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ScubaRx

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Everything posted by ScubaRx

  1. The earliest model elites (2007-2009) were apparently equipped with the 5000lb Class Two BD couplers. That is no longer the case. All the current Elites have a 7000lb BD coupler.
  2. Looks like there’ll be a dozen or so Oliver’s there. Looking forward to seeing you again.
  3. Nobody was ever sorry they bought a tool that outperformed the job at hand. Superior trailer, bigger truck, stronger axles, beefier hitch and heavier springs. Some folks are minimalists and hope everything will be fine. I contend Hope is not a strategy. Minimalism is just getting by.
  4. I agree that the weld on the left looks a little sparse. Might have been the last one on a Friday and he was anxious to go buy a couple of six-packs! It would, however, be easy to strengthen it up.
  5. Sounds like you only have the two axle trailer rather than the four.
  6. I do believe you are correct. At first glance, these could easily be confused as shark bites. Our older model has something very similar, screw on connectors, the only difference being that the rings have wings on them to assist with tightening or loosening.
  7. Steve, did you buy your Hull #329 new? To the best of my knowledge, Oliver has never used Shark Bite fittings during their regular production. Do you think that the fitting is original from Truma?
  8. Gracious sakes alive, we got us a convoy....
  9. The most surprising thing about this story is the fact that a good ole boy from Montana would admit to owning, much less wearing, a pair of sandals. 😊
  10. It would be hard to say that the Older Oliver's were "made better." They were certainly made more slowly, taking an average of about 3 months of actual construction time. This was partly because the company was in a state of constant flux. They were always coming up with better ways of building them but basically they were still built one at a time making each system as they went along. It took them over 3 years to make the first 49 trailers and there were no two exactly alike. There were also some major setbacks during that early 2007-2010 run that caused Oliver to make some tough financial decisions including one that involved a recall of every trailer they had built up until that time and another that shut their doors for four years. Find me at the rally for full details. And the owner's must of been a major pain in their ass as we were always changing our mind throughout our builds. Poor Robert Partee, the former sales manager and, to many of us, the face and voice of Oliver, it was he that had to field our numerous requests and then find a way to try and make them happen. But, to his credit, it seems like he always did. The one thing he balked at and staunchly refused to entertain was my request to have my first Oliver painted green. To paraphrase his response, "No frickin' way, Buddy..." The main thing that differentiates a brand new 2024 model and my 10 year old 2014 model is the amount of innovation and improvement Oliver has poured into the trailers through the years. Solar was a relative new frontier in 2014 and now there is hardly an Oliver sold without it. Who would have thought that in this short decade we'd go from choosing between Flooded Lead-Acid batteries or upgrading to AGMs to now trying to decide how many hundreds of amp hours of Lithium we can't live without. The new 2024 Oliver Elites and Elite II's are, by far, much slicker than those built even a couple of years ago let alone those built a decade or more ago. Many people have been very happy with their trailer and have kept them for many years. Proof of this is seen in the number of units that are still in the possession of their original Owners. For the past few years I have been assisting Anita compile as accurate a list as is possible on the provenance of the older trailers and the people who have owned them through the years. We have been using early company data as well as records I compiled myself with information gleaned during the early days. To date, the Oldest Trailer still in the Original Owner's possession we found to be Hull # 007, delivered in early January of 2008. It was delivered to some guy named Bond.... 😄 just kidding about the name.
  11. John, The springs ARE 25-1/4" on center to the spring eyes. The spring eyes are 11/16" ID. They ARE 4-leaf springs, 1.75" wide steel and they should have distinct bow to them about 3 inches deep as measured on a long bow, string to grip. They should NOT appear as "very straight leaf spring assemblies". This would indicate to me that they have flattened and are failing.
  12. John, I don’t think there’s any rhyme or reason to why, or when the springs are breaking. They are breaking due to metal fatigue, and or the quality of the steel that they were originally made from.
  13. I agree about the axles. I don't think I could recommend putting these springs on a 3500 pound axle. Then the weakest link would be the axles rather than the springs!
  14. Never had any interior problems. Our trailer, with water and ready to camp, has always weighed north of 7000 pounds. And, for years we ran 80 psi in all our tires.
  15. When we were in the early build stage of our Hull #050 back in late 2013, I asked Jim Oliver what he suggested for axles for our new Elite II. We were coming from a 2008 Elite that had a 5200 pound axle with five leaf spring packs under it. He quickly said that he would want the same ones we had on our first trailer. So that's what we went with. The plan at that time was to use 2 x 3500 pound axles with four leaf spring packs on the regular production Elite II's. With the exception of a few trailers built in 2015 with the 5200 pound setup for the reason stated previously by @rideandfly this has been the standard on all production units since the first 2014 models rolled off the line and continued that way through model year 2021. The 2022 to current Elite II models saw a change in their axles. The Elite's axle remained the same as they had always been but, In an effort to streamline production and simplify their inventory, the decision was made to use the same size axles on both the Elite and Elite II trailers. All trailers delivered since 2022 have been supplied with two 5200 pound axles with the Dexter Nev-R- Lube hubs on them. However, they stuck with the 3500 pound 4-Leaf spring packs that have always accompanied the 3500 pound axles rather than the 5-Leaf spring packs that are standard on the 5200 pound axles. Their reasoning is that the stiffer springs would cause a rougher ride and could lead to drawers coming open or cabinet doors opening up while under tow. This why the GVWR remains at 7000 pounds. In addition, Oliver has also changed from 16" wheels with LT tires to 15" wheels with ST tires. There has been some recent owner interest in obtaining the Dexter Nev-R- Lube hubs. This requires a complete axle swap as they are not compatible with the axles all the older trailers (pre-2022) are equipped with. If you are contemplating ditching the OEM 3500 pound axles for the new setups with the higher rated axles, be aware of this spring issue. I can personally attest to knowing of at least 10 spring failures on the 4-Leaf spring packs on both the older trailers and a few that have recently been delivered over the past year or so. All of these springs have broken in exactly the same place. Also, I have never heard of a single failure in any of the trailers that are equipped with the 5200 pound axle with the 5-Leaf spring pack. This includes all the Elites ever built and, to my knowledge, none of the Elites II’s that were originally built with the 5200 pound axles and the 5-Leaf spring packs. My predication is that the 4-Leaf spring packs will continue to fail no matter which axle they are installed with. My advice is if you are changing out your four leaf springs for any reason, consider a stiffer spring that the originals and to purchase and carry with you at least one extra spring pack. If you’re going to Alaska carry two sets. One owner was up around the Arctic Circle when he discovered his were broken. Not the ideal locale for a FUBAR.
  16. I've personally seen 10 trailers with one or more broken.
  17. E19 - ScubaRx - Steve, Tali, and Rocky - Mississippi - The Outlaw Oliver Hull #050
  18. The first two were held in a muddy campground just outside of Hohenwald. All the rest have been in Guntersville.
  19. I really don't think you're in the minority. I don't like big crowds either, but I'll admit I do love to be in a big Oliver crowd. All of the Oliver folks that I see as friends are what I consider like-minded. Are you coming to the rally in Guntersville? I'm not a rally type of guy, but this gathering is not like any of the others I've ever attended. No pot luck suppers that likely will leave you with the squirts. No Karaoke night, although I have been known to do John Belushi's rendition of Joe Cocker's cover of the Beatles' With A Little Help From My Friends. Don't Ask. Just a bunch of Oliver-Centric folks getting together to talk, have fun and help each other.
  20. A few spots are open! We have had a few cancellations so if you have a friend or anyone that would like to attend, have them send us an email and if we still have a spot available, we will send them a registration form. Email us at: solareclipse2024bellarose@gmail.com If you're headed to Fredericksburg, now would be the time to cancel there and see if you can get into this one. It's FREE. It's just down the road a bit in Purmela, Texas and is actually a little closer to direct center. She's having food trucks, porta potties and live bluegrass music. All fiberglass, no kids under 18 and you can stay 5 nights. There are several other Oliver owners that will be there and we could have an exclusive Mini-Rally.
  21. I'll step in here and say that as far as I know, there has never been a member on this forum that has volunteered to take on the responsibility of listing all the fiberglass rallys that are ongoing all the time across the nation. There are sites and people that do it, with FB being the most popular platform. The Oliver Rolling Rally FB page requires that you be an Oliver owner to sign in. Since the folks at Oliver don't read or participate here, there is never much mention of even the Annual Oliver Rally. If someone here wants another project to consume their life start a thread and list the dates and places for Rallys. With the exception of the Oliver Rally, we rarely attend any of the others.
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