Geronimo John

@Scuba RX: Roger on the over the cliff or Interstate tumbling show. I towed Ollie 10,000 miles and across several of the plains States was running the posted 80 MPH speed limit or maybe a tad more. I can't imagine what would happen IF I had ran over a tire with the bolt hanging on by a thread. Both Oliver and Dexter Engineering indicated that my experience was unique. Now that both ScubaRX and I have experienced the same sick feeling I suspect there may have been more. This raises my level of concern. So, please all Ollie Owners: If this has also happened to you, please please respond back to this post. Thank you

@ Overland: No, they are just long enough for the job with almost nothing extra. @ John D: Roger on the center punch expansion trick. This would be a good temporary approach. I would MUCH prefer castellated nuts and cotter pins. The Center Pivot Bolts were identified by a trailer supply house as standard "Shackle Bolts". I wonder if a grade 9 bolt that was about 3/4" longer manufactured for a cotter pin and a castellated nut is available?

EZ Flex Service Check: This past summer, I had Ollie going up a very steep four mile section of mountain road to a boondocking site. My tug was in first gear, 4-Low, rear axle locked, center diff locked. That section of road takes me an hour to transverse. Any suspension failures on this road would be a serious problem. Upon arrival, I was setting wheel chocks and noticed that the EZ flex heart bolt locking nut was gone, and the bolt itself was 85% out of the fixture. The only thing holding the EZ Flex in place was the weight of the trailer and a couple of threads. See the pictures below. Now as part of my lube process for the EZ Flex, I recommend you look carefully at the nut to ensure that it is in place, and that you have threads extending past the top of the nut. This could have been a nasty failure. These are "shackle bolts", and I have yet to find longer ones that I could double nut for safety and peace of mind. If you know of a supplier that has some, please let me know. Thanks

@ Bill: Umbrella coverage riders are common and relatively inexpensive. I carry one due to living on a mountain side and also participating in extreme sports. I suspect that OTT owners tend to be a bit better off financially than most, and as such a would have resources that ought to be protected from such legal entanglements. Hence dropping a dime to ask their insurance carrier about an umbrella and its cost is worth more than a quarter. @ John D: Liability waivers are effective in the majority of states. We use them at 99.9% of our hang gliding and paragliding sites as a result. So far they have been effective in court scores of times. In my case, a pilot while on tow made critical errors and crashed. My Texas waiver was reviewed by USAA and they stood behind me as a result. The law suite was filed not by the pilot that crashed, but by his medical insurance provider OVER his objections. Same likely will happen to the OTT owner with the face plant incident. The lady likely will admit she was not rendering due care and fell. But her insurance company will go after the trailer owner and OTT as well. A liability waiver would at least even the playing field.

Does OTT have a list of shops that care as much as they do? If not, having OTT owners submit names of ones they used that do would be a great start to making such a list. The list could be such that the Name and Hull number are listed with the shop info. That way we have some pride of nomination, as well as careful filtering of nominees. How about it OTT?

Hull 342 is parked in a dark shed on gravel. I place jack pads under the jacks and unload the tires (by my best guess) by 50%. In nine months when see her again I hope that she has hatched a new set of baby tires. :-)

Interesting posts. All above are working to narrow down possible causes. Looking at all you have done, I can envisionate a possible cause not documented. Yes you have propane pressure. This is one necessary quality... pressure. But of what? Hopefully 100% of the proper mixture of hydrocarbons we call propane. It may be good enough to sustain fire for your high volume heater and water heater. But the refrigerator is much more picky on what it consumes. Said another way, you may have bad gas. Either in quality or air/nitrogen mixed in it. Recommend you borrow a tank from another trailer/friend and see what if it will run on theirs. That would effectively take gas quality out of the question.

If you have any noticeable vibration, it would be wise to balance your trailer tires.

@ Darryl Very excellent. Was this the first use of of your PRV, or had it been in use at other sites before this site? Just wondering Thanks

Defective batch of fittings... maybe. But I think there most likely is an entirely different cause. As a reasonably adapt Mechanical Engineer, I can think of at least one other cause for several trailers to have the same problem. And, I can also think of a reason that others with the same batch of parts would not. I have hull 342. When I picked up my Ollie II, OTT provided a small brass "Flow Restriction Device" (FRD). I would wager that #381 and #390, and #412 as well as a whole bunch of other hull numbers have the same device. I suspect that some of those that have had this problem were using the OTT FRD at a trailer park with very high city water pressure when the problem occurred. If you look at the OTT provided FRD, it simply is a small orifice between a male and female hose bib fittings. This is NOT a pressure regulating valve (PRV). WHY? Because such a device under no flow conditions will sill allow line pressure at the faucet to be seen inside the trailer. Granted as you open a faucet in the trailer, the device will restrict flow and as such the pressure inside the trailer will also be reduced due to having an open valve. But if you have 125 PSI at the camp ground water source, and are not using any water in the trailer, the pressure inside the trailer will likewise be 125 PSI. IMHO, the OTT provided FRD is a piece of junk. Using it is tantamount to playing Russian Roulette with your plumbing system. The only use I can think of for this device is to use it as a trout line weight. If you have one of the OTT provided FRD's, I STRONGLY recommend you do one of two things. 1. Buy a real Pressure Regulating Valve (PRV) such as the one like John D. suggested. (See picture below that he posted). 2. Don't use the city water connection. Many OTT owners use the fresh water fill port to fill our fresh water tank and we use our pump to supply our needs. Since we don't use the city water port, we have not blown out our plumbing. I recommend that OTT put out a TSB to have all OTT owners trash their FRD's and to purchase a PRV OR, not to use the city water connection. I also recommend that OTT not provide new owners with FRD and give them real PRV's.

With it getting dark, you may want to go back to the valve mode you were in for the past ten days, and disconnect from city water. You'll sleep much better I suspect. I have to agree with both KountryKamper and Overland that you have a pipe or fitting leak and the water you are seeing leaking out of the bottom of the trailer weep holes is the low point and result. Good thing you were only at 20 PSI else wise things would have developed MUCH quicker. :-)

Thanks Overland. I was confused by his use of "Over Flow Ports". I think he is referring to the basement weeps. I agree with you and KountryKamper. Sounds like a pipe came loose. Probably was a good thing that he was only set to 20 PSI! "Check the connection under the basement mat". I assume the basement is the rear lower storage compartment accessible from the back street side. I was not aware there was a hatch under the mat back there. Thanks

"Outside shower just trickles with water when hooked to city water." This likely simply that you have set the pressure to only 20 PSI and the water is leaking out of the overflow as fast as it is coming in, hence there is no pressure to push the water up and out of the outside shower. Normally OTT owners set their city water to 40 to 55 PSI. 20 is very low.

I had been into the valve area a dozen times last summer and never saw the valve configuration sign. Sure made a difference when I dropped the cover on my foot and saw the back side for the first time. However, until I saw your post, I had not ever thought as to what the term "Normal" really means. I totally understand what the configurations for "Boondocking" and "Winterization" mode means. They are very descriptive. But the word "Normal" does not describe to me what the condition really is. Does it mean: "When hooked up to City Water"? If so, maybe OTT would consider a simple word change. Does it mean something else? Does it mean City Water Mode and Something Else that is "Normal"? I'll leave this to our more experienced owners to comment on.

Darryl and Kim: I suggest you turn off the water and then relocate the mattress and take a look in the under-bed mechanical areas on both sides of the trailer. If nothing obvious then verify your valve configurations. Look on the curb side hatch cover that you removed. There is an 8 X 10 sign showing the three valve configurations. Odds are you were in boondocking valve configuration and using the system to suck water from the right rear water port to fill your tank. If you switch over to city water, then Normal Valve configuration would likely be the settings you would want to try. This is my best guess as a pretty new owner myself. If none of the above, then were you in very cold conditions? Good luck. Geronimo S

@ John D: My Ollie has three hot water valves.... counting the outside shower. :-)

Steve and Steph: Welcome to the Oliver Family! I travel the northern path to get to Ruch, OR for the "Rat Race/Applegate Open" +/- Early/Mid June. I have done both routes and find that the "Southern Route" is pretty. Also slow in California, but really pretty up in the NE corner. The "Northern Route" has less drama and can be a a lot faster if you want to reduce stress and travel time. I would recommend going the Norther route via SLC to get TO OTT, then doing the Southern Route when going back to Oregon. Be sure to plan on a couple of days in the area of the factory so that you can take advantage of the great talents and info. Please tell Phil howdy from Geronimo!

@Overland: I do have several of those "Vice Grip "C" Clamps". They are useful for welding. But not needed for my Ollie Tool Box.

@ Overland: The curved jaw Vice Grip is the one on top. I find it to be more useful than the straight ones. They will hold on to just about anything while you do something else with it. I carry the 7" and a small one (Not shown). https://www.amazon.com/Tools-VISE-GRIP-Locking-Original-323S/dp/B001MXTDNE/ref=sr_1_4?hvadid=153726716150&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9032812&hvnetw=g&hvpos=1t1&hvqmt=e&hvrand=16997263322622990710&hvtargid=kwd-798898734&ie=UTF8&keywords=vice-grips&qid=1549595268&sr=8-4&tag=googhydr-20

John D: According to Dell, the MTBF of servers in commercial applications varies widely based upon the ambient conditions, load andn setup. That said, for five of their best ones it is about 250,000 hours. A fun read about this topic can be found at: http://www.dell.com/content/topics/global.aspx/power/en/ps3q02_shetty?c=us Enjoy! Geronimo John

Wow, what a gold mine of good info and tools. Two tools that I use a lot are a small and larger curved jaw Vice Grips. Thank you for documenting your great tool selection and providing the rationale behind your choices.

MODERATOR: Please feel free to move this side topic to another area of the forum if appropriate. The topic of Ollie's jacks or "On-Board Leveling Devices" (OBLD's) that are used to level our Ollie's" is discussed elsewhere on our forum. For legal reasons they are no longer referred to as "jacks" so as not to be confused with real jacks as suggested above by Permit Bob. Personally, I call a John a John and a Jack a Jack. Ollie's "Jacks" (OMG, did I use that word?) err..... "On Board Leveling Devices" (OBLD's) are the same ones that OTT Owners have used for years to level Ollie, fix flats and rotate tires. Nowhere on our Forum, or for that matter anywhere else have I seen or heard of any information about Ollie's OBLD's failing when properly used. Nor have I any indication that the Ollie's OBLD's capacity have had their design compromised over the years. It does appear that due to Supplier liability concerns, their documentation was changed to discourage such uses, and as a result, OTT documentation had to be changed as well. I can understand the legalities. That said, our Oliver OBLD's appear to have far more capacity than that needed to raise up a side of our trailers when properly used. I suspect that many Olive owners continue to use their OBLD's as Jacks. I would wager that this renegade group of Owners also tears off their mattress tags even though the lawyers tell us not to do so! I would submit that the majority of this group does not carry an extra jack for this purpose. I suspect that if forced to, as a last resort, we would get creative with the one in our TV. Should you chose to use your Oliver OBLD, there are some safety thoughts that I believe prudent when changing tires. Some are: Pick an area that is "Side to Side" as level as possible with firm ground/pavement to change your tires. Doing so helps prevent "Side Loads" on the Oliver Jacks. Side loads can compromise most jacks including Ollie's! Keep Ollie fully hitched to your TV when changing tires. Put the transmission in park and FIRMLY set the parking brake of the TV. Chock the opposite trailer tires. Lock the trailer entry and instruct travel partners to not enter the trailer or come near the tire change process. I do NOT recommend deploying the front jack when changing Ollie or TV tires while connected to the tow vehicle. Deploying the front Oliver jack would likely apply additional stress to the trailer frame, and add little additional safety to the process. Break and final re-torque lug nuts (A Two Step Process) with tires are on the ground and at least partially loaded. Use dunage under the jack, especially in softer ground surfaces. Finally, keep all parts of your body out of harms way at all times. Whether you use your OBLD, or a bottle jack to change a tire is a decision every owner needs to think about. From a risk management perspective, I put more faith in the OTT OBLD's than I do a bottle jack under a frame or axle. Regardless of which "Jack" you chose to use, the process has hazards that must be managed. Think it through and work smart. Most importantly, if the situation is beyond your experience, play it smart and get help. Geronimo JOHN, not to be confused with an outhouse.

To be precise, all the equipment made by OTT is SAE. They have zero metric. However, the other items made by others may be a mixed bag.

Hello Darrel and Kim: In a few short weeks I'll be doing my first de-winterization on an Elite II. I have not seen a written preocedure for this, but I bet the Owners have one. As you stated, after restoring the anode and valves to normal position, (the exception being the tank drain line), I am thinking: A. Set valves to City Water positions and connect to the city water port and flush the sinks, toilet and outside shower with city water. B. Set Valves to Boondocking positions and connect to the boondocking tank fill port and fresh that line to the pump, sinks, and outside shower all with the water tank drain valve open. C. Set Valves to Normal positions and connect to the fresh water tank fill port and purge the fresh water tank (Drain remains open). At this point I should be confident that all "Fill" lines or other lines are pretty well purged, the fresh water tank is purged, and as such the vast majority of the antifreeze is also purged. D. Then I will close the fresh water tank drain valve and flow water from the city water fill line to fill the tank. E. Redundant I know, but I'll then use the pump to flow water to the sinks, toilet and outside shower. Owners: What have I missed?

The OTT Sales, Delivery Team and Service staff are all very helpful, and I give them high marks. However, I suspect that most prospective OTT Owners spent far more time here on this Forum getting the info they need and want. I know this to be the case for me last winter and spring. This forum and the "Oliver University" (Located under the Travel Trailers tab), provided answers to my questions that can't possibly be covered in a brochure or sales web site. The OTT forum is graced to have eight designated "Moderators", and several hundred owners that give their time to share experiences and knowledge from an owner's perspective. None of us get paid to do so, it is simply the nature of our owners to willingly want to help out new and future owners. In one respect, I think that the owners take as much pride in our trailers as does the OTT team does in making them. To this owner, one of the aspects of the OTT Forum that is most valuable is the depth of experience that our fellow owners have. We may not all agree on everything, but odds are the person asking the question, and many of us newer owners as well, will get several wise and usable responses to a question. In reality, to just about any question imaginable. I know that this has been my experience and hope that it is yours as well. So, welcome to our forum and ask away. I think you will be amazed!