Geronimo John

Interesting problem! I had the same with my Ollie and 2019 F-150 crew cab. This 7,000# class vehicle has only a 1300# payload. Scales showed with Anderson in play, my front and rear TV axle weights were almost 50/50%. But I was experiencing porposing and bump stop impacts on the TV. I consulted the F-150 Forum and as advised installed a pair of rear Bilstein 5100 shocks and air bags. Together they helped a lot. The shocks for dampening, the Air bags to get back the two inches of spring range (squat) that my payload (<350 #) and tongue weight (540 #) caused. They together helped a lot. In your case a 2500 GMC would likely not have a squat or payload issue. On the other hand, the OE2's are not light and with four serviceable shocks and the EZ flex they don't bounce much. With the extra long tongue, the CG is way back there compared to other trailers. Again reducing the forces at the tongue when driving in porposing conditions. So this is what makes this interesting. With your massive Cummings engine in a 2500 GMC, payload or any other capacity is not likely an issue. But as you indicated, a "relatively" light tongue weight (For your truck) with additional unloading by the Anderson with possibly tired shocks on the rear could be the cause. With your one to n GMC, I would find a suitable road that encourages porposing and slack the Anderson chains. Next take a hard look at your shocks. Finally tighten up those timberlines a bit. Just keep in mind the difference between payload ability and dampening of varying loads. The 2500 payload and timberlines do not dampen much, they increase paylow. But your rear shocks do. Keep us posted! GJ

Follows is a whimsical discussion "envisionating" what such a trailer would be. I'll crawl out on the limb and call it an OE3 for grins. First I agree 99.9% of your suggestions on the what we would like to see in an OE3. Assuming 25' and 8000 pounds of the OE3 we can consider the tongue weight/balance. I assume that your suggested OE3 12%+ tongue weight is to accommodate heavier than average OE2 rear bumper loads. Over my past eight seasons with our OE2, I have noted a significant number of owners hauling more stuff on their rear bumper. So far, I don't recall any such owners experience any increased sway of their rigs. This speaks highly of the OTT efforts to make a non-sway trailer that we all enjoy. It is logical that a family wanting a larger Oliver, would also want to haul more storage inside as well as on the front and rear of the OE3. Additionally that pound for pound, that rear loads have far more impact on sway than front loading. Granted my Beast (F-150) would likely protest that assumption! For OE2's, If we are running with no or lighter rear bumper loads, then the current OE2 sway design is near perfect for most of us. As well, it is likewise for those running with greater rear loading. A statement of design safety margins OTT used. I am postulating that most of us are likely running in the mid 500's on tongue weight as a result and our loaded trailers are around 6,000 pounds. That calculates to about 9% tongue weight. For an OE3: I am thinking that the additional length and mass of the box section would move the CG rearward of the current OE2 CG. The further from the hitch the CG. the less sway becomes a concern. So I am thinking that if they shoot for the same % tongue weight for a 8000 pound OE3 (720# TW), they should be good to replicate the great sway performance of the OE2 design. What do you think? GJ

Suggest jumping a wire from one of the other switche input terminal. The Beech Lane does not pull much power.

Yep me too! But with currently just one ice tray in the frig, and down the road with likely a Nova Kool with it's 20% smaller freezer (Thanks JD!), it looks like I will need to add one of these to my Ollie inventory this year! But wait a minute... that likely will cause me to add TY J's 300 Watt Bouge Cigs Fla Solar Panels on the roof next year! Thanks guys you just made my 2025 and 2026 Ollie Mod lists! GJ

Spot on. Your comment caused two of my few remaining brain cells to wake up. The twin 5" fans of the Beech Lane moves a lot of air. Hence why it is so much more effective than the 3" Titan's some of us once used. This air movement can act to assist in purging the cabinet of potential CO.

Ditto. If a 25 footer were to magically appear, I would try to be the first in line to admire it. But not likely to trade in my Ollie for one. I suspect that the majority of existing owners feel the same.

If keeping the OE2 footprint/size the same, I think that a taller refrigerator with more freezer space, and keeping a space for a Microwave/Convection/Air Fryer (pick one). To do so, the overhead cabinet would need to be reduced. Or maybe a 25' Ollie with a dry bath and bigger kitchen to get a full size frig. With a Heavy Duty Package that includes beefier jacks, 5200 axles, disk brakes and race style FOX cooled shocks. Ditch the Anderson and require a F-250/2500 TV. But then this ought to be a separate thread I suspect! GJ

No your good John. We all appreciate your posts and the quality of the mods you do. I do have to admit that some of us may be a bit anal sometimes in our responses though. Like mine maybe? I don't think of our Dometic 3-Way as a total POS. After all it is in it's 8th season and gets the job done. And as you mentioned the Beach Lane condenser fans do make it more effective in very high temperatures. I do think that its technology presents a few special hazards that we owners need to keep top of mind to ensure tragedy stays away. When I was planning ahead to the future and posted an updated DIY, it was just that... looking to the day when my Dometic dies. Hopefully I'll have a few more years before doing a John Davies on mine to get it out; and buying a new one. For both of us, hopefully by then the price will have come down like the Litho's have.

Roger Bill. Best I could find on line is this spring. Obviously not 1/2 X 10.

I WILL be doing your mod as part of the Hatch install for the Vanity. I plan my projects while in HI and pre buy the materials for summer execution. Checking ACE, there are several springs. Any chance you have the Ace Part number for the one you used? Many thanks for this great idea! GJ

thanks for the lead. I found it at: "Improved Toilet Rinsing" on Google Search. https://olivertraveltrailers.com › forums › topic › 10505... GJ

Our 2018 Dometic frig is a ditto to yours. We were having the same issues out west in the heat. I found that by parking the curb side to the north direction, and deploying the awning a few feet to also keep the sun off of it together helped. But the dual condenser fans in the top vent helped it a LOT. On the other hand, I'm in full agreement that John Davies had about these ammonia absorption. He was worried in his posts about the fire hazard. But to me the real hazard is the potential for it to let CO into our trailers. The refer cabinet was initially well sealed. But with each mile and years, we see that the foil tape seals are being degraded. Any crack in those seals could lead to a CO fatality. I earnestly suggest that all owners of the three way absorption refers ensure that their CO detector is fully serviceable. Also that even if it appears to be OK, that you replace it every fourth year. Not five or ten as some have suggested. If any full time Oliver owner of an older trailer is financially not able to do so, PM me and I'll send you a replacement for free. That's how serious I take the CO hazard in our older trailers. GJ

PS: Beautiful install Mossemi!

Respectfully disagree. Prior to my March 2023 installation DIY, I had done extensive research on this very topic. At that time, of all the alternatives to the Dometic OEM 3-Way, this Nova Kool had the largest freezer. In fact it is pretty close to the size of the Dometic's. How is this possible? The Nova Kool has much more compact cooling system and as such they have run their freezer space nearly to the back wall. So on the surface view, it LOOKS like you stated. In reality it is MUCH deeper. If I recall, the Nova Kool freezer size is: 6” H X 11” D X 10.25” Wide You can do the math to get to a more accurate percentage, but it does not appear to be 50%. GJ

There are detailed posts about this in the Houghton threads. Short version is: Reuse the wire from the Suburban Heater which is in the 14X14 roof cavity. It is a heavy wire. When you installed the Houghton you disconnected the light gauge wires from the Dometic T-stat. Hopefully you did not cut them out. Find these wires in the roof cavity. The light gauge "telephone" wires have four strands. Pair them up to create two pairs of wires from the four. Connect one pair to the Suburban Heater hot and the other to the negative. You now have continuity from the heater to the old Dometic T-stat location. Connect them to your new one. GJ

That is correct. Two mods made the Houghton a great unit. One to install a good quality ACR rated relay. The other to abandon the Houghton thermistor in place and plug in a longer cabled one; then run the sensor bulb to a protect location. The Relay Mod was not hard once one figures out all the wiring AND finds specific colored stranded copper wire to do so. The Thermistor Replacement mod was super easy and super hard. On the unit side, it is pull out the plug and plug in a new longer tailed one. The hard was figuring out how to run the cable to a protected location in a manner that it is not a visual impairment (I.E. UGLY.). If an owner desires documentation for these mods kindly PM me. Do you have more info on the mod for the Truma? Did they resolve the short cycling issue as well? One of these days the A/C MFG's will figure out that any premium unit must have the below attributes (In order of priority). Compressor shut down when reaching set temperature. Inverter Compressor like Danfos makes (Long life, extremely efficient, and super quiet. Also eliminates need for soft start because it already is!) Remote Thermistor/T-stat Internal Drain System Nationwide Service Agreements Reasonably price The first one that does will dominate the market! GJ

You may want to search the Air Stream site. Their owners were the first to discuss the Houghton unit (Set 2 Same Problem). This topic was addressed for these units on this thread plus several more:

$94 at Tweety's. A bit more expensive than free. Drats. Thanks for the heads up. At that cost it will be worth an inspection of the ball and it's shaft. If the shaft is good, Get the free cone for cost of shipping and install the ball 180 degrees from OEM and wear out the other side of the ball. Another reason to lube the ball... get longer life out of the new looking front side! Sorry CRM I could not help myself on that one! 🙂 GJ

OK found the On Ramp back to the topic of maintenance of the Andersons........ I'm going to replace my Anderson Cone and Ball Assembly at 60,000 Ollie miles. So I'm about two years away. I seem to recall that such parts from Anderson were being provided to OTT owners at no cost. Am I dreaming again? GJ

Loosing the chains will effectively make the hitch act incrementally more as a standard ball hitch with a bulldog coupler. Doing so will reduce the contact patch PSI loading. That reduces friction between the two components. Less friction less wear of the friction cone. Thereby extending the time between overhaul. However going to a 2 5/16 ball seems to have greatly reduced the wear issue of the ball when greased. Why? Less contact loading by having a larger contact for the same load (Chain Tension and Tongue Weight). Even though the ball does not rotate with the whale plate, the lube reduces the friction caused by the tongue weight and a bit more from the minor relative movements the ball has with the Bulldog. Adding grease to the ball is exactly what the vast majority of hitch MFG's suggest.... to reduce wear. For them it is pure friction reduction of the ball and hitch. For Anderson users it is primarily cone wear reduction and contact patch wear. Disclaimer: The above discussion is about OE2 sway. For the vast majority of owners of OTT's, sway is a non-issue. But circumstances such as improper trailer/TV loading, speed, and very unusual environmental conditions could make an adverse difference. OFF TOPIC: For newer owner who may not have seen it, here is OTT Jason's very informative video about connections of the Anderson/Bulldog system.

I'm not so sure about that. The whale plate and the ball shaft and ball are pinned. They turn as a unit. The friction takes place on the lower end of the ball shaft. Grease makes no difference. In the below video you can see how they are made. First, the ball does not spin. It rotates with the whale plate. The whale plate rotates with the chain attachment points. This is why the ball wear always looks like this video opening shot: If the ball was spinning, you would have wear all around the ball. It does not happen. Since the ball is not spinning, the wear we see is typical of "contact patch" friction induced wear. Wear does not occur unless there is contact between the two objects. By lubricating the contact patch you likely would not reduce the wear of the ball. But you would reduce the wear of the cone. Some have suggested getting a metallurgically harder ball. Bad idea. The ball is a softer material than the Bulldog for safety reasons. GJ

My Ollie, like all properly loaded Ollie's, does not sway. With over 40K on the Anderson, I am still running the same 2 5/16" ball with no significant wear. When I get to 100K, I'll likely get a new one just for grins. My greased ball still works for me! That said if you like yours dry, I guess that works for you. GJ

MaxBurner and I were looking for a way to gain some storage in our OE2’s. Both of us were not making effective use of the space at the front end of our wardrobe. We looked at Chiwald’s expansive closet shelving post, but needed to simplify and modify for our primary use of hanging cloths. So, the idea morphed to two shelves as pictured below. For scaling the two toilet paper rolls are “Max Size” rolls. The time-consuming part is making the two templates for the shelf shapes. The shapes of the shelf curves are not the same. After more than a few hours in the closet, we had the templates needed. We used synthetic wood 1” X 2” to support the shelves along the front surface. We chose this material as it easily can be bent and secured with a lot of short screws and MaxBond carpenters glue to the hull curve. It is also the right color (white). The shelves were cut from white laminated wall shelving from Home Depot. The front edge is 1/16” thick aluminum flat stock. For “G” loading purposes, we installed stiff legs on the left side as shown. All fasteners are Stainless Steel. When completed, the shelves are amazingly strong. In GJ’s “Ollie”, I mounted a 13’ telescoping ladder with an EPDM Rubber Tie Down Strap to secure the ladder top. To keep the ladder feet flush to the wall, I cut out a piece of lumber and attached it to the floor. The ladder leg sits into a hole in this “foot plate. The folded towel on top prevents noise and damage to the wardrobe wall. For Art’s “Casablanca” they have their “Pleasure Plank” (AKA Snuggle Shelf) mounted in a similar manner. GJ & MaxBurner

Frustrating for sure. Likely you have an air leak at the boondocking port. Most likely the hose gasket is bad there. GJ

Voltage is not ALWAYS a sure bet. When not under load, a wire may show full voltage, but not have the ability to pass the current to meet the need. My preference, which is a lot easire to check on drum brakes, is to check the amperage going to each drum. Having a clamp on amp meter is my first go to tool. Per dexter, the stock OEM drum magnets should show 3.2 to 4 amps each. GJ