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Boondocking at a HH near Pagosa last night - nice sunset at "84 Ranch"... En route to Crested Butte today for the fall colors show!

I ended up changing my reservation from Bakers Hole (dry camping) to Rainbow Point, Gallatin NF in MT. This gained an electrical connection (no water connection, but I already winterized). Driving in, the rain turned to sleet. I’ll be happy using my space heater in the morning! I have weak cell service here, so no photos to share today, but I’ll try to post some later. This NF cg seems nice, but a warning: the road in was severely washboarded — slow going. I think I was going about 5 mph; no contents out of place when I landed. There’s a lake, and footpaths to access it from each cg loop.

IMG_9671.mov We hiked around Bear Lake it is beautiful. We also hiked Sprague Lake. I may do a little trout fishing.

Sounds like you’re gonna DIY the bearing overhaul! Did the same last May, went with the Timkens as well, from Summit Racing. The CRC degreaser and brake cleaners I used worked great along with a parts cleaning brush and drip pan. I also ordered a brass drift punch for use in driving out the races and the Red Line CV-2 grease that John E Davies highly recommends. I found placing paper towels under the spindle prior to installing the bearings useful in keeping grease off the underlying brake components. Since the wheels are off and grease likely leaked from the rear seals, take time to throughly cleanup residuals and wash the tires. If you haven’t done so already, now would be a good time the replace the grease zerks with the angled variety. Many install 90°, but I choose 45° from Grainger’s. Good luck with your endeavor!

Drive across the park to the Grand Lake side, it’s quite a drive. The area around Grand Lake is nice, not as built up as Estes Park. Have fun! Mike

Just a brief hello as I prepare to be without power for about a month. Won't be able to participate in the forum as much, unless I manage from my phone. Black Hills SD, Devils Tower WY, Wapiti campground (west of Cody), West Yellowstone MT, and someplace in the Grand Tetons WY before turning south and east. Many heartfelt thanks to all the great members here for your help, encouragement and advice as I begin this next segment of the journey. I'm thrilled!

Ronbrink, you did quite a job! I'll post my pictures soon, the before and after. Bill thank you for your note. I'm hoping mine will perform properly. I still cannot get my head around how shoes can get too tight, as they can only go so far. I'll add a little silicone brake grease to the adjuster pistons and where the shoes contact the backing plate. JD, yep the limited travel is obvious since the leaf springs appear to have minimal arc! They should be longer and taller. It would be nice if OTT would upgrade this and position the wheels a little further from each other. Not worried about warranty on a $24 part. Usually when I replace shocks it's from a used vehicle recently purchased and I buy new shocks for any that test bad.

Way to fly our great country’s only flag Max! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Looking great, enjoy!! Onward! Patriot🇺🇸

Rereading you're post,,with edits, I'd say 90 per cent, bad gfci, and a simple repair. Best of luck. Let us know how it works out.

We are based camped in Estes Park Colorado at Spruce Lake which is about 1.5 miles from the entrance of RMNP entrance. We went on line and locked in 2 separate days of park access plus passes. Park plus gives us access to the entire park including Bear Lake. We will be here for a week with so much to see. We are heading into the park at 10 am this morning. A brisk 48d here this morning 64 and full sun is the high, great weather all week. Things can change fast in the mountains so we stay weather aware all the time. We could hear the Elk bugling while enjoying dinner last night, awesome! A small herd of 6-8 deer walked by our site yesterday afternoon.😋 Onward! Patriot🇺🇸 Dinner last night, I cheffed up season and garlic rubbed tenderloins with a smoked blue cheese crumble. Breakast- our own venison sausage, cheesey eggs and a waffle. Roughing it! 😊

We did a little off-pavement driving in our travels around Kentucky last week. Managed to get through without resorting to 4-low. We also took a hazardous route through tall grass to boondock at Whiskey Thief Distillery. Having friends who are friends of the owner has its benefits! My wallet left these places a fair bit lighter.

Here’s a nice video on the last 100 years of Texas State Parks. I’m sure most states have a similar history. We’ve stayed at state parks across the nation and appreciate what they provide. BTW, H-E-B is a Texas supermarket chain headquartered here in San Antonio. https://youtu.be/1rHgTkBGv_w?si=qCcsBz99Cxvy1hmU

SOLVED! I had to turn off all breakers, turn off and disconnect from main 30amp power supply, then reset everything… and it worked! But I do have a question: There are (2) fuses in the aft dinette’s fuse box, for receptacles (?) — labeled #9 & 10 (2022 Elite II) — they are solid black — how can you tell if they are blown, when you can’t see through them?

Thanks, @Patriot - we've been getting a lot of similar complements on 'Ol Glory this trip. Your's is looking great also 🇱🇷! - great minds think alike! HA!

Indeed, it is the upward travel that is lacking. Do you plan to carry an air pump? Run your trailer tires at 42-45 psi all the time and lower that number if you have more than say five miles of washboard. Rock hard tires and crappy suspension kill parts and belongings. John Davies Spokane WA

There actually are a few water/electric sites in Baker's Hole Campground. But, they are hard to come by in that all sites there are first come/first served. There is some terrific fishing near you! Bill

And, this is the case with thousands of these brakes. Yes, it is unfortunate when they do not work as designed. Yes, they are much more complicated as compared to the manual adjusting kind, but, for many people who do not or will not adjust their own brakes, the automatic ones generally do the job. Bill

Thanks Steph and Dud, I did not realize trailer brakes adjusted going forward. I guess that makes sense. Either way $600 or $800 ain't happenin' now! Good news for me, is the brakes have performed well so far. When I removed the drums there was just the right amount of pull, telling me they were adjusted properly. The only issue I found was bearing play in the wheel having some up-n-down wobble. More good news is I found 4 "Amazon Used" Monroe 555001 shocks at only $24 ea. Amazon used usually means damaged packaging and if any are bad, it's just another Amazon return. Mine did not look blown as some forums pics I saw, but internally they were shot. When removing, I pushed them down by hand and they just stayed there! They were the original yellow ones.

I am sorry for the loss of your mom. The engine problems sound awful too. Hope the rest of your year is better. John

Mike, Thanks! we are headed there tomorrow! 👍🏻👍🏻😊

Do yourself a big favor and ditch the auto adjust brakes for manual ones. New drums too, or the diameters will not match. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/2778-brakes-auto-adjust-vs-manual-adjust-what-are-the-differences/ Use Timken bearings and Timken seals too. You may have to supply those to your trailer guy. I doubt that they sell many due to the cost. Do you intend to detail the springs and parts when the brakes are off? There will never be a better opportunity. John Davies Spokane WA

You either have a 2000 watt or 3000watt inverter. The wiring diagrams are different. Which do you have? The microwave may be on a separate circuit from the other outlets which share one common gfci outlet. I concur that gfci plugs could fail, or a loose ground.

Great photos, food, and trip. We have not visited RMNP yet, but it’s on our list. Please post photos!

Skipster, I just got back from a 5600 mile round trip to Glacier NP and Banff, Canada ..my Ridgeline performed good,but going up a down the continental divide was a little tough to keep the speed up..looking to upgrade to a Toyota Tundra.. one bright spot got between 15 to 17 mpg on the trip.. price of new trucks 😳. Stay safe out there!!

There is no harm in doing this however, I did discover something recently that was different from my AS days. in the AS, when I was connected to a low pressure city water I turned on the pump for a boost, worked great. I recently did the same in our LEII. We were in a campground for two nights. Before leaving the campsite I checked the fresh tank and found I had 50% remaining where I had 100% when we arrived. It turns out, anytime you turn the pump on it pulls from the fresh tank regardless of whether you are connected to city water. This is good to know and I would have preferred it not do that but OTT said it was part of the design to do that. - Brian

I found that my TPMS would alarm without the transmitter after traveling about 1/2 hour. I cut off the alligator clips on the transmitter and sodder on a USB connector onto the wire that I can connect into the Ollie USB connectors. The transmitter, using velcro strips, is located above the dinnete table. Works pretty slick and no more false alarms.

When I first got my Ollie I thought that those little lights under the camper were simply a cute gimmick that simply shouted - hey, look at me, I'm an Oliver. Fortunately, I changed my mind on this subject when later that very first summer I was preparing for bed in a nice boondocking spot and thought that I'd take a quick trip outside to ..... Anyway, I flipped the switch to turn those little lights on and made that first step out the door when I noticed a fairly large timber rattler curled up at the bottom of the second step! I sure did appreciate the indoor plumbing that night! Bill

Very cool, Mike! Nice pic! Seems like the older we are, the smaller the world gets.... Go figure! Cheers, A & D

They simply can't miss having fun going where their going. Unless, of course, they comes face to face with a griz!😒

If you get to Yellowstone and need a site with power there’s a nice Idaho state park just about 10 or 15 miles to the west. Ralph’s Lake State Park, W/E plus they have new shower buildings. I don’t think they take reservations, we had no problem getting in. It was only a 20 minute drive to Yellowstone.

I assume that you have a reservation at Wapiti and (as you may know) they do have a number of sites there that have power. There is another National Forest Service campground west of Wapiti - Rex Hale - that has 6 or 7 electric sites if you need them but they are usually reserved well in advance. If push comes to shove and you really need power (or dump or laundry, you can head back east a few miles to Yellowstone Valley Inn. My favorite campground in West Yellowstone is Baker's Hole - north of the town by about 2 miles (just beyond the airport). Site 50 or 51 will get you a wonderful view into Yellowstone National Park and stunning sunsets. There are also a few electric sites there but (again) they are usually reserved well in advance. The best laundry in West Yellowstone is "Little Ducklings" (520 Madison Ave). There are two grocery stores in town if you need to restock. Propane refills can be obtained at Westmart Building Center (100 S. Faithful Street - its an ACE Hardware store) or at the Mobil Gas station (11 Yellowstone Ave). If you do the research, there are a number of places to boondock near the Grand Tetons. One of my favorite places is a decommissioned National Forest Service camp called Box Creek. It is located approximately 10 miles east on Buffalo Valley Road. If you plan to fish, PM me for suggestions. Have a great trip! Bill

Many of us with models newer than 2019 have formally requested wiring diagrams from OTT, with no success. It’s been discussed in the forum several times. I checked the last wiring diagram I can find in Oliver University, the 2019 manual. It shows separate switches and wires for street side porch and entry porch side. I only have one switch on my 2021, turns both sides on. The porch lights are rarely used because of this limitation. Let us know if you can locate one. Before I go poking around behind that switch panel, I’ll just be patient. I’m confident one of you electrical experts will develop a solution.

I guess we are old fashion and still camp the way we did back in the 1980's. Our 2019 Oliver Elite II is pretty basic and we opted for no electronic upgrades, that's no solar, no wi-fi upgrades, no options other then a convection oven and LP gas quick disconnects. Our trailer was purchased new in 2019 for $55,000 a far cry from what people are paying for them today. It was not a money thing just commonsense for how we camp and what works for us. Since we don't Boondock, but did stay over night in a Walmart parking lot twice and it was just not that bad without the additional power equipment that will still not run the A/C if needed. With a iPhone and all its options for connecting to the world outside I find it hard to justify the added expense of options offered in the Oliver are hardly worth to added expense. I guess my thought is when we go to sell our trailer all the options that are available today will be obsolete and all that added expense will need to be upgraded by the new buyer and Oliver can do that for them. From what I see and talking with other Oliver owners is they just don't use the upgrades that add $15,000 to the price of there Oliver, I think buyers today just have the money to spend, plus Oliver over sells these options and most just don't use them. I guess we all do what works for us, or we think it works for us, just go camping and enjoy life. trainman