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This string reminded me that I had not greased the zerks on top of the Dexter axle castings. I proceeded to do so and was on the last side, the last zerk and I reached for it to put grease gun on, and the zerk came off in my hand!! It didn't appear to be broken off. I attempted to rethread it back on but that was extremely difficult and couldn't get it to take. I then removed one front wheel to get better access and decided to put in a new zerk. There was no evidence that the original zerk had broken but if it had the lack of access there would have made extraction very difficult. Also there is insufficient clearance with the trailer to run a die to reestablish the threads at least with the tools that I have. I shudder to think but it seems you would have to lift the trailer off the axle to get sufficient clearance to rethread those zerk holes. Furthermore, the original zerk had very short threads, perhaps because the Dexter casting is not very thick. To make a longer story, shorter, I did manage to get a new zerk in tight. I doubt the threads are well established but the new zerk seems threaded in at this point. That zerk will get TLC from this point on because the alternatives for repair look pretty ugly. Also after three months or 3000 miles I find the zerks will take only minor amounts of grease before it oozes out of the joints.

I meant the interior fridge fan, no sensor on that one. The exterior one comes on when needed. I set at 90F, the highest setting. Sensor tape to foil very top of the outside opening. inside fan had it off at first, the run it a few hours, fridge ad freezer temps by Ruuvi sensors do not change.

That has happened to us a few times after plugging into shore power and no charging. Had to reset breaker on the inverter and it started charging. Its happened 3 times

Did you take pressure off the bolt by lifting up the trailer? You could also try rotating the bolt in place to see if it will then accept grease.

@FloraFauna I’ve been doing this for years, though Wisconsin is not Arizona. However, I learned this procedure from an engineer who winterized his Bigfoot Class-C using only compressed air at his home in Calgary. We travel Oct through May, not summers. I do this when we get home between winter trips, Not using the pink stuff 2-3 times per winter, or ever. Some say “I would never use compressed air.” I say, I’d never use pink chemical antifreeze. OTT does not recommend using compressed air. https://olivertraveltrailers.com/forums/topic/9849-winterizing-without-rv-antifreeze/?_rid=8971/

I very much prescribe to setting up for the least chance of failure. With this in mind, I like to elevate the jack stand feet off of the ground by quite a bit. Rubber might have a high CoF, but I like the fact that it helps keep the trailer stationary. Slipping off of the jack stand plate is not something that I will do. At least not for some time. I'm a bit OCD when it comes to this. I check, then check twice, then check three more time and think about it for an hour on the way home.

Two hour jobs always take half a day for me. Just ask my wife. Slowest mechanic in the world. Not really, but why do one job when you can do 10 all at the same time. 12 hours later, I've got the Cummins tore down to the block.

Five miles east. Every FS campsite or dispersed camping from Payson to Show Low is abundant and beautiful!

There are the White Mountains of New Hampshire! Know them well! I’ve skied Cannon Mountain, Canmore Mtn in North Conway and the top of the White Mountains is Mount Washington, the highest peak in NE. And then there are the Green Mountains of Vermont, smaller yet absolutely gorgeous this time of year, on my favorite State Hwy 9 heading west! The White Mountains of Arizona include all the high county in east central Arizona. Payson AZ is the western point at the edge of the Mogollon Rim. The NE point would be at Springerille AZ, with Show Low AZ in between. Then all the way to the NM state line, and south to the mountains north of Safford AZ. 🤣 Everywhere it’s high elevation, grasslands at 9000+ FT and peaks at 10-12K FT. Those who know, of the several million Phoenix Valley residents, drive up on summer weekends to climb, up, up, up, and in doing so, the temps drop 30F! The AZ White Mountains are the SW corner of the Colorado Plateau, it’s God’s Country. Camp almost anywhere you want between FS and BLM lands. My thinking is it extends into New Mexico though the range may have a different name east of the state line. @MAX Burner would be the expert on the NM side. Thank for asking, posts in Ruidoso NM coming soon. Loving our trip after working 5 months on this old hull (she is doing well, all systems working to near perfection)…

Ron can chime in. The exterior fan works wonders in cooling the external coils. Jury is out on the interior fan. Temp numbers have not changed for me with it ON or OFF. https://a.co/d/5epsJqH https://a.co/d/bfzfJBO

That said, our 2008 elite microwave had threaded rod holding it in place. We actually love having additional storage/little pantry, vs microwave, after we removed our ded microwave. Good luck with your decision.

hmmm. So far three for three on winterize from those who have been doing this longer than I. Thank you for your sound advice. I kind of knew my idea was wishful thinking and not practical given my location. We have a composting toilet so that's not an issue in any case. I also already have the RV antifreeze as well. Definitely don't want to trash my water lines and valves.

@FloraFauna I strongly agree with the above comments. I live in Maine and we have some cold snaps in the witner, like you. With the tanks empty, the worry is really freezing of the water lines, particularily the plastic fittings and backflow preventors. That type of damage is a real pain to fix. The backflow preventors and some of the water lines are difficult to access. Play it safe and winterize. You do not have to have water in the lines to camp in the winter; just bring bottle water to drink. If going south, then dewinterize when you get below the freezing zone.

Our 7-Pin connection failed us last year. Art and I replaced it with one that has LED indicators for each of the wires heading back. Worth the extra few $ in my opinion. We check the trailer brakes with the manual trailer actuator every time we start out our day. A good idea to know if you have trailer brakes before leaving the camp site. Twice in 7 seasons we circled back to our camp site and worked the issue. Sort of like a "Don't Leave Home" without brakes idea. GJ

Just two cents from my end.... when using slip planes on level ground... The idea is that you want a low coeficient of friction (CoF) from your stack-up elements, and ideally get at least four inches of height in their stack up when the trailer is accidently moved when jacked up. Why? Under such an event, you WANT a low CoF for the jack plate to move and slip. Rubber does not have a low CoF. Likely it would preclude the slip planes from slipping. Instead I would consider using a 3/4" plywood or hardwood piece between the jack plates and the Andersor (or others) blocks. When the jacked up trailer is moved while on your blocks, when moved you want the jack plate slip and fall towards the ground. If you have 4+ inches of clearance, it may touch the driving surface, but likely will not dig in enough to cause sufficient torque to damage the jack mast. If it only drops an inch or two, this is sadly is not likely the case. Word of caution for new owners: All of the above is assumed to be for use on relatively flat or low cross sloped camp sites. For other less than ideal camp sites, I do NOT recommend ever using your OTT jacks for leveling. For such conditions you would be far safer to use the tire drive on ramps (Of various designs) to elevate the low side of the trailer.

Sorry to hear about the water problems, sometimes very difficult to locate the source. We had water dripping out of of three windows on three occasions so far, but the windows were not the problem in each case for us. We keep the window weep holes clear. One time the porch light over the window was allowing water in above the window allowing water between the hulls resulting in water dripping out of the window, fix was to remove the light and reseal (old style light). One time the Oliver sign on the rear of Ollie (many here had this problem) allowing water in between the hulls dripping out of the window, removed the sign and resealed to fix. One time during the winter when running electric heater for a few days in Ollie without using dehumidifier water dripped out of the curbside window, found heavy condensation collecting between the hulls in the rear of Ollie to be the issue, using two small dehumidifiers cured the problem for us. Checked where we had access between the hulls at other locations and found very little condensation between the hulls except for the rear of Ollie. Just wanted to share some of our experiences.

One very important point is missing from this article. How fast will the Q7 trailer combination go with the supermodels and can your wife outrun it? Enquiring minds want to know... Scotty

There have been folks who have towed an LE2 with a Q7. I don't know of any that reported problems or issues. That being said... I personally would not tow an LE2 with a Q7. I don't believe it would be able to stay within safe limits. But... You can start with the payload number found on the sticker on the driver side door. Take that number and subtract 650 lbs for the tongue weight of the trailer. Then subtract the weight of the occupants and whatever gear you plan to take with you. If you still have a positive number you can start looking for the GCVWR limit in the owners manual. That would be the Gross Combined Vehicle Weight Rating. Take that number and subtract the weight of the fully loaded Audi and 7000 lbs for a fully loaded LE2. If that number is still positive... you might could give it a shot. But, I would still take it to a scale to see if you are still in spec for the axle load limits. Good Luck and let us know how you made out. Scotty

Max BR1 Pro 5G

We have to leave, if in a storm surge are, as most of my family is. You are correct. We minimize, hopefully, by putting stuff we care about high. Reinforce garage door. Etc Pretty much toast, here. Very tired. We move inland to higher ground in the morning. Where we helped a friend install storm shutters. Run from the water, hide from the wind, is the mantra. God bless everyone in the path.. Packing, these days, means have batteries and flashlights.

You’ll have to stretch your imagination a bit, hopefully you can visualize in your mind’s eye the approximate location. The control box occurs in the void between the bottom of the roof unit and the top of the new mounting frame plate, that space being the depth of the cutout measured from roof surface to ceiling surface. In the first pic (Dometic) the box would occur in the vicinity of the white label seen over the drain line. The second pic (Atmos) is a bottom view of the mounting frame plate with the box being situated on its’ topside, nestled up against the duct, a couple inches from the top right mounting bolt and faced outward along the downward angled edge of said plate. Looking closely at the third pic you can see the threaded bolt to the left and duct plate immediately right of the control box. The forth pic shows the three wire thermostat cable. The last pic may be of interest, wiring diagrams for the control box and thermostat. Hope this helps.

Normal highs in Prescott AZ (at 5,400 FT) late September/early October are high 70s. We had those temps a couple weeks ago and I thought fall had begun, summer was over. Instead, we've had more than a week of highs in the 90s and it will take until next week to drop again. City of Prescott has broken high-temp records every day for the last week. I've been in the driveway, sun burning down (sun here hotter than the dry air) installing an 180A HP alternator which turned into a bigger job replacing lower radiator hose and all heater hoses (9 of them on a 2001 Dodge Cummins). Another half day should be done tomorrow. At least when I duck back into the garage it's better. Should have moved some stored vehicles to get the Ram into the garage. Just thought it was going to be a quick alt swap, a two-hour job! When I got the old alt out, I noticed how I could get to the lower hoses (can of worms).🤣 We are always 20-25 degrees cooler than the Phoenix Valley and the desert down to Yuma, Lake Havasu, etc. Flagstaff and the White Mountains, all at 7,000 FT, can be up to 10 degrees cooler than us. Looking forward to the cool down next week and camping in the White Mountains!

Yes, planning where to drill is not trivial. Choose your padlock before you drill. You need a short shackle lock (measurement D in photo) so that it will fit between the wall of the battery bay and the tray. Mine was very short at 0.91". The shackle is actually longer (7/16" on mine) than this measurement with the section inside the lock, but you will angle it in to insert. My lock is 5/16" thick (measurement E) so a 3/8" hole allowed for the insertion angle. I kept drilling with bits 1/16" larger dia until I could just pass the lock through. Drill your hole center of the tray slide. Measure in centered just less than the inside width of the lock (measurement C). Getting all of this right is key. I don't plan on unlocking this often with LiFePO4 batteries. Also, I can now remove the ground cable to disconnect 12VDC without opening the tray. Hope this helps!

FYI: Over the year's, we've been getting our mats from the Quartzite RV show - they're the ones made overseas (China?) from recycled plastic bottles. They would last several years, but hard to keep clean and once they started fraying - boom!; our's would unravel fast. Fairly inexpensive and loads of colors and patterns. D found the traditional CGEAR sand mats several years ago and they work great for us! Water drains through them quickly, debris - sand, dirt, etc., works its way through and not into the Ollie. The mat has lots of tie-downs and is a heavy duty product all around. She got us an 8' x 20' green/blue color combo with the storage bag made from the same material. The bagged mat fits into the "garage" hatch and lives full-time in the Casablanca. D and Magnus really love this one! "HWHL"!

Here's some pics of the installed locks. They're pretty close to identical and require no modifications whatsoever on my 2021 LE2. I had to get some 1" stainless 8-32 screws and locking nuts but that's about it. I like the keys as they feel much better than the old stamped ones. The locking mechanism on the inside is a little different engineering wise but, no lock will keep out a determined thief anyhow. We'll see how they hold up over time but they look just fine.

Absolutely! Site #G23. I do wish it had separate lids, and that the hinges could be swapped side to side. It I’m extremely happy with ours, though! It’s got well over 40,000 hours on it so far. (Mid-March until Christmas every year since fall 2016.)

Anybody that has been considering a portable cooler to carry in your tow vehicle, Amazon has the Truma C73 marked down 35% currently. They are pretty expensive regular price but this discount makes that model about the same price as the Trumas half that size. It's a very high quality unit, made in Germany, not china, and has real nice features just like the Truma appliances Oliver is putting on the new campers. Bluetooth control, auto voltage monitoring and shutdown, low current draw, temps adjust down to -6f. If you like Truma and have been considering a cooler this price is as good as you will ever find. Link

The seed was planted for this furnace mod when we grabbed a canceled reservation three weeks out at a Minnesota State Park. This reservation was mid October and when the date arrived the weather forecast had changed for the worse. We stayed for only two of the three days and we received our first snow of the season, 6 inches of wet snow. We had a non electric site and my batteries were having trouble making it through the night and I was concerned about the water freezing in the Oliver. I have already addressed switching to lithium batteries and posted about it on Oliver Forum. Now I want to share with you what I have done to relieve my worries about water freeze ups in the Oliver, provided that I have a functioning furnace. I first tried to identify the weak spots and came up with the following. Boondocking Inlet Outside Wash Station Fresh Tank Fill Inlet City Water Inlet Black Tank Flush Port Toilet Water Supply Line Hot & Cold Lines Crossing Back Of Oliver The Oliver has all of it's heat ducts run on the curbside which protect the kitchen and the bathroom faucets from freezing. My plan is to run a 2" ducting along the back to the street side and terminating in to the trough that the water lines run in for the city water inlet, fresh tank fill inlet and outside faucet. This trough also has the check valves for those two inlets and has the floor of the exterior storage compartment covering over the top of it. To get at the trough you will have to remove the back wall of the storage compartment and flip the mat back that covers the floor. This exposes the water lines that come across the back of the trailer and drop into that trough. There is a wall that separates the furnace compartment from storage and extends past the wall you just removed. It has a opening for the water lines and it is large enough to run the 2" duct through it and on top of the water lines across the back and into the trough. Now you can flip the mat back down and they are long enough to cover the water lines and the newly installed 2" duct, then the wall is put back in place. On the connection to the furnace I removed the back of the heat exchanger. There is one hard to get at screw on the bottom but the rest are easily accessible. I made two holes, a 2" and a 4" in that back plate. I could not find a 2" starter collar locally so I bought two 4" and removed the rivets on one of them and formed a two inch collar, cut to length and re-rivet. I then installed the 2" and 4" starter collars to the heat exchanger back panel and then the panel to the furnace. I then hooked up the 2" duct to the furnace. Looking in to the access hole under the street side bed you are able to see where the water lines come up and out of the trough and to the valve of the out side wash station. When the furnace fan is running it will blow out a lit Bic Lighter held in that area. So we're protecting water lines, the check valves and dumping warm air underneath the outside wash station valve. Now back at the furnace I attach a 4" heavy duty aluminum foil duct to the newly installed starter collar. It is routed forward a short distance until it can be routed across the basement to the street side and then fed between the hot and cold water lines that go to the outside wash station valve. At this point I need to use a 4" coupler that is 6" long to attach the next 8' piece of 4" duct. I use the 6" long coupler so I can add holes if I need to flood a area with heat, this particular coupler did not need to. I then routed the duct from the wash station valve along the outer wall and over the wheel well, make the corner by the battery compartment and then once getting past the wheel well go down and under battery compartment. Up in that corner I attach a adhesive base 3/4" cable anchor so I can loop a 20" releasable tie strap through it and around the 4" duct holding it up and out of the way. A second 20" tie strap is used were the duct heads down under the battery compartment, it utilizes the loop that anchors the 4/0 cable coming out of the battery compartment. Next I prep another 6" long 4" coupler by adding a metal mounting bracket. It is bolted to the coupler using two 10-24 machine screws that go through the bracket the coupler wall and then a backing plate that has tapped holes. This coupler I will add a1" hole that will be pointed up to flood heat at the battery compartment. The mounting bracket will be utilizing the upper bolt of the support leg for the battery compartment. This keeps the duct up and away from the inverter and electrical components and positions it to flood heat up against the bottom of the battery compartment. The next length of 4" duct is clamped to that coupler and routed up from under the battery compartment over to and along the wheel well. It is held by two 20" tie straps similar to the other side. Because I want to run the heat duct under the foot space of the dinette I need to transition to 2" duct. There is access via the same trough that I utilized in the back of the trailer, but at the front there is more room and I am able to pull the 2" ducting through. From there it continues toward the front until it reaches the black tank flush inlet where it then follows that pipe back along the black tank and terminates by the water supply line for the toilet. At the transition point I add two more short pieces of 2" duct and route them down to where the main black tank drain pipe goes under the dinette foot space, they are terminated on either side of that pipe. There was not enough room to run the 2" duct but enough to force air along either side. At the transition from 4" to the three 2" ducts I simply inserted the three 2" into the end of the 4" and used aluminum foil duct tape to seal the transition. I also want to mention that I used the aluminum foil duct tape to reinforce the ends of every 4" duct by wrapping outside and inside before clamping. That should cover the install, now lets talk about the results of the test in subzero weather. I rounded up seven digital thermometers and put them in the areas I was concerned about. Was placed just inside the empty rear storage compartment. Was placed on top of the batteries and a piece of acoustical insulation that was for large generator enclosure, it was 1-1/2" thick and 19" square. This was squeezed in the opening before the door was closed. Was placed in the rear basement curbside next to boondocking inlet. Was placed in the rear basement street side below the outside wash station valve. Was placed on the floor of the closet with the door left closed. Was placed on the lower shelf in the vanity in the bathroom with the door left closed. Was placed in front basement street side next to the black tank flush port line. I moved it out of the heated shed at 1:00 pm on Sunday 2-7-21. I moved it back in at 3:00 pm on Tuesday 2-9-21. The furnace was cycling off and on at -4 ' but I noticed at -8' and colder it ran continuous. I have the Truma water heater and that was also turned on. I checked propane consumption by putting on two 20 pound tanks that I had weighed and left them in place for 12 hours. It was -12' when I put them on and -2' when I took them off. Because of the subzero temperature the propane was not gasifying very well and the regulator automatically changed from the primary to the reserve after only consuming 2.353 gallons. The total consumed out of both tanks in 12 hours was 3.294 gallons, so that would be .274 gallons in one hour. My Victron BMV-712 was telling me that I had depleted my 400 Ah Battle Born batteries to 47% and at rate of use I had two days and nine hours left. I thought I would comment on a couple of things I like about the outcome of the project. The bathroom was comfy warm and the wall next to the bed was not icy cold. I am not planing to take up subzero camping but it does gives me a benchmark to go off of for any situation that I might run in to. If you have any suggestions or see something that is of concern please let me know. Paul

I have...