Leaderboard

There should be 3 fuses under the street side bunk, one for each jack. They are easy to find if you look there.

IMG_0062.mov We had our Oliver ceramic coated by Blake, owner of Triple B Detailing near Lake Norman, NC. He did an outstanding job and was absolutely incredible to work with! His reviews were stellar and making the 3 hour trip to see him was more than worth it! He is knowledgeable, passionate, and takes pride in every step of the process! Our Oliver looks better than when we took delivery a month ago. I wanted to share Blake’s information and an honest review in case anyone is looking for someone in the area and wants someone who does exceptional work with Olivers.

While traveling we've used our Starlink Mini often. Though more often with cell coverage we are able to use our our T-Mobile 5G SIM on our Pepwave router. I have also used the Pepwave with 5G service as a backup to our home network. Twice while teaching, in the last two years, our Sparklight service has gone down, and I've logged into the Pepwave Wi-Fi to continue the Zoom class sessions. Over the last two years, 5G service in our neighborhood has gotten better/faster. I decided to cancel our home cable service which has grown in cost from $40/mo eight years ago to $86/mo lately for 300 Mbps service. I've worked out a complex installation that allows us to be logged into the same Home Network whether we are physically at home or on the road with the Oliver! To date we have only used the Starlink powered by battery, connecting via Wi-Fi using the built-in Starlink Router. I just finished a more complete installation where we have the Starlink powered by 12-24V DC-DC charger (thanks Geoff) and connected by Ethernet cable to the WAN port of the Pepwave. This will start to get technical for many of you... Internet connection comes into Pepwave router by means of the Parsec 5G antenna (priority #1) or when needed by the Starlink Mini via the Pepwave LAN input. The Pepwave can if needed also share bandwidth between WAN connections for greater overall speed. The Pepwave router will also broadcast Wi-Fi but like any Wi-Fi broadcast it has distance limitations. The Wi-Fi coming from our truck installation by itself will not pass through the garage and the walls of our home to the other side of the house or our lower level where it's half underground. But it does fine more than 100 ft radius around any campsite. At home, we've been using a Wi-Fi 6 Mesh network, a main with two satellite routers to cover all the area on our 3/4 acre property. Including the Oliver which is parked 100 ft away! Now that we're not using a home-based modem anymore, I thought "How could I repurpose this system connected to the Pepwave?" I installed the Mesh Wi-Fi main unit in our truck connected by ethernet cable to a LAN output of the Pepwave. It's so cool that when I read the label on the 120V power adapter for the mesh unit, the output was stated at 12VDC 3.5A which means all I had to do was to cut off the adapter and connect two wires to the 12VDC in the truck! I mounted it in the back window behind the rear bench seat, behind the driver's head. Out of sight when driving and good line-of-sight out the rear of the truck. Where our truck is parked most of the time, backed into the driveway, the mesh satellite in my office also has line-of-site to the main. Our "Home" network is getting 300-400 Mbps down and about 20-50 up from this installation, 5G cell through the cell antenna on the truck! I then parked the truck in the garage where the Wi-Fi signal must travel through 3 walls. We could still stream TV at about half these numbers. Half speed is also about what the Starlink Mini delivers day-to-day. Yeah, good 5G service is 2-4 times faster than the Mini. I've canceled our cable Internet service. The savings of $86/mo in two years will pay for everything spent in this installation; the Pepwave and antenna, the Starlink Mini and accessories, the converters and cabling, etc. Now here's the real kicker! 😎 I setup a home network on the Wi-Fi mesh. We have all of our laptops, cell phones, network printer, TVs etc. all connected to the same "home" network. We also have the TV in the Oliver on the same network. Regardless of whether we are home or away the network login is constant so no need to reconnect ever to another Wi-Fi. If we need Starlink, when traveling, or for emergencies when at home and the cell network is overloaded, just mount and connect the Starlink Mini and it feeds the same home network. If we wanted to connect to a public or friend's Wi-Fi we can also input that to the Pepwave "Wi-Fi as WAN" so it becomes the Internet source for our home network. It's a lifetime, seamless setup! 🤣 So, you might be thinking a router with antenna, the Starlink Mini and a Wi-Fi Mesh could pull a bit of power from your truck starter batteries. Yes, and it will over time. Earlier I had installed a 100W Renogy flexible solar panel on our truck toolbox along with a small 15A Victron MPPT SC. This small solar setup always keeps our truck AGM batteries to 13V+ and powers everything listed above. It also has ample power for our Dometic CFX5 45l fridge in the truck bed! 😎 One exception is when I have the truck parked inside the garage for more than a couple days. So then I connect a battery charger, quick connect leads already installed above the front bumper. I got done yesterday as the sun was setting and this picture shows it all. Notice the Starlink Mini mounted top right with the small blue power light on. You can see the Renogy panel on the toolbox, the SC is installed inside with outputs to battery and the fridge in a separate circuit. You can see cable looms, going up to the antenna and to the Starlink running across the box. The Mini is removable but the cabling stays. If we ever camp where the Northern sky is blocked where the TV is parked, then the Starlink would be mounted elsewhere, Starlink Wi-Fi login, powered by battery again. We find this is a rare case where we camp most of the time out West. The Pepwave install was shown earlier in this thread and is behind the rear bench seat below. Lastly, notice the blue light in the truck rear window. This is the Arris Mesh. I had purchased this mesh network 6 years ago, so it was great to reuse it, no cost. If I was to purchase new today there are better and smaller products available, though this system as a whole works great. We've got more installed in our tow vehicle than most have in their homes and RVs put together. What a great upgrade! 🤣

FWIW, we keep a cover on our tongue Jack in the hope of reducing failures. https://a.co/d/013Mrxua

Left-Side Hinge Ordering - Just FYI, and to keep this key thread somewhat at the top, if you are ordering a Nova Kool 5810, most in stock fridges are right-side hinged. You can swap sides, but Nova Kool recommends ordering a left-side hinge. I got the sense from talking to them, that if you reverse the door, you end up with the holes exposed and apparently it voids the five year warranty. Lead time as I write this is 4-6 weeks. I got mine from suremarine.com out of Seattle. They are a high volume Nova Kool dealer and close to the Canadian factory. Shipping to San Antonio is around $500. ;-(, but their price was best I could find. https://www.suremarineservice.com/Galley/Single-Door-Freezers/F5810ACDC.html

I did get under my rig with my creeper and a bright flashlight. I took some pics too, but they are not really worth loading up here. So far, everything looks good and things appear to be moving as they should. However, when I put my springs on, I was a bit "anal" and even added a finger size of grease on the shackles where the springs would be touching and rubbing. I knew the 65 ft lbs may be an issue, so I gave everything a fighting chance to move freely. LOL Seems to have worked. I do have grease pushed out to the far side of the wet bolt/shackle area, but then again I used a Ryobi battery powered grease gun, which seem quite powerful, and FAST.

Reasoning is I wouldn't think with how heavy your tow vehicle is that a WDH would be necessary. What you describe is the way my truck felt towing prior to upgrading leaf springs. The Alcan springs will eliminate 90% of the porpoising and so made the tail-heavy feeling go away. BTW, both Bill and I had measured tongue weight with a Sherline scale at 580 LBS. Most Oliver owners with 2500 series trucks do not use the Andersen WDH.

@Hokieman Not sure what to explain in regards to the shackles and wet bolts being heavier duty than Dexter parts. They simply appears bigger/larger. Once you get over the fact that the wet bolts could possible spin over time due to no spines in the shackles, all is well, I guess. As to why Oliver is using Dexter parts with Alcan springs, I'm not sure. If they are, I can only think of a few reasons why: They have tons of Dexter spare parts and want to use them up & save $$$. Or they are making a less than desirable decision to save $$ and use Dexter parts with Alcan springs. 🤷‍♂️ The parts will be fine I'm sure. Most of those bolts & shackles had held up pretty well. Oh sure, a few reports of broken ones over the years, but only time will tell with pure Alcan parts. Again, a business does not stay in business since 1971 if they make crap parts, I would think. Us men can be so darn anal detailed oriented with our data-point comparisons that it surely creates super long threads. 🤣. It's like our chess games but with RV parts. 😉 I spend much of my time in recent years ensuring I know how to retire and if I did a good enough job with the portfolio (I think so). And now whether or not I want to go thru a full RV Tech school to have a better foundation, or simply goof-off in early retirement. Decisions, decisions.