Geronimo John

Ditto. Up. That's how it was when I picked up our OE2. It took me a month to figure out how to lower it. (Doing so was low on my learning curve. 🙂

Ditto with calling the LE a lightweight. It is a lot of great things, but light IMHO it is not.

I appreciate all the marketing info you have been generating recently. 95% of it most owners would agree with. However, saying the the OE2 is the best FAMILY trailer I suspect would be considered n the other 5% group.

deleted as posted to wrong thread.

OLIVER OWNERS: If you own any vehicle recovery gear, or could find yourself stuck, PLEASE take a moment and read this post. Thank you, GJ In pursuit of mountain top hang glider and paragliding launches, I have spent much of my adult life enjoying fire and remote unpaved adventures. I pride myself in trying to be a helpful Good Samaritan. More than a few times I have stopped and helped a fellow off-roader who had become stuck. I carry a 15,000 # rated tow strap that I have attached to my trailer ball on many occasions. After watching the below referenced video, it is apparent that my confidence in my recovery gear exceeds by a wide margin the actual safety ratings of my gear. The below info came from a recently posted by Colorado 4X4 Rescue and Recovery, Inc. that Good Samaritans should review. It involves an incident not all that different from what many of us have done many times. Sadly for Mr. Ryan Woods, a 43 year old Arizona off-roader, was killed by a Good Sam’s confidence in his recovery gear and/or lack of understanding of its limitations and/or how to properly use it. I commend Ryan’s wife for allowing Colorado Rescue and Recovery to produce the video analysis of the incident that resulted in the death of her young husband. (Pictures from video) The Good Samaritan apparently had looped their tow strap over their truck’s trailer ball and ran the tow strap to the tow hooks (Apparently below the cow catcher in the mud) of this Super Duty Ford. According to the video, the Good Samaritan’s truck was using an “Anderson Style” drop hitch and 2” receiver such as this one. In this case, the hitch failed at the truck receiver. But, as the video advises, there are several other potential failure points that could have resulted in the fatality. In this incident, It appears that the entire hitch assembly aft of the truck became a missile that killed Mr. Woods. It could have been the ball itself, or the shank pin, or the tow strap, or the tow hook(s) on the stuck vehicle. I think that the central point of the video is that all elements of a vehicle recovery system need to have the necessary ratings for the task involved. One of the video reviewers (Mr. Jeffrey Coomb) stated: “I'm guilty of using my tow hitch to recover trucks and trailers. I think for me it's a case of you don't know what you don't know, and when you find out, it's too late. I'm glad I found this video and really appreciate Ryan's wife for allowing you to use their story to educate others on the dangers. I am very sorry for her loss, but incredible that she see's the possibility to help others despite her grief. Quite a woman! I'm ordering the right tools ASAP. Please be aware that your trailer hitch ball and receiver may be significant failure point. Personally, I will also be taking a re-look at my recovery gear and for certain stop using my hitch as the pull point when using it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb3BkeeXlIo

I agree with your thoughts. I like the fact that our OE2 is narrow enough to ride nicely in the slip stream of our F-150.

$1K... Ouch. Sorry for your pain. My first though are: A. If the motor has tested as failed, can you pull it and have it rebuilt. B. Many of us have manual awnings. Another option may be to convert it to manual. Surely someone has spare parts for your model. Ours is a CareFree awning, and it is for sure not care free...... GJ

Bryan: I can't speak to the electrical issues, but tracking of the awning is adjustable... but only to a point. In my case, it was caused by the owner asymmetrically deploying the awning. Mine was 3" out of square as a result of my lowering one side to keep the rain runoff away from the entry. tilt..... Also see my caution about those arms having a mind of their own and a propensity for suicide. Post link below. GJ

My go to gear: Microfiber towels, two buckets, Meguires 54 Gel Wash and an adjustable flow-thru brush. Presoak while washing a side, return, wash side, return, wash back, return to the front and the bugs pretty much hose off. Not a lot of elbow grease needed, except on me the next day as a liniment.

My wife and I fly paragliders and I too use the Garmin Mini 2. For the past several years have served as the Applegate Open National Championship meet in Oregon. As the event Safety and Rescue Director, we require all pilots to have a Garmin or Spot Satellite Communicator/Locator to participate in the comp. When we have pilots hanging in 200 foot tall pines or injured on top of a remote mountain, these devices make the difference in a bad day or a really bad day. But beyond these outliers (Bad pun)... they also serve in other less urgent ways. For example, as part of our requirements, all pilots program into their devices my cell phone number and a number of pre-typed and saved messages. A few samples: LOK = Landed OK, PUP = Picked up Pilot, AID = Need Help. For most cases we use the text messages and their GPS location that comes to me with their GPS location. We then vector mountain rescue runners, and when possible RAZR's as first responders. Behind them rescue teams with more gear are sent if needed. The locators along with GAIA Trail Maps, Google Maps with high power radios and cell phones are the tools we use. Our teams are effective enough that in the past four years or so we have not actually needed the SOS capability despite competing several responses/rescues a day for the competitions. I for sure had ours with us during our Alaska/Canada voyage this past summer. BTW, they were on sale at COSTCO recently!

Wonder if they have a "Bug Light" replacement version?

On our 2018 OE2, I run 50 PSI on highway and 30 PSI on unpaved roads. It would be useful to know if others are doing something simular. BTW, having a Dewalt 20V air compressor on board makes my life SOOOOO easy now. GJ

I agree with Hokieman and Battleborns video. Without solar on our OE2, and covering 400 to 600 miles a day, boondocking along the way, we wanted to arrive nightly with our three 100 aH Battleborns charged and not having to run a generator. Modern vehicles have an updated alternator technology that can be damaged unless you follow the advice in the video. We chose their most recommended unit, the Victron Orion 12-12/30. It is a 30 amp capacity smart charging system. There are other options as recommended by several members. Recommend you take a look at John Davies posting for additional details. See his HOW TO threads at: https://olivertraveltrailers.com/topic/john-e-davies-how-to-threads-and-tech-articles-links/ Also search the Orion 12-12/30 topic and there are several links to great info. Should you like a list of materials that I used on my 2019 F-150 SuperCrew and OE2 just PM me. GJ

I know Dometic has a long history of supporting our OTT Team and Owners. I suspect that they are aware of this issue and my positive side hopes that down the road they can work up a solution for the 310's. Likely though a smart printer team will just start making a proper rebuild kit as other Dometic toilets now offer. Either way, There is so much "head room" between the cost to produce such a kit and th cost of a new toilet. As such, it is likely one of the two good solutions will happen. My hopes anyway,.

My experience was that Dometic does not sell the part that broke on Chuck's and our toilet. (Chuck's picture below) For this 50 cent (to make) part not being available, one has to purchase a whole toilet. This was verified by both Dometic and E-trailer. If anyone has info contrary to this please share it with the team. Thanks, GJ

Thanks JD. Early this summer as part of our LiFePo4 upgrade, I replaced our OEM 2K inverter with a 3K Renogy. As you know it is a LOT larger and heavier than the OEM 2K unit. I drilled out the four mounting holes, and added supplemental wood supports to accommodate the longer Inverter and to bring the four 3K mount holes in line. I too was concerned about the weight and poor support. Some JB weld and through the bunk vertical wall went four SS bolts, SS Fender Washers and 1/4 X 20 bolts with nylock nuts. Yep I trust JB Weld, but I trust it more with thru-bolting with SS bolts and fasteners. So yes, if anybody wants to look, you can see under the street side bunk rail two of the four attachments. PS: Used he same approach on the mounting of the Victron 12/12-30 charger under the street side front dinette seat facing aft. GJ

The exact failure occurred to us in Idaho this summer. It is insane that we have to replace a whole toilet for a 50 cent part failure. I would rather replace the whole unit and never buy another Dometic unit again even if it costs me double! Where is the corporate integrity at Domenica? GJ

Personally, I prefer a valve I can close off vs. one or two check valves that can fail when they want to so as to cause the most adverse consequences. But then I NEVER leave a pressure hose hooked up to our OE2 more than temporarily filling the fresh water tank, or flushing the black tank. My rationale is that I have zero confidence that the pressure water system pressure for all the systems I load water from are at a level that will not damage my trailer. With or without a pressure regulator. Yes, that makes me run my fresh water pump a lot. But when it fails, I for sure know where to look. Just my two cents. GJ

Just wondering: For those of us that have a isolation valve, why do we need a check valve?

Lisa: Great to hear your thoughts of a super fun initial run with your Oliver! It would be helpful if you would add your signature line showing the typical info about your TV and Ollie. See Top Gun's above for a good example. Below are a few thoughts that have helped me become a bit "Awning Wiser". Our Ollie came with the manual awning. As with Topgun2, we love sitting outside under it in "reasonable" rain storms. For those owners with the older style manual awnings I garnered some great lessons learned (The hard way) during our TX to Alaska trip this summer: A. Even when expecting a "Reasonable" rain event, we would extend the awning about 1/2 to 2/3 out and cock the awning so that one side is higher than the other. We have done this many times so that the runoff would dump aft vs. near the entry. Works great.... BUT: water weight on the lower side streached our awning to the point where it could not close for travel. (For the Pros: Yes I did all the adjustments to compensate, but they were not enough.) Hence I gained an opportunity to convert my perfectly beautiful awning into a ground cover. Most expensive ground cover we have ever acquired. 😞 B. When replacing your awning, be VERY aware that securely tying off the awning arms at all three arms is IMPERATIVE. My aft paracord line knot failed due to poor rope-man-ship by the owner. At just the wrong moment, it self deployed. Very quickly much to my surprise, it went from 20" to full open far faster than I could react. Damage was total to the aft awning arm center "Elbow" joint. Please take extra time to carefully tie the arms off at the replacement open distance suggested in the installation instructions. My one knot failure caused my worst DUHHHHHH moment in a long time. (PS: A candid comment by the Carefree Tech was: "Sorry about your loss, sadly I see it all the time." 😞 C. Some professional awning experts advertise in the video's that they can replace their awning by themselves. I stupidly believed them. But from my one time experience, it was not true for this owner, and likely would be so for about 95% of us. Awning replacement needed to be for me a full time two-person effort. Also, it is a three person effort for at least one moment. (See Item B above) Despite the above learning opportunities, we continue to enjoy our awning even in rain storms. As stated above, we caution to not have it full out if we anticipate any adverse weather. I also fill my milk crate (Front basket container for jack blocking) and my large Fortiflex feed buckets (basement storage) with local rocks. They are then tied to each of the three awning legs to help keep them were we placed them. Finally as suggested, we don't leave it more than a foot out when not present. I hope that at lease one owner does not make the same dumb mistakes I learned this past summer. GJ

Top Gun: I like your idea. We tend wear ankle supporting (Paraglider Pilots) boots and removal for in and outs is time consuming. That brings in some extra dirt. Without "hallway" runners, the seamless flooring makes my morning housekeeping a quick sweep out the entry. For us, I would want to mount the extinguisher as you have, but a bit higher to facilitate sweeping. It appears that you used Velcro to mount the extinguisher. Did you modify the round extinguisher side, or is just a small strip of contact sufficient to KEEP the extinguisher in place when off paved roads? Mahalo, GJ

One feature that would be nice is to separate the flush valves from the Basement hatch. When on the road and boondocking, we like to do laundry at an RV Park and enjoy their showers and full hook up for charging the LiFePO4's. I like to hook up the sewer hose and let the black tank run while at the bath house. Current combined Basement/Dump valves hatch leaves our basement exposed to rain and theft. Maybe someday Oliver will come up with a OEM retro kit for us. 🙂

The Dometic S7 Flush Series is impressive: Acrylic Frame, Awning Feature, Privacy/Screen, and the super bonus: No Condensation! These windows would be nice over the twin beds. elsewhere less so (IMHO) as there are no sheets and bedding so placement of towels under the dining area is possible and in the bathroom not necessary to do so.

Amen. Last week I again made these very points with Jason in my Service Ticket on OEII Lug torque values and sent him several manufacturers torque specifications for aluminum wheels. After consideration, he replied that my Service Ticket has been sent to upper management. One thing we should be aware of is that some aluminum rims have steel inserts in the lug holes. They can have a different torque specification. Personally I do not like them due to the inevitable galvanic corrosion between the AL and Steel.

John: My concern is that every Ollie off the line gets "show room prepped" and they are beautiful. As Rejex requires removal of all wax, the question is what does Olive use to create that beautiful shine? If it is wax.... TILT.