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OK... SHOCKS. Back story: I noticed last week that we may have a couple of leaky Monroe shocks after doing a fairly major undercarriage power wash of our Ollie's running gear. That said, I ordered 4 Monroe replacements last Thursday and we wandered off for an extended Easter weekend at a lakeside state park in southern NM to get into some warmer climes. Anyhow, that was a 380+ round trip drill, right? So, as I was cleaning the rig this morning, FedEx arrives with the replacements - perfect frigg'n timing. I jacked-up and jack-standed the Ollie and commenced the shock R&R drill many of you have done over the years. Here's the deal... I'm fairly certain the shocks I removed on this drill were originals from the Oliver factory. The R&R went smooth as it could have. The only modification was adding fender washers on the upper and lower brackets and fresh nyloc nuts. At the end of the day - uplifted peace of mind regarding the running gear package. As it turned out (see pix) 3 of the four Monroes were Tango Uniform - they were just along for the ride and not providing any stability to the overall suspension system. A functional shock when compressed will expand to its fully extended length. The pic shows 3 of the removed Monroes compressed and not extending. Only one was marginally operational. Not good, IMHO. RECOMMENDATION: I believe these units were at least 5+ years old. So, if any of y'all out there are kinda like me and can't sleep at night when you know something's "not quite right" - and you may have 5+ year old vintage shocks, take a couple hours and check 'em out before your next road trip. Granted the Ollie suspension isn't "bomb proof" but it is somewhat robust as compared to other SOBs. With dual leafs and the Dexter coupler, the shocks contribute to stabilizing g-forces and actually aid in reduceing tire wear while being towed. That is... if the shocks are working as designed and not blown out. I'm planning to check them annually when I do my wheel bearings... Just say'n. Safe travels --- looking forward to seeing y'all down the road, until then; Cheers!

2021 LE2 For my Aventa installation, I provided the Truma service center with the Emerson thermostat. However, Truma recommended that we re-use the existing Dometic thermostat. (they added a resistor or something to the ceiling box) The Dometic furnace works fine and we still have the original OEM Dometic thermostat "look" and thermostat power source. Steve

No need for me to repeat my thoughts in a post. I 💯 agree with Mike and Galway Girl, YES the diesels are much more capable. In the end roll with what brings a big smile to your face, and your budget! 😄

Woke up early this morning @ 2:30AM and checked to see what was on the forum (true story). After seeing your post decided to order a set of shocks for our 2015 LE2 Ollie. Got back to sleep easily after making that decision! 😁

A while back I was trying to understand one key factor in towing, that is Vehicle Payload. For Ford Truck's I went around to dealers lots and looked at stickers on the door for various configurations. The ones shown below are all 4x4's but notice how starting at the Left, the F150 King Ranch has much lower payload than a more stripped down F150 XLT. This payload decreased with increasing luxury happens in all truck lines. When we started with our new Oliver Elite II , we had a 2018 F150 3.5 Ecoboost King Ranch Crew Cab 4x4... and it had a payload of 1557 lbs. What we found was after loading bikes, BBQ, camp gear and then added on the trailer tongue weight, we were always at or slightly above the payload limit . We would go to the scales often to double check weights. On one rather interesting 10% downhill grade in the mountains of Idaho, my wife turned to me and said...do we need a bigger truck. It feels like we're getting pushed by the trailer. Indeed the trailer and truck weights were very close to each other. That fall we moved forward in search of heavier diesel truck, and in our case chose an F350 with the 3440 Lb payload. I love the downhill compression braking capabilities and the stability of this truck and trailer in mountains. We don't get pushed around on the freeways either. We have all the payload and tongue capacity so we no longer need the Anderson hitch. (Which is sometimes difficult to get re-attached when at odd angles.) In any case...good luck making a choice. Pay particular attention to your style of driving, regions you'll cover (mountains in particular) and how much gear you want to take along as you make a truck selection. It's important to look at truck Payload as a key indicator of how comfortable your drive will be while towing the Oliver. CS

To Oliver Owners considering the 13500 BTU Truma Aventa retrofit. In the last few weeks, I have been working with Oliver Service on incorporating an optional Honeywell digital thermostat to run the Dometic furnace. This optional thermostat will replace the Dometic mechanical thermostat that Oliver has been installing. I learned good news today from Service Manager Jason Essary that my suggestion to use the Honeywell digital thermostat was tested and approved by Oliver engineers. The Honeywell digital thermostat will be offered as an option for owners having the Truma Aventa retrofit done. Optional Honeywell digital thermostat -https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00H6ARNXO?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details We will have the Honeywell thermostat installed in May when we have our Truma Aventa retrofit install completed. For any technical questions please contact Oliver Service @ 1-888-526-3978 Happy Camping! Patriot🇺🇸

Amen Patriot!!

@rideandfly@MAX Burner When the time comes for our shocks to be replaced I will consider a set of these for the new shocks. They are likely to last a lot longer than the cheap rubber bushings - https://www.summitracing.com/parts/ens-9-8101r?seid=srese1&gclid=CjwKCAjwrdmhBhBBEiwA4Hx5g1EmNbsDrEQeAq0_LONOYG_UhdlvY6ePhChw2orxOwCvV5eUD0qi7hoCoC0QAvD_BwE Patriot🇺🇸

Interesting/informative thread, in that we are getting SNYSDUP ready for a trip up to AK... And I was going to check out the shocks when I do the bearings & seals before the adventure. Thanks to all that contributed, and I will try to sleep tonight without dwelling on it until tomorrow, when I'll have a look and hope it is not too shocking... B~Out

I have towed our Elite II almost 100K miles with 4 different trucks, all with tow package. A 2012 Tacoma, 2016 Ram 1500, 2020 Ram Rebel and now a 2020 Ram 2500 Diesel. The Tacoma was marginal. The half tons were perfectly adequate. The 2500 is by far the best - effortless towing. I also use it as my daily driver, not unusual at all here in Texas. If I didn’t have a tow vehicle I would go with the 3/4 ton. The gas engines do fine, diesels are more capable. Also, with a 3/4 ton you generally don’t need to be too concerned with payload. Mike

I see absolutely nothing inflammatory about the above threads. If a forum member sees any of these posts as inflammatory it’s because they make a clear obvious choice to look at it this way. These posts are merely respectful greetings of the love, joy and the everlasting peace of celebrating Easter and greeting each other. He is Risen!! Patriot🇺🇸

Galley drawers - we added a strap to retain our drawers... very similar to what JD describes. It works great. We also added a strap across the bathroom door; it would work its latch loose in transit and swing back and forth. We initially jammed a seat cushion between the refrigerator and the bathroom door when traveling, but the strap across the door about 1/2 way up (near the latch) does the trick.

Shades - we had some issues with the shades falling off when in-transit when we first picked up our Elite. Upon further examination, several of the windows had broken clips (only one side of the clip was there, the opposing side had broken off). We have been able to resolve this issue with a combination of actions: Replace all broken clips (Oliver sent us a handful of new clips) Be very careful how we press the shade frame into place, ensuring that both sides of all clips are aligned with the slot on the back of the shade frame Lower the tire pressure from the 80psi used at delivery More experience avoiding curbs and potholes😜 (still working on this one) Opening the shades while traveling, so that if one does pop off, the shade fabric is not damaged We have not had any shade pop-offs in quite a while now...

When this happened to me a few years ago - I simply went looking for a tool that was just the correct size to use in spreading the clips (gently) a bit further apart. Don't overdo this - you will know when you get it right. Those shades should be tight and should be able to be set properly with a sharp "wack" with the heel of your hand. Bill

This has been working great for me for three years. Emerson 1E78-140 Non-Programmable Heat Only Thermostat for Single-Stage Systems Pardon my language, but the mechanic unit is unreliable cr@p with an excessively wide deadband. John Davies Spokane WA

If your truck is used for only towing, a 3/4 ton diesel does an amazing job and you don't need to mess with a weight distribution hitch. A 3/4 ton diesel is expensive to purchase / operate, and less than nimble beast as a daily driver. We just tow with our 3/4 ton truck and have other vehicles for daily drivers. If you need your truck as a daily driver and for towing, a well equipped 1/2 ton + WD hitch will do a good job. You will not have to park a beast while running errands around town with a 1/2 ton as a daily driver. We love towing with our F250 6.7 Diesel.

If you're going to tow, then obviously get a vehicle equipped to tow. It's all about the numbers, tow capacity, cargo capacity (payload), gross combined weigh capacity, and even tongue weight capacity. Point being many vehicles are well within their overall capacities or ratings to haul an LE2 around the country. Like others have said it needs to fit all your needs and requirements. If you are getting a tow vehicle to primarily serve that purpose and the other needs are secondary, get plenty of truck. Ease of towing and handling the weight of the trailer will make the overall experience more enjoyable. Also with plenty of extra capacity the truck doesn't work as hard and will last longer between service intervals. The harder your tow vehicle works, the more you will have to attend to service needs. Lastly, once you are into a full size truck, the size of the vehicle becomes a moot point. A short bed crew cab half ton sits in essentially the same space as a short bed crew cab 1ton. The half ton will be a little more nimble driving around, but the 3/4 or 1 ton will be more nimble with the trailer attached, and won't require WD hitch system. And the heavier trucks will not work as hard and will have much more cargo capacity, something you will realize at a point is very much needed for most folks. My tow vehicle of choice is in my signature line. It was purchased specifically for our LE2 adventures.

Ditto @topgun2's comments - 100%. FYI: We used a 2015 RAM 3500 turbo diesel crew cab, 8' bed for 6 years as our TV, but.... it lived outside, wouldn't fit in the garage, and nowadays diesel fuel is fairly "spendy." We never had an issue with maxing out payload, tongue weight - ever. The TV basically never even "knew" the Airstream was back there. Overkill? Not in my world. I came from a field where there was no such thing as, "too much power" (or too many missiles...) That said, we did a TV downsize last year when making the Oliver transition. Now we're easily pulling our rig with a gasser and must be mindful of payload, tongue weight, and overall GVW. Oh, and the TV fits in the garage - YES! Regarding whether or not an OEM tow package is worth it? Seems to me to be a "must have" feature, if only for the factory brake controller and 7-pin receptacle, IMHO. Best of luck in your searching efforts, brother! Art

Following our first substantial (approx. 6,000 miles) road trip with our 2022 Oliver the Andersen Weight Distribution/Sway Control Hitch began making noise. Following a communication with Andersen they quickly sent a new friction cone at no cost under the lifetime warranty. Upon receipt of the new friction cone it was apparent that the old damaged friction cone was not going to come out as removal was impossible. Another phone call with Andersen, the same day as receiving the friction cone, Andersen committed to send a new hitch (again at no cost under the lifetime warranty) via three day UPS delivery. The replacement hitch arrived today and installation is complete and all is well. This post is NOT a complaint regarding the Andersen Weight Distribution/Sway Control Hitch. This post is to publicly recognize & share the quality and timely customer service of Andersen. I have share my thoughts and thank-you with Andersen.

Could you rob the shield off the Monroe shocks and use it with your KYB's and reuse the old Monroe cupped washers too? GJ

I thinking that vast majority of OTT owners would not need or want such a heavy, complex, costly to purchase and install, and expensive to maintain suspension. GJ

A reminder to all: In our Guidelines, it mentions the forum is: a great place for Oliver Travel Trailer owners and future owners to interact, share knowledge, solve problems, and most importantly, to develop friendships. Respectful and considerate responses help build this community. It also says: Some inflammatory topics to avoid include religion and politics Generalized Christmas or Easter greetings to fellow forum members could be considered a way to develop friendships amongst owners. May we please remember to always be respectful and considerate to all and do our best to avoid the topics of religion and politics. Thanks, and see you at the rally, Pete & Bosker

Best Idea I have heard all day! Bravo! GJ

Thanks to a member of the forum, I was put in touch with some folks at the Red Bay, Alabama Girard plant. Once I explained my problem, they knew exactly what the problem was. Fortunately it was a 5 minute fix! The motor/spool assembly is held in the cassette by three phillps head screws on each end. They are visible once the end caps are removed. He said the roller assembly fits inside the cassette with very little clearance. Sometimes the screws are tightened enough to slightly torque the assembly causing it to rub inside the cassette. The solution is to loosen the screws by about one turn. I tried this and it worked immediately. His suggestion was to leave the screws in that position with no worries of them loosening further. He also confirmed that the spring arms do all the work when extending the awning. All the motor does is spool out the tarp. Thanks again to Geronimo John and dewdev for their responses. I now know more than I ever wanted to know about the operation of the Girard 750!

In my quest to find something better than the Monroe shocks I was given this part from KYB but I've learned that it might not be suitable because of the exposed rod and the beating the underside of our trailers take from rocks, road debris, etc. This shock suggestion came from Shockwarehouse.com This part could be a consideration if there was some sort of protective sleeve for it but I'm not sure that one exists. I was not able to find a cross reference to other manufacturers like Bilstein. This shock was all I found that was reasonably compatible with the Monroe specs. I've read comments from Monroe buyers that some of their shocks never extended properly but there was also feedback from RV owners that used the Monroe's and they had good luck with them.

I would like to see an Oliver video of wheel bearing replacement - the complete process from start to finish. I know there is a Dexter video to watch and it's good but I don't think it's complete. I'm also aware that there's a very helpful thread about this that's about 5 or 6 pages long but I still like to see things because I'm a visual learner. Would also like to learn more about optimal Xantrex inverter settings when not connected to shore power. Specifically, how to adjust the settings to charge (or stop charging) the batteries but also, at the same time, run an AC off of a generator as an example. There are some good threads about this already but a little more depth and detail about how flexible the Xantrex is might be helpful. Lastly, it would be great if Oliver focused on a few (like 3 to 5) of the most common yearly maintenance tasks that owners can do themselves (low skill level items) and showed videos of these...or one video that captures these 3 to 5 tasks. Because Oliver has done these tasks so many times, maybe they can show us some time saving tricks to make these tasks easier or more effective. I find the Educational Shorts videos helpful. They don't need to be long but they should be very focused. As a reference to the above, when I've done my winterizing and de-winterizing I bring my laptop outside and watch Jason go through the steps. I can pause the video so that I can "catch up" to what's he's done. Makes the task at hand super easy. Jason speaks in a very clear and deliberate way and, maybe most importantly, he makes no assumptions about people's skill sets. I hope he continues to do more videos.

Concur, 100%! There's a saying: "There's no such thing as too much ammo, too much power, or too much truck!"

As TexasGuy points out - there are many more factors involved in the purchase of a new tow vehicle than just its towing capacity. While I use only my 2023 F-150 to tow my Elite II I also use it as a daily driver AND it must actually fit in my garage. All of the vehicles you mention in you survey above are decent vehicles and equipped properly they can be fine tow vehicles for the right trailer. I suggest that you drive them, look at the features on each that are of the most interest to YOU and then make your choice. Good luck! Bill

How much will you travel and/or carry? Most 1/2 tons can easily tow LEII but you can hit payload limit depending on how you travel. If I did not have TV I’d buy F350 with 7.3 to max out payload. You do not need a diesel to tow an Oliver. Nothing wrong with them but it will take a lot of miles to cover cost delta. BTBRV is great channel for towing. He even suggests gasser when under 10,000 pounds. Whatever you get absolutely get tow package I have F150 with max tow. Tows my LEII easily. I do not really like having to use WDH but it is needed per Ford. I have truck camper on order so actually upgrading to F350 for payload. If I wasn’t getting truck camper I’d stick with my F150.

My awning uses three spring arms. I haven't specifically inspected the elbows but have been up close and personal with them as I attempted to blow out any debris which could have gotten inside the arm enclosures. I didn't notice anything unusual but will inspect more closely. As best as I can tell, the tarp opens symmetrically. Keep in mind, the first half of the opening is accomplished by me pulling the tarp out while the motor is unspooling it. Somewhere in the 50-60% range, it will operate on it's own and it continues until the knees lock out at full extension. It looks symmetrical at that point. At no point of this process does it look uneven. It stops opening at roughly the same place which is only an inch or two out. It clears the cassette enough for me to get my fingers in and grasp it to pull it out. There is no audible difference in the motor sound at that point. There is a manual crank which the owners manual says is for emergency retraction in case of motor failure. I don't know if it can be cranked out but will try it tomorrow as well as pushing in on the arms at various intervals to get a sense of different tension. At no interval is there any obvious difference in the tarp tension. It stays pretty even and taut. As to the next step, I will probably bow out and make an appointment with a Girard dealer if the above actions don't turn up the culprit. I really appreciate your time and thoughts on this. Either way I will report back and let you know what happens. James

James: Ok, now down a notch in the test and eval: I assume your arms are "spring arms", and not gas strut driven arms. Please verify. Would be a good idea to inspect the "elbow" of each arm and check for any cracks that may reflect their having been broken. Does the tarp open symmetrically? Possible weak spring arm. Does it stop opening at the same place each time (Possible gear jamb at the motor.) Does your awning have a manual crank? If so, can you crank it open manually? Is it a smooth operation or does it bind in the process? If so where? Opening with a crank tends to be easier (Has spring assist and gravity) than closing against gravity and the springs as well. If you were to incrementally open the awning, and push on the arms, do all three of them feel as if they have the same tension on the tarp? Try again at various stages of opening. Focus before and after where it tends to bind up. If no, likely one of the arms has failed or partially failed. The next check has some risk and you should have two beefy helpers. Open the awning 100% fully and carefully mark where each arm bolts are attached to the leading edge. Open, the arms should have most of their spring tension released. Place ladders under the leading edge to support the awning leading edge. Tie them WELL to the awning leading edge for security and support. Cautiously remove one arm bolt at the leading edge and verify you can handle any remaining spring tension. If yes, untie the arm, and manually check the spring tension increases more or less lineally as you push it in the closing direction. You will be pushing directly towards the arm upper attachment point. You only need to push it part way to know if the spring closer is operating smoothly and with increasing tension. As you move towards the trailer, the spring arm resistance will increase greatly. Don't even try to go further than you can handle those increasing forces. The elbow will be closing and the action should be smooth. If so, all is good. Reattach the arm to the leading edge as marked. Tighten its bole and repeat for other two arms. This will identify if one of your arms is defective. If the above is inconclusive, then likely you have a motor/gear top spool issue and I do not recommend you doing further testing yourself. Time to get it to Girard experienced technician. I hope this helps. Hopefully other owners with this awing have additional ideas or any concerns about the above. If the above does not id the problem, I'm at a loss as well. GJ

OK, here are some answers to your questions GJ. They are in no particular order. We bought this trailer used in January. The awning worked properly when I was inspecting the trailer before the purchase. It worked properly once I got it home, primarily to demo it to my wife and friends. My trailer is stored inside and sat for a few days prior to my next attempt revealed the problem. I do not know how many times it had been used previously. I have not tested the current draw on the motor since I was told by the Girard rep that if it was retracting properly the motor should be fine. He is also the one who told me the motor was just unspooling the awning during deployment thus very little load on the motor. I do not detect that the mounting bolts on the arms are now loose. There are no scratch marks or other evidence that they have ever slid on the mounting track. There is some slight "barber poling" when the awning is retracted. If looking at the spool, the barber pole spiral is from right to left and is about 1.25" in length. Having said that, there is still over an inch of space on the other end of the roller so there doesn't appear to be any binding. Girard does have a couple videos online about changing the arms and they make it pretty clear that there is tremendous tension on the springs. They ship their new arms with multiple layers of shrink-wrap holding them together. Unfortunately, the manual doesn't cover my issue in the trouble shooting section. Thanks for your suggestions and I'd appreciate any other thoughts. James

I have the CareFree unit and as others have previously stated "It for sure isn't". That awning is THE most time intensive frustrating bugger I have worked on Ollie. I hope that your Girard 750 is much less so. Three cautions: Awning arms have tremendous torque and if not very securely roped down when doing service can get away from you in an instant. If it does, it will "Break it's back". I made this mistake and have one new arm. Be sure to read the owners manual and hopefully Girard has videos as well. I watched all the Carefree video's except one. See Item 1 above. All awnings stretch. So don't lower the back corner to cause rain to avoid falling off the awning near the entry door. Over a couple of seasons It will stretch the fabric and then it will not roll up square on the tube. When that happens you'll have a problem rolling up the tarp. I found out that this is a great way to have an opportunity to buy a new awning tarp. And also to learn about Item 2 and then Item 1 above. Needless to say, I really dislike working on my awning! As John D. says "Lots of bad words"......... GJ

Pics ... John Davies Spokane WA

This is pretty self explanatory, my panel is under the dinette with the door hinge on the WRONG side, so access requires contortions and lots of swear words. Turn OFF the battery and shore power, remove the front cover with a small square tip bit. The manufacturer used an oddball screw to keep owners out, I suppose. I could not see or reach the top fuse, so I cut the panel opening to allow better access. You must insulate the hot terminal and the copper bus strip! One benefit is that it helps to prevent mangling the little ears that grip the fuses. Make sure all of yours fit snugly, squeeze with pliers if needed. John Davies Spokane WA

We arrived back home in northern Ohio late on Thursday. Traffic was miserable on I-75 and I-71! Totals were 691 miles (16.7 MPG) on our way south, and 1160 miles (10.6 MPG) towing to Pine Mountain, Georgia and then home, for a total of 1851 miles. What a fantastic trip! I'm ready to head out again!! 😃 Including the five nights so far, we have 31 nights scheduled for this year (plus the Egg rally in Florida in January) and another two tentative. Plus whenever I can drag Deb away from her gardens to go somewhere. Now, to do all things to personalize our trailer and make it even more comfortable, and all the tinkering I plan. I'll eventually create another thread not in the "Delivery Photos" sub-forum. A huge than you to all of you for your help, encouragement, and support. We honestly would not be here with a new trailer without you. YOU make the experience fantastic! Steve & Deb (yes, I have a cheap extension cord going in the bathroom window for a ceramic heater. I have every dogbone imaginable except 30A female to 15A male. Amazon is delivering today...)

Any thoughts that he can share on what Oliver has in store for us in the future?

Having come into musical maturity listening to the Rock N' Roll of the late 50's and all through the 60's, I can attest that I've never been a Country music fan. By the mid 70's I was rather oblivious to what had become popular and I drifted thru the 80's and 90's really not paying much attention. One evening in mid 1999 as I was leaving to go home from work one of our technicians asked me if I had ever heard of a new internet site called Napster, I told him that I was not familiar with it and he explained that by using it, a person could (for free) download any song ever written. Being of a different ethnicity, I assured him that none of the music I would be interested in would be available there. Later, at home, I decided to look into the program. I downloaded the software, installed and then ran it. I don't remember the interface being too difficult asking only for an artist and song title. All of a sudden I could not think of a single song to download. Then I remembered one of my favorite songs from 1965, Bob Lind's Elusive Butterfly. I typed it in and hit enter. Almost immediately, a list of selections to choose from came up. I chose one and hit the download button. Well, this was still in the dial-up days of the internet and it took several minutes but it finally completely downloaded and I pressed play. Oh my goodness. It was at that second I had a sudden, intuitive perception or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something, initiated by the simple, homely, and commonplace task of downloading of a file (or as some might say, an epiphany.) It was at that moment I realized I wanted more songs, in fact I wanted all of them. So began a quest to download and catalog every Billboard Hot 100 song from 1940 to 1999. It took me 10 years. I now love the songs from the 80's and can tolerate most of them from the 70's. The 90's not so much. With a few exceptions, I skip virtually all the songs of the last two decades. This is one of my exceptions...

CSE Congrats on the new knowlledge you have gained. Some RoF (Retired Ole Fart) tips: Do any under trailer work or axle work only with your Ollie attached to your TV. Just make sure no body drives off with you under it. Some of us raise our OEII's high and then jack stand/crib them. Doing so allow you more space under. However, when you have your OEII so elevated and attached, grease the zerks when the tires are off and you are doing the wheel bearings. No need for creepers and creeking joints from under trailer efforts. I also use a bucket to sit on and that saves even more soreness. GJ

There is more info on replacement lug nuts in this thread:

If you do locate a better quality shock, please start a new thread with that information. I am sure there are many owners who would like to upgrade. It is a specialized RV shock, maybe OME offers one, but I would not count on it. The only stout trailer shocks I have ever seen, that are short, have eyes at both ends, rather than these straight shafts. Here are the specs for the Monroe 555001, BTW do not pay that much! That is double the typical street price. I don’t know when they changed from yellow to black, the latter will be much harder to inspect for a leak. I sure wish we could get this suspension on an Ollie. John Davies Spokane WA

Keep in mind that it is very rare to find a travel trailer with factory installed shock absorbers. While they certainly help with the ride quality and they definitely help to keep the contents less shook up, I doubt that they add any actual towing stability to a typical poor quality leaf spring suspension design. So where I am headed is, I don't think this is a safety issue. It is however distressing for an owner to deal with, since there is no reason those bushings shouldn't last for a decade. If correctly installed.... In the past Oliver has reacted very quickly when true safety issues have arisen, like the missing inverter ground wire recall from several years back. Anything that could cause a fire or electrically shock a human gets quick response, that is the liability lawyers in action. Split rubber bushings? Don't hold your breath on this one. On cars the suspension bushings are frequently cracked after a few years and it has no effect on them. When pieces start to fall out, then you need to replace them. John Davies Spokane WA

Polyurethane replacement bushings although stiffer are much more resistant to deterioration. A package of four is $4.75 here: https://www.suspension.com/9.8101 . I would check all the dimensions before purchasing replacements.

The stud size is 3/8” according to the spec sheet for a Monroe 565025 Gas-Magnum 65 Shock Absorber which was original equipment on my 2017 LE2. I think saving the original bushing washers would be a better option than a fender washer. So maybe I’ll save my old ones when I replace the shocks. There is a link to the complete product page at the bottom. Mossey Specifications SHOCK ABSORBER Compressed Bumper Stop No Compressed Length 8.625 Dust Shield Yes Dust Shield Material Metal Extended Bumper Stop Yes Extended Hydraulic Lockout No Extended Length 13.5 Lower Mounting Code S4 Lower Mounting Type Stem Mount - 2.3/8" Stem Length X 3/8"-16 Thread Pitch Parts Pack P01134 Travel Length 4.875 Upper Mounting Code S4 Upper Mounting Type Stem Mount - 2.3/8" Stem Length X 3/8"-16 Thread Pitch https://drivcat.com/overlays/part-detail.aspx?brandId=MS&pNum=555025&partType=Shock Absorb

AKA, how to keep your kitchen gadgets inside the drawers when traveling, where they belong. And to keep from busting the latches away from the wood. The standard Soft Close system is cool but totally hopeless in terms of keeping the drawers closed if there is any weight at all in them. Especially on twisty roads where there are repetitive G loads to the left.... Oliver offers some additional latches that mount behind the drawers but they are flimsy plastic, problematic to install and you lose that lovely Soft Close feature. I chose to install 1 inch nylon webbing and stainless footman loops. I chose black since I knew they would be hard to keep clean, and I preferred high contrast so I could see at a quick glance that they were installed and tight... You may prefer white webbing. All the parts are very high quality and came from Raingler Nets. Qty 2: Footman loop 1 inch PAIR. https://raingler.com/products/footman-mount-set Qty 2: Tie down strap 1 inch x 72 inch, with pvc coated flat hook. https://raingler.com/products/tie-down-strap-with-hook Qty 1: Steel flat hook PAIR, pvc coated. https://raingler.com/collections/hardware-accessories/products/flat-hook-set?variant=23658618433 I did swap the plated screws for stainless, and I waited until I was finished to trim the excess webbing. I ended up removing 20 inches from each. That leaves a short length for grabbing and lets you loosen it up enough to unhook and remove each strap, without having to completely unthread the webbing from the buckle. This also keeps the loose hooks from getting lost. When not towing, I store the two straps in the bottom left drawer, which is my electrical/ junk drawer. They work great, and provide good peace of mind when the roads get interesting. John Davies Spokane WA

Glad to hear there could be resolution. I hope the Oliver guy is okay. Ladders can be dangerous. Mike

OK, who else is in their league? Certainly not Airstream, a more premium priced trailer. Not any of the sticks and staples trailers. I know Black Series makes nice trailers, but they aren’t problem free upon delivery and depending on the dealer things may or may not get fixed. Bigfoot? I had a black vent pipe leak when I picked up (4 years ago) and had a couple of overhead doors that wouldn’t stay shut plus a short in my solar controller. Support from Oliver was great. Got all fixed locally paid for by Oliver. It’s been 3.5 years and 50K miles and no issues. Here’s my point - there might be some initial issues but the factory is quick to get them resolved and once resolved the trailer remains problem free even after a lot of miles. The long term durability is tough to match by anyone else in the industry. Unfortunately, folks read these forums and hear testimonials from owners and then expect perfection upon delivery. Mike

Might want to remember that his trailer was transported quite a distance . What worked in Honenwald, may have had an issue along the way. Seriously, do you think Oliver would load a trailer for delivery that didn't have working lights? I don't think so. Knowing they'd have warranty issues? I don't think so. It's life. Stuff happens. Let's jelp with troubleshooting, and move on. Sherry

I have read some of the comments, and was surprised that I have one of the "terrible 200's". I don't feel that way about our unit at al!. We read the forums before ordering and decided that we wanted the Ez-Flex system which was optional. It is now standard. We added a 4" marine hatch to our propane cover, so we didn't have to take the cover off. They now put in a 6" hatch as standard. Our porch light has occasional black streaks. They changed the product supplied to them and newer units have no problems with them. Our unit had a drawer problem from too short a screw supplied by the drawer maker. The factory corrected it and those affected. All the while as they geared up production to almost double the assembly, they cared about the existing customer. if I can't pull a switch and ascertain it is bad, or put a panel back up, over some wires that vibrated loose, what will I ever do when time to figure how to dump? Or need to sanitize the fresh water tank, or winterize for a sudden storm coming? Or bring more fresh water through the outside port? We took these things as learning experiences as we learned about our unit and grew with them. As we encountered, an opportunity, and discussed it with the Oliver staff, we think we learned from the experience, and maybe more important, so did they. The listened to us...

I think I will wait until the problem has been diagnosed and corrected before I condemn or laud Oliver Travel Trailers quality control procedures. After all, this trailer was delivered by a 3rd party to Wyofilm. It is quite possible that everything worked as designed when it left Hohenwald. I do know that the experiences that I have had with hull #193 may or may not apply to hull #609, as OTT makes changes every year in order to create a better travel trailer. For instance, while watching the video of the new 2020 E2 a couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the galley drawers appear to have an internal latch to prevent unintended opening while underway. I can’t confirm this because I haven’t seen it, but the video leads me to believe it. Mossey