Geronimo John

I think Oliver got this winterization thing right. 2+ gallons of $3/gallon antifreeze (Super Walmart RV Section Before Fall) and we are done. No worries. Or, the cost of an air compressor that may or may not get the job done for sure. = worries to me. I like no worries better.

I learned the hard way about the amount of power a small hydraulic jack can put out. Where as a mechanical jack at least gives the operator some feedback as to the force being provided to the load. Another advantage is that they are not going to "blead down" when you have fingers in tight spaces. Glad you "got-er-done".

My spouse is a major University Department IT Supervisor. Her troubleshooting skills are amazing. So when I am having a problem for anything that even looks at all close to being computer based, I employ a four phased approach: First, I do a hard reboot. Then I drag out the owners manuals and search the Oliver University and hopefully the answer if there. If not, I check the Oliver Owner's Forum. When all else fails, I don't mention my first three approaches and pretend that the issue just happened, and call out to my wife "Honey can you look at this please". Over time, I have found that the odds of success are about 25% for each approach! Now for the married owners, it may, or may not be wise to mention the first three approaches to your spouse. 🙂

I like the less tongue weight of the 20 pounders.

George: I started towing my 2018 OE2 with a 2005 Toyota Sequoia. Before my egg hatched, I reached out to the owners, just as you have. It was John Davies that responded back with the very excellent and PROVED to be spot on responses. The Sequoia I had was with their "New" 4.7L engine. My 2018 Summer Voyage was TX to OK to Oregon to NC and back to Texas; just over 8100 trailer miles. When JD responded, he intonated that mine would be underpowered out west, and would take a lot of energy on my part for long trips. I found that it was actually adequate for flat land use, it was not adequate for towing my Oliver out west in the mountains. Flat lands, it did much better so long as I kept mindful of brake heating and stopping distances. The MPG was pretty dismal though as I was always hard riding those ponies. Just north of the Denver area, I was crawling up a four lane highway, down shifting as my rig slowed until I was in first gear crawling up the mountain. I was actually passed by the US Cycling Team. I caught them and passed them on the down hill, and the process repeated itself several times. At one point we opened our front doors and were doing the "Fred Flintstone" one legged push off''s as they went by. We had plenty of water and passed it out to each rider as they passed by us on the next hill, and collected the empties as we passed them on the flats to the northwest. My passenger stated: "I think it is time for a new TV". I had to agree as I was a hazard on long climbs. For our Summer 2019 voyage, 7000 Miles, I had purchased new F-150 3.5L SuperCrew. That's when I finally figured out what Mr. Davies meant by my having to invest a lot of my energy into driving my Sequoia TV with an Ollie OE2. Having a very capable TV is MUCH easier on the driver. The Sequoia's are one of the most reliable vehicles on the road. (Shameless Plug Follows) Except for the Toyota Land Cruiser that is better in every way (Except Cost of course). Their relatively small fuel tank was found to be a time and energy sucker from "Low Fuel Shortage Syndrome". If you have the 5.7 L engine, 4 X 4 Sequoia, I would suggest that you give it a shot for a year. Then consider what YOUR needs are. In my case, that process worked well. Good luck, GJ

Oliver can't fix STUPID. So why treat all of as if we are? I'm with you JD!

Bill: My goal is to protect the lines to and the valve at the exit of the tank. Not the tank itself. For the tank, you are of course spot on. Since the valve is elevated slightly from the tank, is there some potential for it to be cracked with freezing water? However, if you are saying this has never happened... then I'll change my procedure. On the other hand, I figure what the heck.... if I have some anti-freeze harvested during the winterizing process, may as well put it to some good use somewhere. Please do advise. Thanks GJ

I have an easier approach I think. For three years, I just gravity drained the tank. Doing so left a bit of water in the tank. It worked fine for three winters where we say temperatures down to -10 degrees F, and all was fine. But I too worried about the valve and drain line at those ultra low temp's. So this year I added a few steps just for the fresh water tank and it's valve and drain line: During the first steps of winterizing, you end up bleeding the faucets and showers. Towards the end of each, you get pink water, and then almost pure antifreeze. I harvest this almost all antifreeze for a second pass to the main tank. I lowered the full weight of the Ollie on the tires (Sucked in the rear jacks), then put about a foot of blocks under the front jack, I raised the tongue all the way up by the electric jack and gravity drained the fresh water tank from the tank. I then pump into the city water port the almost pure antifreeze from the fauctets and shower. I do this with the valve open. When it stops draining pinkish water, I close the drain valve and pump in via the city water port about a quart of pure RV antifreeze directly into the tank. I lower the front jack to the blocks to move around the antifreeze in the tank. Then I raised the front again. I then slightly opened the tank valve let some of this almost pure antifreeze into the valve and drain line. I close the valve and keep the rest of the almost pure antifreeze in the tank for the winter. BINGO! No worries. Overkill? Yea probably but I sleep well. Good luck.

Fritz: Here is the EXACT location of that drain. Look just to the right of the foot prints and towards the wheel well a bit. GJ

Correct. That's exactly what my last sentence hinted at. I had not seen the Hammer or Dura Links. I loved the review comment from Amazon Qwork links: "Perfect for Ford owners and those with a hitch developed by a desk jockey." That reviewer hit the nail on the head. Do you use the 7100 WLL or 12,000? I assume both would work with our safety cable hooks?

Steve and a lot of other newer owners: PLEASE PLEASE go to your account and enter you trailer type, hull number, and tow vehicle info. This info is very helpful for assisting others with problems they may have. Steve: Assuming your Anderson was set up properly, needing 8 threads is pretty extreme. What is your Anderson ball drop (Height above ground unhitched less hitched height? GJ

A couple of thoughts: I always take the weight fully off the two rear jacks before using the front jack to bring the Bulldog over the Anderson ball. Doing so reduces the lever arm fulcrum from the rear jack points to the center of the two axles. This significantly lightens the load on the front jack. To unhitch, I loosen the chains until their nuts have no threads showing. Much better than having to fish the chains back to the Ollie frame...... If I am just overnighting at a less level site, I leave at least one safety cable attached to my truck. If I need to use the TV, I re-hook it before retiring. But remember the cable status the next morning! Finally, my 2019 F-150 receiver chain "eyes" and the Ollie safety cable hooks are always angry with each other. Basically a PITA to connect the curly cables up to the truck. I added one of these on each F-150 eyes and this problem is resolved. NOTE: If I were to do this again, I would check on a 5/8" size for added strength. Just test fit it to the TV and Ollie before buying. GJ

Ray: I am glad you articulated the "Barely grab and slow me down" assessment. I too have observed this and pondered the same thoughts. I'm going to search the forum and see if this topic. If not, I'll start a new thread. GJ

JD: His stove is working perfectly.... not likely a tank or regulator problem. Several days at altitude and the larger jets leads me to wonder if you have carbonized the igniter and possibly the burner tubes. Look to see if there is a lot of carbon black in the area. If so, brush and blow it out... of course with the propane turned off for safety. GJ

@ QuestionMark: It looks like there is about 4.5" between the springs top and the bottom of the frame. Just tossing out an idea for bump stops: How about adding two spacers shackled to the springs on either side of the axle. Mount a bump stop on each shim. Size the shims and bump stops so that the stops ride just below the frame. You would not increase the clearance any, but you could get significant dampening. Another approach would be to add the shim blocks and bumper to the frame and let the axles bounce up into them. Would put the collision forces on the springs and they may spread the forces some. Ok Pro's jump all over this one! 🙂

21,560 Miles during four summers. I keep a log, but my F-150 does a much better job of keeping track of my Oliver miles.

John: Very correct. The intent in my post above was directed only towards charging wire size between TV and Oliver. You bring up other equally important concepts that those wanting to use a newer TV's with smart Alternator to charge up their trailer batteries. Direct connecting TV to Trailer where you have L.A. to L.A. or AGM to AGM can be done as Raspy posted a couple of years ago (Battery to circuit breaker to Anderson Connection to Trailer batteries). The reason is that the two systems operate at the same voltage and have the same charge profiles. The voltage drop (I.E. a measure of cable resistance over its length) from the front battery to the back batteries will to some degree self limit the amount of power that could flow. This in turn provides a good measure of protection to the TV electrical systems. However mix a L.A./AGM TV to a Lithium Trailer batteries using direct connecting will really cause grief for several reasons: The internal resistance of the Lithium's is insignificant to that of the AGM or L.A. batteries. This would allow HUGH currents to flow from the TV to Ollie. If properly fused at both the TV battery terminals you would just be inconvenienced a lot. However, you are still at risk of damaging the TV charging/battery. Lithium batteries generally require a three program charge process that a direct connect does not provide. A smart TV alternator varies the output voltage to match the need. As a result, it will tend not to provide high enough voltage much of the time that the Lithium's need to get charged up. So to use your TV smart alternator to charge your lithium's, you need a current limiting device, that also acts as a "Buck Boost" transformer, and provides the computer smarts to provide the lithium's their three phase charge program. The unit you suggest appears to do all these tasks at 11 amps. A larger unit is the Victron Orion 12 -12 30. The "12 - 12 30" translates as: A 12+/- volt input providing a 12 to 14+ volt charge voltage to the lithiums, with up to 30 amps continuous (if needed), with current limiting and smart charging profiles. If you have a smaller battery bank, and drive many hours a day, a 11 amp charge system would work great and save you $$$. But we are now seeing Lithium battery banks commonly in the 200 to 300 Ah range. And some up to 630 Ah (such as Galway Gal's and the Oliver OEM Pro set up). For those, you likely would want the larger Victron Orion 12 - 12 30 charging system. Just a reminder these auto smart transformers are not 100% efficient. In the case of the Orion, it can continuously produce 30 amps at the correct voltages as needed, and is listed at 87% efficient. So that would mean your TV alternator/batteries could see up to a continuous 34.5 amp current draw. This means that there will be about 57 watts of power lost to the heat sink. So be careful where you locate this unit, and provide cooling holes/vertical space for the heat to dissipate (See JD's Posting On This Topic).

Owners; NOTE 15 OCT 202 updates are in BOLD. GJ Note that JD's 12-12 charger has an output of 11 amps. Those going to Lithium may want significantly more power. It appears that many of our owners are using or are looking at the Victron Orion 12-12 30 amp charger. Depending on your vehicle and Oliver cable run length and wire size. For my F-150 Crew Cab the length of wire needed for the upgrade was 108 feet actual (I had purchased 110) 4 AWG as suggested by BatteryCablesUSA. For the 4 AWG, you would need the Anderson 120 amp or 175 amp connector to handle the diameter of the cables. For running the two 4 AWG cables from the battery back to the firewall, across the firewall (To avoid both the Cat and the right side turbo), zigzagging back under the cab between the frame and body, and back to the hitch is an easy, but long run. Note: I chose to run two cables (Pos and Neg) and not rely on the vehicle chasis for grounding. I found Mike at BatteriesUSA to be exceptionally helpful. If you think you know your cable line measurement, I highly recommend you add another ten feet! Mike can give you the voltage drop for the various types of copper stranded cable. Specifically you can buy 4 awg welding cables or 4 awg power cables. Both are the same AWG. BUT they are not the same strand count. This can certainly impact which lugs you buy for the same 4 awg size. I chose stranded copper cable, not welding. Finally, for DC circuits you can go well above the normal 3% voltage loss. So if you are new to large DC cabling, measure twice, add an additional ten feet, and consider giving him a call at BatteriesUSA.

Wayfinder: CV-2 is stocked by Amazon:

John Davies Wrote: " Use Redline CV2 and repack every 12K to 15K miles. There is NO need to repack more often if you keep an eye on bearing temperatures. .... Use high quality parts, and a high quality lubricant, no worries. .... You do need to recheck your hub bearing play after say 1000 miles, ,,,,,,,you may need to tighten one more slot on the adjuster nut. ." I have run 21,560 Ollie miles in the past four seasons. As a Professional Mechanical Engineer and amateur wrench turner, here is what I have found to work well ... I.E. zero issues on the road during the past four seasons with my 2018 OE2 bearings: I use Redline CV2. However Mobile 1 synthetic is likely just as good, and some may say better. All I know that after four cross USA trips in the last four years, the JD recommended CV2 works just fine for me. My Chinese Dexter bearings "bothered" me as it does many new owners. I over-serviced mine annually (new grease and seals). The Dexter bearings and National seals ran 16,000 miles with no issues. But this was my personal limit of comfort for them. When I changed them at the beginning of my fourth (May 2021) season , I had a full set of Timken bearings and two sets of National ready for use depending on what I found upon disassembly. I was rewarded in doing so as they were ready to be replaced. My recommendation is to keep track of your trailer miles, service the Dexter's annually or every 5,000 miles, and be ready to replace them with better bearings and seals based upon what you see. But have the Timken's and National's in hand by 10,000 miles for sure. Buy real Timken and National seals, a bearing punch, and extra CV2 or Mobile 1 synthetic grease. When you get in the 10 to 15K zone, replace the bearings with Timken's. You will travel confident knowing you will likely not have to do a bearing/seal job on the side of the road. SAVE the best two old bearings, clean them up well, grease them well, and put them into a plastic jar. Wrap them in Sarane Wrap if you like, but keep two just in case. Have your grease and gun with you at all times. Basically free insurance. I recommend that once you upgrade t the Temkin's and Seals, you can stretch out the service interval to 10,000 miles or so. Just always have four spare seals available. I recommend replacing the Timken's every 50,000 miles just for grins. Get a digital IR hand held temperature meter. Just easy to stop and zap the temperature of your hubs. Cheap insurance for bearings or brake issues. The ONE item that I have a recommendation that is contrary with John's is rechecking the bearing "play". I recommend stopping after just 100 miles and rechecking your bearing play. I found three of my four too loose after only 200 miles. Grease the EZ Flex zerks every 5,000 miles or annually! Guys, this is about the 4th time in four years that this subject has been asked and answered. Maybe if a moderator has some spare time this winter, all these threads can be consolidated and we can put this subject to bed.....at least until the next crop of owners joins our family. 🙂 For the new owners, here is a nice hand-out to have when you are working your wheel bearings. Geronimo John +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

My Ollie is a 2018 version with Duralast L.A. batteries. We are 50% boondocking and 50% shore power. We are on the road over 90 days a year. Our Duralast batteries have survived and performed well through 4 seasons. Over winter, they are stored in the battery bay in a barn on top of an Oklahoma mountain. Gets plenty cold there, but so far , the bad cold (Below 10 degrees for over a week) has not hurt them. Point is just disconnecting them from Ollie and keeping them on a 2 or 3 watt battery tender seems to have worked very well. If we were in a real cold area, I would consider a 10 watt light bulb set on a thermostat placed in the battery bay. Also, would for sure insulate the door as many of our owners have.

For our country, I hope you are right. But the Lithionics folks sure like their jumbo (316 Ah) Lithium battery. The only place I actually saw a price had it listed at way over $4K. Tilt. I was primed to go the DYI build my own from components route, but the $150 price cut took me back to American Made Battleborns.

Thank you.

JPS 190 "As a side topic has anyone replaced the generic lock on the battery tray with something a little more secure? Having thousands of dollars worth of batteries with a generic lock leaves me a little apprehensive." John: I was thinking the exact same thought. However, the latch itself would be an easy to defeat pry target. Somewhat tongue in cheek, a "Let's Over-Think This" off the wall idea, but maybe feasible if the Pantry is tall enough: OPTION 1: How about reinforcing the back of the latch side of the hatch, and adding horizontal tangs high and low (But for JD one in the middle too! 🙂.) pointing into the battery box. Drill a hole in each tang for a pin to drop through. Add holes in the ceiling and floor of the battery compartment. In the pantry, have a vertical pin with a cord attached to the top of the pin, and a long taper on the bottom of the pin. Pin would be well smaller diameter than the holes in the tangs. Put a pulley on the top of the pantry over the stack up of holes. Run the cord to the front of the pantry so that operation of the drop dead pin (Aka dead bolt) to be operated from inside. OPTION 2: Less complex would be to just install two of those cord operated automatic flush bolts. Reinforce the battery compartment with the provided latch plates. Add a pulley on the top of the bottom latch, run the top latch cord down to the pulley, then up and connect with the lower latch cord. Then extend a single cord up into the pantry. Once in the pantry, use another pulley to allow the cord to then run to the front of the pantry for easy access for opening the latches. For the professional "over thinkers", add a spring to the battery compartment so that the door will pop open when pulling the cord from the pantry. LOL. OPTION 3: Add an exploding dye charge to "highlight" the thief. Won't stop the batteries from being stolen, but it will at least bring a smile to your and the Police Officer faces when you describe what the thief looks like. Geronimo John

Thanks for posting the one that has worked well over time. Some operational questions: Do you use the water softener only when using city water fill? Or have you plumbed it into the fresh water system. If so, where did you insert it? Can this unit be used on our "draft hose" for the boondock water upload port? Or does it have too much flow restriction to do so? Do you have yours hard-mounted, or simply in storage for water onboarding purposes? How do you winter proof it? Thanks again,