ScubaRx

More pics....

I visited the factory on 01-02-2009 to see the new 22 footer and the 17 foot sport model before they left for Quartzsite. I took a few photos.... I'll post a few at at time.

Merry Christmas to all... Steve and Tali

Yeaaaaaaaaa... Since November 10, the ability to register new members has been down due to some softwate issues. This has now been resolved, and we welcome anyone that wants to join. It's nice and friendly in here so "come on in." Steve

Very impressive, now you two are stars..... congrats and Merry Christmas... Steve and Tali

What about putting a letter, A, B, C... in front of the Hull Number to indicate the year of mfg. I.E. A=2008, B=2009, and so on....everyone's so far would be A00XX. Steve and Tali Landrum scubarx and dietgal4u 1319 Ruffwood Road Tupelo, MS 38801 662-255-0181 scubarx@comcast.net Hull Number: A0026

What about putting a letter, A, B, C... in front of the Hull Number to indicate the year of mfg. I.E. A=2008, B=2009, and so on.... So everyone's so far would be A00XX. Steve

DougI It appears that only my schedule is fixed. As I stated in the original post, I'm off April 09 thru April 15. I would not be able to attend at any other time. These dates were chosen because Larry had suggested to me that since everyone else's time is flexable that I pick the dates. Obviously, if this is not suitable with everyone else then it should suit the majority. However, Larry further says that the date has to be after the full moon due to the spawn of the bait fish that need to be caught. The moon is full April 09, so it could not be scheduled any earlier. Steve

Who's the ole crate on the front of the boat? Sounds as if we may have quite a crowd at the "Greeson Gathering", we only need one more to break the old "Owner's Rally" record set in Van Buren. Come on Paul and Sherry, you know you want to..... Steve

Hey, Larry.... That does sound like fun. Tali and I would love to be able to join you and yours for a few days. It would, of course depend on my work schedule. I will be off April 09 thru April 15. This hopefully will work out during the time that you plan to be at the lake. Let us know when you decide on the exact dates for your trip. We'd love to join you. Steve

Good photos, Larry... Just a quick addendum to the installation, add a few turns of Teflon tape to the inner threads. Make sure it does not extend past the end of the threads, it could tear off and get into the pipe-works, pump etc. This tape will keep the like-metal of the threads and the heater body from adhering to one another. Steve

I agree with you, a manual with all the tips and ideas would be great. Use what info you need and disregard the rest. I guess we could create another forum named maybe Oliver manuals. Under that we could add topics "A" thru "Z". Under each topic we could add our info. It wouldn't be in strict alpha order rather as how they were entered under each letter, but it would make searching easier. What about that, Larry? \ Steve

When is your Oliver due? I'm sure you're excited as we all were. How far do you have to drive? If you're coming near our area, feel free to let us know. Sorry, a little off topic... Steve

Tali and I decided to design our own mural for the front of the . I used a graphics program and a little computer trickery to get this image and emailed it to the fellow that does the murals for Oliver. He did the rest. He laminated the image and mailed it to us. He also did the tire cover graphic. All I had to do was to apply them to the trailer. Steve

Larry, It looks eaten up to me. That thin attachment right behind the plug is actually the core wire in the anode. Yours appears to have been eaten away right below the plug. But, on the other hand, that might not make any difference in the overall performance of it. I'd ask someone smarter than me. Steve

To add to the previous post: Blue Rhino is not only installing OPD valves, they are installing their OWN proprietary OPD valves, called Tri-Safe II valves. You can identify a TSII valve by the little triangular indentation on the side of the valve. In order to get flow IN to a TS2 valve, a magnetic key must be inserted into the indentation to hold a steel ball out of the way. A guy named Mark Sharp received a letter from Blue Rhino confirming this information. Here's the text of the letter he received: "Blue Rhino is the leader in the industry for providing the safest tanks on the market. Some, but not all of our tanks have a special safety device that prevents the refill by anyone other than a Blue Rhino specialist. They are called TS2 cylinders. The reason we designed them is simple. It's for the safety of our consumers!! We stand behind our product. We know how our cylinders are filled and that the highest level of accuracy and safety checks are performed. When our consumers take our cylinders and have them filled elsewhere, we cannot be liable or guarantee the safety of that cylinder. If your tank is not properly filled, damage to your valve can result, which can prevent it from performing properly. Our business is propane cylinder exchange. We recommend that our customers only exchange because of the safety/liability issues associated with someone else filling our tanks. However, you, as a consumer, are free to fill your cylinder if you wish. Not all of our tanks offer the special safety feature. The way to identify the special TS2 valve tanks that cannot be filled is easy. If your tank valve has a small triangular indention on the side, then it is "tamper" protected. If you prefer to have a tank that can be filled by anyone, take that tank back to any Blue Rhino retailer and exchange it for one that does not have the triangular indention. For liability reasons, if you choose to refill your tank, please remember to remove the plastic sleeve before having it refilled. I hope this information helps." Don't confuse the new OPD valves with the triangular handle with the Blue Rhino-only TS2 OPD valves, also with the triangular handle, but also the little triangular indentation on the SIDE of the valve. All Blue Rhino tanks now have OPDs and the new three-sided valve handles. (Overfill Protection Device, a float-based device inside the tank) *NOT* all Blue Rhino tanks have (yet) been retrofitted with TS2 valves. So there is a chance that you can find (or end up with by chance) a tank from Blue Rhino that is OPD and is refillable at your local propane dealer. But you need to look for the telltale TS2 indention to be sure.

Subject: brass monkey In the heyday of sailing ships, all war ships and many freighters carried iron cannons. Those cannon fired round iron cannon balls. It was necessary to keep a good supply near the cannon. But how to prevent them from rolling about the deck? The best storage method devised was a square based pyramid with one ball on top, resting on four resting on nine which rested on sixteen. Thus, a supply of thirty cannon balls could be stacked in a small area right next to the cannon. There was only one problem -- how to prevent the bottom layer from sliding/rolling from under the others. The solution was a metal plate called a "Monkey" with sixteen round indentations. But, if this plate was made of iron, the iron balls would quickly rust to it. The solution to the rusting problem was to make "Brass Monkeys." Few landlubbers realize that brass contracts much more and much faster than iron when chilled. Consequently, when the temperature dropped too far, the brass indentations would shrink so much that the iron cannon balls would come right off the monkey. Thus, it was quite literally, "Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey!" Actually this tale is probably not true, but it makes an interesting story.

Good idea, Tom. I'm at work right now and can't get into it as well as I'd like. I need to talk to some other people I know to form some definite thoughts. I will take your advice and begin a new thread. Give me a day or so and I'll have some concrete ideas we can throw around. Thanks, Steve

I spoke with Robert this afternoon and told him about our interest in starting an Owner's Club. I asked him if Oliver would be willing to send out a cover letter to all current owners letting them know. In addition I asked that information be provided to future owners when they pick up their units. He said that both of these requests should be "doable." He's out of town for a couple of days but said that when he gets back to the office he will start looking at this for us. Let's everyone that's interested weigh in on this and use our collective talents to make this thing work. Ideas??? Steve

Vedamen, Sorry, but we're not certain that this will derive the hull number from the Casita VIN. I talked to Larry this morning about your request and he's not sure either. He is off on a deer hunt and will be out of pocket this weekend. This system works for the Olivers. I feel sure it will work for Casitas too... Here's how to decode a VIN: When decoded, the VIN tells the country and year of manufacture; make, model and serial number; assembly plant; and in some cases it even identifies equipment specifications. The system goes something like this: sequence for characters is first A to Z, then 1 to 9, and last 0. The letters "I", "O" and "Q" are typically omitted from system. The vehicle identification number is divided into four parts: World Manufacturer's Identification (WMI - three characters) Vehicle Description Section (VDS - five characters) The VIN Accuracy Check Digit Vehicle Identification Section (VIS - eight characters) World Manufacturer’s Identification (WMI) The first character in the WMI sequence represents the country where the vehicle was manufactured. Countries like the United States (1 or 4), Canada (2) and Mexico (3) are represented by numbers while other countries such as Germany (W), Italy (Z) and Japan (J) are represented by letters. The second character refers to the manufacturer. The characters can be either letters or numbers. For example: Jaguar (A), Dodge (B), Chrysler ©, Jeep (J), Buick (4), Cadillac (6) or Saturn (8). The third character represents the vehicle type or manufacturing division. Vehicle Description Section (VDS) and Check Digit The vehicle description section consists of five characters (the 4th to 8th characters) which identify everything from the body style, engine type, and braking system to model, series, restraint system, etc. The 9th character is a VIN accuracy check digit which verifies the previous VIN numbers. It is determined by carrying out a mathematical computation developed by the Department of Transportation (DOT). Vehicle Identification Section (VIS) The vehicle identification section includes the last eight characters in the VIN number. The numbers identify the model year (10th character) and the assembly plant for the vehicle (11th character). A number or letter may represent the model year. For example: 1998 (W), 2000 (Y), 2007 (7) or 2008 (8). The 12th to 17th characters are the actual serial number of the vehicle—these last 6 digits make the vehicle unique (think of DNA). It can also help to identify whether the vehicle was the first, the hundredth, or the last vehicle off the manufacturer’s assembly line. This is valuable information for collectors. So, the next time you see that long number printed on your registration papers or stamped across your dashboard, you’ll know how to decode it. This will give you a better understanding of where your unique vehicle actually came from! Hope this helps Steve

Yes, Larry, I think it's a great idea for an owner directory. Even before we bought the , I suggested to Robert that we form a owner's club much like Airstream did. We could issue each owner that wanted to join a unique number that they could apply to their Oliver. Then, anyone with a directory (could be online) would be able to ID the owner, where they are from, etc. The number could incorporate the Hull Number into it also so that would be obvious to other owners. Maybe the last two digits of the year and the Hull Number in combination. Maybe you could select your own number. It's the owners club so we could design it any way we wanted to.

Mountainborn, You have fun out there, be safe... Steve

Wannbee, I've never personally owned a Casita, so I can't speak with any history there. I've seen several at various rallys and have had opportunities to compare them with our . If you've studied the web site then you probably know all the differences, the twin hull, available options, etc. We absolutely love ours. The folks at the factory set the standard for customer service. By all means, go to the factory. If that doesn't sell you, nothing will. We went 5 times. We live in Tupelo so it was not too far to drive in a day. If you would like any other info or would like to see ours, let me know. Steve

The reason your pins are so tight is because the spare tire cover is pressing down on the bumper and not allowing it to swing into its fully "up" position. It only takes a few thousands of misalignment to make the pins not fit well. Drilling them out is probably the only long term solution. You can, however, loosen the winged nut holding the spare tire cover on and lift the cover as much as possible and re-tighten the nut, really tight. This works, but probably only temporarily as travel will inevitably allow the cover to slip down and return to a position resting on the bumper and not allowing it to swing up fully again. You can always try slamming it into the closed position, but it makes a lot of noise when you do! Steve

I would keep the bigger unit, you usually can't get too cool and if you do, you can always turn it down. If you are camping during warmer weather, it will prove to be a blessing, especially since you say you are usually where there are hookups. I know you will love your Oliver, we certainly do. Now if we (like you) could just find more time to use it.... Steve and Tali