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Thanks for posting. All Oliver owners need to know that the factory 4-leaf springs have a limited life, and that springs often fail far from home, because that is when they are asked to flex the most. That is why I now have a set of four Alcan 5-leaf springs for my Elite II.

For those attending the 2024 Texas Oliver Rally, at Inks Lake State Park Oct 21-24. I talked with Princess Craft today to confirm the count going for the barbecue at 5:30 Oct 22 at the Pavilion. They suggested you bring your own beverages they will supply plates, utensils, and napkins.

@jd1923 ; Studying the Leaf spring upgrade thread is a good call, brother! Concur 100%. It's key for OTT owners to know that U-bolts are a "one-time use" item. Once torqued correctly, they should not be removed and used again because they actually "stretch" to fit that particular axle/spring configuration. The leaf spring upgrade thread has proven to have saved several owner's some heartache by having spare leaf springs in their kit when experiencing a spring failure. It's good to learn that @Galway Girl had spare springs and was near a good shop to handle the R&R for them. BRAVO ZULU! Imagine if that particular thread had not been started! Cheers, All!

With the wild horses at Assateague Island.

Sorry for the delayed response. I installed two HQST 100W 12V flexible monocrystalline solar panels on top of the A.R.E. bed cover; other equipment to include a Haoguo ABS solar double cable entry gland, EternaBond EB-RB020-50 Roof Seal 2”x50’, Renogy 20A MC4 waterproof inline fuse holder and a Victron SmartSolar MPPT 75/15 solar charge controller (all Amazon purchases). My Son provided a length of solar cable and MC4 connectors needed. The panels were positioned and secured around the edges with the EB tape, a hole was drilled through the bed cover at the cable gland and wires were routed inside to the charge controller. I built the portable 100 Ah power station to primarily run a Dometic CFX 75 dual zone cooler staged in the TV bed.

Buffalo National Grasslands is about 6 mi south of wall...park right on the edge of a cliff :) Boondocking of course.

Perhaps this excerpt by a contributor to the sprinter-source.com forum will provide answer to your question: “The need for a soft start on an RV air conditioner isn't a new problem, this is the case with all 13.5k and 15k BTU air conditioners I've encountered. RVers have always known they experience air conditioner operation problems at low voltage campgrounds, particularly in the high temperature high current demand times of summer camping. The air conditioner compressor won't compete for power, it just doesn't run. The air conditioner fan runs but the compressor won't start if the shore power voltage is to low, because it can't get enough current. Issues with air conditioner high LRAs have become more apparent with the popularity of Lithium batteries and inverters. Folks want to run their air conditioner off Lithium batteries and a 3000w inverter, but dampening the LRA is the only way to do that. The Atmos LRA is 48.5a, Dometic Penguin ll LRA is 52a, and the Truma LRA is 58a. Micro-Air was the first company to realize the RV industry needed a solution for reducing air conditioner compressor LRA, which is why they created the EasyStart. Micro-Air had this market cornered until just a couple of years ago when SoftStartRV started producing a similar type of soft start device. Both the EasyStart and SoftStartRV dampened the Dometic Penguin ll's LRA to around 24a. The lower the LRA the easier for the RV electrical system to run it (shore or generator power or Lithium battery/inverter). All us LTVers have added EasyStarts or SoftStartRVs to our Dometic Penguin lls. The Truma technicians I interviewed at the Tampa RV Super Show made it clear their air conditioner needed a soft start and the if you wanted to use Lithium batteries and a 3000w inverter. They also were very clear that a 3000w inverter was the minimum sized inverter to operate their unit. I believe the SoftStartRV is the only unit that is compact enough to fit inside the Truma Aventa. Based on my observations of the Atmos running off my Xantrex 3000w and 1 of my Lithionics 320ah Lithium battery and then 2 and 3 batteries, I suspect it doesn't really have a soft start. The Atmos brochure says it has a "Low voltage startup function." The marketing for these Gree manufactured air conditioners are quite misleading, using the words low voltage startup, soft start, and inverter compressor in vague terms. I'm installing a SoftStartRV on my Atmos tomorrow to see if it improves upon some of the concerning behaviors I've been seeing. The Truma and Atmos have the identical Rated Load Amperage (RLA) of 10.5a at 120vAC or 136.5a at 13vdc (Lithium battery voltage). The Dometic RLA was 12.9a. The RLA is considered a maximum normal steady state operating current. Air conditioners can run on lower RLAs, as low as 70% under their RLA. In my testing of the Atmos I see it is using less RLA, which is very good. The Atmos heat mode runs about 20-30a more for heat mode. The Atmos brochure says cooling current is 11a (143a at 13vdc) and heating is 10a (130a at 13vdc), but I suspect those numbers have been accidentally reversed, because heat mode definitely takes more current and runs slightly louder in decibels than the Atmos cooling mode.“

Further deterrent, additional cable!

My wife and I know those exact feelings all too well... We got extremely lucky with Helene. Water came within inches of coming into our home but the majority of our neighbors weren't so lucky. Many had +4 feet in their homes and lost everything. Two of our neighbors had just completed renovations in order to sell and both homes are completely destroyed. Then we think about those who have it so much worse than we and our friends do... along with so many losing their lives and then we feel guilty for complaining at all.. We are very thankful that we and all our friends are all safe and sound, and praying that we get a miracle and Milton spares us all. I'm at the point where even though we're currently in the bullseye, that I can't hope that it turns further North or South because that just means I'm hoping someone else gets hit instead of myself and my family. I'm now getting ready to leave and I'm running from an approaching storm for the first time in my life.. Be safe everyone..

For those who want to come to the area to see the fall foliage, you might consider the Robbinsville / Topton area. We have reservations at Hidden Waters Campground later in October. It actually looks like we might be making this trip. Here is an update from The Campground that you might find useful. This was sent on 10/3/24 Scotty ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ We wanted to take a minute and thank everyone that has reached out to us about how we fared through Hurricane Helene. Our community was so very fortunate and did not endure the flooding, power outages and road closures that our neighbors to the East did. We had no damage in the campground and are running normal operations. Some of you may not know this, but we are almost as close to Metro Atlanta as we are to Asheville. We are well outside of the impacted disaster zone. Below are a few notes if you have an upcoming stay with us. Transportation All major thoroughfares leading to us are now open with the exception of I-40 on the North Carolina - Tennessee border between Waynesville, NC and Knoxville, TN. We personally keep a physical Rand McNally Motor Carriers spiral bound road atlas in our vehicle in case we ever have to detour in an area with limited GPS. We would also encourage you to check your individual route from your hometown. You will all be so glad to know that some of your favorite rides are open: The Tail of the Dragon, Cherohala Skyway, Wayah Road and Moonshiner 28. Unfortunately, the Blue Ridge Parkway between Cherokee and Asheville is still closed. Fuel The majority of the fuel in our community comes from Chattanooga. We have plenty of gas to get you here and back. If you are coming in the next week, we would encourage you to keep your tank half full if riding the roads as some of the more outlying areas are still cash only. Food Our Ingles grocery store is open, but their operations have been impaired by the flooding of their corporate headquarters and Asheville distribution center. Deliveries are slow and they are currently cash only as of yesterday evening. If you are coming in the next two weeks, the best bet may be just to stop at the nearest Walmart from your direction of travel. We go to the one in Murphy. Our restaurants are open for business! It has been a bit of a ghost town here lately and the local restaurants have been hurt. They have had to cut staff and hours. We would encourage you to eat at least one meal at a local restaurant while in the area if possible. You will be welcome with open arms! Cell Phone Coverage We have three bars with most carriers in our campground. If you are out in the mountains, the coverage can be spotty, but that can be true on even the best days up here. Thank you for booking a stay with us. We look forward to hosting you. Please don't hesitate to reach out to us if you have additional questions. -- Hidden Waters RV Park & Campground 4509 Tallulah Road Robbinsville, NC 28771

First - look on the forum for a US Made leaf spring set. Second - contact Oliver service as the spring packs change depending upon hull number and axles on your trailer. For hull 505 - 2019 Elite II Oliver service sent this link for the BARE springs on Amazon: NOTE does not include U-Bolts/Nuts like the Dexter parts below. These are all Made in China parts: https://www.amazon.com/TexTrail-9150014-Double-Trailer-Spring/dp/B07LFK6N33 Leaf springs part number from Oliver Service - for 2019 EII with standard axle (not a never lube hub) Dexter 9150014-02 for the Elite II trailers. (9150014-02) for the Elite II tandem axles and purchased from dexterpartsonline.com for $80 for the pair including the U-bolts and nuts. Out the door cost for the set was a total of $109.82 w/ tax and shipping.

I believe that your assumptions about getting home are correct. 40 west of Asheville will be closed for some time. 26 north of Asheville will be closed at least until Spring. 26 south of Asheville had problems but those are now cleared. Other highways - like 276 north of Brevard and south of Brevard are closed due to landslides, but, I've not heard of anything that would prevent you from getting west on 40 from 77 or simply taking two lanes from 77 over towards your place. In any case - be careful! Bill

We’ve been in Main this week at Schhodic Woods Campground in Acadia NP We left this am to head south stopping a Walmart to re-supply. Upon returning to the trailer I noticed that the steps were much closer to the ground. Upon further inspection I found (After 5 years and about 65000 miles ) Hull 505 EII finally broke a leaf spring. it was the curb side rear and sheared just where the first and second leaves meet. Lucky this happened 5 miles from a Maine Trailer location. it looks like the issue was caused by a small crack in the leaf that has the bolt eyes. That small original impurity caused internal rust weakening the metal and over time and bumpy roads it finally snapped right where the next leaf touched the longest spring. I called them at 11:30 and they got us in on a Friday at 12:30 and on the road by 2:30. That’s pure luck! I had a spare pair of springs in the bumper from our Alaska trip, but had them put on 2 new springs that were a perfect match, so I kept the spares and put on the new ones on the rear axle. $314 installed! new springs Maine Trailer 101 Coldbrook Rd, Hampden, ME 04444

I have attached a Norcold Service Manual that explains the "n" error message with some troubleshooting techniques. See page 24. Hopefully the pdf will be allowed to upload. Norcold Service Manual.pdf

I just removed the awning seal on our 2017 LE1 and it had deteriorated to where it was no longer effective. I was able to really clean that area for the first time while I was washing and waxing her. I plan to forgo replacing it and apply an over the window rain gutter. Amen.

I believe the Zamp port is rated for 20A and can purpose any suitcase, given you install a Solar Controller (SC) internal to your Oliver. When the SC is built-in to the suitcase or installed externally, the 20A port will be insufficient. Solar panels are high Voltage and low Amperage, but SCs convert to 12V at higher amperage. We went with the Renogy 400W since I felt less would not be worth the time. The 400W is pretty big and 30 LBS. Many go with this model and BTW Amazon used is what I got. It had a scuff on the handles is all saving $80! These are only 16 LBS: Amazon.com: Renogy 220W Lightweight Portable Solar Suitcase, Foldable Solar Panel with Kickstands for RV, Camping, Blackout, Off Grid System : Clothing, Shoes & Jewelry Even the 400W Renogy runs at 10A with 11A being the short circuit current (max current at point of failure, see picture). The highest I've seen on a sunny Arizona day is 366W and often we get 20-23A charging. This means 20AH when that is your hourly average and we get 10+A from the rooftop solar. With 600AH batteries at 50% SOC, an average or 30A charge will take 10 hours to recoup. This is why I went with the max 400W suitcase. Info on my installation here: Renogy 400W Suitcase Victron MPPT with Custom Solar Port Installation - Ollie Modifications - Oliver Owner Forums (olivertraveltrailers.com)

While you have drill in hand, source another padlock, a long-shackle lock for this mod! Mark one end of the paddle nut and where to drill when it's mounted and tight. Then remove both parts, hammer the one side flat and drill both on a workbench vise. These simple deterrents will chase the common thief away, thinking the can pry a battery door or merely lift the LP cover, not prepared with more sophisticated tools.

Likely you will just leave the wiring you have at the thermostat and control box. The "telephone" connector has often been used for plug-n-play electronics, so consumers do not have to do any real wiring. It is a 4-wire connector where sometimes just 2 or 3 of the 4 available wires are used. The old "twisted pair" landline telephones only used 2 of the 4 wires (black/red and yellow/green). Four were used only when there was a second line into a home or business. I have spliced these phone cables to change the terminal on one end. If you do the wires are of such fine gauge they should be soldered.

The other version of a 7-Pin holder widely used. Regardless of the type holder, it is good practice to use dielectric grease to further protect the plug contacts from moisture and dust intrusion.

Okay got it! Not a telephone type wire/connectors. Mine must be the only one that was wired using telephone type wire and connectors.

Landed our rig XPLOR in Wall, SD we did a little shopping and a walk through of the Famous Wall Drug Store. It was ok…more of the same touristo t shirt type stuff. We are still spoiled by Buc-ee’s ha! After Walls Drug visit we set up base at camp Sleepy Hollow CG. Then headed to the Badlands NP convientently only 8 miles away. It was a super windy park visit, not at all crowded and cool temps for sure. Gotta love the America the Beautiful pass which provides free entry into All National Parks unless otherwise posted. The Badlands was established as a National Monument in 1939 and became a NP in 1978. The name Badlands comes from the Lakota Indian tribe who called it Mako Sica aka - Badlands. This is some of the roughest territory we have ever seen. It is almost like being on a different planet. Please excuse the poor audio in my vid. It was super windy. Cheers and Safe Travels! IMG_2352.mov

I just purchased these as a backup set for travel (links below): WARNING: I was contacted (offline) by a knowledgeable Oliver owner that the claim "Made in USA" may or may not mean made with USA milled steel. Hard to know with marketing copy today. I called TruRyde 3 times this week to get confirmation. Three times I got voice mail without getting a call back. I called again asking to have somebody paged, get somebody on the phone, but the receptionist could not get that done. I decided to take a chance on a pair with U-bolts at $170 OTD. Any Chinese set with U-bolts comes to approx $100 so perhaps I wasted some money if these are not USA steel. At least these have bronze bushings vs plastic. My 4 leaf sets still visually appear to be in good shape, manufactured in 2015, no idea the miles on our hull. TruRyde® 4 Leaf 25 1/4" Double Eye Trailer Leaf Spring with Bronze Bushings 1750 lbs. - SW4B-BR | Southwest Wheel® Be careful is you buy a leaf/U-bolt set as these sets come with U-bolts for 2 3/8" axles. Our hull has 3" axles, standard on 5,200 LB axles: SOUTHWEST WHEEL® Southwest Wheel® U-Bolt Kit for 5,200-7,000 lbs. 3" Trailer Axle - APUBR3BX | Southwest Wheel®

I would have kept 1-2 of the old ones still in decent condition, just to have something. If I installed 4 new ones and one of them breaks in the next few years, install the spare to get home. Then study the leaf spring thread and upgrade!

May be difficult to fit with the wide round body, but if it does it would be a great lock. A thief with a crowbar may not also have bolt cutters. If the thief has bolt cutters, you will want this lock if possible or the 5/16" hardened shackle which is a LOT harder to cut than a 1/4" one. Yep, let us know and thanks.

We are departing Hill City this morning, and headed northeast to Wall, SD and it appears to be just in time. We had the opportunity to visit and spend time at Mt Rushmore, Custer SP and Needles Highway on Oct 3rd. Beautiful. We have an app called “Watch Duty” and learned about a fire 🔥 in Custer SP not far from our base camp. If you don’t have this free app I highly recommend it. Thanks to our Starlink Mini we are staying weather and fire aware. The dry west is a tinder box! https://www.keloland.com/news/local-news/fire-warning-evacuation-near-little-devils-tower-area-friday/ Onward!

Lucky to be so close to a shop but this should not be happening. Glad you are back on the road. Safe travels

You were very fortunate to have been close to a trailer shop. Good for you! Onward!

Glad that worked out so well!

Completely enjoyed the presidential walk around Mt Rushmore, driving through Custer SP and Needles Highway is a must see! The drive and the views were incredible. We were stomping hungry 😄 and had a fabulous tenderloin dinner at the Alpine Inn. The meal was perfect and the homemade deserts were awesome. We highly recommend the Alpine Inn for dinner in Hill City. 🤩 Off to Wall, SD tomorrow making our way east. Our hearts are very heavy about the conditions left behind by Helene. We look forward to getting home and volunteering where ever we can help to our fellow North Carolinians. Hopefully we will find roads open so that we wont have to detour to Atlanta. We think I40 east of Asheville is open from what we are learning. We will probably have to go to Wytheville, Va and drop down on I77 and pick up 40 east. IMG_2288.mov Dinner at the Alpine was On! May head back today for lunch it was soooo good. The horseradish a must have with any steak was super potent! Loved it! Deserts are house made..

I'm sorry everyone had to go through this. There are never good answers to why, but there are always good people willing to help. My wife and I live far enough inland not to be affected by hurricanes but they do spawn some horrendous thunderstorms and vicious tornados. I will put my prayer up to God for all of you who were hit hard and those who are helping. God bless.

Prayers go out to everyone impacted by this awful storm. I'm thankful that folks on here are ok and safe. We will be praying for those in NC/TN/VA/GA I just returned from Augusta Georgia where they felt the fury of this storm also. It is hard to describe what it looks like and the amount of damage. This is a link to a story CNN did about Augusta and it happens to be my daughters family. https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/03/us/augusta-family-hunkers-in-bathtub/index.htm Our family is safe thankfully, it could have been worse and I know it was worse for other families in this storm.

We are based camped at Horse Creek CG, near Hill City SD. A nice little CG nestled in the Black Hills of SD. We landed a nice long end site with a great view of the Black Hills and right on the perimeter of the National Forest. Headed to see Mount Rushmore aka “the faces”, needles highway, Spearfish Canyon, and Custer SP. Who knows maybe a little dinner at the Alpine Inn? 😋 Safe Travels and Happy Camping! IMG_2272.mov No fire ban here, so we enjoyed the warmth of a hot fire and continued to plot and plan for the next few days. With careful overwatch, later in the evening I doused it before we knocked off for the day. Super quiet here with very few peeps and jeeps. 😊 The barbwire fence you see is the actual border between XPLOR and BH National Forest.

Finished the last task of this project, the fiberglass repair. This product worked well. It's slightly whiter than our yellowing hull. I also patched inside the hull where I had removed the original rear curbside TV mount. The color difference inside is hard to notice if any. I'm not the finish polisher guy, 320 grit sandpaper is the lightest I have. This is fine due to the location (see picture above prior to fill). I'll get it detailed further whenever I get to refinishing the hull.

Our solar suitcase system has evolved over the years. Using a solar suitcase panel is about using storage space efficiently for transport and ease of use with the panel or panels. Use three 12' sections combined of 10/2 solar panel cable when Ollie is parked in the shade when reaching out from the shade to sunshine. Normally we can get away with using one Renogy 100W solar suitcase, but we only use one 100AH Battleborn Lithium battery and don't have a 12V/120V inverter. See around 6A charge with a PMW controller mounted close to the battery on a good solar day. Have seen around 11A charge with two 100W solar suitcases, using a MPPT solar controller mounted close to the battery with solar panels connected in series using 36" of 10/2 cable. Posted this in other threads. Originally installed a 10A Furrion solar port that was OK with one 100W solar panel, but wanted a 20A solar port for a higher capacity port. Since I already drilled the hole in Ollie for the Furrion port, decided to modify the Furrion port by installing a Zamp 20A port in the existing Furrion port. Also drilled four through holes to mount the Furrion port with an interior backing plate and locknuts to reduce the stress on the fiberglass. Furrion Solar port installation: Modifided Furrion Solar port by installing 20A Zamp port in the Furrion port:

The Victron Linx Distributor is a very clean option to manage connections --- nice one, @Jps190! Thanks for the post.

@FLYnGATOR - FYI: Just like Mossey @mossemi noted above, the "Zamp" SAE (through the battery hatch) connector is a piece of cake to install. There's several owners that have integrated this solar connector in various locations around (usually) the street side of the OTT to better access the battery compartment. IMO, the battery compartment hatch is the most effective location. It will likely take you longer to assemble all the tools and parts on your workbench necessary to complete the job than actually installing the SAE connector. HA! Good luck and keep us posted on your progress.... (OBTW: we like pix!) Cheers!

You can use the solar panel solar charge controller, cable and alligator clips that came with your suitcase solar panels. The suitcase solar panel manual probably has a connection procedure to follow, be sure to verify. You will have to look at the solar charge controller display on the suitcase panels to verify that it is working. FYI, the Zamp port is a simple 2 wire SAE waterproof port. When installed on the side of the Ollie, the wires go directly to the battery positive and negative, with a fuse on the positive wire. The alligator clips do exactly the same thing. It’s is just like jumping your car battery with the positive connection first and then the negative connection. The battery connections usually happen before the solar panel connections. Mossey

Thanks to my wife and our son, we are now Aeropress converts for life. We have a typical plug in induction water pot for any and all hot drink needs. Boils water faster than any other method. Using that to make tea, hot chocolate, hot toddies, you name it. Link: Induction Pot For coffee, the Aeropress is king. Once the water is boiling you can have a couple cups of perfect coffee in one minute each. No mess, simple clean up and fast. You pick your favorite coffee and grind. Very cheap and fast to operate. Stows away in the space of a coffee cup. link: Aeropress Video:

We bought a tiny little Keurig-type machine on Amazon. We didn't want to give up the cabinet space for a regular Keurig. This little Chulux coffee maker is much smaller than the Keuirig, but it seems to work fine, if a bit slower to heat the water. Draws only 800 watts and easy to store.

Was (black/red) tip or ring?😉 Mossey

We are switching from cleanup mode, to storm prep mode. I've never seen back to back storms like this. Hurricane Milton will definitely mess with many communities in Florida. Crazy crap. We rarely get west to east storms. Back tomorrow, maybe.