All Activity

That's what we had when purchased Hull #113 June of 2023. Except for a trial weekend, we did not start camping 'til 2024. I needed time to restore truck and trailer. In a little over 2 years, we have 180 overnights in our Oliver! 😎 Epoch Essentials and the Victron Multiplus II was our first major upgrade, cleaned up most of the electrical wiring. We keep our Oliver outdoors always. With our recent Chill Cube upgrade we can run the A/C late afternoons into the evenings using only 2% SOC. Our inverter is always running (-1Ah standby). We do not store or winterize and are not connected to shore power 98% of the time. The rooftop solar keeps us up when parked. Our Orion 50A DC-to-DC charger adds +200 Ah every half day towing. Have a 400W suitcase but rarely need it since we don't often stay put for more than a few days. Charging your EV truck towing downhill and charging your Oliver from the EV sounds pretty cool. I sold 4 LA batteries for $300 to a local who runs solar and about 60 old LA batteries for his off-grid mountain property. This is no time for LA batteries except for starter batteries on a diesel truck! 🤣

Sorry you had that happen. Oliver was probably correct with their assessment. People driving on washboard roads, chemically treated roads, and a bad Chinese spring, can all come into play. Not much Oliver can do as they just install the Dexter suspension There is a former Oliver owner that sold their Oliver and bought a different brand. On their first trip their springs flattened. They were replaced and flattened again. They upgraded to a 5th Wheel and I believe doing an Alcan upgrade. Unfortunately, things happen. We have a 3 week trip and then get them replaced June 1st.🤞

The TrailerSmith has a video on the Dexter Nev-R-Lube, notes He's only seen these in the case that the bearing cartridge has failed, nobody brings them in for inspection (big surprise) It truly is a zero maintenance drum, you can't perform any maintenance Read the owners manual - you have to inspect it every 12k miles or annually Jack the trailer and check for end play (wiggle the tire and spin, if you can wiggle it that's end play) If there's any end play, the cartridge needs to be replaced Assuming no premature failure (e.g. end play) it should perform just fine for ... It has a five year, 100k warranty Therefore, replace the cartridge and possibly the entire drum before every five years (or 100k) regardless of the end play "I will tell you, if the bearing cartridge keeps its grease and is maintained properly, you will get all your years of service out of it ... pretty much guaranteed" "The problem is, people don't do their service checks, even if you haven't driven it much, maybe some moisture has gotten in there, check it annually" A failure most common with these is with horse trailers which are heavy. If you overuse the brakes the heat transmits through the hub and can boil out the grease. If you see the paint peeling off or heat damaged, pop the cap, if you see grease then you have boiled it out and the cartridge needs replacing Unfortunately OTT doesn't have Dexter manuals in the university, but here's the flyer for Nev-R-Lube where it makes clear the maintenance free (not inspection free!) five year 100k service life. My take: as long as you're doing the regular maintenance (end play check) you should be fine on the road. Bringing along a tool kit is definitely 'belt and suspenders', but instead I'll just do the maintenance checks and replace in five years.

Yeah, they are expensive. I paid about $1800 for the pair delivered. Natural latex is significantly more expensive. I didn’t want to mess with cutting and sewing. I figured buy once, cry once.

The nice thing with a big fat lithium in there is I am leaving it on while parked at the lot. Other trailers - with probably SLA's, have portable solar out to keep them topped. I'm mostly in the shade but get some sun at parts of the day which the top panel soaks up. Since I'm going over there frequently getting it cleaned and set up it's convenient. Not sure exactly but I think the inverter is the biggest vampire, I'm thinking of keeping that off while sitting rather than shutting the whole system down. Side pitch for the EV - it did get down low at one point, 10%, but it was an easy top off from the truck. Anyhow if I had lead acid I'd upgrade to lithium in a heartbeat.

Yes Sir, I'm with you on this one! 😂 In 2019, I was outfitting a Bigfoot Class-C with solar, inverter (it had none) and new batteries. I looked at Battleborn at the time and it would have been $3,500 for 300 Ah ($11.67/Ah). I went with 3 AGM 105 Ah batteries for $800 ($2.54/Ah, $5/Ah usable). It was a different day. Five years later (2024) I went with 600 Ah Epoch for $1,800 ($3/Ah). This was certainly worth it! Price has gone up some since. Last fall I added another for a total 900 Ah, all tucked into that Oliver battery bay (removed the tray to fit). 😎 If you need something more economical, check out the new LiTime 320 for $770 ($2.40/Ah), or get a 2-pack, 640 Ah for $1,494 (2.33/Ah)! Two won't fit in the tray, but 2 Epoch 300s do for quite a bit more $$$. Search for keywords Epoch or Litime to see several owner installations. LiTime batteries have been installed in a few Olivers. These appear to be good batteries at a very good price. https://www.litime.com/products/12v-320ah-mini-bluetooth-lithium-battery?variant=46648243912924

You're cracking me up, Scotty! 🤣 I swear when we had the OEM suspension, every time I stopped for fuel the top of the Oliver would pendulum 1-2 FT left and right, again and again. BTW, our shocks are under-engineered too. I've been looking for a stronger substitute but so far the specs are not lining up. The Bulldogs are likely somewhat better, but not heavier in rebound specs.

Only because of time! The older hulls have more miles, more failed leaf springs. They are the same spring, but on a heavier axle. When I replaced ours last year, the originals were still nicely arced. Steel from China is likely not getting any better.

Past 2030, 2035 at the earliest I’d estimate. And then there’s a long rollout and it’ll be initially expensive. Before that other wet chemistries are coming out, namely LMR (Lithium Magnesium Rich) prismatic batteries. These will be in GM EV trucks in 2027. They offer higher energy density and equal cost to phosphate chemistry. But the kind of batteries we can get for trailers will be wet LIPO for at least a decade. Anyhow, in these sizes (a few kWh) I don’t think there’s any point in waiting, dry chemistries won’t give you any real benefit. I upgraded to the top battery, which might seem odd given the basically unlimited power available in the truck. “Pay once cry once”, and with electric cooking I think it was still a good choice. And - best part, it’s a more sophisticated battery with built in heating and especially, and on off switch. I don’t think the other options have that? When I had some kerfuffle with my Xantrex the Oliver tech kept telling me to start wrenching on the battery terminals. Took me several tries to get across that there’s a switch on it 😅

Well I was originally making the point that WD only comes from properly tensioned chains. My question is why do OTT techs install and recommend taut chains. At any rate there are also new options in trucks. My Sierra EV is interesting, despite the very heavy battery giving a total truck weight of 9k (which is a benefit as the truck weighs more than the trailer), but it still has a tongue max of 1k, and a payload capacity of over 1700 lbs. GM requires a WD hitch over 7k lbs and recommends it below that. So technically I don’t need WD, and as the truck has 785 HP and 885 ft-lb of electric torque it has full towing authority. On the leaf springs, we were discussing this on another thread. In my first 4k of towing I didn’t see an ounce of roll bounce, and little porpoising. Perhaps that’ll change as they age, or maybe not, but I’m still curious about these differences.

That's a smart move, John, I'm glad that you're replacing them! I was assured by the Oliver guys at the last rally that I didn't have to worry about my springs, 2023 build with D52 axles, because there were no problems with newer trailers with D52 axles. Well..... I have a broken spring set, passenger rear, with the remaining sets flattening. Needless to say I'm not a 'happy camper' regarding this. I have replacements from Alcan but haven't had time or decent weather to do the repair as yet.

You can follow the 80 PSI MAX spec on the Load Range E LT tire, the 65 PSI rating OTT prints on their DOT label (they used to print 80), or the PSI recommended by the tire manufacturer, based on actual GTW on their load/pressure tables. I/we, most of us, follow the latter. I use any PSI over 45, less than 50, to set them all equal in that range. These numbers allow for 7,800 to 8,360 LBS GTW. On long trips, we carry max 6,600 LBS, so in this range we have spec plus a 20% safety margin. If you run at 65 or 80 PSI, you will cause internal damage to your Oliver. Regardless of brand, LT 225/75R16 tires will all be very close to the numbers you see here. I understand new hulls to have 15" wheels, so get a table for your size. I must have posted this table 6 times now...

Unaware of any issues on the 5200 lb. Axels since Oliver switched to the 5200 lb. axels. After 5 years we are replacing shocks and having Alcan 4-leaf springs installed. The place that services our suspension said they noticed a slight flattening of the springs. The Alcans just arrived.

Usually the 1/2 Ton Trucks are limited by the 'dead weight" or weight carrying capability. The receiver unit on the truck you have should have a sticker like this one (from a 2018 F150) either on the actual receiver hitch or on the door frame. Notice that on this unit the max Tongue weight capacity is 500LB. (Weight carrying the case where you don't have a WDH and is essentially the dead weight from the trailer tongue down on the ball.) An Elite II tongue wt when loaded is easily above this 500lbs, and requires a weight distribution hitch to be safe and legal. In this F150 case, once a weight distribution hitch is applied, the F150 can then handle up to 1220 Lbs of direct tongue weight. The towing guides for most vehicles state the method for determining how much adjustment is needed from the WDH. Most have you: 1) Measure the unloaded truck's front wheel well height through the center of the front wheel. 2) Measure the wheel well height after loading the unit and attaching the trailer. In most cases the amount of weight distribution needed is set to bring the front end back down by at least 1/2 of the total difference in those two measured heights. Example: Unloaded measures 37" Loaded measures 41" (4' total rise). Apply enough WDH force to lower that front measurement by least 2" ....or 39" when loaded. Each manufacturers towing guide states specifics by vehicle make and model. CS

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, rated 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!!!