Geronimo John

$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

And I "ASSUME" that you have run a #4 AWG all copper cable from the frame to the B- terminal as well. I have to adopt a different set of charging parameters, and once done will check performance. If it does not improve, then I will likely try adding such cables to the anderson connection at the TV rear bumper and battery. Would certainly prove your hypothsis. BTW: Assume is often spelled Ass of You and ME. LOL

Crazy Horse said use gasoline. But I think rocket fuel would be more effective. GJ

Ty J: Is this a drain tube? If so it would be simple to penetrate the hull on both sides and pipe them down via the existing Dometic drain tube. GJ

Art is bringing my hydraulic crimper too the Rally. If you have the measurements (with a bit of slack of course), the right cables and lugs to fit THAT cable, I would be glad to mechanically crimp them for you. This cable size and lug ID issue has stumped some of the best of us, so I highly recommend buying them from the same vendor. GJ

Wow you are of of the VERY few that are actually seeing 30 amps from the 30 amp model. I hope you will be at the rally so I can your setup. Good job. GJ

You are correct in that OTT video says two gallons as well. I use 2.5+ gallons. Just a matter of how long your stroke is! 🙂 GJ

Flooded Lead Acid (FLA) starter batteries usually employ maintenance-free designs. But FLA deep cycle batteries require regular maintenance to each of their cells. The plug you are showing typically serves as a vent path. They are not intended for service, but on many battery's they can be removed for adding DI as you suggested. The question is does this vent provide a pathway that DI will flow equally to all the individual cells? Regardless, doing so can be very dangerous. A small droplet of sulfuric acid splashed out of the battery can easily blind and/or disfigure. Personally IF it were mine, I would not even consider trying to refill these batteries. Just not worth the risk. Especially since they are 5 years old. Bad news you need new batteries. Good news is you need new batteries, and it is a perfect time to upgrade to Lithium. See JD's and several other posts on DIY battery upgrades. Good luck, GJ

Scott Oliver's design is amazingly effective in giving us a very safe towing trailer. Heavy, compact, non-swaying, a shape that reduces side loading of gusts, tandem axle, four shocks, EZ flex, the strongest frame of any trailer in this weight class, E-rated tires, and the Anderson Hitch transferring weight forward for those that need it and an extra long tongue. The amazing part is the design. Even more amazing is that it is Stock on all our trailers. GJ