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The groans were from the sleeve not the ball/bulldog. Andersen sent me a new one a couple of years ago and I haven’t had any issues since. I do wipe off any crud around the ball and sleeve before we go out and apply 2 or 3 drops of Boeshield T-9 on top of the sleeve at Andersen’s recommendation. I’ve never greased my ball. I had about 15K miles on the first sleeve and about 30K on this one. Budgeting for a new ball/sleeve annually is overkill, my second one was provided by Andersen at no charge. It has been trouble free. I’m thinking of forking over $100 for the new model because of John’s pictures. Andersen has excellent customer service. Mike

We installed the Furrion port because of the more durable cap. My sister's zamp plastic and flimsy cap connector broke within a year. It's a tradeoff, though. There are adaptors out there for renogy or other portable panel brands to zamp. For furrion, you have to buy an aftermarket male socket and solder it into the cable of the portable panel. Tedious, and a pita, but doable. And, cutting the wires and adding the furrion compatible male end would likely void a warranty. Using the zamp adaptor would not make a physical difference... Furrion and zamp ports now both have big market shares in other rv brands, so I suspect (or hope) someone will come up with a furrion adaptor in the next year or two. Zamp just got in first with big stickbuilt players.

Nice writeup and your shots of the tongue show how much aluminum really goes into the frame. It'd make a nice side by side with your standard stick build frame to compare. How many miles were you getting out of the 2" ball?

At least you got a spot. :)

INSTALLING THE ANDERSEN BALL MOUNT: Follow the Andersen instructions, apply an upward load (to remove slack) if you plan to keep the chains tight. If you are running them loose like me, as a dead weight hitch, you can let gravity pull the mount down. Torque both big bolts to 150 ft lbs. **** RECHECK THE BIG BOLTS FOR CORRECT TORQUE AFTER TOWING ***** Since the new ball is taller, and the new coupler cavity is at about the same horizontal position as the old one, the tongue will sit a little higher. My tongue was already a little high. so I was able to drop down one set of holes and ended up with a very nice alignment. Trailer level, truck level with 10 psi in the airbags, chains just snug. I REALLY think that these trailers should be delivered with the larger couplers installed, the cost is the same and it is a much better setup for the Elite II. For the baby Ollie, the smaller coupler is fine.. John Davies Spokane WA

OH my gosh, really? Go camping and relax. ?

My only concern with the cables is that they hook to the tongue in one spot, along the centerline. Chains should attach further back with some left/ right separation, so that you can cross them under the coupler. That way the coupler will be cradled and held off the pavement if it becomes disconnected. With the central attach point, the coupler will hit the ground. Not good, but I am not going to change the design,... this is how it SHOULD be: BTW I am unsure how Oliver gets away with their setup. I thought certification required criss-cross chains or cables.... I actually like how the cables stay up and out of the way. I feed the breakaway lanyard through the center of the loops of the left cable, very neat and tidy. With my Stone Stomper, dangling chains would just be in the way. John Davies Spokane WA