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At the Q! 😎

Well I took another run at the occluded Truma condensate line today with a better outcome than last time. I was better prepared today, with canned air and a 16ft flexible auto sunroof drain brush, extra tubing and numerous fittings for the tubing. As before, I was able to get good drainage from the Truma condensate drain cup on the street side, which drains under the trailer on the curbside but nothing from the other side. I again confirmed that the actual drain cup was not occluded. I cut the tubing about 6 inches from the curbside drain cup but was only able to pass my brush about 18”. The line was completely occluded where the tubing passes behind the upper cabinet. I could not access the tubing in this area. Lastly I cut the other drain and using a Y connector tied the curbside line into the street side line. I did block the stump of the defunctionalized tubing. I tested for leaks and reassembled the unit. All seems to be draining well. I have no idea why the line was occluded. I was hoping I could access the occluded area but it was not to be. I also considered passing a new run of tubing, but the was so little space, I didn’t think I could fish another line through the area. Special thanks to Geronimo John for the suggestion to remove the inside AC shroud, I wouldn’t have had adequate access to the tubing runs otherwise. The picture shows the drain setup before my modifications. The front of the trailer is to the right.

GJ, thanks for the tips on suspension and tire pressure. I'm running Alcan springs and 50psi in the tires. Hopefully this combination with lightweight batteries and steel rivets will be a good solution after my repair

I SUSPECT that the lean out is to facilitate water drainage should a seal fail. I support your thought that the advantagee of a slight lean in would out-weigh potential negatives of a seal failure. The amount of the lean out could for sure facilitate the failure of the rivets. The support member as you have: with just one bolt (as pictured) could easily allow the top of the "stiff leg" to move out there by increasing lean and failure. Suggest adding a second bolt above the shown one to better fix (Lock in) the angle of tilt once properly adjusted. GJ

About 2 miles. Ben there done that 20 years ago. I now do a FULL bearing and brake service before each season. Hint. 🙂 GJ

This reminded me of an older thread (see link) that addressed battery box support bracket and bolts. Recommended reading for those that have not already addressed, it might help avoid a loose battery box. In my case, both nuts & bolts of the support were very loose when I checked them, and the holes were drilled poorly by the factory. I drilled a new “clean” hole and installed 3 stainless bolts, washers and nylon nuts. A quick and easy task. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/6112-battery-box-support-bolts-missing I recommend caution when sliding out the battery tray, be gentle and avoid leaning on the tray. It puts an excessive force on the rivets and support bracket, especially if you have AGM batteries.

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! 😎

I just confirmed my dates and site for October rally. I'll be getting in early, thankfully. 19 - 26 October, Site G33. This will be a critical time for me to decide whether I will be retiring this year or not. If you see me sitting on the dock early mornings, as usual, you'll know what I'm thinking about. Erggg.

75F and hotter in the afternoon AZ sunny skies. Best to you, John.

Reallly good idea! Yep weight and G-forces will tend to find weak parts. At least your Litho weight is way under what the OEM's were. We now have seen frame fractures and battery boxes being damaged by trailers likelly exceeding their design limits in one way or another. Just a reminder that stiff Frames/Springs/Shocks and high tire pressures are things to avoid or at least mitigate where we can. GJ

Weather looks great. I think it got up to 10° today, here in Indiana, with a negative wind chill🙃

Familiar sight! Wish we were there. Enjoy!

We are repairing our battery box separation as we speak per the old string from Galway Girl. The combination 250lbs of AMG batteries, off the grid travel and aluminum rivets proves to have been a bad marriage. Now have 300AH lithiuim batteries weighing in at 80lbs and steel rivets.

We got down into the 30's this morning so I decided to run a quick test of the heat pump function on the Turbro. After using it down into the 20's while camping over New Year's I already knew it performed well but wanted to put some stats to it. Starting cabin temp was 37.2 when the heat was first turned on. The unit takes about 3 min to actually start producing heat, which most likely to get the evaporator up to operating temp and prevent circulating cold air. Once the heating started, the outlet temps at the duct immediately went to up 114 and peaked at 118 which was much higher than I expected... Took a little over 15 min to get the cabin 10 degrees warmer but from there the temperature warmed quickly and got to setpoint of 67 in a total of 38 min. I left the setpoint alone for 15 min to see if there would be any fluctuations in temps from cycling, but it held steady the whole time. After this I bumped the thermostat up to max and within 8 min the cabin temp was 75 degrees. Ended testing there since we'll never have the heat set that high, though it's nice to know it can get there and probably even higher. It may have some issues, but heating performance isn't one of them!

Yes, I do have a recent install of ALCAN springs. Looking at the separation it appears to me that this is not new. I have also learned of other instances of this (Galway Girl being one of them) that predate any ALCAN spring installations. You gave good advice to Crazy Horse 🤪.

"Alcan" Springs, somehow when reading this earlier today, I kind-a though this might come up... And, I remembered that Craig @Galway Girl wrote about this same issue and making the repair. From his post above, "My repair has held since 2022" (TG) which is two years prior to when our friend Lance installed Alcan Springs on his Oliver, the first. Keep an eye on your battery door and I will do the same. The question is, what causes the failure? Is the battery base secure?

Crazy Horse asked if by chance you have Alcon's? I told him to mind his own business. GJ

For sure! Just know your actual trailer weight first, add 10%, and check your manufacturer's tire pressure/load table! 😎

Thanks again all. We stopped today at Marathon and got a new spare at Tire Kingdom/Mavis. They were awesome, we were in and out in 20 minutes and I would highly recommend the shop. We are now tucked in at Sugerloaf and no issues today. The mobile service tech is coming Wednesday afternoon, and I will definitely post an update afterwards. I will say that after I got past the shock of seeing the tire damage, my first thought was that I was running the tires with too much pressure. I appreciate comments from jd1923 and plan on researching this further. You know the whole trust but verify thing.

A locked wheel could burn down a flat spot like that in just a few miles. @topgun2 Bill was correct in noticing from the picture that you're running too much tire pressure and so is anybody running over 50 PSI in an LE2, PERIOD! Unless you have D52 axles and HD springs providing a 10K LB platform and you've added upgrades and tools, every possible Oliver cabinet packed full, so your Oliver is up to 8000-9000 LBS. I know one owner that fits this description, but most of us carry under the 7K GTWR. I'm posting this table for the 4th time on this forum. These are the tires we have, but tire makes are all about the same. What's important is the tire size you're running and the weight you're carrying. Sure go 5 PSI over, but 10-15 PSI over effects the trailer ride and will over time deliver unnecessary stress and strain to your trailer suspension and all components. 65 PSI on our four LT225/75R16 tires carries 4x 2,620 LBS for 10,480 LBS GTW! 55 PSI on our four LT225/75R16 tires carries 4x 2,290 LBS for 9,160 LBS GTW! 45 PSI on our four LT225/75R16 tires carries 4x 1,950 LBS for 7,800 LBS GTW! @John E Davies towed his Oliver for years at 42 PSI, I fill up to 46 PSI, and filling over 50 PSI is ignoring the science for superstition!

Glad you did not have a blow out or worse. If it were me I would immediately have a complete brake and wheel bearing inspection done on all four drums. It’s more than obvious in your photo that tire/brake was locked down. Safe Travels!

For what its worth - I'd lower this a bit - say down to 145 - certainly you can go lower but if you have that side of the trailer in the sun, are traveling on dark black asphalt roads and are traveling at speed - above 55 mph - you might have times when you will get a signal that things are getting too hot. While I'm sure that there will be some discussion here about the 65psi to start in the tires, if I'm planning on doing a fair amount of driving on the Interstate (i.e. speeds of above 60 mph) I'll start with a psi of 60. Having said this, I doubt that your 65 psi was so high as to be the only cause of that worn spot in the tire. I wouldn't be worried about the psi fluctuation you saw due to the ambient temperature drop. As things warm up I'd bet that your psi will return to close to what you originally set it. Interesting information on the storage of your Ollie - indeed, that salt air and lack of movement point to rust being a major suspect in the problem. Please let us know what the results are of the mobile tech taking a look at the situation. Bill

The only thing that I can think of is that something got jammed in the brakes which either made that single brake lock in the "on" position or that something was like a stone that jammed the brake very tight to the drum on that one brake. Then as you backed up the trailer - probably into the camping spot - whatever was jammed became released thus causing everything to return to normal. I assume that your mobile tech will check the brake wiring, the magnet and all other parts of the brake (at least on that wheel) plus the bearings, etc.. What pressure do you run in your tires? I ask because the worn spot is directly in the center of the tire as opposed to being spread out. This might indicate that your pressures are too high. Also, can you tell us what TPMS system you are using and what your "high" temperature limit is set at? I would have thought that the temps should have reached a high enough level to trigger the TPMS unless (of course) the wheel wasn't really "locked up" all that long. Bill p.s. glad that other than the cost of the tire and the mobile tech that everyone is OK.

Odd that's it's rolling fine now, after you jacked it up. Obviously at some point it was stuck in that one position. Brakes locking up must be it if the bearings are good, but why are they no longer locked up? Hope things work out for you quickly without anything major! Best wishes, JD

So, tonight we met cousins at a favorite pizza place. Also a harvest host site. Midcounty, Largo. Surprise! A newer Oliver in rhe lot. Our server said they were very sweet folks, had been in earlier. I left a note in the door handles. Florida plates. No tv in sight. Probably out exploring on a lovely 70+ degree night.

Jd, I missed your question about remote camping in the Navajo nation. The answer is yes, we were able to camp outside of campgrounds in remote areas. You can get permits at the visitor center in Cameron for various areas. We had planned to camp in the Coal Mine Canyon area but it was closed due to road damage. The folks at the visitor center recommended the little Colorado River Canyon. The Little Colorado River Canyon was very remote but you had to work / very slow go to get there. It's out there, you will likely be alone and have dark skies. Be sure to ask about roads for your Oliver. We were cautioned about some of the roads.

Happy to be home in my driveway after a fabulous adventure and 4,864.5 miles.

Last night on the road after 6 weeks. We are staying at Dumbarton Quarry Campground, part of Fremont Ca park system. What a nice surprise, one minute we are fighting Bay Area 6 lanes of traffic and next you are in what seems to be a remote place miles from the concrete jungle. Besides an oasis in the middle of madness, the price at $73 is very reasonable for the city. This is a great stop over if passing through the bay-area. We'll be on the road at 4am to beat traffic. Should be home in humboldt County, Ca before noon tomorrow.

Nearing end of a fantastic 6 week trip. Camping at Morrow Strand State Beach, Ca Clear and sunny with blustery winds, 74 degrees.

Goosenecks State Park, UT, not to far from Moab. Camped on the rim for $10/night. High above the San Juan River. You get an option, campground or along the rim. No brainer.

I used small 3” round pieces of XPEL PPF to seal the (8) cowl/shroud screw openings on the Truma. This hack works great and will not leak. The PPF can easily be removed if access is needed. You can barely see the PPF after install. This- https://www.xpel.com/products/category/paint-protection-film?srsltid=AfmBOoofOST9nDR0K5MGLu60LA51g5o0X91aVYGGCMG-MDnbjXq8c0Bf