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Everything posted by DCKiefer
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Yes, the fan works great. Like the auto shutoff. Had to disable the led indicators for at night.
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Yes, it is boat railing 7/8 aluminum. It will swing parallel to the stove like a splash guard.
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We leave the bed setup and had Rubber Maid storage bins under the bed. Wanted something a little better so made up this drawer that goes the entire width under the bed. There is enough room under the drawer for our chairs and when they are not there it is a good place for the shoes we are using.
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It has taken nearly eight years to come up with a good idea for adding a little extra counter space for cooking or just having somewhere to place small items. It also had to fold out of the way.
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Tried and still have an older version of this lock. Used it for a couple of years, but the key pad stop working. With the older model the key pad was a separate unit. My main issue is that the batteries on the lock only lasted a month and did not provide a warning that they were getting low. Hopefully the new one lets you know when the batteries are getting low. I still have it installed, but no longer use it with the keyless entry or key pad.
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- lock
- trailer lock
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The UV unit stays on continuously as long as the pump switch is on. I didn't notice any heating of the water. I'll have to see what this does for our battery life, but with the three batteries and solar panel I don't expect that to be an issue. Plus we are pretty good about shutting off the pump switch when not using water. The brand is Sterilight.
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Has anyone had any fogging of the double paned windows. If so, have you had them repaired? We have three window that have fogged and two are pretty bad now and I am considering having them repaired. Found a place in Lakeland, FL that dismantles the windows and reseals everything. Cost is $350 per window if I remove them. Extra $100 for them to remove them.
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We camp in a lot of remote places and even in popular locations you can always be sure about the water quality. Have used a high quality Seagull filter for years, but decided to take it a step further with a permanent UV purification system. Intall the system to he main line prior to the split to the hot water. I wired the unit come on when the pump switch is in the on position. Might add a separate manual switch later for when we are connected to a water supply, which we rarely do. The UV filter is the silver cylinder to the right of the water pump. Had to add a pre-filter as recommended by the manufacturer. The small black tank north of the pump is a pressurized tank that keeps a constant pressure on the system. All this did require the giving up of the storage compartment in this section, which I don't use much since we replaced the factory cushions with a real mattress.
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I did the same thing but still had some trouble. The fix is actually a small plastic cap that shields the weep whole from run off. I found them online somewhere a few years ago. I think I posted something about them in the past.
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This is the lock I use. Like it a bunch. http://mrtrailer.com/trailerlock.htm
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Just bringing this post back to life since I recently had a question about this mod. One of the main reasons I wanted a gravity fill was that we stay in locations where either water isn't available or isn't located at the camp site. I like to be able to fill the water tank from a couple of five gallon jugs. When we first got our Oliver I would use the hose for winterizing to transfer the water from the jug to the water tank. Over time this was rather inconvenient, since you have to get under the bed to access the hose and valves for this operation. I will admit this is not an easy modification, as you can likely see in the pictures, not much room to work. If you are buying an Oliver, I would highly recommend having this done at the factory while it is being built.
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During the install of my bathroom ventilation I had to relocation he closet light. Moved it to a hand spot just above the door on the right side. No more searching for it on the left wall of the closet.
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When I saw the pics of the new 22' models I loved seeing the heat vent in the bath. This inspired me to see if I could come up with a solution for my 17'. The goal was to provide some warmth from the main cabin into the bath and also some cooling when we are using A/C. I came up with the idea to use a inline duct fan, to draw air from the main cabin into the bath. This speaker location near the door turned about to be a great spot to capture air from the A/C and since heat rises it should do just as well on cold days. Was difficult to sacrifice the speaker since I didn't use it for acoustic reasons. I still have to install a switch, but was able to test the idea and it worked like a champ. It was hot today so ran the A/C, bring the bath to close to the same temperature as the cabin.
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Making Things Easier, Propane Tanks and Water Heater
DCKiefer replied to DCKiefer's topic in Ollie Modifications
Basically just reversed where the regulator was. It was original on the forward side of the tanks and the hoses were always in the way. Reversed everything by mounting to the rear of the tanks, which keeps the hoses out of the way when moving the tanks in and out. -
Making Things Easier, Propane Tanks and Water Heater
DCKiefer replied to DCKiefer's topic in Ollie Modifications
ScubRx, What changes did you make to the tank setup? -
Finally got around to solving a couple of issues I have had for a while with our Oliver. The first is the fact that the pulling propane tanks in and out can be a bit of a pain. The regulator, hoses and bracket seem to always be in the way. Study the issue a little bit and decided it would be easier if the regulator and hoses where on the back side of the tank compartment. Simply reversed the setup and it does seem much easier to get the tank in and out. Next I shortened the bracket that holds the tanks in place, by about 3/4 of an inch to where I only have two notches on each side rather than three. This makes it easier to get the bracket out of the way. And finally, the hot water heater switch in our Oliver is near the floor and kind of under the rear bed. I decided it would be much better to have it next to the water pump switch.
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Some one had mentioned a while back it would be nice to cut power to the tongue jack and the levelers. I wanted to do that, plus be able to cut power to the shoreline real. All this for added security, plus to prevent coursity from getting the best of somebody. I installed 30amp circuit breaker and ran the power to the jacks and real through it. I can no easily cut power to all at once. Finally when I took a picture to show the mod, I noticed two fuses I was not aware of. These are on the back side of the charger. Something to keep in mind if you ever have an unexplained 12 volt power failure.
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Installing Trojan T-105 Batteries
DCKiefer replied to astrocaster's topic in Mechanical & Technical Tips
Not sure how much room you need to gain, you might consider removing the current battery tray and building your own. I did this when I wanted to make room for four Optima batteries. -
Just rereading my last post and want to clarify I do not put bread in my bearings. Did this on a tablet that likes to try and guess what my intention are.
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Before we headed out on our current adventure I did a quick check to make sure lights and brakes were working. Found the brakes to be working poorly even with full voltage. Long story short, I got into the drums and found oily residue on the surface of the drum where the brake magneto contacts it. I believe this residue was not allowing the magneto to fully engage the brake shoes. Cleaning the residue from both drums and brake pads remedied the problem. Repacked the bearings too. Now what caused the oily residue in the first place? The bearing grease itself of course , but why? First, thing I found out is that using two different kinds of grease can cuase them to dilute each other. The recommendation is that if you didn't originally put the grease there or know what was used, you should remove all the old grease and pack everything with new. I don't think this was the problem, since I repacked the bearings a couple of times now. Nor was it the type of grease used an issue. Talking to a friend about this I told him I often add some grease through the fitting on the axle with the grease gun. Actually only started doing this about a year ago. He said he doesn't do that since the grease can get forced past the inner seal resulting in the problem I encountered. He said the grease fitting is there for use in situations where the grease can get washed away, like with boat trailers. Kind of makes sense to me, especially since I haven't had this issue until I started using the grease fittings more. Either way, you may want to be cautious about putting too much bread through the fitting.
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Ok, no need to try electric valves. Experimented with the cable routing a bit and did find much improvement. The valves were still difficult to open. Next I started to dismantle where the cable goes into the valve housing. During this operation, I found the valve and cable move very freely. So this made me think somehting was bound up. When I removed the small block t the top of the valve housing where the cable enters, I noticed it had alot of tension. I loosed the block, plus the mounting for the valve pulls in the outside access area. I adjusted everything so it was free of tension and reassembeled everything. Valves work much easier now.
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I like the Drainmaster, but have some concerns about using it on the grey water line on the Oliver. That valve has very little clearance against the inside of he trailer. The Drainmaster is 1 3/4 inches wide. Haven't made a decision yet, but will post what I end up doing. The cable vales actually work rather easily if the cable makes only a single turn. However, there just isn't enough room the compartment to achieve this.
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I have not been two happy with how the black and grey waste valve function. Very difficult to open and close, even after using treatments that are suppose to lube them. I did some experiments with the cables in different positions and have concluded it is not the valve but the way the cable is run. Unfortunately there really are no alternate mounting choices for the pull handles that would remedy the problem. Has anyone had any experience with any of the brands that make electric waste valves? There seems to be little online about these and what I do find is negative and several years old.