Leaderboard

The forum has given me more work to do again! Love the new fan with light. I won't bore everyone with the same information already available from previous posts but great upgrade. The only thing I might have done in retrospect is drill a 1/4 in hole adjacent to the 6 in opening so that the wires had a better home rather than squeezed between the fiberglass and shroud.

Little Giant setup with trestle brackets and plank is a game changer for working on and cleaning the Oliver, especially at my age. They actually sell a ladder with built in levelers. The ladder comes apart to make to A-frames, you connect them with trestle brackets and top them off with plank. Links below: https://www.littlegiantladders.com/products/epic Accessory bundle is included with wall mount and trestles. https://www.littlegiantladders.com/products/ladder-plank?variant=41042434228389

Mike and JD: Combining your two responses with one of mine was a bit transformational. They have caused me to rethink my previous thoughts on this subject over the past 30 years. . I have always suggested and used "CHEAP" dishwasher pods. But to get the water softening needed for many of the sites we use, those water softening agents certainly would be good So, I'm going to shift over to using a small container of the more premium dishwasher pods for tank cleaning such as this one. For this product, I like that it has both Dawn for grease cutting and anti-sudsing agents that keep the suds to a minimum. Amazing technology for sure. However, the shelf life of such dishwasher pods varies by brand, but generally, they last for about 12-15 months. The cheap dishwasher pods typically las two years in my Ollie. To mitigate the shelf life, each season I'll either bring back to the house the left over pods. Or justbring 6 pods for the summer tour. Maybe I have come to a good solution considering shelf life, cost, weight, and performance. Surprisingly, this old dog can still learn new tricks. Thanks for the idea! GJ

The Boss of Me is going to be upset because that ladder is going to impact the toy budget. Wow, I want/need that beast!

@Steve Morris - Hey, Steve; good morning. If still needed, we can swing by later this AM with a wide selection of grommets that you can have a "look-see" - there may be ones in there that may fit. Cheers, A & D

The Calgon water softener is basically a water softener in a box or bottle. Way back I used the liquid and don't recommend that due to the propensity for spills and the weight. But their powder is good stuff for carrying in our RV's Softer water in the tanks makes the detergent more effective. Better Dishwasher pods have water softening chemicals therein. So it becomes a trade off between using less dishwasher pods with Calgon or just using more dishwasher pods. Either way, it gets the job done. if you have real hard water, then I would lean towards Mike and Carol's approach. GJ

Hi Sherry I open a ticket Thursday. Mike contacted me right a way. He told me he will have all the information i need from the manufacture by Monday. I want to keep it as original as possible. From 2008 till now a lot of work been done on the windows. That is the reason my wife and i decide to replace the windows for the factory one if they still available before start looking for other options. Hope we can buy them from the manufacture. I really appreciate any help in the near future with some other things we have to update on the trailer. thank you 🤝 ///Fernando

Yes, sure do.

@rideadeuce - Great work on your bath fan upgrade, Mike - that LED makes a ton of difference when more light is need in the head... You'll be loving it! Should be OEM, IMO... Awesome post! Cheers from Lake Guntersville SP!

@rideadeuce Hey Mike, you are really doing a great mod-job on your Oliver. So many great improvements, and excellent work too. I LOVE your ladder-scaffold setup! Can I borrow it? Oh, and can I borrow a lot of flat land to work on? I would need levelers for that setup, or perhaps ladders with adjustable legs. Hmmm, you have me thinking. It's certainly not easy working on top of the Oliver given its shape. Kidding aside, thanks for sharing so many great posts lately. 😂

Great pictures!!

We use one pod and a capful of Calgon water softener. When it’s going to sit a month or two we also add some Happy Camper in both black and gray tanks with a gallon or so of water. No odors, no issues. Mike

My Ollie gets used 3 - 4 months, and then cold storage. Somewhere along the tour, when I am leaving a FAMCamp and going to a place with an easy dump station, I'll do the tank clean with two pods. At the end of the season, my last clean is with three pods. Why 2 or 3 dishwasher pods? No justifiable reason what so ever. Guess it just felt right. Let's try it with one and then 2 for the end of season and save another 1/3 of the cost. Easy to check the black tank with a strong light and a mirror on a stick. Have not thought of a way to check the Gray tank other than to just see clean water during flush. Good question for sure. GJ

Oh, I forgot to mention I blew the fuse for the fan in the sub panel in the attic. Left side, 5th down 7.5 amp. I recommend taking it out before wiring.

Yes, it fits exactly. The only thing that would work better is to modify the wiring by drilling a hole next to the opening that leads to area that the LED shroud covers. The original wiring from the Vent-line fan came out the side and just tucked in between fiberglass shells. The wiring from the LED light squeezes between the extension shroud and hole but would be better if it was better protected.

Yosemite today: The pond near swinging bridge was dead calm.

Hi, Fernando. You now own a little piece of history! #6! Wow. Hehr was the original window manufacturer. Some years ago, they were bought out by Lippert. I do not believe that the exact same size windows are available, anymore, but slightly larger is . I would open a new ticket, and specifically ask Jason, as they refitted #1 as original, a number of years ago. That said, there may be nothing wrong with your original windows. The mildewed seals can be replaced. Do they all open and close properly? The back window may or may not actually be the leaking culprit . Most of us early hull owners have found that the true problem was the Oliver sign above the rear window. You'll know if that's the culprit if you tape all around it with clear or white duct tape. That said, our rear window did leak at one time, fairly early on. We corrected that problem by removing the window, cleaning up all the old caulk (not an easy job with all that silicone smeared everywhere on yours), and reinstalled it using synthetic butyl "tape" as a bedding material. Our rear window rough opening was pretty "rough" indeed, and a tiny bit larger for the window than it should have been, but since carefully reinstalling with butyl many years ago, we've had no leaks from the window. If any of the double pane windows have fogged, there are a number of places around the country that will remove and repair fogged windows. I can highly recommend Suncoast Design in Hudson Florida, should you want to travel. There are still a handful of original 2008 owners who are friends of mine. Some, like Pete (bugeyedriver on the forum) are still active here. We're all happy to help. Sherry/Seadawg

My objective when starting this thread was to cast light onto a significant safety problem that many of us have dealt with (and/or may deal with in the future), share my chosen solution and then share the results of that solution with other E2 owners. In doing this, I hoped others would develop and share their own solutions and their observed results following implementation. Any deviation to this objective is outside the intention for this thread. Please try and stay on objective and if you have found your own solution, please provide your reasons for your choice, including analysis and specs, where you purchased, the total cost and your observations during installation and direct observations of use after implementation. There will likely be more than one viable solution to this problem and that’s fine. Providing the details on how you arrived to that solution and real-life towing following install should be of great help to the rest of us.

5/9/24 Update Have traveled just over 1k miles with the new leaf springs and, so far, so good. Like others have mentioned, there is less side to side movement which is nice. Having lowered our tire pressure seems to have tempered the stiffness and the ride softened up a bit at around 500 miles. I re-torqued u-bolt nuts at 390 miles and 1,020 miles and feel like if I do this one more time they should be good. At 1,020 miles only one nut needed about a half turn. All the others needed just a quarter turn or thereabouts. After having traveled for 1k miles I no longer have concerns about them being overrated and too stiff. Special thanks to Mountainman198 for starting this thread and for all those that have contributed to it.

Nice one, Mike - we've done the same drill... Do you have the negative lead from the SAE connector going to your SmartShunt? Just curious...

No worries, Steve - will swing by with the 2 knuckleheads later on today... 😎

I’m sorry that I never updated this question! I did indeed find the missing grate grommet in the drawer below. I’m embarrassed to say that it never occurred to me to look in the most obvious place. And thanks for the offer Art, and for popping this post back in my notifications. But I’m all set for now. You’re still welcome to drop in any time.

That looks like a crimp on cap on the blue wire, which tells me that it is not a dangling wire but one that was terminated during installation. Mossey

It fit our 2008, with a bit of filing of rough edges.

Does it fit the original hole from the older model fan?

We're used the Pine-Sol-Calgon solution 4-5 times over the last 6 months, and I did not smell a thing. My sense of smell is acute. Last time out, I smelled some in the toilet, since the toilet had been left without any water in the bowl. With a good seal and water in the bowl, and clean water meaning no Pine-Sol in the plumbing traps, you really should not smell it. Cause can be plumbing leaks or plumbing vents that do not seal. These vents are designed to allow air in and not out. But who knows, when the TT is bouncing down the road! That being said... In the future, I'm going with @Geronimo John's suggestion to use dishwasher soap pods. Do you really need 2-3? I would think 1 should suffice. I like this option because the pods are light, small and travel nicely. With Pine-Sol you really have to be careful, not only in transport but in application. If you do not very carefully put a cup of the liquid down one sink, no spills, flush the trap, then yep as @SeaDawg wrote, you're going to smell it.

Welcome to our OTT Forum @Fernando Alicea! Hull #6 - WOW how cool.😂 She looks great! New windows would certainly improve the whole trailer. There are some experts here on the older Elite I Olivers. Everybody is quiet this week since so many are at the annual OTT Rally. I will mention @SeaDawg and @ScubaRx since they are a wealth of historic and general information and so they see this thread soon. If you want a quick answer, I would call OTT Service tomorrow before the weekend. They could look up your hull # and let you know the manufacturer or perhaps supply the windows you need. Best wishes and keep us posted on the maintenance of your classic Oliver.

Per my original comment, the bushings were between the cab and frame, and bed and frame. Nothing to do with shocks. Replaced shocks due miles and bumpy ride.

Both shock's rods are 3/8" and Monroe barrel 1.64" OD & Bulldog barrel 1.66" OD, probably pistons are close to the same diameter depending on barrel wall thicknesses in each. The Monroe shock weighs 2 pounds 5 ounces and the Bulldog shock weighs 2 pounds 14 ounces. Have not seen any oil leaks with the Monroe shocks.

Two site pix from this week. Sequoia NP - Potwisha CG -Site 11 we saw another Oliver at the same campground. Hi to Marybeth & Neil pix below. Yosemite NP - Wawona CG -Site 74

Thank you SteveCr. Your solution wound up working for me! I just went the long way about it only because I hadn't been on line since. Everything was working except the app so I started attempting to solve the issue using emails. First, I followed the Lithionics instructions, Nothing. Then I submitted a ticket to Oliver. Oliver Service had nothing to add other than contact Lithionics. I contacted them first by emails using the emails in our service manuals. After not receiving a reply, I called them. They said they had never received my emails but were happy to help. The Lithionics man had never heard of the BLE Scanner they have listed in their troubleshooting guide. His solution was to turn off the batteries that were not working, so I did. Then push and hold the on button for 30 seconds which I did. The app immediately found the batteries and all is good! Thank you for your help! Kraig

We used to spend an extra $5 per cylinder for better quality seals during cylinder manufacture to greatly increase the life of industrial hydraulic cylinders.

Thanks @rideandfly agree they are different builds. Hoping the internal seals and other components are superior. Time will tell. Those of you with these, going on long trips this season, please inspect your shocks afterwards to see if there are any leaks. They can only be better! 😂

Galway Girl , hope you don't mind my posting photos of the Bulldog and original Monroe shocks for a physical comparison, we were curious if they were different builds. Here's the original Monroe shock next to the new Bulldog shock. The rod cover is longer on the Bulldog and rod end of cylinder is built differently, they are different builds.

This is what keeps me interested in the Oliver forum. I was tipped off to a problem in the making which had the potential of turning into a uncomfortable situation where I would not have had the control over time or place of the inevitable outcome. Then I am able to access multiple perspectives from fellow Oliver owners on research and solutions to the problem. This greatly speeds up the processes and helps illuminates the possibility of over looking a flaw in ones thinking. One thing we have to keep in mind is that there are always multiple ways to resolve a problem and we may not always agree with each others solution. Thanks to all who contribute to this forum.

Yea, don't mess with that Crazy Horse guy.... I've heard he will ride a pony 20 miles just to get one of Art's Beers! He just doesn't run out of feistiness! Geronimo John peeking back out from under the covers.

In recognition of 16 pages of “fun”, perhaps everyone should go back and read through the entire Post. And with that said, don’t tread on Crazy Horse!

So you want to keep it up. Ok, I warned you. So now the nice studious GJ has left the ring. _______________________________________________________________________________________ Punching back is his evil twin. My handle has been Crazy Horse (CH) for 30 years. So, after 16 pages of "fun", why would any owner now order out a 4-leaf 1750 spring? Maybe order out a 2,000-pounder or more if their needs so dictate. Maybe even think about a US made 2000 to 2400 four or if they like stiff rides a 5 leaf as that really smart nice guy suggested. But not a 1750 of any leaves.... But to answer your bolded statement above: Because this group is smarter than that to do so. Now you have to agree with that one! 🙂 Crazy Horse (CH)

To the people freaking out over the Dexter spring. If your spring is indeed defective it will fail very quickly, I have 3 of the original springs with over 80,000 miles on them, 1 failed, it took approximately 2 hrs for me to change it, when they do fail it’s generally not a catastrophic event, the remaining spring eye and shock will hold the axle in place. You will need to replace it asap however since the remaining spring is carrying more weight. Personally I’m sticking with the original design, e trl can overnight replacement parts anywhere in the USA. I to would prefer to buy USA made parts and will go with Stl spring next time, I forgot about them when my original spring failed.

(Originally posted on Facebook one year ago. This modification has really worked out well.) Since we have a composting toilet and the black tank was sitting unused, I decided to reroute the sink drain in our bathroom to the black tank. This will allow us to stay put longer with 50% more holding capacity. Pictures are before and after replumbing. Joe/769

The Outlaw Oliver now has 4 new five leaf Alcan Springs, 4 new Monroe 555001 Shocks and 4 new Hercules H-901 Commercial Light Truck tires. Tali and I installed the springs and shocks earlier this week and the new tires went on yesterday. Our next trip will likely be 10K miles over the next three months or so. I believe we are good to go now. We will leave Monday for the Rally in AL, then on to the Rally in ME and from there to CO for a few weeks. We hope to hit a few more National Park Units. As of December 2023, there are 429 official units of the National Park System, We've visited almost 300 so far.

Made it through last night fairly "high and dry" - although there is a slight after-smell of wet huskies in the camper... Oh, well, it's how we roll. T-storms started again early this AM (0230) through about 0445. Nobody slept - coffee came early and prep for R&R operations with Dusten Bowden (18-year veteran of OTT). The Dexter Nev-R-Lubes swapped without even a hiccup... ABOVE: Removed and replaced the rear axle first then attacked the front... ABOVE: Note the size difference between the 12" and 10" drums... about 19% more braking surface area. ABOVE: Took about 3.5 hrs for the axle R&R, back on the road now and headed toward Nashville over the next several days. Had to stop for this pic - here's "3 hearty cheers" to Jim Oliver for designing what we consider the best TT for the money in the US RV market! Roll-on, regardless...

We’re camping at David Crockett Birthplace State Park until we head to the rally. This is a small park near Johnson City and is the childhood homestead of Davy Crockett. Only about a third full right now. It’s a nice park and a good location to explore East Tennessee. Campground Store The Nolichucky River runs right by the campground and it is running very high. The camp hosts warned everyone this afternoon to be ready to evacuate if the storms continue.

At Lake Havesu Az at Cattail Cove SP. Nice level sites with Wafter & 30 amp. Thd park he’s a beach, boat launch , small visitor's center and fish cleaning station. Bathroom and showers are clean and modern with high pressure hot water. We are in site 15.

I had a similar issue with 1 of 3 lithionics batteries on my 2021 LE2. I went through the checklist...installing new app, etc...nothing worked until I simply turned off the battery (all three actually), waited a few minutes and turned them back on.....issue immediately solved with no reoccurrence. Steve

Concur, 100%, Carnivore! We believe the more maintenance, upgrades, and general OTT upkeep, the better you know and keep track of its status over the many years of usage. You'll know when shocks need an R&R drill, wet bolts needing a fresh squirt of lube, window tracks need a cleaning, a WH anode needs attention, etc., etc., etc... We'll need to compare notes on our spring pack R&R at the rally - I'm thinking we're parked real close to y'all. We'll be found in A-6. Safe travels, All! Cheers!

Steve, Cameron (above) was right to call OTT Service and ask them about it. One thing I have learned is, even for something like this... If OTT Svc gets enough 'svc tickets' on a particular issue owners are experiencing, they 'May' contact the source and ask, or request a bunch of those parts, for when owners call and need a fix, or at least have a better idea about the part (number-description) in question. We experienced the same thing. We also lost some metal pins which are on the underside of the grate. The 'rubber cushions & pins' were usually found separately in the top drawer just below the stove... until we didn't find them. We ended up replacing the entire D21, for a different issue. I did contact Dometic Customer Support Center at customersupportcenter@dometic.com about the other 'stove issue', it took a while for the reply, but it did answer my question. I just went out to SNYSDUP and looked at our brand new D21, not used since installation. It is missing a rubber pad that cushions the glass top... I will now look at the old D21 for a possible cushion, or find/make one to fit. The other thing I just noticed was, now that the new grate has the pins in it, the metal pins 'seat into' the rubber cushions. So, I could have 'popped one out' at some point when removing the grate and not even noticed that. So the rubber pads have a hole that the 'grate pin' fits into. The reason I mention this is, 'just any' rubber pad may not be the best fit. You will find/figure that out. If you contact DCSC, send some pics of the stove corners where the cushions are/were located. That may help them better understand what you are looking for. Best of luck, B~Out update with (2) pics. one shows pin on underside of Grate, the other is of the D21 bumper pads. Larger one 'receives the pins', you can barely make out the hole in the pad, the smaller is for the Glass Top.

We found 2 in our top drawer :) They push through the hole too easily. John

Mine were 1/2”x3” and the new ubolts provided by Alcan were 9/16”x3”. Fit perfect. Longer to accommodate taller Alcan spring packs. 9/16” fit thru spring retainer plates fine as holes are larger than 1/2”