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I’ve never liked Furrion entertainment center, it’s not user friendly and the front panel is difficult to read in low light. The tiny remote is absolutely terrible, and the larger upgrade remote isn't much better. I usually control it with the phone app when I remember where to find it, for some reason they called it "ES Control,” and it constantly drops out. The tech is outdated. Iv’e wanted to upgrade it for years, but never found a unit that met my requirements and justified the expense: Has to fit into the existing cutout Controls that are intuitive and easy-to-read Decent remote control HDMI ARC ports on front and back (not the cheap HDMI pass-through ports) Current Bluetooth technology Two speaker zones Cost under $200 I found IRV Technology’s model IRV62 for a $180, and it had everything I wanted. https://a.co/d/0dODdwBi The controls couldn’t be simpler or easier to read. It does have a few less features than the Furrion, but nothing that will be missed. Like only 2 speaker zones compared to Furrion’s 3 and the Optical audio port that caused horrible sounding audio phasing issues between TV and stereo speakers. The IVR62 was a close fit on paper. But unfortunately Oliver had cut an oversized opening for the Furrion and miss-drilled extra mounting holes. Consequently, the new faceplate didn’t quite cover the extra holes, and the new mounting holes were on the very edge of the cutout. This was resolved with white JB weld on the edge of the oversized cutout to strengthen the screw holes, and I made a thin 3-D printed bezel that covers the extra holes. It’s not even noticeable. The print file is available if anyone has the same problem, or I made extra bezels if anyone needs one. The rest of the installation was easy, although it took a minute to figure out how the Furrion was mounted. There are 4 screws behind top and bottom trim pieces. These trims have small notches on the ends where they can be popped off with a screwdriver. It’s highly recommended to identify and mark each of the 4 speaker cables before cutting the connections. Use the wire color code legend on the back of the Furrion case to identify the right rear, left rear, right front, and left front. Also the IRV’s yellow “Bat” wire and the fused red “+12” wire are both connected to the Olivers hot wire, which was purple in my case. Other than that, the wiring is straight forward. The new stereo is so much easier to use, it works seamlessly with Bluetooth and the TV, and it sounds better too. I’ll be using it more often now that I don’t need a flashlight and reading glasses to operate it. Cheers! Geoff

When my tire pressure is too high and the ride a bit harsh, my mother-in-law starts complaining about the bumpy ride back there making her drop stitches on her knitting, which then upsets my wife, and when momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. Happy wife, Happy Life! Just set yer tire pressure so your MIL may knit in peace.

If you have Lithionics batteries, you should check their Firmware. Mine was three versions outdated! The latest version of Firmware includes upgrades and corrections to the Battery Management System (BMS) and State Of Charge (SOC) accuracy. The Firmware can be checked and updated with the Lithionics Application. Go to settings and pick “Firmware Update.” Then press the “Flash Firmware” button if you don't have the latest version. Be sure to up-date each battery.

This maintenance can be completed in 2 hours (by the young experienced mechanic), or you could take most of the day! Have fun and pride in your Oliver! Take your time. I did the curbside yesterday and did the other side today (not young anymore, like splitting tasks across days). The second side went very fast today, done in only 90 min having the tools out and ready. This is just how I worked our suspension maintenance, in how it made sense to me, based on my automotive experience, not Dexter nor OTT approved! IMHO this maintenance should be conducted annually, or perhaps bi-annually for those who tow 10K +/- miles in a year. Some may work this routine every two years. Following is a suggested 10-Step Suspension Maintenance procedure: 1) On level ground, jack up one side of the trailer, using the rear leveler jack, while the Oliver is hitched to the tow vehicle (mandatory for safety). 2) Spin each tire to see if it rolls freely. Listen carefully for any unusual sounds. Try to wobble each wheel left to right (3-9 clock positions) and top to bottom (6 - 12) to observe any free-play. There should be no observable free-play with the Nev-R Lube bearings. 3) Remove the lug nuts on both wheels with impact (no impact, loosen with tires on ground). Place a jack stand under rear axle, close to wheel, for safety since your body will be under the trailer to do some of this work (see pic1). 4) Grease all six (6) wet bolts, plus two (2) grease fittings on the EZ Flex. Use a power grease gun if available with a LockNLube coupler attached. Add just enough grease to see some ooze from an edge. Wipe up all excess grease. A straight-blade screwdriver helps to remove old grease from recessed areas. Wipe grease fittings before and after and place caps back on (I don’t use caps). 5) Torque all suspension bolts to Alcan specs. 90 ft-lb for U-bolts, 80 ft-lb for the EZ Flex center bolt and both end-points, and 65 ft-lb on the shackle wet-bolts. The U-bolts will set at some point where they will not need further tightening. They rust into place and once this occurs, they’re done and you will not need to check again in future service (not true for the wet-bolts). I go lighter torque than Alcan specs on the wet-bolts, 70 and 58 ft-lbs which is an eighth (12%) lighter. The 80 and 65 numbers seem high to me. 6) Check drag on the drums. They should contact the shoes ON and OFF when spinning (shoes installed are not perfectly round). If they do not drag at all, the self-adjuster is not tightening properly (see pic2 brake assembly, adjuster at bottom). Mine were all dragging just right on like-new axles. There are two inspection ports on the backside. Unfortunately, there is no way to reach the gear to adjust it, due to the Oliver wide leaf/shock absorber plate. If adjusters are not working, the hub/drum must be removed (see step 8). 7) Pull the trailer emergency brake switch and turn the drums until they stop (to ground magnet). Check amperage draw at each wheel, placing amp meter clamp around ANY single wire behind wheel. Amperage should be 3A +/- without much difference between wheels. My LF wheel was 3.1A and the other three all read 2.8A, the two main brake wires coming out of the streetside Oliver hull read 6.1A front and 5.8A rear. These numbers look good enough to me! 8] Now the question is, do the brakes need a full inspection? I would say no for the first 2 years, then later with enough miles towed (>25K miles). Perhaps work a full inspection after 3 years. Then skip year 4 and do another full inspection year 5. Something like that! Clean brake dust without internal inspection: Use compressed air to blow through all openings of the braking plates to remove all shoe dust from the interior of the brake drums. Wear safety glasses and stay upwind from the cloud of brake dust. Blow throughout until you see only clean air. Full inspection of trailer brakes: Remove the bearing dust cap, the small outer circlip and spindle nut, then slide the drum off. Use compressed air to remove all brake dust (Brakleen spray unnecessary). Make sure shoes are clean, free of grease, clean if necessary (sand shoes lightly). Check shoe thickness, There is not much material there to begin with (Dexter shoes new have only 0.18" or 4.5mm material). They will look thin but when wearing evenly should be good for many more miles. Check the action of the shoes by pulling the magnet to see all is working as designed. Replace shoes if necessary, or replace the entire braking plate assembly, which is bolt-on and economical. If you have enough miles to replace shoes, the drums should be turned or replaced. Replacing shoes without doing so would result in poor trailer braking performance. Drum assemblies with new bearings are very expensive! The Nev-R Lube bearings are warranted for 5 years or 100K miles (our hull will not clock 100K mile in the next 10 years)! Some who tow a lot may replace bearings every 5 years. I will carry replacement bearings and tools with me to replace as needed, as they could fail at any time or last many, many years. Then replace the drum, washer and spindle nut. To retorque, mount the wheel, lower the tire to just touching the ground and torque to 155 ft-lb. Then replace the circlip and dust cap. Remove wheel again to mount center caps, though many of us go without center caps so that hub temps can be checked at stops while towing. 9) Remove gravel from the tread of both tires, using a thin flat-blade screwdriver, while inspecting for tread wear, tire defects and foreign objects. I do this with All of our vehicles, every time wheels are removed for any reason. I’ve found many screws and other sharp metal objects in tire treads, sometimes causing slow leaks that can be fixed now vs. getting worse on the highway. 10) Mount rims, lower hull to get rim close, making it easy to place wheel on studs. Use impact on light setting and snug up lug nuts evenly. Lower hull to sit on wheels, remove leveler blocks, and torque lugs to 90 ft-lbs. Repeat all 10 steps on the other side of the trailer. Let me know if I missed something or other suggestions! 😎

if you’re a serious musician you’ll know my dilemma; ya can’t leave it at home. This is a Doepfer stage piano I used before I got my grand. Weighs a ton and is bulletproof with reasonably weighted keys and has a decent action. I’ve been sweating whether this could work but thankfully it will! Being able to fit a keyboard was a selection criteria. I think neither Escape nor Bigfoot would comfortably accommodate it and Oliver was a maybe or “I hope” Yes it looks silly but OH WELL, your instrument is the girlfriend you can’t ignore Those are Anderson blocks and actually work perfectly. Having it there is pretty fine, that side is awkward anyhow because of the sloping wall, this provides an arm rest so if you don’t have a big butt it works. And best of all the table fits on top so no fooling around setting up. I just need custom cushions and most importantly a good chair that stows. The seat has to be good or it’s too hard to play Anyhow interested in ideas if ya got ‘em

Hull #435: I have had intermittent power issues with my front tongue jack. Many times getting ready to leave a campground and the darn thing just doesn't have power. It always started working again?? It seemed like after manually raising or lowering it all the sudden it was working again. I have checked the fuse, changed the switch, and still kept getting the intermittent issue. I assumed it must be an electrical short issue (which is always hard to find). With some help from my nephew who is an electrician I have finally solved the problem. The whole time it was a poor ground connection. I believe the ground connection was made through the metal tongue jack being bolted to the frame as the ground wire was coming from the top of the motor assembly. I ran a new ground wire and it now works perfectly. In fact the motor runs better than ever and the light is brighter! My last step will be to weather proof the hole I drilled for the wire to keep water out of the motor.

Dam Site Lake COE near Eureka Springs Arkansas on Beaver Lake

Here: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/2027-models/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRkMxZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETFnREJZaWpseU95eWEwQVRDc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHpiS_FvI90EHyUf_oG5VFKxqgnIa_STJ6hiTz4DY8TNE7tkM-hNQsVfylRG-_aem_VUEMOA8YabCnRqd1Yg72hg

The soundtrack suggests trouble ahead, and the footage does seem to suggest off-road more than off-grid. That said -- my Ollie hasn't disappointed me at all, and I've had next-to-no troubles * in terms of being able to spend weeks at a time off-grid. Of course that requires preparation and contingency plans. Having walked through creeks and stepped into holes several feet deep, I don't think I would want to ford a creek with my Oliver, unless it was an improved surface with known qualities. Still, there are lots of folks who have a bigger yearning for adventure. I think this will appeal to those who want to go whole-hog off grid and off road. Can this model go longer than my LE2's 3-4 weeks off grid? * The one exception to my 'no troubles' was a few years ago when I had a propane leak that a local North Dakota TT repair facility failed to correctly identify and fix; in that case, I was left without propane powered refrigerator, hot water, or heater for several months, out west on the road into October.

Everybody note... The new Oliver ApeX-23 is designed and advertised to be an off-GRID trailer NOT an off-ROAD trailer.

The wife refers to it as the “man barn” for my “man toys”!

Oh Lord but I love this group. On the way to have my new suspension fitted, I will have my newly programmed iPhone taped to the floor on the way to and from. Will post the data after. (Probably 4 weeks out...)

Couple comments from your observations. Alcan weight rating (capacity) is 2,750 for 5 leaf and 2,250 for 4 leaf. Weight rating is the designed weight at which a spring pack fails. As the same top four leafs are utilized in both 4 and 5 leaf versions, spring rate (a.k.a. “Ride”) remains largely the same even though weight rating is different. Spring rate is amount of weight required to deflect spring 1” when at ride height. While unable to locate any documentation from Dexter as to “buffer” capacity for their springs I was able to locate documentation from LCI (Lippert) which states that there should be a 20% weight capacity buffer between the total weight capacity of a set of their leaf springs and the curb weight of a fully loaded trailer. Reason stated for maintaining this buffer is to accommodate travel over uneven roads, curbs, potholes, dips and other occurrences which could temporarily increase the actual weight on a spring pack. 7,000x .8= 5,600. My trailer weighs 6,200 ready to travel. I chose the 5 leaf Alcans for my trailer and have been quite happy with their performance. I know a few others have chosen the 4 leaf versions and they seem happy with their choice as well. Either choice is a huge upgrade from the RV industry standard (dexter).

Had a tricky time finding grommets that fit the hole for our burner bases on our Dometic PI 8022 2 burner in our Hull 505 EII Added them to the outfitters guide here: Oliver Outfitters Guide Cheers, Craig & Rose Hull 505

The Texas a Oliver Rally is scheduled for April 5 (check in date) through April 8 (check out date). This event will be held at the Lake Livingston State Park. You will be able to book your site starting in December, 2026. Most information will be posted on Facebook but I will also post here as well. Hope to see you there!

Taking pressure off the wheels did it. Easy peasy after that. I ordered some zerk caps too. I don't think the zerk was clogged.

Read the post here on the Forum about how Oliver footed the entire bill for the repairs to the Truma water heaters. Bill

I hope you all recognize this was tongue-in-cheek. Yep, but come to think of it... How nice it would be to have 2300A of solar available! Plus, you'd have have redundancy if (when?) one of them failed. Now we need a gray water storage carpet to put under the solar awning. And camp chairs that also hold fresh water. We could boondock forever!

I hope you all recognize this was tongue-in-cheek.

I only deploy my regular Girard awning when I am at the trailer on calm days. I certainly wouldn’t leave the awning deployed all day while the trailer is unattended, especially at the cost of the solar awning. I see this as the biggest limitation to the usefulness of the solar awning.

Everything that runs on 12 volt still works just like it always did. To achieve this, the 48 volt system has been infused with magic, elves and possibly Elvis.

New twist on this thread.. Over the last two weeks, I’ve undergone major sinus surgery after a year+ of severe sinusitis. Went down to Phoenix to see a top ENT in AZ and he worked his magic for 4 hours, OMG! We trailered the Oliver last week to Cave Creek park where the camping is very comfortable, 40 minutes from the outpatient center. Three nights here, two overnights post-surgery, relaxing in the Oliver to recoup! The Oliver truly is a survival vehicle, in fact it’s a portable intensive care unit. I felt as comfortable as being home with everything I needed at arms reach! 😎 The first night post-op was a bear! Then 6 days of agony… We towed down to Cave Creek again, two consecutive weeks. We could have just been here 10 days, but Chris and I had things to do at home. Post-op appoint yesterday, I couldn’t wait (will spare you the details). Everything went well! After a saline rinse, I feel GREAT today! We have another 2 hours here, coffee in the Sun, ‘til checkout time, then we tow 4000 ft up the mountain to return home! We will always have our Oliver for so many life experiences. Our home away from home is a wonderful retreat. I’m sure yours is too! 😎

Just saw this- that is great! Glad to have played some part of your Oliver story. I was out this past weekend and was reminded how much I love this little camper. I’m coming up on my 3 year anniversary next month. Something about hopping in there just feels so much like home.

From what I've been reading about 48V systems they are most effective delivering power to high amperage devices like the A/C, fridge, and induction cooktops. With the heat pump, compressor fridge, and an induction cooktop, would there be any need for propane at all in this new trailer? They do make 48v water heaters with 1000-2000W heating elements. Low amperage devices like lights, USB, etc. are often on 12v circuits powered by a DC to DC voltage converter in a 48v system, so there's no real gain there. (It is possible to get things like 48v lights, but they are more expensive.) I wonder what the boondocking sustainability difference would be between our LE2, which has the 640Ah 12v lithium system, 30# propane tanks, and LP fueled furnace, fridge, water heater and stove vs. this new 48v model set up as all-electric? As it is, we've never gotten below 50% SOC while camping in good sun and our propane lasts for weeks. Fresh water and holding tanks would still be limiting factors with this new trailer. I suppose if you had the composting toilet and were camped in a sunny place that allowed emptying gray water on the ground you could stay virtually as long as your fresh water supply allowed, but that's kind of an edge case for a lot of us. On balance, I see the main advantage of the 48v system over our 12v/propane system being increased A/C run time.

Running gear looks the same , just a wheel & tire change and some black accents. At least they are trying something different. If they changed up the suspension for better off road that would make a difference.

Here you go…..touch pic and scroll left.🤔 https://www.instagram.com/p/DX1y0pnkuH2/?igsh=MXRicTlrancwZXloOA==

Many of us know that feeling. We purchased ours from Hawaii having never seen one in person. But what we, as you, did was to really study the tone and helpfulness of the members here on this forum and the "SOB's" (Some Other Brands) as well. At the time, and still to this day, I think that the owners sell more trailers than OTT does themselves. No other brand came close in this regard. After our purchase I had an opportunity to go to the factory tour and instantly fell in love with our decision. As a technical we all know that machines need maintenance and TLC. Also that some times tweeks to the foundational design of a machine is necessary. WIth OTT, we have seen a few upgrades, a few changes, and very few OOPS. And the number of OOPs is very small. However over times things change. The two biggest changes I have observed in the past ten years from an owner's perspective likely are the percentage of owners taking their OTT's boondocking further into the wild and running heavier than earlier years. The impacts are higher "G" forces and typically +/- 6,000 pound weights on the suspension 100% of the time. Both of these changes are not OTT fault. There is clear evidence of premature spring failures from OTT owners having road side spring failures, and dozens more finding that their springs flatening out way too early in what should be a normal spring's useful life. So a design change is needed. I believe from history that OTT would not ignore such failures without concern and would be monitoring our experiences. I also would wager one of Art's famous home brews that they are looking at an upgrade standard spring to the 2400 # Dexter four-leaf springs and an option for a "Boondocker's Heavy Duty" suspension package featuring the Alcon type of 5 leaf. Those options both make good common sense. Good news is that OTT takes a lot of care and time, as they should, before making such changes. In that regard it would smart to keep track of the owners who have changed their springs and to monitor them in the normal duty and heavy duty class. In doing so to get specific data as to the pros and cons of their spring choice for their use. If I was running their quality control team that is exactly what I would be doing. One needs data to to make data driven decisions. GJ

You've inspired me. The drum set's going in! Just gotta get this bass drum through the door... 😁

https://www.elephants.com/

Mr. Jim Oliver told me personally that the frame was engineered to support 3X the GVWR. He stated that it was good to 21,000 pounds. Actually Oliver's GVWR of only 7000 pounds is due to their continued use of the underrated four leaf spring pack (the same ones that are breaking). This causes the otherwise 5200 pound Nev-R-Lube axle to be de-rated to 3500 pounds each.

I’ve seen what happy reviews everyone’s had with CGI, but I’m simply too far away, and cannot schedule to be in the area of the rally easily. As a result I looked locally, because, I’ve had a couple cars coated and they get parked outside…, with great results (11+ years). If you are looking in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area for a detailed/coater I used O.C.Detail and they used Roar AG (the coating Roar does for trucks and agricultural equipment) given the use case. I brought it home today, and think the results look pretty good. https://ocdetailmn.com. Attention to detail seems to have been great (even the fan is sparkling). and Yes a 2025 LE II fits (barely) into their space.

Short Version: Springs because dozens of us have had them FAIL. Axles because a boat load of us have tons of miles on the 3500 Dexters, and the cost of replacement of the brake assemblies is insane, and besides we want the braking power of the 5200's. None of which involve tire pressure. That topic was started by John D, and I got the facts presented to OTT and they have since reduced their recommendations accordingly. GJ

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.

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

On communication issues my experience buying a new trailer was similar. Our bank operates differently from what they're used to, they wanted to talk directly with Oliver and get some information. I had communicated that many times months previously but it just didn't register. I forwarded emails from the bank requesting information, three different people saw this email but same problem. I discovered all this when I arrived, it was pretty frustrating. I'll say the Oliver people I worked with were all great, we got it sorted out, but in the end we had to do all the work with the bank that should have done earlier. We spent three nights at the Oliver campground doing this, but no worries, we needed the time anyhow and I had built in a buffer to our trip so no problems. Later at home I found a second issue going over the paperwork with the charges, service had charged for work that was already paid for on the main invoice, almost $1k worth. I caught it, when I alerted them they were great at getting it corrected. But yes, advice is absolutely triple check everything. The people are great, super nice, do top notch work, but communication is an area that can be improved.

We did just that about 6 years ago. The butyl has held up just fine for us. Still loving that dome, and especially the light ring. Where the fan is located in an original Elite may not be as "curved" as the newer II's. I can't tell you, as I've not bern on the roof of a II. Modern butyl is pretty good stuff.

With some HUGE Dometic A/C unit up top too! And it looks like OTT had to add a full length (glued-on) platform for that klunker A/C to sit on! What a shame (my rant to follow)... 🙃 I know many of you are always interested in what's new in Ollie-land! But would you trade your Oliver for a new one, if you could? Not me, as I'd have to make all the same corrections and upgrades all over again! It took me two years the first time, but knowing what I know now I could work a 6-month plan to rebuild our wonderful mods! 😎 The only way I would start over, would be if Oliver would sell a hull with no installed options for HALF the cost! No A/C installed, no fans, just the 14x14" openings with the appropriate wiring run. No roof accessories at all, no cable or charging ports down below. And on some future hull design, OTT could shape a round-flat area for the bathroom fan so these fans can sit flat vs. being forced to the curve of the hull by the torque of the installation screws! You'll see this when you replace the fan. No chargers, inverters or batteries, so I could choose Victron and Epoch over limited company brand name offerings. No switches, breakers, busses, and especially manual water valves under the beds! ALL electrical controls installed in one spot, under the rear dinette seat (as ours are today). Why not motorized ball valves for winterizing and boondocking settings? We use the boondocking configuration, adding water from TV tank to FWT about every other week we travel and I certainly would not lift the curbside mattress to do so! 🤣 And for that matter, keep your mattresses or seat cushions as we're going to upgrade them anyway, so why add cost for items that are more often than not replaced. No TV please! Many prefer not having one and we replaced ours with a Samsung 4K 32" Smart Monitor with speaker bar. The radio or Bluetooth speaker are unneccesary too. Don't we all already have a Bluetooth speaker? We have an extra one just for camping, sitting in the nightstand drawer. Windows are no longer flush to the hull. That could be an issue over time with the front edge always taking highway winds. NO silicone caulk please, and no caulk at all on windows and accessories that already have butyl or integrated seals! No nothing installed where any contract installer would need to drill holes into the hull. Please allow me to install these items with VHB tape or other means (including rooftop solar panels without mounting screws). I've sadly removed 40-50 drill-holes from our hull, adding fiberglass fill and I truly dislike this kind of unnecessary repair work. No entrance door hook, drilled into the door and hull. Just add Lippert friction hinges instead. Please install D52 axles on Alcan Springs, or I would have to do that again too! Except for the OEM rooftop solar panels and MaxxFan, every item I've mentioned in this post, everything attached, has been replaced in our hull with something better! After 1700 hulls manufactured, over 10 years later, does OTT truly know what us "Oliver Owners" like and dislike about their travel trailers? I've list enough items, but could keep doing so... These items are not on the company radar! My vision isn't for most of you who want the complete Oliver with your choice of options. But for me, what I've described would be utopia and it would be fun to do it all again on a clean hull! 😎

Check your 7 pin. If it gets water in it the on board 12v battery will trigger. see this posting https://4-ever-hitched.com/blog-articles/f/why-were-my-tail-lights-on-all-night tail lights on ??

The 960 watt Girard awning is $8224.15, but that is a 5% saving over its MRSP of $8657.00. I'd get two just to have enough.

If you have a tire pressure monitor added to the stems excessive flexing caused by the weight of the sensors will fatigue the rubber portion. Plus today’s rubber products sometimes seem to weather rot more quickly. I was lucky in that I never had a stem failure in the seven years before I replaced my tires and changed the stems to nickel plated brass stems. In any event, it would be a good idea to carry emergency replacement stems. I carry these that can be replaced from the outside. Even the metal ones can be hit by a rock or other road trash and be broken. Thankfully I’ve never needed to use them!

THOSE are the windows we've been waiting for.

Here's some data that I found interesting. Our Oliver is mostly stock, with only a little extra Reflectix insulation added to the external basement door. I have a remote thermometer in the Oliver belly, near the fresh and city water inlet lines, and another thermometer hanging inside the garage near the Oliver. I collected data from a week from both thermometers. The was no heat running in the Oliver. You can see that the average temperatures were only different by 1.1 degrees. There was a difference of 38.1 degrees from the highest temperature to the lowest temperature recorded in the garage: and only a 16.3 degree difference recorded in the belly of the trailer: I couldn't tell you if that's any better or worse than any other RV would perform, but those are the numbers from an unheated Oliver sitting in an unheated garage.

Not good! We camped Monday and ran the fridge and hot water heater together (-120A) for 30 min, until the water was hot. Then turned on the A/C on all afternoon, not plugged in, all on inverter. Temp on the Victron inverter rose to 90F, in its closed space, well within the 104F warning . I installed a basement exhaust fan, yet rarely use it. The Epoch app had been acting up, so I manually tested voltage with a multimeter. It read 12.9V, certainly a very good number considering the -120A load of the HWH. Battery tops and 4/0 wiring were all cold to the touch. I sealed the vents in our battery bay to keep dirt out. IMHO, call Lithionics, fix the issue vs. venting heat away that should not accumulating!

Wow. The first three statements encapsulate my position of opposition for 90% of OE2 owners to the 3,000 pound springs. For most owners they are "Over Sprung". But the 1750's for all of us running in the 6,000 pound class I have advocated long and hard that those springs are "Under Sprung" as they are loaded 100% of the time and are failing. For a new trailer, I would monitor the rear ends of the OEM 1750's and push their replacement out 4 or 5 years. If you see any flattenng of the rear ends, time to replace them. Also as a 50 Year Mechanical Engineer here and 3 independent Dexter Tech's determined that the middle ground between the 1750's and the 3,000's... The 2400 Dexters was a logical choice. They have been doing just fine for the last 20K miles or so..... WIll be putting another 9K this summer. For every one, it is wise to inspect your springs at the end of each season. If any flattening is observed, you would have the off season to replace them as you see fit. GJ

Part 4, Custom Automatic Leveling — now with a phone app! The automatic leveling system is finally done, and it works fantastic! Although it was convenient and satisfying with just the control board switches, I made it even better with a phone app. The app works with the ESP32 microprocessor’s built-in WiFi, rather than Bluetooth, and the range is excellent. Besides better range, there were advantages of using WiFi over Bluetooth. Primarily for ease of development. An iPhone Bluetooth app must be developed with 3rd party software and managed through the app store. It’s tough for a hobbyist, especially with custom graphics and controls. With a WiFi app, it lives in the ESP32 firmware and it’s fully customizable with AI help, and easily revised. The app consists of 4 tabs, or pages, with the primary controls on the main page. Extra controls and features are in the other 3 pages. The pages are laid out as follows: Control — This page has the main Auto Leveling, Retract, and All Stop buttons. To prevent accidental activation, the buttons must be touched and held for 3/4 of a second (except the All Stop which is instant). The as-left readings (variance from target level) can be viewed in either inches or degrees, and the tolerance can be adjusted on page 3. The jacks motor current is also displayed with the idea that it could indicate jack degradation, but that feature is going away in the next revision because it’s too hard to correlate. Manual — This is an awesome feature on its own! The screen is similar to a LevelMate with graphics of the Olivers back and side, only it has manual jack controls too! The touch and hold buttons will raise and lower the jacks while showing the distance from level. I’ll probably use this feature a lot, especially for uneven terrain or if messing around with leveling blocks. Settings — This page contains settings for fine tuning. Any changes are temporary for the current session, but they can be flashed to the memory. There is also a reset to defaults button with a protective confirmation step: Pitch and Roll Tolerance — when set to 1/2” tolerance, the level usually gets to within 1/4” Ground Contact Detection Threshold — this determines how firmly the jacks are footed on the ground for stabilization. Default is 5 amps which closely matches where I used to set it by ear Retract - Clutch Runout — this shut-off delay determines how many clack-clacks are heard when jacks are parked. It’s set at 1/2 second, which is two clacks Leveling Step Durations — sets the jack’s incremental run time during leveling. It has 2 adjustable steps that decrease as the trailer nears level. This is important for accurate level sampling and coasting. Too little time increases timeout risk, while too much impacts accuracy. Finally there is the trailer width and length setting that’s used in the conversion formula for level degrees to inches. The longer pitch default distance from bumper to ball requires a wider tolerance than the width. Log — A summarized log of the Serial Monitor shows which jacks were activated and the different steps of automation. A Test Tone legend plays examples of tones for successful leveling, retraction, unsuccessful leveling, and calibration, although the tones are obvious and don’t really require a legend. This information has limited value and may get cut in next revision. The most important feature of this page is the calibration button. It has a secondary confirmation to prevent unintentional calibrations. This is used to reset the target level after maintenance, or if the front needs to be higher for tank drainage, etc. This concludes this project and I hope you found it interesting! Cheers! Geoff

Good to know To be fair - says the forum (Disclaimer: see blow). The manufacturer says differently. Handwaving arguments about Oliver having been wrong before, went overboard initially with 80 psi, this and that are not evidence that their recommendation today is wrong. I spent an hour looking for current documentation from Goodyear and couldn’t find it - have a link? There’s an old 2017 pdf, and a couple tables of indeterminant provenance that get reposted. I suspect Goodyear is not posting this information anymore and leaving to OEM’s. So having some tables isn’t convincing to me. I did find a lot of engineering common practice information which warns against too low a pressure for safety reasons, not too high. Low pressures are commonly used for low speed offroad traction use cases. I’m not seeing it done to avoid jounce. Does anybody here lower their TV pressures? Why not? I don’t understand why it’s OK for our trucks to be at specified pressures, but not our trailers. Or our cars. If your wife complained about a bumpy ride would you drop her pressures in half? Think about that for a second, now it becomes a safety issue. But this is me handwaving now. As it happens, today I’m mooch camping for a family thing (poor me writing from my Ollie tonight 😅). I didn’t take measurements because I needed my phone on the way out. One the way back I’ll definately be taking measurements and analyzing. Specifically doing a spectral power density and comparing it to some example charts. This won’t be definitive - nothing is definitive. But it will be a demonstration of how much of the road rumble makes it past the suspension. Little point discussing it more until we have data - that’s for sticking with me *********** Disclaimer: I’m an engineer and for 40 years have been arguing technical points with others as a part of the job, just business as usual and no feelings involved. Take this discussion in that spirit - a search for best practices and not a keyboard warrior food fight. I’m happy when others disagree, I don’t claim to be always right, but through a healthy discussion can perhaps get somewhere. Reality is the final arbiter as my EV 6k trip proved, and I’m planning on doing the same here and will be delighted to find if I’m dead wrong. With the springs discussion for example you saw me switch sides (pending data) ***********

Here’s a photo of the inside of my original 2017 (hull 208) wheels. You can zoom in and see all of the specifications including the 110 psi pressure rating and load rating for the wheel! I took the picture when the trailer was new and filed it for future reference.

First, I very much enjoy reading your posts. Please do keep questioning and pushing the envelope in an effort for you, me, and others to truely understand the "WHY" question. Glad to hear you are ditching the 1750's. Doing so is half the quest. The other half is deciding "What spring best suites our use of our OE2's"? For what I believe is about 10% of owners, clearly the answer is the super strong and reliable Alcan 5-Leaf springs. For the rest of us it is prudent not to "Over-Spring" our suspensions. The obvious choices are either the Dexter 2400 four leaf or the Alcan four leaf. If you are a 10%er that often puts their OE2 into structural gymnastics, great get the 3,000 pound Alcons. If you don't live off-road then the four leaf is your best choice. If you are budget inclined, as I and others are, then the Dexter 2400's is the answer. But if you have the spare cash then why not go to is the Alcan 4-leaf springs. I have to admit that I have never heard someone use the words "Wussie" and "Oliver" in the same sentence. For sure got a LOL out of me on that one. I get your thought line though. Bottom line is that EVERY design has a life span. Air Stream's do in fact pop rivets and have upper cabinet issues when stressed over time. Their owners tend to not be out boondocking on regular basis. Likewise, stress an Ollie suspension enough and one will see the impacts as well. I think Bill summarized the situtation well: So sure we all at times put undue stress on our hulls with no worries. And I think that our hulls are "NEAR" bullet proof. So we can do so for a long time. But it still is smart to go more gentle when we can. Especially for the electronic's, refergerator, glassware, the ton of stuff in our wire shelves in the pantry, not to mention the frame, battery box, ............. etc. Again thanks for your posts! John

Likely due to the low battery cutoff parameter / selection on the Xantrex inverter. The inverter will shut off a bit before the batteries go into safe mode which is not a bad thing. The point at which this happens becomes more significant depending upon how much load the Xantrex is supplying due to the voltage drop in the wiring between the batteries and the Xantrex which varies with load. The Xantrex sees a slightly lower voltage than what actually exists at the battery terminals ( and what the internal battery management system sees). For example if you are running your microwave the voltage indicated, (battery voltage ), on the Xantrex display will be lower than what you would read directly across your battery terminals with a voltmeter. The result being that the Xantrex will hit its low battery cutoff and shut off before the battery will go into safe mode.

We got tired (pun intended) of sleeping on the stock cushions. We had some custom mattresses made. They are 9.5” thick, and very easy to move around when accessing plumbing/electrical. They are high density foam, so much lighter than latex. These are firm, and amazing. Custom Comfort Mattress in Southern California