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I replaced two springs on the same axle at a campground after one broke and the other was failing. Took 4 hrs using the onboard rear “stabilizers” and a bottle jack. Found a pair of springs at a local rv shop. Once I made it home I replaced all four with Alcan 5-leafs and never looked back. 10,000+ trouble-free miles on the Alcans. It can be done if you have the tools. PM me and I am happy to talk you thru the process.6 points
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Patriot, you’re doing it to me again! Earlier I’m thinking about a fridge-freezer box for the TV and now this! Hope to meet you on your next trip west! 😂 Lance @Mountainman198 we met at the Q in Feb and thank you my friend for being the pioneer in this upgrade! 😂 So we’re sitting at Mt Rushmore, did the Presidential Trail yesterday, Bison filet at the Powder House Lodge and went back for the night presentation, lighting of the monument followed by a salute to our veterans, what a majestic place! We slept well and got up to coffee, the forum and checking the map for the next leg of our trip. So Grand Junction is on our planned route, halfway between here and home! Not sure I want to afford their full service treatment but I would not upgrades leafs without the 5200 lb axles and all the extras you mentioned. Just had breakfast and after another cup of coffee, I’ll be calling Lew. I have no idea if they could fit us in a week out and not sure if they have the 50” axles required for our older hull. I will at least stop by, purchase the leafs, HD shackles, wet bolts, etc. for a later installation at home, purchasing axles later… Or perhaps, bite the bullet, beak down emotionally and let somebody else work on my Oliver! 🤣2 points
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John yes they switched to the 5200lb axels, however they stuck with the 3500 pound 4-Leaf spring packs that have always accompanied the 3500 pound axles. Edit: ....and from THIS post by @Geronimo John, a tech from Dexter stated that the stock 1750lbs rated 4-leaf springs are under specification for a 6,000# RV trailer that is always loaded. On our 2023 the 4-leaf springs are already showing signs of flattening, so I agree with the Dexter tech that the stock 1750lbs 4-leaf OEM springs are under rated for our LE IIs, unless maybe for those weekend warriors that will just go to their local campground.2 points
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I happened to take about a 10 mile section of a toll road in Indiana 3 weeks ago. Tried getting on their website to pay for the trip. The website is poor at best and I can not get it setup to recognize my vehicle and plate #. No searches return my plate number. Not sure if they want my money. This was the only toll road I hit in over 8,000 mile trip. I also agree there are some terrible roads out there.2 points
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FYI for @DaveK and @Patriot, when you receive the dehumidifier from Amazon, take it out of the box and set it upright on the counter and let it rest unplugged for 24 hours before you turn it on the first time. Like all refrigeration based appliances, if it’s turned on it’s side during shipping, it must be allowed to set in the upright position for 24 hours to make sure the liquified freon and the oils inside drain back to where they normally are during normal operation. This of course applies any time the unit is allowed to lay on its side or upside down. It will certainly be handled like any other package during shipping so don’t forget to perform this procedure to safeguard the internal systems. 👍2 points
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Since we don't have the inverter on when in storage and connected to shore power I was concerned it wouldn't restart. Placing my order now. Thank you for verifying.2 points
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@Ollie-Haus Hey Chris, Based on your in-depth positive review and recommendation I just placed an order.👍🏻 No more dehumidifier 🥵 envy! Thanks! 🤣 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D7MMW6S5?2 points
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Leaving Beaver Creek Rec Area we had to stop at Scheer's Meats in Linton North Dakota. The place looked promising the day before but they were closed. If I remember correctly, Kara help us. We picked one huge T-bone to split, 2 lbs of hamburger meat (had a burger for lunch today and it was great)! And bacon, liver sausage and jerky and we could not believe it all for $52! Great meats and service and if we lived nearby, definitely would be regulars! Then we headed to Pierre SD, a town I've wanted to visit. Nice clean small city. We stayed right in town at Griffin Park on the Missouri River. Chose it for the pickleball courts a short walk away. Great river view, beautiful soft lawn, although the RV spots were just a gravel lot. We needed the electrical cause the heat wave had started. We enjoy short hikes when traveling, but Chris and I have played tennis since the 70s, together since the 90s and for us 2 hours of pickleball is good exercise, gets the endorphins up and we feel better all evening (and at our age, some aches the next day of course). This was the 5th time we played n our trip. We played in Lincoln Nebraska, Mason City Iowa, Lakeville Minnesota, and both Fargo and Pierre in the Dakotas! We also shopped food in as many places always in small family-owned shops. In another post after @Patriot mentioned getting a fridge-freezer for our TV, I was like, no I don't want to do that. But he was right which is often the case! If we had a second freezer we would have spent another $100 at Scheer's Meats for sure. An upgrade should be coming a a time TBD...2 points
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Cort, when you get your Oliver suspension straight, and we get past this heat wave, come offroad by us sometime. I'll show you some good spots to camp!2 points
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A rocky road is a reason to tear the sidewall of a tire. Leaf springs need to handle the weight of the trailer regardless of conditions. Hitting an uneven bridge seam or RR tracks on a 65 MPH highway is a lot more stress on springs and shocks than the bumpiest road traveling <20 MPH. No excuses for these lame Dexter leaf springs!2 points
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First off, my suggestion re part # SW4B was to buy what's available in 1-2 days to repair and get home. Not to buy a set of 4 by all means! Though I agree with GJ and Ken that side-to-side motion and leaning up or downhill adds to stress, still it’s not like 70 MPH hitting a pothole, uneven RR tracks, etc. AND there should be enough engineering tolerance for ALL of these common environmental issues that are common in trailers! I talked to Alcan today and will post that on the LONG thread where we’ve been discussing these frequent SW4B failures. @John Dorrer please don't think this will not happen to the newer hulls. I believe it’s older hulls like ours where the steel was better 10 years ago. Lance’s failed on a 2021 and Rich’s 2023 “are already showing signs of flattening!” Mine still look perfectly arced, but either way a year ago I purchased a set of OEM SW4B springs for a roadside repair if necessary! And I carry a bottle jack, jack stand, 1/2” drive sockets, breaker bar with 30” extension, new u-bolts, etc! 🤣1 point
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Cort: Nancy and I in Boulder City, Nevada will be leaving here and passing through Flagstaff around noon or so. Heading east. If you have not resolved your Leaf Spring problem, as you know I travel with a lot of tools in the event... like yours. Nancy is checking to see if she can find your cell number, but you may have it. Will be towing the 2019 Oliver Elite... so easy to see Off the Grid, as well. Nancy did not have your cell number and have no way to contact you, otherwise. You met our Cattle Dogs and we can figure out if you need help, or not. Once we leave here, we are pretty much Off the Grid. Ray1 point
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Also John if you tow either nose down or nose up (instead of level as possible) you will transfer extra weight to either the front or rear axle. Most of the time when I unhitch at home, the trailer will remain in that position until I reconnect. That puts extra weight on the rear axle for however long. I now level the trailer after unhitching. Of course while camping typically the nose is up a little to aid waste tank draining. I’m not totally sure but it does seem like there are a lot of broken springs on rear axles. We are actually on our (slow meandering) way to Grand Junction to replace the (humble opinion) undersized axles and the weak springs. Two less things to worry about. “On our way home” we’re stopping in Elkhart Indiana to have an Atmos 4.4 installed. There are bearing noises that I don’t like on occasion and I have to climb on the roof to oil the fan motor. Had to do that in 100+ deg heat last summer at Gilbert Ray campground. Not fond of doing that and the frequency is increasing. Time for a change. Okay three less things to worry about.1 point
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I agree if the road is port to starboard level. I have repeatedly made the distinction between the 15% and 85% group. WHY? The 15% group are far more likely to "duck walk" their trailer. This is hard on the springs and shackles. But worse is when you transverse an area where the trailer and TV are on a steep side-slope. Doing so causes a LOT more weight to be transferred to the downslope side of the axle. Doing so twists the spring pack and racks the shackle. Now the springs and shackles pick up not say 1500 pounds, but likely many more hundreds of pounds extra load and worse the torque between the frame and axle moment. This is when you really qualify as a 15%er and need those Alcan 5 spring packs. I than asked the question how many of our owners actually transverse gullies sideways, duck walk, or travel on side-slopes as part of their joy with an OE2? My guess is 15%. The rest of us may boondock and use graded fire roads. But we would not want the harsher ride of the super duty shackles/spring setup. However, IMHO the 15%ers would benefit greatly by the stronger more torsion resistant heavy duty 5 pack suspension. And Cord is very likely a 15%er! GJ1 point
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I would not recommend anybody replace their OE2's with any 1750 # rated 11 pound spring. Just not enough steel. GJ1 point
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Corrosive conditions for storage and/or use certainly will accelerate the failure of such under-sprung springs. The corrosive agents (Road chemicals and ocean salt) exposure would exasperate the corrosion at the grain boundaries resulting in even more earlier failure for sure. As such I too believe that corrosive conditions are a contributing causative factor in early failures. Especially so for metal that is over stressed or under designed. We have established that OE2 Dexter 1750 springs (11 pounds) are "Under-Sprung" for full time loaded duty of our 6,000 pound class trailers. They just are not enough spring for the job. Hence overloading, over heating, and over flexure occurs thereby killing them young. Dependent upon the owners use, the Dexter PR4 and the Alcan's (4 or 5 leaf) all have enough steel to provided an expected 20+ year life. The PR4B springs clearly do not. Regardless of how we use our trailers (15% group/85% group), I anticipate that all OE2 owners with the Dexter PR4B (1,750 rated, 11 Pound) springs will experience flattening. and if ignored will fail. Replacement of these springs on our OE2's is inevitable. It is just a matter of when and where. Hence inspection of them often and thinking ahead and choosing a time and convenient place to upgrade is just smart. We collectively on this forum have documented that well over 100 owners have upgraded their springs at a single vendor. Plus at least another 20 others who went a different direction for their spring upgrades. And the numbers continue to increase as time passes. These failures clearly validate that there is a problem fleet wise with these springs. Moderators: As such, it would be a wonderful public service for OTT to put out a Service Notice about how to inspect these springs and at what point they recommend upgrading to a heavier spring. GJ.1 point
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The New Blue and White XC 3000 is installed and communicates with the remote panel perfectly. It's quieter than the previous one. The Bluetooth is great and makes setup easy as can be on the App. Now that turning it on and off is easy my batteries hardly use anything each day when not in use.1 point
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On the recommendation of Lance, Steve, Art, those who upgraded early and from what I’ve read, Lew at Alcan the 5-leaf is what he in the business suggests. Also, on this our first long highway trip, I’ve noticed how our hull waddles like a duck across RR tracks and other road contours. Less worried about vibration and other cited concerns.1 point
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I installed the Pioneer A/C. Went very smooth. They make it easy. All the foam insulating collar and vibration pads are adhered to the unit. Just clean up the residue from the old unit and install it. Much quieter than the Dometic. Draws anywhere from 64 watts on fan and 500 to 700 watts when the compressor kicks on. Runs effortlessly on my inverter with no shore power.1 point
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First off, close to town, there is a loop from Copper Basin Rd to Thumb Butte Rd where in 15 min you get above the 5300 ft of downtown Prescott to close to 7K. There are about 40 designated campsites that are usually available unless the annual Mountain Bike Race is in town or the like. Then check the Motor Vehicle Use Map (MVUM) for the Prescott National Forest for literally 1000 other possible locations. Camping around Flagstaff, I imagine you have the MVUM for the Coconino NF. I used that on our very first Oliver trip 2 years ago to Kendricks Peak Wilderness Area. It was July so we were looking for a first camp above 7K ft. 🤣 We can just barely see Kendricks Peak from our deck, so it’s been on my list for years! Along as with views of the San Francisco and Bill Williams mountains that are closer to Prescott. God’s Country!1 point
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This has nothing really to do with Oliver. 3500 lb axels and 6 year old trailer. The main contributing cause for these 4 leaf failures, are living near the coast, driving on chemically treated roads, resulting in rusting. The OP was clear on his driving on a washboard road with deep chuck holes. This is a sure way to have 4-leaf spring failure. Starting in 2022 Oliver went to the 5200 lb axels. There have been few if any failures on the trailers from 2022 to present.1 point
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Lew has a display now that shows our original leaf springs and his together on a display. Everything about his springs are far superior. I believe he said you were the first Oliver in his shop. Even his wet bolts are better designed. We got our trailer done there in May. He said he's seen about a hundred Olivers so far. John1 point
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As I know you know, but I think for clarification: Yes so long as you are not even for a second hooked to shore power, the 200 amp does as you said. It stops the flow of power to the AC circuits. But if shore power is restored, even just for a few milli-seconds, the auto transfer switch sees shore power, and transfers power to the 120 circuits. Hence killing the 200 amp breaker with cycling of 120V shore power does not make the 120V system "Safe". Such has occurred when one of my unit's generators simply ran out of diesel. The electrician was inside checking voltages and the Sgt refueled and restarted the unit. Fortunately the electrician had one hand in his pocket and the other in the panel. He was pretty upset with Sgt, but was not injured. My lesson: LOTO and Strict Key control. For us, it is just please also disco the short power. cord flip the breakers where needed, and be sure that your inverter is also disabled.1 point
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DunnYet please check your private messages. I provided some general compressor fridge information and troubleshooting information as well. I had some electrical damage to the compressor inverter drive on my NovaKool fridge and had to replace the inverter. This was one example of the surge protector not being a good thing. We were at a campground that was having serious voltage issues and we were running the fridge on shore power. We were not at camp for most of this but caught some of the instances and shut everything down but a little too late for the fridge. The voltage would spike to about 190 volts then just as quickly drop back to 120. The spikes would occur in rapid succession so the surge protector would disconnect and reconnect just as rapidly. My fridge inverter was one that could run on dc or ac so would switch back and forth between ac and dc rapidly which damaged it. It probably would have operated just fine if left alone with no surge protector. It is capable of running on 120 to 240 volts ac 50-60 HZ or 12-24 volts dc and switches seamlessly between the two. With the voltage spiking to 190 I don’t think it would have even cared. Anyway you may just have a bad compressor inverter and yes the dc only ones are around $200 and the ac/dc ones are around $300. They are easily replaced being a simple one plug connection. If the Freon charge has not been lost (which is seldom the case) then the inverter is really the only thing that can go bad. I hope this helps some.1 point
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You are correct, the 200A breaker is used to turn off battery feed to the inverter and thus, all AC circuits. There is also a second 60A breaker that turns off all DC loads. Between the two, the battery bank is isolated. Also, when I upgraded to LFPs a 250A ANL fuse was installed in the battery bay on the positive lead from said bank (See pics). For major disconnect, I have removed the fuse from the bus. Finally, with mention of a 300A fuse, should the 250A be replaced for optimum protection?1 point
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Likely only to a point. For all the trailers I have seen, there are other power feeds off your batteries that would not be disabled without also making them safe. That 200 amp "breaker" likely is in the path of the 4/0 cable to your inverter. That "breaker" would be a bit odd as normally it is a "FUSE". But I seem to have heard that on a few units they did use a breaker. If it's a breaker, then conversion to a 300 amp fuse would be beneficial for several reasons as stated by others on similar threads. GJ1 point
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If you are a die-hard off roader 15% of all the OTT owners, then the ALCAN's are your best path with their over-sprung 5 leaf. But in your situation it will be a PITA to get them to make and ship you a set with all the hardware. On the other hand, any mechanic shop can do this job. Make your deal with them for the labor and you can call Dexter and get the much more nationwide available PR4 springs as have been discussed on several forum pages as a very suitable alternative for about 85% of OLLIE owners. I would personally find out where the closest stocking dealer is to your location. Drop the trailer at a local shop, and drive to the stocking dealer and pick them up. That would save you the most time. For my 2018 OTT with the OEM Gear I used the parts listed below. Add to that four shocks. Replace all four springs, with the parts listed. They are an exact match size wise, but are 2400 pound rated vs your 1750 ones that broke. Cost will be SIGNIFICANTLY less than ALCAN's. In the mean time, dump your tanks, off load all heavy things you can and follow the steps in the attached "What If" document. Just modify it for spring failure vs. two flats. DIY - Two Flat Tires On An OE2.docx Geronimo John's Replacement Springs Order Info APR 2024 (Christy Gillentine).docx GJ1 point
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Oh my goodness, so sorry that you had to experience 2 leaf spring failures and a shock, that's just terrible! I know you're out of warranty, but Oliver should be made aware of this, way too many stock leaf spring failures on our Ollies! @Mike and Carol and @jd1923 gave you some good advise, hopefully you will be back on the road soon! Please advise where this is so I can avoid it in my travels?1 point
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If you're too tired upon returning home, it means you're getting up to early every day.1 point
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Yet another "update" Matt Duncan kindly went into his old office at Oliver today and took the photo (below) of all the remaining Oliver hull plaques that have never been claimed. If you own one of these Olivers, please contact me in order to organize a way to get your plaque to you. We are still investigating a way to get older hull number plaques via Oliver's normal ordering process (and other avenues), but, I believe that this will take some time (i.e. early Fall at the earliest). Bill1 point
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I don't think anybody *likes* tolls... but if its a "modest" amount and the road is well-maintained, I don't think I can complain. Excessive tolls, or tolls on highways that are in bad shape rub the wrong way. We have encountered lots of interstate sections when traveling cross-country that are less than perfect but probably ok for a passenger car with squishy tires & suspension. Pickups and trailers with stiffer sidewalls & higher pressure tires are another thing altogether. Its not unusual to find highway sections where we have to slow down significantly below the speed limit to reduce the abuse on trailer and tow vehicle... which of course is not the safest thing to do on an interstate highway with all the "squishy" cars passing us with a significant speed differential :(1 point
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My 2020 LEll did not come with a battery cutoff switch and thus, the stock 200A breaker leading to the Xantrex 2000 serves that purpose in my situation.1 point
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@aaronorange Also make sure the order in which your terminals, fuses, washers etc. are connected are correct, if not that can also mess up the flow of power. Here’s a great video by Nate from Explorist Life explaining the correct order.1 point
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So why did I calculate the above power potentials? Certainly not to coerce anybody to do anything. But to inform of the power potentials that we need to be aware of. Yes, to me the primary purpose of having a battery AND a solar discos are (#1) maintenance and (#2) emergency use. #1 MAINTENANCE SAFETY & CONVENIENCE: When we are doing maintenance on our Ollies that in any way involve electrical it is important to disable ALL power sources that can bite us. Certainly 120V shore and Inverter power sources, as well as battery and solar. Why all? Because each trailer has systems that interconnect between them. Examples: Inverter, Converter, Refrigerators, computer power ports, etc. As stated above the are many ways that a simple mistake during a simple maintenance task can, and likely have occurred from not making safe all power sources. If you don't have the necessary disco's and don't have the background experience in such systems to safely disco hot circuits.... You really need to think about your situation. With the disco's you just need to: Turn off a 350 A battery switch Flip a solar breaker Physically verify your Ollie is not plugged into shore power (Generator, Power Pole, Outlet). Without disco's, we can manually make the job electrically safe by taking apart hot cables. This is a sweat producing moment for many and hazardous as well. But it takes a lot of time. I guarantee you that at some point in doing so, you will realize that the minor cost of installing those power Disco's is far more cost effective than your time to Disco and restore all sources of power when working on your electrical and mechanical systems. Finally on this point, I consider end of season parasitic loss elimination and power source isolations just another maintenance task that is a lot easier with such switches. #2 EMERGENCY USE: If you are handy and you smell a major electrical acrid burning smell, it is possible that you manually disco the various systems. In the 10 or 15 minutes it takes to get the tools and do so, the problem may have spread from a simple electrical issue to a major one. But it is possible that you can deal with it. But what if you are out fishing/hiking/or flying hang gliders; Are your guests capable of doing the above? Not likely for most owners. With no discos, for the vast majority of spouses or guests, they should exit the trailer and call 911 and summon help if there are knowledgeable campers around. Either way, they get to watch what happens next from a safe distance. Most important part is they are safe. On the other hand if you or they feel it is safe to do so: Turn off the Battery Master Switch and Solar breaker, and unplug the exterior power port. Air out the trailer and then figure what was burning..... IN SUMMARY: Our OTT electrical and mechanical systems are exceptionally well designed and carefully manufactured. Over time their systems age very well compared to the SOB's. As a result we don't see many of our OTT units burning to the ground. But fires do happen and to me, having basic measures in place make sense as the cost could be so very high if you don't. MANY owners, especially the Master Level Contributors, are fully capable of doing significant DIY efforts. Everything from A/C and Refrigerator replacements DC to DC chargers, transition to Lithium, adding solar, springs, axles. hitches, fans and other really great projects. We take great pride in helping other owners to join the DIY group. But first start with a DEEP dive in this forum on the topic. Take pictures of your system and download the posts and pictures of others who have done the effort. You than can intelligently talk to OTT or other qualified firms to have the mod done. Or, to start asking question and help on our forum if you want to DIY it. Our owners are scattered out all across the USA. Likely one will be in your location or willing to meet should the paths cross during the season. GJ1 point
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Update on The Dexter Fail: I contacted Dexter using the warranty claim form on the Dexter Brakes web page. In that they asked all kinds of trailer info, and to include contacts at the dealership that did the install and also asked for pictures of all the failed units. After sending all that in via their web form, in 2 days they determined that they were "replaceable under warranty" Dexter agreed to replace all 4 brake assemblies with brand new manual adjust assemblies which they have shipped to my home. End to end the warranty claim to delivery of parts took 1 week. E-Trailer had nothing to do with it, in fact they gave me the wrong contact info for Dexter brakes.. Craig Hull 5051 point
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Just following up here concerning positioning of the little hole in the shaft of the wet bolt. Dexter confirmed that there can be issues with a plugged bolt (grease not being able to come out of the hole) unless the hole is oriented to 3:00 or 9:00. I spoke to someone at the Oliver shop, just after removing and re-orientating the problem bolt on my trailer and he stated that he thought the orientation was irrelevant but would contact Dexter to confirm. A week or so later, he followed up with me to let me know that Dexter had repeated the information given to me. Word to the wise: If you are having an issue getting your wet bolts to accept grease, it may have been installed improperly at Oliver. This was a doable but clumsy job to complete as it was difficult to de-weight the nut to allow it to be removed..1 point
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It started yesterday morning after a trip on a very rocky road south of Flagstaff that I swore I would never go on again. The first sign of trouble was a tire on the back left rear that was punctured and its side wall, apparently by rocks. I replaced the tire - but then the in late afternoon well on a dirt road in the mountains, I heard a rubbing sound then found that the left back rear tire was rubbing against the tire in front of it. I removed the tire to find a broken leaf spring and shock. then I looked on the other side to find the leaf spring and shock broken there as well. The shock was actually rubbing against the tire. it seems like I have three options. (1) Try to get a tow truck in here and tow the trailer to a shop. If anyone knows of a good shop, that would be helpful if I do this. (2) lash the axle to the frame and try to get the trailer to the paved Road maybe a mile away and get it towed from there and save some money. (3) Try to fix it here myself. From looking at the Internet, it appears that these repairs are not too difficult - but I’ve never done that before. One question I have is whether other things were damaged and therefore I couldn’t do it properly. Don’t know how to tell that.0 points
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