Geronimo John

Lots of good reminders and recommendations in this thread. There are two more: First, a good TPMS is essential for our trailers. Consider it SAFTEY Required. Secondly, if it hollers at you, immediately turn on the flashers and slow down to buy time. Find a flat spot to address whatever is amiss. Slowing down may likely turn a steel reinforcement wire nightmare into just a wobbling tire event. Great thread! GJ

JD: Which one do you recommend at Summit? GJ

I personally would hook a jackery to the battery cables in the battery box for maintenance purposes when winterizing with the house batteries removed. GJ

Jon and Jodi: What manufacturer and model of tires did you have trouble with? GJ

Roger, that was my thoughts as well. For a multi-speed inverter with the ability to slow down both fans to meet an infinate number of settings (Humidity/Temperature/Desired Supply Air Fan), a Cielbo would seem to be not necessary. However, for RV A/C unit that has multiple supply air fan speeds (Most Do) AND a mult-speed compressor (Cheaper to make than an Inverter style Air Compressor, i.e. an "Old Style" Unit), then the Cielo system would likely be a wonderful mod... so long as it does no harm over time due to so many restarts to the unit self and the soft start system if employed. Of course that's my hesitance and cause for a pause to access for unintended consequences that generally pop up over time. GJ

Interesting. GJ

As a new member of the forum, welcome aboard! Lots of great owners out here with a many tons of knowledge that's way over my head as well. Especially in electronic gizmology. So please don't be shy in asking questions and then follow-up's when necessary. I can guarantee one, if not several, of the owners is an absolute expert on the topic du jour. Travel safe and enjoy every day, Geronimo John

SE from Stanley a bit is Moore Ideao. Home of the L7 BBQ. Guaranteed the best BBQ sandwich I have ever enjoyed. And I'm from Texas. Just a few miles further is Moore, ID. The King Mountain Glider Park is active in the summer months with all kinds of Hang Glider, Paraglider and Sailplanes flying the beautiful mountains. 8 miles further in Arco is a free dump station. I spend a month there eash summer, so if heading that way holler so we can cross paths. GJ PS: If you only have time for one of those, get the L7 BBQ sandwich. It's a monster. Yummy.

Agree totally. For those not familiar, here is a site with pictures of the lodge and area: https://www.grandcanyonnorth.com/gallery So sad. GJ

Once I had to get out a drill and make a hole so I could get the plut into the leak. Wasted an hour trying to do so before the light bulb came on. I also have had leaks in the main tread area that took three plugs to slow them down. Even with three, it still leaked, but slow enough that I could get off the mountain by re-airing up twice. Good idea to have an air compressor of some sort! GJ

I hate mubdobbers and wasps! This idea is a good one for that size bug. Inexpensive too! We run our fans 20/7 for months at a time. I have two new fans to replace my smaller ones. I'm thinking blocking off most of the top vent with 1/8" thick white plastic, and making two fan size holes to allow the fans to discharge directly outside. No screen needed there for this approach. This would eliminate the circulation effect that occurrs in a more open design where air can come out of the fan and circulate back into the fan's suction side. Sort of a "Ducted Fan" approach. Below I like the idea of using this screen all across the bottom vent area and using an inexpensive home A/C filter as a bug stop to the outside of the screen. The above vent being powered and sort of ducted will likely improve air flow actually out of the refer box area. That would over come the static resistance of the screen and filter below. Combined nearly all bug proof, not just my two worst friends mentioned above but smaller ones as well and areduce someof the dust that gets sucked into the refer backside. PS: I keep a fresh can of Wasp Spray in my front storage box for "encounters" of the worst kind. GJ

From a M.E. perspective the smaller unit was intended to run longer than the 13.5 units thereby better controlling humidity and pulling less power. A good thing. But it gives up high temperature condition performace (ability to reach set point) and cool down time as trade offs... as you well know. Pretty much of that logic line goes out the window with the advent of the Inverter units. They can cycle output down/up as needed for all applications under those for which they are not undersized. They control both humidity and temperature to set point. Brilliant! I suspect that OTT will be going that direction once there is a bit more experience with them and the reliability issues, good and bad, shake out. That's part of their good conservative approact to significant changes I think. As the inverter refergerator topic continues to matue, I'll be looking at the owner opinions in a couple more seasons as my Dometic 3-way ages and my confidence in the air separation from the cabin and the refer side deteriorates. Likewise with the inverter A/C units. Wish the Houghton was an inverter, but it's not. Lucky that I and others were able to do the two Mods. So I'll likely hold off an A/C upgrade to let this topic mature. Especially if the Ceilo would work well on it! I appreciate all the Owner inputs about the Cielo system and their experiences using it. GJ

For those with an older technology (Not Inverter) I seem to have understood that the Cielo would just shut down the power to the unit in the mode when humidity "give back" from the Evaporor Coil is an issue. But if you have more recent design (Inverter A/C), the Cielo independently controls the (Inverter (Compressor Speed), Condensor Fan, and the Supply Air Fans) to meet what ever humidity and temperature settings are needed. Is the above done by the same model of Cielo or different ones? How does it do so for both types of unit when they all likely have different mother boards? Almost sounds too good to be real. But so many of us really like what it does it must be magic! GJ

A farm back-hoe bucket worked best for our Houghton install. Also, the Dometic if still running will generally fetches $500 to $600 on Craigs List. So don't do what one fellow did that HATED his DOMETIC P2: Tossed it over the side. Which likely is not legal due to the refergerant rules. GJ

OR instead of getting all that hardware, you could invest a few hours and get you some of these: ; ; ; ; ; wait for it......; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; Gotcha! I was forwarned by a very wise Sea Dog (I believe) in 2018 that some day I would get older and wished I had got my Ollie with 20 # tanks. I did on both topics. GJ

We have the standard awning without wings. I like to move the picnic table half under and half outside of the awning. then I use three tie downs from the awning to the table itself. For week plus stays with tables, it beats collecting three each 3 gallon buckets of rocks for dead weights... much faster too. GJ

Thanks Mike. It is obvious I am a Mechanical Engineer. Fortunately June is a Masters Electrical Engineer and a IT Professional. So I'm the slow one in the gizmology world of these type of machines. But power I do get!. Gathering the base level info lets me ask less stupid C.S. questions though. Many thanks for your posts! GJ

Should we not get contrary documentation, it pretty much validates the Dexter assessment that the Dexter PR4B 1750# springs are undersized for our full time loaded 6000# class trailerls. Does any OE2 owner in your situtation know if the OTT installed 5200# axles on the OE2's came with the Dexter PR4 2400# springs or something different? Would be really good to know this. thanks GJ

Bill: Lucky you to have the 5200's for free. I am going to "Assume" you are not a 5%er. If not, I get a second strike. With your super good 5200's and BEEFY brakes, and likely the Dexter 5 Leaf springs, I do not recall a single post where the 5 leaf springs on 6,000 pound class OTT's have failed. (Somebody please correct me if my memory has gone on strike in this. If so, please provide specifics.) I would continue to inspect them every season checking for flatening out of their curve. But then that would be smart for every owner to do, even those with Alcan's. 🙂 GJ

Can the Starlink Mini II transmit TV on two different chanels at one time to two laptops? Learning more the easy way! Thanks GJ

JD: Love it. A shameless Starlink recommendation! GJ

Guess I'm on a roll today..... I keep hearing that X-spring seems to make their trailer sure footed. Likely a good observation by credible owners. I suspect they do to at least some extent. But. Not once in eight years of crossing the Continental USA, running 9,000+ miles a year, always with significant highway and off road use in the mountains, have I ever had my OTT OE2 not be dirctly behind my truck. It just follows where the Anderson leads it. It does not sway. It does not wonder around, it does not wag it's tail at other pretty trailers we pass or that pass us, and it certainly has never been sideways to the path. It just follows behind me and always shows up in a second or two when we arrive. So, really is being "Sure Footed" a critical factor in selecting a trailer spring for all of us? Likely not. Whereas, ride of the trailer, and especially our contents, is an important spring selection consideration. For the 5%ers who have significant witness marks, you have other criterion of more critical importance, and that is keeping the axle U-Bolts from killing your frames welds due to how you love to use your trailers. For that you need the stiffness of the super duty 5 leaf Alcans. And I support that perspective for your use. But I suspect that "sure footedness" is not a relivant criterion for the majority of owners that don't have witness marks on our frames, and who's frame welds are not worried. 🙂 GJ

Dexter 5 leaf? Typo? Good that you are planning to change your springs before their roadside failure. The above generic chart provides general industry standard info. The Michelin provided chart for these tires also require at least 35 PSI. If an owner can not find a chart for their manufacturer, use of the above could be pretty good guidline. But with the internet the actual data for your tires is better. Here is the chart for mine OE2 tires: For talking purposes, a typical 6,000 pound OE2 will have a tongue weight of about 580 pounds. That calculates to about 2720 pounds for each axle. From the chart we are off the chart. One could mathamatically postulate that at the example axle weight we should use about 27/28 PSI. Not the case. The pressure shown on the left side is the minimum pressure to be used. But for the purpose of lowering running drag, and to give us more safe warning time when a tire is failing, most of us add some pressure. Likewise, I also run my OE2 with 40 to 45 PSI when on highway. If serious off roading I lower it further to 35 as per the charts. But if conditions dictate, for short duration I would not hesitate to go below the 35 PSI. And have twice with our Ollie. SUGGESTION: I like many other owners, believe that having a 20/18 volt air compressor (And a good plug kit) are musts when traveling far or traveling off road. GJ

JD: Thank you for taking the time to summarize in detail what is needed for a Never-Lube axle bearing change. At my vintage, I would like the long time benefit of the Never-Lube bearings and the larger brakes too. Not to mention saving the time, grease and seals I use every year on my OEM's. I also feel the need to check in on the brake system. Doing annual service on the bearings allowed me to do that. If I went with the 5200's and Never-lube I would still want to look in on the Drum Brakes occasionally. If so, do we need all the above tools for just physically checking the drum brakes? thanks GJ

Spring rating and spring capacity together determine how the road conditions impact the load. For a given load, a higher rated suspension will have less travel than a softer one. To put this at an extreme, if we go with an infinately strong suspension, say a block of wood, an input from the road will imediately be felt in the cab. This is not what we want. On the other end of the extreme, if we have a too soft suspension, the axle will bang the frame with every input. We don't want that either. And for this reason, all the springs and shocks being used by our owners fall between the two stupid extremes above. Hence they work. The root cause of these discussions as admitted by three Dexter Tech's to me that the original OEM springs being contineously loaded were under designed. That's why so many have prematurly failed. The good news is that many of us have upgraded our springs to higher rated ones. I personally recommend this to ALL OE2 owners who still have their OEM 1750 Dexters. So for those of us who have already done so, bascally all we are really fretting about is the personal selection of different options. It is Physics that if you have a stiffer suspension, you will get less spring travel. For some that is greatly needed. But if an owner of several years has zero witness marks on their frame and axle U-bolts, then likely they just need to address the under design issue and go with a compromise spring rate. As Ronbrink mentioned above, your shocks will wear in a bit and may help some. With the upgrades you have your rig is set up for great off road service. There is only one thing I can think of to amelerate your situtation. You may want to check YOUR tire MFG Pressure/Load chart for recommended tire pressure at your actual axle loading. If you don't know that number, please hit the scales. At 55 PSI, I would wager that you are well over your tire MFG recommended pressure. I recommend 40 to 45 tops for 95% of our OE2 owners weights. GJ