Geronimo John

If mounting heavier (I.E. Inverters, converters, DC-DC Charging) equipment to vertical surfaces several owners have found that just epoxy, JB Weld or other such products over time fail. For this reason, I use and suggest also adding SS Fender washers and small bolts thru the vertical Ollie surface, the mounting board and the mounting holes of the electrical gear. For our 3,000 watt Renogy Inverter, I used stainless steel four sets of 3/16" bolts, fender washers and nylock nuts. For my grins I also used JB Weld between the vertical hull surface and the cutting board mounts. No worries on our 15,000 mile Alaska trip and over many Rocky Mountain fire roads., Geronimo

I have highlighted two words above for clarification. Both of the above statements could be misconstrued by a new owner. YES you can operate an electrical circuit "just" below the circuit breaker rating, and do so for some period of time. But a soon as we use the word continuous, we evoke the NEC requirement that the circuit be de-rated. There are several interpretations out there, but most would agree with the NEC that a 20 amp circuit shall not be continuously loaded to 15 or 16 amps MAX. Likewise for the 30 amp single phase 120V circuit you must not continuously load it to over about 24 or so amps. Yes there is some wiggle room in the interpretations, but all of them are well below the full circuit breaker rating for continuous use. Doing so over time can will to bad words or worse. Please keep this in mind when loading your circuits to their their breaker rating. GJ

First, nice sized generator. Not too big, not too small, just right to keep refer's, freezers and of course the Man Cave beer cooler running! I had to blow up your picture to actually see the size. Can see it now! 🙂 You mentioned that it runs on local LNG. Do the Champion's have a similar sized dual fuel (LNG local provided or on-site propane? Nice install too! GJ

Two great check lists. My only comment is that I rated this Forum very high in my list. Think about the potential for such a forum as a measuring tool of customer satisfaction and the type of people that buy their products. In this rating world, OTT is so far ahead of every body else in the Universe. GJ

Art: So gracious. Thank you. I was trying to think of ways to cut the groves with a skill saw. Not ideal. I'll be bringing Costco steaks and plenty of wine. Bet I know someone with special steak cooking skill!. You may want to invite Ruth Chris over to learn how to REALLY cook steaks. Thanks so much. Will coordinate further off line. John

It is factual that we have no means to adjust incrementally tire alignment on our trailers. But worn out spring attachments can easily put a tire into an abnormal wear pattern. SO checking that the spring bushings are still there and doing their job is a good idea. I would put a pair of chocks against both sides of single tire and have a partner in the TV gently stress each of the bushings one at a time. If you see visual slippage on the shackle bolt of the spring...bingo. Or if you are young and strong like mule just jack it up and slam it around some. Me, I'll use the Ole Man's way. GJ

Some time ago we had posts about a F-350 and SOB trailer being hung by their safety chains. That visual and our shared distain for the curly safety wires have put this on to do list for sure. If you have an extra few inches of chain, I would suggest the following considerations: First, the shear strength on a 3/8 grade 8 is between about 5,000 to 7000 pounds. Your chains are rated at 24,000 pounds. Excellent chain choice! Gold Stars. In an emergency situation, likely the trailer chains will not come tight at the same time. As such, one chain will absorb the initial impact loading. If it breaks the bolt, then the other chain will basically follow the path of the first (Stay connected to the TV) as the thru bolt will fall out. Then Ollie will exercise the break away switch. To better utilize the capability of the chains more bolt strength would be warranted. Recommendations in order of how much you believe any of the above follow: A. Replace the 3/8" thru bolt with two shorter bolts. That way if the impact takes out one side, you are still connected. B. If you have an extra 3" of chain, you could anchor the end of the chain to the Bulldog bolt above and then down to your two 3/8" bolts you have installed. Chain hardware would be needed as I doubt that the chain will pass on a 1/2" bolt. C. If you have more length than that you could run the chain to both bulldog bolts. And of curse to the two 3/8" bolts. More chain hardware likely needed. D. Or, if you are a John D., you would machine two spanner bars running from the two bulldog bolts and connect to the spare 3" of spare chain to your two 3/8" bolts. PS: I'm deep enough into the rabbit hole. Personally I'll put on my to do list Option B is smarter chain guy knows of good hardware to connect a chain to the 1/2" bulldog bolts. GJ

Just yesterday in another post I saw the Foy catalogue with their really nice folding table and commented that the idea could be modified for this purpose. Liked that it is sturdy, but not "flat enough" to store under the mattress for separate sleeping time. Your approach is more in line with what I'm thinking. If I don't use the "stiff legs", and upped the read oak to 1/2" (maybe multi layered plywood???), I'm thinking I could just mill 1/4" slots for the bed rails and have a flat board . That could easily be stored under the street side mattress. Not being a carpenter, What material would work best that comes in sheets? GJ

Ron: I very much like your setup for managing the two umbilical cables. Would you please share the cut sheet for the product you used to protect the cables? Thanks GJ

To actually answer the question on how to fix? I would JB Weld the back of the shroud in a "pond" if HB Weld with a SS fender washer in the JB Weld, and use a second SS fender washer on the outside after letting it cure a few days. GJ

I would carefully measure the axles and wheels to see if the axle has moved or been bent. If not finding anything, have it aligned. GJ

What is your preferred sleeping position in your Oliver? (given the twin bed option) And please comment with any pros & cons you see. Ok, I get the intent of the question and politely ask forgiveness due to hijackings the thread in a moment. Considering only two options, I sleep with my head fore and my wife towards aft. My reason is to gain shoulder width facing Fore. But if one were to get my real preference, it would be neither of these options. 🙂 Which brings me to the hijacking forgiveness part. This photo give me an idea. IF the Froli folks made a folding bed extender along the lines of this photo that required no center support, was about 50" long, and exactly fit in-between the dimension of the bed mattress side rails, there would be more than a few of us that would use that other answer. 🙂 For the bonus design merit badge, it would have the ability to adjust it's hang elevation below to level out using 2 layers of the standard OE2 cushions with either a 4" or 6" foam mattress on the twin beds. There by creating a near horizontal wall to wall X 5' wide sleeping space... thereby needing a third option to the survey. How about it Froli, GJ

Now that I see that the wear appears to be all around the tire, it would likely be alignment. When was the last time you rotated them and/or had them balanced?

Creative solution! Glad it work out so well. GJ

One interesting and enlightening tidbit of knowledge is to know what your converter efficiency really is. One method is to calculate the power output divided by the power input. I spent quite a bit of time looking for the power in/out numbers for the 2018 PD Converters. Failing to find the data on-line, I measured the amps and volts and did the math. It was apparent that this MFG does not really desire that prospective customers know how bad the efficiency of their product is. When i ran the numbers while monitoring the performance of our Battleborns it was "shockingly" low. I called Dragon Fly Energy and they candidly stated that "some converters are better made and are much more energy efficient"". Not knowing what your Ollie's converter is, I would not guess as to it's efficiency. But for the PD's of my OTT, they are no where near the top of the efficiency rating stack. This would make an interesting thread to test and report actual converter efficiencies by year and model of MFG. GJ

I can assure you that most owners will rarely be removing the table to look at a circuit breaker or fuse. And having to decipher what breaker is what for those that are not "down there often" will continue to provide frustration, if not foster mistakes that could have consequences. In all fairness, OTT takes great pride in their designs. The also cautiously, and where warranted, do over time modify them when warranted. And all owners very much appreciate their approach as it minimized collateral adverse consequences of changes. So, since this has been a PITA since hull 001, what's the real back story behind their not fixing this issue? GJ

Thanks FlynGator for the pictures of the new door. I too like the appearance of the new shower door. Seems to be well fit. And if my eyes are not tricking my brain, it comes with the automatic FS Option. See below. Wait for it.... What were they thinking? The foot slicer option. This post is not intended nor is it funny. GJ

Not worth carrying around another 30+ pounds to be rarely used. I do carry a large and smaller vice grip, and can use my Anderson ball as a strong point if I need to whack something. But not toooooo hard of course. GJ

I chose to remove the fuse that feeds that small wire to the 7-blade. That way if I choose to use another trailer with brake away switch and battery, I can easily restore the charging current to the emergency battery on their trailer. Amen. I travel not 250 or 300 miles a day, but 400 to 500 a day when I am on the move. Having a single 12/12-30 amp is more than sufficient. In fact, I don't even come close to needing to charge daily when in "GO" mode. I suggest installing one such unit and verifying your experience is acceptable, then great. If not, add a second later. GJ

I'm thinking a washer and gasket between the brass fitting and the regulator.

The Partner is a great unit. Expensive though. With your aluminum table you'll likely not scorch it's surface. Growing up, my family tent camped A LOT. When I got some cash for my 11th and 12th birthdays I bought a Coleman stove and lantern. They are now pushing 60 years old and still work very well. Now just finding white gas is a problem and the Coleman fuel is insanely expensive. Sadly the LED lanterns made the ole style lanterns a safety hazard from many perspectives. GJ

No attachment, photo of model specified. GJ

I agree with both Frank and SeaDawg I think that the area highlighted with the red circle and arrow are flaws from MFG. They and others not marked as mentioned by SeaDawg could result in a weak section of the top layers of the roof. Then that area was subsequently impacted by a collapsing cover, rock or tree as suggested by SeaDawg. I also definitely think that some form of blunt force was involved in this cosmetically unusual area. But because this roof is very thick, it very likely is not structural damage. So, IMHP, the cosmetic flaws are of factory origin. But the impact force could have occurred at the factory (Falling chain ball or dropped A/C for example). Or after it left the factory as stated above. But then, there is always the remote possibility that a 350 pound gorilla was skipping rope up there. 🙂 Before calling Jason, I suggest doing the tap test suggested by Jim and Chris. GJ

The CFM through the furnace is not really that much. A fan powered induction box could be tied into the Truma fan intake so as to "Pressurize" the inlet of the Truma thereby avoiding the low pressure warning. GJ

I agree fully. Personally I made that exact decision as I started out 20 years ago with a TEMCO Hammer Crimper. Still find it quite useful here in Hawaii on smaller stuff. But for use on our Trailer without a vice handy it was a no go for me. Especially I would have to borrow a vice. But I would never put a cheater bar on another's vice. So I went hydraulic. DYI Pro': I am very open to loaning out my hydraulic lug crimper during the summer. I know it was really handy this summer while visiting MaxBurner and beyond. If interested PM me. GJ