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OMG, no trailers. 🤪 We did it in our truck. Almost everyone else we saw that day was in a Jeep. Thrill of a lifetime. P.S. depending on how you do it, you can go right past the Thelma and Louise jump site. 😁

Steve - I almost sent you my condolences regarding the K-pop music. But the jazz and blues brought me back to what I believe is the real world even though I didn't see any Keb Mo in your list. Best of Keb Mo Bill

Thanks! I think somehow a few of the wrong bolts got sent. Here the Ubolts - probably not a big deal but taking them on off multiple times as I tried to get everything aligned was work.

But based on my play list, mostly older jazz and blues.

Leaving camp at Kelso dunes in the Mohave Desert. the road is in poor shape due to storms In mid-November but the slow go is well worth this place for a nice overnight spot.

This might be another option Bill, Thanks, looks like a clean setup.

🤣 "Golden" is one of those earworm songs you can't get rid of. And then, when I finally eradicate it from my brain, I hear a snippet somewhere and it takes up residence for another week. Same with 4 Non Blondes' "What's Up". I don't particularly like either, but I know all the words. 😜 It takes a couple of sessions of Tool played loudly to clean things out. (But that's definitely not jazz or blues!) I've listened to and enjoy Ken Mo! Don't know why its not on the list. But now it is.

I periodically mention especially these two safety tips, mostly for new owners to the forum.... and to keep especially these three safety tips "top of mind" for us older ones.

A week or so after the leaf springs and water pipe on the Oliver were fixed the engine seized on the van as I was trying to turn the trailer around and it got stuck in a meadow near Mammoth Lakes, Ca. I was using traction mats to slowly pull it forward when the 6.6L engine seized. I had it towed to the highway ($1200) and then used my premium AAA roadside service to get it towed 2 1/2 hours to Reno, Nevada. I got the premium roadside service just for this instance (The mechanics in Mammoth and Bishop were booked up for months). Triple AAA will not pay for towing from a dirt road - hence the $1200 charge from Rauh towing. I got to know him pretty good - a good guy). Despite the fact that I had personally kept track of oil changes, that I had just gotten the transmission fluid changed, and a GM dealer had checked out the oil and other fluid levels 2 weeks before, that the check engine light never came on (showing that the oil was running low), the fact that I did not have a receipt showing that the oil had been changed by a shop, meant the dealer assumed that I had neglected to change the oil, and refused to honor the warranty. The service guy's tone markedly changed when he learned that the engine had seized. I contacted a shop about breaking down the engine to show that that was not the case, but the owner recommended against it because even if the breakdown showed that a rod or bearing had broken and no evidence that low oil was the cause, the dealer or GM would likely still refuse to honor the warranty. GM, it seems, will do anything to avoid paying to replace an engine. Big Oil Leak I went to GEICO to see if they would help with the rental car and they led me to their mechanical breakdown department. I didn't realize it, but I had a mechanical breakdown on my insurance policy. (GEICO does this for newer cars). It took a while with the dealer essentially ignoring their requests but they got an engine specialist over there to inspect the outside of the engine. I almost fell off my chair when he believed that an oil filter failure caused the seizure. One question immediately was whether I broke the engine by trying to pull the trailer through deep sand. The answer to that was surely no. Dragging anything through sand dramatically increases the strain on the vehicles suspension and its engine. In this case, the van's suspension - which is only rated to tow 10,000 lbs - held, while the engine - which is rated to tow at maximum over 18,000 lbs failed. The strain must have done something but I believe that it either revealed a problem with the engine that was already there or I just got unlucky. I've been stuck many times and I know not to bury a stuck vehicle further by revving the engine. As soon as the van got stuck, I turned off the engine. The wheels were never buried much. I still question the diagnosis. The engine had always had a rough idle (it chugged like a little diesel), and from the beginning, I thought a rod or a bearing had broken. I assume, though, that the inspector did not find evidence of oil leaking from the upper half of the engine. I was able to inspect the oil filter later and did not see anything amiss. GEICO told me that sometimes the connection between an oil filter and the engine can fail - causing oil to spew out. They also said it's rare for a large amount of oil to blow out like that. The filter had not contacted the ground or been damaged during the pull. It's still and will always be something of a mystery to me. At that I thought the jig was up - I was going to pay for the whole thing when GEICO referred me to another department. They concluded that the oil filter failure was "an act of God"? or something like that - an unforseeable accident - and said they would pay for the engine replacement. (I really almost fell off my chair at that point), They also ended up paying for the tow and about half the rental car charges over the 2+ months the van was in the shop (which were massive). When it came to the engine they disagreed with GM about the need to change the radiator and the fuel pump. They also paid for $150/hour (instead of the dealer $200/hour). Plus the dealer added on another $1000 or so because the engine was seized so badly that they had to take the bottom off. They also took 15% off the engine because it had been used for 2 years. GM actually got the engine pretty quickly and did the job pretty quickly as well. It was the runup to all that which took so much time. In the end, it was about a $16K job, and I ended up paying about $6K. Lessons learned Plot out turnarounds better. I could have continued to back the trailer up a small hill and gotten out of there fine but I looked at the meadow - and it looked like short run to the road - and I went for it. I didn't realize the sand in the meadow was so deep. Even though it was clear that the pull should not have damaged the engine it did do something. Note that pulling anything through sand or mud is going to dramatically increase the strain on the suspension and engine. If your vehicle is already near its towing limit be careful. Probably better to have someone else pull the trailer out. Keep oil receipts (or document oil changes another way (photo's). I think I will have the oil changed in shops until the warranty runs out. Premium roadside service is a good thing. Don't rely on vehicle warranties - Check out your insurance company. GEICO turned out to be a good company. I think of insurance companies in general as trying to wiggle out of everything. In this case, GEICO was the opposite - they came through when I was sure they wouldn't. I'll stay with them. If you have a winch use it to pull the trailer out instead of using the tow vehicle. I am putting on the XO trailer jack so that I can do that. Note that it was hitch that pulled down the rear of the van and caused the rear differential and hitch to get stuck. If I had attached the XO jack to the trailer (I had it but hadn't attached it). I probably could have easily pulled the trailer out.

Here is the whole article

Who's going and when? The Q Big Tent runs Jan 17-25. The Fiberglass RV Gathering will run from February 6-9. I have time off work second half of Jan through first week of Feb and we'd like to visit for a few days when other Oliver Owners are there. Love to meet old friends and new! We weren't so much for Dome Rock (pic1) last year except for meeting Oliver owners! It's a bit crowded with the constant whine of nearby I-10 (and too many little Casitas)! Later we stayed several miles up Plomosa Rd NE of town. It was quiet up on the ridge with great views (pics 2-3). Hope to meet y'all there! 😎

Bet that experience resulted in a few "bad words" as another famous owner has had. Glad you were not hurt and figured it out. One suggestion that many owners have adopted when working on the tires and/or axles, or for that matter anything under Ollie, is to leave the trailer connected to your 6,000 pound anchor (TV). When doing so, tie flagging to the steering wheel as a reminder not to drive off. The anchor will help stabilize things a bit. Another is to try always to do such work on a "Hard Stand" such as asphault or concrete. If not on such a surface, place dunnage under your jack feet to reduce the possibility of one of the jacks sinking in a soft spot. This has happened before. GJ

Thanks! The van is very good at hauling heavy loads but its not as capable at towing. At 10,000 lbs I imagine I could max it out when trying to pull a heavy trailer out of the sand. I never conceived of that until this incident. A heavy duty truck would have had a stronger suspension and more towing capacity (but less storage space :).

Tow vehicles at the margin of their limits are okay “most of the time” but instances like this really underscore having a tow vehicle with more capacity than is needed “most of the time”. “Some of the time” we need to get unstuck from mud or sand, we need to do mountain towing in hot weather, we need to do some emergency braking, we have to tow in high winds, etc, etc. I’m glad GEICO stepped up and helped, that’s what we all want with an insurance company! Good luck on the rest of your travels and thanks for sharing your experiences, it helps us all. Mike

I never finished this up. I'm sure I set a record by being there for six weeks. GIven that I'm also working full time I was only able to work on it intermittently. Still, it was a long pull. Along the way, the last lug nut on the last tire I needed to remove, stuck. Given Ray's warnings, I was already planning to replace the lug nuts and had them ready. I ordered a lug nut removal kit from Amazon and got the lug nut off. Those kits are cheap and effective and many are available. Given how soft the lugs that come with these trailers are, they're a good thing to have. I ordered this one https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0869BR8MG?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_2&th=1 (Since the extractor is terminally attached to the bad lug nut I need to get another one :)) Then I got all the way to the last leaf spring and couldn't get it quite to fit. It was very close but time after time I couldn't get the nub of the plate to fit into the hole in the axle. When I brought it to a repair shop the guy looked at the trailer and said he was surprised - he expected to see something that was really off but it looked fine - the wheels were running true. Still it needed to be done and they were able to get everything to fit. (They also fixed a water pipe that broke on the rough roads. (Stay away from roads on the very southern end of mountains down from Flagstaff). Some things I learned. I should not have counted on a video which apparently showed a generic trailer - not an Oliver - it was inaccurate - and cost me a lot of time and energy. I should have gone straight to experienced Oliver people on the forums for help. I should have worked on one whole side at a time instead of one leaf spring at a time. At one point I had the trailer totally lifted up on 4 jacks - and when I was putting a tire on the trailer fell off the rear right one. I would not lift the entire trailer again. 🙂 The Alcan leaf springs are monsters compared to the leaf springs that came with the trailer. They appear to be about twice as heavy. I'm very happy to have them. Not all was good with Alcan, though. Despite the fact that I tightened the four bolts holding that plate in unison one of the nuts on the new jammed. It really jammed. I could not get it off with an impact wrench! don't know what happened, but I was astonished that a brand-new bolt/nut could get stuck like that. . (The shop got it off). I believe the bolts that go through the plate are far longer than they need to be. They stick way down - and could get hit more easily - and they take more time and effort to get on and off. I emailed Alcan about this and they did not return my email. More concerning was the fact that some of the shackle bolts were too short. They were so short that only about half the nut would fit on it. The repair shop advised putting longer shackle bolts in and we did. Everything has worked fine since then, and as I said I'm very happy to have those beefy springs on 🙂 (I still plan to upgrade to heavier axles). (The next fun came when a week after this got done the engine on my 2 year old van seized. It took several months to get that worked out.) Thanks, in particular, to Steve for all his help and guidance, as well as to everyone else. 🙂

Loved it when we did it. Shaeffer Trail isn't very far from there, and it's even crazier! 🙂

Temperature tags or something similar may be a good idea for both batteries, too. Like the idea of being able to check battery temps with the smart phone. Here's my current plan to monitor the 100AH BB temperature connected to the load, subject to change, will see. We have two 100AH BB connected parallel in our Ollie. Since we have one Victron IP65 Bluetooth SmartShunt, going to connect the + BB battery terminal to the Shunt temperature sensor that the + load/charge cable is also connected to. We don't have an inverter or factory installed solar. Battery charge comes from a Progressive Dynamics 4045 converter/charger or our two 100W solar suitcases. The reason I installed a Victron IP65 SmartShunt in the battery compartment is because it's waterproof. Here's a Q&A on the Victron forum about connecting the IP65 SmartShunt to the Victron temperature sensor splicing to the correct IP65 wires: https://communityarchive.victronenergy.com/questions/213907/temp-sensor-with-smartshunt-500a-ip65.html

We continue westward and are camping in the Mojave Desert at Kelso dunes. A very warm afternoon and beautiful sunset

Happy to report that my installation, guided by this thread, was fully successful! My only significant deviation was to install the power switch under the dinette beside the DC fuse panel using this switch. (I'm getting over my fear of drilling through gelcoat.) I used heavy duty velcro to anchor the POE injector and router mini. I think it will hold just fine but yet to be road tested. Thanks @dhaig for sharing your project!

Two of my favorites!

I have a 7 year old granddaughter....