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And, this week, another milestone. 8000 members. Thank you, to everyone!

I will pull that together when we leave NL with our recommendations

Thanks Mike, if we weren't living in Prescott AZ, we'd want to be in Boerne, TX! No better state to work in and bring up a family than Texas. Many great spots in Arizona, more retirement locations. Boerne is a very special central Texas hill country town, what a great community! Say hi to Chaney, for me next time you wander into Hearts Home Acoustics. I bought my first Collings dread from him, and he taught me how to play Bach's Sleepers Awake on classical guitar. If there is a day, I cannot play this song, I will have to hang up my guitar after 50 years! It was about 2008 or so, when I found Boerne to visit Hearts Home, and we've been back 3 times. Will visit you and the hill country again next year for the solar eclipse meet. I could not believe the meet location. What a find, we're going, campsite or not, for our first long-distance Oliver trip!

Boerne is our town. Hearts Home is a nice shop. My brother owns a restaurant on Main Street (Hauptstrasse) just a block off the town square. We frequent Kerrville and Fredericksburg quite often. Mike

We’ve towed about 40K miles with a Ram 2500, no Andersen, no sway. We also towed 50K miles with Ram 1500s, with Andersen, also no sway.

That is REALLY common with tandem axles, it is called shackle flip. Mine does it on both sides whenever I service the bearings. The easy peasy way to fix it is to find a parking lot with curbs, island landscaping works great, then drive both the wonky side tires up and along the curb. Bang, it will flip back where it belongs. You can do it on city streets too but it is harder, you have to find a curb cut (driveway) and be a lot more precise in your steering,. I don’t understand why this isn’t in the owners manuals. I bet Oliver Service gets really tired about talking about this. I have had to fix it on “Mouse” maybe a half a dozen times. John Davies Spokane WA

“Free” camping, though in fact the code of conduct requests that you to buy something to support the host, a $20 minimum purchase. If you are at a winery and don’t consume alcohol, or an air museum and don’t like airplanes, or the potato museum, or the vacuum cleaner museum, that can be a big problem. Even if you drink wine, it gets old buying more bottles or cheese than you want to consume. If they have a cafe or snack bar, you can eat there and tip well. https://harvesthosts.com/code-of-conduct/ Boondockers Welcome has no $ constraints, but the likelihood of having a poor experience is higher because these are just folks letting you park in their driveway or vacant lot. Sometimes the drive in is rough and dusty, or muddy. Because they are doing this for free, they seem to be lonely older people seeking company, who want to talk and talk and talk….. Of the two, I tend to use the BW sites, unless there is a particularly enticing commercial spot at a HH. If you join both the map shows all the locations with color coded icons. These sites do help you to save money, when gas prices are so horribly high. But they tend to be clustered along the major highways in populated areas, and if you are headed to the Nevada boonies, don’t expect to find many choices. John Davies Spokane WA

Most probably already know of this problem but it's a new one for us. Pulling out of last night's camp site this morning I knew something was not quite right. I got out and looked around the trailer in the cold winter rain and did not see anything wrong, so we trekked on to our destination some 300 miles away. All along I just knew there was something different. The gas mileage was a little worse off by about 1 1/2 mpg and things just sounded and felt a little off. I blew the poorer mileage off because of rather stiff north west headwinds and hilly countryside. I just couldn't put my finger on it until we arrived at out destination, pulled up onto a relatively level concrete pad and Wendy says " wow, this right side really needs to come up" during our leveling process. We looked around and indeed the left side was quite a bit higher than the right. Then we started looking around and found one of the suspension parts was different than the other side. We remember someone driving from Florida to last year's Oliver rally had experienced a failure of the suspension on one side and remember the effort it took to remedy the situation. We're in Wetumka, OK and immediately thought "well, who's going to help us out here, in the middle of nowhere?" First reach out was to Oliver via a service ticket followed by a phone call shortly afterwards to Oliver's service department. Hannah is an Angel!!!! We thought this problem was going to be a nightmare. Hannah calmly told us she had seen this problem on occasion and told us that an axle part had flipped over and the fix was to lower the nose to the ground and it would flip back. Keeping Hannah on the phone we tried the suggested action to no avail. Rats! She said try jacking up the nose instead. We did. The axle part was starting to move and Hannah warned us of a loud snap. And the snap was loud, and the trailer shook, and the trailer was level again!!!!!!!!! YAY HANNAH!!!!!!!!!! We had hit a very large bump in the road on the way to our previous stop; big enough to scrape the flap under the bumper of our tow vehicle. We are very thankful it was an easy fix. Just in case this happens to you... Another testament to the quality service you get from Oliver 🙂

I discovered that some of the Costco locations offer diesel -- yesterday Costco in Bismarck ND sold diesel for $3.29. My Costco membership is paid for in savings easily. I do wish that my local warehouse in Florida carried diesel.

If you can access USAA (for veterans and family members of service members) I can recommend USAA for truck and trailer. They didn't offer insurance on the trailers when I purchased my Oliver, but this year I learned they started offering it. LAST year, I lived through Hurricane Ian and my tow vehicle did NOT. USAA was prompt and easy to deal with, and I had a replacement before the end of October (less than a month later - which is good, since many of the vehicles in SW Florida were totaled and the supply was lean). I've only had to use them for vehicle issues (being rear-ended and then the hurricane) but both times I had excellent service.

Saw this Ollie yesterday afternoon I-64 East in Louisville.

Received a response from Jason, sounds like the cut keys are also all the same key code...... Hey Rich, I reached out regarding the lock style 9 with key, however they informed me that the keys are not unique. It is just a little nicer heavier duty key but they would all be the same key code. This is something that I have already passed up to engineering to look into as I have been wanting to have a true lock ever since we started using the lithium batteries. I know it is on the engineering list of things to research but I don’t know how quickly it will make it to the top of the list. Regards, Jason D. Essary

I will request thread carve-out on this one. Just trying to get true description of what I have here.

I agree with Frank C, but I will go further and say you have a broken spring. The flipped shackle would never get so high as to touch the subframe! In fact, towing with it flipped is normally fine. Here is mine the last time both sides flipped: You need to find a NEARBY trailer repair shop and have them install a full set of four 3500 pound rated springs. Don’t tow it any further that necessary. If the roads to the shop are smooth, no worries, if you have to drive on rough pavement … in your shoes I would find a mobile tech or get it transported on a truck bed. They also need to inspect the frame for any possible damage. They also need to check the shocks. What tire pressure in your trailer? If you are running 80 psi, that could have caused this. On truly nasty roads set them to 45 at the most. Mine runs 42 psi all the time. Good luck, please start a new thread with this. John Davies Spokane WA

We almost retired in AZ having lived in Sierra Vista a couple of times. Our daughter graduated from NAU in Flagstaff and we have good friends in Payson, Tucson and Sierra Vista. We actually prefer AZ weather of TX weather, especially during this heat wave! Mike

After the baseline stuff - towing package, trailer features, stuff that makes it a tow vehicle - we were focused on what would make it comfortable and safe on longer drives. Yes, I know I should be able to do all that without the fancy trailer knob, but if I’m buying a truck for towing those things were top of the list. After that: Advanced cruse control with lane keeping alerts and following speed and braking. I’m just so used to that I don’t want to not have it. When I am traveling for work and get a rental car without it I miss it. Cross Traffic detection and reverse warnings - basically all the you are about to hit something or it’s about to hit you warnings. Apple Car Play - because the in car navigation is out of date when you pick it up 🙂 Bucket seats - because (a) height difference and (b) that way the passenger can reach things placed in the back seat like water bottle refills and lunch. The highly adjustable seats are a definite bonus. Strange as it sounds - the bed lighting option. I know I can put that on aftermarket, but it’s a Saturday I don’t have to spend. The power adjustable pedals on the Ford were a light bulb moment. Rebecca claims she will never drive the truck - but she may need to someday and that will help her greatly. Same with the tailgate step. Again - good aftermarket options that we may still add to the sides. 360 Cameras - is it just the geek in me that I did not want to give up the 360 cameras? I think it’s that “first time truck buyer” security blanket, given that I have yet to park one of our test drives between the lines at the dealership when we came back. Cones and an open parking lot are in my future while I figure out the spatial relationships of the larger vehicle.

We've never used our good sams road insurance on the trailer, but used it several times on vehicles, all covered under the policy. (Friends have used it successfully, for rrailer and truck, in the past. ) Good service, and really decent response times, for us.. Back in the day, aaa didn't offer trailer insurance, so we went with good Sam's. Never disappointed. They do send an annoying bunch of emails, however. Truly annoying. But, I have a quick finger on delete, so there..! I, too, would like to know if there is something better, covering tv and trailer.

Oh, crap. I won't be able to get that Green Acres theme song out of my head for days now! (One of my faves, as a kid, on black and white rv, in the country.) I truly think when you go through your truck and replace needed parts, you'll be a very happy clam, sans Andersen. Don't make yourself sick, working in this sw heatwave. Not worth it. Cooler weather is coming. You have a great trailer, and a great truck.

I'll likely rebuild the front-end, check the brakes and shocks this fall. This truck is totally solid and after buying Oliver, I had a $20K budget for our TV. I will reach my budget, after buying all the suspension parts I need! Look for my Audio/Visual system upgrade post soon. I did this upgrade the first week we owned our Oliver. We decided, we are going to call ours Oliver, not Ollie like many of you. Think of Eva Gabor, saying Oliver, in the iconic show Green Acres! "Land spreadin' out so far and wide, keep Manhattan just give me that countryside." I love that phrase and it changed my life when I first heard it. This verse tells much about the RV/camping experience. We travel mainly over the winter, including camping at 3-4 Pickleball tournaments a year. Thinking to meet up with all, y'alls in Texas for the solar eclipse, we love Texas! We lived and worked in the Austin Texas area from 2006-2014. We've been to Fredericksburg 4-5 times, took family there! It's awesome, going for German draft beer and food. Schnitzel and spaetzle! OMG! And my son won a major tennis championship at Kerrville, great memories, and my favorite guitar shop is in Boerne TX, Hearts Home Acoustics!!! Of course, I'll post my suspension rebuild project in the Towing an Oliver forum. I really love this Oliver TT forum already. You guys are great and respond with good advice quickly. I've only been here 5 weeks and plan to be fully involved here. Thanks

@MAX Burner, humor aside, pouch cells are not a good choice, imo, for travel trailers, as @NCeagle said. I really don't know their current case or cell structure, but, I always tend to avoid the "least expensive" alternatives, unless I can truly drill down on the configuration. We invested a bunch in the best travel trailer, imo. I'm going to keep that right. I will always be on the lookout for a great price on a proven product. I think everyone here knows I'm a careful shopper. But ,as our daughter's boyfriend once said, he knows we'll "spend up" for the quality. It won't be pouch cells, if we ever decide to go with lithium. It will likely be battleborn. Like you, I don't want to look back in the mirror, and see my travel home looking like a burnt campfire marshmallow. Pouch cells are fine, for many uses. Imo, I don't want them in my trailer.

I received my bi-weekly solicitation from AAA in today's mail, and because I was neck deep in truck and Oliver stuff it made me wonder - "What travel services or clubs have others found useful?" I was halfway into starting a new thread when I thought - "I really should do a search to see if there thread is already out there." Glad I did - hate to be "that person who needs to learn to search." 🙂 When we first picked up "Reset" one of the exciting things was the idea of boondocking - something we could not do in our prior camper. So, I signed up for membership to Harvest Hosts. Over the year and a renewal, we have used it once - staying at a distillery in Kentucky. It was a delightful evening, and being at a distillery I had no problem meeting the $20 purchase recommendation. Our travels and the HH locations have not overlapped a great deal to date, it's still an aspirational thing rather than very useful. Good Sam - signed up for the insurance which has been good so far, although I need to shop the overall plans. The trip routing tools are nice; however I have recently been playing around with the planner from RVLife and really like the way it works. The gas discounts are great - especially since Pilot Flying J is currently stacking the Good Sam Discount with their own app discount. Looking at the AAA offerings while printing yet another window sticker to review, I got to wondering "Is there a perfect travel club or service? One that provides the best tools and benefits?" Adding this comment to bump this thread up and see if there are new things in 2023 that people think are valuable / not valuable.

Might be the water pump pressure valve, check this video https://youtu.be/0vemzasAdRY

That photo makes me smile. The Japanese invasion is really what brought on the little cars from Ford ( and others.) Back to the original discussion. (And I truly apologize for the thread drift. ) 4 x 4, for sure, if gravel roads and northern Canada are in your plans. If you're like us (and I suspect you are) we make the big purchases thoughtfully, and for the very long run. Our 2008 4x4 ram doesn't have many of today's features. That's mostly ok with us. We can add backup cameras, avoidance cameras, etc, should we desire. I would want those, though, in a new truck. Safety features are a big deal. Big tires? No. Great seats, yes. Long trips to Canada make you appreciate great seats, for sure. I replaced the foam and covers in the Ram a few years ago. But, they did last a long time. For my husband, they're very comfortable. For me, (short) the driver seat, with all its adjustments, just doesn't ever give me a great comfort, especially for my left leg. No armrest on the right I manage with a pillow. I've driven my brother's f150 several times, and I agree with my (even shorter) sister in law, the seating is awesome. With its multitude of adjustments. It's great for my brother, too. Ford had an interconnect for camera on the trailer, which is great. I'd pass on the hybrid,,as of today. Two systems to maintain is two times the problems, imo. Others may say different. I'd ask others, what features could you not live without, in your newer trucks?

Crow Head NL had an abundance of icebergs There’s a clear blue strip on this iceberg

Below is a photo of a Zircon battery-operated water leak alarm under the kitchen sink in Hull # 1291. The second photo shows the drawer closed, with the water leak alarm still in place. So, the Zircon water leak alarm fits behind that bottom drawer. It will provide peace of mind when using the kitchen sink.

We're fortunate & have a slot in door for mail. "USPS Informed Delivery" sends an email daily that has images of what's being delivered that day. All bills paid electronically so there is rarely anything important. A good friend stays at our house a few days a week. House looks lived in & she runs appliances, toilets etc. The best part is she deep cleans the house. A neighbor drives our other vehicle to work a couple days a week and parks his car in our driveway. Yard service, yes. HVAC Thermostat & irrigation controllers on wifi. Emergency contact list contains names of people we trust to make decisions re emergency house repairs. Plumber, electrician, carpenter ... Keyless entry on back door so repair people can get in. ♡ Harvest Host.

I discovered a leak under my sink last week. Luckily a friend knew to check this area and mine was not tightened down either. I think that resolved my leak, but I need to check it more thoroughly. Right now I can't access due to mobility limitations after hip replacement.

I’m betting it was the front two leaf springs that were replaced, and those 27” long replacement springs are too long. That’s forcing the forward EZflex link up into the trailer frame, and stretching the rear leaf springs to the point that they are flattened. From the Dexter searches I found, it looks like the spring length should be ~25.25” (confusing because the one site part number has a 27). Maybe someone else can confirm the correct Dexter part.

Btw, our tie rods needed replacement at about 150k on our dodge ram 1500. Could also be part of your issues.

I have zero problems with driving an older truck. Mine is a 2005, and we've owned it since new. But, it's regularly checked by our mechanic (now a family friend), and I trust his judgment. I'm not interested anymore in crawling around under the truck or trailer. I used to think it was fun. Not anymore. I agree with the others. I suspect your problem lies with some deferred maintenance from previous owner, and you shouldn't (imo) need or even use an Anderson with that front heavy diesel. I'll bet at least the shocks are tired, if not the springs, if you're getting a big sag hooked up. I replaced mine , and it made a huge difference.

I think you mentioned the truck drove better with a trailer attached. My guess is the front end parts are really worn. The extra 1k lbs from the Cummins really accelerates this process. New shocks would be a good idea as well with the truck so old. Jack up a corner and grab the tire. If you need help determining what parts are bad watch a few YouTube videos. Tire pressure is not the problem here…

D and I spent a week in SoCal a couple weeks ago, Marina del Ray to be exact... We saw no fewer than 3 or 4 Rivians on a daily basis. They seemed to be "everywhere." We noticed that none were hauling anything???

Have you tried to get a voltage reading at the pump with your VOM? If you don't have a VOM, you could also test for voltage at the pump positive (red wire) with a test light probe: Realize that this is a basic question, but at least you'll know if the pump "is" or "is not" getting power. Battery voltage at pump & pump not running = bad pump. If there's no power to the pump, you're probably "ok" to assume the pump is functional. We've had several pumps fail over the years and that's why we travel with a spare. One is none. Two is one....: Keep us informed of your troubleshooting progress - good luck! Best, A & D

Yes, I meant a winterizing hand pump. Mine is a Camco brand which can be found on Amazon.

What kind of hand pump? I'm curious. We have a manual foot pump in our sailboat, for the kitchen sink, only. Backup system. Only used it a few times, other than testing, annually. Nice feature, though. Oh, you probably mean a hand pump for winterizing?

If you use a water softener at home, and always fill the trailer tank from that source, especially for long term storage, those white hard water deposits will clear out on their own throughout the entire system, in a few months, and never return. When you are on the road, you must use whatever sources are available, just drain and refill the tank with the good stuff when you get back home, and flush out the pipes and water heater. Otherwise you need to do vinegar flushes every two years. This is a great reason to invest in a softener at home, it cleans out your home pipes and gets rid of spots in your shower, plus you can tee into that supply and wash the Ollie and your cars with it. It’s a win win win …. win situation. 😉 https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/environment/water/factsheet/softening.html#:~:text=Advantages of home water softening,%2C bathtubs%2C and washing machines. John Davies Spokane WA

Episode 2:

I think it was this one. Best if you go get a few of the fittings at a HW store and a couple short pieces of PEX tubing.

Made it to the Yukon. First problem on trip. At Watson Lake turned on pump and heard splashing sound under bed by pump We had been in bad washboard roads which broke the PEX connection at the T out of the water heater. Thanks to previous posts I knew of this trouble spot and had replacement parts on board. Took 30 mins to fix.

Someone overfilled your tanks. When they heated up, the pressure relief valves opened, venting propane. I'd get them filled somewhere else next time. Propane is heavier than air. The propane you're venting will flow downhill. If there's a lot of it, this could pose a hazard if it finds an ignition source. If you do have a lot venting, you can try cooling the tanks with water. Odd this happened to you. I recently had a propane place overfill one of my tanks, too. That's not supposed to happen. The tank's built in Overfill Protection Device should not allow a tank to be overfilled.

The water was not as cold as I expected, the mosquitoes are annoying, no bears so far, a couple of moose and lots of icebergs.

As a safety precaution, check your "gas stop" brand pigtail for leaks. Both of mine had small leaks at the 90 degree bend where the chrome fitting goes into the brass elbow. I'm send them back soon and trying a different brand. Probably bad luck but I figured to just try another brand. John

Well done! Thank you for sharing.

Here is a free app we find very handy when deciding on fuel stops. It works great if we are traveling on the superslab which we do try to usually avoid. We typically prefer the roads less traveled. It’s called IExit.

Costco and Sam's are very helpful memberships on the road, for us. We filled up at the new costco gas station in Pooler , Georgia (near Savannah Airport, just off 95) this morning at the "bargain rate" of $4.12, when most other stations were 25 to 35 cents higher. Gasbuddy checks revealed the lower price in Georgia vs Columbia SC, costco, and, our big fuel tank allowed us to get there from North Carolina. Their gas stations are always one way in, one way out, so no jumbled messes pinning your rig, or requiring tight turns,, like some of the truck stops. But, most don't have diesel, just regular and premium. Our fuel savings more than pay for our membership. Everything else is a bonus. It's nice having both, as there are more costcos in Canada and Alaska than Sam's. Not sure if any sam's left in Canada . Conversely, more Sams in many states than costco. We have three favorite Costco spots between our home in Florida, and our camping spot in north carolina, but only Sam's in Asheville. (But, Murphy and some of the Ingles grocery stores are often as good or better than Sam's. GasBuddy is my real buddy.)

I like Google. Waze, campendium. Allstays. Gasbuddy.

If you can see the point and can reach it with something like a small disposable paintbrush you can paint some of the dish soap plus water on the area and if there's a leak you'll almost certainly see bubbles appearing fairly quickly there, and they will keep appearing even if you brush them away so long as the area stays wet.

Are you using any type of propane leak fluid or just the sniffer and your nose? I test with a mix of dish soap and water and there are commercial products available. These options will allow you to pinpoint the leak, where as either of your sniffers will just get you in the neighborhood. Mossey

Did you verify the rear quick connect inside the rear bumper is closed and not leaking? If you don’t have a rear quick connect, there should be a plug in the the last fitting of the gas line running down the curb side of the trailer into the rear bumper area that is worth testing. Either of those items are very close to your the furnace. Mossey