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I’ve stumbled onto a couple others in the owners who worked for HP/Agilent/Keysight during their working years. Anyone want to report in and meet up at the rally? Craig Short - Retired from Hp/Agilent/Keysight

Yeah the Loveland site is still a major hub for Keysight, servers/IT/support/R&D, I’m at the now headquarters in Sonoma County. We went through some layoffs but wasn’t bad, didn’t touch R&D much. I’d love a Golden Parachute about now but ain’t likely as they’re doing pretty well 😅

4 nights at Henry’s Lake in Island Park ID. Before heading into Yellowstone. Great park and every sight has a great view. It can get a little windy though.

I left after the split, after I had to let go of my first employee. The head over IT for the Corporation came out in 2000 and said, We where going to be getting rid of 50% of the end user systems next year and we needed to figure out what system and legacy procedures/systems we needed to sunset. Not what I signed up for. I had a friend At IBM that had been trying to get me over to IBM for several years. I gave him a call, and I had a job within 3 months helping to designing network and system security, also some software testing and integration for the Government. In the late 90s HP was the 2nd largest employer in Colorado, the largest was the state government. Agilent/HP in Loveland, CO had 3500 employees when I left. Within 5 years they had 300 people left. The site was empty by the end of 2010. The HP site in Fort Collins, was over 3200 people in the late 90s and are now down to about 1000, between HPQ and HPE. The Greeley site was shuttered in late 2000, losing 1000 employees. Some were absorbed by Fort Collins. There is no way I was staying around for all of that blood letting.

Yellowstone Shuts Showers at newly revamped Fishing Bridge: We’ve had a reservation in Yellowstone for 9 months. They just sent a notice of no working showers today. We will be fine but I sent the GM a 50% refund request … at $125 a night, showers and bathrooms must work. I’ve grown weary of company execs who are clueless and don’t care for the customers they are supposed to serve. The "Amenity" Loophole: Because your reservation at Fishing Bridge RV Parkprovides you with a physical campsite, water, and electrical hookups, Xanterra classifies the public shower facility as a "complimentary amenity" or a separate service rather than a guaranteed part of your nightly site fee. Their terms dictate that the closure of a single amenity does not qualify a guest for a partial refund on the campsite itself. [1] Read more Thursday at 05:33 PM 1 1 Edit Report topgun2 My personal opinion is that you are absolutely correct. These "vendors" don't put nearly enough back into our National Parks and as a result, trash bins overflow, the lodges we all paid for are in sad need of maintenance as are the kind of facilities you mention. Yes, we are loving these Parks to death but I don't see where the vendors are doing anything but "taking" with precious little "giving. Bill Yesterday at 06:54 AM Report Tom and Doreen We had the a similar issue camping at Skidaway Island State Park, they had a water main break. We had no city water connection for the duration of our stay; no discount or refund. 19 hours ago Report Galway Girl Update: I emailed the GM for Xanterra with a concern of false advertising of amenities. He had a person call back to explain that they still had nearby restrooms open but no shower for 25 miles. They said they will apply a $50/night discount for the inconvenience. This dropped the price at Fishing Bridge from $125 to $75/night. Tip: Next year these bookings will be managed by Rec.gov instead of Xanterra, and they now only allow 6 months advance booking so if your going to Yellowstone next September, bookings open March 1.

Side quest; various cleaners I’ve found useful, probably already well known around here. I like to keep the trailer spotless and good as new, while being lazy so here’s some helpers Microwave and Cooktop Weiman Glass Cooktop and Microwave Wipe One wipe for induction cooktops and microwaves, works really well getting off microwave and stove splatter (hint get a collapsable microwave plate cover too) Tovolo Collapsible Microwave Splatter Cover General inside and out sponge Boat Erasers Just a sponge but made out of melamine, which acts like a super fine polish/sandpaper. Works really well to get stubborn stuff. We’ve got these nice woven placemats that were impossible to clean before using these. Also fantastic for the shower grout. In theory if used too vigorously can dull the gel coat, but Glidecoat sells them too so that might be over blown. Anyhow keep them for the tough stains Low water Dish disinfecting Steramine Sanitizer Tablets Restaurant grade food safe dish/silverware/surface disinfectant. Best part? Tablet form. Just bring along a bottle and you’ll have enough for years to come, pop a tablet into a gallon of water and you’re set, use with a spray bottle, I like these small ones (regular ones are way too big for a trailer) MR.SIGA 16 oz Empty Plastic Spray Bottles for Cleaning Dishes are now a breeze. I use an OXO Good Grips Soap Dispensing Dish Sponge which is super easy with the built in soap dispenser. But these things can harbor germs, so we just scrub off, rinse, spray with disinfectant and let sit a minute than quick rinse or wipe off. Dishes have never been faster or easer. Floors and corners DEWALT 20V Handheld Vacuum Cordless I’ve found the floors need cleaning at least once a day if not more often, plus I’ve got carpets (runners). Tried a bunch of small vacuums, this is the bomb! Hangs from the closet shelf with the included hook, with attachments so that you can even do a great job on carpets. But it was a big step adding cordless to the trailer, but once you’ve got the batteries you need a … DEWALT 20V MAX Blower, 100 CFM Airflow, Variable Speed Switch Really resisted this it being sacrilege (not to mention Glamping in the worst way!) to bring a leaf blower. But this thing is incredible! Tiny, variable speed so you can keep it quiet and soooo useful. Leaves on the roof quickly clog up the gutter drains, this is one step blow them off. Campsite cleanup, I also use it to blow the dust out of the truck.

Not if you’re an EV driver! 😅 It doesn’t matter anymore but it’s part of the culture, 0-60 kind of thing. I’m proud of the 1.3 mi/kWh the Ollie gets (only a 35% range loss EV or ICE). And I’d disagree its irrelevant - with diesel at $6/gallon ($8 here in California) whether your aware of it or not its hitting your bottom line Ah you’re trying to play a trick on us! “Over inflation”, how about “Under inflation”? 😅 Just joshing, yes optimal inflation is what we want which is the discussion. Let me try a different angle; do you run your RAM tires under by 20 PSI or whatever? Why or why not? That’s good. I heard about those sites, I think there might be one here in California but I wasn’t RVing then. The Beer Busts were awesome, they continued into the company splits (Agilent/Keysight). Anyhow that old time culture is very slowly dying out unfortunately. We were proud to have the Bill and Dave culture for many decades but now it’ all about reporting up every day, micromanaging and over working. I was going to stay for a few more years but it’s not fun anymore, time to leave.

I started in 1978, It was referred to as Bill and Daves Daycare center by some vendors. I remember Beer Bust about 10-15 time a year depending on how the company and division was doing. I thought one of the best benefits besides health care was Hermit Park, a big chunk of land with cabins and Boondocking sites for employees close to Estes, Colorado. We also had the family picnics there. Well enough reminiscing. I worked with both the Test and Measurement in Loveland, and the Desktop Computer Division in Fort Collins.

Glad you remembered the post from a year ago! @jd1923 It's good to know the wires can be connected to the other side of the switch. The tape is a great idea too. These forums are a great way to share "problem solved" issues. Also great for sharing new ideas.

I replaced my the orginal OEM Michelin's after 8 years use. My tire guy said the rubber was still supple with a lot of tread above the wear bars. In short the tires were reported to be safe for travel. I replaced them as 'aged out" for a 'confortable state of mind" because we spend so much time on gravel off the grid. I would truly be impressed with travelers that replace 10ply tires on an Ollie due to mileage wear vs aging out. It's my option, running "hard" tires for increased wear is an endeavor with no practical advantage. Running 10 ply tires on an Ollie at more than 50lbs is unnecessary.

Is the hot water also blocked at the bathroom sink? (They are separate lines.) If cold only, there is one line that feeds the bathroom (see plumbing schematic). What I would do first is blow air through all of your lines. Bypass your hot water heater first. I do this to winterize. Air will empty the lines and perhaps could move an obstruction. I made this tool to connect to the City Water inlet. You'll need a decent air compressor with good air volume. Set compressor pressure to 50 PSI which is your water pump pressure. Given it's both the toilet and bathroom faucet, it cannot be the toilet filter or the faucet restrictor. If air does not help, you could try it in the reverse direction. Take off the faucet head and with another attachment blow air from the bathroom faucet back. Hope this helps! Best wishes, JD

Item #1 Mileage is generally irrelevant. I put 19K on our trailer in 3+ years. I'll reach years of use before mileage/tread wear and so will most of us towing our Olivers. MPG is likely only a % better at higher PSI. Over inflation will NOT minimize Stress nor optimize suspension performance. The correct pressure for the load will. Overfilled tires create a small contact patch on the road, will cause uneven tire wear, and can be dangerous is slippery road conditions. Bob's example below is likely average usage. Some may tow 10K miles a year, but very few of us. We've been towing 6K miles/year.

Coming back from Colorado to AZ, it takes a full day drive to cross the Navajo Nation. It's a shame that many tribes around the country live on casino revenues, but it is what it is. I learned gambling was not for me at a very young age. Many casinos in the west allow for overnight camping! No charge to stay overnight at Flowing Water Casino! We spent $10/night at Quechan Casino Resort in the very SE corner of California, when going to Los Algodones Mexico, the dentistry capital of the southern border for professional reasonable work and free cleanings! 🤣 Just drive up to the entrance and ask security. At this location, the officer named Everette was so friendly and helpful. He wrote down our names, license plate numbers and asked for my phone #, told us about casino hours and the restaurant inside. They have a large gravel lot for campers! It was very quiet at this small casino with one noisemaker at 2AM that security handled. There's nowhere else to camp around Shiprock NM! A Casino Resort might be a good place for an occasional overnight stay. He made us feel welcomed, we had the lot to ourselves and it was a beautiful night.

Yeah I started just after they retired I think, 90-91. Then we split off, I was part of the ‘original’ HP (Test and Measurement) so missed the fun thereafter. Carley was what killed it

I know 😅 Doesn’t bother me and I like a good technical food fight 💪 Actually first heard of it when at the factory after picking it up. Really nice couple, Rod and Sandy dropped theirs off for repair, he mentioned reading this on the forum and was thinking about going even lower to the 20’s or something. Filed it away and read up on it here .. Yes have seen this chart, also aware of the early 80 setting by Oliver. Last first, just because Oliver had a high - perhaps too high - setting originally does not mean that their present setting is a poor choice. And the tire OEM charts are a starting point. Been doing this for decades, parts suppliers have their data sheets but final spec is always set by the final OEM. Customers of course are free to do what they wish. Point being none of this is convincing evidence. Let’s take it from a different angle, what are we trying to optimize? Milage (maximize) Tire stress (minimize) Suspension performance (optimize) A range of pressures is possible so the question is what is optimal? We don’t know Oliver’s reasoning on 65, so let’s examine what we have here. Putting the hearsay aside, as I mentioned AFAIK the forums argument is the chart above or variations. These are not tires that were designed for Oliver’s - they are generic trailer tires. The Big Three routinely gets Goodyear/etc to make a custom tire - mine has them. I’ve got 36” Goodyear Territories like you’d find on any offroader, but these have a twist to make them more efficient for EV’s. GM pressure spec is 61 PSI, clearly that overrides anything Goodyear might have to say. The 61 is set for handling, offroad performance and EV efficiency. But here its just an off the shelf tire. So this isn’t convincing, we have a generic tire OEM chart and a specific recommendation from Oliver, it’s not enough to conclude that we need to go much lower. Now I have a technical argument on first principles. It’s based on rough assumptions as to frequency band filtering (except on the Ez-Flex), but the basis is sound. Here’s the thing, one thing I’ve learned in 40 years is we’re all more often wrong than right and you rarely know. So what you do is a heuristic, counting up the +/- from various arguments. All I see from the former is a starting point - a generic chart, and a magic leap to a conclusion. With the argument I laid out here there’s many plusses. Better milage, better wear and handling performance, aligns with the OEM’s recommendation, and a technical discussion as to why this may be the best setting 🤷‍♂️ … its the Emperor has no Clothes here IMO, there are more negatives than positives to the ‘tire chart’ proposal. PSA Absolutely not trying to score points, prove anybody wrong, or otherwise make a stink, just a good old fashioned ‘let’s try and find the best answer’. Thanks for indulging me 😅

Dan, perhaps you're the one and only one unconvinced on our Forum today! The subject has been brought up at least annually for the last 10 years! Using Chris' @Wayfinder's search tool, I searched for TIRE PRESSURE, lot's of hits. Give this a try and read some of the many articles: https://www.google.com/search?q=TIRE+PRESSURE&as_sitesearch=olivertraveltrailers.com%2Fforums All tire manufactures have load/pressure tables. I use this table for the tires installed on our hull. OTT stated the 80 PSI recommendation on the DOT label on early hulls, mine included. Later it was 65 PSI and we can read in these threads, some owners were told 55 PSI by OTT Staff when they took delivery. Ask an older retiree from what was Firestone corporation, "Who was right about inflation pressure for the Ford Explorer?" In this case the auto manufacture Ford recommended LOWER pressure than the tire manufacture's printed standard. They basically aired a 1/2-ton truck to 26 PSI which "killed 238 people and injured around 500 others in the United States alone; more died in other countries." I figure tire manufactures know tires and OTT knows fiberglass! Except for Steve, and maybe soon enough you too Dan, most Olivers are closer to 6K vs. 7K LBS. Ours was weighed once at 6,400, but let's apply the full 7K to the load/pressure table. Keep in mind, 7K on the trailer axles plus tongue weight, means at least a 7,600 LB trailer (very hard to carry that much)! 7,000 / 4 = 1,750. This table recommends 40 PSI. 65 PSI will carry 10,480 on 4 tires, 80 PSI 12,340 LBS. As I wrote above, I agree with Bob's numbers. For 3 years, 20K miles, I've set pressure somewhere in the 45-52 range. 45 PSI for summer travels, and a little higher during winters. Some go with 55 PSI. OTT recommending 80 PSI for years caused a lot of interior damage; screws on drawer slides coming lose, plumbing fittings cracking, electrical connections failing, LEAF SPRINGS FAILING, etc. OTT recommending 65 PSI; now you have 10K in tire/wheel carrying capacity, on 10K axles, on 10K in Alcan springs, besides your piano, you can add enough equipment for a 4-piece band, if you can find the room! 🤣

2025 Ford lariat F150Having the same intermittent warning pop up on my dash. Legacy elite two 2021 hull 707. Brakes look like they had some mileage exchanged with four new Dexter backing plate brake combo. Worked fine. All the slow drives. I did around neighborhood to test. First trip up through George started getting warnings and brakes would basically shut off. Checked all my connections 23 times when sitting still operated fine about 3 A at each break 14 A when tested at the breakaway switch finally saw the threads about the wire in the axle pulled the front one out. There was a few rubbed spots. eventually would’ve failed but found about the middle of the wire in the axle. looked like somebody had set a hot welding rod a piece of hot metaldown on the wire in a couple places. Didn’t have any wire yet so cut the bad section sliced back together taped it to the axle. Seems to be working fine a couple hundred miles. Ordered some new marine grade Wire and some “solder butt connectors” comes with small heat gun. shrink wraps, and solders at the same time. Will attach the wire to the outside of the axle.

They hinge this opening from the factory now? If so, that's an interesting change. Mine from early 2023 is screwed in. I added an AC outlet in the panel, plugged into that same outlet. And a DC outlet wired and fused to the fringe power. There's very little gap behind the table when folded down and latched, so I had to recess the outlets. Sue was a handy addition.

I searched a lot of content and couldn't find anything like this. Do I have a plugged water line? Kitchen faucet and outside shower work great on fresh water and on city water. But the bathroom sink and toilet have barely a dribble. Before we went out to camp the water system was ok. After traveling just 20 miles or so the bathroom water doesn't work. I found plastic shavings a couple of years ago in the toilet inlet filter. I haven't checked it but that wouldn't plug the sink too. The plastic came from when they post drilled the tank a few year ago I think. I really don't want to make a trip to Hohenwald and back as it's about 760 miles round trip and diesel is hehehe. I know not much about how to clean water lines inside the double hull. How do I attack this problem? Hints? I won't be camping anymore this year anyway. Rhett & Dory Hull #186 2017

Ya, I remember those days. Never meet Bill, but I met and talked with Dave a couple of times when he came out to Colorado. Really down to earth person. Dave would fly into the local little airport. Some low level person would drive out and pick him up. Dave would then take one of the Fleet Ford Taurus to drive around. Many places in HP treated people like family with a common goal. Many employees would sacrifice their time with their family to help out HP in a crunch. I remember in the 80s when financial times where tough and no one was laid off, We all worked one less day every 2 weeks. Compared to Carly Fiorino that showed up with a bullet proof Limo and body guard entourage, with all meeting being locked down.

A day late posting but HELLO to the Oliver LEII parked at Ewen Pines Roadside Park on the UP on 9/17/2026. We were the Oliver blowing the horn. Saw you wave back! If you’re headed up the Keweenaw Peninsula check out Four Suns Fish & Chips across from the Quincy Mine. https://www.facebook.com/share/1D4iw9PFR9/?mibextid=wwXIfr Bill 313

I’ve been kicking around doing Starlink. Next year after retirement from job 1 it can be a business expense for job 2, but I’m not really wanting to do it. Only if it makes life easier. Various long term Ytuber users have mentioned the hardware doesn’t last long, so my first concern is long term reliability - what’s your experience? Second is convenience, ideally I don’t want to fuss with poles and whatnot. DC fridge Olivers have the outdoor table and this nifty solution from the factory, and they dropped the coax connectors that could have been converted to ethernet or whatever the mini needs (oh I guess the mini now just needs power, cool) Back there to the left is an outlet for the induction, so I can plug the power into that. I can run an ethernet cable potentially through the walls up to my main router. The opening is 12”x7” so if I’m lucky I might be able to store the mini in there too. So I’m wondering whats the best way to mount this? I have a fold up ladder I like to bring along, maybe just a suction cup roof mount is the way to go, how well would that work with tree cover? Thoughts/ideas welcome …

The all wood is stunning, one day I’d like to do that.

I’ve held many work-related video calls on the Gen 3 without issues… with an open sky. One could likely play an online game too, such as World of Warcraft, but maybe not a first person shooter (FPS). The latency requirements are high and one would be getting killed a lot in the FPS game.

Good, because I never took Statics! 😅 My story kind of similar to yours from a different direction - Physics PhD then also went to HP back in the good old days (when Bill and Dave were still around) doing CS/EE. Jack of all trades master of none basically. Anyhow the only fundamental basis I could see for airing down was based on an old chart that Goodyear doesn’t appear publish anymore, probably because of this reason that it’s the OEM’s business to set a spec. But I think a sound approach is to approach it as tuned frequency bands. Engineering hand waving - but that’s what we do half the time anyways, but my intuition tells me you’re losing more than you gain by airing down. But I’m convinced that the Wisdom of the Crowd prevailed with Alcan.