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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.

Was the 2026 model so terrible we need a moment of silence? So they went a totally different thought for one model year with a window shave without a big, clunky frame - then went BACK to the big clunky frame for 2027?! If I make a change, it will -definitely- be away from the big, clunky frame.

I mentioned on another thread that if you press the “power” and “open/close” button is rapid succession, you can turn the fan off but leave the vent open…. The detail cleaning sounds like my description from last year. I found that using a spray cleaner like “Fantastic” or “409” and a chip brush is very effective at removing greasy buildup in nooks and crannies. Just rinse with water when clean. I’d be hesitant to use alcohol for fear of crazing or attacking the plastic. Ours is starting to get dirty again - and I do my best not to cook anything remotely like bacon inside. Still, between cats and human life - with running the fan on exhaust 80% of the time - it still gets grimy.

Yes @Boudicca908, we enjoyed the mosquitoes in the Everglades when we camped there a couple of years ago. They had a cute little sign with a movable arrow like you see telling what the fire danger is. Except this one was about mosquitoes. It was about mid-scale “moderate”. We had to RUN from the truck to the trailer to keep bites to less than about ten - and all intentions of a campfire or sitting outside were immediately scrapped. We did the “mountains” thing on the trip we’re wrapping up. Camped up to about 8,000 feet. There, it was wondering why you get out of breath on easy hikes. If memory of aviation planning holds, you get about 3 degrees Fahrenheit for each 1,000 of elevation. Too bad we’re not there now, as it was, in April and May we were getting into the 20’s and high teens at night. Heater hose is on my wish list for 2027!

@Patriot, thanks for bringing this up. Prompted me to get a repair kit as well.

I simply crank the black knob to open when fan is off. I ventilate the trailer in storage doing this.

Good point JD. When I leave our Ollie in a location where it could be at risk, I lower the tongue (via the jack) closer to the ground and remove the fuse. If not in use (think power to the frig.) I kill the master switch. The thief would need to pick up the 560 pound tongue or haul it away using the safety cables. Doing so makes our Ollie more of a PITA to relocate. A collar lock and other means is gravy to boot. GJ

It's kind of strange they didn't design it to have that option to begin with... Not sure what make/model I have but it has separate controls so I can turn the fan off while the vent door is open.

This thread caused me to do a little googling on the 2 5/16' coupler. Didn't find any in a quick search, but that made me think of a question about future Olivers (and Oliver upgrades). Bulldog may or may not survive and 2 5/16' couplers are very scarce. What happens if Oliver runs out of the 2" couplers? Does anyone know of alternatives that fit an Oliver? @Patriot Is the small plastic bag in the photo above the coupler repair kit? Are the kits ball size dependent? Part #024200? Thanks. @Patriot and @Townesw We use a Paclock lock (similar to the Proven) and, with the lock in place, the bulldog collar may slide back (never tried) but the coupler arm doesn't open enough to remove the ball cavity insert. I was considering a more robust lever lock (Paclock keyed the same) but I do like the collar lock. I use an Abus 20/70 on our storage unit, does anyone know if they can be keyed to match an existing lock? Thanks, Tony