Geronimo John

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

Do these hoses "shrink up" a bunch when not under pressure or just go flat? When storing do you need to twist them when coiling around your arm or placement into a bucket/box? Tried to find a video of them was was not successful. GJ

If it is still serviceable, I would put a new nut and rubber mount on it and roll on. Then replace it at my time of choosing. GJ

The Airstream skin used to be near bullet proof. Not so for some time now. I saw one a few years ago where 1/2" hail destroyed it. The owner said it was to be totaled. Only other option was to have it reskinned at $48K. That's when I chose to go with Olliver. MaxBurner saw six ollies take 1.5" hail at the mother ship with zero damage. As far as I am concerned, push outs are a maintenance nightmare! GJ

What springs are they using on the axle upgrades? I hope it is not the Dexter 1750 rated ones. GJ PS: Had a great time at the Rally! Good to meet many of our forum users and a few new owners.

I believe one would also need to remove the jack foot plate from the unit to pull it out. Easy to remove the plate bolt from below the foot plate. True. OTT provides the bracket to Barker who welds it on to their standared jack. Point is that it may be a OOPS by either OTT or Barker. Or maybe both??? GJ GJ

That is strange. Time to submit a ticket on this one. GJ

See you at the Ralley!

Roger. Thanks.

JD: SOME mfg, like Battle Born, specifically warn not to keep their batteries on charger at 100% for long durations. You may want to verify what your MFG says. GJ