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Having been in the sealants business for years I would like to share one thought. I have seen many instances where adhesive removers were used to clean up old adhesive and caulks. This is fine so long as the adhesive remover is completely removed or neutralized. The methods to do this are product specific and I won't attempt to go into them here as there are many new products on the market since my retirement from the adhesive and sealants industry. An adhesive remover is not bright enough to know when its job is done and will attack new sealant or adhesive just as happily as the old. This can be both a mess and terribly dexpensive ... to the point where I have seen folks bankrupt their businesses unwittingly through the use of adhesive removers. The butyl caulk / tape holding the window frame to the hull is your primary moisture barrier. The externally applied silicone caulk is secondary and is there primarily to keep dirt out of the joint and improve cosmetics. If you must use adhesive removers do so carefully using only as much as is absolutely necessary. If you soak an existing adhesive joint excess adhesive remover residue is likely still down there doing its job.

With respect to the crack. You might want to consider stop drilling the upper end to help relieve the forces in play. To be safe, it would be best to run this by Oliver.

OK, I will give you my 2 cents on this. I have a 10 year old hull, so don't know how Oliver is currently dealing with their hull cutouts. But I can say with some certainty that square inside corners in a fiberglass layup is just poor detailing. Especially in a RV that is subject to all kinds of stresses and vibration. All corners at the very least should be drilled out with a hole saw to a diameter that is compatible with the appliance (or whatever) being installed. Then the straights can be cut out with whatever tool: angle grinder, router, jig saw etc. seems best. The hull on my rear Oliver lense had square cutouts, and I have similar spider cracks at two of the corners. I checked my HWH yesterday and the hull was also square cut under the rounded metal flange. Last year my friend had to pull his HWH and his hull was also square cut (pretty badly as we recall). No spider cracks yet on ours but.... Look up in your attic at the back side of the Oliver light. If it was square cut, then that is a good indicator that your HWH is the same. You can also look from the inside at the HWH and see what the corners are like. If it is square cut, then the only repair I know that will last is to create a radius at the corner to spread out the stresses that concentrate there. This is what I did on my rear lense in the pic. For you, that will be a real PITA as the metal trim ring has to be removed and who knows what else. Mine is set with butyl tape and pop rivets. As I mentioned, your crack is probably just in the gelcoat and not structural. But it shouldn't be there in a trailer of this caliber. Any repair that doesn't address the root cause, will be wasted effort and money IMHO. Wandering Sagebrush's idea to drill a hole at the end of the crack could work. I have used "stop drilling" to stop cracks in fiberglass layups from migrating, but then you have a hole that needs to be gel-coated and polished out. Not sure if it would work for just a gelcoat fracture. Maybe a good solution? It could be! In the end, a good fiberglass technician will know what to do. But I think it will not be a quick and easy fix. Please post up what you find out. Good luck. Dave

I ASSUME that the cost would be for two. Regardless, a 50% discount would make the advertisement more likely to be replaced over time. Also improves the look of the fleet as it ages. GJ

The photo of the cat is cute, but a photo of the CP Plus wall unit display when the furnace is still running, when the temp in the cabin is beyond the set temp, would be more useful. It might enable progress toward diagnosis of your issue.

Thank you, Jim & Chris. Good advise! When I sprayed some the first day, I followed up with soap and water per the instructions. Day two, I sprayed the marine solvent at a sponge in a container and sponged it on the surface only. I've always believed this and never have seen it written so clearly. Thank you again. I've spent too much of my life removing what others think "improve cosmetics" which in essence just collect DIRT! If you're going to caulk (not me), trim back the old caulk first! Caulk on old caulk is not cool. There is no reason for this silicone caulk, period! The sealant is under the mounting frame. They even caulked the refrigerator vents on our hull, OMG! These vents allow highway speed rains to run right through them! Go figure? These pictures show an ugly mess, that btw is no longer there! 😎

A picture is NOT a signature! Are you mocking us? Asking Forum Mods to review this account.

The POE injector from MobileMustHave has been running about $150 but is now marked as $119.20.

But.., We would like you to take care of your laundry before I/we help again. @ScubaRx, Oliver Elder and Senior Forum Mod asked you to update your profile. That done and add a proper signature with hull #, etc. and then “Welcome to the community.” You have a couple threads started and we do help known Forum Members.

I believe the answer to your question is in your second sentence. You have your warranty claim entered and acknowledged. The schedule is now up to you! The crack ain’t going anywhere! It will either stay the same or grow a little longer. A proper repair can happen sooner or later, it makes no difference. Be cool. 😎

I'm so sorry to hear that you feel this way and am sorry for the "problems" that you have had with your Ollie. My personal experience with both the Oliver Company and its travel trailer product has not been without "issues". But, those issues were either not Oliver's fault or were taken care of by Oliver with few (if any hassles). Just for my own frame of reference I took a look at the current warranty for Corvettes - it is three years for the fiberglass panels. This does not make your experience of having to deal with the crack in your Ollie, but, at least it is covered under a warranty that is a full two years longer than a Vette's. I also looked at the warranty on Bigfoots and found that it is either three years or five years depending on a number of things (so, it is unclear which it is and for what items). In any case, Bigfoot's warranty is no greater than Oliver's. Good luck with getting the crack repaired. I truly hope that this will be the beginning of a better relationship. Bill

One should not have to pay for their advertising, at least not that much!

One big naked egg! I can only see doing that for those who want their own custom graphics, like many here have done. I only want our Oliver to look like what Oliver produced when it was new. Crazy for an organization to lose their own artwork!

Oh, and you can mention my name, Nan Wallace, if you want to. Thanks.

I wish I was next to Talli and Steve, but I am in F56. On a high note, my grandson, Nick, is coming with me. I will be excited for everyone to meet him..Georgia Southern marching band, 3.7 GPA, plays the drums for Compassion Christian in Statesboro, Ga, Eagle Scout, ..just a good kid.

I special ordered the 10 mil material directly from XPEL, I think it was a 5x10’ roll, to cover specific areas on our Ollie. I supplied the material to our installer who cut and installed it. I honestly can’t remember exactly what the install cost was for the Ollie. At the time as we also had our TV done, so it was combined price. I would have to review my file. Your best bet is to consider getting an estimate from your local XPEL dealer. I can tell you it’s not cheap. XPEL 10 mil is a special order PPF but it really protects the gel coat when installed properly. Find a really experienced well trained installer that does high end cars and you will likely be happy with his work.

So, 1 1/2 years since this post, and near 2 1/2 years of Oliver ownership and I'm finally getting to making our Oliver look better! I believe it's better to do maintenance and repair, mechanical and electrical work, before the cosmetic work! I've got a guy coming over today to quote the buffing and ceramic coating work. He runs his own business and has good references. Hope he's reasonable! But I'm not having this kind of work done without all the proper prep work. Doing what I can do myself. Spent half a day, used a half dozen razor blades, and made good headway. Check out all the caulk on the driveway, mostly silicone and some butyl from around the furnace cover. I found a new Atwood furnace cover for only $25 on eBay. Thank goodness I do not have to clean the caulk off those parts, certainly worth the money to replace it. Next step, using light 3M pads and solvent to remove the silicone from the window frames and body around the furnace. The frames are painted or powder coated as I can see aluminum in a couple very small spots. This is the waste from this area only (including the window above)! Four windows, the entrance door, and this utility area, lots of useless gunk. I had three piles of caulk to vacuum up end of day!

There are a number of q7 owners here. Try a search, and pm. Some may chime in. Here's one thread. Try using audio q7 in search We picked up our Elite II 2 1/2 weeks ago and have about 2500 miles towing it so far with our Q7. We have air shocks so we aren’t using any load levelers (which Audi says not to use). I’m very pleased with towing our Oliver behind the Q7. We have averaged 14 miles per gallon and it has completely adequate power and braking capabilities. We have been on a wide variety of roads from TN to Newfoundland with some gusty wind conditions. I have never felt like I needed more car at anytime. I do plan on getting some mud flaps for the rear wheels on the Q7, hopefully that will keep the trailer a little cleaner. Hopefully this will help a little if considering using a Q7 to pull your trailer. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9303-using-an-audi-q7-as-tow-vehicle-report/?do=findComment&comment=92434