Geronimo John

What do the clips that hold our window blinds look like? GJ

It does reduce payload, but it's really nice to be able to look ahead for cheaper gas. And, stay on the road longer between gas stops. Amen! Gas Buddy is a wonderful app for long range fuel saving hunts. GJ

Below are spec's for your truck. If you are going local and don't have any off road or mountain trips in the future it may be OK. But if you are going into mountains, the Yukon IMHO is not what I would want to be driving with an OE2. I believe it would be dangerous to do so. My personal rule of thumb is that I want a truck that has 40 to 45% spare capacity due to interstate travels, mountains and out back adventures. GJ Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. 6300 lbs Maximum Trailering Capacity N/A lbs Fifth Wheel Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. N/A lbs Fifth Wheel Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. N/A lbs Dead Weight Hitch - Max Trailer Wt. 5000 lbs Wt Distributing Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. 630 lbs Dead Weight Hitch - Max Tongue Wt. 500 lbs

Point well made. Just think with the phase out of gas, the availability of replacement TV will become problematic. Another concern is that if you want to do 500 miles a day, you will need a LOT more travel time due to a needing 5 recharges.

For sure. We had a lot of rain and the low spots were somewhat visible as "puddles". Avoid the puddles in YT for sure. I caught up to another RV'er who had hit one that was flooded. Must have been a foot deep. He had passed me doing double my speed. He bent his two left trailer rims, and ate both tires. All with no suitable jack to make the repairs. We got his spare installed and I suggested that he dump his gray and fresh water tanks. He did and limped slowly to a tire shop. Between the deep pot holes, frost heaves, and corduroy road bases failing .... Yukon Territories can only be care free traveled at well below the posted speed limits. GJ

It was nice to run across you, and then again in Alaska. I very much appreciated the tour of your rig, and especially seeing in action your Houghton. I'll not forget the comment I made just as I entered asking if you could turn on the unit and the huge smile you had saying "It's on high!". To all the Oliver Owners... this unit is extremely quiet even on high. This year was a long summer for sure. Total time in our Ollie was over four months. As much fun as it was, we ar glad to be home now. Starting to plan for next year's voyage! GJ

ScubaRx is spot on. For newer owners here is a summary of how to verify that the brake magnets are getting the POWER they need. Simply measure the amps going to and coming back from them. Testing Trailer Brake Magnets.docx

I upgraded to the 2 5/16" Anderson/Bulldog when I purchased my OEII. The next year I upgraded to the newer design. I now have 19,000 miles on my 2 5/16" Anderson ball. I use a spray can of Lubriplate spray white lithium grease on the ball for each hitch up. For me, it is best to wipe off the grease from the ball at each un-hitch to prevent my accidently getting jeans/leg greasy.. We just finished up our 2022 Summer/Fall TX to Alaska voyage (12,709 miles) and found nothing of concern with the ball or hitch. With my 2019 F-150 EB Lariat FX4 we have zero sway worries. That said, I am considering a set of air bags for next year. GJ

CSE Congrats on the new knowlledge you have gained. Some RoF (Retired Ole Fart) tips: Do any under trailer work or axle work only with your Ollie attached to your TV. Just make sure no body drives off with you under it. Some of us raise our OEII's high and then jack stand/crib them. Doing so allow you more space under. However, when you have your OEII so elevated and attached, grease the zerks when the tires are off and you are doing the wheel bearings. No need for creepers and creeking joints from under trailer efforts. I also use a bucket to sit on and that saves even more soreness. GJ

For the Newer Owners: Absolutes always bite me in the wrong place every time.... Another "time" is when your LiFePO4's could be subjected extreme cold and could themselves freeze. Frozen Litho's for sure do not like to be at full charge, and "absolutely" should not be charged by any system in that state. GJ

I have three 100 aH Battleborns in our Ollie. It is stored covered in OK on top of a mountain in a dark barn for about 8 months or so a year. Per Dragon Fly, in my situtation I was told to fully charge and balance the batteries, then discharge them to 60% SOC. Their recommendation was as a result of hard freeze and long duration conditions. Point is if you have Lithium's, recommend you call your MFG and get the procedure for your storage situtation. GJ

Steve: I posted last year another surce of what you documented. Mine only required a minor adjustment to the window track water mlanagement strips. Between your and my posts I think we have complelmentary things to look at when suspecting a leaking window area. GJ

Is there any chance that the existing Dometic drain system could be used or modified to work with the Houghton's? That would be really grand! GJ

I also like the front a bit higher. In addition to water drainage in shower, I sleep head forward and like it to be higher than my feet. It also helps me keep the refrigerator door from getting away from me and swinging back to the entrance area. That can break the door hinges if it lock out too many times. Thanks for the tip. GJ

The answer appears to be: To give us something to ponder. 🙂

It is nice that we now have three options. Dometic, Truma and the Houghton. From experience I know that each owner has his/her unique perspectives. Some of them maybe: Group One: Hard of hearing and would perfer the Dometic with it's 80 DB rating on high and 75 DB on low fan setting. Group Two: Those who don't like talking to their significant other, or who wear head phones may prefer the Truma with it's 77 DB rating on high annd 60 DB rating on night setting. Group Three: Those of us who like to converse and sleep in a quiet environment the new Houghton AC is available with its 56 DB rating on high and 47 DB on low ratings. This summer we ended up chasing Katanga PIlot and his lovely bride across much of Alaska. I recalled his great posts about upgrading his Ollie (Hull 628) and asked if I could see their trailer. When I steped up into their OE2, I assumed that the AC was not running as it was to my ears totally silent. He smiled and said it was running at the High Setting. For the first time I realized that I could be a Group Three member. OTT may want to consider updating their video and A/C Options so the Group 3 folks can also be happier. 🙂 GJ PS: Here is a video that shows how they achieve their class leading DB numbers as well as their Owner's Manual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zQkBDPOLW4 2010454645_HOUGHTONRP-AC3400LowProfileAirConditioner.pdf

2019 F-150 3.5 EB, 10 Speed, FX4 Lariat: Houston to OR to AK and back over four months, 15,500 miles, 61 fuel stops (Love the 36 gallon tank!), 1,149 gallons of fuel (87 octane 10% ethanol) costing $6,097 USD, and ran speed limits minimum and almost always higher. Got 13.5 overall MPG. 90% of the miles were towing Ollie OEII. GJ

My 2005 Toyota Sequuoia 4.7 did not have the power to tow my OEII out west. But flatlands it was fine. GJ

Please keep us posted down the road when you go the BPC's. I would like to do so as well on my 2019 F-150 EcoBoost. GJ

Pardon the sort of off topic nature of this post, but the above was such a great segway that I could not resist. Here are three easy suggestions to make stealing our trailer a PITA: I use a high security lock on a bulldog coupler lock as others have suggested. This forces them to use our cables/chains as a connection method. I use a second lock to lock the cable hooks to the storage box. This makes them shorter and more difficult to use to attach Ollie to their tow vehicle. I pull the 30 amp fuse at the jack to again cause them to strain their back by having to lift our 600 + tongue weight. Combined so far they have not bothered with my trailer. 🙂 GJ

Certainly. At the below web site just scroll down to the 9/16" Hex Bolt for the size. They fit perfectly. Concerning the HDG: It has to be removed in the area of the Capture Washer only and about an inch further around the hex head capture washer. This extra space is to eliminate any HDG migration to the weld area. Be sure to clean and re coat the weld as indicated above. This will likely need to be re coated every 2 or 3 years as the zink in the Cold Galvanize Spray Paint is sacrificial. Concerning the worry about the tang rusting enough to fail: I accept that risk as very minor compared to the damage that would be caused by having this critical bolt walking out as has happened at least four times that I was made aware of on our forum. GJ

Yes sort of, but from a different angle than you may be thinking. To instruement Ollie for such a test would be a challenge. A far simpler "seat of the pants" approach to compare Ollie to Brand X would be to monitor the A/C or heat power consumption over time at a set temperture. To normalize the result between trailers would be to divide the power consumed/cubic feet of interior. This would not meet any "Scientific" standard, but sure would be helpful.... especially if the tests were done in a full sun/shade and side by side with other trailers. GJ

Over the past 3+ years I have been researching solutions to the "walk out" of the Ez-Flex Center Bolt due to failure of the "fixing" splines on the bolthead site. This issue has occurred to at least three owners that I am aware of. But first before spilling the beans on what I believe to be a permanent fix, have two administrative tasks: First, I want to thank James Ussery and Mike who have been my sounding board for at least half a dozen half baked solution possibilities. Each of those solutions were either not robust enough or would greatly impact "side of the road" repairs. Secondly, for legal reasons, the below solution is not currently endorsed by OTT or Dexter. Ultimately I stumbled on to a product called a "Hex Head Capture Washer". They are used by off road suspension modification shops to keep bolts from turning. The cost of the washers was $1.31. I have installed two of them (one on each Center Bolt) and am totally confortable with this solution. Geronimo John

I keep my Ollie in a dark barn. She gets used three or four months a year tops. When stored, about 50% of the weight is on the jacks. When my 5 year "Expiration Date" comes to pass, I will do a careful inspection of all five tires. If they have cracking or any signs of anormal wear, I'll get new tires. If not, I'll run them for another year. That said, if the tread wear gets to 2/3 used, they are replaced regardless of my inspections efforts. But then I will eat a can of beans that has an expired Best if Used date too. Our Michelin Tires are exceptionally long life tires. Way beyond 5 years if properly maintained. Just my two cents. GJ

A good option for sure! Do consider that most generators do lose capacity due to the energy content decrease between gas and propane. Something to run to ground so that you "know before you go" that path.