more projects to do, small SiO2 ones and bypass the black washout for direct transfer, but that’ll do it

Dan, I quoted most of your message, beginning and ending with the best parts! I really like the start, "my good buddy jd1923." Back at you my friend, and your ending is perfect, "John you’re absolutely right." 🤣 It appears you're working 30 miles from home, without all your tools. I would think when replacing the U-bolts the leaf tie plates would be off where you can drill on a vise. If they're canted it must be the space between the holes is to narrow. I don't believe the cradles are actually wider since I got mine square. What I did since I was installing axles and springs at the same time was to get the U-bolts set with the parts on my garage floor (pic1). I tightened the U-bolts to the axles before installing the axles. I spent a bit of time measuring the distance from each brake baking plate to the leaf springs, and using 90-degree squares, the goal is to assure the leaf springs are as close to perpendicular to the axles as possible and the U-bolts perpendicular to the ground. I still cannot believe OTT is installing 1/2" U-bolts now, when on older hulls they installed 9/16"! So at some OTT Management Meeting a senior staff member came up with, "Let's upgrade our customers with D52 axles but save money on down-sizing the U-bolts." When I finished, you can see some light between the threaded portion of the U-bolts and each each leaf (pic2). But zoom into the front wheel picture and notice each bead of light is equal to or perhaps even slightly smaller in size at the top. This shows how close the U-bolts are to the leaf springs.

Final stretch, wrapping up the torquing which is taking a lot of arm strength Now, NSFW, I know my good buddy @jd1923 is not going to be happy with this but you’ve been warned 😅 … I’ve got a couple U-bolts that aren’t straight up aligned. They’re canted out a bit. I need my right angle drill which I don’t have to hog those holes out. Was thinking of various options and called Alcan. They said it’ll be fine if it’s not too much. Later if I want I can remove the plates and make it look pretty, but they didn’t think it critical. I will get this ‘done right’ but for now need to wrap it up so I can drive home (30 miles) Otherwise even with the aligned ones there’s gap to the springs, because the top cradle is slightly wider than the springs. There’s small gaps everywhere, it isn’t precision manufacturing. Anyhow John you’re absolutely right, it is bending the hanger in. Surprised we don’t use washers on these hanger wet bolts.

Totally agree with Bill. Your readings seem high, but we always have to raise the nose when dumping. If we don't, we often have 6-12% left in the tanks (according to our monitors).

OK - I think I've got it. The reason that you have to raise the front of the Ollie to drain the tanks is common to all Olivers that I know of. This is because of the basic design of the tanks - they are fairly wide and long - but - not very tall since they have to fit between the inner and outer shells of the Oliver. The good news is that this design helps lower the trailer's center of gravity and more evenly distributes the weight of the tank's contents from side to side and front to back. In addition, the location provides protection to the tanks from sources outside the outer shell of the Oliver and given that in colder temperatures the area between the shells is somewhat warmer as compared to outside. Unfortunately, the downside to this location and design is that in order to completely empty the tanks, the front of the trailer must be elevated such that the liquid contents flow more completely (and faster) towards the outlet which is basically at the rear of the camper. Your 40% seems a bit on the high side but that could be a sensor issue (again, it really doesn't take all that much of a mis-placed sensor and/or the degree of level of the trailer to have a fairly dramatic effect on the reading). I think that most of us develop an idea/sense of when and how long we can "go" before these tanks need to be emptied and or what our readings really mean. But, in virtually all cases if we want to really empty these tanks, the nose of the Oliver must come up. Bill

It is from the internal display. But the readings seem relatively accurate, since it shows as 40% when level, and as we raise the front of the trailer, a lot of gray water drains out and it reaches zero on the display after it finishes.

Thanks JD... Good info on the Epoch batteries. I figured I was all square being that for this project I am "I F S L" rated. (that's I follow Steve Landrum for those of you not certified). Figured Inverter Services would be on top of their game but checked anyway and they did spec in the Essentials series. Currently trailer is getting the Furrion A/C upgrade and will be scheduled for the Epoch / Victron upgrade in November. We did a short trip out to "Land Between The Lakes" in KY a few weeks back and temps were in the 90's every day. We got by with the Penguin but I kept running into situations where it would be so much easier with the upgrades. Like being able to leave the dog in the trailer and go into a restaurant or store. Or, being able to stop at a harvest host or Walmart and not have the windows open and fan running and have to deal with any noise or bugs. Planning a big trip out west in spring to give it all a good workout. Hope to see you at the rally. Scotty

How/where are you getting your percentage readings? The tank sensors can be inaccurate and/or in need of adjustment. Bill

@jd1923 That looks really good! Nice and clean. It's on my very long list of things to do on our Ollie. I'm deciding whether to put the drip rails on over the windows or along the roof edge. We're in Kentucky so slightly more rain than Arizona. Maybe both locations since the roof edge isn't very noticeable. Also deciding whether to install before or after we have it ceramic coated but your post has helped me decide. Thanks for the post! Tony

Since we started using our 2024 Oliver Legacy Elite II, the gray and black tanks won't drain fully unless we lift the front as high as it will go. If the camper is fully level, the gray only drains to about 40%. Anyone else have this issue?

@jd1923 my screen was WAY up in the pipe, there was no reaching it with a finger. Only a bright flashlight revealed the screen up in the pipe. Not sure if they are all like that was products change constantly, but you'd think there would be a screen somewhere.