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RB - Have you tried acetone? If you try it, GO LIGHTLY until you get the idea of what its doing. I've used acetone on some of the caulked areas to get the road grime and black stuff out. Bill

On August 5th, 2016 My wife and I set out on our annual trip to North Carolina to escape the steamy weather of Northwest Florida. Our plan was to work our way up the Blue Ridge Parkway through North Carolina and into Virginia, then maybe on to PA as time permitted. My first mistake was thinking I could tough it out with a torn Meniscus in my left knee. It soon became apparent that the act of kneeling, stooping, hauling, and all the physical activities associated with setting up and breaking down camp place a huge strain on the knees and pain became a constant companion making me a miserable companion. So after only ten days we gave up and headed home. A few things learned... Camping is physical and you need to be healthy. Some things on the Oliver are just not designed for function. ie. The sewer connection is very difficult to reach when your newly purchased Rhino hose separates from the fitting. I will be modding this to extend that connection to outside the bumper. Lesson learned...always check the connection before opening the gate valve. The water connections are just inconveniently located. Not only must you kneel to access them, they are underneath the trailer so you must kneel And reach. OK if you are healthy but a real struggle with a bad knee. Again I will mod these somehow so they are easier to reach. The fridge is way small, and again down low so that you must kneel to gain access. Holy cow...even the $30,000 Escape has a 7CU fridge mounted at eye level. Rain. What can I say. Just no good solution to living indoors when it raining and your campsite is a lake. 100 square feet and no comfortable chairs gets old after a few days. One good thing we learned is that the shower curtain my wife made works great and having a shower inside the trailer is a real bonus. I suppose we all will experience some bumps in the road and this will not be our last less than good trip. In the twenty months we have owned our trailer we have had over a dozen great outings, all in the Southeastern U.S. and all but this last one have been great. I see the surgeon tomorrow and hopefully the knee will get repaired soon. My new mantra is "Always check your sewer connection".

That sounds suspiciously like what happens to a camera bag with multiple Nikon bodies and lenses left sitting on the driveway as you are about to leave for a big trip. [attachment file=Steve-000 - Img_1483.jpg]

I had my Ollie outfitted with the larger Bulldog and Anderson ball. Ran 8,000+ trailer miles last summer and was pleased with the reduced wear rate of the larger assembly. If I were buying another Ollie, I would go with the larger set-up again.

Ok I promised an update on my Truma Instant hot water heater. First I want to acknowledge that Jason was instrumental in helping me get this issue resolved. Without his involvement i probably would still be fighting windmills. First, Oliver does I’m fact fill out the paperwork for the extended one more year of warranty so it’s covered for two years I only had mine at the time 14 month and thought I was out of warranty. ‘I explained to Jason that on the Truma official YouTube there was an video that explained the proper winterizing procedure and in fact it was explained by a Truma engineer. It said nothing about removing the filter and in fact the video has the engineer putting the filter back in. I also mentioned that their manual doesn’t say that you need to remove the filter or else the warranty is voided. It recommends that it should be removed. So with these facts Jason contacted Truma and the response that they gave was that because the video was outdated but it was on their YouTube channel they would honor the warranty and replace the unit with a new one. So I went to the authorized Truma dealer with my claim number to make sure he was aware that Truma was picking up the cost and installation. He couldn’t believe me and stated that he had replaces 4 units with the same issue and that Truma had not honored the warranty due to improper winterizing. A call to Truma confirmed to them that they were in fact picking up the cost. The morale of the story is that if you have as issue, read the manual watch the videos and then fight for your claim. And also it’s good to have Jason to help along the way. If I had just accepted the word from the Truma dealer, which I don’t doubt he was working on his knowledge from Truma, I would have paid over 1200.00 dollars for the repairs One last word.... You do need to remove the filter for winterizing the unit. Maybe Truma will remove the outdated video and put one up that explains it better.

I did this a couple of years ago when I bought the 3/4 ton diesel. It has a 2-1/2” receiver so I thought “why not?” The hitch I’m using now is rated at 20,000 pounds. That ought to handle my overweight Oliver nicely.

Bill, I don't think the sealing to the hole is really any different than a solid rubber one... a steel stem has a rubber grommet that fills the hole. The nut can come loose which could cause a leak, but it can be easily snugged up from the outside. I suspect most leaky stems are due to nasty corroded wheels. Those same wheels also usually have problems holding air when the bead area is pitted. When they get that bad they should be scrapped. John Davies Spokane WA

When I got my TPMS I had my rubber stems replaced with metal and then rebalanced each wheel with the sensor mounted. Maybe overkill, but worth the peace of mind. Mike

This is a simple mod that will yield a lot of benefit for me. Eliminates stooping and reaching under the trailer to connect the water hose. This act becomes problematic when you have a bad knee, or even when the front of the trailer has to be raised for leveling, making the rear end even lower. All the components are at Lowes and Home Depot. garden hose male and female adapter with a 1.5" nipple of 3/3" schedule 40 PVC. Quick connector for the water hose. I disconnect the female end of the quick connect, screw that to the garden hose, then just push the connector into its receptacle.