Leaderboard

Just in case anyone is having trouble finding a portable generator . . . . . . I received an email from Lowe's today saying they have Honda 2200i generators back in stock! And they will ship to your home. I quickly put one in my cart and ordered, before they were sold out again. I was afraid it would be like buying a used Ollie . . . . . if you hesitate, you lose. I am excited to have the means to charge our batteries. My husband said we didn't use our camper van generator much, so do we even need a generator? I say, with electric/water RV sites in short supply, we may be boondocking more this year. I convinced him by adding that it would come in handy on the ranch, as well. Much easier than toting around our not-so-portable 4K generator that he's been using. No stopping us now 😎 Edit: I forgot to mention that the generator that is now in stock at Lowes is the TAG (commercial model). The price is $50 more than the standard 2200i, but it has bluetooth connectivity, which will be nice; you can shut it off remotely, as well as monitor operation. Sounds good, in theory. We'll see how it works.

I just saw that Helinox has introduced these comfy looking cold weather covers for their chairs, some with integrated blankets. https://helinox.com/collections/cozy-comfort Pretty neat.

@JRK: I share most your thoughts. Some more pondering on my part is in order for the below: I am wondering how the brake controllers wires for millions of brake controllers, from the drivers position all the way back to the rear RV axles, are handling the max braking events? None of my many TV's and Trailers I have owned have had mega sized cables as suggested. I suspect this is the case for lots of reasons. In our case, my first one is that the max amp pull of 12 amps (3 amps X 4 brakes) is rarely a long duration continuous load. Secondly, modern brake controllers sense when a vehicle is stopped and back off the power flow to the magnetic coils when stopped, again shortening the duration. As such, maybe these ideas contribute to having used smaller wires for many many decades in millions of TV's. Using commonly used American Wire Gauge Cable/Conductor Sizes and Properties as a guide is not commonly practiced for short runs such as a TV and Ollie. For example, it lists a #12 AWG wire (assumed to be copper) as only carrying 9.3 amps. Where as they are allowed a continuous use rating in residential of 16 amps, and 20 amps intermittently. Hence they are protected by a 20 amp breaker. A #10 conductor is listed with a max current of 15 amps. Yet our Oliver, and about a million other similar trailers use these as 30 amp conductors and breakers. My experience as an engineer suggests that 14 ga would be a sufficient choice. However, your 10 ga would certainly work! Overkill, but it will work great! All that said, when it comes time to replace my brake assemblies, I'll certainly upgrade the wiring, not to 10 ga, but for sure larger than that which Oliver used. And as JD pointed out, it will not be run inside the axle. Finally, and it is a very rare occasion that I have ever suggested taken a JD suggestion even further. But here I go into unchartered regions....., My recommendation is to also run the larger replacement wires through a gray plastic (UV Resistant) conduit (Maybe 3/8") across the back side of the axle. Where the cable inters and exits the pvc, I will heat shrink wrap the cable with a 4" section (2" inside and 2" outside the PVC), and seal both ends of the conduit with a suitable Silicon sealant. These extra precautions are to protect the line from physical road damage, hungry rats. BONUS SUGGESTION: Spray all exposed wired outside the hull (IE under the hull, in the front basket, and for the cables going to the TV) with peppermint oil and water solution. Most wire insulation eating critters (Mostly rats and mice) hate peppermint. It is also useful to spray tires, and jacks to dissuade those critters. I look forward to your and our owners thoughts. Thanks, Geronimo John

You can turn it off, and it will allow power to the trailer, but then you would lose all of its protection and perhaps the useful features (like the amperage gauge - not sure about this). Leave it on, use the grounding plug, be safe and happy. John Davies Spokane WA

The picture of the rear of the (probably rental) trailer shows a heavily loaded Curt basket on the rear receiver. It is speculated that the combination of a lighter than normal tongue weight and the probably inexperienced driver just lost control. In his case the trailer most likely well outweighed the truck as opposed to us Oliver owners generally being the other way around. I have a feeling in the same situation with our trucks and trailers, it would have torn the safety chains off the trailer. I replaced the springy cables with chain and oversized hooks. When I bought this I thought it was way more that I could possibly ever need, now I'm not so sure.

Figure that a fully fueled and loaded 2004 F-350 probably is in the 8,500 to 9,000 pound range. The impact loading on the chains would likely be at least 4 times this. I'm assuming that the tearing apart of the axle unit and other parts mitigated some of the shock loading. So, for round numbers, the momentary shock load would be in the order of about 45,000 pounds. I have not seen an advertisement for our curly safety strings. But similar ones are rated at either 3,500 and 5,000 pound ratings. My opinion is that the our curly safety strings and/or their attachment bolt would not survive this test. Granted, using something like 1/2" yellow steel Grade 70 steel transport & logging chain (Working load: 11,300 lbs) would be over kill, but some lighter versions would be worth looking into. @JD: This is begging for a JD how to "Hang Proof our Oliver Tow Vehicles"! (There is your thread title!) . 🙄 GJ

That's the big question that we can't answer right now - Lithiums are too new. So the way I'm looking at it is this... had OTT offered me an option to have an "air conditioned" battery box for $150 or so, would I have done it? Heck yes - considering I'm spending so much on these Lithiums. So like you RB, I wonder too whether it's worth it - but I have this vision of Dirty Harry looking at me and saying "Do you feel lucky, punk". 😃 At some point, the cost does not outweigh the potential benefit of course. My guess is that as Lithiums become status quo in travel trailers / RVs they will be located in air conditioned spaces as opposed to vented outdoor boxes used today.

Thanks everyone. I can see why they wouldn't have them online as anyone could download them (like another trailer manufacturer) but they really need to be provided to Olie owners, so I too will inquire from my sales rep, Anita

I've asked Service (Jason) and Sales (Phil) for them by email and phone. No luck. I know of several owners that are asking. It's crazy. I've opened a handful of tickets just because I don't have the electrical diagrams - simple questions that could have been answered. For someone who loves to work on their Ollie, I have it listed as my number one quality issue / gripe by far. Now I know Patriot is after them too. I'm going to open a service ticket and see where that gets me.

It sounds as if somebody dropped the ball in Hohenwald, neither the 2020 nor the 2021 online Owner Manuals have any wiring diagrams (only a battery hookup one)..... but you can look at the 2019 images (starting on page 38) and that will give you a general idea. There are a few mistakes on the Oliver University pages, but mostly they are omissions of little things like a fuse box pamphlet. Electrical diagrams are critical, and needed by any owner or RV tech that is trying to troubleshoot or repair a problem. I personally would be quite upset if I had none, and especially so if I had to wait a couple of years to get them. Maybe it is time to get on the phone and raise a little hell? Figuratively speaking. John Davies Spokane WA

DonnaScott73, First congrats on your Ollie delivery date! To answer your question, we took delivery last June 16th and we did receive hard copies of the manuals. They are really handy and well done. As far as I know you still get a printed copy. We were told by our sales person that we would receive an electrical schematic or diagram for our Ollie on delivery day. Unfortunately we did not receive a diagram. We did spend a long time going over our Ollie on delivery day, just something to consider and prepare for. There is a lot of information flowing on delivery day sorta - like drinking from a fire hose. A few months ago we asked via an email to OTT service for an electrical schematic/diagram. We still have not received an electrical schematic for our Oliver. It sure would be nice to have one. I don’t know if an electrical schematic is provided for 2021 model Ollies or not. Maybe someone else will chime in. Again welcome and congrats! -Patriot

Music plus a math lesson....

Prepare to have your mind blown.

I'm switching it up a little bit today. Fibonacci sequence in music.

Happy St. Patrick's day And an Irish blessing for the day

More pics. That is a really narrow gorge. Bad timing, another couple of tenths of a second and they would have been on the normal shoulder, not over a deep slash. John Davies Spokane WA

If anyone is interested in a soft case for storing their Garmin 890RV this one seems well made, and well padded. A Velcro side pocket for the change cable. Search no more! Happy Travels!

Thank you for the heads up! Ordered yesterday and got it today. Fits the Garmin Overlander perfectly.

There’s a post on the Oliver Facebook page with a lot of scary photos of this. But this one photo shows the hitch area of the truck. A few extra chains from the crane holding it at this point, but you can see the hitch and safety chains on the truck. The ball popped out of the trailer hitch of course with that kind of angle, and it looks like that was a weight distribution hitch as well. But thankfully the safety chains and the truck safety chain attachment points on the receiver held the load. Wow! Those are some lucky folks. And everything that was in the truck bed now at the bottom of the canyon.

Did Ford SuperDuty trucks that far back (2004) have the death wobble issue? I thought that was recent. I already had the steering damper replaced once under warranty on my 2019 F-250. It wasn't a severe "death wobble", and I haven't added a lift kit or bigger tires that seem to make that wobble issue worse. But my F-250 did have a very annoying steering wheel vibration between 60 and 65 mph, even though the tires were perfectly balanced, and even in 2 wheel drive with the front hubs unlocked to rule out a front drivetrain imbalance issue. The replacement steering damper solved it.

Thank you for the reassurance Steve. I am new to the travel trailer scene and I am ignorant to many aspects of their construction. Sounds like the suspension travel will be just fine.

Relax guys, this is not a major issue. I've owned two different Oliver's over the past 13 years. Both an Elite and a Elite II. If you hit a big enough bump or drop into a deep enough hole, the suspension will probably bump the frame. I have noticed evidence of contact on both trailers thru the years. Other than cosmetic, there was no damage to the frame. The Elite's are supplied with 5200 pound axles with larger brakes and bigger spring packs than the two 3500 pound axles on the Elite II's.

have begun sooner

Larry Carlton...A very underrated guitarist. And Steely Dan was ahead of their time. Lots of fantastic musicians played with them. Overland, I'm trying to find some stuff that's a little less "sleepy" which I posted a lot of yesterday. I really like Neko Case by the way. Spent a lot of time last night listening to her.

I chimed in on the topic of transporting bikes on the rear of the trailer last year. My Background/expertise comes from being an executive at Yakima Products for 20 years. I'm impress with some of these creative and eloquent solutions. I simply want to voice to proceed with an abundance of caution when engineering bike soultions that attached to the rear bumper of any trailer. As I stated before, the forces at the rear of a trailer are magnitudes greater than at the hitch of your tow vehicle. The axle of your trailer is a giant fulcrum/pivot point and the rear of your trailer is the launching point. There are very few products designed to withstand the forces generated at the rear of a trailer. At this time Yakima only makes two hitch mounts that are approved for use on the rear of a trailer. LongHaul - https://yakima.com/products/longhaul?_ga=2.263397708.1569403010.1602517930-2113444950.1601489236 RoadTrip - https://yakima.com/products/roadtrip?_ga=2.263397708.1569403010.1602517930-2113444950.1601489236 This means that none of the other 50+ bike racks made by Yakima are approved or designed to be used on the rear of a trailer. I would go as far to say that most of the bike systems being used on the rear of trailers are not rated for the dynamic forces being exerted on them. The majority of these bike systems are being miss-used and are at risk of a catastrophic failure. I have never spoken to the folks at Oliver but I trust you should not exceed the recommended load limits specified by the factory. In my early years at Yakima, I always felt that engineers were way too conservative resulting in not being able to make product to carry loads in ways that seemed fine to me. This was based on my own extensive experience using our products. It was the classic conflict between the marketing team and the engineering team. Fast forward many years and one of my roles was being responsible for all the warranty and customer service activities. At the time we fielded in the range of 500,000 calls per year. Every Monday morning after our customers spent the weekend transporting their toys, the phone lines were jammed with every situation you could imagine about gear that had fallen off and hit the road or got scrapped off from a low overhang or what ever. 98% + of the gear that found its-self on the road was due to consumer installation errors, miss use and overloading. My point: your personal experience and general judgment of what will work should not exceed the engineering guidelines. You can get away with exceeding these guidelines for a long time until that one compression, bump or off road water bar will get you. Now that catastrophic failure is happing to you. All you need to do is spend one day listening to the Monday morning calls coming into Yakima. The call starts with, "I was just driving down the road and my rack and bikes came off my car and were run over by the car behind me". After, learning more about what actually happened, 98% of the time, the products were WAY OVERLOADED or MISS-USED in some way. The final story I will leave you with is when I was driving north on California highway 101 earlier this summer. The road is rough and curves through the giant redwoods. I came around a sharp curve and came upon four bikes that were attached to an entire fifth-wheel ladder laying in the middle of the road. About a mile ahead was the first safe place to pull off the road. At this point was an enormous fifth-wheel trailer with holes ripped out of the back of the trailer where the ladder was once attached. You see bikes on fifth-wheel trailer ladders all the time. It's one thing for a 250 pound person to climb that ladder when the trailer is not moving. Its another to load that ladder with a 100 pounds of bikes that are getting tossed and flung around mile after mile after mile.

We found it helps if the valve in the shower area is OPEN when emptying our grey tank...(pulled out it a manual valve). If it's closed it allows a little less air into the system if it's shut while emptying.

Sometimes a little humor is good. Not every post will be serious and on topic. We have a number of members who like to inject some sarcasm or humor. Not a problem. As long as we don’t get mean, personal or too political we can read, smile and move on. Mike

The problem is all that mass bouncing around at the end of that long skinny arm. Not good. I did read that the recommended Thule (?) standard bike rack for the Oliver mount has a 100 pound limit in this application. My suggestion is to build a custom one without a central mount. Bolt the trays directly to the rack. Overland built a nice one with the excellent 1-Up Super Duty trays, which would work great for your ebikes. Remember you can always take out both battery packs to reduce the weight by 15 or 20 pounds and also to discourage thieves. John Davies Spokane WA

“Witnesses said the truck appeared to lose control before the crash, first swerving to hit the right shoulder barrier before sliding over the left-side guardrail. The truck then tipped over the bridge, with the camper blocking both lanes of the bridge.” https://www.foxnews.com/us/rescuers-pickup-deep-idaho-gorge I would like to hear the details about what happened before they jack knifed.... John Davies Spokane WA