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If'n that crick comes up much more, yo're liable to get yer feathers wet.

For anyone desiring the quality and design of the Alcan branded springs, be aware that they do NOT make a spring rated at only 2400 pounds for either a 3500 pound or a 5200 pound axle. Their only spring is a 2750 pound rated pack. Every spring that I have seen broken has been the fifth leaf at the point where the fourth leaf ends. The best design feature of the Alcan's is that the fourth leaf extends out to where the spring eye starts to form at the end of the fifth leaf. This dramatically increases the strength of the fifth leaf and virtually negates the possibility of a break occurring at the tradition failure point. This one attribute convinced me that these are the best designed springs available. I was not interested in a lighter duty 2000 or 2400 pound spring pack, so the 2750 rating was perfect. The spring pictured here has the same potential for breakage as the OEMs and would not be my choice.

Safe travels to all. Wish we could be there. Hope y'all have the very best time! 😂

We made two more stops getting us back home. After the 24 hours of 50 MPH winds it was nice to get to a relaxing place. BTW, there is a large boondocking location just north of Lake Meade NRA and Valley of Fire SP on Northshore Rd SH-169. Would have stopped there, but it is on high ground and was still quite windy. We remembered from the way up that there was another campground at Callville Bay. Two weeks before it was in the 90s, so we stayed at the Trailer Village (ugly, but full hookups). The weather was much cooler this time and we stayed at the campground. They have about 50 nice campsites and they only had a 1-2 campers. We took site 30 with the view of Lake Meade. I covered our next stop, in an "We saw an Ollie" post. We found Grand Canyon Caverns campground on old US HWY 66 just past Peach Springs AZ and to our surprise the only other camper at the campground was an Ollie! The campground was a bit run down, way past its heyday! There was no attendant, office locked when we arrived about 5PM. WE asked in the restaurant, no answer. Left leisurely late morning and still nobody to pay for our night. All we did was park and level, spend the night without their hookups anyway. The next morning another hour down Route-66, then an hour down US-89 and we were back home. Chris and I really enjoyed our first real Oliver excursion, finding nice stops along the way!

The original U-Bolts on my 2014 EII were 1/2" in diameter with a round top bend for a 3" axle. These were for my original Dexter five-leaf spring packs and 5200 pound axles. The U-Bolts you will receive will be 9/16". They would not fit through my mounting plate as it was originally drilled. I drilled out the holes to 19/32" and they fit perfectly.

From the order of your steps, it appears you got more gray water in the black, than vice versa. As others have said, not a big deal. Never tried Dawn in the tanks, though Dawn is great for so many cleaning purposes it does get very sudsy (laundry detergent is less sudsy). This company has cleaning videos, and we use the solution they suggest. The Pine-Sol is a disinfectant and the Calgon Pearls are a lubricant for the valve seals. Get Kleen Tank's exclusive RV tank solution recipe I like rinsing the tanks with just volumes of water. Use the black tank fill port and connect to City Water and run the sinks. Afterwards when rinsed and empty, we put a 1/2 cup of this solution in the black and a gallon water (fill the bowl 3 times). For the gray, add a cup of solution with 2 gallons water. Not too much water in each since we will travel this way and not drain these small amounts and just use the tanks as-is. If you smell Pine-Sol in your coach, you either left some in a sink trap or you have a gray plumbing vent that is not sealing.

I just want to make clear to Oliver owners that are researching information about replacement leaf springs. I have received a PM about my earlier post and and they were understanding that the Alcan leaf springs were rated at 2000# when they are actually rated at 2750 pounds. I want forum members to have the right information so they can make the best choice for there needs.

It's hard to provide an answer to this question not knowing how you connected the Honeywell thermostat to the existing wiring and whether or not you kept the Dometic control relay box in place. Lots of good info in previous posts - maybe start with the "Got Earplugs" thread I started a long time ago. Many users have posted how they converted to the Houghton from the noisy Dometic. In my case, I only use the remote control for the Houghton heat pump and still use the factory Dometic thermostat and control box to run the Suburban furnace. As I recall, the factory wiring from the thermostat to the relay box may have been digital, so there weren't enough wires to convert to a more traditional analog wiring scheme for both the Houghton and the Suburban. I also don't think there was any way to connect to the Houghton with an external thermostat (at least the model I used).

Now at 73 2024 Oliver Rally Attendees as of May 12.pdf

This bull dog shock is a direct replacement for the Monroe 555001 https://www.4statetrucks.com/bulldog-hd-shock-absorber-replaces-555001-19-050000007 I've only have 300 miles on the Bulldogs shocks, They are so much better than the Original Monroes. I bought the trailer 10 months old with 5K miles on it. The original owner basically made 2 trips. One from the factory to Idaho via California, and another trip back to California. I followed the trailer for about 40 miles right after we purchased it. I remember thinking it odd that the trailer like to swayed side to side going down the freeway, but then never thought about it again. Then 2 years later and 2,000 miles, the trailer was moving everywhere on a rougher 2 lane paved road and truck/trailer became difficult the manage. I thought I would give the Bull Dogs a try. The Bull Dogs were the price was about the same as the Monroe 555001 online. Nothing ventured nothing gained. I figured if I bought the Monroes they would be trash in a year to two years depending on the miles I drove. If the Bulldogs make it 2 years then they will have out lasted the Monroes. Next spring I plan on new springs before we take our first big trip cross the nation.

I think this what you're looking for. https://www.4statetrucks.com/bulldog-hd-shock-absorber-replaces-555001-19-050000007

Can you provide the specifics on the Bulldog HD shocks please? Thanks, (2 HOBOS) Hull 414

Thank you both! Great information. I am at a full service site now so both tanks will get a good cleaning. I appreciate your responses.

I agree with Bill... it's not a real big deal. They are both going to the drain system and can't impact your fresh water in any way. That said we are kind of fussy about keeping both the gray and black as clean as possible. I would recommend that whenever you find your self in a campground with full service at the site- as a regular part of preventative maintenance, to occasionally give your black tank a good hard flushing (with the black tank flush port and a dedicated hose) and fill your gray tank up a time or two and flush it also. Then once clean and before departing to the next destination... put about 5 gallons of water back in the black tank... and maybe 10 gallons of water in your gray and add a generous dose of Dawn dishwater soap in both. The sloshing and sudsing inside of both tanks, as you drive; stopping, starting and turning, should give the inside of both tanks a good cleaning. Then drain and maybe give both of them another good rinsing to get out any "scaling" that came off. This of course, is only possible when going from one campsite with dumpstations... to another. I like to do this every couple of weeks when using.

Either way - not the end of the world as we know it. I'd flush the heck out of both tanks and call it a day. Bill

...but at least we try to! HA!

I added a valve in the bumper so I could keep my drain hoses connected and not have anything leak into the bumper area when done emptying. Well, I forgot I did that. And did not open the valve in the bumper. And when I went to empty my black tank first it went from 50% to 10% full. Then I went to empty my gray tank and noticed it wasn’t emptying. That’s when I realized my mistake in not opening the valve in the bumper. So I shut both valves, opened the valve in the bumper, then opened the black drain valve. The black tank went down to 5%. Then I shut the black tank valve and opened the gray tank valve and it worked as it should and went down to about 40%. What I am afraid of now is that my black water backed up into my gray water tank when I had the valve in the bumper closed. Hopefully I explained this well enough. Does anybody have any thoughts?

Sorry I did not notice this a month ago... I and others would have read your post sooner if it was listed under Campers and Ollie Modifications. Houghton and Honeywell being mods. Also, many would not know the answer. Thermostat cables generally have 5-6 wires, and each one has a designation. I have a whole spool of 6-wire thermostat cable. One colored wire is for fan, furnace, A/C, heat strip, etc. You need to find the wiring diagrams for both products, the Houghton and then the Honeywell.

Thanks for sharing. Please let us know how the ride is after you have some miles on them. I believe you will be the first to test the 2,400lb springs as a full set of four. Always good to have proven alternatives.

We have Brooklyn Bedding of Phoenix AZ, at home. It's a Cali-king in our MBR and their high-end unit that cannot be rolled and shipped. It's the best bed we've ever owned. We bought a queen from them for a Bigfoot Class-C, it was excellent! Last year we bought these single mattresses for our Oliver, just last fall: Dreamfoam Essential - RV (rvmattress.com) We tossed out the "OTT upgraded mattress" (OMG terrible) gave one away on Craigs FREE Stuff and the other my son keeps for his buds that stay the night. They are rectangular (no radius end), but they fit as-is, only being a little tight on the outside corner. A summer project for me is to use an insulation knife to cut a radius into one corner, but I may just leave it alone, TBD. We went with the 10" mattress since it was the first level that has 3 different layers of foam, from hard at the base to soft at the body. A 10" mattress does make the bed are high, if you have the need to sit there. They have 6" to 14", take your pick. For less than $1K you get two amazing mattresses ship to your location, in two boxes. 😂

We will miss you and Wendy! But understand we all can’t be everywhere. 👍🏻

Since 2008, we use the cushions, plus a topper. Latest version is linenspa, from Amazon. I liked it so much, i ordered it for the second guest room. Everyone has different comfort levels.

OK, still not able to get the Honeywell Pro 1000 to turn on the heat, but the Houghton AC and heater strip are working just fine. It is so much quieter.

There is not a lot of in depth information on the 555025 shocks, but here is a link for the 555025 https://www.shockwarehouse.com/products/monroe-555025-gasmagnum In my searching I found someone that had replaced the 555001 with a Bilsteins 24-064194, B6 series shock. The following link talks about the installation, and problems that were overcome. It is an interesting read. I searched for the 24-064194 and it appears that Bilstein no longer makes this shock, no one seems to have them available. The down side if you can find them they are very pricey https://heartlandowners.org/threads/bighorn-3260el-shocks.59777/

Have FUN!!!