Geronimo John

Wayfinder: Very excellent post. I have a similar check list. One change I'll likely make is to convert my Bulldog hitch pin to a round one such as yours. My rectangular one is too tight and I fight it every time getting the umbilical cord through it in the same fashion as yours. Couple of additional tips: Tie the Anderson and Bulldog safety pins to the trailer. Prevents their loss. Use a 1/8" diameter Bunge Cord the emergency breakaway safety cable and DC to DC Charging Cable to the Bulldog. I am suggesting a small diameter so that it too can break away if something goes awry. GJ

Welcome to the Ollie Family!

Many of us RoF's would love a separate (new) thread about this and other systems for monitoring temperature in and around our OTT's. GJ

NOW I know why someone would not want to open the barn doors and run the Suburban heater! LOL. Well played! GJ

For sure on both accounts! For an hour of my RoF time, and about $7 dollars of RV antifreeze, I can easily do the full monte winterize. At what someone is willing to pay for my time, say $2 an hour or one of Art's fantastic home brew's (Priceless), it would only take two hours of anxiety caused sleep loss to amortize my time and materials rate. But for me, and many of those reading this, our anxiety is worth less than five minutes of time to cover the cost. Especially if we pull in to our boondock heaven, and CINC - House is stepping into the bathroom for a hot shower for happy time to follow. But she discovers our tanks are empty due to a frozen pipe the night before thawing. Now that alone is enough to make a man weep. 😢 So JD go right ahead and gamble you are right every time. But for me, "I just don't feel that lucky". LOL~ GJ

In June a couple of years ago I was heading to Medford OR. Stopped at a huge parking area and decided it was a perfect place to spend the night. it was 74 degrees. Set up the BBQ and grilled some burgers. Hit the sack around 9:30 and slept like a log. Until I woke up at 3:00 and Ollie was 40 degrees inside. Turned on the heater and looked out in the morning to 4" of snow and 24 degrees. Sure was glad I had not gone off down a logging road to boondock Getting back up to the snow machine parking lot would have been dicey. Point is, sometimes we get curve balls tossed into our chili pot!

From Mr. Google: The record low temperature in Asheville, North Carolina for winter is -16°F, which was recorded on January 21, 1985. This was part of a wave of frigid temperatures that affected much of the state, including Mount Mitchell, which recorded a record low of -34°F. Scotty Some Observations: For sure these hatches also should be opened up, as well as the bathroom door. If you store any liquids in the upper cabinets, they too need to be open. Your above post indicated that you are only one deep in heat sources with the nice oil filled radiator heater. Suggest setting your Suburban heater to on at a bit lower temp in case you lose power and are away from the area by choice or emergency. You are making some assumptions that can not 100% of the time for every winter be assumed. Just one time you got caught away, or utilities went out you could get into a plumbing nightmare. On the other hand, the OTT specified winterization process is pretty much an absolute. Me personally I would not risk it. But then some others likely would take the gamble. I would at least use the air method that JD mentioned so as to reduce the risk. One other thought, hopefully you have a sensor point inside the street side rear area where the plumbing problems seem to crop up during Ollie Freeze-ups. GJ

Different trailer with different drawer slides designs. But the VAST majority of our owners have trailers are of a more recent design. And many of us have found that flying drawers and their contents do in fact toss stuff on the floor, especially off road as Mike noted. Several of the off road owners, like ours, have had heavier drawers not only bounce out contents, but eventually they blast out so fast the they have broken the drawer retainer hardware as well. For the design we have, the straps have proven to be a God Send as stated. Another thank you to John Davies. As far as them looking tacky, I don't really mind as there is never any guests in the trailer when the straps are in place. As far as the time to install and uninstall, with the "Hooks" and the straps pre looped as JD suggested, it takes about 30 seconds to install/de-install. Time wise, it is a lot less than just the time to pick silverware scattered about the trailer. And a lot less additional time for washing them...again... Finally, if I could afford the beautiful Bocote wood drawer fronts that @Foy_Mirna Sperring made..... I for darn sure would not want them bouncing out and both getting damaged and also likely damaging the interior of our OE2. This appears to be a topic where getting strapped in the long haul is a good thing. Seems like my Daddy felt that way to about me. So basically, it looks like we sort of disagree on this one issue. John DIY - Galley Drawers Straps by John E. Davies.docx

JD: Thanks for the compliment.... I think??? LOL Seriously though, would it not be pretty cool to cherry pick our what must be about ten million OTT forum posts (more or less) and gather them up as a tutorial for new and potential owners? Could be a Oliver University crash course based upon all the mistakes us ROF's have already done. About 27% of the time I like not making an OOPs myself. Prefer that others do it first and I can read about it. But at times I just like to make the mistake myself.

True, but it's an Oldie but Goodie topic. Think about how many new owners we have had in the past three years. And of those, how many have not had the opportunity to understand the topic the hard way... on the side of the road. Or understanding the damage they can do by not being aware of the limitations of the Anderson or any other WDH system. So I applaud ScubaRx and others for sharing the expertise. Even with a minor "hijacking" or two on the topic line, it is a good read... especially for our newer owners.

There are more than a few thoughts expressed in this thread to cause me to pause: Mike and Carrol; I see you are towing with a "2020 Ram 2500 6.7L". Why are you even using an Anderson? Long Stride: For emergency safety chains, one of these is a great idea vs. a quick link. Along the same lines as John D's post above, damage can certainly occur when the chains are over tightened and were installed tight as well. Hence there is some that would see a benefit of having a sacrificial link in this system. For the same reason that my boat prop's don't have super high strength shear pins. Stranded: Now I'm going the opposite way from my shear pin analogy. Your statement "I bought a similar sized stainless steel coupler at Home Depot" is another pause moment for me. SS is inherently less strong than the steel ones Anderson uses. Suggest rethinking your purchase. My main intent here is that the Anderson/Oliver links properly installed and ADJUSTED (By the big nuts at the rear" should be protected by using the suggested rated quick link. Not a massive one or a weaker one. I believe this as even though our OTT frames are likely the strongest in the industry, they are aluminum. That is unique, and in my opinion likely is why a link of 2650 pounds working load was specified for our trailers. If you have maintained the quick links (I.E. they are tight), and you have damaged one, then contributing causes are most likely: They were set up with the chains too tight to begin with. Not likely if done by OTT. You were using too many threads (You over tightened the chain nuts at the rear). You were trying to go travel across a grade change beyond the system's design, or were traveling too fast when doing so as John D. also suggested. As mentioned in my above post, beyond occasional link tightness check, I occasionally do a chain tension check by standing on one of them. If it does not move, then guess what? Also if I am approaching a significant grade change, like crossing a deep ditch, I consider the stress it will put to the Anderson system and items attached to it. For severe crossings, I'll loosen the nuts. GJ

JD: It was never my intent to remove the door and disassemble it. Noor was it to look exactly like original. For those that need that level of perfection, I 100% agree with you. Let them eat cake and fully enjoy their beautiful new OEM $1600 door. My point of the video was to just say it is possible to reskin a door on an RV. Not a path likely you or I would wander down. But it is possible to do so. Hence my hint "One Way". Now that I have better clarified that my intent is to suggest laminating Edge to Edge on top of existing: With a thin white sheet of material (Likely aluminum), one could trace the existing door shape directly onto the new aluminum. Cut and paste then SS rivet or flat head screw it in place. Simple, fast, and relatively inexpensive. Only concern would be if the thin thickness of the new skin material could be absorbed by some hinge slop. When my fails, I would rather execute the reskin in place concept before spending $1600! That said, hopefully someone out there in the RV door business will offer a better more cost effective solution. Time for us is on our side... for now. 🙂

At 5:31 in the above video is one way to re-skin a trailer door. At 5:31 in the above video is one way to re-skin a trailer door. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftNdzpe6_To

$1,600 for a replacement door? That's more than insane. What's even worse is buying from the same source that provided a badly designed door. Why not in place re-laminate the interior as suggested above? Can some of our plastic guys shed some brain cells on the concept. GJ

Happy Thanksgiving!