ScubaRx

For Christmas, we got a small Instant Pot from one of our daughters to take with us in the trailer. We will be trying it out on the upcoming Quartzsite trip.

And that was a very cool thing! Tali and I hope you and Betty had a very Merry Christmas.

Without the IPN-Pro (monitor) and the shunt you can’t set up the controller.

While in B.B. a couple of years ago, we took a day and drove the Old Ore Road (26 miles). It was used in the early 1900s to transport ore from Mexican mines to the railroad station at Marathon, the Old Ore Road generally follows the route used by mule and pack trains a century ago. The road has excellent views of the Chisos Mountains across the Tornillo Creek drainage to the west. Ernst Tinaja, five miles from the southern end of the road, is a popular destination.

At only 5000 lbs that sure doesn’t seem like much stuff. With an advertised dry weight for the Elite II of 4600 lbs, a full tank of water and propane will get you most of the way to that. I’d expect 6000 lbs to be more likely. Ours is north of 7000.

I don't know, I really love the beefy look of the current GMC and Chevrolet pickups. It seems they're just becoming like everybody else. If you wanted that look you could just buy this.

Reed, this is not completely accurate. You can easily install 3 x 160 watt panels on the roof. Back in 2013 when I designed the solar setup for our Hull #050, I used the Blue Sky equipment but the largest affordable panels available were 100 watt. We went with two because that's what "everybody else" was doing and all the early builds had this 200 watt configuration. Soon, the 160 watt panels became cheap enough that Oliver switched to them giving their trailers a total of 320 watts. I then added another 100 watt panel to my array to give me 300 watts. I like all my panels on the roof. I don't have to store, transport, deploy and worry about the theft of an "extra" panel. Best of all, it simply works. In full sun, 300 watts has proven to be more than enough to fully charge our batteries every day by 1400. Parking in the shade expectedly decreases our ability to charge, but the areas we typically travel to (Western USA) usually don't have shade anyway. An added benefit of the three panels is that now I have a large enough area to land our helicopter on the roof!

Still the same guy in Fulton Mississippi.

As John said, it is a bolt on model. I will have to drill the holes to install it. Oliver tells me that they have theirs delivered with the holes already drilled.

I was going to comment that there are times when an interior display is useful but I see that the “birdman” beat me to it. Do consider having both the displays. I really like your idea of of having a second one located on the exterior of the trailer inside a transparent case, very cool. Would simply using a modular phone cord splitter allow you to install a second display? Easy enough to test, I suppose. Although you would have to purchase the second display panel just to see.

Although I installed our EMS before it was an option from Oliver, it is the same unit that they ultimately choose. I too found the location and the mounting of the remote to be a dilemma. Personally, I found the remote to be butt ugly, it had to be surface mounted with no way to make it into a panel mount, there is no way to blank out the continuously rotating display and there was no good way to hide the wiring. I finally decided to mount ours inside the cupboard. This seemed to be the lesser of all the evils and it was easy to do. It is mounted up high, right under the top shelf. I only have to open the door to view it.

Since we don't actually ride in the trailer under tow, what should I look for to determine if the OOII has been having a "rougher ride than is necessary."

These are the springs for the 5200 pound axles. These are the springs for the 3500 pound axles. The GVWR of the trailer is apparently derived from the spring ratings. I agree about the higher rated coupler. I have moved up to the 2-5/16" size due to the higher weight of our trailer.

These water containers will likely outlast me. We always carry two along with up to four of the matching fuel containers.

Anybody is welcome to tag along or join in along the way. We plan to leave Mississippi in early January and meander around getting there. This trip will be primarily boondocking.

Before taking it all apart, try spraying the switch with WD-40 and working it a few times. That has saved many switches for me.

Yes. Based on info from your article... "Class IV hitches used as weight carrying are rated up to 10,000 lbs. gross trailer weight (GTW) with a maximum trailer tongue weight (TW) of 1000 lbs." In other words, this is well within the range to tow an Elite II without a WDH. But be aware that on 1/2 ton vehicles the hitch platform may state that the values shown are halved if used without a WDH. The Class-V hitch platform on our Silverado is labeled as GTW = 13,000 lbs, TW = 1500 lbs. With the 3/4 ton pickup, no WDH is required.

I wish we were sommeliers like you guys. We have trouble telling the difference between Diet Coke and Diet Dr. Pepper. Mike and Carol have quite an impressive wine collection.

Today I received the 2 5/16" Bulldog Coupler (their item #028462) that I had ordered thru WalMart. GTW rating for this coupler is 12,500 lbs vs 7000 lbs on the OEM one. Though many would say that is overkill, The Outlaw Oliver II weighs over 7200 lbs so this upgrade is warranted and anyway, I'm all about overkill. It was about $66.00 and change including shipping. This will allow me to take full advantage of the Weigh-Safe hitch mount that I've also ordered. Going from the 2" to the 2 5/16" ball will increase Max GTW from 7500 lbs to 14,500 lbs. This setup now also fully optimizes the capability of the new Silverado 2500 HD truck. If you are buying a new Oliver Elite II and your plan is to tow with a HD pickup, consider specifying the larger coupler for your build.

I also apologize but I would have to concur with John. Although it is an anomaly and our trailer weighs over 7100 pounds, yours will weigh well north of 5000 pounds and that puts you closer to your max tow capacity than I would want to be. I really feel you would have much better towing experience with a better equipped truck which would probably actually get better gas mileage also. We went from a 2014 GMC Sierra 6.2 liter gas burner to a 2017 Chevrolet Silverado 6.6 liter diesel. The old truck got <12 mpg towing towing and (at most) about 20 mpg highway. The Silverado is getting >14 mpg towing and on a recent non towing trip, better than 26 mpg highway! And this beast weighs 1500 pounds more than the Sierra. Something to consider...

PM sent....

Not sure if I understood all you said, but, IF "...I’ll bet that the light are fine.." means you think the lights are not the source of the water, THEN I bet that it is. There is a light over every window and it is a known issue (now resolved) they they were leaking around the attachment screws. You are correct that "...you can't imagine how much water can come in with no signs of voids..." During the toad strangler that they described, enough water could flow around the screws to easily flood the inside. The fix is easy, remove the screws (one at a time) and put a dab of 4000 in the hole and replace the screw. You don't even have to take down the lights. I went for over three years with the high light in the rear leaking and it exiting around the frame of the egress window below. It took a couple of years to find the problem as I kept blaming it on the window. Not the case. If your rear window is leaking, check the light above from the inside of the upper cabinet. There's where you'll most likely find your problem.

The blue sky system can be set up to equalize your T105 batteries. There is a dip switch that needs to be turned on and settings in the IPN controller that have to be activated. Bill, you might want to turn your voltage up in the controller.

For your build, you should specify the bulldog coupler #028462. This one is exactly like the standard Oliver hitch except it is made for a 2 5/16” ball. I’m going to buy this same ball mount and swap my hitch out. It appears you got the 6” drop? Did your truck need that much?

Update on Disc Brakes: It has now been more than 7 months since my install. We have pulled the OO-II about 13000 miles since then. From here to northern Washington and from here to extreme eastern Tennessee and a couple of trips back and forth to the factory with two different tow vehicles. The brakes have performed flawlessly. I did have to adjust the on board brake controller down a couple of points to keep them from locking up all four wheels at one time. I have crawled under it several times to make sure there were no fluid leaks. I had a problem at the initial install with a fitting leaking and it took replacing the fitting to get it to stop. Apparently, it was defective from the factory but it made me a little gun-shy about leaks. Not a drop since. I am happy with them.