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This is the OEM light hull 193 was equipped with. My best guess is that the nut and washer is loose and will be impossible to get back on the hollow bolt. You can remove the rubber mat in the cabinet and locate the top of the fixture, it will be under the black tape corresponding with the fixture location. If you attempt this method I think it would be beneficial to pre twist the wires in the opposite direction so that they straighten out when you thread the stem back in. Mossey

For gen users who prefer not to carry a smelly dangerous highly flammable gas can in the rear of their TV, (me) here’s another much cleaner burning EU3200i LP option. Just connect to your Ollie’s LP QC and power on.⚡️ ⚡️ https://genconnexdirect.net/honda_propane_modified_generators.htm#xl_EU3200i1 Patriot🇺🇸

Life is very good, here in wnc, near asheville. Yes, it's rather cool, but everything else makes up for it. So newly green, so many spring flowers. I totally love springtime in the Appalachians.

The first example has an error in the charge time formula. It’s using watts instead of converting that to amps by dividing by the panel output voltage. The second example does that. Compare the two charge time formulas. An example of why AI is not to be trusted. It very confidently gave a wrong answer. And in the real world there are other factors as well. The 390Ah rating of the batteries is a discharge capacity rating. Charging is different in that there are different phases of the charge process cycle with different voltage and current values depending on how deeply the battery is discharged. The battery charger also has a maximum limit on the battery charging current as well. A generator with 2000 watts output will charge the batteries faster than a 400 watt solar panel, but it won’t be 5 times faster.

⚡️⚡️⚡️Today we gotta a call from our local Northern Tool store and learned that our Honda EU3200i had arrived from the warehouse in SC a week early. Yay! So we brought it home and topped it off with fresh oil, non-ethanol stabil treated gas and it fired right up. A game changer being whisper quiet, light weight, and has all the power we need to run the new 13500 BTU Truma Aventa we are having installed in two weeks by Oliver. I really like the My Honda Bluetooth iPhone app, pretty cool timely tech. Its an easy lift and fits nicely in the Oliver cargo basket and at 60# which is half the weight of our Tri fuel Honda EU3000is. As mentioned in an early post, I plan on retrofitting this with the www.Hutchmountain.com LP conversion kit when it becomes available. ⚡️⚡️⚡️ Onward! Patriot🇺🇸

Yep, after a couple of close calls with mine trying to run away and become a wild free range cover, it’s now on a short leash. It never unthreaded on its own though. The close calls were due to me leaving it laying on top of the doghouse when getting ready to leave a campground. Stainless tether from Amazon, link below. Problem solved. https://a.co/d/5ipX5mE

Those are common aluminum pop rivets, you must drill off the heads and install new ones. Obviously you will need to buy a rivet gun and appropriately sized rivets. They look like 1/8”, so start with a 1/8” drill bit. If they are larger ,then go up in size. Wear eye protection and put down cardboard first. https://arrowfastener.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/RT187M-Rivet-Guide.pdf You could file a warranty claim, but who knows how long that will take….. BTW those are called reading lights. John Davies Spokane WA

We camp quite a bit on sloped mountain camp sites, we use Camco leveling chocks and jack stands. Please forgive me if this has been previously mentioned. We place thin rubber sections of welcome mats between the wheel chocks and pavement that wheels roll up on to help prevent slippage of the chocks. Once we have Ollie’s rear wheels on the leveling chocks in the ready to camp chocked position, place the tow vehicle transmission in neutral while connected to Ollie and let the rig roll to settle on the chocks. It normally rolls one or two inches. Next set TV parking brake and transmission in park. This was mentioned earlier. With chains connected to TV, jack the hitch up off of the TV ball, normally don’t have hardly any movement when lifting the trailer off of the TV ball. I still leave the trailer connected with chains to the TV until all trailer jacks are down on the jack stands and trailer stabilized.

That visual gives a whole new meaning to laying a patch of rubber in the driveway! 😄

I check mine a couple times a year, anytime I have the trailer jacked up with the wheels off the ground, for doing bearing maintenance and suspension greasing. And the mechanic checks it as well during the annual Pennsylvania state safety inspection required on trailers here in Pennsylvania. I think the official recommendation is to test it before every trip, but I doubt most owners actually do that. It is an easy test though. Just pull the cable until the black plastic pin comes out of the breakaway switch. That activates the emergency brakes. At that point you should not be able to spin the wheels. After you test them, just make sure you put the plastic pin back in place correctly, otherwise the electric brakes will drain the trailer batteries. Once the pin is reinserted, that shuts off power to the emergency brake circuit and the tires should spin freely.

Go to any marine store having the size of the porthole with you.. West Marine if one is near you. If all that fails contact OTT. Also it would be helpful to people responding to you to include in your signature area or in your profile what year and model trailer you have.

If you’re referring to the Blue Sky controller as shown in the pictures, it is a MPPT rather than a PWM controller. The Zamp is the PWM system.

Spot on. In my "real world" experience, a generator recharges our 390 Ah batteries much faster than the solar panels, even when parked in direct sunlight at mid-day.

It was several years since I installed this system. Easy to install, believe I bought the kit from Nick’s Truck Supply. Don’ know if they are still in business, but they had the best price at the time.

It looks in this photo like the top of the flex housing is threaded. Have you tried twisting it into a vertical position, then screwing it back in to the flange above it? If this method works, it would be easier than drilling out and replacing the pop rivets, after securing the flex housing to the flange in some way.

Oh, the memories. One of my college roommates had a 68 beetle. Driving in Iowa winters, we always kept blankets in the back. And, used them. Another trip, central Iowa to Minneapolis, 5 of us , three guys over 6', two girls. So crowded, but hey, what the heck. It got us there. We never checked flotation. Though , it can gain height. I was in a wedding in 72. The guys somehow put the groom's vw bug in the roof of the church hall. Those were the days....

I'll post few photos a tomorrow, hopefully. We have a lot of spring cleanup to do, at our camping property.

Oliver must have started doing that labeling with the 2023 model year. Our late 2022 doesn't have the labeling. But, now that I've seen yours, I think I'll grab our label maker and add some of my own. Thanks for posting!

I once drove my 1968 VW Beetle nose first down a boat ramp to see if it would float. I got as far as the rear tires a couple inches from the water's edge, and nothing was floating yet. Maybe it was because I had the convertible top down... 🤷‍♂️ . . . . . . There may have been drinking involved, too. That 3.2% Budweiser was potent stuff! 🤣

Will install the controller this week and post photos. We don’t have an inverter, so can’t use 125V appliances when using only solar. Normally use about 25% of the single BattleBorn 100AH lithium battery daily when dry camping. We can easily camp three days without charging the single lithium battery. We have a three way Dometic refrigerator using LP gas to operate when dry camping. Going to monitor heat in the battery compartment with a Renogy temperature sensor, if needed, plan to add vents that open & close easily on the battery compartment door leaving the original vents plugged since they are fixed vents. Will see how testing goes! 🙂 Thanks, Bill

Maybe give the threads a shot of WD-40 Brand Dry Lube with Teflon. That makes them a bit easier to thread on and off. I was thinking about going the other way, to one with tabs...as they may be easier to open ....but will not do that after seeing your post. CS

The nubs on ours broke off on the way home from Tennessee to Idaho. I opened a service ticket with Oliver, but was advised that the manufacturer does not warrant them. I could not find an exact replacement for the one Oliver installed in the propane tank cover. So, I ordered this screw-in 6" porthole assembly from Amazon. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B06ZZWYNVL/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Because the one Oliver uses has nubs that fit into the outside ring, to install the screw-in kind, I had to remove the original ring from the porthole cover and replace it with the ring that comes with the screw-in replacement. Not very hard, just remove 6 screws, pull the ring out, and use the same screws to install the ring that comes with the replacement. You should only have to do this once. The screw-in replacement is much more secure than the one Oliver uses, and has no nubs to break off.

Likely you have already seen this video. Of interest is that at 14:31, it shows the owner using never seize on the center bolt shank. This was a change that was adopted a few years ago and is not shown in older DYI sources or O&M's. One of the "Good/Bad" elements of the OTT OE2 Dexter Axle setups is the length of our springs. They are not standard for the 3500 pound axles. Here is what mine appear to be: The good is that the tires are closer together and it causes less wear on the tires and makes turnng tight easier. The bad is that the springs are not "common". Here is what my EZ flex Info: EZ-Flex Kit: Oliver uses the K71-653-00 Dexter EZ Flex kit. (8,500 Capacity Version installed) EXTREMELY IMPORTANT TO CHECK: If OTT was not using EZ flex devices on the vintage of your trailer, there is a possibility that your "Center Bolt" does not have splines on the nut end. Another possible is that if it did have splines, that they were damaged by tightening the bolt/nut from the bolt side. This will spin out those splines. The splines are absolutely essential for "Fixing" (As in prevention of rotation) of the bolt head. IF this is the case, it is essential that you "FIX" your bolt head. This is a life safety issue that has scared the XXX out of myself twice and two other owners that have been documented. There are a few ways to fix the bolt. Using one of these is one of those solutions. Search the forum for other solutions if you like. I did for the better part of three years, and did not find any alternatives that met my safety and effectiveness concerns. PM if ???. GJ Center Bolt Capture Washer Source: Barnes 4WD (828) 551-7616

Yes, they have a separate charge controller.

To get a decent discharge I think it's necessary to turn off the solar controller (the switch located in the storage area above the streetside bed). This prevents incidental recharge.

Seriously, I'm not an "expert." But at first glance it appears they are mixing watts and amps. In our real world, we use about 120 amps a day and on most sunny days our 340 watts of panels keeps up with us. That's with frig, furnance, water on LP and minimal use of microwave, coffee pot and 120 TV for movies at night. Charlie.

Well, it took me a bit to reply to my emergency brake pulling exercise. Man, let me tell you what, that pin was in there tight. It took quite a bit muscle to get it to pull out of the box. From the signs of it, the pin has never been pulled before today. I inspected the box, pin, and pin cable for any signs of wear and tear. Everything looks good. I took pictures of my battery voltage/amps before and after pulling the ping. Looks like with the brakes activated they're pulling -10.7 amps. Also, and I'm sure it's in these forums somewhere, can someone, who still has a Blue Sky ProRemote Solar/Charger remind me what the difference is, or the relationship is between the INPUT -vs- CHG OUT is? (also pictures below). I can't find that info anywhere on the Internet or any of the old BlueSky videos. Thanks, Chris

I broke down camp just like you said, raised jacks, slowly, and kept safety chains connected to truck and was ready to pull brake pin too if needed. But, it was steady as a rock. I can never remember which way is up with my rubber chocks, mine do not have any concave shape to the one side. I think mine are these here. Flat shape on both sides. Now these heavy duty rubber chocks look like real nice chocks, and weighing in at 3.5 lbs each. A set of four would do the trick for sure. And, they'll all match. 😉

The only thing I would change here is to turn the HF chocks over. The ridged side should be on the ground and the slightly concave side should be against the tire. In another of your subsequent posts it is clearer than these photos that they are upside down. Also, when breaking camp, raise those rear jacks before raising the tongue. Keep the chocks in place until completely hooked up. You don't want to make the front jack try to lift the whole weight of the trailer and you certainly don't want the trailer at the bottom of the hill. I think you made poor campsite into a completely workable one. We've run into this same problem in various spots, especially at Quartzsite.

DdDd DDdD DdDd DDdD Ddd d DdD ddDDD dDDd dDdd DD DdD ddDDD dDDd dDdd DD Great thread, thanks for starting it! I always envisioned The Wonder Egg being a rolling ham shack. During the build (in the early days) I asked Oliver to wire the trailer for ham radio operations with an so239 connector outside, running the coax between the shells to the dinette area with another so239. But for many years, I was so busy traveling around the country making new friends and seeing new sights that I never sat still long enough to study for the FCC license and get on the air . . . until COVID, that is. It was the best social distancing hobby I could have ever participated in during the dreaded lock down. Now my home shack has an FTdx101D joined to a Palstar HF Auto and Palstar LA1k for my primary tranceiver. HTs abound as well. The antenna farm includes an EFHV stretched across the back yard for 133 ft, a Xeigu VG4 vertical up at 29 ft, and my go-to for DX is a HexBeam on a tower at 35ft. I also have a dual band Comet GP-1 mounted on a flagpole at 25 ft. My F150 is fully bonded together with 15 wide brass straps and my Diamondback aluminum tonneau is a great platform for my HF ATAS-120A and for my dual band CA-2X4SR. I tend to hear a lot of crickets on VHF and UHF, but on HF I communicate all over the world while driving down the highway. Inside the F150 I have an FT857D and FTM 400XDR/DE. Inside The Wonder Egg I'll have an ICOM IC-7300 and a Yaesu FT5D HT. I have too many choices of antennas to bring them all with me as I travel. This year I'll be bringing a portable BuddiHEX from Buddipole, a TW2010 with 40M and 80M options from DX Engineering, and a CHA LEFS Lightweight End Fed Sloper from Chameleon Antennas. There is a dual band VHF/UHF antenna mounted on The Wonder Egg. It will be great to meet fellow enthusiasts at the rally and down the road. 73, Pete, K2PLM P.S. Folks, sorry for the NERDing out thing here . . . it's an unfortunate condition of ham radio operators. Thanks for understanding . . . .

Hello and 73 to you! I have been a ham since the early ‘90’s and have been active most of that time. My call sign is, AF1US (cannot get a better call sign for being retired USAF!). I regularly work Parks on the Air (POTA) and enjoy portable, mobile, and base operations. My wife is KV4SF (also an Extra Class) and we are training Storm Spotters for the National Weather Service (NWS) supporting SKYWARN and ARES (Amateur Radio Emergency Services). I am presenting “A Conversation on Communications” at the Oliver Rally and will discuss Amateur operations as well as many other forms of communication. I am also planning a POTA activation since we will be in a State Park! I have a Yaesu FTM-300 in my truck and typically carry my FT-991A and Chameleon vertical when we travel. We also take a variety of handhelds (HT’s) along with us. From the description you would think I am a Yaesu man but my home shack is mostly ICOM, IC-7610 and IC-9700 along with a ACOM 1200S for some added power. I run that through a Mosley S-33 (40m, 20m and 17m) all other bands are on an EFHW long wire. Looking forward to some more talks, ideas, activities. 73 de AF1US Brian PS - I have no intention of installing any type of radio IN the Oliver. Ok, maybe a remote…

Also after you put your stabilizer jacks down.

YES!

Great advice from both of you. Adding to my checklist. This was the first time to park on a slope towards a lake. So the cable did stay connected to the truck last and I was ready to pull it after that just in case. Also, being anal is safe, usually. Although, I would hope I would have the peace of mind to video record and Oliver floating in a lake because at that point there would not be much else I could do. LoL I wonder what Tennessee Oliver would say if someone brought an Oliver to them for repairs and was full of water and a fish or two? Hehe

I spoke to Anita yesterday and passed on everyone's well wishes. For some reason she is unable to access the forum inside the facility so she's not been able to respond here. She is currently in a step-down rehab facility in Columbia, TN. She states she is still in a lot of pain, but she is very appreciative of all our thoughts and prayers. She thinks she may be there several months. I'm hopeful that won't be the case. She did say that she is able to get into a wheelchair for short periods of time. They do not want her sitting up too long at this period of her rehab.

Well, I guess I answered my own question thanks to YouTube. Does anyone check this on the Olivers?

Today was the day I got to do the fun messy job of replacing the China Bomb wheel bearings/seals on the ILOVHER on over to USA made Timkens. This was quite the all day project as we also changed out the shocks and lubed the EZ Flex suspension. We beat the rain by a mere ten minutes! My only experience prior to this, was replacing entire preloaded hubs and manual brakes on my Casita which was easy compared to this. After figuring out the best way to jack the side of the trailer up. (Yes, we used multiple floor jacks, and safety jacks stands, chocks and wood cribbing all while being attached to my truck) All I can say is, Thank God my son was here to teach me and to remove the seals in those hubs! (His father owns an excavating company so he knows a bit about trailers/brakes) There is no way on Gods green earth I would have been able to remove them by myself. We had a puller and they would not budge. I think they were permatex'd in there. He somehow was able to use his strength, ingenuity and multiple tools to get them out without scoring. Here are some observations and or questions we had: 1. My son thinks that the shocks look too large for the application. We used the exact replacement that Oliver uses (Monroe 555025) He says they're nearly all the way compressed with the way the suspension sits and that is why potentially two of them were blown. His opinion is that they'd do more if they were just a bit smaller. I have no idea or opinion but it was the one job I was able to complete by myself so I'm good with it. 2. It was quite the surprise to see that the axle spindle did not have the Dexter EZ lube feature. My understanding is that this was not an option on an LE2 in 2017? I did not know this and bought new grease caps with the rubber insert. As much as I learned today, this was sort of disconcerting. Even my Casita had EZ lube axle and it was a 2007. I greased my bearings every year and it made it easy. All those great suspension features like shocks and a EZ Flex but no way to easily grease bearings?? What gives? I sort of dread doing this again. 3. What's with grease guns? OMG..I wanted to throw and shoot them with a real rifle like skeet. I used two separate guns and they both were being unruly and messy. I could have bought stock today in rubber gloves and shop towels! LOL 4. Bearing grease packer seemed like a great idea. Who knew you'd have to use all 200# of human body weight to press down in order for the thing to squeeze grease into the bearings? 4. I took the advice on the forum and replaced a few zerks with 90s and 45s and used plastic cap covers but OMG.. crawling under the trailer is not for the faint of heart or my elderly bones! I think I want/need a creeper. 5. Thank God for Harbor Freight! I now have all kinds of fun new cheap tools, like impact driver and a torque wrench which I properly learned how to use! I now can afford to go to the Rally. 6. The Nev-r-Adjust Brakes looked good but I think I'm going to go with manual brakes next time. I don't feel confident about what I learned about them today and how they actually DO need adjustment. We greased the important parts with a good brake grease. At least we didn't find any loose parts. springs or worn pads floating about. 7. Found four cracked lug nuts. Son says the sheath on the outside is cracked and I should consider solid replacements. Any recommendations? 8. Beer never tasted so good. Thank you for all of the forum help I've received, without you guys, I'd be dead in the water. See y'all safely at the Rally !

Brian, Thanks for sharing your post on the Badlands! I am blessed to do volunteer work on the Pine Ridge Reservation each year where we work on the local's bicycles (73) and donate bicycles (120) to those in need. I boondock on an Elder's place outside of Wanblee, just south of the Badlands. Thankfully, I was able to bicycle each day in the Badlands and the land massages my soul. The Lakota there are challenged in many ways but, are warm, friendly and loving. They are deeply appreciative of the bicycles - for most, it is their only means of transportation. I am truly thankful to be invited and be a part of such a wonderful program. Here are a few pics from this year's trip and the Give-Away with "Bikes to Pine Ridge":

This is Bishop’s Orchards and Farm Market Winery in Guilford, CT. RV parking was a field behind the market. The market was similar to a Whole Foods, we were able to stock up on some essentials. It also had an ice cream stand selling their own ice creams made in the market.

A growing source of Boondocking or Dry Camping (no hookups) is Harvest Hosts. The past couple of years we’ve camped at about a dozen HH locations, mostly wineries and farms. Sometimes you’re in a parking lot, sometimes just a field and sometimes out in the middle of the vineyard. We enjoyed camping at Amber Falls winery just outside of Hohenwald. We’ve camped next to a barn on a farm where we had chickens and horses all around. We’ve never had any hookups, although a winery in PA offered a 20a electrical hookup which we didn’t need or take advantage of. This is at Leyden Farm Vineyards and Winery in RI. Great spot and nice facilities. We enjoyed a glass of wine (or two) on their patio overlooking the vineyards.

We spent last week out at the coast of the Olympic National Park at the Kalaloch Beach campground, which is "dry camping" (no hookups) i.e. "boondocking" for the sake of this thread. We scored a sweet bluff-edge site overlooking the beach. The campground is currently "first come first served" but changes to reserved sites later today or tomorrow as they start their "high season" policy. Hopefully it will remain FFS in the off season forever as it's a nice place to head to in the colder months (which often aren't *that* much colder out at our coast versus in summer!) when the forecast is half decent. I miss the degree of spontaneity we used to have and hope we retain at least some of that forever!! There's lots to do in the area both along the shore as well as inland in the temperate evergreen rainforest which has some HUGE trees and tangled undergrowth and wildlife and water lots and lots of water. I hope folks don't mind the major photo dump - I had time on my hands and a few options for cameras 😄 Oh, and dogs are allowed on the beaches near Kalaloch, and there are a few trails in the adjacent National Forest near Lake Quinault where you can take them as well. Otherwise they are not allowed on trails in the National Park around there though.

This is Valley of the Gods in southern Utah, dispersed camping on BLM land.

Chaco Canyon - another tough road, but well worth it

Valley of the Gods

Little BLM campground southeast of Farmington, NM

Dry camping today in the Alabama Hills, CA, at Tuttle Creek BLM Campground with the creek two feet away from the trailer!

This is not a great shot of the campground, but this is from Needles Outpost just outside the edge of the Needles unit of Canyonlands National Park. I was making my itinerary up as I went in late October 2016, and the campground there inside the National Park was full when I got there in mid afternoon, but I was able to score a site just a few miles back here at the Outpost, which is off the grid. Remember to bring your own water though they do truck in tanks for the showers. This private CG is carved out from a very pretty setting up against some red rock cliffs and buttes, and looking out toward the features of Needles. I was happy to be situated very close to the entrance so I could start a looong and potentially hot hike very early the next morning so as to mostly beat the heat. The hiking there is just tremendous - I did the Chesler Park/Joint loop which I can highly recommend. You overlander types might like the road to the back side of this hike from Beef Basin - looks like a pretty remote feeling 4WD venture from what I could see on my edge of it. The twilight picture is from my camp site at the Needles Outpost and the rest from the sweet hike the next day.

Here are some shots from Bridger Bay Campground in Antelope Island SP on the Great Salt Lake near Layton, north of SLC. I've used it as a stopover a few times when doing the long haul from near Seattle down to canyon country in southern UT and northern AZ. By this point in the drive - my second night in - I'm ready for a not absolutely full day of driving and want some exercise and beauty. This fits the bill quite well. The camp sites have stunning views across part of the lake, and there's a little unofficial trail up to a headland/ridge that has amazing views out over the lake, and enough walking to feel like I've gotten some exercise and have worked the kinks out from sitting so long. The first time I was there, in mid-late May, there were SO many bugs hitting my windshield and the rest of the front of the van while I drove out the loooong causeway that connects the island to the mainland. Don't say I didn't warn you ;-). There are pit toilets and not much else - possibly some water spigots but I forget. There are showers down the road at a day use beach area that you can drive up to and use at night. On my second trip there, some of the island's buffalo herd were grazing not far from camp. When I came back down from my evening hike up to that ridge and its views out to amazing thunderheads building on the Nevada side mirrored in a super glassy Great Salt Lake, they had moved in across the trail. I have no interest in being charged by a buffalo so I walked cross country through the sage and other brush in a wide arc around them back down to the campground, watching them warily as they watched me warily. I fortunately passed their test. It was fun to wake up to them chowing down fairly close to my van the next morning. One of these years I'll stay two nights and do some longer hiking on the island, which has many miles of trails.

Boondocking, and remote FS campgrounds usually have wildlife nearby, So, how about some wildlife - these were in the area of our camp, in the camp, or on the entrance access. the Bison were somewhat intimidating - leaving the campsite, we had to wait for the herd to move on - they had no concern for the big white thing next to them. Free range cattle drives too!

Here another of those breakfast spots. On this trip I'd camped the night before in a very nice FFS campground way out near one of the points in the Island of the Sky unit of Canyonlands NP. This is a nice pullout with a killer view in Deadhorse Point State Park. The second shot is what I got up bloody early to go photograph - the clouds and morning colors cooperated nicely on this morning (it doesn't always work out like that - kind of like fishing). Both are lovely parks. On another trip there I camped for two nights in a reserved site in Deadhorse Point SP in a campground that had hookups. In both cases all my breakfasts were out and about.