Leaderboard

I can stand on the platform, lean on the handrail, and reach the center of the roof. Doubles as stairs to mezzanine in shop.

The Flag, House and Ollie: Made in America! 🙂 GJ

The Metaltech was certainly a consideration when I was researching scaffolding and a safer way to wash, wax and detail our Oliver. For my use, the big concern I had with the Metaltech is the plywood flooring and we all know how water and plywood do not play well together. I suppose you could replace the plywood floor with treated or marine grade plywood to forgo delamination of the flooring for use in a wet environment. If you never plan to use the Metaltech to wash your Oliver this may not be an issue. The second concern is portability, set up, and naturally take down and storage of the Metaltech (tuber vid). It’s quite heavy and cumbersome and not nearly as light weight and portable as the Little Giant ladder and plank system. I can set up the 3 Little Giant ladders and two planks in less than 10 minutes flying solo. I always take down and store my equipment when not in use. The very bottom of the Little Giant ladder width is only a narrow but rock stable 22” which as mentioned is a win for my use. The other plus is I can walk the plank ARRRR!!🏴‍☠️ 😄 the entire length of the Oliver without having to ever move my scaffolding. This allows me keep right on washing, waxing until the work is complete. Take down and storage is a breeze. The all aluminum 10’ planks weigh 24# each and the M18 ladders each weigh approx 33# and are easy to manage and store. The light weight all aluminum corrosion free construction certainly comes at a cost. (See product link in my OP) Please note! This post is not meant to start a scaffold war… ✌🏻😄. Just listing the few important reasons which I based my decision on to invest in the Little Giant system. This might help others who wish to quit hanging off a ladder. As always roll with what works best for your individual and SAFETY needs. Patriot 🇺🇸

Agree, I'm keeping the Metaltech in the airplane hangar with Ollie and the Vagabond to keep them out of the weather. To transport it used a trailer to keep it in one piece. I had it in the garage for a while with a table underneath, Debbie did not have any trouble with it, but when I put things on the table occasionally bumped my head, glad I'm hardheaded. 🙃 That's what I like about this forum, for folks that may be buying a scaffold, this lets them know real life application of a product, good or bad. Bottom line working off of a scaffold on Ollie is great for increased safety, ease and faster than working off of a ladder. 🙂

Galway Girl at home. Happy 4th!

I have been thinking about a different, safer way to clean, polish and detail our Oliver vs the hazard of hanging off a single ladder. Seems like I just don’t bounce like I use to. 😄 While at CGI in April letting the guys work their magic on our Oliver, I took a real hard look at their Little Giant ladder and plank set up. I decided to invest in a safer way to keep our Oliver in tip-top shape. A big shout out to both Colin and Gavin at CGI. They really shared their valuable feedback on what works well for them. With not a lot of room on either side of XPLOR in the “Ollie Hangar”, this narrow rock solid no bounce configuration allows me to safely walk the 30’ plank…. Arrrrrr!!!🏴‍☠️ And getter done! (2) Little Giant planks - https://www.lowes.com/pd/Little-Giant-Ladders-Fixed-10-ft-Plank/5001578523 (3) Little Giant Ladders -https://www.lowes.com/pd/Little-Giant-Ladders-Aluminum-18-ft-Reach-Type-1A-300-lbs-Capacity-Telescoping-Multi-Position-Ladder/1001038922 W

I carry a bottle jack from Harbor Freight and some "dunnage" boards to stack up for height adjustment as bottle jacks are short. If you have room one of these is great as it also has a catch mechanism that make it lock in place for safety. With this near the front lift point, and the rear jack and dunnage for the rear you can lift one whole side of the trailer if needed. Here's the link to the jack on Oliver Outfitters Guide in amazon. https://amzn.to/3Tm07XU I also have the ramps for quick tire change. Craig

A fan??? So wrong!!! I kinda enjoy having sweat dripping whilst trying to apply ceramic coating - NOT. 😉

I was in the process of replacing brakes and hubs last week and one of the brake plate nuts was loose enough to turn by hand. I had not checked these torque marks in over 3K miles. I don't think this one loose nut had any thread locker applied. All the others did. My bad and lesson learned. As for brake magnets, it appears one of our self-adjusters was not adjusting very well, resulting in excessive wear of the magnet. Noticing uneven magnet wear when removing hub for other maintenance is a good sign your "self-adjusters" are not adjusting evenly. As compared to other magnets. I am a slow learner....but am still learning! 😀

Texas heat management! I also place a fan on the platform and a cold drink in the cup holder. This side tray is very handy for staging supplies and equipment.

@Ronbrink Oh what I would do for some of that shade! 🫠

Thank you @Patriot, a very helpful post and now two great options!

This is the photo where I got the idea to buy the identical scaffold from Home Depot while on sale, thanks to you and @Ronbrink. I have some other jobs in mind for the scaffold, but have to admit, our Ollie is very purdy after after waxing, probably the best it's ever looked since buying it used in 2016.

Fits perfectly in your hanger! Jus to bring attention to another option for those reading... I purchased two sets of this scaffolding, thanks to @Ronbrink when last year The Depot had them online at a "Special Buy" price! 🤣 It would not fit in David's "Hanger" but I like how I can roll it out of our garage and use it where needed. Each side is height adjustable, so I can also use it around the house for exterior work and painting too! It will take less room (as pictured) where the ladders will stick out further, left and right. But let me get one thing straight! I've used this as pictured to remove the Winegard dish, replace the bathroom exhaust fan and repair all the top-front fiberglass. Soon, I will use it to replace the A/C on top of our hull. But, no way in the world am I getting up there to wash and wax, to make our hull pretty! 🤣

Bill, Thanks! I bet your Oliver looks amazing! This set up will also make it so much easier and safer when installing our Calmark Cover during winter storage months. Ladders no more! 😊👍🏻 David

I actually carry two jacks along with various 2X10’s and 6X6’s and three sets of plastic stacking blocks. The two jacks, one is a 3 ton hydraulic jack and the other is a several ton (don't remember the exact capacity but it’s very ample!) surplus scissor jack/kit designed for the Hummer. Probably designed for a fully loaded Hummer, anyway very ample. Not to mention the screw jack that came with my 2500 truck. So technically I carry three jacks. Oh and not to mention the three screw jacks that came mounted to the trailer. So yet again, technically I carry six jacks!

So, I bit the bullet on a Dometic unit. Thinking through our needs of quality, size and efficiencies and other factors, I decided on a 45L single-zone unit, since most quality built dual-zone units are too big for us at 75L. I didn't want wheels and pull handles and light plastics, as it will be mounted in one position and I will create a 24x7 12VDC connection for it (an installation post will be coming). I figured it would normally be set to fridge temps. The bottom of the entire deep section could be for drinking water and we'll get a half-height basket for produce or bulky fridge items to sit on top. But say we ran into a farm deal on the road and purchase a bulk of frozen meats. We could lower it to freezing temps and go back to just having less cold water in the Oliver fridge. It will be a learning curve. We got the Dometic CFX2 45L model. The 28x18" footprint will nicely fit rear of our 8' truck bed next to our Napoleon dual-burner grill, for a tailgate party! 🤣 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DF7Z3MBQ?ref=fed_asin_title&th=1 Another deciding factor was saving $160 on Amazon Used - Like New condition, defined as "Looks and functions as if it were new. Minor packaging damage observed during inspection." I've purchased 40+ Amazon Used items and have only had to return 3-4 items (<10%) when instead of used, they came prior-purchaser abused! $719 a good price vs. the $880 list! Thanks to @Tideline77 and @Tom and Doreen for your feedback!

That’s awesome! I like the integrated stairs. Looks too big to fit under a standard garage door though, but would be great for those with a BIG Ollie Barn! Me too! @Ronbrink also mention keeping the MetalTech together as a rolling unit. I keep one 6-ft-tall section always assembled as shown in my picture above. The way I setup this one it fits tightly around the Oliver doghouse and I could reach everything in front of the solar panels. In my garage, I can park the nose of a smaller vehicle inside of it, so it takes up little extra room. I purchased a second setup which can add to make a 12 ft height. At that height, mount guard rails squared at the top and add outriggers for the security of a wider stance. I will do this when I finally take the plunge to replace our A/C! I also purchased the $40 shelf Ron showed. Haven't needed a fan up there but it holds tools nicely too! We now have 3 viable options for a variety of needs!

Anyone using or thinking of using scaffolding should take notice to John’s setup; specifically, the top rail for fall protection. This is a necessary precaution when working at any height and should not be ignored, so please take heed! Alternatively, as a cost saving measure, I chose to make my safety railing; four-sided railing with locking swing gates on the ends. Shown here when using the scaffold to install the Dreiha Atmos 4.4 last summer and during my last waxing cycle. As a side note to address concern expressed regarding the wooden platform’s exposure to water, I cover it with a large door mat; which also offers better footing.

Given the narrow space within your “Ollie Hangar”, your system is perfect! The adjacent wall(s) offers necessary fall protection whether preforming maintenance, repairs or upgrades; which would not be the case if the same or similar setup was used outside with no such backing or protective rail. Thanks for the SAFETY reminder!

We are wishing a Happy July 4th to all OTTO's! the Mossey's

Best it's ever looked in the 9 years we have owned it. Agree, ladders no more!

I don’t hear much about a 2500 gas powered 6.4 HEMI! We downsized from a RAM 2500 diesel to a RAM 2500 HEMI because of personal gripes with the diesel. In doing so we sacrificed a few MPGs, great low end torque, and the diesels excellent engine breaking. But the HEMI still has excess power, fantastic engine breaking, and it has 600-700 pounds more payload capacity than the diesel. This is due to the difference in the weight of the engines. Our overall mpg average is 11.5, and most of that is towing on winding mountain roads. We get up to 15 on flat highway. For the few extra mpg’s gained with the diesel, I don’t think we could ever reach fuel savings parity considering the 10k extra price tag for a diesel. For what’s it’s worth! Cheers! Geoff

Lots to celebrate today. Having lived in other countries it is clear to me that there’s no place like the US of A!

Happy birthday America!!!

Happy 4th of July! Let Freedom Ring! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸 Patriot

This one - https://www.amazon.com/Powerbuilt-620471-6000Lb-Unijack Appears to be similar if not identical to @Galway Girl jack.

First, most TV's come with a similar jack as shown below. If yours does not, then I would purchase something like the below. But for our use, I use the onboard OTT rear jack with a stack of dunnage. As do many other owners. And yes we know what OTT and the lawyers have to say about this practice. Regardless of what jack you use, only do so for service purposes on hard FLAT ground and please never put yourself in a position of getting crushed if it goes badly. GJ

Fantastic, that look like a good choice with good size, not too big or little Nice to know about the Amazon used/like new offerings. I never have looked at that option before. We still plan to make this addition to our camping life in the future ! Keep us posted on how you like it

It definitely helps to have the space to keep the scaffold nearby and fully assembled for immediate use. To @Patriot’s point, they are heavy and can otherwise be cumbersome to store and setup, as needed. The locking rollers that come with the MetalTech work great for moving and positioning.

If only there was more time in the day and my old bones and muscles could work the 10-hour days I was long used to! I’ll save my time and strength for when in August I install D52 axles and Alcan springs. Some of us contract repair work and mods, and I job out body and detail work. I don’t have the attention span for it, I’d likely make it worse! 🤣

@Roger I was able to locate the 10’ planks actually in stock after an online search at a local Lowe’s store. I noticed that many stores do not stock the 10’ planks and require a special order. Just an fyi.

David, Very Nice setup! The Little Giant fits perfectly in the "XPLOR" hangar. I just used a scaffold for the first time waxing the top of Ollie down to the top of the windows, it was so much safer, easier and faster than hanging off of a ladder.

This seems like a good thread to reinforce a certain logic when it comes to tow vehicles with regard to the LE2. Like a few others here have stated here, I have extensive prior experience towing trailers, to the tune of close to 50 years. This includes rather large livestock trailers and twin engine boat trailers, enclosed and flat bed cargo trailers all the way down to small motorcycle trailers. They all introduce significant challenges depending on the tow vehicle used. Over the years my overall observation in learning from the seasoned veterans along the way is that just enough truck is never enough and there’s no such thing as too much truck, within reason. I’ve pulled trailers that were on the margin of overloading trucks at times and know what that feels like. When people mention white knuckles and pucker factor as it applies to trailering, I’ve experienced firsthand understanding I was at risk on a few occasions. Similar to previous comments once you’ve been there, you always make a point to never let that happen again. When we began formulating our plan to purchase the Oliver, the choice of truck capacity was of little debate. Our previous camper was a 34’ standard with a super slide on one side. I chose a diesel crew cab dually for that rig, and it performed perfectly. For the Oliver I would be towing a couple thousand pounds less and significantly shorter, but I still wanted plenty of truck and decided to downsize to 350 crew cab short bed with a 7.3L gas engine. Still far above the margin of capacity, so a significant safety factor built into the choice. Best part is like others have mentioned, I don’t have the worry about what cargo I want to load into the truck. No white knuckles and no pucker factor. But most of all with the Oliver, we’re way below the need for a WD hitch and that’s important to me. A WD hitch is a way to compensate for when a trailer connects behind the rear axle and weighs in at near or more than the tow vehicle. It’s acceptably effective at restoring controllability to the tow vehicle, but introduces compromises in articulation and can add significant stresses to both vehicles when moving through uneven terrain. I really wanted to avoid the need to manage the rig through situations where I could be risking damage to vehicles or equipment during remote camping/ boon-docking destinations, etc. plus I just didn’t want the added complexity of hitching and unhitching. These kind of threads always generate “lively debate” and I guess that’s fine so that the inexperienced can read the many views people have and hopefully learn the key factors to consider regarding TV choice and safety considerations. If you choose plenty of truck, most of the discussion is just good general knowledge that you won’t have to worry much about. Long winded way of saying that I f someone is asking for my advice, always choose plenty of truck with an abundance of safety margin. Nobody ever complains about having too much truck, but many have learned through any number of experiences that just enough is often never enough. Cheers!😎

Caulk only if/when the original caulk has failed. If so, remove the majority of the old caulk before applying a new bead. Caulk on old caulk, you’re not helping yourself.

We got to spend a nice week along the Salmon river. On the way home at a gas station I had a guy checking out our Oliver. He comes over and asks to see it. He says “it looks like one of the silver ones”, my first signal he has not looked at trailers much. He asked what they are priced at and I said “they start at 75” to which he said “7,500, that is not to bad” LOL…. I said no not 75 hundred 75 thousand. Clearly not understanding that 7,500 would not get you almost any trailer confirmed that while he can appreciate the Oliver he has no concept of the TT market. 😁

Day 36 on our trip, lunch at Mary’s Cafe Flagstaff, a must stop off I-40! We’ll be home in 2 hours. Raise the flag, first thing! Holiday dinner includes a tri-tip of Colorado beef! Sorry, if I’m not talking Mods it’s about the food! Today signals the first day of the 250th year of our great Nation! Celebrate the year. Best wishes to all and your families!

👍🇺🇸

Happy 4th of July!

Happy 4th of July to Everyone Here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are spending our time waxing Ollie in the shade today! Like the scaffold folks here mentioned, bought it on sale at Home Depot and working great!

Good info. My router arrives this afternoon and I’ll be testing it out. Thanks!

Recognize Wilson Mountain of Coors fame? I remember when we left Chicago, Spring Break 1972 to Tucson, sat by the pool and drank Coors all day long for a week, back when it was not sold in the states East. Life is Good! All the marketing BS aside, we’ve been to Golden Colorado where there is a murky pond behind the beer plant! 🤣 Sunshine Mountain and Wilson is TDF! Wish we could stay another week! We will again soon, only 8 hours from home, who woulda thunk!

We have a BougeRV CRD45, 48Qt portable refrigerator. It's dual zone ( interchangeably), runs on 12VDC or 120VAC, and has an optional battery available. We've used it continuously on our recent 10 week trip out west and it's worked perfectly. It also fits between the beds in our trailer when traveling.

Camping at Sunshine CG, dinner at Floradora’s Telluride! They’re ready to celebrate America this week. Wish I had come here when still a skier!

Love Starlink, SpaceX, Tesla and Elon, but sure wish they would use industry standards in Starlink design! I can understand needing greater voltage, like 30V for the dish over distance. Why in the world 9V for this mobile solution when there are 100s of millions cars, trucks and RVs running standard 12VDC systems. If it can run on 9V they could have spec’d 12V just as easily. I’ll wait ‘til I get mine next week to figure out what will work for me. I’ll then contact MobileMustHave where I purchased our Pepwave cell system and they will know exactly if Ethernet interface is possible. Again, it would make better sense if the input was proprietary Mesh Mode and the output was the industry standard. That would have greater market appeal vs. daisy-chain one feature only to achieve greater distance. My fear from when I wrote my post last night is your answer may be correct! Boy this mini router would be the perfect answer if it could connect to any brand router. Elon is usually for open source! We’ll soon know a definitive answer. Thanks again Geoff for being the Oliver Community pioneer in this and many new applications!

OK, now you got my attention! A cabled solution between Starlink Mini and Mini Router is not of interest to me and your test results show the true value of the Mini Router! Thank you, Geoff. I just ordered one through the app Shop menu. I also noticed the travel kit for $45 and got that as well. I did not order a cabled power solution, as of yet. I thought you had written about a 3mm male plug but could not locate that statement tonight. Would something like this work or is it another style plug? Does it also need a waterproof version like the Mini? https://www.amazon.com/ZEPFJHE-6-3mmx3-0mm-Connector-Replacement-Computer/dp/B0DKJN9L37/ Earlier when you had written your initial Starlink thread, this was all new to me and naively I thought it could be roof mounted. Immediately upon use, I realized the Mini is so particular to dish Alignment and Obstructions. So I ended up with a simple battery-powered solution (pic1) using the built-in Wi-Fi. This has worked well in the two months experience we have, but it is a pain to switch between Wi-Fi signals (Pepwave to Starlink) for TV streaming, laptop use and cell phones. Before realizing this I jumped the gun and had installed a wired solution using a Victron 12-24 DC-DC charger like you had used in a different configuration (pic 2 and if you look closely you can see the external cabling strapped down in pic1). To date this installation has been a waste and sits idle. Now shooting in the dark here... Could I use my roof-top wiring, change the power plug to the correct style for the Mini Router, connect Ethernet between the Starlink Mini Router and the WAN port of my Pepwave router? This would be so cool if possible, one Wi-Fi login and my installation would finally have purpose. I'm over my head, re whether the Ethernet port on the Mini router could be used in this manner or ONLY to connect to the Mini dish.

CORRECTION! This post was Edited to correct some miss-information, and my apologies to anyone who ordered a Starlink Mini Car adapter to power the Mini Router. According to Google AI, the Starlink Mini Router operates on a voltage range of 12 to 48 volts, but apparently AI is confusing it with the Mini Dishy. From looking at the actual specifications on the Router nameplate and power supply, it operates on 9 VDC, or 120VAC. This means that the Mini Car adapter will not work for the Mini Router, but it will still work for the Mini Dishy of course! I should know better, because it's not the first time AI has tripped me up with bad information 🫢 I'll be looking at getting a 12 to 9VDC converter, but right now were packing for a road trip. The new Starlink Mini Router showed up today, just two days shipping which is unheard of where I live. It's only shirt pocket size, just a little bigger than my phone. I couldn’t wait to test it, so I placed the Starlink Mini Dishy on the ground 45’ away from my bench. It's powered from one of my home made portable rechargeable power supplies as seen in the photo. The Mini router was on the bench separated from the Dishy by a 2x6 wall. The results were great! Standing next to the Dishy without the Mini Router, I got an impressive 163.9 Mbps download speed From my bench without the Router, I got a paltry 12.5 Mbps From my bench with the new Mini Router, I got a respectable 113.5 Mbps If the router was hardwired with RJ45 cable, I suspect it would be the same speed as standing next to the Dishy. The Mini Router paired in about 4 minutes using the Starlink App. It showed up as a new Mesh-2 device, the App asked a few questions, and it was immediately working. It really couldn’t have been easier.

I bought an aftermarket Starlink Mini 12V cigarette lighter plug adapter/step up converter (12V to 36V) for about the same price. I tested it with the kit 15m cable and measured 35.6V at distance. I’m primarily going to use it when traveling with the SLM on the TV’s dash or magnetic rooftop mount. This was an Amazon purchase, BarBaren/Stargear. The converter is in keeping with the design of the wall plug adapter that comes with the SLM kit, which steps up 12V to 30V. EDIT: For additional savings, bundle pricing is offered wherein the subject adapter and a 16.4’ cable was acquired for an overall $18 price reduction; 12V adapter for $28.20 (reg. $38.99), cable for $18.79 (reg. $25.99). A bundle is also available for the adapter and a 6.5’ cable. I returned my initial purchase at $38.99 to take advantage of said bundle pricing.

Former trainee…😄