technomadia

I just wanted to express my most sincere thanks for everyone's input, sharing of experiences and assistance in helping us diagnose and track this down. (Which we're still in process of doing... but think we're on to something!) Our Oliver community here is priceless. - Cherie

The Toyota uses a seperate bulb for each light function. The Oliver uses a common bulb for more than one function. Here is a web link for one type of adapter: http://hitches4less.com/vehwitcombul.html This sort of adapter is needed when there isn't already a trailer light plug installed on the vehicle, and yes - you need to take into account the type of bulbs / tail-lights. But... Our Tundra has the factory tow package, and a standard 7-pin towing connector already installed. The RV supply place tested it, and I've confirmed it via my own multimeter that the jack is putting out the right signals. I don't think the sort of adapter you linked to would help here. The problem seems to be either a short circuit in the trailer, or a bad ground. I haven't been able to track it down yet. Thanks for the help everyone, - Chris

Mountainborn -- I googled around the entire Internet, and talked with two different RV / trailer stores today. I haven't been able to find any leads on the adaptor that you are talking about. The only thing like it I have been able to find is specifically for towing LED-lit trailers with Porsche, VW, and Audi tow vehicles. No one anywhere I have found has reported using an adaptor with a Toyota. OB1 -- You had the exact same symptoms?? Hmmm.... I wish you knew where they found the lose connector! I spent the day cleaning connectors, testing, and tracing wires. It is the most bizarre thing - and I feel still no closer to having a fix. I do think that the problem may be coming from the rear Oliver light. I used my voltmeter to test if the light was getting any current, and it is not. Meanwhile, all the lower lights are getting current in all the wrong places. My guess is that wherever the upper Oliver light branches off from the lower tow lights may be the problem. I think maybe several lines are shorted together here. Does anyone know where this split occurs? I haven't been able to trace it yet. Cheers, - Chris

Have you installed an electronic brake controller to your new truck yet? If so it might have been wired incorrectly. The symptoms are the same both with and without the brake controller plugged in. The brake controller has a wire custom-fitted to plug right into the wiring on the truck (no splicing involved), so I don't think that is the issue. - Chris

Mountainborn - this sounds like a promising lead. I've been googling around trying to find anyone else mentioning a problem like this, and I've found no luck. Do you have any more information or a link to the adapter that you can give me? Thanks! - Chris

If you know another trailer owner in the area, you might try hooking their trailer to your Tundra to verify that the cable and plug from the Tundra works properly. As I mentioned, I had the Tundra at a trailer supply place today (getting the new ball mount), and they used a circuit tester to confirm that the truck was working properly. I haven't tried another trailer yet, but I will if I have a chance. But I doubt the issue is in the Tundra. - Chris

I am 80% sure that I checked that we were getting a charge last time we hooked up to move from Hemet to San Diego. We had been in Hemet over a month in one place. I am 95% sure that we checked all the lights before the trip from Sacramento to Hemet. - Chris

So we just picked up the new Tundra, and it looks beautiful next to our Orion. But... Testing out the trailer hookup, I noticed that we are having issues with our trailer lights now. The top mounted Oliver light is not coming on at all, and all the other lights on the trailer seem to be shorted together into one circuit. Using the left or right turn signal flashes all the lights on the trailer, including the running lights. And turning on the running lights lights up everything, so that even hitting the brakes makes no visible difference. It seems to be some sort of short. I also noticed that the trailer batteries are not getting charged via the tow vehicle now. I took the Tundra to a trailer supply place and had the 7-pin jack tested, and they say it is definitely not the truck. I did some multimeter testing of my own, and I tend to agree. I think it is just coincidental that it is happening now, and we may have actually gone a while without noticing our tow lights being weird. We certainly haven't done any night driving in a while. I have been trying to trace the problem, and using a continuity tester I noticed that almost all the pins on the cable going into the Oliver seem to be tied together... The LT, RT, electric brake, power, and ground lines all test out as being tied together. Only the running lights and back up lamp pins don't cause the tester to beep. I thought maybe the Bargman cable between the tow vehicle and the front of the Oliver might be the issue, but that tests out fine. The short / issue seems to be somewhere inside the trailer. Questions: 1) Has anyone seen anything like this before? 2) Any ideas what might be causing the problem? 3) Where should I look to trace the wires for all the trailer tow lights? 4) Why oh why isn't there a published schematic for our trailers? 5) It seems really odd that not just the lights, but the charge line and the brakes are showing as tied together. Urhm??? Help and wisdom appreciated, - Chris

I think the Tundra is a great choice, but you could get a diesel engine in a 3/4 ton truck for about $3 grand more and I would think your fuel mileage would be much better than the Tundra with a gas engine. As much as you tow, it might we worth the extra money. I'm sure you've already thought about this though. How about a used 3/4 ton diesel? I'd love to stay diesel, but while the Tundra is big - the smallest diesels are huge. And the 2006 Tundra we are looking at is a great deal. 3/4 ton diesels are pricey, even those several years old. I've been scouring the net looking for other options, and I'm not having any luck finding anything better than the Tundra we currently have on hold. If you have any other suggestions, let us know ASAP. - Chris PS: Besides, the red Tundra perfectly matches our Oliver. How can we resist?

@JuniorBirdMan - That's an interesting consideration. However, when we asked the Oliver folks about what would happen if a leak just happened to occur - they told us that the shells were designed to drain any possible capture of water between them. So - unless I hear otherwise from Oliver on that design element, I'm going to hope that's not the case @Charlie - That's definitely a concern, and a good reason to be aware of your water tank levels while towing! Our trailer has always had to tilt down while in tow as the way the Jeep Liberty is designed with the spare tire placement - so yes, definitely while in tow we're getting forward shifted weight from the tanks. We have to use a massive extender too, which we've discovered adds additional weight to the hitch/frame. We've basically come to the conclusion that the Liberty is not ideally suited for towing our Oliver - a new tow vehicle is a must. That said, we took our 480-500# measurement with the trailer level, so the water should have been well distributed? - Cherie

We've spent the day researching bigger tow vehicles.... On the verge of getting a Tundra. That seems easier than finding a way to install a weight distributing hitch onto the enclosed tongue of the Oliver. - Chris

So we just found enough sturdy stuff to put the scale on and measure at the hitch at towing height - our weight was right at 500#. Eeeks. Moving the kitty litter and other misc items out of the bathroom brought it down to about 480. Quite higher than any Oliver tongue weight reading we've seen tho. Wondering how heavy the generator basket is? We only store tarps and some outside foldable (lightweight) furniture in it - tempting to remove it to give us less tongue weight. (We've never used it for the generator.. it was made *far* too big for our Honda 2000iu, with no easy way to secure it.) Also considering looking into the lighterweight fiberglass propane tanks to help reduce down the tongue weight. - Cherie

We are tempted to blame Kiki. Her jug of kitty-litter is one of the heaviest things we have stored in the bathroom area. The 500+lb weight was measured with the black tank empty, and one of the two propane tanks empty too. With both full(er), I imagine the tongue weight will be even higher. Just spoke with Vince at the factory, and he has never seen an Oliver with such a high tongue weight reading. He is going to ask around for advice as to why ours might be so high. I still have the rented scale so I am going to look into measuring again to confirm our results. But the bent hitch seems to indicate that we do have a weight problem. *sigh* - Chris PS: It is tempting to get a bigger tow vehicle - but there really isn't anything out there appropriate. Dodge, Ford, GM, and Toyota had all promised diesel engines for their half-ton pickup trucks by 2010. All of these project are AWOL. It is so frustrating that good small tow vehicles are completely missing in this country. Conspiracy against diesel??? Right now nothing out there can beat our Liberty for towing and around town fuel economy...

Over the past year, the trailer hitch on our Jeep Liberty has slowly developed a slight downward bend. The Liberty is rated to handle a 500lb tongue weight, and overall it has been a wonderful tow vehicle for our Oliver. Based on the "official" specs from Oliver, we have always assumed that we were not exceeding out tongue weight limit, but the bent hitch had us start to think otherwise. Today I rented a scale from an RV store, and I measured a fully-loaded 600lbs under the front jack! I need to do the math to calculate what the weight at the end of our extended tongue is, but it seems that we are often at or over 500lbs. Ouch. Does this match with other Oliver owner tongue weight observations? I have never seen anyone here on the forums mention measuring anything more than 400lbs. Interestingly - the fresh water tank is so well balanced that it hardly made and difference with the tongue weight whether or not the tank was empty or full. Anyway - the RV store can repair / replace our bent hitch, but they highly recommend some sort of weight distributing hitch to keep this problem from repeating in the future. Are there any weight distributing hitches that can work with the Oliver's enclosed tongue design? Has anyone used a WDS hitch with an Oliver? Wisdom and advice appreciated. The guy at the RV store's advice: "get a real truck" Hmmmm. - Chris

Has anyone double-checked whether the newest Oliver's have this simpler system? It has been around 6000 miles since we had our defective axel replaced over the summer, and I am wondering whether packing / lubing the wheel bearings is something I can handle myself. Thoughts? - Chris

Awesome idea, Sherry! Just added our map to our signature too.. (of course, who knows if we'll remember to update it as we add more states!) - Cherie

Having seen Andrew's solar installation and electrical upgrade work at Burning Man, I have to say that I am blown away. We used to have the coolest and most geeked-out Oliver in existence, but he has taken things to a new extreme. He has a bigger and better inverter, larger solar panels, and more battery capacity too. If you haven't checked out his work yet, you will be impressed. He rocks. - Chris

Yup, we did experience quite a bit of moisture last winter when we wintered over in San Francisco. We lost a good bit of paper products we had stored in the upper cabinets, and also found a good bit of moisture under neath our bed cushions. We'll be trying the above tips this winter to see if it helps reduce it. - Cherie

We've done quite a bit of boondocking in the past couple of months across the country at higher elevations. Definitely had problems with our Norcold needing resetting at the higher elevations. Just yesterday at a mere 6600 feet we had a 'F' light of doom (quite unusual.. we usually only see it at 10000+). Haven't found a work around besides paying attention.. and agree, it is quite annoying. But do love the extra space the Norcold provides over the Dometic. - Cherie

That is awesome! We also went with Norcold, after Chris posted in his blog comparing and contrasting it to the Dometic. We actually had a tech from Norcold write us personally offering personal guidance, and a tour of the plant if we're ever in the area. That attitude towards proactive customer service sold us - Cherie

Welcome future Oliver owner! We've been full timing in our 17' Oliver for just over a year now.. and it's absolutely wonderful! We've taken Orion all over the US, and it does excellent in a variety of weather conditions, altitudes, etc. With our solar panels, we can live off grid for weeks at a time without worry. To answer your question.. the Oliver is fully enclosed in fiberglass - top/bottom/side... double hulled at that! The holding tanks are seated inbetween the two shells on the bottom inside the custom aluminum frame, making them non-exposed to the elements and the center of weight being evenly distributed. It's really well designed that way (unlike the Casita, in which all the weight of the water sits on one side of the trailer and takes up under seat storage space.). And indeed, the gel coat is a breeze to keep clean! Even us mid 30's technogeek working couples appreciate that - Cherie

The first time we noticed tire wear.. we didn't actually notice it. The folks doing our bearing repack did - so it was around 5000 miles when it was caught (we had other warranty repairs to be done, so we opted to have the bearings repacked early as we were about to start a cross country jaunt). (It was also on the curbside tire). So they rotated the tires for us, and we noticed the wear within about 500 miles on the previously ok streetside tire (which was now curbside). It lasted us fine (although we were quite nervous and checking the wear every time we stopped) until we got to Hohenwald for our axle change out - about another 2000 miles. - Cherie

Our original one was also quite arched - and it was presumed to have caused our uneven premature tire wear. The one they replaced is much more straight. We have about 3000 miles on the new axle, and no unusual signs of wear on the tires.

I wish we had 260 Chris decided on AGMs, which we had to compromise and come down to 220 so that we could have faster charging, etc. I believe we had 260 on our former T@b trailer however (and just 110w of solar panels). It's doing fine.. but man would I love more battery capacity. Can't wait to see your set-up on the playa, Andrew! - Cherie

Congrats, guys!! Chris and I will be having our 2nd annual commitment ceremony in a few weeks at Burning Man, and there should be 3 Oliver's present for that But yours may indeed be the first legal marriage ceremony with Olivers. - Cherie