Trainman

We are getting ready to leave for Hohenwald, Tennessee, yes the home of Oliver. Since we will be camping in Tennessee and Arkansas we are going to stop in for some minor service work and be on our way. We will spend the night at the Oliver Sales Office as they have hookup there, if you ever want to stay there just call Phil and make sure that no one else will be there so you have hookup to use. Phil said, they are just finishing three more hookup spots and they already have two at the present time. I'm pretty sure that these are for there new trailer displays and not so much for camping, but available for Oliver customers. trainman

Getting larger is true, if you watch the train in my avatar long enough it will get larger and become more clear. The pic was taken in Rockwood, Colorado just north of Durango on the Durango and Silverton Route. trainman

Nan, just my 2 cents on this, the cable safety cables that come with the Oliver's today are hard to use and for myself I found them bulky and hard to hookup (stretch out) and then release. I also switched them out for chains after our first camp outing. I have no idea what I will use the old cables for, maybe to stretch barb-wire on the pasture fences. trainman

Looks like a easy fix which ever way you go, the 1 1/4" to 2" adapter, or the 2" x 10" receiver tube. The receiver tube looks like the better way to me as it lessens the distance the bike rack will stick out behind the trailer, plus it would have less movement with fewer connections. trainman

Being a former Casita owner we do the Casita Rallies in Texas, we are now doing them with our Oliver. Casita rallies welcome all trailers and we have many Casita friends who I really enjoy camping with over the years. An Oliver group sounds great, let's work at meeting someplace this fall and see what happens. We will be at the Pineknot Rally in Grapeland, Texas on Oct. 23-27. Just show up as there are unlimited sites available there. Pineknot rally info, http://www.mfrvg.com/pineknot trainman

John, It's probably too much work needed to get the pieces apart, when all I need to do is purchase a short 2" receiver and put a piece of thin hard rubber between the two. I did take a pic of what it looks like, upon inspection they used 3 tubes to make the 1 1/4" receiver, I guess there shop needs something to do at times. Here is how it looks, I see no welds used, but it's a very tight fit for sure. One last note, we will be at Oliver on the 7th of October to get the water heater working again on LP gas, it's not really out of our way as we will be camping in Tennessee that week, so I can pick Jason's mind with several questions on things that are not so much common knowledge, I'm making a list. trainman

Just wondering if anyone has ever removed the 1 1/4" sleeve from the 2" ID tube on the Oliver bike rack. I assume it's pressed in, but not sure, maybe glued, the pin hole would also keep it in place when in use. I would like to make it a 2" receiver, by doing this it would shorten the distance from the trailer to the cargo carrier some 10-12". I realize I can purchase a 11" by 2" receiver from e-trailer and just use the existing U-clamps and be done with it. Using the aluminum one on the Oliver hitch would also leave me with a 2" receiver tube with 1/4" side walls which could be too thin for this type of use. A new rack is around 30lbs. and I would carry no more them 100lbs. of cargo. I always say, John what do you think as you have done several project back there. trainman

We have the Oliver bike rack that we got with our new 2019 Elite II, works great and had no problem using it with the Yakima bike rack. We have decided to get E Bikes that fold and just carry them in the back of the pickup bed, at 60 lbs. each I could probably manufacture a rack for them, but have decided the back of the pickup would be better place to carry them, plus we can carry them to other places when we just want to ride when not camping. I will probably just get a cargo carrier for the rear trailer bumper and carry light weight items in there that weigh less them a 100 lbs. or so. I may just pull the four pins and store it at home, but I'm glad to have a rear bumper rack for that just in case time it might be needed. trainman

Pics looks just like the camping site that we had in Davy Crockett State Park, glad to see another Texas Oliver. trainman

Either my new 2019 Ram does not have that feature, or I just don't hear, or see it on the dash. True about banging your shin, but I find with the Anderson ball assembly it does not stick out as much as my old WDH with the spring bars type did. trainman

We have been looking at e-bikes, the fold up models, these weight around 65-68 lbs. with the battery attached, remove the battery and it's around 8 lbs. less. This way I could get the weight down to around 120 lbs. for two bikes. I have the Oliver bike rack hitch, but would modify it to probably a two receiver hitch vs. the one that Oliver puts on there hitch. These bikes fold up and I believe you could put two in one with the correct size basket, or bike rack. Go to YouTube and type in electric bicycles, the RadRunner, RadMini, and the Lectric XP have good reviews and are becoming popular with the RV crowd. These 20" wide tire bikes are great for street and off road riding, just watch some of the videos and you can see why they are becoming so popular. https://www.radpowerbikes.com/pages/2019 https://lectricebikes.com/ trainman

I like it, will order one, trainman

Looks like the base price on the Elite II went up $2000.00 to $55,900, wasn't the 2019 $53,900. trainman

My blueish/greenish light is on all the time, that only means you have power connected to the TV, it turns to red when you turn on the TV and it's in the working mode. Sounds like the TV is not turning on, check batteries in the remote, or go to the TV and push the button on the TV and see if it will turn on from there. My TV is a 2019 model Jensen, other TV's could be different and probably are. I have a LG 24" TV that we used in another trailer and it is red when off and when you turn it on it goes to off, go figure. trainman

We to have no cooking routine, it just depend on where we are at and the camping style at the time. We don't carry too much in the way of cooking items, that is one frying pan, one spatula, you get the idea. Paper plates are probably used 80 % of the time and cooking outside on the gas grill is our preferred choice. You will be surprised by how much you really don't need for everyday camping. A coffee maker, toaster, are everyday used items for us, so get a small ones that are space saving. We are only using the two upper cabinets and three lower drawers for cooking and eating items, beyond that you are caring too much stuff that will probably not be needed. We setup our trailer to be a total independent from what we use at home and you will soon see how little you really need for camping, have the wife make her list and you make yours, hers will be the inside stuff and yours the outside stuff and each will work out to have what is needed. Remember Walmart is not too far down the road for those inexpensive items you forgot, or just need to add to the trailer. trainman

The new controller did not correct the problem with the water heater. Since we decided we needed to make to fall trip to Arkansas and Tennessee we just spoke with Jason at Oliver service and he said it was ok to come by at our convenience and he could take care of the water heater problem. I know I could just take it to a local dealer in the DFW area, but they are booked solid for sometime and I personally don't want a dealer not familiar with an Oliver to work on our trailer, especially when I think it is an electrical problem, but that's just my guess, not really sure. I thought I would possibly wait till the rally next year, but since we need the gas for boondocking and we need a fall road trip, what the heck, let's go. trainman

For the last 50 years I have just let my trailer plugs hang down, I also try to store it somewhere under the trailer tongue where it is somewhat protected from rain, etc. I give it a shot of electronic grease every year or so, always works for me. I was thinking of purchasing a plug cover, but then thought why, 50 years and no problems. trainman

Since I started this post some time back (maybe three months ago) I have found the Anderson very easy to use, actually easier then I ever thought it would be. Do note here, I do my chain hookup both ways depending on how I feel that day, sometimes I adjust with the nuts and other I just lift the trailer on the hitch, I guess it depends if I want to get down on one knee or not. trainman

Thanks Jason, I did talk with Jason in the service dept. and he is sending me a new module for the water heater. trainman

Thanks Sherry, I did contact Oliver Service and talked with Jason again and he is sending me a new board for me to install in our new Oliver. I feel it's only right for Oliver to correct the problem and they are doing just that, so sending a new board is the correct thing to do, thanks Jason at Oliver. The only thing I know about Suburban water heaters is that our Casita had one and to me it looks to be the exact same one as in the Oliver, it never gave a problem all the time we owned the Casita. I will plug in the new module and see what happens, for the time being I just hope it was a isolated incident. trainman

Glad to see you got your awning in, I can see where that could happen. I was told to only crank out the awning to where the white was solid, there is a line there where the color changes. I purchased these poles on Amazon to stabilize the awning, tested them last week and they work great. They are tent poles by Green Elephant , they have a 1/4" pin at the top and a pad that slides over it, this is for padding on the tent, but I use it as a means to hold the awning to the poles. I did have to drill a hole in the awning cover on the bottom side about 4" from the ends. I also installed a rubber grommet to make a nice fit for the rod on the end of the poles. If you want pics just ask, I can do that. Here are the poles I used. https://www.amazon.com/Green-Elephant-Telescoping-Tarp-Poles/dp/B072K1B91Q/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?crid=2VBYYNKHC6CZ0&keywords=green+elephant+telescoping+tarp+poles+set+of+2&qid=1567705986&s=gateway&sprefix=green+elep%2Caps%2C175&sr=8 trainman

Thanks everyone for the info, John Davies is the board from Amazon that you posted on your reply the one I need for my 2019 Oliver. Also is the board screwed on, or is it on with stick tape and I just pull it off. I did talk with Jason at Oliver and I just told him about the water heated not working on gas, but I have not asked about a board replacement at that time as I had not checked it out. When we got back from camping I have now checked it out and it appears to be the board, thanks for everyone help here. I will just order a new board and do the job myself as you have convinced me that the original boards are junk. I will contact Oliver Service (Jason) and see if the will reimburse me, but don't expect to see any money for a replacement. My biggest gripe here is that Oliver knows these boards go bad and still keep installing them in there trailer and then not wanting to correct the problem with a replacement board of better quality. It's pretty much BS on warranty work on appliances, take your trailer to a dealer, wait 3-6 weeks for them to look at it and then wait another 3-4 weeks for a replacement parts, I would just soon pay for it and be done with it. trainman

I've done all those things that everyone has mentioned, I would now bet it's the module that's gone bad. trainman

We just did our second camping outing (worked fine on the first camping trip and at delivery day) and now the water heater will not work on LP gas, but works just fine on electric. I did first check the fuse panel and that fuse is good, then I went to the water heater switch and the power is going thru the switch ok, that is the on an off power is flowing correctly thru the switch when turned on and off, but the red light does not come on as it should on startup. I went outside to listen for the clicking sound, but none. There is no gas smell, no nothing. I'm now wondering if the control module is bad, I do not see any reset button for it, but only see the reset for the electric on the water heater outside. Our water heater is the standard water heater not the instant one, so if anyone has any ideas about this let me know, thanks, trainman trainman

Your first pic looks like the same campsite we stayed in DCSP, was it next to the showers, the fence in the background gives it away. trainman