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So, the chrome bands in the bath fell off. Paul took the chrome strip to his workbench, and scraped the single band of vhb tape off the middle. We applied two new strips of narrower vhb, top and bottom. We left the strip in the sun for a few hours. I cleaned the belly and area with 70 per cent isopropyl alcohol three times. After 15, minutes, we applied the belly band trim with the new tape, ripping off the backing every five inches or so. I rubbed the whole strip, back and forth, with a towel, five times, with special attention to the ends, and the curve. We're camping, so I didn't have painter's tape. I ripped half strips of duct tape, and used pieces of paper towel to keep the duct tape adhesive from sticking to the chrome band. I removed the duct tape 18bhours later. Hoping this will work better, as the original had adhesive over primarily the convoluted surface where the hulls meet. This may not apply to newer trailers. Ours is 12 years old. Sherry

The Saab 900 came out in 1979, we were living in Germany. I bought one of the first 900 Turbo’s, black with the Inca wheels. Thought I was pretty cool. It did well on the autobahn. We kept it until sometime in the 90’s, it turned out to be a nice car to own for the long run and over 100K miles. Sorry for the hijack. Back to chrome bands and VHB tape. 🤓 Mike

What air conditioner noise? 😄 just set thermostat to comfortable temp🥶, AC on low fan setting...hibernation time.😴 We just adapt and overcome. 👍🏻

Removed the bike rack from the Oliver , discovered the main support beam to be full of water, I disassembled the receiver hitch and used silicone to stop water entry. We will see how that works, maybe it will need drain holes drilled to the underside of the beam. The Aluminum beam is hollow.

Yes, they only add ~1/4 inch if height, the tank fits into a lip on the halo and just enough added height to prevent the tank from resting on the pretty thin sensor.

From a 2008 Elite I perspective, there's not much that I would change. I would love to add lithium batteries. And, probably will when the agms/upgrade die. The newer Elite I /shorty has the furnace under the dinette seat, and that's a really good thing. The noise of the fan kicking on is no longer at my knees. We've already changed what bugged us, or are in the process of doing so. 200 watts of solar (added 9/2008) will become 400. Added a port for portable solar. Added a 12v danfoss/secop fridge, and got rid of the 3way fridge. (That's more me, than others. I really like 12v life. Not everyone does.) We rarely have power, but the few times we've run the Dometic a/c, its it's been ridiculously loud. Not a huge problem for us, as we rarely use it, but when I replace it , it will be with something 12v, and quieter . That's about it for me. Maybe I should start a new thread in the best things we have loved, over 13 camping seasons in our Ollie? Sherry

Oliver sales dept. asked me to show my Oliver twice in the last month. Because it has been very hot and humid in Florida 95dgs heat index at 105. I thought do I Show it in the heat or turn on the Ac. I decided I wasn’t hiding anything. Let the people hear the noise the ac makes and hope it wouldn’t be discouraging. One hour before they arrived i turned on the Ac. I also opened up all the compartments bathroom and closet doors. Just before they arrived i went in to close all the compartment doors, to my surprise it was at temp 73dgs the ac was still running but at a very quieter mode. Showing the interior the Ac decibel level was low and we had a good conversation without being bothered by the ac noise. I did explain first start up of the ac is quite loud. But it didn’t take much time to get it cooled down. Both showings I had positive results. I think the key was getting all the heat out of the compartments and in between the hull. It gave the ac the ability to change the mode setting to a reasonable decibel level yet still maintained the cool temp. I do agree with everyone the ac still could use some improvement. And yes it is still to loud when trying to watch Tv.

We have a low tech solution to this trashy question. We use "13 gallon tall kitchen drawstring trash bags." Oliver installed a strong stainless hook opposite the closet, and we hang the trash bag from the hook using the drawstring. The trash is only marginally in the way going in or out of the trailer.

I agree on the crimps. Some people do both, crimp but leave some exposed copper and solder that. Supposedly the solder seeps into the crimped area for a better bond. That may be the case for bad crimps, but I found with a hydraulic crimper that the crimp is so tight that the copper strands are practically fused together, so I think soldering would just be a placebo. A hydraulic crimper is a worthwhile investment.

It is my opinion that you should not use soldered terminals. A soldered terminal is subject to vibration and it is hard to apply that much heat to that large cable and terminal. Just crimp them if you do it yourself. And let me say that it is hard to crimp in the lower hull if that is what you were thinking unless you have a hydraulic crimper. I would suggest checking the lug hole diameter on the existing terminal and make sure it is the right diameter for the shunt because I do not remember what size is needed. Do not use a 3/8" terminal on a 5/16" bolt. And a local battery shop can make up a short custom cable for the shunt to inverter connection. I was lucky in that I had to remove my negative cable completely because of a broken cable gland, so all of my cable work took place at the bench. But that means I was also unlucky having to remove that cable because it is a pain. Mossey

The trick with VHB tape is in the prep, so maybe your new band will last even longer. I do wonder about the longevity of VHB though, especially with people using it for exterior items like solar panels. I had an old Saab 900 though that had trim items glued on with either VHB or something similar, and I kept that car for 20 years, never covered, and I don’t remember any of the trim coming loose.

Check the light on your CO monitor.

Oliver will give you a list of local dealers in your area that they have worked with before and had good luck with them. We had a problem with the wiring and we took it back to Holenwald as I did not want a dealer that had no experience with Oliver's and mainly how the wiring harness were wired. It was a 750 mile trip for us one way, but we just did the camping thing and enjoyed the trip as any others would be. I may also suggest that you attend the Oiver Rally and stop by for repairs as they a not too far from the rally, that is if they ever have another rally. trainman

Typically ANY tightly closed structure that suddenly is opened to the outside by drilling mounting holes in it also needs weep holes drilled in the bottom. I suggest one at each end rather than one in the middle. That way the water will drain even if the trsiler is off level. They can be very small. I don’t think the installers seal those ubolts or even put anti-seize compound on the threads. I wonder why the moisture did not just seep out around the lower washers? There are a number of places on an Ollie that may catch water and they all should have small drain holes added. John Davies Spokane WA

Yukon, thanks for posting, I checked ours and discovered a tiny amount of water which I drained out of the the bumper. I drilled a small weep hole in the bottom (pic) and caulked around the mounting bracket area holes (hard to see in pic) with silicone. ✅ Maybe the production line can add a small weep hole to eliminate the bumper holding water. Added a bead of silicone around the 7pin to keep moisture out.

So you are saying we can only expect the tape to hold for 12 years or so? In SOBs (Some Other Brands) there might not be anything for the tape to be reattached to. 12 years sounds pretty good.

RMD8555. It is 3-way, but really only works well on propane. It is not as efficient storage wise, with no shelves in the freezer door and the plastic fridge shelves are poorly situated with little adjustment. We added the wire hanging shelf (picture 3). The crisper bin, as supplied by Dometic is one big drawer with a divider; we replaced it with two pull out plastic bin drawers. It has never cooled well, for us anyway. We have to run it on the coolest setting (level 5) and make sure to avoid direct sun on the fridge side of the van to keep the temp below 40 degrees. I suspect the plastic shelves impair airflow some which makes cooling less efficient. It could also be something about the installation in our particular RV. We had one of the older Dometic two-door fridges with wire shelves in a 5th-wheel and it worked so much better. No electronic controls; the temp adjustment was a sliding mechanism on the front of the cooling fins. I will be so glad to be rid of the RMD8555; but it does have cool blue lights.

No problem height wise. They will keep the tanks centered fore and aft in the tray however, so there is no adjustment for error. In my case, I had to relocate the tray assembly forward because the tanks were rubbing against the edge of the fiberglass enclosure. This wouldn't have been a problem with 20# tanks.

I installed my shunt directly across the “gap” from the inverter, and used a short length of 4/0 cable..... I just cut the big negative cable going to the battery by that amount and crimped and soldered two new terminals. The cut-off scrap became a short jumper cable. I could have a used smaller size but this worked fine. The big cables Oliver uses are way, way overkill. I would have chosen 2/0 if I had bothered to go buy a new piece. 4/0 terminals are harder to find locally, more expensive and harder to crimp and solder. I don’t see anything positive about using such massive wire in this particular situation. 2/0 welding cable and fittings are universal. John Davies Spokane WA

According to the Victron installation instructions, the battery negative wire goes directly to the shunt and it is the only wire connected to the negative side of the battery and the battery side of the shunt. What size wire you place between the battery and the inverter is determined by the voltage loss per foot of the connecting wire. Since Xantrex specs a 0 gauge wire 6 feet or less, the stock 4/0 wire is overkill. So you can connect the stock negative wire to the battery side of the shunt and connect the other side of the shunt to the inverter with 0 gauge wire and meet Xantrex specs. It wouldn’t make any sense to reduce the size of the stock 4/0 unless you were really bored or wanted to reduce weight. And you might want to reach out to AndrewK via PM. He has helped multiple OTTO's with their BMS installs. Mossey

To me, the easiest way is to just bookmark a topic in your browser and then keep a folder of those bookmarks on your computer. You can also follow topics by clicking on the 'follow' button on the top right of the page. If you just want to maintain a list of topics rather than being notified about new content, then you can choose 'no notifications'. Under your profile, you can go to 'manage followed content' and see a list of topics that you follow.

It rides nicely in the closet with room for two camp chairs bungeed against it. It has been used exactly twice in two years, it worked acceptably. I inspected it very closely when I received it and there is nothing at all wrong with its construction or design. It feels sturdy enough in use. OTH I do NOT recommend this ladder. I recommend the Werner convertible instead. Any ladder will kill you. But I carry this one. I weigh 160 lbs and I am very cautious when using it.... John Davies Spokane WA