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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/05/2016 in all areas

  1. We just picked up our Elite and the end of last March. Had a fine time meeting many of the crew at Oliver, Anita made us a pot of killer bean soup, and it was beautiful in Tennessee! We took the long way home, taking 3 weeks and over 2500 miles to get back, with about 2/3 of that spent boondocking in various campgrounds. We absolutely love the trailer and it sheltered us well through freezing temps, snow, wind, and mountain squalls. One thing we began to notice while boondocking was that when the water level gets around 36% +/-, the water pump would cycle for a much longer period of time before shutting off (like a minute). As the level got down below 33% +/-, the pump would not shut off at all. After much head scratching, calls to Oliver, and checking for air leaks or any anomaly, I discovered the issue. The outlet tube that is at the "bottom" of the tank, is actually kind of high up. The tank itself (32.5 gallon) is 4.5" in overall height. The distance from the bottom of the tank to the top of the outlet tube is 1.5 inches! What this means is that as soon as the water level gets down to the top of that tube, the water pump will begin sucking air and loose prime. I was very careful to make sure my trailer was absolutely level while checking on this. This is a 33% loss of available water in the tank (10 gallons). The only way to get to it is to raise up the front of the trailer, but this has it's own negative issues (refrigerator, black tank/toilet, come to mind) I would be curious to hear from you boondockers how you have dealt with this. Has anyone modified their tank or has this not been such a big issue to you? To me, this seems like a big design issue that Oliver needs to look at. The problem now is that the adapter/fitting that the pex tubing attaches to is glued to the exterior of the tank and there needs to be room for the gluing flange all around the adapter, this moves the tube up the tank wall. There has to be a solution out there somewhere. 10 gallons is a lot of water! I would never expect a 100% discharge, but only 66% is difficult to swallow, no pun intended there ;-)! Thanks, and again, we love our Oliver and I would and will recommend it to anyone. Just want to make it even better, and learn more about this kind of travel (this is our first trailer). Regards, Dave
    2 points
  2. Debbie & I just returned from a camping trip at the Army Corps of Engineers "Bandits Roost Campground" at W. Kerr Scott Dam and Reservoir close to Wilkesboro NC. We stayed on one of our favorite sites there, #28. This campground is a great place for kayaking, power boating, fishing, with many other activities in the area, too. http://www.recreation.gov/camping/bandits-roost/r/campgroundDetails.do?contractCode=NRSO&parkId=73074 Here's a few photos:
    1 point
  3. We occasionally get this question... We will be adding more videos in the near future!
    1 point
  4. Just read in this morning's paper an article about next year's solar eclipse. According to the article many hotels and camps are already sold out for a week or so either side of August 21, 2017 in Jackson, Wyoming. Apparently the path of this eclipse will pass through Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Nebraska, Kansas, Missouri, Illinoi, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, North and South Carolina. The largest city under total eclipse will be Nashville. Just something else to keep in mind when planning next year's trips. Bill
    1 point
  5. Bubble "Stuff" Be sure each screw is screwed in far enough so that it rests against the tension of the spring below it. Use an actual LEVEL to level the trailer front to back and side to side. (I use the flat top of the stove as a reference) Adjust the three screws to center the bubble. This adjustment should last several months before you may need to repeat. Don't be surprised in very hot sun if the bubble has shrunk to the size of a pinhead ... It will grow again when it gets cooler.
    1 point
  6. Hi Routlaw, you are right in that our monitor also reads in 6% increments, so I should have said 36% and 30% respectively. I never really trust those bubble vials. I tried adjusting it, but it was different every time! They're good to get in the ballpark, but I've been using my 2 foot level (Stabila) on the floor of the trailer. Figured that would be good for the tank position anyway. I was sent a pic of the tanks at the Oliver factory and they all look just like mine. The adapters are glued on by the tank manufacturer, not by Oliver, so I was told. Our tank monitor seems to be reading very accurately, at least by my measurements, crude as they may be. Remember that the 1.5" is to the top of the tube. If you're getting good pressure down to 19%, that's pretty good. I think what I will have to do is raise the front just a bit when we get down to 30%, or refill from water tanks carried in the TV like you. The tank manufacturer has a facility near where I live so I was thinking of stopping by to see if other fittings could be used or if something else could be done. On our trip home in March/April, it was early enough in the season that many campgrounds did not have the water turned on yet. This was in the Inter-mountain West. So we had to be careful with our water. No issues filling up at private RV parks and the like. We're on a learning curve here. But I was thinking if others are having a similar issue, that we could put our heads together and figure something out. I'll try to post a pic of my tank. Dave
    1 point
  7. Hi Dave Interesting comment, thanks for starting. We've had our Oliver for just over a year also picked up on March 3rd 2015. We've encountered a similar issue albeit a bit different. First the measurement output of all of our tanks, fresh, gray, black are in 6% increments, interesting yours measures in 3% increments. That said we do not encounter the problem you bring up until we reach 13% though at 19% performance of the pump and pressure do start to diminish. We overcome this by adding more fresh water via the winterizing inlet and valves in bypass mode. I haven't measured the distance from the bottom of the tank to the outlet tube, but 1.5" seems high based upon a visual inspection. All that aside we discovered something interesting about the leveling of the Oliver on our last trip. You can't necessarily trust the bubble level at the tongue because its adjustable via the 3 set screws which are spring loaded from the back side of the bubble. During this recent trip I kept thinking the camper felt a bit tilted to one side and not level from front to back. So we made some crude adjustments until we returned home, it helped. Once home I got my Bosch laser level out mounted onto a tripod and set a beam across the belly band. Sure enough bumper to hitch was still out quiet a ways. Next step was to measure the back side for street to curb level and it was also off. Effectively I leveled the camper using the belly band as the reference with the laser level, then adjusted the bubble to coincide with that adjustment. I would suggest you try something similar to determine that your bubble is accurate and if not make adjustments. However if we need to drain the fresh water tank completely the front needs to be raised by several degrees to accommodate this. We also do this while hitched when dumping gray water, makes it go much quicker.
    1 point
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