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Yes it’s D52 rated at 3500 Agree with the idea of a better constructed spring since the Dexters can fail, just wondering about changing the stiffness. A suspension is a frequency damper, shocks for lowband (to sub hertz) and springs plus ez flex puck maybe midband and higher. Pushing stiffness (higher weight rating) would increase the low cut off frequency, thus losing damping Again this isn’t my field but I think this is what we have. The other factor is tire pressure, seems like people here tend to ride low for a less bump. Indeed here, that lowers the cutoff frequency. I prefer running at spec for efficiency and I have a hard time ignoring ratings. Possibly people having more issues are running softer pressures? Just a thought

Yes.... Given a 3/4 ton truck ditch the Anderson. Have to mention for folks using a 1/2 ton that you need to read your manual very carefully. Most half tons will require a WDH if the trailer weight is over 5k lbs. Hopefully no one finds themselves on the wrong end of a lawyer trying to take their house, but if you do... you'll be glad you had the WDH installed. Quack Quack! Oh no.. wait... I got the Alcan springs. Scotty

I get that, but the axels should be 5,200 on all Oliver's starting in 2022. Maybe I misread what he said. He said he has D35 axels, when it should be D52, eat d at 3,500.

When 2x 1750 leaf springs are installed on D52 axles, the assembly is rated at 3500 LBS.

The axel weight doesn't seem right. In 2022 Oliver switched to the D52 (5,200 lb), rated at 3,500 lbs due to the 4-leaf spring. Why would Oliver switch back to 3,500 lbs? I'm not sure you are providing the correct information. The older trailers were 3,500 lbs. and these trailers are experiencing the spring breaking. 5,200 axels have been installed since 2022.

Your experiences may be different after more miles on your new hull. Ours waddled greatly and porpoised when not using the Andersen WDH. Awesome towing with the 5-leaf Alcans! 😎 Same leaf springs, given the D35 rating. Many Dexter 1750 LB leaf springs have failed with time. Keep an eye on the arc of your main leaf springs! When one starts to flatten, replace them.

I have a new 2026 with the D35 3” axels, EZ everything and the 072-042 1750 springs. Considering whether going for a heavier spring makes sense now for these reasons. In 4k of towing so far I sensed no issues, no roll at all, no porpoising except on bad roads where you can’t avoid it, and a smooth tow. I previously had researched Bigfoots quite a bit before settling on Oliver. Over there an owner was looking to upgrade to a heavier suspension but was advised against it by the Bigfoot company owner (forget his name now). Reason being “that axel would beat the hell out of the trailer”. This makes sense and jives with the experience above. A higher rating will necessarily be a stiffer suspension. This will have a comparable narrow band frequency response to vibrations, relative to a less stiff system I play as an engineer by day and while the natural tendency is to over engineer, when it comes to mechanical design that’s often not a good idea, but I’m not an expert in suspensions. Anyhow I’m wondering whether the stiffer springs are a good idea here. Older Oliver’s it might be good, but not so sure now.

Reading more carefully, “except perhaps the Pacific coast.” We won’t even cross that state line in what used to be such a beautiful state. AZ is full of EVs and there’s enough ex-Californian issues here in politics, traffic on our roads… If I still had a commute, I’d buy a Tesla S (sorry, last time I purchased a GM product was so long, long ago)! And there’s no such thing as FREE! I prefer to use the term included. Shipping is included in the asking price and a charge station at work is a benefit included in your employment. Your company pays utilities. You can argue the life of systems. BTW, at 180K our Cummins is just broke-in full efficiency! I believe @Rivernerd in his $50K quote! If that investment was to save $200/mo, if that, it would take a 21 year payback period. We’ll keep paying our electric monthly. If we were a young couple, growing up with the technology of the day, there would be other considerations. Heck, $50K is a good cash price for a used Oliver! 😎

I think I will still wait until the solid state Lithium systems become commonly available. Those look seriously capable.

Sorry those are tired old myths. You know ICE engines lose efficiency as they age? Everything loses efficiency, including us meat engines 😅The source of the myth comes from the old Leaf batteries. They just air cooled those things. So you'd drive on the freeway (heat the battery), stop for a charge (no airflow), and fast charge (heat the battery). It hammered them, and they aged very quickly. All modern EV's have HVAC water cooled systems that carefully manage the temps, and the batteries last forever. So much in fact they have second lives, when people are done with their cars in ten years they repurpose the batteries for grid use. Same thing with solar panels. Also these generally don't use LiFePO4 chemistries, they're several generations beyond now and have greater durability and resilience. Point being, yes they do lose some performance but so the heck what? Look if a 10% or even 20% performance loss is a problem, well better batteries/trucks/panels are now available. And for panels, the cost is almost all in the labor - sound familiar? That was the lions share of the bill, maybe you've seen this if you ever worked with an electrician. If I ever wanted to replace my panels it would be a simple rooftop swap and wouldn't cost much. And that all obscures the fact that even if I decided to replace these panels after 20 years of free power generation, well I still got X years of printing money.

Thank you!!!

Sorry not sure what you're saying, out West the charging is an issue? I live in California, it's the EV capital of the US and the highest density of charging. The one and only exception is Hwy 1 North of SF, but as my truck loves the windy coastal 'highway' and range isn't an issue. There's plenty of Level 1 charging but no DC until you get to the bigger towns up north. Yes it does actually. I did a full accounting including the time value of money, of course the upfront costs and other factors, it paid for itself very quickly. It's due to a couple of factors, one is electricity cost is ruinously expensive in California like everything else. Two is the generous NEM1 policy which lets me use the grid as a battery. True up is once a year where I pay something around zero, or get a small check in return. Three is peak shaving, where they really get you is between 4PM-9PM (the 'duck curve'), so I had my grid designed to take advantage of that time, and we 'power down'. So I earn at peak rates, and use at off peak rates - make sense? Finally you have to look at the bigger picture. We each have an energy budget, NG, electricity and transportation. ICE drivers are forced to have those three buckets, but I have one bucket. I converted my house to electric (e.g. induction cooktop). So now with one energy bucket that I can be an energy provider for, the economics seriously changes. How much do you pay for gas on a yearly basis? For me that's bundled in to that single bucket. Further with free charging, that also feeds into my energy bucket. I'm fortunate to have a DC fast charger at work for free. So I pull in some 160 kWh about on a bi-weekly basis. Since this is fungible, meaning free charging is the same as generating it via solar, that drives the cost down. And free charging is everywhere, half the time we charged at campgrounds, or public service charging elsewhere (e.g. rest stops). Technical discussion but no, absolutely I can show you the data that indeed my system is paid off.

A little confusing but they have two numbers for the 22oz spray versus gallon. Here's the current products and numbers They had these for sale at the factory service as mentioned, Here's a factory tour where he talks about Durawax (time stamped) Was at the trailer yesterday and checked the instructions on the Fast Clean and Shine (921/923). This is meant to clean a previously treated surface without removing the treatment. So I think the idea is to wax it, then clean up using this so as to not remove the wax base layer. That's an interesting idea, combine the wax plus the cleaner. There's a bunch of products that take this kind of approach of a simple one step clean & wax. I like futzing so I think I'll do a wax, then use the FC for cleaning thereafter. Being interior it shouldn't need much reapplication of the wax.

@Boudicca908 921 is 22 oz bottle, 923 is 1 gallon jug https://www.duragloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/921-DURAGLOSS-FAST-CLEAN-SHINE.pdf 951 is 22 ounce bottle, 952 is 1 gallon jug https://www.duragloss.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/951-DURAGLOSS-AQUAWAX-SPRAY-WAX.pdf

Custom Automatic Leveling for the Oliver's Barker Jacks Part 3: I skipped over a lot of detail to keep this project interesting, and it’s probably still too much information. But some might be interested to hear about some of the background work that was involved. After the test board phase was complete, and everything was working well on the bench, the system was installed in the trailer for real-life testing. This was an anxious time because it had only been tested with simulated current, and I had no idea how it would react under real current conditions. Things went south immediately! I started testing with rear jacks because they were easier to wire and much more complex than the tongue jack. I didn’t want to run the tongue jack wires if the whole project could end up in the trash bin! I came up with a test procedure to verify each function in different scenarios of operation, and that required manual jack operation. That’s when the problems started! I was blowing the 30 amp jack fuses and couldn’t figure out why. I first focused on the H-bridge relay wiring as the problem. Then I suspected that the ESP-32 or driver outputs were miss-wired during transition from the test board. They had been soldered together one wire at a time under magnification, and back tracing the bundled wires was a nightmare. I couldn’t find the problem and came close to scrapping the whole project. I was so confident in the design, and overly focused on wiring, that I completely overlooked the obvious. There was a major flaw in the way the auto-leveling system was isolated from the manual jack switches. I had used a high-amperage relay that closed to a common ground only when the H-bridge relays triggered, which broke the short circuit path when the manual switches were used. However, I hadn't considered that the pole-reversing function of the switches created a different ground path through the hot side of the leveling system. The solution required major re-work, replacing the single ground isolation relay with six 30/40 amp relays that isolate the manual switches from both the ground and hot side. Although there were two spare Darlington driver channels capable of handling two relays each, there weren't enough channels for six new relays and a second driver was added. The system now runs 12 relays from 9 driver channels — six H-bridge relays and six isolation relays, two per jack. All the components were installed in a 12” project box that was limited in size by the 3-D printer capacity. So the relays were stacked 2 high on a stepped base to save space, and a elevated terminal block helped with wire congestion. I was able to mount the current sensors directly on the PCB with the ESP-32 and other modules. It’s tight, but nicely compact too! The switches for the leveling system are mounted on a 3-D printed control panel inside the outside storage garage. The panel includes flush to the surface push-buttons to safeguard against accidental activation, one for “Auto Leveling” and the other for “Retraction.” There is a master On/Off switch, status LED, and a Piezo Electric buzzer for the status tones. The entire panel is also recessed to protect it from cargo. The system can be shut down with the On/Off switch, or by re-pressing either momentary switch. The systems parasite draw is near zero when on, but it’s normally off when not in use. The existing freshwater control system was incorporated into the lower part of the control panel due to space constraints. It has a 4-way water pump switch for the outdoor shower, with indicator LED. There is also a 4-position, 6-contact, rotary switch that controls motorized valves for the four freshwater configurations; Normal, Freshwater Tank Drain, Boondocking, and Winterizing. The LED indicators show configurations other than normal. A printed weather proof hood was used for wire penetration into the tongue jack head, and a terminal board was used to splice into the rear jack wiring. This was a useful addition for quick disconnecting and troubleshooting. Those were the only modifications made to the trailer, other than enlargement of the existing switch panel cutout on the garage wall. All the custom components used in this project were designed with a free on-line CAD program called TinkerCad. Some items were 3-D printed from PLA filament, a plant based plastic. Other pieces were printed from ABS plastic for better durability, or TPU — a rubbery filament. Automotive Deutsch style plug-in connectors were used to connect the switch panel and control box, and they allowed me to connect a remote switch box that was used to operate the system from inside the trailer during testing. There is also a panel mount USB cable port for a laptop connection to view the serial monitor or update the software. The system needs a one time calibration that is done with the trailer perfectly level. Both momentary switches are held for 5 seconds until the Status LED quickly flashes three times and the audible calibration tone indicates satisfactory level. The software determines the pitch and roll off-sets from absolute level, and sets them as the new target level +/- 0.2 degrees pitch and 0.3 degrees roll. This equates to about 1/4 to 1/2 inch tolerance. The end result works great! There will probably be more software fine tuning in actual camping conditions, but it will be easier to do that in the future. I’m just finishing up a Bluetooth App for the automatic leveling controls, and it will include setting adjustments for tolerance, ground contact pressure, clutch runout, leveling step durations, and more! If you made it this far, I hope you enjoyed the project! Cheers! Geoff

Sweet! I see a new mattress in "theOrca's" future.

Yeah, we have a their Cali-King in the master plus a queen at home, two singles in the Oliver! The factory is in the valley west of Phoenix. We drove down with a flatbed trailer for the king (solid frame hybrid model), but the foam models are rolled up and shipped at the quoted price, always 25% OFF! I was guessing a custom shop in CA would be $$$! We got 30x75" mattresses, pulled the stitching on one corner and I trimmed the radius with an insulation knife after cutting a cardboard template. Tacked the corner together in a couple spots and the mattress pad holds it nicely together. We got the 12" for more comfort, but it's a bit too tall if you like to sit back there (we don't). The height also makes the window blinds too close when laying down. But the good news is the extra height keeps our old Springer off the beds! 🤣 Two 12" mattresses for under $1000 shipped to you door, and they have 6-8-10-12" heights. Less height is more firm and less money. https://rvmattress.com/products/brooklyn-chill?variant=46206649139399

I just bought four new Concorde AGM's last summer. Hopefully by the time they age-out (unless I age-our first) the new "solid state Lithium" batteries will be readily available. From the available literature, three times the power storage for one half the weight and volume is what to expect. Also, pretty much near zero chance of fire. We live is an amazing time...

Yikes! They just quoted me a thousand dollars ODT for that same mattress. ( For one.) The Queen size Brooklyn Bedding mattress in my house cost under $1,300...

I bought a gallon when Bill suggested it last time, June 2024. Amazon says unavailable today. We keep a small spray bottle with other cleaners in a tub behind the toilet. If y’all were nearby, I’d fill a bottle for you. We’ve only used less a pint so far! https://a.co/d/0gKeh4Do Also per Bill’s suggestion, got some 303 protectant. Use it more on our trucks than the Oliver and it does the job! https://a.co/d/0hAiMh3M

Toni - Sorry, but, the last numbers that I have for interior detailer and Aquawax are 923 and 952 as mentioned above. I'd suggest to either call them at 336-229-1303 or email them at info@duragloss.com They have always been very nice and I'm sure that they can tell you which of their products are equal to the interior detailer and Aquawax. Hope you are doing well! Bill p.s. just went to the Duragloss site and did a search for both 923 and 952. Both came up as 921 and 951 as you mentioned. But, in looking at the picture and description of the product it appears to me that both are the same as they used to be at the different numbers. The 951 is still labeled as "Aquawax" but the 921 is labeled as "Fast Clean and Shine".

Bill, I've been meaning to ask you about this. After you shared that info with me last summer, I tried to locate those products. On the Duragloss website, when I search for "923" the only result I see is "921", and similarly for "952" I only see "951". And if I search "interior detailer" I see "491".... It's as though they have switched around the product names and numbers. Can you confirm which of these are the right products? Thanks!

Same here, even in the Arizona sun. 90% of our roof is facing east or west. It may have made more sense if we had a large section of roof facing south.

There are numerous videos on YouTube showing how to setup the Andersen Weight Distribution hitch - like THIS ONE FROM ANDERSEN. Bill

Beef up the leaf springs on the Oliver and ditch the Andersen ASAP 😎 (given a 2500+ series truck). Yes, as Chris noted, only with proper tension is it a WDH. And if OTT is still installing Dexter 1750 LB springs, the hulls waddle like a duck! 🤣