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  1. I must say Oliver (Jason and the Service Team) has been great and have asked if I would want to repair on my own or take it to a shop. I have chosen to do the repairs myself as the overall issues have been mechanically easy to fix, once the parts arrive, and having my trailer sit at a shop that is backed-up is not ideal. It would have taken me longer to drive to a potential shop than it took me to replace the window frame and doing it myself ensures it meets my expectations while educating myself on the inner workings of the trailer. The door window frame problem took a little longer to resolve due to the shortage of parts from the manufacturer (Lippert). The suspension bushings and u-bolts won't be a problem for me to just take care of myself as well as it is the same type of deal as the window frame. The squeaky shower floor is a lot more involved and I would rather wait until we take the trailer back to Oliver as they have the tools/knowledge to fix quickly and correctly. Overall, we have been very happy with the Oliver Trailer and the Service Team's response to our questions/fixes. My objective was not to give people the impression that Oliver trailers are not the best trailer out there but rather to share some of the things we have learned since picking up the trailer as it might help someone catch it earlier than we did and get it resolved before leaving the factory. We consider it much like the process when purchasing/building a new house and developing a punch-list of items to have fixed or addressed before moving in. Yes, I agree that Oliver should have caught some of these but we know that nobody is perfect and sometimes things get missed.
    5 points
  2. Being somewhat mechanical, I focus on caring the right tools for most repairs that I might need on the road. All this being said, I don't carry much in the way of repair, or replacement parts, just things like tapes, fuses, etc. I feel if something goes wrong I can go and purchase what I need for the repair, in most cases you are not going to have onboard what you would need if something breaks, or goes bad. Replacement wheel bearings are probably one thing that you should carry, even if you can't replace them yourself and a repair shop with parts in hand makes the job go much faster. There are very few things on a trailer that can't wait to be repaired at a later time, but anything to do with the wheels, etc. probably can't wait. This is just how I do, others carry much more and look at it in a different way. trainman
    4 points
  3. To be fair - I do not know about the agreement between Oliver Service and QuestionMark regarding his particular situation. QuestionMark has been very nice in both reporting his difficulties and in letting us all know how things developed/were resolved by Oliver. However, in all of the cases that I'm aware of Oliver Service has given the owner the option of taking the camper to a RV repair facility for needed warranty repairs or (if they feel comfortable/qualified) to do the repairs if the owner can do the repair themselves. This is not to suggest I accept nor condone quality control issues such as those reported by QuestionMark. But, Oliver has a long history of "making things right" when things do not go according to the way they should. Yes, things of this sort should never happen and, yes, it is a real pain in the tail for all concerned when they do happen. But, contrary to virtually every other company I've ever dealt with, Oliver does whatever is necessary to make things right and to correct production QC issues if that was the culprit. Bill
    3 points
  4. Oliver Owners, We picked up our new trailer (Legacy Elite I #664) on Sept 16, 2020 and have been using it on/off since this date. Overall, our experience has been wonderful and the quality of the trailer has been much better than what we have read about other manufacturers. In an attempt to help others with our recent learnings, I am listing some of the items were have learned about, fixed, and/or submitted a tickets for: Initial Pickup: - The bathroom interior window frame was bent due to being over tightened - Jason and the person showing us the trailer located a new frame and installed. - Window shade over the rear driver's side window had damage to the felt liner at the bottom of the night shade. - Orientation team replaced. First Night Camp @ Davy Crockett State Park: - Noticed that the propane alarm was not on. - Contacted Jason via telephone and he walked me through installing the 1A fuse that was included in the box of spare fuses provided. The fuse holder is located under the dinette seat and is somewhat hard to find as it is black and not easy to see. - Upon opening the rear compartment door, the bracket where the wire attaches to keep the door from swinging down came unglued. - Contacted Jason to let him know and he said they would send me some epoxy to fix. Ended up purchasing some a few weeks after getting back home as it never arrived. I let Jason know we no longer needed as I had fixed per his recommendation of Gorilla 2 part epoxy. - Shower floor squeaks a lot - Contacted Oliver Service and have a ticket for them to repair when we take the trailer back to TN for its annual checkup. According to Jason, the squeak is most likely from the shower tub not being cut correctly or the padding under it not installed correctly. No biggie for now as we have learned to live with it knowing that it will get fixed. If your spouse decides to use the bathroom at night, It will wake you up. No liquids right before bedtime. 🙁 First Long Drive from TN to AR: - Had someone flag us down and let us know that the rear compartment door had come open during travel. Upon pulling over and inspecting, we noticed that the screws had come loose on the latch and allowed the door to open with the latch locked close. I was lucky enough to have some blue lock-tight with me to use on the screws when retightening. No further issues experienced. We let Oliver know that this happened and they indicated that lock-tight should have been added to the screws at the factory. I am confident they put new procedures in place to keep this from happening again. First Time Back Home: - Spent time learning about the solar system, inverter, appliances, etc.... - Realized that both the Solar Controller and the Inverter were both set to flooded batteries vs. the AGMs we had installed. Changed both to AGM. No issues noted so not sure if it really mattered. Texas State Park Close to Home: - Noticed a small gap at the top of the external door window frame. - Contacted Oliver and was told that the frames are designed to click together but requires special plastic keys to take the frame off to inspect. From my reading this is a common thing from the door factories with the tabs getting broken. We tried several time to get the internal frame to snap together with the external frame. No luck. Contacted Oliver again and Jason said he would have a new frame (and plastic keys) sent to us so we can repair/replace. The suppliers are backed up, so it has now been two months with the door window frame and glass loose. I was successful in learning that there is a supplier zarcor.com that has the window frames (Lippert) in stock and can be purchased/delivered within a couple of days. We will most likely end up just ordering and replacing as they also offer a clear tinted glass and window shutter for the door. There is another post in this forum with pictures if you are interested. Being that this repair is taking a long time to get resolved, I would recommend anyone picking up their trailer inspect this and have it repaired before taking delivery. Arkansas State Park (Crater of Diamonds): - Upon arrival at the State Park we noticed that the trailer was squeaking loudly with every small bump in the park. Upon inspection, I did not notice any lose bolts, nuts, fittings on the suspension. We contacted Jason at Oliver and he had not heard of anyone having this problem before. We ducked our heads down and slowly made it to our campsite without disturbing the other campers throughout the park. We did get some stares tho with the squeaks. Once setup, I made a quick trip to the local hardware store to purchase a small grease gun/grease, 90-degree zerk fitting as the zerks are not accessible without having the pull the tire off, and some dry lube spray. Utilized to the stabilizers to take some weight off the trailer and utilized the grease gun. Fun fact - the top zerk fitting (wet bolt) that attaches to the frame bracket actually serves no purpose as the bolt is not contained within a bushing (Only on the single axle trailers). I would not recommend you go to town putting grease in this wet bolt as the grease will just exit the bolt and make a nice stream of grease falling on the lower spring eye. Not sure why dexter/oliver designed it with a wet bolt in this location. Sad part is that, the squeak we had was between the shackle and the trailer frame bracket and without the trailer bracket having a bushing there is no real way to get grease between the two. Only option at this point was to use the dry lube spray. Happy to say that this resolved most of the squeak until we could get back home (~400 miles). Upon getting home, I used a spray can of Fluid Film to spray down the area between the shackle and trailer bracket. No more annoying squeak! I have some pictures on another computer that I can attach at a later time if you are curious. Other trips - Nothing new to report beyond what has already been said above. Improvements - As recommended by others on this forum, we did go ahead and install the black window seals available on pellandent.com due to some of the white window seals had stains on them from the factory and were cut about 1" too short. I must say that the black seals look much better and should eliminate an excess amount of water needing to travel through the window drains due to them now being long enough. If you do a search on this forum for pellandent you will see some pictures posted by others. Once again, the point of this post is to inform others of our experience and to share some of the things we have learned. As with anything, enjoying life comes with opportunities to improve oneself and help others on their journey. Mark
    2 points
  5. I completely agree with Overland's assessment... This post was really helpful QuestionMark but also quite disconcerting. Many of us live quite far from TN and, personally, I would have zero interest in traveling (back) there to have my trailer fixed especially after only a few short months of ownership. Great that they're sending parts but unfortunate that they're expecting you to install them yourself. As RB mentioned, we pay a premium for these trailers. Some of these issues impact being able to tow an Oliver safely - they are not just concerns around premature wear and tear. I really hope they get their production quality and QC back on track.
    2 points
  6. To answer the first part of your question, we don't carry any caulk or sealants with us, on a regular basis. Many of the better ones are fairly expensive and only have a year or two shelf life, even unopened. Open, some need to be used as soon as opened, or maybe get a month or two with resealing and cool storage. Storing them in a hot truck would accelerate the decline, and I'm not giving up fridge space for something we can buy at any marine store, or in some cases, a building supply, if we actually have a need. We do carry a roll or two of duct tape, which can be used in an emergency to seal a leak, or seal off a suspected leak. Clear is nice for that. Doesn't stand out so much.
    2 points
  7. My wife and I met with a great guy, Josh White who spent a good amount of time showing us the different layouts and features. I had already researched the Elite 2 and seen one at a campground but was concerned if my wife would like the small size compared to a large fifth wheel. But she really liked it and we think it could work for us in downsizing. Plant tour was very informative about the manufacturing process. So now it’s a matter of decision as to buy or not. Just want to say thanks to Josh for his patience today and his knowledge of the product.
    1 point
  8. Connor77, I’ll throw my 2cents in here. I have been pulling our LE2 for the past 20 months over about 19,000 mi without any problems. We live in TX but have pulled it up and down mountains of CO, WY & MT without any problems. I don’t use an Anderson hitch and drive between 60-70. We have the 20lb propane tanks, don’t have a front basket and I generally travel with a full fresh water tank. In the truck bed we carry a Honda 2000, gas can, full cooler, small Webber grill and a couple lawn chairs. We don’t have a topper, only a trifold backflip cover. Sure a diesel would pull better but I use the truck as my daily driver and really like the reliability of the Tundra. Mine is a 16 and has 87k on it. It even has the original brakes. I am considering replacing it with a new Tundra just because I have read somewhere that Toyota is going to stop producing the 5.7 v8. I do like the F250 gas trucks but it is 2” too long to fit in our garage.
    1 point
  9. In response to Mainiac's question above: That would be a cool idea. Might get confused with the Joker in Batman tho. 🤣
    1 point
  10. Question for QuestionMark? Do you have a big ? on the front of your unit?
    1 point
  11. Ravenper - I've not done as much pure Winter camping as compared to a number of other Forum members, but, I have camped at altitude during the summers where the overnight temps routinely get down to mid 20's to mid 30's. As Mike has said, a nice little electric heater is great for these temps and does not add any moisture to the interior, but, unfortunately, I'm rarely at a campground that has electric. Indeed, the Oliver furnace does a good job of heating the interior space but it uses a fair amount of propane and it uses electricity to run the blower motor. It also does not add much moisture to the interior because the combustion gases are vented directly to the exterior by the furnace itself. Fairly often I use a "Mr. Heater Little Buddy" propane heater : Mr. Heater Little Buddy Even though these heaters have a "tip over switch" and an automatic low O2 shut off, I never leave one of these running either overnight or when I'm not in the Oliver. The only downside to these heaters is that as a by product of combustion, they do add to the moisture level inside. So, a cracked window and/or a open MaxAir fan is reasonably mandatory. In addition, while I've never had a "problem" with moisture beneath my sleeping area, I did install 1/2 inch foam board beneath and along the sides of my mattress as a prophylactic measure. Bill
    1 point
  12. Just a quick note to let everyone know that our new door window frame came in today. Happy to report that it was easy to replace and is now as good as new. Please note that you have to have special plastic "keys" to get the old frame to release and install the new one. Oliver had the "keys" sent with the new frame so I could replace without having to take the trailer anywhere for repair. After removing the old frame it was clear that the initial install at the door factory did not have the frames lined up correctly when pressing together, thereby breaking a few of the clips. As for the squeaky suspension, Jason is sending me some new bushings for the springs and new u-bolts/nuts as the factory installed ones were not "balanced" between the two sides. I will report back once I replace both and see if I am successful in eliminating the annoying squeak. On a lighter side, I think my wife and I have somewhat agreed to nickname the trailer as "Squeaky" due to the suspension and shower floor.
    1 point
  13. We tow our OE2 with a 2016 Tundra TDR. We’ve got a Leer cap, haul a honda2000 generator, a couple bikes, misc camping gear,tools, 5 gallons of water etc in the bed. We have the Anderson towing setup. The truck tows fine, and it and the trailer set pretty level. Interestingly, if we are traveling at 60-68 mph our mileage is around 12mph.. not far from what it is without the trailer in tow. But if I spend the day driving closer to 75, the mileage drops to closer to 9mph..
    1 point
  14. I rarely use them, only when setting up, or for maintaince work, I use the lower lights which I think give enough light to the campsite and much more ambience to the camping area. I also have installed the LED strip lights on the awning rail, the ones that I can change the colors and the way they flash, etc., but don't use them all the time. All being said, we are light poor with the Oliver, I counted 29 just on the inside and that's just what comes stock with the trailer. trainman
    1 point
  15. Sure thing. I bought the SSR-610-47 from here. They have 20% off until EOY and they offered free shipping and no tax when I purchased mine. These are the medium springs in black. Mike
    1 point
  16. I have been towing my OE2 with a 2007 Tundra Unlimited with Sumo springs which were simple to install and do not require air adjustments. I use a locking tonneau cover and I get 11-12 mpg and have had no issues. I also recommend using the Andersen hitch.
    1 point
  17. Kayaks weigh about 80lbs each. They are fishing kayaks (pedal mechanism) so definitely not the lightweight ones you can throw on your shoulder. Might only bring one as my wife also likes to fish from shore....No rack system yet but I will probably buy the Yakima system and mount it on my soon to be installed diamondback tonneau cover (also around 80lbs). We wouldn't ever bring both bikes and kayaks on one trip. I really like your set up on the back of your Ollie John. I'd like to do that mod for a couple of reasons - first is to reduce tongue weight and second is to avoid adding to the truck's payload. I bought the same Yamaha generator you have. Not light but I can pick it up pretty easily and had planned to put this in the bed of the truck. It's amazingly quiet by the way. I'll be curious to hear back from KatanaPilot on his suspension updates. I'm sure that airbags are in my future as I want to drive level or as level as possible. It's no fun trailering with the front of the truck pointing up. I'm aware I'll need the WDH also. Maverick, thanks for your feedback. Knowing that you've had no issues with a gear load similar to what we plan to bring is reassuring. And JD's suggestion to see how it goes before buying a new TV makes sense. Truthfully, I'm not that worried about (lousy) gas mileage. The Tundra is notoriously bad to begin with but I didn't buy it because it got good gas mileage. I bought it because they don't break. Appreciate everyone's feedback so thank you...
    1 point
  18. The high elevation cross across AZ and NM wasn't bad since it's generally drier there. We planned it to not stay overnight where the temps were in the teens overnight at Albuquerque then made it all the way to Kingman, AZ. We've found that northern AZ is more apt to get snow late Winter and early Spring. Nice to be back in the PNW, where we understand the weather better even if it does mean rain, and we do need the rain.
    1 point
  19. Paul, the furnace works well. My only issue is that it cycles on and off, so there is a temperature drop before it cycles on again. We’ve dry camped in cold weather with no hook ups and the furnace did fine keeping us warm at night. The solar was able to keep up with battery charging once the sun came up. We just prefer to have electricity for our little Vornado heater that runs quietly all the time. Most winter campsites with hook ups discourage use of water, we’ve found the size of the Oliver fresh tank is more than enough for our needs. Refilling the fresh tank doesn’t pose a freeze risk once done and the hose is disconnected and put away. There’s been a lot of discussion about condensation, we’ve found it can be minimized by allowing some fresh air ventilation, not so much to drastically change the temperature, but just enough to keep the humidity down. Mike
    1 point
  20. That's definitely a possibility I hadn't considered. I'm more interested in gaining easy access to that breaker as I assume we'll have the remote working some day. That blasted breaker is in a tough spot to get to even with the bed cover off, although I've done it enough now that I can just reach my arm up in there and grope around - hoping to not grab the wrong wire or terminals. 🙂 I use it all the time. Maybe LifeBlue will come up with a way to have the battery stop accepting charge at whatever percentage we want with the internal BCM. Wouldn't that be nice.
    1 point
  21. Mike, we like you are not in the snow sports but do enjoy the winter season if you can find a campground open. We use some portable electric heaters that work real well. At the tour it felt like furnace works well in the small area but in super cold weather as you mentioned the electric healers help. I need to find out more about the condensation issue. We went through list of options and kind of know what we need. Thanks for sharing your experience. Paul
    1 point
  22. On the bay in Seward Waterfront Park , Alaska. life is good but I could go on to on the ocean along the 101 in Washington state again Life is good. Enjoy them all.
    1 point
  23. Bob - For me this is easy - Box Creek de-commissioned NFS campground. N 43degrees 51 minutes 42.5 seconds W 110 degrees 17 minutes 39.0 seconds.
    1 point
  24. You need to have your shackle bolts fixed, what you have described is not right or normal. All my wet bolts accept grease properly and all have bright cad plated bushings, so the grease squirts out to where it needs to go, between the moving springs and the shackles. Without a bushing the hole is open to the sky, as you discovered. Plus you cannot achieve correct bolt torque with no bushings, the nut threads will bottom out (damaging the nuts and the bolts) and the shackles can pinch the springs. As shown here, the bushings for the equalizers are pressed into those parts. You need to open a service ticket and have all your hardware inspected and replaced if necessary. At the very least all the nuts have to be replaced. If the shackles or springs are worn from contact, they also should be replaced. Oliver should pay for it. You can get a mobile RV tech to do it if possible, rather than leaving it at some idiot dealer. This is not something you should let slide at all, it needs to be correct. Ollies do NOT squeak and groan, it is a warning sign, a cry for help. The axle ubolts can and will bang hard against the frame, but the other parts, if greased properly, should be dead silent. OTH old style Andersen hitches can sound like the Spawn of Satan if the friction cone gets wet/ contaminated. Please keep us posted. John Davies Spokane WA
    1 point
  25. Thanks for the post. IMO, that's a worrying number of initial quality problems.
    1 point
  26. This one appears to have been dropped from my last post. These are stacking bins for produce in the cubby next to the pantry.
    1 point
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