All Activity

Well, I appear to have spoken too soon. We’ve had several days of torrential rain and some pretty intense thunderstorms with high winds and flood warnings here in Starbuck, MN. Through the first few deluges it seemed we were all set. Last night - another wave of storms came through and I’m seeing a trickle of water now and then. It’s coming from between the frame of the window and the inner shell of of camper body - so it’s not filling and overflowing the track. It’s leaking out the bottom of the track. Perhaps the repair I did to the window stop screw wasn’t sufficient, or perhaps that screw holding the center muntin in through the bottom of the window frame is the culprit. Either way, I’m getting a little fed up with the lack of care that goes into building at $65,000 (at the time) trailer. It’s making it very difficult to answer the question: “So, how do you like your Oliver?” when people approach us at campgrounds…..

@Martin White I sent you a private message with a few links and I hope that helps. You should see a notification about a 'new private message' near upper right corner (on my computer, that is where my notifications show up).

Well, RVLock sent out the parts of the lock that they thought would fix my problem. (Only partial retraction of the deadbolt when unlocking) They sent out pretty much all of the electronic parts: logic board, keypad, speaker board, as well as a new gasket. I explained that I would think it would be the mechanical parts, but they said that these were the parts that usually go bad, so we’d “try this first”. Im not stranger to home repairs - so I can pretty much dig into anything without too much concern a and I had “teched” this lock once already. Unfortunately, one of the screws that hold the keypad in was fused into the lock body. It snapped off upon trying to remove it. If that wasn’t bad enough, another screw adjacent to the snapped off one had no threads left in the body. One bad screw on the keypad would have been an iffy repair IMHO. Two would be a sure failure quickly - as every time you pressed a button on the lock the keypad would flex and eventually break. I contacted our person at RVLock and told them the above. Without a hesitation, they are sending me out a new lock. No charge. No shipping. Even making sure it has the same key code as our existing lock. So - if the product has issues - but the customer service is stellar - is that better it worse than a product that fails less often - cut getting CS is like pulling teeth?

That's always a fun moment! I haven't seen that one myself, but with a unique plate like "LAND HO," there's a good chance the owner is on the forum. Hopefully they spot your post and say hello. Safe travels!

Update! I contacted Jason Essary per Topgun2's advice and we have a path forward. Oliver will be rewiring our Legacy Elite so that the induction stove top will run through our inverter. I have decided to keep our 2000w inverter as OTT indicates that is part of the build as designed. I was aware that my unit was equipped with this inverter when I made my order. They will also be adding an omni directional antenna which was on my build order but was not put on my unit. It is something that we have often used and prefer that it is installed. Finally, they will fix the lettering on the side of my unit given it is badged as a Legacy Elite II but is actually a Legacy Elite. That is an easy fix. My hat is off to Jason Essary for getting this hammered out so quickly. I called at noon, got his email, sent him an email, and had a resolution by mid afternoon. Great response. Sales will cover the costs of this service. I am now just waiting on a service date and plan to travel to the OTT facility for the service. Thank you to everyone on this forum. Your advice and support has been great! I know I will have more questions in the future and hopefully can pay back by helping others someday as well. Onward to explore this amazing country😊! Lamar

Pete, Ron does great work at Boerne RV! Our go-to shop as well. Mike

To all single axle Ollie owners, have you ever needed to have the black tank dump valve replaced? How much fun was that?! There is virtually NO room underneath to wrangle a wrench into in order to remove the bottom bolt. I’ve owned The Wonder Egg for 18 years now and it seems about every 9 years, the black tank dump valve begins to seep “water”. The first time I took it to my local, reliable, RV repair shop, Boerne RV, the technician stated that job was so difficult he almost quit being an RV tech! Well, here it is, 9 years later and I just had Beorne RV replace that *!%#! Valve again, I told them to feel free to make any modification to the trailer to simplify the process. Here’s the brilliant idea they came up with . . . A sealed, water-tight exterior access panel directly underneath the valve.

I installed the friction hinges a couple of years ago. Liked the operation but uninstalled after watching the door flex more than I was comfortable with.

Not sure how to add a forum signature. Not sure I understand how to use this site for searches either. Oh well. Will keep trying. Thanks again

Glad you’re enjoying your “vintage” Oliver! Over time, you’ll be replacing and upgrading items as they wear out. There are a couple of backflow valves to watch, the one at the back of the trailer and one on the black tank flush line. The sail switch is one thing I’ve never done, our furnace keeps chugging away. The front cover did fall off once creating lots of heat under the bed but nothing coming out of the vents! Keep us posted on your maintenance and upgrades - Mike

A bit of rain last night with a low temp of 51 degrees at Lower Sunshine Reservoir just outside Meteetse, WY.

Many plastics exposed to the sun for long durations will harden, shrink a bit, and then when stressed crack. Could those doors cracking be more sun exposed than others not cracking? ???? GJ

Thank you very much, Martin & Linda! New Oliver and new Forum Members for a month now - Congratulations! 😂 A lot like us 3 years ago. Our 2016 was 7 years old at the time as your 2019 is today. Keep working your required maintenance, fix or mod your top-of-list items and very soon enjoy some travel and good camping! 😎 We keep improving our Oliver way-of-life with several major modifications and all the many little things, while getting away 180 overnights so far! This cosmetic restoration and our new Chill Cube A/C were our last big projects. Please add a simple forum signature when you get a chance. Search here and ask questions re your "heater" (furnace or HWH?). You may be on the right track thinking "sail switch" but of course first make sure you're getting LP and 12VDC. Welcome, thanks again and best wishes, JD

You are 💯correct on the stamping of the hitch sleeve being different on each coupler during BD’s production. This has to be accounted for and calculated when drilling new holes for a proper fit. My buddy who is a machinist measured each of the 1/2” coupler holes individually and then transferred and dialed in those exact measurements onto the new 2 5/16 coupler. He totally nailed and fit was better than factory. An inside pic of how different the couplers actually are. Pic of the bottom of the 2” coupler on the left and the new 2 5/16 coupler on the right. You cannot see the difference in the sleeve fold, but it’s not the same and thus requires exact measurement of each hole prior to drilling for proper precise alignment and fitment on the tongue. My buddies tools of the trade and his knowledge were invaluable today.

Or you have to replace your refer...... If so, then either you remove the door, or take a saws-all to the ole Dometic inside the cabin. What a mess. Not a good design decision..... GJ

Glad to see all that have been successful drilling holes in the new hitch that match the trailer tongue. I worked with a friend with a Comercial machine shop and we missed the vertical location for one of the hole sets in the tongue. We were close but it was a miss. The challenge for us was the lack of precision of the bulldogs production. The stamping folding the shape of the hitch sleeve is different between each hitch. Coaching will be appreciated.

@Patriot Thanks! Tony

Wow. I am truly impressed. We just bought our 2019 Oliver E2. I am thinking I will have it cleaned and new coating next year. Had to replace the water backflow valve and my heater won’t ignite. Thinking it may need new sail switch. We love it. Thanks. Martin & Linda

Nice! Once the jig is set your bolt holes should be positioned perfectly!

New Bulldog 4B4 coupler drilled, de-burred, cleaned, primed and painted, installed and torqued down. Another project completed despite the smokin heat and humidity of the day. I could not be happier with the final product fit and finish of this mini mod. A big thanks to a close friend who owns a machine shop that does precision work. He measured twice and drilled once. For those running the S/S coupler, I applied double sided tape a few years ago on inside of the coupler to keep it from the metal to metal wearing the paint thin on the coupler. It worked great, so I reapplied it again with new tape. I opted for silver metallic to match the swooshes on XPLOR. A few mod/upgrade photos.😎 Safe Travels! My buddy Brian gotter done! Thanks Brother!!

Hey Tony, The repair kit will work on 2” or 2 5/16 couplers.

Yep, they can use your safety cables, or any cheap truck mounted WINCH can pick up the relatively light tongue weight of the Oliver. At least with tongue down there would be no damage to the jack if towed away. Whether you have the cheap hitch locks I have or all the fancy hardware shown in pictures above, the fallacy is thinking the thief would need to mount the hitch ball to steal your trailer. When stealing a trailer, they are certainly not going to hitch up the way you do! 🤣 They will chain it up in seconds and drive away. When we travel, we only leave our Oliver for a few hours on a day trip, never overnight. At home, the Oliver is safe on our lot with neighbors watching. We have an Apple Tag with speaker disabled to locate her if needed. And the best preventive is there cannot be a black market for stolen Oliver parts! Winnebago parts maybe, OTT not so much! On this last point, we should all stop worrying. However, in your case GJ, leaving your Oliver stored out of sight for months while you're thousands of miles away, I would lock the frame or wheels to the foundation of the building or at least lock a pair of tandem wheels together. I used to store a cargo trailer on our lot here when we lived full time in Texas. Since it sat here 6 months at a time, I would run a HD chain locking tandem wheels to each other and then to the trunk of a tree! This trailer wasn't going anywhere and btw a cargo trailer likely has greater black-market value than a specialty trailer like the Oliver.

Of course, but the goal is to turn the fan OFF leaving the vent door OPEN. This doesn't work well. The noise starts with the first action and often ours doesn't respond quickly enough to start re-opening. Rubbing alcohol is one of the lightest solvents. I rub it on the gelcoat or ANY other surface to prep for 3M VHB tape. The fan is crystal clear after several applications. Yeah, basically to clean it thoroughly you must remove disassemble all parts. Yes, very strange and reason I contacted the manufacturer first. On our unit, the FAN OFF control closes the vent door too.

I actually think the OEM ones are pretty nice - and unlike some RV fabrics out of the later 20th century - they won’t look “dated” in 10 or 20 years. Ours are the slightly darker shade of brown - I forget what they called the color scheme. They’re wearing well after 5 years of multi-month trips. The biggest issue is keeping the cat hair cleaned off of the fabric. Right now, we’re experimenting with removing all of the “extra” main seating area cushions as that area stays set up as a king bed. One long one and 4 small ones. If keeps the bed less cluttered and doesn’t push up against the window shades and collect dust.